Embodiment

As I am deepening and widening my studies in trauma and somatic healing,  I am  studying nature with a fresh and keen eye. I am observing how animal and plant structures are designed to protect vital internal information and life force. 

Nature is resilient. 

I am also observing how pods protect seeds, shells protect animals, ribs protect internal organs,  and cocoons protect the transformational process of growth and the elegance of an emerging butterfly. 

This past week, a swallow tail butterfly came to my screen window at night. It stayed throughout the evening and during the early morning hours it flew away as gently as it had arrived. The wings of the butterfly were nearly transparent and the right lower wing tattered. The resilience of the butterfly is astounding. How could such thin and frayed wings move through the air effortlessly? 

For two days now I have been thinking about resilience and capacity. In my professional work I support people in the building of capacity through their nervous systems. As my clients grown in capacity they also embody their structures so that they may live more fluidly.

The ancients believed the medicine to be like water, and the ultimate goal is that we be able to move with the natural flow of life, from the depths of our soul to the heights of the heavens. Perhaps what they were really suggesting is that we live more embodied, much like the butterflies, dolphins, and whales. 

I recently came across this quote in Dr. Peter Levine's book In An Unspoken Voice,

 by D.H. Lawrence that is a beautiful description of touching into the eternal wisdom of the body. 

"My belief is in the blood and flesh as being wiser that the intellect. The body-uncoscious is where life bubbles up in us. It is how we know that we are alive to the depths of our souls and in touch somewhere with the vivid reaches of the cosmos."