What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a special state of consciousness.   It is the state of engaging in present-moment awareness, while suspending judgment and action.   It requires an attitude of child-like curiosity and a moderate level of patience with not knowing the answers.

Being in a state of mindfulness allows you to cultivate a relationship with your body's inner wisdom – that deep knowing you may have lost touch with, because at some time in your life it was essential for your survival to over-ride or protect your true spirit from the pain, sorrow, shame or disgust of an event in your life.

Why combine Mindfulness with Bodywork?

It is common for massage to address your physical symptoms, such as tension, pain or stiffness in the body.  If after a massage, the problem in the body returns, there might be an underlying emotional pattern to the problem.   This mindfulness-based bodywork allows you, with outside support and guidance, to observe in depth the intricacies of that pattern.   Understanding the pattern provides you with an opportunity to more easily connect with your own inner resources that inform healthier and more functional choices.   This method of bodywork empowers you to actively participate in the processes of self-discovery, acceptance and resolution.

How do you combine Mindfulness with Bodywork?

As the session begins, I help you become familiar with being in present moment awareness of physical sensation and movement.   When this state is reached, I support and guide you in a gradual process of self-discovery through your inner awareness of sesnsation, feelings, thoughts, images, sounds, or even memories.

The emphasis of this method is on allowing your inner experience to be self-witnessed and explored in a safe, non-judgmental environment.   Working this way in partnership, you have an opportunity to witness the deeper, more complex underlying components that are at play for the you.

What happens in a Mindfulness-based Bodywork session?

A typical session will begin with the you in a standing position, allowing your focus to turn inward to your present-moment inner experience.   It may take several minutes for this to happen.   We don't rush or push the process.   Ideally, during this time and through most of the session, you will be able to stay present to youir inner experience while reporting your observations.   This may be a challenge for you at first, and gets easier as you get more familiar with it.   The reporting is helpful in that it allows me to guide the process and help keep the moments alive for you, allowing your experience to deepen and unfold.

At times, I might help focus a portion of your session on a particular theme that seems to be showing up for you, or it could be that the whole session centers on this one theme.   For example, let's say that you are describing a strong tension in the upper shoulder.   I could suggest that you stay with this experience and begin to notice more details about it – if there is a direction to the tension, if the tension is even or interrupted, etc.   These suggestions will help you deepen into your present experience gradually, to the point of discovering more about it.   Commonly, tensions in the body form as a defense of, or against something, and often that “something” is not in our everyday consciousness.   In this method of bodywork, we respect your need for defenses and don't work against them.   Instead, we provide an environment that supports the presence of the defense, and allows the defense to begin to speak for itself.   Staying with, and deepening your present experience of sensation in this area often provides an opening for the unconscious aspects to begin to surface – such as strong feelings, a sense memory etc.   Continuing to stay with this inner experience also allows your underlying needs to present themselves more clearly.   These needs are often entwined with a deep-seated, subconscious belief that is not truly serving you.  This method of working then allows you to discover that you have greater options to choose from than you previously knew possible.

Helping you integrate the new perspective, so that you can build upon what you have gained, is how each session ends.   This part of the session can take a variety of forms, depending on the discoveries made.

How do I find out more about Mindfulness-based Bodywork?