Why Can’t I Just Get Up and Get Going?

by Brittiney George

Alternative therapies are not new, but have only more recently been embraced by Western culture as science is now backing what intuition has told us for years…that our body is brilliant in its wisdom and ability to heal.  Your body is the keeper of your unique story. It’s like the black box of an airplane.  It records your surroundings, your emotions, past mental or physical trauma, stress, and your memories.  Together, these become your unique story as told by the body in your posture, your walk, and in habitual patterns that develop over time.

Your movements reflect the conscious and unconscious aspects of who you are and how you feel.  Depression is one of the areas that bodymind integration can be an especially helpful tool in determining what you need.  After all, look at how different the definitions of depression are:  

To be in a slump

Weighed down

Heavy hearted

Stuck in a pit

Hollow or hollowed out

While research shows that movement can play an important role in lifting the fog of depression, sustained momentum and improvement is often only obtained by paying attention to the primary movement that is needed.  For instance, someone that is weighed down, or heavy hearted, may need to remove the weight of what is pressing down on them before they feel like they can get up.  For someone that is stuck in a pit, they don’t need to remove something; they need to get out of something.  Likewise, someone that feels hollow doesn’t need to get out as much as they may need to fill up with something new or something different before they can move on.  Getting “up” or getting “going” may be the end goal, but knowing the movements your system needs to start is an important tool to be able to sustain that momentum of change.  The body is brilliant at providing this insight. 

Somatic Therapy can be a wonderful way to access this information and is powerful on its own or partnered with traditional talk therapy. Through gentle touch and talk both the right and left brain as well as the nervous system are engaged in the conversation and can provide invaluable insight into what is needed and what is available.

Brittiney George, BS, CRS, CST-L3, ICI, CEIM, is a Movement Practitioner offering Somatic Therapy and exploratory movement classes at The Resiliency Center.  She also co-leads Connection, Expression and Movement (CEM), a monthly workshop series focusing on body-mind integration.  For a complimentary 55 min. Somatic Therapy session contact Brittiney at 610-389-7866 or movebackintolife@gmail.com.