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· Jul 29

started reading "eastern body, western mind" by anodea judith on @nuanceexists's recommendation and feeling extremely called out by literally everything she says involving the root chakra what do you mean "the right to be here"

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"In first chakra work, however, the energetic statement made by the body is more important than the emotion itself. Keeping the person in touch with bodily sensations rather than focusing on the emotions helps provide containment for difficult, traumatic material."

"The person can focus on what her body is doing without getting lost in the feelings, which are more characteristic of the second chakra. This is done through constant reference to and mirroring of the physical processes that are experienced during the session."

(i used to do this a lot with rationalists specifically, very interesting to see it framed as specifically a root chakra thing. have since wandered back and forth between bodily sensation stuff and feelings stuff and belief stuff, nice to get more of a map of the territory here)

"I find it useful to have clients draw their own body" noooooo this sounds way too scary to do 😰

hey nice, "body dialog," we're on more familiar territory now. this is like somatic IFS basically right? the sentence structure "i am my [body part] and i..." specifically is not something i have tried, seems like it could be fun

"affirm the physical": touch, massage, exercise, exaggerate physical responses, new physical responses. "It is not as easy to retreat energetically when the feet are planted firmly on the floor. To support the new structure, she must instead confront, say no, get angry..."

Michael is on silent retreat

"work on the feet": interesting bits here. "Doing psychological work while standing increases the body’s energy, allows greater assertiveness, overcomes passivity, and supports independence. The mere act of standing is an assertion of autonomy." have not tried this!

@m_ashcroft

interesting for me to connect: basically all AT is done standing or in motion - very different from traditional sitting meditation

Replying to

@m_ashcroft

interesting for *me* to connect: when i was growing up in singapore i was regularly forced to stand as a form of punishment 🙃🙃🙃 in my own practice i almost always lie down or sit

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11:02 AM · Jul 30, 2022Twitter Web App

· May 1, 2020

Replying to @alizinha

meanwhile in my childhood in singapore i was forced to hold squats in the corner as a punishment, which lemme tell ya is a great way to train a habit of bodily dissociation

Michael is on silent retreat

@m_ashcroft

Replying to

holy crap that's intense yeah... i wonder what it would be like to 'reclaim' standing as something good for your practice (safe, chosen by you, done in such a way as to create enjoyment, etc)