„I can’t feel my stomach at all.”
Once again, I hear this phrase from her protégés in training, who have strongly activated their deep abdominal muscles.
The question immediately arises as to whether the training was carried out correctly in any case, whether the phases of tension and relaxation of the muscles were carried out correctly, whether the exercises were chosen correctly, whether the breathing during the exercise was guided correctly?
I have a lot of experience in conducting trainings, methodically everything was put on the last button. On a physiological and biomechanical level, everything went right. What would an average coach do? He’s increased the number of repetitions, the strain, the difficulty, and everything’s fine, but. . .
The interplay of body and mind
From the moment I started to treat the guidance of my charges more thoroughly, looking at the whole, connecting body and mind, listening to all the signals coming from deep inside the body – perhaps hidden for years, neglected, muted, suppressed, then my eyes started to open wider, my perception increased.
When I treat clients holistically, there is space for insight, for consideration, for seeing what is emerging, in the bigger picture.
“I don’t feel my belly, I don’t have a connection with it, I can’t get a hold of it, I don’t like it, I feel like it doesn’t belong to me, I don’t want contact with it, I cut myself off from it because I can’t meet what experiences it brings…”
When we look at the bigger picture and embrace with empathy the totality of the client’s spoken words, when we take into account the manner of expression, when we make space and hold it in full gentleness and freedom of expression, surprising conclusions emerge.
Guided by the voice of intuition, I send a hint to the client in a gentle voice, try to place your hands on your stomach and begin to slowly explore your breath. Direct the inhalation through your nose into your abdomen, relaxing it slightly, exhale through your mouth, tensing it gently as if the muscles surrounding it want to help the air escape.
Gently, without rushing, with tenderness and acceptance.
Just putting your hand on your stomach proves to be strange, clumsy, a sign of vulnerability, a kind of fear. But with time, with the next breath, the hands begin to dissolve, to weave into the abdominal membranes, and the breathing becomes deep and measurable.
Psychosomatic – What does your body say?
During the process of this attentive observation and the journey to the inner feelings, questions arise in me:
What’s in your stomach? What emotions and experiences were not digested? What did you cut yourself off from? I quietly ask myself questions so as not to violate the comfort zone of the ward, and when I become aware of it, I create an even gentler room full of empathy and capacity for what was no longer possible in the past. Carefulness and sensitivity create space to gradually strengthen trust.
And over time, I get a message about personal stories that I’ve been carrying for years that didn’t have room for.
It has been proven that the abdomen, or actually the intestine, accumulates so many nerve endings around it that they are the innermost organ after the brain. The intestine is often referred to as the second brain. But not the one who thinks and analyzes, but the one who feels.
If you don’t feel connected to your stomach, how long do you let yourself be connected to your feelings? Do you give them room, let them appear and digest them?
What place do they have in your life? Or has the whole thing that you are been reduced to your head, and you’re making up for it by over-intellectualization and isolation, by covering up perfectionism?
Psychotherapist vs Movement Therapist
I’m not a psychotherapist, and it’s not my job to analyze the psyche of my protégés, but it happens by itself. The paths that I have walked so far and the currents that I have experienced have opened my heart and my insight to the smallest details that come not only from the body, but also to the whole message that wants to be expressed.
Today I am convinced that the only complete work on ourselves is to work on body and psyche at the same time, to work separately – it does not bring comprehensive results, something is missing. It’s a hybrid of body and mind.
That’s why it has become so important for me to work with the body, where mind and emotions are taken into account. A holistic view is able to give an answer and a solution.
Postawa ciała, sposób uścisku dłoni, sposób wypowiedzi, sposób patrzenia, sposób oddychania, napięcia w ciele, wszystko to, to historia zarysowana w komórkach.
Just as we have the ability to make our brain neuroplastic, we can also transform our bodies. Release of emotions that flow through the body, allows to free the head. Arranging in the mind, in the heart, solving problems, plot lines, traumatic experiences, gives the body signals to increase its vitality.
I am not a psychotherapist. I learned the power of therapy, a subject that is very close to my heart.
I watch it from all sides and experience it in myself.
I am a movement therapist and take care of the functionality of the body and the release of blockages that have been suppressed for years.
Why am I doing this? Because I have become a support for myself, implementing a healthy movement every day that is supportive, liberating, invigorating, in harmony with my inner feelings.
It has become a cure for me, it is my daily recipe for freedom of movement.
I am a specialist in healthy exercise that is in tune with the inside because I see this incredible power. Incredible power in the simplest movement.
Hug your whole body with tenderness today and search for the separated parts.
Breathe in deeply and see what you’re connected to.
As soon as you direct your attention in this direction, you are reconnected with each other again.
Stay in touch with your body.
Anka
