Here’s to a Year of Feeling Present + Aligned in Your Body and Life!

“Being present” is a phrase that’s tossed around a lot, but if you’re not used to being present, it can be difficult to know what that phrase really means.

To me, presence means experiencing the physical sensations of being in your body: awakening of your senses, smelling aroma in the air, feeling the ground beneath your feet, seeing the colors on the screen as you read this, tasting the flavors of the food that you eat, and hearing the sounds surrounding you.

While this may sound simple, if you’ve not practiced living presently, you may not know that being present in the body is a much different experience than living in one’s head. So many of us are operating on auto-pilot; living solely in our heads with our thoughts and fears, failing to receive the nourishment of our sensual experience through the body.

The body holds so much wisdom, and when we’re in touch with our momentary, sensual experience, we can move with inner awareness, allowing our body’s wisdom to dictate how we respond to the world. 

And in fact, opening up new spaces for sensory experiences within the body - noticing and moving through the tension that gets in the way of that - can open us up to entirely new ways of being in the world.

Practicing increasing the range of expression in your body may not always be easy - old ways of holding and moving are often deeply ingrained - and yet with practice, we become stronger and freer.

For instance, I’m currently working with one of my private clients on the expression of her strength and flexibility; she’s releasing an old embodiment pattern, which is tense, gripping, and forceful. In a bodily sense, her shoulders round inwards and she slouches in her upper back. Stress shows up for her in the form of tension in her neck and shoulders.

As she expands her capacity to physically express movement - extending through her thoracic spine, opening up her chest, finding more length and lift through her upper back and more strength and flexibility in her neck and shoulders - she is getting away from her habitual ways of carrying tension and tightening against the world.

As within the body, so within life. So as we practice increasing our range of bodily expression, we’ll also notice shifts in our ways of being and behavior. 

In exploring how she can open up these spaces in her body and feeling taller and freer in her upper back, my client is also expanding the range of what she embodies and expresses in her life. Through our work, she’s expressed having greater freedom around how she chooses to respond to life at any given moment, as well as feeling more open-hearted, grounded, and purposeful.

With increased awareness of her body, she’s also able to notice when tension starts coming in, and this creates an opportunity for her to choose something new.

I invite you now to take a few moments to breathe, coming into a deeper awareness of your own body.

Where are you noticing tightness and tension?

Where does tension habitually live in your body?

What message does it have for you?

How can you nurture yourself, creating space to move this energy?

What would support you most in becoming more present?

The felt sense that you have within your body is a guide for you.

When you are attuned to it, your awareness becomes like an inner compass, which can help give you direction towards alignment within your body and out in action in your life. 

What would become available to you if you were more powerfully attuned to the wisdom of your body?

I’m excited to share that on January 26th I will be holding a very special workshop for moms, learning how to connect with your core and exploring how to nourish yourself through motherhood from pregnancy through childbirth and postpartum to 5 years beyond.

We’ll be practicing movement to get us more in touch and aligned with the physical body as well as engaging in reflective journaling and getting clear on where you desire to be more supported and to make shifts that feel more aligned in your life. We’ll also be receiving wisdom and insights from a panel of local perinatal experts.

I’d love to see you there. You can click here to check it out and sign up, and share this with a mama you know who you think would appreciate this special space to connect with her whole self.

I’d also love to hear what you are seeing for yourself, and what the next small step is that you will take to support yourself to be more present.

Here’s to a year feeling aligned in your body and life!