Free the Body, Free the Breath… Free your Self
“The nature of emotion is to change once it has been freely and truthfully expressed.”
—Kristin Linklater
In my work with clients and groups, the entryway into self and psyche is the body. However, to interface solely with the physical as if no emotion lives and flows through the riverways and tissues of the body is an act of denial and dehumanization. Our bodies are breathing, living, complex, intelligent, soulful entities – they have stories to tell.
And any good story is full of emotion.
The honesty of emotion that is available through the body is one of the realizations that initially drew me to somatic therapy, bodywork, and movement practices. In embodiment and in-body processing, there is no thinking through feelings… if this actually worked, we would all already be healed :) . Instead, feelings can actually be felt, honored, and set free.
Sometimes I view emotions as travelers just passing through. Thus, freely and truthfully expressing emotion allows the traveler to continue on its journey. There are more places to go! It is not our responsibility to delay the traveler or hoard the emotion.
So often, though, people tighten around emotion and the energy that desires to be in motion (e-motion as in energy in motion), thus trapping it in the tissue, nervous system, breath, and patterns of movement and posture.
Typical areas this tightness manifests is in the throat, jaw, tongue, belly, respiratory diaphragm, and gut (including the enteric nervous system that weaves its way through the gut) – all of these are key in vocal expression and breath (life force!). Moreover, the body is one whole weave, so tightening in one area will impact the rest of the tapestry, often causing symptoms in other areas of the body. While these are common physical meeting grounds for emotion and experience to more or less solidify into habits, guarding, and patterns, emotion can lodge itself anywhere in the body. The location and pattern is a wise adaptation that very likely enabled survival.
Further, many people express fear when they are on the verge of expressing and feeling emotion that was once not safe to free. They name fear that if they start feeling it, they worry they’ll never stop. Remember that introductory quote from renowned voice teacher Kristin Linklater? She said “the nature of emotion is to CHANGE once it has been freely and truthfully expressed[!]” Her statement has been backed by neuroscience studies, which demonstrate that the lifespan of an emotion is about 7 seconds. This count holds true when emotions are fully and honestly expressed, and then another wave and current can unfold in the oceans of our being.
Importantly, the depths of emotion do not need to be felt all at once. In fact, more intense emotion may require feeling a bit at a time. This way of feeling is still honest and freeing. In what is called “titration,” the person embodies the universal principle of oscillation, expanding and contracting in an inherently known rhythm to feel the amount that can be integrated, or digested. Thus, real change occurs, as the person is neither underwhelmed (where nothing happens) nor overwhelmed (where the material is too much to integrate and there is risk of re-traumatization).
This work of feeling, freeing, and truthfully expressing is what I offer in individual sessions. You can learn to move your body, free your breath and inspiration (inspire – to inhale), and express authentically. In Ancient Greece, “psyche” translated to “breath and blood” and “soul.” Thus, in the somatic therapies, movement practices, and breath and voice practices I offer, we work with psyche – we play and feel and work with breath, blood, and soul… your vitality, your life, and the life you are authoring with every step you take.
Want to work together or learn more? Schedule a free Initial Connection Call or submit an inquiry here —> https://www.ceaindepth.com/bookwithcea