A number of years ago, I was fixing up an old trailer on my friends property. It was the kind of place where hawks taught their babes to fly out in the field, where you would awaken to the sounds of deer munching on the bushes outside the window, where coyotes sang lullabyes and the neighbors chickens were free range. There was a license plate on the trailer that read 1962 and really cool louvered windows. I was painting and putting in new flooring but every time I was in the bedroom I got this weird feeling, in one spot I would get dizzy and feel like I was falling into a black hole. I had my friend come over and she felt the same thing, so we burned sage, sang songs, wrote blessings on the subfloors...but despite our best intentions of moving that energy, the weirdness remained. Then my friend, Kurt came over and after telling him about it, he immediately said, "Oh, it's just out of level." He went and got a jack, boosted up the back end and put in a shim. Wow, practical magic! Just a half inch can make a huge difference in how structure is aligned in gravity and with the environment. Our inner landscape is the same way. (Wouldn't it be nice to boost up your back end and put in a shim. Ha) Our Somagraphy, if you will, is shaped by our interactions and communications with the external environment. Things like repetitive movements, re-actionary postures, stress, emotional and physical trauma, viral invasions etc. can cause our bodies to contract around our weaknesses. This is a natural form of protection, a mustering of the troops. Sometimes though, these areas of insult can settle in and become chronic obstructions without us even noticing it at first. Our beautiful bodies adjust, other areas picking up the slack. (I'm going to go hang out in the living room because it feels much nicer in there....) Before you know it you might begin to feel "off", no longer level, you might not be able to sit in your center. Anyway, all this is to say that, like the jack and the shim, acupuncture, bodywork and movement arts can be tools to bring your body, mind and soul back into alignment. Find the things that allow you to create some space and movement in your life, give yourself a half inch....
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