Day Three - The Body

“I am a gift for you. Think of me as a personal navigation system…

I am the all-inclusive map you have been yearning for, a free GPS system to your innermost longing…I am the lifeblood of inspiration…

My sentences are formed with the grammar of the gut.”

                                                                     “Embodied Inquiry”  by Celeste Snowber

I used this book--Embodied Inquiry--a lot when I first started writing. I needed the affirmation and confirmation it gave me. Where before I had written mostly from my head, I was now being directed by my body. This took some getting used to.

The body direction happened mostly through my characters. They not only dictated the story to me, but they taught me a new way to write it. For example, the characters would direct me to turn to my left, and when I did so, I would receive a part of the story. If I didn't make the suggested movement, I would not receive that part of the story.

I was working at that time with a Gyrotonics trainer, and she said that I was like a house without electric wiring. I had a great disconnect between my mind and body, and it was evident in my writing, and in my life.

But as I wrote through my novel, I began to get rewired. It was as if a magical, invisible expert opened a portal between my mind and body, and this allowed my stored trauma to escape.

I also noticed changes in my physical movements as I wrote. My head would move from left to right, and this reminded me of the way Stevie Wonder moves as he performs. If I feel inspired, my head moves quickly from side to side. If I do not feel inspired, my head does not move at all. I understand now that this is my right and left brain communicating with each other. But my body set up this communication, not my head.

I learned to trust the wisdom of my body. I also learned that my stories were contained within my body. I think that children must store what happens to them in their bodies because their brains are not yet fully developed. I, especially, stored my traumatic childhood experiences in my body. These traumatic experiences congregated in my joints.

Writing knows exactly how to free these stories from the body. I believe writing was specifically designed by nature to do this. Of course, I describe a different form of writing than what we all learn in school. In school we learn how to write from the head. But that is not at all an effective way to deal with trauma. We have to follow the body if we want to heal the trauma inside.

Today, I am grateful to my characters for teaching me a more effective way to write. If they had not shown me their method, I would never have changed my ways. I try to be more open to my body as I continue my career as a writer and teacher. I know that I still have a lot to learn from my body, but I am making progress!

More next time!

I write from experience, curiosity, and care--not from clinical training. I am not a therapist or doctor, and nothing here is meant to diagnose, treat, or prescribe. Please listen to your own body as you read, and reach out for professional support if you need it.