Lessons from Medusa on the vaccine, lockdown and healing

Hello!

What we've been through this past year is nothing short of being trapped in cages with a potential threat in other bodies. Now that vaccines are available and things are opening up.  It's likely that you're feeling quite a lot of emotion.  It could be regret that you didn't do more during the lockdown, the incredible grief of loss (loss of a year of life you could have lived differently, loss of the way things were, loss of loved ones, etc),  the anxiety of choosing to receive a vaccine, the fear of being in public with more people, etc.

How do you manage to digest this stuck stress-energy in your nervous system?

Remember the myth of Medusa?  In case you forgot, Medusa turns people into stone if you look directly in her eyes. Perseus used his reflective shield to see her in order to cut off her head without looking directly at her so as not to be turned to stone. (frozen)  If you directly look at the trauma you can re-traumatize your system and move right back into an overwhelmed/frozen state.  But, if instead, you approach it from a place of aliveness, in other words, learning to feel neutral or good again, that will allow you to access the stress-energy that is ready and waiting to fully digest.

Let's connect and learn together how to move forward from this year transformed and armed with tools to work with the inevitable stressors in our modern world.

Somatic movement classes and Settle Your Sh*t COVID edition Sunday, April 18th, 3-5 pm CST

How to re-enter life from lockdown

How are you feeling about things opening up?

We went into this pandemic with a slew of unresolved trauma already built into our individual and collective nervous systems.  From racism to women's rights, LGBTQIA rights and living further away from nature and each other.

As you begin to think about re-entry you may feel as though your system isn't ready, in fact, lockdown may have felt like a relief to you.  Less rushing around, less interactions, less stress.  For others, you can't wait to be back in person, going to social events and hanging out in groups.  Wherever you fall inside this continuum, its likely that re-entry will bring up some responses from your bodyhome that you weren't expecting.

We build capacity to handle stress by digesting it in an embodied way.  As you do that over and over again, you grow your capacity to handle more without getting overwhelmed or checking out.  Everyone can learn to do this, because we're all equipped with a nervous system.  But we haven't been taught by our families or culture.  And it's not supported by our modern lifestyle.

In order to avoid additional stress, trauma and grief on your nervous system, you can learn to let your nervous system lead the way.  Learn to regulate, find your voice, hear your intuition, appropriately express your emotions and digest old traumatic experiences.

If re-entry is on your mind and you're ready for tools, please reach out for 1 on 1 support, join a Somatic Movement class or the next Settle Your Sh*t Workshop.

Turbocharge Your Self-Care

How do you take care of your bodyhome?

One thing I've noticed in myself, my clients, and our culture is that we are so so good at doing.  In fact, we are so great at doing that we’ve become human doers.   That human doing has caused us to evolve in amazing ways and it has also left behind a really essential part of who we are your somatic bodyhome, or nervous system. In that leaving that behind we have been cultured and evolved out of being able to really complete our emotions leaving us stuck with repetitive trauma patterns ie our defensive responses on the surface and our wholeness is hidden underneath. This can cause so many health problems including migraines, chronic diseases, chronic pain autoimmune, digestion problems, and emotional problems like depression and anxiety.

So, back to self-care. How can you reclaim your body home, reclaim your nervous system so that you feel like yourself again?  I am really curious about this whole intersection between doing self-care and how to create long-term change in you. Are you putting a bandaid on the problem or really going to the root of it and repatterning how your nervous system responds to stress?  Are you fully receiving the benefits?

Let's say part of your self-care is rubbing oil on your body and getting into an Epsom salt bath. Wonderful! You’re DOing the thing.  Now, how can you receive the full benefit of it? Receiving the benefit of it is noticing how your nervous system is reacting to the bath.   To do this you must know your own nervous system patterns and what those patterns are telling you.  Is my nervous system moving towards regulation?  How do I know that? And what do I do with this information?  This starts to rewire how your body responds to stress.  So it's not just doing the self-care but adding that extra piece of tracking. “How is my nervous system responding to this right now?  Is it regulating?  How do I know?”  This is the key and what starts that whole rewiring process of letting down our defenses and being present in a full-body way.

Back to the bath example. Let's say you're taking a really hot bath. Initially, the sensation of hot water on your skin feels really good and you’re soaking that in.  Then at a certain point, it can get to be too hot.  How do I know when I’m getting too activated by the heat?  How does my body tell me when I've had enough.  This is where the skills of getting to know your body home on a nervous system level moment-to-moment rewire how you respond to stress.   Rewiring actually changes your ability to digest your emotions rather than getting stuck in them or in old emotional responses.

If you are someone who struggles with

• anxiety

• depression

• chronic pain

• chronic digestive issues

• migraines

• autoimmune

• blood sugar imbalances

This is your body’s way of telling you that there is stuck stress-energy (trauma) that is trying to finish and it can’t.  

If you are interested in rewiring your stress response, finish that stuck stress-energy and help your body to heal in the most foundational level, then you’ll definitely want to reply to this email for a complimentary 30-min consult. You don’t have to keep doing the same old pattern. Your nervous system wants to protect you, take care of you, and keep you healthy. Let’s help her do just that.

Let's reclaim our humanness and wholeness as human beings, not human doings.  

Classes This week

Monday 6-7 pm CST Somatic Yoga
Wednesday 9:30-10:30pm CST Bowspring + Somatics
Friday 12-1 pm CST Somatic Yoga
Saturday 10-11:15am CST Somatic Yoga

All classes are all levels
Recording Available
Register Here

with LOVE and Regulation
Dorie