What could you possibly learn from paying more attention to your body? Why would it be of benefit?

I’m going to describe the most common defence postures we go. What do I mean by a defence posture? If I were to wave a gun in your direction, your body would tense up immediately whilst you worked out whether you were going to run or fight or maybe you would simply freeze and be unable to do anything. Whatever you did, your body would tense certain muscles and go into a defence posture.

Most of us are fortunate to never be in that situation, but challenging events or simply repeated habits can cause our body to adopt to tension patterns or defence postures. The work of Donald Epstein, DC, has identified five key patterns. Each one can be characterised by a specific body posture, and with every posture comes behaviours, thoughts and emotions.

By learning to recognise different postures, behaviours and thoughts/emotions, we have a starting point to change and grow. Because if you are defending yourself, by the laws of physiology you cannot also be growing and/or healing. So any tension pattern contains bound up energy, and if this energy can be released it contains useful information and also a power source that can be used elsewhere in your body.

For me, what has been most fascinating to see is as people connect to the bound up tension in their body, through somato-respiratory integration and/or network spinal analysis, they start to change. They start to heal from physical, emotional/mental wounds, they start to feel more energised, more productive, more in control of their life and their body. They feel so much more and so much better.

Because “feeling better” can mean two different things - feeling less pain and discomfort or more able to feel what is going on. Personally I want both.

So each defence pattern has a gift - the progressed state you attain as you unwrap the tension and stored traumas and start to use what was buried inside to understand, to express differently and connect to your authentic self.

Posture 1: Stuck in the Past

Posture 2: Stuck in the Future

Posture 3: Who am I?

Posture 4: I’m Fine/emotionally closed

Posture 5: The Victim

And every phase has a gift. Most of us of course sit somewhere between the pain and the gift, but the gifts are:

Posture 1: I learnt so much from my past, it made me

Posture 2: I trust and know that everything will work out

Posture 3: I know who I am and why I’m here

Posture 4: Passion, I express myself fully

Posture 5: Abundance, I am fully resourced

Each Posture can be explored through every one of the 12 stages of consciousness. So knowing the stages and knowing the postures can be of real value when it comes to personal growth and to healing.

As we start to recognise ourselves in each of these patterns and stages (and sometimes you just wont like what you see/feel), you have the opportunity to grow and change. And as the world we live in constantly forcing us or calling us to change, having strategies to manage change easily, are invaluable.

So shall we start?

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