Bodywork • Mindfulness Practices • Aromatherapy

When I first started bodywork this was nowhere near where I was coming from. I wanted to help people out of pain and I looked down on people who viewed massage as nurturing, as coddling and not really healing.

What changed?
Many things added to this change in perspectives. First, I started studying Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. I switched from looking at where the pain was, to paying more attention to the health of the body. As the body orients to health, the pains and injuries find the resources to heal. Seeing this working in my own body was one of the biggest shifts as I experienced the value in being gentle and nurturing with the body.

The evolution of my mindfulness practice
As a kid, I went to an acupuncturist who saw how anxious and stressed I was. He gave me a book with stick-figures meditating and gave me simple exercises about following my breath and feeling the sensations in my body. All this seemed quite exotic, and I discovered it was very helpful.

As an adult, I studied and took several teacher training courses in mindfulness meditation. As I explored more deeply, I saw that focus and acceptance were balancing at the heart of most of these practices. I also saw my own difficulty with accepting myself.

Over the last several years, I have been placing more attention on the acceptance part of this balance, and find that it feels like I’m creating a friendship with myself. This is the process we work on in my Befriending classes.