Pamela Church





 

Smart Brain Good Heart Practices

Daily Practices Give Resiliency And Stability

Every moment we bring heart, brain and body to a situation.  As we all know, it varies widely how much of our heart, brain and body we bring to a particular moment.  In “peak” experiences, we are on, with it, fully present.  We feel the flow.  We feel the exhilaration  We feel the satisfaction.
 
Daily Practices are somatic gestures from Body Wisdom Tools to clear static, maximize potential. and relive stress.  Go for it.  It is about having ease and focus on a daily basis.  We all have anxiety.  It is part of the deal of being human.  Daily Practices are tools using somatic gestures to help experiences move through, so we can be more fully present.  From a perspective of neurobiology, this is about being resourced with a shorter refractory period when we are upset.  That means we bounce back quickly which is another way to describe resiliency. 

Clearing The Stream

It is like unblocking a backlog of brush from a stream, once it is cleared the water “knows” how to move forward.  It does so of its own accord.  Once we clear the backlog of worry or upset or apprehension from the body, it “knows” how to proceed forward.
 
To clear is easier than one might think.  The somatic gestures, I also call them mudras which means hand gestures, tap into 3 sources: acupressure  points, chakras and brain function.  There is much overlap.  For instance, all the chakra points also correspond to acupressure points.  One example is the 4th chakra which is the heart is also CV17 Sea of Tranquility.  Over and over, different traditions will speak of similar energetic characteristics of the body.
 
In acupressure, it is all about opening the “channels” or “meridians,”  in neurobiology Daniel Siegel talks about the “flow of information” in the brain, and with chakras it is about movement in the “energy vortex” of each chakra.  Bottom line is that stagnant or stuck or empty is not useful.  Movement and balance in the body systems is necessary for higher functioning.

The Web Of Information In The Body

If a hand is put on the heart and a hand on the brain stem, it does two things: It increases blood flow to both areas and it draws an energetic line between the two points connecting them.  This establishes communication and potentially rapport between the two areas.  If there is more connection between parts of the body, if one part of the body is talking to another part of the body, it creates a web of information that is linked up one part to another.
 
In Body Wisdom Tools, I developed protocols from combining the mudras.
A protocol would begin with a Two Minute Balance and then have a sequence of 3-5, occasionally 6, mudras that work in unison to further an intent.  It could be around emotional regulation, that is decreasing arousal, or it could be around strengthening an aspiration.  More recently, I am using a shorter sequence with maybe just two gestures.  I go back and forth between the two styles.