A Message in the Bottle From Life

I’ve put all these years into movement research to learn and teach others better strategies for functioning and supporting one another rooted in bodily awareness. In many ways, my path has been a long road to heal myself. At age 16, I figured if I want to be more functional, the source to clarify the way would be my own body. 

I know I am not alone in that search as the somatic vision is beginning to explode! Why is this? Why do people feel such an affinity for somatic healing? 

Maybe because it’s like a message in the bottle from your life. The bottle is your body and the message is the voice of your body – your senses. Your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin – your whole body receives tangible information from feelings and senses, in stillness and in movement. Through those messages, your body finds its way back to greater balance. 

The body loves to improve and grow if we work with it and not against it. Unfortunately, we live in a world that encourages us to work against our bodies. We’re taught to force our way through pain, fatigue, and other important messages from our bodies so we can stay productive, feed the systems that prop up society. 

It’s hard to fight this external messaging and listen to the message in the bottle from our senses. But it’s necessary if you want to heal! Healing like this does not always feel comfortable, and yet a healing brain knows that a little discomfort is actually a positive sign.

Though it may be uncomfortable to reflect on, think about how you’d answer these questions:

• How well do you appreciate your body? 

• Did you know that your body is a powerful healer? 

• Do you serve your body or do you try to get your body to serve you?   

If your honest, uncomfortable answers indicate you’re disconnected from the messages your body is sending you, that you’re moving through the world without much connection to your senses, that’s okay! It’s valuable information that can set you on your path to healing.

Through my somatic rolfing and movement practice, I love to help others build the capacity to heal because many of us were never taught the skills we need or the tolerance of discomfort that allows healing to happen. Healing is a stretch that causes me to let go of that which kept me safe – frozen fear. 

Frozen fear serves no one and isn’t safe.There’s no movement. Healing arts that originate from cultures all around the world tell us that healing requires movement. Our bodies, minds, and spirits only function properly when the flow of vital energy through our body is unimpeded. When that energy gets stuck or stagnates, dis-ease and disease happen. 

Letting go, which is a form of movement in itself, can provoke the fear of change, but it awakens something plentiful, available and natural. It awakens what is – the healing flow of balance and harmony; principles that are fundamental to Rolfing. 

For years, I was stuck in the burden of my trauma just as if I was stuck in a thick swamp. I perceived my stuckness to be true and  unchangeable. I believed that the only way out was a daring rescue by someone else, definitely not myself. 

But my study of somatics taught me that I am the only one who can trudge through the swamp. I am the only one who can create the movement of healing flow for myself. 

Now, I feel more like a brook, and I enjoy imagining the coming of a river, an ever increasing flow of abundance and connection. I feel so DELIGHTED to go with the flow and open the senses toward a better, more easeful life! I know my brain is on the right track because I stopped judging my progress, and I feel the opening of my bigger heart, which now includes more of myself for the world, and me, to enjoy.

This is the gift of the Rolfing experience! It’s a catalyst for transformative change toward greater confidence, worthiness, and self-identity as well as greater ease and efficiency in your body. We can rebuild ourselves through movement. 

How would you feel and move in the world if you knew that you could find a steady center as you face the challenges of your life to the best of your abilities?  

How would you feel and move in the world if you knew you could count on your own breathing and the ground and your alignment and your movement through space to help you locate your steady center?

What kind of world would you create with this knowledge?

To have your center, to be in your center, move from your center…..into the world.

It's a bit uncomfortable….but fresh and invigorating!! I like the rhythm and the tempo and I’d LOVE for you to join me and come in for some sessions to explore for yourself how to make better meaning through movement.