Self-Care Practices for Mind Body and Soul, at age 20 or 60.
Helene 
Do you remember when you were 20 and thought you were indestructable?
Self Care Practices for Mind Body and Soul
Do you remember when
you were twenty years old? Possibly taking risks that you wouldn’t
dream of doing now (eg hello 19 year old naiive and foolish
self..hitching on my own in California in barely there shorts - it
was very hot, and really had no idea that coupled with my kicker
boots would be an instant alarm bell...). I had a couple of lucky
escapes then, and thankfully some amusing (rather than over alarming)
stories I can report.
Having youth on my side meant to a certain degree I could feel invincible. The concept of ‘self-care’ as we know it was not even in my vocabulary.
My son had a health scare recently, that was primarily brought on by extreme stress. It is not every day that you leave home to embark on a whole new independent life, without the cushion of college or university, or nearby friends. Factor in a sleepless night travelling then a punishing preparation schedule, and his body did not want to play game. To cut a long story short he was in hospital for a few days. Although my ensuing trauma is not something I am grateful for, the lessons he has learned are, realising the importance of self-care and management of emotions.
Life is journey.
It can have twists and turns, highs and lows, times of frustrated stagnation, and times of blissful stillness. We most definitely do not run like machines (and AI could never quite replicate this article).
So whatever challenges we might have, difficult though it might feel, I invite you to commit to them with inquiry and openness. And even find the space for gratitude.
Our bodies can be an ongoing challenge, and we often lament the changes that happen as we get older. But as in the example above, our body challenges may not be age related at all, but certainly life related.
And I would like to remind you how firstly we need to honour how our bodies have gotten us this far. They have carried us doggedly from A to B, helped us to achieve all the things we have wanted and keeps going when you sometimes feel like falling apart (though of course it will start to warn you when you are abusing it).
Our Personal Self Care
And secondly, to remind you to have ongoing commitment to your personal self-care.
Look at what you allow into your body and not only with your diet.
What quality of thoughts do you feed your mind?
What emotions do you allow your body to feel (or do you repress). As the commonly used expression goes, ‘you need to feel to heal’..Obviously the caveat here is that you do not allow emotions to lead to actions that could be harmful to yourself or others.
And finding balance with all of this. I just heard on the news today that Britain’s oldest man turned 111. One of his words of advice is to take everything in moderation.
As a somatic practitioner who works with all the layers of our being when we move, the work can go very deep. As recently as only April this year, scientists at Washington University’s School of Medicine discovered how the motor cortex of our brain not only links to isolated movements such as when we write or speak, but also, as Professor Evan Gordon from the university writes in the published study in the journal Nature, there is:
‘A second system, the SCAN, is more important for integrated, whole body movements, and is more connected to high-level planning regions of your brain," [1]
How amazing is that. In other words when we move with our whole body, we can connect to the higher thought processes of our brain.
I am continually humbled by the insights and discoveries we can unearth from within us. And this summer, I gave some workshops at festivals where this was confirmed in ways of release, liberation, insight and transformation by some participants.
This autumn I am holding a range of different classes and workshops. Please check on my website events.
I would love to meet you on this journey.
[1] A somato-cognitive action network alternates with effector regions in motor cortex | Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-05964-2
www.niiodance.com
Categories: : aging, mental health, somatics