Why Healing Movements?
Throughout my own development of what health and wellbeing means for me and my relationship with my body, I have found that Movement is everything. In fact everything starts with Movement.
The field of neurophysiology has conducted studies into movement and the impact on how we feel. The studies found that a person could regulate their emotions and make a difference to how they feel by “deliberate control of motor behaviour"[1], in other words by bringing focus to movement we can have an influence on how we feel. The research goes on to give examples of people in counselling starting a session in a bent and closed down sitting position and observes what the client says and how they feel about life whilst in this posture and then the difference that occurs when they adjust their posture to a more open, erect sitting position. The study found that when the body was moved to be upright and open the client’s feelings changed and their experience and satisfaction of counselling was more positive.
[1] Shafir, T (2016) Using Movement to Regulate Emotion: Neurophysiological Findings and Their Application in Psychotherapy https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5033979/
Not having known this research before now, it matches my own experience with movement and adjusting my posture and discovering that this changed how I feel. It might sound a little far-fetched, but it is worth exploring for yourself.
Try adjusting your posture, elongate your spine, come into your full height, how do you feel? What do you then uncover about yourself in that moment? These simple movements bring you back into connection with the body and from there we can make different choices in true support of what is needed for ourselves.
For me this has been a very handy tool that I use constantly throughout my day to both check in with how my body feels, how I am moving it and what is happening with me emotionally. I have found it offers a stop moment, an opportunity to check in and adjust how I am moving or how I am thinking about things. It also gives an opportunity to acknowledge how I am feeling, and I have found it brings clarity and steadiness to my thoughts.
In 2009, at the age of 34 I started to address some health and wellbeing concerns I was experiencing. At the time, my children were 3 & 4 years old, I was busy caring for and raising them, enjoying being married, working part time, socialising and spending time with family and friends but I always felt stressed, overwhelmed and really blah in my body. Sure there were lots of moments of excitement, but these were equally matched with moments of being dissatisfied and feeling like something was missing. My days were busy, and from the outside life looked perfect but I had very little sense of knowing myself from the inside out. I moved throughout my day with no connection to my body unless I knocked into something 😊 I was always over thinking, planning and very caught up in what I had to do next.
Have you ever considered the way you wake up in the morning and how the very first step you take can be very powerful in setting the tone of how your day will be? Most of us, myself included at times, take our first step with little to no connection to the body, either still half asleep or already in the momentum of what we have to get done in the day ahead. But what if when we bring focus to our movements it teaches us the simplicity and power of being connected to the body as we move through life, what I mean by this is being fully present with what the body is doing as we walk, brush our teeth, cook, talk, drive, the list is endless …
It’s worth exploring, giving yourself the opportunity to be your own scientist and observe what occurs.
For example imagine the way that you would hold a newborn baby, they are sleeping, and you have to transfer them into their cot. Imagine the level of care and gentleness you would use to ensure that your movements don’t wake them up or disturb them. Would your movements be more gentle, more caring, more present? As you were placing them in their cot, you wouldn’t be caught up thinking about other things, you would be focused on laying them down in the most gentle and quiet way so they didn’t wake up and they could continue sleeping. What if you were to bring that same level of care, gentleness and focus to the way you then move your body, for example the way you wash your hands, get dressed or the way you lay down in your bed to sleep – would there be a difference? Would you feel more looked after and cared for and would this make you feel more content and steadier in how you were feeling about yourself and life? Would you feel more connected to the sensitivity of the body? Does this inspire you to not rush or move the body with hardness but to be more open and connected to your movements?