Move with Feeling
What does to Move with Feeling mean to you?
Michaela Boehm describes it as a way of “identifying and unwinding the patterns of contraction and that through gentle, non-force movements we may relieve bodily tension and underlying mental loops”.
The idea of moving with feeling was something that I started to explore early 2019, I was gifted Michaela Boehm’s book, the Wild Woman’s Way, and it took me on a journey. A journey of movement that is non linear and non performative, a journey that I am still very much on t. The journey is one of finding more connection to the parts of me that make me feel scared, ashamed, confused and uncomfortable. The journey is about moving outside of the traditional forms of yoga and more into listening to what my body wants to do. What I am noticing is that there are ways to coexist with these feelings, that they can exist within me alongside the feelings of joy, aliveness and pleasure and that I do not need to hide them away like dirty secrets. In fact it is the hiding away that has been the source of so much tension and pain in my life and in complete transparency still is. But it is not that straight forward, what I have found is that in order for me to feel these feelings I need to feel safe, if I don’t feel safe then the resistance too feeling is very real, I can feel it as a physical tension inside me. Being safe soothes my nervous system, it allows me to identify and process emotions, old patterns of trauma can be released into flow and I am able to access some deep bodily wisdom which deepens my sensitivity to what it is I really feel.
“Meet the fear from your wisest and most loving part of yourself, and invite it to soften. This is the best way we can transform our fear into wisdom.””
The journey is ongoing and every time I approach my practice in this way there is always some wisdom to be received, and that is what ‘moving with feeling’ is all about; the messages, the moments of insight and wisdom that appear from no where. Although, they are not coming from no where because they are coming from the depths of our subconscious, and these messages will only make themselves known when it feels safe for them to be heard, seen and listened too. They are the nuggets of deep, embodied wisdom that only your body knows, that your body is wanting to tell you but it needs you to to lay down the armour and invite it all in.
Does any of this spark some curiosity within you? Are you thinking that this sounds like what you need or want? Or are you thinking, is this even yoga? I invite you ask those questions, I invite you to get curious, because I believe that in order to make last changes we have to get curious first.
Here are a few practices that you can consider:-
You can start on all fours and start to move in any way, gently and slowly, perhaps to some good music and see where it takes you. Paying attention to the feeling that is there, simply moving with that feeling. Holding it in you. Now get up and go and do something different, with that feeling.
You can sit and bring your awareness to your pelvic bowl, to travel your awareness up the spine and back down again and then let your awareness rest deep in the pelvic bowl, so that in silence you may explore the messages of the body that come from this place of feminine wisdom.
Another, one that I practice and teach a lot, is the figure of 8 loop (see video) that Donna Farhi taught me on retreat last year. It has become a daily practice for me, she talks about it as “The movement that takes the body into multidimensional planes that gently warm and lubricate joint surfaces and increase the potential for articulation of movement……. these practices increase ones kinesthetic perception of the body and the space around the body which requires inclusive awareness. ”
But these practices may not work for you. Maybe walking nature is what you need, maybe doodling on a piece of paper keeps your feet firmly on the ground, maybe singing, dancing; anything really that holds you in the body, in the realm of feminine consciousness and out of the masculine, mind centred thinking.
These days I find myself working with a new tack in my practice, when I get to the mat, I let myself take a moment to notice the feelings within me and then I try to find a way to feel them, but really feel them. Generally this starts with a location in my body, then maybe a texture and/or some other sensation and then I choose to keep that feeling in me, I choose to not ‘breathe’ it away as I may have done in the past, I choose to explore the depths of that feeling. Sometimes it shifts into something else, somewhere else, a new sensation or location, so I keep going, I keep the feeling in. Then I start to explore what does my body want to do? I call this my ‘Daily Weather Report’ and from that I start to explore a simple practice of breath and movement. The more I allow myself to tune into this, the more I can sense into my body
The more I allow myself to tune into this, the more I can sense into my body. As a result my yoga practice has shape shifted into a place where I find that I am less and less bothered by the forms, and more into the felt experience of the moment.
There was definitely a time when my practice was something of a performance but that burned me out, I did not know at the time that that was what burned me out but now I understand it all so clearly. Each time I chased down a sensation, I was pushing deeper into me a feeling of lack, a feeling of shame and a feeling of not being enough. It was exhausting.
“Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.”
And now an invitation to You:
For many of us it's hard to access this level of feeling on our own. For me, I find it extremely helpful to partner with another human to facilitate me exploring my felt experience and to assist me find a way to process and integrate it.
This is the kind of work that I offer and if you would like to explore this further then do reach out.
++ I offer one to one sessions utilising yoga therapy and the Reembody method as a way to create a safe space for you to explore your experience of being in your body.
Here is my class schedule and you can easily book online here
And there's more to come...on May 11th I will be launching an online community space called
++ EASE & CALM ++
MANAGE PAIN & ANXIETY
A RADICAL APPROACH TO YOGA FOR EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN
An intimate and online space offering women a place to explore doing something different with a radical approach to yoga.
So if you would like to be the first to know about it then head over to the sign up page here
I can absolutely guarantee to you, with all my being, that despite all that is going on right now, both joy and fear can coexist together. The two do not cancel each other out, they are simply different experiences that we feel in our bodies. We can live with it all, we can have a full and meaningful life despite all our fears and worries, however you do not have to do this journey alone.
“We need practices that will help us beyond ‘listening to the body’ and instead enable us to listen to the world through the body. The task is not to make the body do new things that are good for us, but to surrender the tyrant’s place in the head and yield to our embodied wisdom”