Body Presencing™ - Healing the Root of the Matter

"Nature didn't need an operation to be beautiful. It just was."  -Scott Westerfield We all sometimes feel different than those around us. That feeling is a real feeling, and yet it also separates us from others and also from ourselves. When we actively feel different from those around us we isolate us and we look for differences. What happens then is that we may look to blame others or we reject others or we notice the things we don't like about them, and it becomes about them and not about us. Another way of saying this is that when we feel different we are feeling bad about ourselves and so look to put the blame on the other. We become a victim in those moments. We look to separate us rather than to possibly see what we don't like in the other person is actually what don't like in ourselves. Have you ever found yourself doing something like that? I think we all have at some time or other blamed others rather than look at us,  and some of u

"Trust is like blood pressure. It's silent, vital to good health and if abused can be deadly." -Frank Sonnenberg Sometimes we get so busy with life's activities that we forget what is most important to us. When we are little, time seems to go so slowly and our time is dictated by our families and communities. As we become adults we are the ones who get busy doing our lives. We work, we do our chores, if we have children we take care of them and tote them to al the places they need to go, we do our activities we get involved with things like church, working out, and then we try to find time for our partners and friends. We get so filled up with things we need to do and push ourselves to do that we sometimes forget what is most important to us. As we get older we begin to realize again, that doing things is not all that it is cracked up to be and that there are other things than what we have to do, and feel we need to do that are more important. We be

"The people when rightly and fully trusted will return the trust." -Abraham Lincoln Being in the unknown is a great fear many of us have in common. Letting go of needing to know the  outcome of things and needing to control what is occurring in our lives seems important to us. I say seems because what we perceive as needing, is really us desiring to know something because not knowing feels scary to us. If we can relax into the flow of life, we can open to seeing that there is a thread that becomes perceivable. As we follow that thread, many things that we are concerned about; usually about money, relationships, career, and happiness, fall into place. It is not All About the Base, it is all about the thread.  Recently I had the opportunity to buy and sell our house. Boy, was that an experience. This was quite a time for many of my issues and of learning to deal with trusting and following the thread to come up for me. First, there was finding the house tha

Oh the summertime joys Sitting on the  back deck with the dogs crawling over me letting the heat of the sun permeate my soul Listening to the tinkle of ice cream trucks jostle down the street luring neighborhood children of all ages to cool off with a sweet treat Feeling the warm wind and summer breezes comb out my humid soaked kinky hair Allowing myself to think of nothing, emptying my mind and surrendering to the enjoyment of evening light Listening to the enchanted talk of the local birds whistling, singing, hooting and pecking their way into my consciousness As I am waiting for my nightly walk or excursion to my sweet indulgence of summer of cool brightly colored ices  Enjoying the flickering of fireflies to light my way in their erratic nature As I quietly hope for Summer nights to last forever Knowing that this summer fun too shall pass until next summer's emergence as I openly flow towards cooler nights and shorter days and watching m

He who does not trust enough will not be trusted. -Lao Tzu We spend a great deal of our time in life protecting ourselves from perceived hurts from life and from others. Some of us take on the role of being a victim and so we go through life oversharing and being over vulnerable with others, bonding over our wounds and almost unconsciously asking to be hurt again. Others of us take on more of a role of everything being ok, and not easily asking for help and not easily sharing our true and vulnerable, underbelly selves. Neither extreme is one which is helpful to us, and yet we developed those ways of coping from our early life experiences. Which way of coping do you find yourself most resonating with?  Both ways actually keep us from being truly vulnerable in a life-affirming way. They are defenses built to protect us from hurts. Defenses could also be called fences. These fences keep others out from our hurt selves and keep us in, really not allowing our further growth and

"To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect." -Lao Tzu I was reading a very long online conversation about shame, and some folks also spoke about the concept of healthy shame. I am of the mind that there is no such thing as healthy shame, but there is such a thing as shame, and there is such a thing as acceptance. When we carry shame of any kind, growth is almost not possible. Have you ever experienced feeling exposed and feeling bad about yourself? Have you ever felt that you were afraid to tell someone something about yourself; that if you did you may not be accepted? Those feelings are aspects of carrying shame. I think we all carry such feelings at some times. Hopefully, we don`t very often, and hopefully, we are able to recognize when we do and do the necessary feeling and thinking to transform our shameful feelings into acceptance of ourselves. We all make mistakes. We all unintentionally hurt people,

The wind is dancing through the trees The sun's heat glimmers through the leaves I watch the boughs flow and bounce with the wind and the hazy sheen from the sun’s rays as they permeate the atmosphere I can feel the sizzle begin as I watch my dog’s tongues loll and gag about as they sunbathe on the back deck There is a quiet to the day as if all is hiding out in the shade…slowly emerging to the day’s heat It is a gentle caress from the tongues of the wind on my skin, tinged with languid warmth As I begin the day by walking my dogs to greet the summers day It is Father's Day, and I feel moved to write about myself.  This blog is about my journey in appreciating my father. Father's Day; Mother's Day, are holidays to remember and celebrate our parents. When we are little, those days may not have much meaning other than making a card for them or spending some time with our often busy parents. As we get older and have children ourselves, of