{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 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.
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.