One of the most misunderstood concepts in the mind body connection is body activation release. Everyone seems to think they understand this but few out there truly do, it seems.
Body activation is about reading the body as a practitioner while helping the client feel what is currently going on in their body. It involves feeling whatever physically is coming up, or what the client is aware of at that moment. There is no judging or defining what it is that you feel. The only intent is to observe and sense.
When you do that, the body then begins to give clues to what is going on, and as it does there is a body activation point that will show up. The practitioner needs to have done work on themselves to see it. They need to be skilled in awareness and consciousness so they can truly see what is there. If not, it is far too easy to re-traumatize someone.
Be Careful To NOT Exhaust The Body Activation Point
Another key point on body activation is that if you are not careful, you can exhaust it once it shows up. A little bit of work with it goes a long way and if you go past that point, you will re-traumatize someone. I have had practitioners do this to me and believe me, it is no fun. If you leave that person in the middle of the trauma, their life will be a living hell.
Body activation may show up as a tremor or pain. It might be a hot or cold spot. There could be numbness or anxiety in the area. I’ve had times when it showed up as a rash or itching. It is something physical that shows up. Those that are experienced enough can bring the issue up and drop it down quickly. It is the purest form of somatization.
When the body activation comes up, there may not always be a reason or a story to go along with it. In fact, it will most likely feel strange and unusual to the person. It may very likely be frightening and full of anxiety causing the person to want to get out of that moment as quickly as they can.
Follow Your Heart And Intuition
Body activation and release are about learning how to take someone into it without overwhelming them. It is a physical sensation that you will need to work through with each person in their own way. No two people are alike and no two times of therapy sessions are alike in the way this works.
You will need to read each person in each moment and follow your heart and intuition as to what to do. This is why you must do the work on yourself if you’re going to be there for others. When you are in a body activation moment, it will push your buttons and fears. The person you are working with does not need that because their body will pick it up and shut down the process.
Once you have the body activation process underway, then the mind connection of the mind-body comes in and becomes important. It is then that you help the person to connect the loop from what they feel in their body to the emotions that show up in the mind.
Body Activation – Moving The Energy
When you have made that connection, you are in the process of helping them move the energy of the body activation out of their body. Through movement, resistance, pressure, and your vocal guidance, the activation is released. This changes for each person and each time. Observe their body and then follow your heart and intuition to assist them. Be careful to not interject your fears and issues in this because it will shut the process down in them.
Most of this is not easy to see unless you’ve gone through the work yourself or been trained in it. Much of the body activation is so subtle that it can escape the most seasoned therapists. Even those skilled in this area may miss stuff.
If you happen to miss the body activation or not fully assist the person in coming through it, be there for them. Keep a close eye on them or seek out someone that is more skilled. The last thing you want them to do is live in hell where hope disappears and despair becomes their friend.
Body activation is a great topic and one that I’ve learned so much about from Dr. Paul Canali. I have gone through the process on the table extensively with body activation and release. It isn’t an easy thing to do and my fears will come up so quickly.
Help Healing In Ways No One Imagines
If you can learn how to do this and fully understand its role in the mind body connection, you can help yourself and others heal in ways no one imagines. Physical situations that I thought were hopeless changed quickly. We didn’t go into the overwhelming parts of the trauma because that just makes it much more difficult. You come up to the edge of the overwhelm and build until you can go all the way into it.
The more you get the trust of the inner body, the more the body activation process will show up. It will allow for a release from deep within the mind body. However, if you don’t treat it correctly or keep a person stuck in the emotional side, you’ll retraumatize them. It will make things harder.
The body activation is not the goal in this therapy, but one that will provide the vehicle to taking a person into a full release. I know of modalities out there that get activation going in a body, but that’s where they leave the person. This is very harmful and unnecessary. You cannot leave people in this state as it does more harm than good.
Body activation showed up for me when I worked on people long before I understood it. Until I began to learn from Dr. Canali, I did not know what it was or how to work with it. Sometimes I’m still quite frightened by it but I’m slowly learning how to go into it, not mess it up.
The Mind Body Connection Is More Than We Think It Is
The mind body connection is much more than most of the human population thinks it is. It has been so misstated that we barely understand it. It is over-commercialized into something that means little.
The mind body connection is not about the mind as much as it is about the body. It is through the feeling of the body that we connect to the mind. Then, by allowing the observation and connection, we release the energy trapped in the body. This shows up as body activation.
COMMENTS