I love this quote and I believe there is so much truth in it!

Our bodies know they belong; it is our minds that make our lives so homeless.” —JOHN O’DONOHUE

Our stories start in the body with the way our autonomous nervous system feels the world from moment to moment. It is called neuroception, a term originating with Stephen Porges Polyvagal theory.
We only have little awareness of these subtle shifts in our states and the influence that they have on how we feel, perceive our environment, and behave from moment to moment.

These wordless neuroceptive messages are somatic signals, like a gut feeling, sensations of temperature change, or our heart intuition, sensations from our organs, muscles… The autonomic nervous system sends these ‘neuroceptive signals’ to the brain. Our mind then starts to give meaning to this somatic story that our body tells by creating the beliefs that guide our daily life. A story is being born.

This mostly happens in the background of our daily lives, our moment-to-moment being. This gives the story a chance to result in unconscious habits of perception, behavior, movement, and attitude that influence our decision-making, our self-image, our reactions, and ultimately how we are in relationships with others and our environment.

We can become aware of this unconscious flow of information by pausing, listening into our body and paying attention to our bodily sensations before interpreting them with our mind. Much like being a witness.

When we can witness with the curiosity of our ‘infant mind space’ rather than our more judging ‘ego mind space’, we create a new space for trying on options in responding, behaving, and taking in the world. This creates options to enact a new somatic story by using the ability of our nervous system and body to adapt, change, and grow.

We meet ourselves through our infant mind space when we express ourselves through dance, conscious movement, and expressive art. When we invite ourselves to re-connect with ourselves without judgement by playing, exploring and discovering what wisdom our body holds for us. This leads to self-healing and inner growth.

It’s how I healed myself many years ago when I realised that I had lost my zest and sparkle and felt alienated from myself. I made the choice to change how I listened to and looked at myself, to re-story, to meet myself again in movement, in the moment, to re-member myself home in my body and being.