Now it’s a curious thing being identified with our minds, with very little consideration of where the mind or thoughts come from or where they reside, though generally it’s thought to be in our head/our brain. I’ve spent the past twenty-five years investigating suffering, dis-ease, bodies, consciousness and movement, and I’ve found that the mind, as we experience it, is actually in the body, or more specifically, an emergent part of it. 

From a developmental point of view, our brain’s primary job is to organize movement.  Our unique mammalian human bodies have the potential for omnidirectional movement and need a lot of brain to organize it.  The primacy put on the brain and the nervous system is the product of dysfunctional dissection of the human body over the last two hundred or so years. 

While examining dead bodies, fascia, the tissue that is responsible for our animation, movement, homeostasis and so on, was scraped away and dismissed as having no functional contribution to the human body. The very fabric that connects every single cell and system, and organizes it all into form and function was thought to be inert packing material and was not studied until about fifty years ago. This conception of the human body is what our medical and psychological systems are based upon.  Understanding this crucial part of the human body completes the picture of how we work as people. This organizing, omnipresent, biological, communication fabric is your fascia, and it’s more than just connective tissue. 

When we look at mind-body connection we always start in the mind, but in doing that we’re disregarding one of our super powers, sensation, an innate aspect of our self-organization. We’re trained to put our attention on our thoughts and perceptions and fall asleep to the language of subtle sensations. Our mind can manipulate, shifting reality to fit our beliefs and experiences in an attempt to keep us safe. But our body is ever present. Always communicating what’s now, through sensation, knowing and instinct. 

Our bodies are our allies, but we’ve forgotten that they are whole, inclusive of mind and made of nature. Our bodies have a solution to anxiety, fear, disassociation,  but we’ve forgotten how to listen, how to respond, and how to just be. 

There is something profound that we can learn from embryology, that we always are and never cease to be whole.  Our essence, the life force that animates us, is actually present at the moment we move from an egg and sperm to being a zygote. More than its preceding component parts, we become something that self-organizes, through inherent intelligence and sensing, into the complexity that is you reading these words right now. Our bodies come first, organized and created from our essence, with a mind emerging later to navigate the sense of separateness that accompanies being an individual. 

We’ve forgotten who we are and instead using our body’s innate intelligence, we try to use our minds alone to whack-a-mole our problems away, finding that once one has been handled another pops its head up. 

Maybe our dis-ease and dysfunction is actually a product of our disconnection from ourselves.

Ourselves as bodies and beings.

Our bodies are alive and made of fascia, from the liquid our cells move though to our bones, skin and everything in between. 

Our fascia gives us our felt-sense.  When it is fluid, free and functional, we have a corresponding sense of feeling well and like ourselves. When it is tight, bound and restricted our emotional landscape resembles the same, causing distorted perceptions of reality. 

So I offer, from my observations and the emerging science, that our soul’s first creative act is the creation of our bodies. That as we inhabit our bodies, a form, we enter into a world of polarity. In this world of polarity, we emerge a mind so that we can then have the experience of being a separate individual, and in making ourselves individual we forget our essence. 

But body, unlike mind, is always here, in the present, and always communicating to us our return to harmony. 

It’s time to upend and reconsider our conventional approaches to healing and remember not just that we have a body, but that we are a body.

A holistic approach to overall well being must start with our wholeness, and our bodies are the perfect place to reconnect to the continuity of who we are. When we connect to breath, we remember presence, and we come back to now. When we connect to movement we remember why we’re here. When we unwind our patterns of conditioning and assumption we return to our neutral state, begin to break free from our isolation and remember our naturally connected and creative hearts. 

Our bodies are our portals to the knowing and inner wisdom that will heal us. With intention and movement we can rediscover who we are at our core and allow that connection to reframe and reorganize the rest of us, back to who and what we’ve always been. 

If you want to experience the body in the whole new way, visit our website at www.radicallovemovement.com

About the Author: Phannie has a long career of being a movement artist, movement and embodiment educator and creator. During her career as a professional dancer, studio owner, and company founder, she spent her time uncovering what is true and real in this world. Originally used as tools to create content for performances with strong messaging about the human experience, she created the embodiment teachings and methodology of the Radical Love Movement. 

Phannie has dedicated her life to authentic expression and understanding how consciousness works. She now has alchemical structure to support others in discovery and application of their authentic selves expressed through the body.

Through the application of what they call “bandhas” they experienced changes in their body awareness. The word translates as “locks”. Think of the body as sponge so, when one applies a bandha in a chakra it’s like squeezing the fluid out of a sponge and when the bandha is release, nourishing fluid rushes back into the area, revitalizing organs and glands in that area. The following areas and chakras will give you and idea of what the bandha system can influence: 

• Purpose: 

Bandhas are believed to enhance concentration, improve circulation, and support various bodily functions, including digestion, metabolism, and hormonal balance.  

Types

The most commonly known bandhas include: 

• Mula Bandha (Root Lock): Involves contracting the muscles of the perineum (area between the anus and genitals).  

• Udyana Bandha (Upward Flying Lock): Focuses on contracting the abdominal muscles and drawing the diaphragm upwards.  

• Jalandhara Bandha (Throat Lock): Involves pressing the chin towards the chest.  

• Maha Bandha (Great Lock): A combination of Mula, Udyana, and Jalandhara Bandhas.  

How they work

Bandhas are performed by tightening specific muscle groups, which temporarily restrict blood flow in certain areas. When the lock is released, this is thought to stimulate circulation, increase blood flow, and rejuvenate organs in the targeted area.  

The two bandhas not mentioned here are: 

Ajna Bandha (Third Eye): Stimulates circulation around the pituitary gland, important for the balancing of the hormonal system 

Sahasra (Crown Chakra): stimulates circulation around the pineal gland, stimulates and balances the circadian rhythm. 

The first four chakras listed are particularly important to address the dorsal nuclei of the Vagal pathway. Ajna bandha and Sahasra more about our connection to the infinite. 

Like I mentioned earlier, in my body work protocol, I address all these areas. If you have an interest in learning more about this system, I recommend making an appointment with me or someone who is versed in Kriya yoga. 

I have an office at People House and in Longmont. 

About the Author: Chardin has been an Adjunct Practitioner at People House since 1998. He is the creator of Advanced Body Therapeutics (ABT). It is a new orientation of creating synergy in the body systems.  ABT uses assessment tools from Osteopathic Theory, Chinese Five Element Theory, Applied Kinesiology, Yoga Therapy, Polyvagal Theory, and Structural Therapies to determine the relationship of the metabolic systems of the body as well as address common structural issues related to stress or trauma.

The goal in his body work is to create balance in the body and neutralize the polyvagal responses. In doing so, it reduces pain, calms emotion upset, and strengthens the immune system.

Chardin’s web address is www.abtherapeutics.net

This is not my voice that whispers to me 
In the deep recesses of my Heart. 

This is not my voice that calms the stirring torrent 
Welling up as “I” try to quiet my Mind. 

The sense of a small “my” standing against 
The ever-moving force of The Infinite. 

The sense of a small “I”, thinking it could 
Possess something as large as… 

My sense of you. 

This is not my Voice, it’s Yours. 

We have touched on Belief’s and how they impact the nervous system and how they can stop a person dead in their tracks. Over recent times some of us may have experienced despair with the outcome of the elections, others elation and excitement. It is important to recognize that we have a choice in what the texture of our experience is and not give in to the whims of the environment around us. 

Some might think, “did I do something wrong”. To those that thought this the answer is NO. All things present are supposed to be here and it is simply a call to stand. Don’t lose your ground. It reminds me of a book titled The Synaptic Self by Joseph LeDoux. He goes on to posit that on the surface of the cell membrane there are receptor cites that are associated with our name. So, after we hear our name repeatedly, our body gets accustomed to the associations directed at us. I’m convinced this is the reason a spiritual teacher will assign a Spiritual name to redirect the devotee’s focus on the Spiritual. 

Much has been written in the past twenty or so years in the field of Somatics that has opened our eyes to a realm of human function not understood so clearly in years hence. Thomas Hanna says it clearly, in his book titled SOMATICS (Addison-Wesley, 1988), when he refers to the Greek word SOMA which means “living body”. He goes on to say that the field of SOMATICS is based on the premise that people are “self aware, self-sensing self- moving and self- responsible beings” and “capable of making changes”. Therefore, the field of SOMATICS empowers the individual to be the guide on an internal process only available to the outside observer if the person chooses to share it. This is a radical shift from medicine as we know it. Pioneers in the field would include, but are not limited to Ida Rolf, Randolph Stone, Stanley Keleman, (need more names). 

More recently, in the field of Psychoneuroimmunology, there has been discovered a profound relationship between the body and brain, and more broadly, the Mind, that sheds light on a multilevel integration that makes the workings of human life seem miraculous. These discoveries have occurred because science, as we know it, has acquired the capability to explore what the more ancient, pre-science, healers had discovered in their meditations and intuitions millenniums ago. I’m referring here to Deepak Chopra’s work in his book Quantum Healing (Bantam, 1990) and his references to the Upanishads and Ayruvedic Medicine of India. Dr. Chopra, in essence, brings the field of the healing arts “up to date” about what we intend to approach when dealing with human maladies, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. 

In the previous paragraph, I made the distinction between the brain and Mind. This distinction is an important one because I see their functions as very different. The brain, an organ in the body, carries out the tasks of operating bodily functions. The Mind, on the other hand, operates in a more global and integrative. By global, I am alluding to that aspect of human consciousness that seems mysterious in some ways, and certainly open to scientific scrutiny, that witness’ life in its entire complex vicissitudes. Not only does it witness, it has also been found to influence life profoundly. These effects include inexplicable reversions of fatal diseases, such as cancer, disappearing tumors and so forth that medical science won’t even get close to. 

About the Author: Chardin has been an Adjunct Practitioner at People House since 1998. He is the creator of Advanced Body Therapeutics (ABT). It is a new orientation of creating synergy in the body systems.  ABT uses assessment tools from Osteopathic Theory, Chinese Five Element Theory, Applied Kinesiology, Yoga Therapy, Polyvagal Theory, and Structural Therapies to determine the relationship of the metabolic systems of the body as well as address common structural issues related to stress or trauma.

The goal in his body work is to create balance in the body and neutralize the polyvagal responses. In doing so, it reduces pain, calms emotion upset, and strengthens the immune system.

Chardin’s web address is www.abtherapeutics.net