To the degree that we cultivate our body-mind connection, is the degree that we experience somatic discord or harmony. Cultivating our mind to inhabit our body, rather than dissociate from it, is how the body-mind finds homeostasis. Instead of perceiving stress and breathing it through the body, we tend to pretend like everything is ok by tensing up and bracing ourselves for battle. We harden and we separate mind from body, body from mind.
We perceive stressors as life or death, which in our evolutionary past they were, and yet we can perceive stressors, for the minor temporary things that they often are, and use them to support our body-mind resilience.
This is not to say that there is no such thing as life or death stressors, it’s just that, that is not what I am discussing here. And I think we all know that many of our stressors are a multitude of many minor things rather than life threatening things. If we can experience them for what they are in the moment and allow them to move through us and be gone, then they won’t build up as tension and dis-ease in the body and become chronic or actually life threatening.
Your perception of stressors directly effects your body-mind somatic experience. We can hold on, brace ourselves and store the tension as body memory, or we can fully feel them in the moment, allowing them to rise and fall away without getting stuck. How do we do that?
We can support the nervous system with herbal medicine to strengthen and relax our neuromuscular tissues. Check out our herbal remedies to calm here. We can have a daily practise of free flow rigorous movement to loosen and soften our musculoskeletal system. Check out Somatic Experiencing here. And we can practise meditation.
Meditation creates space and freedom to respond to life in ways that are fully present in the moment, allowing us to simply respond and move on. When we can respond and move on we are not getting stuck, we are not storing experiences and tension in our bodies, we are not ruminating on past events. Meditation allows are to be freer and fuller of energy, more radiant in the moment, from moment to moment. The following is Lorin Roche’s approach to meditation.
Lorin Roche has been studying meditation since the 70’s and he has found a the most pragmatic approach to meditation is to do what you love. Meditation should not be chore but a joy. There are many doorways, so explore and find your way, whether that is sitting, surfing, singing or sewing. What is your relationship to yourself? Meditation is about you relating to you, just as you are. Let’s dispel the myth that you are not meant to think. Here’s how a regular sitting practise goes…
REST slow down, sit, be still
RELAX your body response to slowing down, sitting, being still
RELEASE your mind begins to release thoughts and you become aware of them
REVIEW you perceive events in your life and review them in your mind
REPAIR your mind starts to perceive the cause of your suffering and finds solutions
RESTORE you discover that your change of perception or solution feels good
REHEARSE you validate your new perceptions and strengthen your resolve
REMEMBER you remember that you were meditating and go back to resting
Follow the link to our latest SOMATIC meditation.