Why Somatic?
For all the passion and enthusiasm I have for creativity and living outside of the box, it’s fascinating to me the fervor of speed at which I will promptly build four sturdy wooden slats around myself when I stumble upon a question that requires something greater than logic to resolve.
What on earth could require more than my intellect to resolve anyway? It turns out, the answer to that is pretty much everything that really matters.
A treasured mentor in my life once said, “Life is not an intellectual journey; it’s an emotional and a spiritual one”.
There is a part of my being that accepts this unequivocally. There is an equally devoted part of my mind however which remains convinced that it is my thinking that will ultimately solve all things – and consequently move them forward.
In the subsequent duality of being vs. doing, doing seems like it should win hands down. Doing is what gets you somewhere; the strength of your resolve/your mind is what drives the ship. That’s what school trained us for, right? To sharpen our wits? I couldn’t be more appreciative of those wits and how they have helped me navigate life. And yet it is also true that school was the very place where my box making abilities became refined.
You see there’s just no way around it: matters of the heart, of loss and grief, of joy and connection, of learning to “be”, simply cannot be left to the intellect of our minds.
Analysis does not solve everything. This is the lesson that keeps showing up in my life because this is the one that I like to make boxes around! And with box making, comes pressure and with pressure, an external focus, until I am sometimes no longer certain of what I was trying to solve in the first place.
There is a balance we have to find as we hold the duality of our need to both be and do, lightly, each in an open hand.
That point of balance is at the fulcrum between seeming opposites and yet it’s not the type of balance per say that our culture prescribes at length, about finding time for oneself as well as tending to work, family, etc.
No, it seems some layers beyond where we start to recognize a place within that is center and the true fulcrum of our lives.
From this place infinite possibility exists and there isn’t a need for the boxes of identity that our cultural story tells us we need to remain safe. My experience for sure has been one of trying to free myself from the box that I keep willingly jumping back into!
Somatic coaching is about finding that fulcrum within by integrating the intelligence of the mind with the body and spirit.
Each worthy and valuable, and most importantly needed so that we may live in greater integrity, from a place that sees others clearly because we have come to witness ourselves that way.
with great hope,
Lori
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