How to feel safe in opening up, while still enjoying the process

Sometimes you feel you need to protect yourself.
Your body is in a closing posture, thoughts are also in a “closing” form, for example, you feel perplexed and are doubting of many things (sometimes also of yourself..)

Each of us has her/his own reasons why is in this body-mind situation. You also have your reasons, probably dictated by your history.
Now, it’s not of interest of this post to dive into the “Whys”.
The reason why I am writing this post is to give you some tools to look at your situation of “closing” and to explore some tools useful to start to open up in a safe way, and still protect yourself.

If you will enjoy this post and want to know more, you can find some more tools and support in the FB group “Imaginative Inside Out Dance — The Group”. Here, one week each month, you can explore deeply those concepts and you can get on the waiting list for “Glowing You!” the Program which I designed for you, ready to make the change in your life that you are looking for.

Let’s go back to the topic of this post.
One important characteristic is the Border.
Your Border is what defines and protects you, sometimes also limits you.
Think of your skin. What happens when your skin is wounded? Bacteria can pass through, maybe you have irritation, you can get an infection and emotionally you are feeling exposed. The skin is your first boundary, it’s a natural border that is protecting and keeping us safe (for example from infections).

There are other Borders, some of which are structural, physical/mechanical, while other ones are behavioural or mental.

For the purpose of this post, let’s keep it simple.

Let’s start with your skin.
One of the basic exercises that I usually propose is to feel the contact of your skin with your clothes, with the chair if you are sitting, skin with skin when two parts of your Body are in contact (for example if you are sitting with crossed legs).

The second exercise is involving the touch.
I propose it when I feel that my students are ready for it. Because, you know, even placing our hand on our arm can be overwhelming if we are not used to it or if we were keeping a “closed” posture for a long time.
Maybe you are ready for this or maybe you need time to arrive at this exploration.
If you feel like you can try it, go on reading and enjoy the exploration... :-)

Place your hand on one part of your body (for example the arm) and feel the touch. Is your hand touching the arm, or is the skin of your arm touching the skin of your hand?
This last one, for example, is helping you to get a perception of your body from different points of view.
It’s also helping you to change the focus from “the touch”, to the relation of “the touch”.

Getting in touch with Yourself through your skin is the first and simpler way to start to know your Boundaries. Knowing your boundaries is helping to define who you are, what are your limits and your needs. This will give you more confidence in daily life especially as you deal with difficult situations.

If you want to deepen this topic or you are hungry of knowing more tools to know yourself through your body-moving for more support in daily life, ask to be part of the FB Group (you are welcome to follow the next [3-Days-Immersion] and it’s all free);

Hopefully, this was not only helpful but also inspiring.