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Each of us has our own unique bodily posture. It is by her that you can recognize a person from a distance. From it you can read a lot about what we have experienced in life. But there comes a time when we want to straighten up, move on. And then we understand that the possibilities of our body are limitless and it is capable, having changed, to reveal to us the lost and forgotten parts of ourselves.
Our personality is very accurately reflected in our body, determining its posture, the way it moves, how it manifests itself. The posture becomes like armor that protects in everyday life.
The body posture cannot be wrong, even if the body appears crooked, hunched over, or strange. It is always the result of a creative response to circumstances, often unfavorable, that we have had to face in life.
For example, in the past I have failed in love and therefore I am convinced that if I open my heart again, this will bring new disappointments and pain. Therefore, it is natural and logical that I will close, my chest will become sunken, the solar plexus will be blocked, and my legs will become rigid and tense. At that point in my past, it was wise to take a defensive posture to face life.
In an open and trusting posture, I could not bear the pain I felt when I was rejected.
Although the atrophy of the senses is not a good quality, at the right time it helps to protect and take care of yourself. Only then is it no longer «I» in the fullness of my manifestations. How can psychosomatics help us?
When the body no longer protects
The body expresses what we are at the moment, our aspirations, the past, what we think about ourselves and about life. Therefore, any change in destiny and any change in feelings and thoughts will be accompanied by changes in the body. Often changes, even profound ones, are not noticeable at first glance.
At a certain point in my life, I may suddenly realize that my posture no longer meets my needs, that life has changed and could change even more and become better.
I will suddenly find that I can be happy in my sex life, instead of clinging to the idea of this life as sexual abuse or impotence. Or maybe I want to fully open up for love.
This means that the moment has come to eliminate the old blocks, to tune the body like an instrument: tighten one string, loosen another. I am set to change, not just imagine that I am changing, or worse, think that I have already changed. One of the goals of working with the body through movement is to change.
Allowing yourself to live on 30%
The amount of dissatisfaction with life is exactly equal to the size of the unused potential — that is, the strength with which we do not live, the love that we do not express, the intelligence that we do not show.
But why is it so difficult to move, why have we lost the spontaneous ease of change? Why do we seek to fix our behavior and our habits?
It seems that one part of the body is striving forward, attacking, while the other is retreating, hiding from life.
Schematically, this can be depicted as follows: if I am afraid of love, there will be only 30% of the movements in the body that manifest themselves as a readiness for love and the joy of life. I lack 70%, and this affects the range of motion.
The body expresses mental isolation by shortening the pectoral muscles, which compress the chest and seek to protect the region of the heart. The chest, to compensate, «falls» into the abdominal cavity and squeezes the vital organs, and this makes a person feel constantly tired from life, and his expression becomes tired or fearful.
This means that body movements that go beyond these 30% will cause corresponding changes on the mental level.
They will help to unclench the chest, make hand gestures smooth, relieve imperceptible, but well-read tension in the muscles around the pelvis.
What can be read in our body?
We may have suspected, or have heard or read at some time, that the body is the place in which every emotion, every thought, all past experience, or rather, all life, remains imprinted. This time, leaving behind traces, becomes material.
The body — with its stooped back, sunken chest, legs turned inward, or protruding chest and defiant gaze — tells something about itself — about who lives in it. It talks about despondency, disappointment, or the fact that you have to appear strong and show that you can do anything.
The body tells about the soul, about the essence. This view of the body is what we call body reading.
- Legs show how a person leans on the ground and whether he is in contact with it: perhaps he does this with fear, with confidence or disgust. If I do not lean completely on my legs, on my feet, then what should I lean on? Maybe for a friend, a job, money?
- Breath will talk about the relationship with the outside world, and even more about the relationship with the inner world.
The inward knee, the retroflexion of the hips, the raised eyebrow are all signals, autobiographical notes that characterize us and tell our story.
I remember a woman in her forties. Her gaze and the gestures of her hands were pleading, and at the same time she raised her upper lip in a contemptuous grimace and tightened her chest. Two bodily signals — «Look how much I need you» and «I despise you, don’t come near me» — were in complete conflict with each other, and as a result, her relationship was the same.
Change will come unnoticed
The contradictions of personality can be seen in the body. It seems that one part of the body is striving forward, attacking, while the other is retreating, hiding, afraid of life. Or one part tends upward, while the other remains pressed down.
An excited look and a sluggish body, or a sad face and a very lively body. And in the other person, only reactive power appears: “I will show them all who I am!”
It is often said that psychological changes lead to bodily ones. But even more often the opposite happens. When we work with the body without any special expectations, but simply enjoying the release of bodily blocks, tensions and gaining flexibility, we suddenly discover new inner territories.
If you relieve tension in the pelvic area and strengthen the muscles of the legs, new physical sensations will arise that will be perceived on a mental level as self-confidence, a desire to enjoy life, to be more liberated. The same thing happens when we straighten the chest.
Gotta give yourself time
The possibilities of the body are endless, it is possible to extract from it, as from a conjurer’s hat, the lost and forgotten parts of ourselves.
The body has its limitations, and therefore it takes a lot of work, sometimes daily, to achieve greater muscle tone, to make the muscles more elastic. You need to give yourself time, patiently repeat, try again and again, notice amazing changes, sometimes unexpected.
The removal of each block releases a huge amount of energy that was previously lingering. And everything starts to get easier.