Stories and heart felt requests reside in your body. Great healing happens when we listen with skill and care.
Here is an example of a somatic exchange checking in with someone’s hands…
————-
Helping Hands
And we asked her hands, “Would you like to move?”
They remained resting, clasped in her lap.
Unresponsive, as if they were hiding.
We sat in the pause.
Eventually they said to her:
“No. I do not want to move.
Let me be. I barely want to be seen.”
“I also don’t want you to leave,” they whispered.
We let our bodies stabilize more. And, more.
When the time felt right, I whispered a secret to her hands,
“We are not staying, waiting, in hopes that you will change.
We are staying simply to be with you, exactly as you are.
We will stay here, stable, until you’d like us to go.”
Her hands relaxed a bit more.
Trust building.
They whispered back to her,
“I do not want to hold another thing.”
“We so deeply understand,” I affirmed.
“Of course you do not. You hold so much.”
We stayed with her hands,
continuing to offer presence and time.
When the impulse arose,
I offered my hands as a layer of support.
Vulnerably she accepted.
I slid my hands under hers.
“My hands are resting on my knees.
My knees are stacked over my feet.
My feet are supported by the floor.
The floor is on the earth.
One effortless layer of support upon another.”
Time.
A deep breath rose and then fell within her.
“Wow… I didn’t realize I wasn’t breathing,” She shared.
“I can feel my breath return.”
I saw her body drop into her chair more.
She was arriving.
Time. Time. Time.
Her hands began to open.
She sensed a string ball resting in them.
Each entwined string representing another’s needs.
As her hands opened more, it rolled out.
The weight in the room shifted.
Revelation?
This powerful change-maker of a woman
looked at her hands in awe, seeing them as her own.
“I have invested so much in learning how to hold more.
What would it look like to invest in support instead?
What if these hands were more available for my soul’s work?”
I saw her returning home to herself.
I felt layers of my own recognition.
I knew these hands.
They were hands of great capacity.
They were the hands of caretakers and change makers.
They were hands invisibly filled to the brim,
celebrated for supporting other’s needs.
—–
As moms, business owners, or caregivers of ailing parents or partners, it can feel like we’re without choice. People need us, now. In a society that celebrates independence, our pattern may be, “When things are hard, I’m the best person to fix it.”
Check yourself.
It feels real because the pattern is old (preverbal).
Pattern shifting is not all or nothing work. It is not, “Help the people or let them flail.”
Pattern Shifting requires recognition and differentiation to create choice. One small step at a time.
Here are some reflective questions you might ask:
- What is mine to care for?
- What layers of support are available, other than me?
- When will my help infantile another?
- What does an authentic impulse to give feel like?
Blessings upon your journey and your inquiry into what you can let go of, what’s truly yours to hold, and what support systems are there awaiting you.
What would your hands do if they were doing your soul’s work?
(If this feels triggering, remember small doable steps.)
With love,
Sarah
* Salyna Cole was the woman sensing into her hands. She’s an Embodiment Coach. You can find her at salynacole.com, IG @salynacole
** This exercise is Intrinsic Movement of the Hands, from Alchemical Alignment education.
*** Photos by the incomparable Jenny Moloney jennymoloney.com
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