The body is an essential aspect of who we are and how we show up in our world.
How we breathe, walk, stand, sit, use gestures, express ourselves and dance, influences who we are.
Body awareness and conscious movement increase our emotional intelligence. Dr. Arielle Schwartz says “Sensing our physical sensations ground us into the present moment and can increase our awareness of our emotional world when we feel disconnected. When you feel overwhelmed, present centred awareness of your physical body can calm the stormy seas”.
Our personal and social awareness expands when we tune into the language that our body speaks. It means we understand more about the way we are influenced and the way we influence others.
I remember how enlightening it was for me in my 30’s when I first began to explore the way I moved my body. Unknowingly I had somehow stopped appreciating these parts of me!
Has this happened to you?
Motion is emotion
In today’s busy world, many of us sit at desks hunched over our computers, Moving quickly, we run from place to place, often without noticing how we move at all.
Young infants take great joy in exploring their body’s. They watch their hands move in space, and squeal with delight when they crawl and walk for the first time.
What happens to young children who spend much of their time sitting in buggies, bouncers, walkers?
When children spend too much time sitting, they are not moving enough. Many children are strapped into car seats and buggies or spend lots of time playing on ipads, instead of climbing, jumping and running in the fresh air. This lack of full-body movement and exploration of the environment limits children’s expression. Research shows clearly that this can cause all sorts of delays and learning difficulties.
Moving the body is vital for wellbeing, learning, development, and connection. We are social beings, which means it is essential that we move together, with energy that nourishes, rather than depletes us.
Energy, including emotions, can get blocked when we don’t move our bodies enough. And like a damn that can explode at an unpredictable moment under the pressure, so too can our emotions if we don’t have enough movement in our lives. It is essential that teachers, trainers, healers, parents, educators, therapists, and coaches become educated about the wisdom of the body in motion so that we can educate those we come into contact with.
Returning to the wisdom of the body awakens authenticity – congruence between what we think, say and do.
Notice how you respond to a person you love and to someone you dislike. Take time to sense the way your body responds to these people. Notice the way your instincts speak.
Exercising in the gym is beneficial, but it is not the same as expanding our awareness of the body in ways that support us in integrating the body with heart and mind.
Try these simple exercises
These simple exercises will help you to expand your awareness of your body in e-motion. Move the position of your body, head, face, and eyes as instructed. Engage with each exercise and movement or posture for at least 2 minutes, STOP after each exercise BREATHE and notice how you feel.
Look
- Downwards lowering your gaze as you walk.
- Forwards, whilst walking.
- Stop and look up to the sky
- At yourself in the mirror with a sad face
- In the mirror with a smiling face
Stand
- With your feet slightly apart, hands on your heart and your head bowed.
- Your feet, shoulder-width apart, arms relaxed by your side and look-up
- Soften your gaze. Relax your shoulders, open your chest. Notice your breath moving through the central line of your whole body. Breathe in through your nose, down through the centre of your body and out through your nose using a longer out-breath than in-breath.
- With your body straight, softened gaze, relaxed shoulders, open chest, imagine roots shooting out of your feet and the energy from the ground raise up through you. Your body radiating with the energy from the earth like a battery (this is more effective if you stand with bare feet directly on earth)
- Place your feet shoulder-width apart, open your arms and raise them above your head. Look up – open to the expansive sky.
Lie or Sit
- In a comfortable place, relax your body. With your eyes closed or gaze soft and breath, tune into the language that your body speaks. Be aware of body sensations here and now.
- Notice what your body is telling you about the postures, and movement exercises you have just completed. Take this wisdom forward into your life.
When we cultivate body intelligence, we unlock the wisdom of the instincts and awaken new possibilities for the way we lead, parent, love, learn, work and connect in community with each other.
Coaching Clients
There are many ways I work with the body, mind, and communication, during coaching. Bringing body awareness into my coaching sessions invites a time of slowing down and regulating together. We focus on the breath in a short mindful awareness exercise during sessions. This supports us to get to the essence of the work we will do together efficiently.
I may invite you to sense what is happening in your body when recalling behaviors you want to change, inviting you to move with tensions – through resistance; working with awareness about the patterns you want to develop; to explore new traits and states through postures – nonverbal and verbal communication.
I recommend to all of my clients that they cultivate a meditative practice of moments of conscious breathing, each day. This leads to an awareness of feelings and needs and helps to balance the nervous system, strengthening resilience, and opening empathic potentials between people.
How do you work with the body in your everyday life or in your work with clients?
Cultivating wisdom about the way the body moves and speaks, awakens conscious awareness and sensitivity to ourselves and towards each other. It activates our capacity to choose how we respond to present situations, instead of reacting based on past conditioning. It soothes the protective instinct so that it can rest unless we are in real danger, and then, that magnificent instinct is fully available to us.
Restoring balance
When we restore inner balance, we find that sleep, rest, hunger, sexual expression, love, and wellness is also balanced.
Embodiment and resources
Embodiment is a growing movement. There is a whole series of podcasts here that you may like to listen to.
To read a little more about why and how I work with movement at events follow this link.
To read more about workshops I offer educators on how they might restore children to balance. Also, how to work with children’s human instinctual potential, follow this link.
I would love to hear how you are working with the wisdom of the body – Are you willing to share your experience in the comments below?
Dance and sing together. Shout and move together. Jump, run and roll down hills together.
This is of benefit to us all.
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