Peek A Boo

“You can complain that roses have thorns, or rejoice that thorns have roses.”

                                                                                                  -Ziggy

March is an interesting month of transition; from winter to spring, from cold and snowy to rainy and mild.  We can literally watch the crocus shoot up, the greening of our lawns, the daffodil sprouts growing out of the ground. And we too begin to come alive again from the cold winter time of introspection. We actually play peek a boo with the sun and clouds. As we look around us and see nature’s movements, we also find our bodies are playing the same game. We are coming back alive again. Our bodies are ready to go outside become more outwardly active and our organs are waking up.

Where else do we play peek a boo in our lives? Do we play now I see you now I don’t in relationships? Do we open up and then find we are too open, and then close up again? Do we open to our partner and find they are opening in response and then play a little unconscious game of peek a boo and go into hiding again?

Personally I find this is also a time when we start perking up and being more careful in our diets again, and decide it might be a good time to do a cleansing. Maybe we want to get into a spring outfit, or start thinking about how we will look in a bathing suit, or a pair of shorts. So this is a good time to look at healthy ways of eating and cleansing. March is also when many patients come to me and tell me their shoulders are hurting, or start having the last round of winter colds or a bit of the flu.

This month of March, I am going to focus on an aspect of my body presencing in context of what is happening inside of our bodies, in our lives, in nature, and in our greater community.

People ask me; what exactly is BodyPresencing? It is a term I coined to describe the elements I put together in working with my patients and clients. I often combine energy work, Chiropractic work and body alignment, family constellation/family systems work, body speak work (listening to the language of the body), and developmental/brain issues in helping us to be able to reveal our own light in this world and to live happy, healthy, and whole lives.

As we emerge out of our winter cocoons, and we begin to look at ourselves, our relationships, and our bodies a bit differently, many of our issues and triggers come out; how do I look, how much did I gain this winter and how much would I like to lose, am I good enough?  Is my relationship stale, and so on?  Then, as it is still cold, we crawl back into our winter cocoons and bodies. We play peek a boo.

As I work with people, no matter how I work and what I am focusing on, my first priority is to listen to their language; the actual words they speak, their body language in terms of how they are moving and sitting and how they respond to their words and my words, the colors they are wearing, how they look in terms of clean and neat or disheveled, and if they have tattoos that stand out or certain jewelry that stands out. This beginning gives me insights into how to help them.

Often we blindly play peek a boo with ourselves in what we hide or conceal in us. In listening to the language I am inviting a friendly game to bring out what has been concealed. In addition, I find it very important, no matter what I may see or where I would like to begin, to work with them in terms of where they are, what they can take in, and what they really want. They may want to work on losing weight, for example, and I see a different priority. It is important for me to stay connected with them and work with them on losing weight.

I also listen to the language of their body. Sometimes as I work with a patient chiropractically, their bodies aren’t responding well to my work. In those cases I check to see if there is an element I am missing. A common element is an emotional one. In those cases I have them think about and see in their mind’s eye the event or emotion they are feeling in context to the person or situation involved. As they do that, and touch the reactive body part, I then work with them as they are “plugged in”, so to speak, to bring to their bodies a component which their brain and nervous systems need in order to respond and heal.

Sometimes after an injury, the brain stops responding to certain muscles, joints, tissue, fascia, tendons and such. The brain turns it off. The problem is, the brain then forgets about that body part and it doesn’t turn back on and respond. So a muscle group may stay weak and not gain strength no matter what exercise is used to help that body element. Emotions really do affect our bodies because our bodies and minds are one and the same. As the brain recognizes that body part again, healing mechanisms begin to occur. Just as with our minds and our spirits and our souls, as we bring light to something, great healing can occur.

Recommended Resources:

I highly recommend that you read You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay. She has a great collection of books and affirmations which deal with this very connection. The work seems simple, but it is very powerful.

Through this month of March, pay attention to your little patterns of peek a boo and also see if you can be like a crocus or tulip and bravely come out to play in this world and embrace your self and see you gain greater health, wholeness and vitality.