Connecting with our body provides us with many discoveries. We often try and connect with others, with ideas, with the internet, and forget that we first of all have to be connected with ourselves.
My feet started to get painful and this prompted me to think to myself “why not let them be my connection to the world?” Reconnecting to life starts with reconnecting to oneself to our own body. I feel my toes after a long day of standing and start moving them to the sounds of music. I let each of my ten toes feel the ground, just as my hands feel the keyboard as I type. My toes become channels through which I can connect to this beautiful powerful earth beneath – an earth that we all stand on and share. I know that in a matter of seconds I could forget my feet and toes and be occupied with troubling thoughts and by doing so, would let this huge earth simply disappear from my perception, as if it has never existed.
What if each of us could feel their ten toes constantly and let each one of them get rooted downward? Would we be able then to be connected to each other in a different way? Would we be able to be connected again to this earth? It only takes the distance between me and my toes to be reconnected again to the earth and through her to all that lives and breathes. My big toe is a thick root down below, the three that follow create some balance and my smallest toe likes to play around. I can almost feel how each toe can connect to places around the world and to people I know; their love, their worries, their wishes, their past, present and future.
How is it that my head received so much attention all these years? How come it won so many times over my feet, heels, and toes? I feel the ground beneath me and thank it for carrying me for so many years. I don’t need to travel far in order to reconnect to myself; I only have to notice my feet, my toes and the earth they stand on.
“I would like to change my life” a client of mine said. “I wake up in the mornings in my bed, go to work, meet my friends. I watch people, cars, signs or trees. I went for dinner with people who looked nice, they even smiled at me but I felt miles away. Where was the girl that would turn any space into her own playground?”
The session we had was a simple one. I touched her feet and let her stand feeling the sensation of the floor and the room around her.
“How were you as a child?” I asked
“I was a curious girl. I was not always happy, playful, or trusting. But I remember feeling the world around me with its many colors, shades, smells and sounds.”
My hands on her feet are curious. Her heel is narrow but strong, her toes are long and flexible, and the color of the pads she steps on is red. The feet became warmer under my hands and I could see that her legs relaxed. I asked her to stand and tell me more about her experience when her feet were so present.
“It’s surprising.” She said. “This should be taught when people ask how to improve self confidence.”
“What do you feel?” I asked.
“If I would say that my feet are happy, would you understand?” I guess that my eyes showed her my answer.
“I would never think that the solution to my desire to reconnect to who I am would be found through my feet.” She said. “I feel taller, and as if standing itself became an interesting activity.”
She closed her eyes exploring her new way of perceiving the room and her own body. I could see the girl she was talking about – curious, interested in life itself.
When she walked out of my working room there was more vitality in her movements, and the text message I received from her later expressing her surprised of the positive effect our simple somatic bodywork session had on her.
Our modern life gives us opportunity for personal development that is beyond imagination – we reach great heights and we are able to do amazing things. The world seems to become smaller, and new opportunities and discoveries are being offered so openly and frequently. But sometimes when I meet clients, I find that no matter how advanced technology becomes, the biggest challenge is our ability to connect to who we are; to our own body, senses and sensations. That when we do that, we can connect to anything we wish – our heart, our past, our friends, family, surroundings and future.
