The sound of you

The sound of you

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

Meeting your inner family

Meeting your inner family

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.

The spell of your words

The spell of your words

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The words you choose or habitually use to tell and give meaning to your personal narrative are powerful. They are energy! They create and build or destroy.

The story you tell about yourself and to yourself sets the tone and direction of your life. The words you say to yourself largely determine how you feel; in relation to yourself, your body, and other people. Understanding the meanings you have given these words and the beliefs and emotions behind them helps you to see why you are stuck in a story, image, behavior, or way of moving that ‘hurts’ and robs you of your precious life force energy and inner sparkle.

Take the word and concept ‘authenticity‘, for instance. A word and concept widely used in the self-development world and in the spiritual circuit. Many of the women who visit me tell me they have a deep desire to be more authentic and to express themselves more, so they can live with more purpose and fulfillment.

What does ‘authenticity’ mean to you?
How does being Authentic feel to you? Does it come naturally or does it take effort?

In my retreats, I meet many women who see only their so-called beautiful, society-accepted side as ‘authentic’. They often push away the other, rawer, shadowier side that society does not value, resulting in a whole gamut of soul and physical problems, and blocked access to both life force and genuine physical and spiritual fulfillment.

Often, they feel unable to access their sensations and emotions: their sadness, anger, fear, passion, sensuality, wildness, and intuition, for example. Or find it difficult to set their boundaries or take good care of themselves. They have lost connection with their inner compass because of the fear of feeling a part of themselves that does not fit into the concept of the perfect wife, mother, friend, colleague, businesswoman, or spiritual person.

They often have forgotten how to interpret and give meaning to the language of their inner, sensuous body, their soma. The sensations, emotions, images, movement, sensory perceptions, and thoughts that softly tell about our unique inner world, our inner narrative, and the whispers of our Soul.

The way we fill words with meaning influences how we show up in life and understand ourselves. Its energy drives our behaviour and our deepest beliefs. It create filters that determine how we listen to our bodies, to others and how we shape our perception of the world and ourselves.

For many of us the meaning of the concept and word ‘authenticity’ has become muddled. It is driven by the rules and  ‘truths’ of society, the family or group we want to belong to, by old painful stories of shame, punishment, or rejection of who we really are. And often also by generations of passed-down family values, and beliefs. And the centuries-long dominance of patriarchal values and a patriarchal model of the world in which many feminine qualities, values, and strengths have lost place.

By re-exploring the meaning of ‘authenticity’ and testing it vis-a-vis your own truth, you create space to stay close to yourself, and tap into your unique potential. It will show you where to let go and relinquish that which limits you from being yourself very naturally and worry-free. It allows you to start living more of your truth in how you perceive, feel, think, move, express yourself, respond, decide, make choices, and give meaning to what you perceive, feel, and think. So you can live and connect more wholeheartedly and passionately from your heart.

For me, this is in the meaning behind the word ‘authenticity.

How do your words shape who you are? And is that how you want to feel about yourself?

What if you could feel more ease and pleasure in your life?

What if you could feel more ease and pleasure in your life?

Feeling more wase and pleasure all starts with becoming aware of how you feel in your body!

How do you feel? And is that how you want to feel?

Most people’s sensation compass is tuned to pain. To feel pain, you need more pain. It’s a vicious cycle that puts you in a downward spiral. By realigning yourself with the smallest sensations of pleasure and ease, you can begin to realign your sensation compass. It all starts with a more curious, intimate, and caring relationship with your body.

By feeling into your body without immediately judging what you feel, you can reconnect with that inner wisdom and tap into the healing capacity of your system and its intelligence. Pleasure attracts more pleasure. In this video, I tell you more.

 

Be Guided by Your Body Wise

Be Guided by Your Body Wise

“What people had been calling a “gut reaction” turned out to be a mere hint of the complex intelligence at work in a hundred thousand billion cells.”

― Deepak Chopra, The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life

How do we really know what is good for us?

Most women I know decide with their minds. Often these choices don’t turn out right. The mind is made for organising, and planning intention into action, talking with others, and making lists and many other good and valuable things. However deciding is not one of them. 

To make decisions from what to eat to how to life our life or what next step to take we need that part of us that is in contact with the here and now in time and space. That part which is online 24 hrs a day, taking in and processing information far below the surface of what our mind can capture. I am talking about our Body Wise Self.

Our Body Wise Self may be most felt through the sensations in the gut, in the heart, in the upper belly, or the sensation of weight on our feet, depending on how you are wired. Our Body Wise communicates in many ways and often we experience this as inner visceral sensations or proprioceptive sensations or even images or unfamiliar word choices that come from an inner voice.

Our Body Wise, being the intelligent intuitive web of a living body, neurobiology, heart, subconscious, and spirit, offers the most direct and intelligent guidance for our choices.

In the short 10-minute meditation in this post, I guide you to dialogue with your inner Body wise in a simple straightforward way. This technique allows you to consciously tune in at any time with your inner wise one.

You will learn how to ask a question to your Body Wise and interpret the subtle language through which your Body Wise answers.

This meditation is done in standing  and preferably on bare feet (socks are oke