Reimagining Manifestation
I believe that the popular teachings on manifestation and the law of attraction can often be more of a detour than a path toward real psychospiritual growth.
The overly simplistic version of reality they present fails to meet the complexity and nuance of life, and of ourselves as humans in so many ways.
And -I don’t think that we are meant to dismiss them altogether as ‘magical thinking’ either.
My work through the years; a trip down memory lane
Join me on a trip down the memory lane of my work over the past decade, accompanied by pictures from the different time periods.
Honouring what has been, making space for what wants to be.
{Story Time} Ecstasy Embodied
It’s 2011…I’m at Kripalu in Massachusetts, training in SomaSoul somatic expressive therapy with Dan Leven.
At every single one of our year-long trainings, I move through a very specific sequence of states; I start from a place of feeling ‘fine’ (=not feeling much)…
after a couple days of intensive work, my defences melt and I dive deep into feeling -what in Gestalt Psychology we call- the ‘death layer’ (=my painful emotions, shadow, challenges -all that I have been unconsciously keeping away from)…
and then, something interesting happens.
Body Freedom Work is Inner Work
Food & body symptoms are a -visible- indication that we are operating in -less visible- ways that are not balanced or whole in life in general.
They are a message from our psyche, our Self that something needs to change. That there is some sort of imbalance on an internal level that is calling for our attention. That we have outgrown a phase or version of ourselves and we need to step into a new one -as whole beings, not *just* in this area of our lives.
The Dawn of a New Chapter
Announcing the completion of a decade-long phase of this work and the opening of a brand-new chapter.
The Energy Centres and our Relationship with the Body
As human beings, we are a beautiful mass of energy. And I don’t mean just spiritual energy, but physical, mental and emotional too.
To be well and whole, we need for that energy to flow freely and uninhibitedly through our psyche-soma-soul system.
As we grow up though, things happen that disrupt that free flow of energy.
My Journey back into my Body
My journey back into my body started about 13 years ago.
In late 2006, I was halfway through my bachelor’s degree in Psychology and deep in my struggle with an eating disorder. I spent my days counting calories and compulsively exercising. I loved moving my body -I did contemporary dance almost every day- but was deeply disconnected from it. I had no concept of what living in-the-body meant, nor why it was important.
My Lineage: Psyche - Soma - Soul
I deeply believe that our background says so much about who we are and what we do, so, today I want to name the three major traditions that I bring together in my work and honour the teachers I have been blessed to study with and be formed by.
Food and Body-Image Difficulties are an Initiation
Our lives are full of initiations. Life is an ongoing initiation in itself. There are doors waiting to be opened and walked through, leading into new spaces we haven’t experienced before -and that can feel scary. We don’t know where we’re going and what we’re going to meet on the other side. More importantly, we don’t know who we are going to be, coming out that other side.
The nature of my work: embodied, alchemical soul work
In my practice, I bring together a number of elements from different traditions and modalities, so it hasn’t always been easy to accurately describe and define the nature of it. Recently though, through exploration, I have landed in these words: Embodied, Alchemical Soul Work, which I really feel encapsulate the core and essence of it.
On the Alchemical Process of Dissolution
D i s s o l u t i o n
…is the stage in alchemy in which a solid substance turns into liquid.
At a psyche/soul level, it is the process of letting those parts of ourselves that have served their purpose and now cause more harm than good be released, “melt”, dissolve into their original substance -the ‘prima materia’.
The Project/Problem Body Culture
The Project/Problem Body Culture is the paradigm in which our bodies are meant to be a project we need to work on, perfect, and present to the world to be rewarded, to receive acceptance and admiration, to be good and worthy. This project comes with specific measures of success; there are exact body dimensions and “health” standards we need to achieve to get a “good grade”. (health in quotes, because I’m talking about healthy = thin)
Then, if our project doesn’t come out as planned, if we “fail” at it, or our bodies “fail” to do what we ask them to, it all turns into a problem. Not A problem, but our main, most pressing, most embarrassing problem. One that we need to fix as soon as possible, at any cost. That needs to be a priority over anything else.
Your Body speaks your Soul
If there was just one thing I could ever share with you, this would be it:
Your Body speaks your Soul.
This is the vision that guides all of my work.
What I do is centered around the forgotten truth that the body is SO much more than flesh and bones, muscles and fat, inches and pounds. That our physical body is, really, synonymous, with our soul and psyche, and at the same time, the vessel for their expression. I live for the time when we know that we cannot separate one from the other, we cannot (wholly and deeply) work with and transform one without the other.
Why saying “I am not my body” is not helping us heal our relationship with our bodies
One of the most common statements I come across in the #bodypositive community is:
“You are not your body”
And even though I totally understand and appreciate the intention behind it -to remind us that we are whole human beings, much more than how our body looks, what it weighs, etc.- I don’t personally feel that a (further) disidentification from our bodies is beneficial, especially for those of us who have struggled in our relationship with it for years.
I have a vision for you…
I envision you being so in tune with your Body, that you never-ever need to have a second thought about what, when and how much to eat again.
I envision you seeing Food as living and sacred, as you Body’s and Soul’s medicine, as an offering from the Earth, as your connection with the Earth.
Have you only touched the tip of the iceberg of your relationship with food & body?
It all begins with an idea.