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Introducing the Somatics studio at Forward to Health
w/ Iman Nacer Boundaoui
"the Somatics Studio" -- a no-frill online movement space, every Saturday morning, for women only, to move grief, rage, awe and joy; to feel, thaw, awaken, and release; to lubricate the joints, unhinge locked up emotions, and find a more flexible way of moving in the world-- launching soon (in November) through Forward to Health.
Why?? Access, access, access. I've spent 5 yrs of this somatics career trying to figure out ACCESS for Muslim women, BIPOC women, and I've been in the trenches feeling completely at a loss for how to make that happen. I had a MASSIVE somatic opening of complete and utter rage and anger for how inaccessible this work has been, even for me, and I'm IN the field....."the Somatics Studio" was my breakthrough after that opening!! Allahu Akbar 🤲🏽
Here's what this virtual Studio space will solve for...
✌🏽 A weekend morning-- for accessibility (working women-- you've been telling me, I'm finally listening ✊🏽🙏🏽)
✌🏽 $17/class-- for accessibility (raise your hand if you're sick of healing work being so expensive 🖐🏻🖐🏼🖐🏽🖐🏾🖐🏿)
✌🏽 1hr of receiving, receiving, receiving-- direct and clear guidance, instruction and facilitation-- no verbal/mental/emotional participation required, just bring your body, your heart, and learn how to MOVE through your healing, AGAIN, for accessibility (raise your hand if you're tired of talking, sharing, and literally just want someone to facilitate you through this work...I hear you, I see you, I feel you, this for you ❤)
✌🏽no start, no stop, no gates, no entry deadline...perpetual rolling basis. Start any week or month you wish, anytime you're ready for the work, you will not have missed ANYTHING. Like walking into a yoga studio for the first time, at any given point-- come as you are. We simply ask that you stay and try it for 3 months before walking away.
Somatic practice gets us out of theory into the body as a domain of transformation and change.
In traditional Chinese energetics ("TCE") which underlies somatics theory, the Fall/Autumn time is connected to the lungs, which in turn are connected to the emotion of worry! Starting to feel worried, nervous, anxious? Natural. Trying to get into your head to work it all out? That's the part that's unnatural...i.e. misaligned with nature, our human nature. Trying to think our way out of worry creates a loop we can't get out of. Try these Tibetan breathing exercises instead...used by Tibetan monks for more than 3,000 yrs to prepare for meditation.
I use them in my Somatics practice to move anxiety/worry. Why? Because they target the lungs.
- The first exercise (gathering heavenly qi, wiping it over the body/face, and then pounding the rib cage to send vibrational pulses into the lungs) is a LUNG CLEARING/CLEANSING exercise-- literally moves stagnant/old oxygen out of the bottom 3rd of the lungs, where it can get stuck with anxious breathing (breathing with only the top third of the lungs); from a SOMATIC perspective, we ADD the intention of clearing stagnant worry from our lungs, and allow the body to somaticize that intention (which it knows how to do intuitively).
- The second exercise (pulling a bow and arrow on each side of the body, over the head) is a LUNG STRETCH-- literally stretching the connective tissue/fascia around the upper ribcage to make more room for greater expansion of the lungs, i.e. deeper breath, fuller breath, more aliveness and life coming into the body with fresh/new oxygen; from a SOMATIC perspective, we are INCREASING our capacity to handle/face the stresses/worries of our lives without that worry taking us out of balance, i.e. widening our window, our container for life, as it comes.
Together, these practices help us clear old/stagnant worries that we don't want to pay attention to anymore or hold in our tissues/lungs anymore, and increase our capacity to be with the worries of life from deeper ground, more clarity, and a vast, centered, presence.
This is just a TASTE of what we will be doing every Saturday in the new FTH "Somatics Studio"-- for women only. Come, get your somatic medicine every weekend for one hour, leave your towel at the zoom door-- no questions asked, no fusses given. See you 11/1 (November 1st for my EurAfrican sisters), 7am U.S. pacific (PST)/ 9am central (CST)/ 10am eastern (EST)/ 4pm central european (CET), for our first Studio session :)