Workshops For A Better Life

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What is Body Memories ?

Body Memories is a ‘hands on healing’ method of bodywork based on the body’s natural inclination and ability to heal itself. Body Memories sees the client, not the practitioner, as the true source of healing. Blocked energy can be released from the client by opening up the body's ability to heal itself.

Through a subtle form of touch, the Body Memory practitioner listens to the body and identifies  areas of restriction and compression, creating an opportunity for release and completion. Our bodies are living libraries of past experiences that shape the way we move, think, feel and act. This ‘hands on healing’ method of bodywork is based on the theory that the body stores information and incomplete or unprocessed experiences. These experiences can be worked through and dealt with, creating more movement in the physical, as well as the emotional body. This explains the term “cellular memory” because our body stores our life experiences on a cellular level that can block our bodies ability to return back to its healthy state. The quality of subtle touch (a primary goal of the practitioners education and qualification) allows the client new possibilities of thought, feeling, movement and action.

How do memory blocks get stored in the body?

To understand on how memories get stored in the body, consider the following example:  When we get mad or have judgments about ourselves or others, the unexpressed anger is not only stored in our minds or emotional body.  It is also stored in and manifests in the physical body as well. The emotional pain that we feel can take many forms including sadness, judgment, anger, sorrow, despondency, annoyance or resentment. This emotional pain will have a physical effect and manifest in the physical body.  It is often hard for most of us to believe that our upset and unprocessed emotions today could lead to physical ailments tomorrow just because they get stuck in the body’s memory. To use the analogy of the body as a diary, it is as if you are reading a diary of painful stories that are written and stored in the body.  When the stories are understood, processed and released, the body, mind and spirit will feel uplifted—the process will allow the physical body to feel lighter and more free. By releasing these stuck emotions, the body allows us to also let go of the potential dis-ease that is stored in the body. Once this happens we can again bring joy to our lives and focus on expanding and growing in life.

It is also important to realize that we can often ignore physical pain but emotional pain is often far more painful and cannot be ignored.  It will continue bothering us and eat away at the psyche and heart until we take a step to come to terms with the hurt and trauma that inspired that pain.  A Body Memories practitioner can help with this by releasing the physical pain from the body’s tissues.  Doing so will often result in a release of emotional pain as well, allowing the individual to come to terms with the trauma that originally caused it.

How and why is touch so effective?

One useful technique used in Body Memories is "Subtle touch,” a hands-on bodywork modality that works on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual levels. "Subtle touch" is a two-way dance between practitioner and client: on the one hand it means being present, centered and aware of yourself as you work; on the other hand it means being acutely aware of the effect of your touch as you approach, contact, explore and disengage from your client's tissue. When you're aware of your own breath, posture, thoughts, words and heart, as well as the flow of energy in your body and your connection to the earth and to spirit, you're more relaxed, your touch is simultaneously deeper and softer, and you're more open to intuition. That helps your clients to feel more safe, comfortable, trusting and aware. So it's not about the technique that you do "to" your clients; it's about the quality of your own self that you bring to the dance, and the atmosphere of respect and safety that you create for your clients. That's when miracles happen.

The information is there for anyone willing to listen. It is present in your own body and with everyone you meet. All you have to do is listen. If you listen, the body will tell you its secrets. And having told them will be free to move on.

In summary, the work of Body Memories allows us to become aware of, understand, and change the negative judgments that we have about our difficult experiences. The judgments that we carry with us will affect the body by making it feel heavy and contracted.  Additionally, these judgments will often manifest as physical pain in the body.  The Body Memories practitioner can help an individual to release the emotional pain and judgments, overcome the physical pain, allowing us to feel free of heaviness and contraction.