I need to be embodied when I write.
I need to be able to drop in and listen to the felt thread of my thoughts coming from a whole place. That is why I love walking in nature with nothing but the sounds of birds, the sea and the wind around me before I write. It helps my body/mind to unwind and brew, to find clarity and manifest the flow of a juicy creativity.
I hear a seagull and let her song resonate within so kindly, like an invitation to enter my own inner space gently, effortlessly. When the outside sounds, the calls of nature become an invitation to join our organs, our fascia, joints, blood... as they dance their intrinsic tender fluidity, and drop further to feel the infinite spaciousness of the waves that connect way beyond the edges of our skin.
I was treating at Electric Picnic, Ireland's largest music festival last weekend. Various loud music came from different directions to synthesise into quite a chaotic symphonyin our beautiful womb-like yurt so with each new cranio sacral session I had to voyage deep beneath the sounds to touch the still sweet spot, to feel the fluidity within behind all the noise.
I consciously stepped back and rooted into my holding field to deeply listen to the primal embryological forces within and each layering behind the noise was matched by a further dropping and unfolding of my client's inner dance, it was so beautiful.
Invariably at the end of each treatment, my clients spoke about "feeling whole again" and many were shocked at how relaxed they could be despite all the music, in fact a few dropped so deep they fell asleep.
How can we support ourselves, our lives in busy cities where the cacophony of every day sounds and chaotic buzzy vibrations affect our breathing, digestion and sleep, befuddles our thinking process, ignites our stress hormones, tenses our muscles and confuses/contracts our hearts?
Many reach for prescription medicines or recreational drugs but these are toxic soothers that will only fragment us more.
So what can you do to prevent this disembodiment from affecting you and yours? Are there places you can go to sit down and find yourself again, be with yourself quietly?
How can one feel truly held, safe, never mind spacious in such environments?
Biodynamics teacher and author Carol Agneesens was interviewed recently by the wonderful Ryan Hallford of the craniosacral podcast fame (hear episode 87 at http://www.craniosacralpodcast.com) she spoke of her experience of teaching in Japan and how "their sense of spaciousness and inner space is so developed and so deep that they can live in a city like Tokyo and yet it can feel spacious."
Cultivating this sense of a safe space within is also an invitation to feel whole and step into life's flow effortlessly. We nurture the power of connection with our whole selves again and join spaceless, timeless stillness when we resource with what brings us a sense of joy, support, ease and safety.
Walking or running in nature and swimming in the ocean are some of the external resources regularly picked by most of my clients before I begin a craniosacral session. There are many others of course, but it is not surprising that we should find an innate sense of belonging in nature. It feels like home because it is deeply familiar.
Carol Agneesens says, "The shapes in nature are the shapes within us. Nothing in our bodies is linear, it is circular, spiralling, lemniscate-like. Even the way your blood flows is spiralling."
As we reconnect with the slower and stiller rhythms in nature, we feel supported by Mother Earth's womb-like embrace, basking in the expression of the Breath of Life.
It literally feels like a deep cradling to me. I fill my senses with the living beauty all around me, and I bring it in with breath, inhaling its presence down to my feet and exhaling my surrender to Life.
It is from that resulting sense of wholeness, from this return to the breath that breathes us that one's self-love can flow in its exquisite perfection.
"There all is order and beauty, luxury peace and pleasure" as says the beautiful poem, L'invitation au Voyage (Invitation to the Voyage) by Charles Baudelaire which you can enjoy below in its entirety both in French and English.
L'invitation au voyage
Mon enfant, ma soeur, Songe à la douceur D'aller là-bas vivre ensemble! Aimer à loisir, Aimer et mourir Au pays qui te ressemble! Les soleils mouillés De ces ciels brouillés Pour mon esprit ont les charmes Si mystérieux De tes traîtres yeux, Brillant à travers leurs larmes.
Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté, Luxe, calme et volupté.
Des meubles luisants, Polis par les ans, Décoreraient notre chambre; Les plus rares fleurs Mêlant leurs odeurs Aux vagues senteurs de l'ambre, Les riches plafonds, Les miroirs profonds, La splendeur orientale, Tout y parlerait À l'âme en secret Sa douce langue natale.
Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté, Luxe, calme et volupté.
Vois sur ces canaux Dormir ces vaisseaux Dont l'humeur est vagabonde; C'est pour assouvir Ton moindre désir Qu'ils viennent du bout du monde. — Les soleils couchants Revêtent les champs, Les canaux, la ville entière, D'hyacinthe et d'or; Le monde s'endort Dans une chaude lumière.
Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté, Luxe, calme et volupté.
— Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal
Invitation to the Voyage
My child, my sister, Think of the rapture Of living together there! Of loving at will, Of loving till death, In the land that is like you! The misty sunlight Of those cloudy skies Has for my spirit the charms, So mysterious, Of your treacherous eyes, Shining brightly through their tears.
There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure.
Gleaming furniture, Polished by the years, Will ornament our bedroom; The rarest flowers Mingling their fragrance With the faint scent of amber, The ornate ceilings, The limpid mirrors, The oriental splendor, All would whisper there Secretly to the soul In its soft, native language.
There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure.
See on the canals Those vessels sleeping. Their mood is adventurous; It's to satisfy Your slightest desire That they come from the ends of the earth. — The setting suns Adorn the fields, The canals, the whole city, With hyacinth and gold; The world falls asleep In a warm glow of light.
There all is order and beauty, Luxury, peace, and pleasure.
— Translation by William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)
