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Spiritual Nourishment and Pleasure
As a somatic therapist and spiritual counsellor I often reflect on the interconnection between body and spirit In my work I use the phrase “embodied spirituality”. This means a spirituality that’s experienced in the body, and considers our bodies as sacred vessels, that hold our spirits.
For many, it can be a radical idea to consider one’s relationship with your body, as core to
one’s spiritual nature. Collectively we still harbour remnants of religious world views that are suspicious of the body and it’s sensuous nature. From these world views, the body is an aspect of self to control and distance from, to pursue one’s spiritual aspects. The upshot of this is to separate one’s self from the ground of one’s being.
Renew Connection with your Body as Part of the Grieving Process
Denial and the accompanying numbness that supports denial, is a very common response to loss. This is particularly true if the loss comes suddenly, unexpectedly, or in an untimely way.
Denial is traditionally one of the early stages of grief. I believe it serves to slow the grieving person down, to have a little time to absorb the impact of a sudden or particularly complicated or traumatic loss.
Read more > May 05, 2021Have You Had a Good Cry Lately?
I’m preparing to facilitate a workshop at the end of this month as part of a series for my Pathwork community in Japan. The title of the series is, “The Unwanted.”
It’s so timely. Hasn’t this just been a year of “the unwanted”?
The unwanted shows up in everyone’s life at some time, in some form - lost loves, lost dreams, losses in general, and then of course there’s death - the big unwanted.
At the heart of this topic is grieving. We can’t just skip to acceptance, although hopefully we get there in time. When the unwanted hits, we need to feel all the feelings, in order to move through to real acceptance.
Grieving is part of that process and has many faces, but sadness and crying is always there.
Read more > Mar 10, 2021Being in Stillness
A spring ritual for gardeners is to plant seeds indoors to transplant later once spring is fully here. It’s so exciting to watch the first few leaves pop up through the soil.
The activity of gardening teaches me a lot about how to live well. I’ve learned how both the earth’s soil and the soil of my own being, need regular nourishment to function well. A time of lying fallow, for rest and renewal, is part of that nourishment. The fallow season here in the north is winter, and while it looks like not much is going on, it is an essential part of nature’s birth, death and rebirth cycle of life.
Read more > Jan 27, 2021Noticing Your Body
Recently, someone asked me to give them “crib notes” on being embodied. They asked, “What does that mean anyway, and how can I practice connecting with my body, moment-to-moment, day-to-day?”
Embodiment means holding an awareness and connection to your body; your physical environment on the inner and outer level. You can glean this awareness and connection through your senses and notice the sensations that arise.
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