Blog Post
Earthy and Embodied
Practices for trauma healing
With my body I become
aware of how I am and how I have been. Years of spiritual direction and massage therapy have enabled me to begin returning to the experience of being a whole, human, being: moving from dissociation and fragmentation to union. As I harmonise with God’s work in me and simultaneously God’s work in me-with-you, I and we are being restored to the experience of what it means to be human. Human, we are earthy, grounded, connected and divine. Earthy image bearers together, of Creator God.
aAnd God is on a mission to restore us and all creation back to the original design, in new creation and new humanity.
I spend a lot of my time in my head and away from my body. Often when out walking I notice my brow is furrowed and it’s then that I realise that I have spent the last few minutes some place other than here on my walk. I’ve been having fun recently practicing remaining present – walking for a few seconds with my eyes closed, guided by the feel of the ground benieth my feet and the sounds around me… no collisions yet, so far so good!
Two or three times a day I practice paying attention
to my body and therefore being present in the here and now. 1) First I notice all the points of contact between my body and other things (like the chair I’m in or the ground my feet are on), or itself (my hands are often resting on my lap or cupped together). I simply pay attention for a moment to what that contact feels like. 2) Then starting from the top of my head I notice the temperature and tone of each part of my body and what it is holding, passing down through my face, neck, shoulders, and all the way through finally to my feet. 3) Sometimes I will do a third sweep through in a similar order, now noticing any parts that want to move – often my shoulders need some movement, and my jaw needs a stretch. So far my attention has been on my muscles mainly; 4) by going deeper inside I can notice different things – the feel of my heart beating and the pulse in my neck, the place in my belly where the butterflies are, and even the sensation of flow passing through my body.
There are many other variations to this exercise; all you need is a few minutes or seconds of being still. Why not have a go at the first two stages and see how you get along? If you like there is a slightly more active approach I have found helpful: In this case rather than just noticing my muscles and what state they are in, I notice what they feel like when I tightly contract a muscle set for a few seconds and then fully relax them for twice as long. I do this for each set of muscles on my sweep through. Its a great way to learn what being relaxed feels like for you.
These body practices help us harmonise with the journey towards restoring our humanity, becoming embodied whole, earthy, creatures again – the place where heaven and earth overlap.
Photo by Ale Romo on unsplash
Aside from releasing tension stored in our body, bringing ourselves back to a more relaxed and present state, we discover that it is through our bodies that we experience so much. Ultimately we begin to realise that many of the sensations we notice in our body practice are actually the storage of a moment in a particular event or memory along with the emotions associated with that moment*. I have noticed that by attending to my body I can pick up on not only my emotional and mental state, but in fact I can sense the movements of God’s Spirit and I can tune in to what those I am with might be carrying too. From that place I can then make choices that can move this moment into life, love and flourishing; which is after all, the whole point of all this.
Photo by Elijah Hiett on unsplash
Violence, harm and a worldview that divides have led many of us to become fragmented and to live fragmented lives. Because ‘here and now’ became unsafe, we opted for ‘not here and not now’ and the task for all of us is to find our way back to ‘here and now’ and to turn it into a safe and liveable space. ** However even whilst we have been ‘not here and not now’ our bodies have been living, holding and storing our lives for us*. Our bodies are a roadmap both back to ‘here and now’, and on through towards our return to being whole and human once more.
It wasn’t for nothing that St Paul encouraged his readers to present their living bodies to God as their one true act of live worship. (Romans 12: 1- 3) In so doing he said, they would be transformed, their minds renewed and able to tune in to God’s good and perfect will. We cannot give what we do not know and own, to worship in spirit and truth as the earthy, divine human beings that we are, even in all our brokenness (John 4: 7-26), requires that we begin the journey back to our embodied state as earthy image bearers. For those of us who carry trauma in our bodies, this journey may require a safe and trusted guide and companion, for me that has been my spiritual director and the lovely Claire***, my soft tissue therapist. May you too find true and trustworthy companions on your road.
Join me at a Beloved and Entrusted – Christian Training Day to explore this and other aspects of journeying with God through trauma in everyday life, or get in touch about hosting one of these days for your team or area.
* Bessel Van Der Kolk coined the phrase ‘the body keeps the score’ in his ground breaking book of that title in which he describes the nature of trauma and how it can get resolved.
**Thomas Hubl is known internationally for his work on healing collective and intergenerational trauma. I really appreciate his use of the phrases ‘here and now’ and ‘not here and not now’ to articulate the impact of trauma as well as the aim of building resilience and moving towards growth and recovery. You can find out more about Thomas Hubl on his website https://thomashuebl.com/
*** If you are local to Reading, Berkshire you can check out the soft tissue therapy that Claire offers here.