Bodywork clears
negativity directly
The advantage of using any body technique to implement
psychological clearing is that imbalances are approached deeply and directly
on the energy level. Clearing is stimulated by working with the blocks in
the psychic body, through the physical body. The need for clearing through
projection onto other people or events is reduced. We become more balanced
when interacting with others, because clearing takes place in our private
practice. We develop a sense of connectedness with the body and feeling
centers.
Even so, bodywork is not all that is needed to facilitate
personal growth. As you work on yourself, you must approach from other directions
as well. Other approaches include processing, psychotherapy, meditation,
spirituality, group work, or any growth technique that develops sensitivity
to feelings, bringing suppressed material into awareness. Remember, these
techniques should not be primarily of an analytical, thinking nature. The
feeling side must be developed. Use your intellectual and thinking functions
to understand the principles involved, and then leave thinking behind as
you train yourself to feel.
It should be noted that exercise in general, while
important, does not have the same effect as bodywork. Exercise can keep
you in shape and perhaps help blow off some nervous energy, but muscle-held
tensions will not be released. Actually, exercise such as weight lifting
and bodybuilding do exactly the opposite, tightening the muscles and driving
muscle-held suppressed negativity deeper, increasing insensitivity to the
feeling nature of the body. If you are involved in weight training, it is
doubly important for you to include stretching in your routine. A good rule
of thumb is equal time for both, stretching after weights.
Bodywork involves getting the energy “unstuck”
in the body. You must cultivate the ability to allow the loosened energy
to flow as it would prefer, not as your conscious mind would dictate. You
must surrender to the innate intelligence of the body, the “wisdom
of the body.”
