Boundaries and Limits

When you hear the word boundary, what does that bring up for you?

Sometimes it’s hard to know where or what boundaries are.

Your sense of personal boundaries informs your capacity to give, receive and honor consent”

Natural Intelligence by Aposhyan

It’s likely that you fall into one or another camp, you either set very rigid boundaries or have very few or very loose boundaries. Here’s what these two extremes can look like in your life:

• Not following through on a promise to yourself (ie. changing habits)

• Over or under eating

• Over or underworking

• Procrastination

• Saying “yes” when you don’t want to, don’t have time or energy to do so.

• Not having business guidelines or protocols

• Being a rescuer in relationships

• Afraid to say “no” because it might end a relationship

• Trading your services when you’re financially struggling or charging less than what you can afford.

• Making sure everyone else is ok or taken care of when your own bodyhome needs space, rest, or attention.

• Not asking for help when you need it

• Not knowing what you want or need

• Always trying to do the “right” thing while ignoring what you actually feel?

• Feeling “sick” when you need to show up for something (your body sets the boundary for you)

Beginning to know and practice your limits and boundaries starts in your bodyhome. Inside your very intelligent and beautiful nervous system. It’s learning how to feel your own embodiment and from that place, you’ll have greater access to :

Knowing What’s mine and what’s yours
Advocating for yourself with authority figures including medical doctors
Knowing when something is a “no” for you
Knowing when something is a “yes” for you
Managing your energy so you can take action in your life.

If you’re ready to shift these old patterns which reside in your nervous system, contact me here to discuss moving forward with 1 on 1 work. OR, join a Somatic movement class this week where we’ll play with some boundary exercises to feel your own body container with more clarity.

with LOVE and Regulation
Dorie

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.