Searching for the sleepy and forgotten places

Illustration by Sophie Bass

You’re searching for the places in your body that you’ve rejected, gone numb in, abandoned, become sleepy in, or where you’ve given up.

Look for and tally up these places and begin to breathe life back into them. Fill them up with your consciousness, with your life force, with your heart, with you willing co-creation and participation in your existence. And what else is your consciousness other than... ✵you✵!?

I have a bunch of sleepy places now in my body, and they kinda like being asleep! I have a few in my feet of course, which were pinned for almost 5 months. I tried to stay with them during those months but it was too painful, emotionally. It was a confrontation level I just could not handle. Now I have to make amends and welcome them back again and again to the whole of my body, as everything is indeed attached to everything. The meridian systems of Chinese medicine is a good map, so are the sinew paths or anatomy trains, but if you have some movement practice, the maps will reveal themselves to you on their own.

You can think about a place in your body that may for a time have been too painful to breathe or inhabit. This is where we begin to make amends and welcome ourselves back to our selves.

Of course if the intensity still feels like too much directly on that spot... take the scenic route and make friends with another less sensitive places... the spinal column is always a fantastic place to begin.

As you build this practice, the knots tend to unravel themselves... you don’t need to push right into the deepest scar if its not time yet.

I really like these words by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, they quiet the mind and take me into the experience:

“You cant release what you dont feel. Instead of thinking about it, feel it”

As I tell my students always, the practice of yoga is pervaded with love. So explore with kindness, curiosity and love my dears 💜 this is a long-view practice, no quick fixes available. Like a good friendship, your deepening relationship to the Self will only grow richer with time.

love,
Natasha