Somatic Savvy
Where:
Zoom/Online
When:
Thursday September 26 (6-730pm MT)
Sunday Oct 13 (10-11:30am MT)
Thursday Oct 24 (6-730pm MT)
Sunday Nov 3 (10-11:30am MT)
Thursday Nov 7 (6-730pm MT)
Thursday Nov 28 (6-730pm MT)
**Check out this blog post for more inspiration and information regarding the creating of this series
An online experience to gather in social support and experiential learning to revitalize your internal system with somatic practices and a model of decolonizing your bodymind though healing and wellness.
Why “decolonizing”?
Colonization has impacted us all in varying ways (and continues to impact us all in varying ways). At its root, it was born of violence, fear, domination, and forced separation from land, culture and identity. Whether your ancestors were colonizers, colonized, or both, colonial consciousness resides in our tissues and impacts how we feel, how we move, what we think, what we perceive, and how we show up in the world.
This series is spread out over two months with the intention to create the space needed for practice, reflection and discernable changes in understanding and habits that can be supported and celebrated along the way.
What to Expect in Each Session:
Guided Grounding and Attuning to self, each other and the space
Psychoeducation and Discussion on mental models, frameworks and metaphors that expand understanding of our body’s innate intelligence and how to embody it more fully
Experiential Learning: At least 50% of each session is devoted to practicing skills, techniques and explorations of polyvagal informed breathwork and somatics
Meditation for completion and harvesting insights
Closing discussion to share insights, questions and land on unique commitments for practice
Not sure if Somatics is for you?
Our symptoms of pain, stress, unrest, anxiety, depression, instability and disconnection from self and others are multifaceted and are often not the result of one thing we are doing or not doing. Culturally, systemically, historically, and globally, there is a lot to be stressed, anxious, angry, overwhelmed or defeated about. Somatic practices are not meant to be an avenue of taking personal responsibility for all the pain, heartache or struggle you experience in life - it is however, an opportunity to embody your power and heart-centeredness more fully.
When we feel incongruence inside or are struggling with chronic or recurring symptoms, we certainly do not have the energy, space and time needed to collaborate and problem solve the way we need to in order to guide our world in a more harmonious direction. Somatic practices guide us back to our inherent flexible and resilient state where healing and growth occur as human nature. The question becomes, once you feel stable and connected in your being, what will you do?
As someone informed by Internal Family Systems, Polyvagal Theory, Yogic Philosophy, Somatics, and Social Justice Work, I have come to formulate a model of decolonizing consciousness that we will explore (primarily as reflection in between sessions), which can be understood as a reclamation of CHURCH.
Centered
What does it feel like to be centered? How do you breathe when you are centered? What do you notice with your breath when you are centered? How does being centered impact your doing? How does your experience of being centered change (if at all) when you consider the center is everywhere or a centerless center?
Harmony
Growth is an inherent quality that we all have within us when we are in a state of harmony and balance. A nervous system that is constantly activated is not creating space for conscious change, and instead will keep us locked in patterns of protection and expressions of wounds we inherited and have accumulated in this lifetime. What habits have you become unconsciously conditioned to? How have these habits served you, or how have these habits been in service of a positive intention (despite their maladaptive results)? Until you experience harmony internally, the concept of harmony externally will remain a far-off and unrealistic proposition.
Unity
The polarizations and conflicts we see and participate in in this world are a reflection of conflicts and struggles internally. As within, so without. While the changes needed in the world can seem daunting and outside our reach, what we can do is focus on the battle(s) within. We can differentiate the aspects of our being to study them and recognize how they impact every aspect of our lived experience, while also remembering and feeling the sense of one-ness and unity that we all share. This becomes the template for participating and co-creating unity in the external world. Unity is a non-dualistic state, meaning all expressions, emotions, and differences are welcome and included, AND, we are not separate.
Relationality & Resonance
In many Indigenous cultures around the world there is a common belief regarding inherent relationality and interconnectedness. When we are attuned to this field of connectivity and turn towards what we notice with curiosity, compassion and courage, we repair energetic ruptures that have been stored in our bodymind and field, and energy begins to flow with ease where it was once stagnant or dense with protective forces. When we practice with the premise of multiplicity we can organize our internal system, guide it towards collaboration, lead from our Higher Self, and become masterful with wise discernment.
Congruence
While there are different contexts and environments we attend to in life, and perhaps varying requirements and relationships within these, when we are attuned to who we are at our core, we sense a cohesive identity that has room for flexibility and a spectrum of expression. By exploring various shapes, expressions, emotions, movements, ideas, pulsing in and out, etc., we not only differentiate the aspects of who we are and our experience in life, but we also come into more intimate contact with that which is unchanging. Do you feel connected and congruent with your ancestry, the land around you, your past, present and future?
Heart
In many Indigenous cultures there has been a saying passed down through the generations regarding the journey from head to heart. Recently listening to Tiokasin Ghosthorse, a man from the Cheyenne River Lakota in South Dakota, he said the English language has misconceived this notion as a journey from head to heart, and instead, it is meant to be a remembering that we are already capable and born to lead or express from our heart. So rather than coming back home to your heart, notice the visceral difference when you consider you are already connected and capable of leading from your heart, and perhaps we can practice embodying that reality more fully.
What else might you want to know?
Nervous system regulation: not that there is a “regular” or “normal” that we are striving for. Rather, the ideal is a flexible nervous system that can move through the various nuanced expressions of the nervous system and continually come back to the state of harmony, inclusion, and high-heart rate variability, where rest and play are accessible, and the body heals and grows as its innate intelligence guides it to do so. To goal is to notice as ruptures happen and skillfully support and guide our system back to its optimal baseline.
What you’ll need:
A quiet(ish) and private(ish) space that you feel comfortable in (perhaps outdoors when the weather permits)
A device that gives you access to zoom
Props that provide further support or comfort (i.e. blankets, pillows, etc)
A notebook and pen (I encourage you to capture notes during or at the end as part of reflection and integration)
Optional: Music (rather than me playing music and choosing that for you, I suggest you have gentle and soothing music of your choice playing in the background, or opt for no music if you prefer quiet)
Investment: $175 (sent by e-transfer to marinmccue@gmail.com)
I look forward to sharing this experience with you. Please reach out if you have any questions.
xo
Marin
marinmccue@gmail.com