Getting Deep With The Body: Finding Your Edges
After writing the blog "Getting Deep with the Hips" a good friend sent me a link to the Yoga Summit (www.theyogasummit.org).
In "Unlocking the Secrets of Our Bodies", yoga teacher Esther Ekhart talks about what the body has been holding for us, and what it brings to our awareness when we give it space and begin to listen.
As I do, Esther Ekhart believes that the body contains everything we have ever gone through, and our tissues are key to unlocking all of our experiences.
When you encounter an area of discomfort in your body, or in your life, you can choose to be with it, and bring your attention to it.
In bodywork, as well as therapeutic practice, it is commonly known as an "edge".
We can reach edges in the body as well as psychologically.
I believe one will usually correspond with the other. An edge in the body has a psychological edge; a psychological edge will have a reference point in the body. Mind and body are not separate, although many people may have the illusion that they are.
In daily life we have some degree of control about the edges we do, or do not, meet. In yoga you will start to find your edges - poses that feel restricted, stuck. When that pain or numbness or emotion begins to arise, the best way out is through.
keys by ke dickinson
The only way to truly heal and integrate all of your experiences, including those from the past that the body is holding and waiting for you to find, is to feel and be with those sensations. To breathe, to relax, and to cry (or shout/laugh/weep as necessary).
This doesn't mean crazy contortions. It simply means being wherever you are.
For me, yoga is a great way to be with however I am feeling at any time. And I know that curiosity and openness are the best ways to approach each edge.
In the process of exploring pain and memory, Esther Ekhart suggests relaxing, allowing and giving space to what is asking to be seen. Hold the yoga pose (asana), breathe, and be curious about the experience of feeling and thought.
Esther also offers great wisdom when she says that your body and mind show incredible intelligence in creating such protective mechanisms and holding patterns in the body, often from a very young age. She describes trying to put on a four-year-old's coat as an adult - tight, difficult and causing stress in the body. The same goes for continuing to hold the same beliefs or protective strategies you used as a child - they are outdated and they don't fit any more.
Being with your edges is a precursor to profound transformation. You become more open, more whole and more loving.
What is waiting in the body to reveal itself to you?
Journey to your inner world and be curious about your edges. Email bryony@creativesoultherapies.com