The Art of Unpacking Soma
by Lori Candon collaborating with Victoria McMahon
Alice Miller, The Body Never Lies—
“Physical illnesses are the body’s response to permanent disregard of its vital functions. One of our most vital functions is an ability to listen to the true story of our own lives.”
We each have a story, a series of events/circumstances, influenced by our individual and collective (societal/historical) experiences. Story may formulate from a tape that continuously runs in the mental mind, linking thoughts with emotion, or from a habituated shaping of our physical body. The shaping of the physical body produces a mood; creating a link between body and emotion. Shaping may operate on behalf of life or you may recognize an experience as disconnecting from life.
The Art of Unpacking Soma has been a theme in my storyline for over 40 years. Observing began through the access point of the mental mind; deciphering the world from a place of either/or thinking (good/bad, right/wrong, safe/unsafe). A hypervigilant, external focus led to disengagement with expressing internal emotion and feeling body sensation. I operated from a place of “being at the effect of circumstances”, which for me means surviving the world and navigating relationships.
As the practices of yoga and tai chi brought me back into relationship with my body, other modalities reconnected me with emotions. Threading my experiences of mind, emotion, body language has opened me up into strength, stamina, capacity for embodying choice. Embodying choice has me have agency for “being with” the dynamic unfolding of life, inviting more.
Can you identify either way of being?
Does a story come to mind right now?
How do you gain access to authoring a new story?
Exploring our unique communication system and observing our mind, emotion, body languaging informs us of our level of engagement with our living body (Soma). The intelligence of the entire organism (Whole System Response) is a vital lens in which we organically engage with the world. Through the interactive, interrelated, interdependent Soma Communication System, we increase our capacity in the unfolding of how we language an experience. This informs moving with experience, being in direct relationship with the fullness of life within us and in community with others.
Is your unique relationship with Soma what you have been longing to discover?
Are you pondering the possibility of a new way of operating in your being that gives you a deeper connection to you?
Are you able to remember a moment when you felt aligned, all aspects of the mind, the emotion and the body interacting in a harmonious way of being?
How are you unpacking that which no longer serves you? Choosing to explore and awaken into observing and engaging as a somatic being opens us up into living our purpose while experiencing the joy of who and what we came here to be and do.
Coming from an organizing nature, unpacking for me happens in so many different ways. Imagine a suitcase where everything is jumbled and stuffed inside, unable to close and function properly.
Then, imagine a suitcase where all the contents are organized and have a place.
Now it is time to unpack the suitcase. Do you throw the contents into a disorganized heap only to ‘deal with it’ later? Do you remove the contents in an organized way, returning the contents to their rightful place? Do you take the time to be with the experience, listening to the wisdom of Soma?
Sometimes unpacking is messy and happens all at once and sometimes it is a slow, deliberate process. There is no right or wrong way to do it. You can be in the both/and…you can go into the depths all at once or you may choose to take one baby step at a time. Consciously choosing what, where, and how to unpack supports moving into ‘trueing’ with Life itself.
Link to our video to explore what ‘trueing’ is for you
Trueing Ourselves in Somatic Relationship
For me, the art of unpacking is a dynamic process creating generative movement toward balance. It is an expansion of either/or thinking into both/and thinking. While sustaining and maintaining life enhancing languaging and fluidity of the entire communication system, soul consciousness is able to operate through form to remember itself.
“Health is the natural expression of the body, mind, and soul when they are in rhythm with the One Life.”- Dr. Randolph Stone, Health Building
https://www.loc-institute.com/product/the-art-of-unpacking-soma/