When Facing Shadows on Somatic Adventures to the Innerworld

When Facing Shadows on Somatic Adventures to the Innerworld

            Opening up the bodymind to new experience can be scary and challenging. It may bring up fear. Fear serves to help maintain the status quo. It constricts and contracts the tissues in the body, squeezing us into limiting postures and behaviors. If we want to move beyond these limits we can ask for two magical keys to help us pass through the big heavy door of fear: curiosity and humor.

            Use curiosity as an inroad into anything that feels uncomfortable- you always have the choice of how to respond. If you feel yourself contracting or feeling awkward and uncomfortable lean into your inquiry in a non-judgmental way, as Buddhist monk Pema Chodron says, “lean into the sharp points”. Ask yourself what your body is experiencing. You might ask yourself, “What exactly are these sensations?” then break them down into descriptions like; “My chest feels tight and my belly feels hot deep inside and numb on the surface.” Or, “My breathing is expansive and I can feel it moving all the way out to my fingertips and toes.” Usually, in the process of naming physical sensations, they begin to evolve and change. 

            Learning to become comfortable with being in the unknown and with your own awkwardness will make life a lot easier. There is no right or wrong here. Ask yourself how deep you can allow yourself to go, if anything begins to feel unsafe or if you think you’ve gone too far and lost yourself come back to some familiar movement. Track the horizon with your eyes and name what you see, do a cat-cow or any movement that is familiar to you and part of your personal repertoire. Get up and walk around, shake yourself off, look at your surroundings. If all else fails- laugh at your self. Don't take yourself too seriously. This should be engaging and interesting. If you meet a dragon on your internal ventures stop and say hello. See what gifts this inner dragon has to offer you.

Photo A.Craig Snyder

Feelings In Formation, The Bodymind in Shape.

Our bodies are constantly adapting to our experiences in the world. How we hold our body, our tension patterns, and our movement choices lead to how we are held by our tissue.

Our fascia is creating the support system we need to keep our body in whatever postures we hold most and it also forms in connection to our movement (or lack of it) in space.

On another level every emotion, every affect first appears in the tissue, we then interpret (or we don’t) the meaning of the sensations we feel in our body. 

So whether we contract in fear or expand in love it is happening on every level and it will play an immeasurable role in how our body and our tissues form on both micro and macro levels. Tension masks sensation- when we avoid our feelings by holding them in and pushing them down we develop holding patterns that deny our own expression.

Try it right now- think about someone or something you unequivocally love- what are the sensations in your body? Now think of an event or situation that evokes fear, what does that feel like in your body? Now bring yourself back to the good feelings… The next question is what do you do with those sensations: add tension to avoid feeling them, or allow yourself to express?

See Simple Movement Meditation to create some new patterns.

Photo Mónica Lou