Psychosomatic healing through dance
#mentalhealthawareness 🌺 somatic healing and movement brought me back from the illusion of separation that depression cast over me for years. Depression is often the experience of isolation from self and others. This hallucination of estrangement. It can be debilitating or become a record playing softly in the background. There’s no one look to it. I had become so familiar with mine that it was like reporting the forecast of a storm coming days in advance. I could feel the tides shifting and never knew how far I’d be cast out to sea or when I’d return. I wrote in 2016 after a long bout...”Finally you’re back. Words. This is like coming up for air.”
Psychosomatic (psych= mind, soma=body) healing is all about INTEGRATION. From slowing down and dropping into the body... one movement to the next, what needs to be released, is. It all finds a way out. When dancing, I become super curious with my body.... it’s like making sure to get everyone’s name at a dinner. Has every part of my body spoken? Am I listening or talking over it? .
Beyond the practice itself, finding a conscious (dance) community 3 years ago changed my world. It gave me the space to explore healing with others for the first time; I started with weekly dance lab, then joined @ecstaticdancenyc and @thegetdownparty ~ and soon found myself going 3x a week with this wild, global dance family. I went from debilitating depression to movement transmutation 🔥 dancing, crawling, laughing, crying, howling, absolutely anything goes. One person’s freedom permits the next. I’ve seen intense breakdowns and breakthroughs through dance and have had countless myself. In fact, there are some things that can truly only be processed through movement. And that pain or rapture or heartbreak or sensual ecstasy doesn’t need to experienced alone. Celebrate it! Bring pleasure to the entire process of being alive. Somatic healing is the return to Oneness. The integration of self and with others. So please come out of hiding, you truly matter. Every single part of you. .