“This is your body, your greatest gift, pregnant with wisdom you do not hear, grief you thought was forgotten, and joy you have never known.” – Marion Woodman
Many of us are more disconnected from our bodies than ever. We may be hiding in isolation, denial or shame – with feelings of anxiety, overwhelm, confusion, anger or pain. We may have rejected parts of ourselves and we are searching for balance, restoration and wholeness in our bodies, hearts and minds.
When you don’t know how to feel better, you must begin again. Find the courage to tell the truth about what you’re feeling, even if you’re feeling nothing – move towards and be with what is present for you – you can find some relief when you do.
Trauma is held in the nervous system. Sometimes, when we feel unexplained emotional or physical pain or body sensations, our body is remembering past traumas that have happened in our lives, that lay dormant in our nervous system.
The body holds what it can’t express and process.
Anxiety, depression and overwhelm are unspoken voices that can be held, seen and transformed.
Working together, somatically, at the level of the nervous system, we can access these old feelings and experiences through the body.
The body does not lie – it holds the truth of our feelings.
Through chronic muscle tension, the body reminds us about repressed feelings and experiences that it could not handle at the time it happened. Those old feelings are still stored in the body, and it takes a lot of effort to hold them in our unconscious. This chronic tension also prevents the breath from flowing freely through the body.
We can restore and renew these deep processes in your body, and allow you to express what has been held in the nervous system, so your nervous system can become more regulated. To allow your body to feel and move through biological patterns and do what it was born to do.
We want to subdue our anxiety or lift our feelings of sadness or depression. Some common ways that we consciously or unconsciously attempt to bring regulation into our nervous system, include: addictions of all kinds – to drugs, alcohol, sex, sleeping aids, work, eating disorders – anorexia, bulimia and overeating, and smoking – to name a few.
These behaviours are anxiety and/or depression management strategies that allow us to gear up our system up in the daytime, so we can feel awake, alert and sociable, and to gear our system down in the evening, so we can sleep.
If we don’t start off with a healthy nervous system – for example if our parents were stressed, depressed, neglectful or ill, our nervous systems don’t begin as robust as they might be, and we become more susceptible to chronic illness, chronic anxiety, depression and difficult emotions and pain – over time in our lives. Our system may not be able to integrate what comes our way as well – such as relationship ups and downs, divorce, work concerns, family concerns, and illness.
What is nervous system regulation?
It doesn’t always feel good. It’s healthy for us when we can feel all of our feelings and be able to express what needs to be expressed through the systems in our body. Due to our trauma history, we often shut down this expression before it can be fully expressed, without our awareness.
We need our autonomic nervous system to function well – and we can rewire it, no matter what our age.
By noticing our biological impulses and allowing emotions to be felt when you are feeling them. Notice when you are pushing feelings down or ignoring feelings. Notice your connection with your body in your physical space, and become very aware of your physiology.
Trauma happens for us not in the event that has taken place, it happens in the way we’ve processed the event in our nervous system – and when our nervous system is dysregulated, we may experience more symptoms in our body and mind. We begin to have a faulty sense of what is safe inside of ourselves and in our bodies.
Move from shame in the body to honouring the body for all that it does for you.
Without our awareness, we treat ourselves in life the way we were treated as children. We ignore, don’t pay attention to our bodies, feelings, thoughts, complaints or observations and don’t take ourselves, our bodies or our feelings seriously.
We feel that we must meet conditions and standards before we deserve to be loved and nurtured. We defend parts of ourselves – the parts of ourselves that don’t feel loved, and we isolate ourselves in certain ways so that we don’t let others see these parts of us.
Beneath our defenses and conditioning, we each possess an instinctive loyalty and love for ourselves, we just need to be reminded.
The time has come to pay attention to yourself. To turn towards what is painful and find true, deep, body-based resolution and healing.
If you feel like you’ve lost part of who you are, take time for yourself.
If you want to feel grounded, awake and alive, take time for yourself.
You, whole and here, is worth all the time it takes.
with love & kindness, Kim, xoxo
Somatic Body Learning & Practice and Somatic Experiencing sessions are available for you now. Waking you up to the innate wisdom of your body, to feel yourself below the level of thought, and to access your full beingness in flowing, fluid motion.
When we can feel ourselves, we are able to detect and understand the sensations and emotions our bodies signal to us – and we can connect with ourselves and others from a place of felt honesty and sensitivity, set better boundaries, and make clearer decisions about our interactions.
I am scheduling sessions for clients beginning on September 4th – I look forward to being with you.
With our willingness to turn toward our suffering, we slowly acknowledge, integrate, and accept the truth of our challenges and losses. In so doing, we open our hearts and experience deep connection to the most precious parts of our lives.
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Creating Well-Being Through Nervous System Regulation.
Nurturing Connection, Restoration & Building Resilience.
Easing the Body ~ Calming the Mind ~ Opening the Heart.
Somatic Experiencing ~ Somatic Practices ~ Breathwork ~ Movement.
“Choosing authenticity means…nurturing the connection and sense of belonging that can only happen when we let go of what we are supposed to be and embrace who we are.”~ Brene Brown
