Awareness through movement versus awareness of movement

Awareness through movement versus awareness of movement

by | Jan 25, 2024 | Changing the story, Somatic Awareness, Somatic Wisdom

We often move on automatic pilot in many situations of our lives, We vaguely know what we do, but do we really know how we do it? What is happening behind the scenes so to speak? How is our action benefiting our intention?
For most people, the most basic intention to move or act is to maintain or move into joy, ease, comfort, and pleasure. Our nervous system is wired that way.

Then how come our actions don’t always result in comfort and pleasure?

In a Feldenkrais somatic movement exploration, we explore HOW we move. The HOW is about our individuality, our unique habits, beliefs, and behaviors, and the way we see ourselves and act upon that image. How do we meet our intention with the way we move? What are the habits that interfere with our intentions? 

When observing the HOW we get clarity about which beliefs are in the driving seat and where our image of ourselves and the world needs updating. Are we ‘doing’ on automatic pilot or are we consciously choosing how we do what we do? And does it lead to the desired outcome?

Habits are when we decide how to act before we are aware that we have a choice (Moshe Feldenkrais)

Habits typically show up when we don’t choose or we always choose the same which is equivalent to habitual behavior. The outcome therefore will subsequently be the same as yesterday, today, and in the future.. Doing from habit strengthens the same beliefs and emotional patterns that keep us from where we want to go. 

So the goal of the Feldenkrais method is to bring our awareness to the moment between intending and doing by slowing down and paying attention. It is here where we can find out and correct course. In this moment we can recreate our responses by exploring other options and creating conscious choices. It is then that we begin to grow out of a habit and the beliefs that support that habit.

And this goes for all action; Whether it is about movement skill or an action that has to take us to something we want. Or maybe an action that has to take us away from something we don’t want. We need to slow down to listen into the body to sense and feel what happens with our emotions and thoughts. As no brain can think without a body (original quote by Moshe Feldenkrais)

All movement is driven by the mind. So the body’s movement is a great way to start exploring our mind’s way. Our most basic intention is to find ease, comfort, and joy no matter what. Our body is straightforward and accurate in its response. It does not create constructs like the mind does. It immediately tells whether it feels pain or joy. And it is always open to course-correct. It can serve as a wonderful guide on the path of growth and healing

Below is a link to a Feldenkrais exploration that will give you a taste of how to rewire patterns with the help of your wise sensuous body and intelligent, sensitive, nervous system.

Originally it was an FB live in which I verbally guided people through a 20-minute lecture and exploration. All you need is a quiet space on the floor and a (yoga) mat. 

Let your senses take you back to your heart

Let your senses take you back to your heart

by | Dec 28, 2023 | Blog, Body Intelligence, Nervous System Health, Somatic Wisdom

In this blog, I share how you can tap into the intelligence of your heart by engaging consciously with your senses to come home to yourself and find your inner peace after an upsetting event or news story or simply after a stressful day.

And what’s more, it also helps you, help your beloved, stressed animal feel better and calm her nervous system after an accident or epileptic episode. As I did with our newly adopted cat Uma who suffers from a neurological condition.

Uma’s story

It all happened around ‘cat’ dinner time. Uma suffered a short circuit in her brain, resulting in a seizure that manifested as epilepsy and hyperventilation. She spent hours between heaven and earth. We took turns watching over her. Halfway through the night, she wanted to move. She stood weakly on her feet. I could see her panic. She had no idea where she was or who she was. She couldn’t recognize her scent anymore. So she kept walking, stumbling, and bumping into everything. At one point she was so exhausted that her legs couldn’t carry her anymore, but she wouldn’t lie down. She was so scared. And so were we for her. By sunrise, we were dead on our feet. We didn’t know what else we could do to calm her down.

And then my heart took over from my mind and sent my senses out to play. I sat down next to her, with my feet well on the ground. And my eyes wandered around the room and lingered on a floor tile. From the corner of my left eye, I could see Uma. And as my eyes took in the floor tile, my ears received the sounds of the early morning-the heavy hum of a plane high in the sky, birds singing, the wind, my dog’s snoring, the murmuring of the trees, and Uma’s fast, pumping breath. I felt the movement of my breath, which carried silent grief, while a gentle breeze stroked the skin of my arm. The heavy summer heat pressed down on me. Drops of sweat ran down my back. While sensing, my thoughts became quieter and quieter. Time stopped. I felt my weight rest heavier on the cough, my feet spreading out into the ground. My gaze softened and widened. I could feel Uma very clearly now.

From the corner of my eye, I saw that she had laid down. And while we were together in silence, receiving the surroundings in our hearts, I saw her breathing becoming quieter and quieter. Her eyes slowly fell shut. She began to doze off quietly into a deep, restorative sleep.

How aware are you in your heart?

All living beings have an energy field within and around their bodies. When these fields contact each other there is a subtle, very complex exchange of electromagnetic energy encoded with information. It is the language of all life.

One of the most mind-blowing books I’ve read is a book called ‘The Secret Teachings of Plants’ by Stephen Harrod Buhner. He states that the physical heart is the most powerful organ of perception in both humans and many animals because it generates the strongest electromagnetic energy field in the body. And the heart becomes even more perceptive when it is in a harmonious connection with the rhythms in the rest of the body and brain and with the rhythms of the universe, and Mother Earth. This is called heart coherence. It happens when we shift our consciousness from our mind to our heart.

The more coherence the stronger the information exchange can be. A coherent heart has variability in heart rhythm so that it can easily adjust to movement intensity, emotional experiences, and other internal and external processes. This has beneficial effects on brain processes, our physical-emotional vitality, connection to others, openness to learning, and the neuroplastic capacity of our brains. It helps every part of our system work together harmoniously, and function efficiently. This creates space for auto-regulation, healing, resilience, and growth.

Did you know that your physical heart is a highly sophisticated communicator?

The physical heart has a huge amount of highly specialized cells that receive and transmit electric magnetic energy waves filled with information, much like a radio transmitter and receiver carries the music. These specialized heart cells group to form many finely tuned antennas with a very broad reach. This way the heart receives infinitely many different energy frequencies at the same time. No other part of the body and brain has this extraordinary quality. When the heart’s electromagnetic field meets another electromagnetic field, interaction and synchronization start to happen. In this process, information is exchanged.

The heart decodes this deep information by altering its beating pattern, pulse wave, electric output, hormonal functioning, and neurochemical release. These changes in function send information to the rest of the body and the different parts of our nervous system. It also acts directly with our nervous system through neurochemical releases in the brain that directly alter nervous system functions.

What does this have to do with the senses?

Our heart enters a state of *coherence when we shift from analyzing, thinking, setting expectations, and commenting to what we perceive through feeling and sensing. When we leave our senses free to wander around and take in the surroundings, we enter into our hearts. We re-member ourselves as part of our natural family. Resulting in our heart rate starting to slow down. Also, our eyes soften, our breath slows down and deepens, and a cascade of transformational chemical processes take place in the brain that controls the autonomic nervous system, emotions, and cognitive functions. As our hearts are both sending and receiving, this state of coherence is then exchanged with another Being when our energy fields touch.

And so by the simple act of sensing my surroundings and listening to my sensations, and feelings, I could help Uma feel more peaceful and start resting her exhausted body.

When was the last time you took the time to let your senses wander freely without any expectation?

Somatic dance play, somatic movement?

Somatic dance play, somatic movement?

by | Dec 28, 2023 | Somatic Awareness, Somatic Wisdom

(with a little taster at the end)

What does somatic mean? In the Feldenkrais somatic movement education community, we are asking ourselves this question: Do people understand what we mean by this word?

Soma means the body as experienced from within. The felt sense of ourselves. So somatic refers to the study of experiencing ourselves from within the body. An embodied experience of ourselves. Somatic movement adds movement as a way to experience our body through sensations.

Just as the mind gives us a felt thought of ourselves and a visual image of our body, our body gives us a sense of ourselves through the way we move and hold ourselves together. Sensing brings our attention to the space that exists beyond words and feelings, to our sensations and emotions. Gene Gendlin, a somatic educator, has written beautifully eloquently about the body as our compass for thinking, feeling, and acting. I feel he describes soma, the felt sense of ourselves very poetic and magical through his words.

He writes -and I quote loosely- that our body is part of a huge system that is both here and in other places and embodies the now as well as other times. It is in constant curious interaction with its environment, the energy of others, the earth, the universe, our ancestors, past times, and other dimensions.

Energies flow in, out, and through, evoking emotions and sensations. We touch, see, smell, taste, and hear our environment every little fraction of time. Millions of cells sensate with now-information, emote with past experience, are moved by energy, and inform and co-create our brain’s magic network of connections and relationships.

Being consciously in connection with what is alive inside, feeling from the body, and being present in the body is feeling bodily alive in this vast universal system of relationships, interactions, and movement. Our conscious mind only can just comprehend a fraction of this. For me, somatics is about this conscious embodiment and self-awareness that connects us in a sensory way to that bigger meaning of life where words and mental constructions fall short.

Wikipedia shares another definition of somatic that brings in psychology as well:

…the study of the mind/body interface, the relationship between our physical matter and our energy, and the interaction of our body structures with our thoughts and actions.

It brings me to a statement Moshe Feldenkrais made that there is a unity of body and mind. One does not function without the other. They are an inseparable whole while functioning. A brain without a body could not think, a body without a brain could not function. So when we experience the body from within, we experience our mind from within as well.

Through aware movement, we experience our brain’s way of thinking and organizing from within. The way our self-image and movement develop through emotions, feelings, and thoughts.

What are the benefits of the somatic movement practices I share?

  • Experiencing ourselves from within makes us feel our depths, our wonders, and the magic of life. Well isn’t that a spark for our vitality?
  • Experiencing our body from within helps us understand our thoughts and feelings. It creates a co-creation between body and mind. It teaches us about the relationship dynamics that are all possible between our mind and body. What would it be like to tap into your full potential of strengths, gifts, and abilities?
  • Experiencing our body from within teaches us about the relationships between our muscles, organs, connective tissue, emotions, thoughts, and feelings. All motor movement starts here and can be improved by improving these relationships. What would you do if you would feel free and able in your daily life movements and actions? How would it change your life if you can consciously choose movement that feels free and pleasurable, that navigates you effortlessly through life’s challenges?
  • Experiencing the body from within teaches us about relationships. Our body guides us in getting to know our habits in relationship dynamics. Having this understanding helps us re-pattern habits that create struggles in relationships. How would be if you feel confident and open in relationships? How would it be if you could feel true, intimate, deep, and joyful in the relationships that are important to you?

In the somatic movement practices of Feldenkrais and dance movement creativity, I offer self-awareness and self-growth. Not because you have to be a better version of yourself but to guide you in getting to know, feel, and express more of yourself with joy, love, and innate playfulness. And experience relationships with more intimacy, ease, and being you

I call it somatic dance play and movement exploration. In playing we find all the tools to experience ourselves from a non-judgmental and curious place. Being playful brings us to a place where we can be open, exploring, and joyful. It is the most important state for organic, experiential learning.

My offer is an invitation to rediscover playful, spontaneous Being and consciously choose the path of pleasure and ease to navigate through life. I believe it all starts with coming home in our bodies and building a caring, joyful relationship with ourselves.

Are we loving enough to ourselves to receive our gifts ourselves first?

In this link, you’ll find a somatic dance play audio to start your own somatic journey. Dance through it with your eyes closed or open and have fun exploring relationships through your joints.

The sound of you

The sound of you

by | Dec 28, 2023 | Blog, Body Intelligence, Changing the story, Movement as Medicine, Somatic Wisdom

Sound is our channel for expression. It is the energy of vibration and has the potential to heal and open the spaces in ourselves energetically and physically. It eases our breathing, and softens tight places in the chest and back. Therefore sound is an important element of the sixth chakra; the throat chakra.

When we are at ease with our voice and sound and we speak with clarity and confidence, the energy of this chakra can flow optimally. This keeps our throat, mouth, thyroid, neck, ears, cavities of belly, face, and chest in good health.

We heal and balance our throat chakra when we speak our truth, communicate kindly and non violently yet with clarity. When we are able to listen attentively and receive through our listening. And last but not least when we speak kindly and compassionate to and about ourselves. A balanced throat chakra is a must for our spontaneous expressive energy to flow freely and nourish us with joyous vibrancy and meaningful connections with others.

For as long as I remember, I have been shy and anxious to speak out loud, speak my truth, show myself through my voice.   I would hide in myself as soon as the fire reached my cheeks in a turbulent red. Ever so now and then I still feel panic and blockage when it comes to finding words and sharing my thoughts and feelings through them.

Old wounds as so to speak. It took me some time to realize that blocking my voice caused the tightness I sensed in my chest and upper belly and my shallow breathing and states of anxiety and emotional tension. It even touched upon my digestive system. My journey to get to know my voice and free her started during the Feldenkrais training I took and led me to dance, sing and lament, to NLP, and voice and breathwork.

Fast forward, I now go live on Facebook in a language that is not even my mother tongue. I voice my thoughts and ideas. Daily I get to listen to my voice and the words I choose when I offer Feldenkrais somatic movement play, and Somatic movement creativity online. I celebrate this new step with joy, more confidence, more breath, and resonant spaces in my chest, belly, and bones. And certainly more courage to authentically dance play myself into the light and help other people to step into theirs.

In 2021 I offered a miniseries to free the body’s sound system in my former FB group. People told me how much they had enjoyed exploring their body’s sound system, expanding their potential for more ease, range, and freedom in expressing and breathing, and to give a voice to their trapped emotions and the beliefs they were holding about their voice and self-image. And how they felt more of themselves.

Do you want to embrace more of you? I now offer the free mini-series ‘The Sound of You’ on my YouTube channel

What moves you?

What moves you?

by | Dec 28, 2023 | Blog, Body Intelligence, Changing the story, Movement as Medicine, Somatic Awareness, Somatic Wisdom

When it gets freezy underneath.

In 2021 I gave a presentation for the online Movement and Wellbeing Festival organised by Angela McMillan.

I gave a talk about ways to move “From freeze to flow” And as I was writing on my presentation, memories came to mind of childhood times when I struggled with fear, shame, and insecurity, unable to control my turbulent inner world that was constantly put on edge by being bullied and ridiculed. It resulted in a lot of uncomfortable physical sensations that I couldn’t control at the time. Eventually, I tried to get rid of them by dissociating myself from my body or somehow controlling it. Slowly, I slipped into a continuous, slumbering state of freezing. Not much later I developed an eating disorder, followed by other destructive numbing habits.

Freezing symptoms can linger just under the skin for long times keeping you from engaging in intimate connection with yourself and others. On the outside you may look like a happy puppy, people may praise you for being such a good listener, for being flexible, helpful or so loyal. But between the lines, suffering happens. It can manifest itself by withdrawing from situations and people, feeling very tired, lonely, and depressed, feeling chronically anxious in your skin, not knowing what you like, want, or don’t want, or what has meaning for you, having trouble concentrating and focusing, having trouble putting your money where your mouth is, or to get moving. Physically you can feel like you can’t hold yourself up, feeling tight, tense, and limp at the same time,  a lack of fluid movement and stability, or experiences of spatial unclarity, bumping into things, tripping, and hurting yourself.

Actually, we all experience freezy states on a daily basis.
Now more than ever! Many of us are living more in the head than in the body. Our smartphones keep us attached to the screen even when biking or crossing a road. Mental information forms the biggest part of our nowadays intake of information about our environment.

We live in an expectation- and performance-oriented society in which there is little room for spontaneity, authentic self-expression, or listening to the heart and senses. Many of our physical activities are about looking good rather than feeling good. Feeling present and alive in the body is not so obvious anymore. The pandemic certainly contributed to this disembodied life.

magic happens when you choose to follow flow

For a long time, I tried to work with the turbulent emotions themselves. It was yo-yo-ing between feeling okay and feeling down again. It took a toll on my health and made me feel less and less secure with myself. It was exhausting falling and crawling back up again and again.

Then by chance, I discovered the somatic movement approach of the Feldenkrais method. During the first session, I felt calm instead of cathartic. Just feeling good without having to go back into that dark hole first. Wow! As I continued to deepen my understanding of the Feldenkrais Method and other somatic-, and systems-oriented movement and dance approaches, I gained three very important insights:

  1. Where attention goes, energy flows
  2. Each of us is a living system, a complex fabric, of biology, energy, consciousness, and soul which are interrelated, interconnected, and interdependent.
  3. All living systems have an innate capacity for self-healing, thus so do we, if only we follow our system’s way of ‘thinking in relationships, integration, and interconnectedness’ instead of being a hierarchy divided into a mind, a body with parts, a soul and spirit.

I discovered how I had gotten stuck in a one-sided negative attention spiral of What’s Wrong. And I learned that thinking and emotions are only two channels of a huger somatic constellation through which we know ourselves, and by which a living system informs itself of inner and outer relationships. Most importantly I learned how to help my system prime for healing, nurturing all somatic information channels with the input of “What is. Through Perception, reconnecting with my senses, and learning systemically from the inside out through movement, and now-attention.

In many forms of therapy and coaching, the focus is on the somatic channels of emotion and thought only. The attention is on What is wrong; the former experiences, the trauma… Reliving the triggering emotions, and analyzing them. And I experienced that this starting point keeps reinforcing the pattern of suffering instead of helping our system to self-regulate and heal.

Leaving the old experiences and analyses alone for a while and spending time with my senses in the now, renewed my ability to feel pleasurable, comfortable, and easy sensations in my body. Sensations that invited me to stay in my body, feel safer in my body, gain trust in my being able to surf the emotional waves, and slowly create a greater capacity to deal with all of life, including former traumatic experiences.

It certainly didn’t happen overnight, no quick fix here. And that is exactly why the healing happened! Instead of forcing my system to suddenly change, I danced with the system through awareness, movement, stillness, and time, crafting my attention to what felt good. Gently offering options to my system, in addition to the one my system was used to. I learned to trust my system that it would choose what felt best to thrive in life in its own natural time and wisdom.

You can find my talk below:

In the Movement and Wellbeing Festival 2021 of Online Movement Academy, I shared a Feldenkrais somatic movement experience that has helped me and my clients to follow and flow with our systems and move from freeze to flow. You can listen and move with it below.

Better your foundation for more ease and support

by Pingel Braat

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NecbplsqrwCUdYHeQ0X6q3zWegW64_I-/view?usp=drive_link

Meeting your inner family

Meeting your inner family

by | Dec 27, 2023 | Changing the story, Somatic Awareness, Somatic Wisdom

Today was the last day of the last retreat of 2023 at Jardin de Luz.
I am grateful for the beautiful, courageous journeys I was invited to guide this year.

One of our participant’s favorite practices is the inner child cards that we create from working somatically, energetically, and creatively with parts of ourselves.

Our younger parts often bring up the most painful and sometimes happiest stories from the past that demand our attention. Sometimes because we can’t let go of them. And more often we become aware of how we have rejected some young parts of ourselves out of fear of losing the love of those around us. Those parts keep demanding our attention, challenging us, until we make space for them, really listen to them, and give them a place in our hearts again. Their behavior often created counterparts who act as safety officers. They manage our beliefs and keep our free, uninhibited, playful inner child firmly in line. Some call them their inner critics. (Above one of my inner child cards).

For this practice, we listen deeply to the somatic messengers that inform us from the inside out, from our cells, bones, muscles, connective tissues, and our subconscious realm so to speak. They are what I call the somatic communication SISTEM:

Senses

Images

Sensations

Thoughts

Emotions

Movement

and next to that, we use lots of old magazines, scissors, and glue to play with what our inner children have to say.

Does working with dance, movement, and creativity as a way to heal and grow internally speak to you? And are you interested in a retreat with me? Feel free to contact me for a exploratory chat.