NeuroAffective Touch
Mind-Body Dialogues - Let's hear what the body has to say.
If we're a system of parts that hopes to work more collaboratively and joyously, our body parts should be included in that image. We're taught to think of our bodies in a bio-mechanical model, where chemical reactions mindlessly occur and have less than nothing to do with our higher thinking or emotions. That's not correct! The body is our extended tool of cognition, feeling, and awareness.
The very large fraction of us sitting below our brainpan houses an equally large balance of our emotions, feelings, and memories, often storing difficult bits outside of our conscious awareness until we're ready to process them mindfully. And all the while, our parts truck on with the day-to-day, working non-stop to keep us safe and supporting our success and survival. Our systems strive at this faithfully, whether or not our mind is "happy with the body's performance".
If you're on a path of inner work ,it's important to take time to hear the body's stories and recognize it for the sacred partner, the sacred self that it is.
The body's most fundamental language is Touch
Our cells, muscles, bones, fascia, and organs don't have mouths to speak or ears to hear with, so sitting down for a nice cup of tea and a chat is shaped differently when we are talking to the embodied parts of our system. Bodies send and receive signals chemically, electromagnetically, energetically. Conscious, caring touch is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to deliver the message of our attention and our curiosity to the unsung heroes and inner family members that constitute our physical selves.
Bodywork for the Heart
The NATouch protocol provides a framework for safely and warmly greeting the body in all its complexity and simplicity. We slow down to body-pace, and take all the time we need to help the body feel supported in a nurturing nest. Once we're feeling settled and safe enough, we check to see where and how the body would like to connect with some touch.
The intention of our touch is important. We do this work to repair or rebuild our relationship with body, to receognize and thank each piece for the hard work it does for us, and to open to messages it might have for our thinking selves: what it needs or wants, and what might be needed for each piece of us and for our system as a whole to heal and thrive.
Your practitioner's touch can offer messages of connection your embodied system might need to hear, sometimes desperately. "I exist. I am wanted. My needs are important." Receiving those messages, and noticing how the body responds, provides your extended self with the resources and inner knowldege you need to care for, nurture, and advocate for your well-being as an embodied person everyday.
