From Frozen to Fluid ~ An Embodied Movement Practice

Hello and welcome to your frozen to fluid audio practice.

You can use this practice anytime to deepen your capacity to move from a contracted state of energy to a free-flowing experience of that energy.

So you want to make sure you have some space to move around and you want to choose something to work with.

So you might pause this recording and feel into a situation or a moment or an area of your life where you freeze,

Where you shut down,

Where you lose yourself in some way.

And anything can be a doorway in,

So just choosing something to practice with today.

And when you have that,

Come to standing and find your feet.

Find your feet.

Really feel them on the earth.

Take a few breaths and you're going to first just generate a little bit of energy in the body.

It takes energy to move other energies.

So you're just going to bounce gently at the knees,

Vibrating,

Shaking,

Bringing some aliveness into the body.

The feet are planted on the earth,

Just gently bouncing at the knees.

Taking a nice full breath,

Letting out some sound,

Continuing to bounce.

And letting that bouncing go and just bringing some fluid,

Continuous movement to the ribs,

The chest,

The shoulders,

Waking up this area that we tend to really collapse and shut down.

Bringing in lots of breath.

Might feel good to squeeze the shoulders,

To contract them and to release them,

To shake out the arms,

The hands.

Just waking up the body a little bit here for a few more,

A few more breaths,

A few more movements,

Following your impulses,

Letting out some sound.

And coming to some stillness.

I'm going to start to go into the freeze,

Into the shutdown by bringing to mind that situation or that area of your life or just that moment that you've chosen to work with where you lose yourself in some way.

Where you freeze,

Where you shut down,

Where you get stuck.

Starting to bring it to mind,

Starting to drop it into the body,

Really placing yourself back in that situation,

Really evoking it,

Feeling it,

Dropping into it,

And starting to scan the body.

What happens in the body?

Where do you start to contract,

Tighten?

Where do you grip,

Collapse?

Where does the energy get held,

Get stuck,

Get concentrated?

Really trusting what you're sensing,

Trusting where the awareness gets pulled,

Paying attention to the chest,

To the belly,

To the groin.

And we won't stay here long,

But for a few more moments,

You're going to increase the effort.

You're going to emphasize what's already happening in the body.

You're going to go a little bit deeper into this reaction,

Into this freeze.

So whatever you notice you're doing in the body,

You're going to increase it slowly,

Over-efforting,

Where you're contracting,

Contracting a little bit more,

Where there's a hardening or stiffening,

Leaning into that.

Continuing to breathe,

Really slowly over-efforting for just a few more breaths,

Really feeling what this shape is,

Feeling what you become,

Feeling the air around you,

The space around you,

Really embodying this for just a few more.

And then really slowly,

You're going to come out and go back in a few times.

So you're going to soften the effort by 50% and then lean back in,

Increase the effort,

Going in and out a few times until the body starts to do something different,

Until a movement comes in,

Until the breath changes,

Or the sound comes out,

Or an emotion starts to bubble.

Just squeezing,

Creating a little bit of juice until the body opens a door and starting to follow that,

Starting to encourage that opening,

Breathing more,

Bringing lots of breath,

Starting to follow the opening of the body.

If the body feels real stuck,

You might bring in a movement,

You might start to move your hand or your face,

Really trusting,

Really following the body,

Lots of breath,

Letting out some sound,

Starting to meet what you meet.

When we open up these energies,

There's often things that need to be felt,

That need to be digested.

So saying yes to whatever's here for you as a body,

With your movement,

With your breath,

With your sound,

Making it physical,

Letting the body lead,

Continuing to really follow what's unfolding.

So if you start to get lost,

Slow it down,

Come back to the body,

Really feel where the attention is being pulled in the body,

And see if you can give some movement,

Some breath,

Some attention and awareness to that place,

Really letting this energy guide you,

Seeing if you can follow it,

If you can track it in the body,

Remembering you have full permission,

You can speak,

You can crawl,

You can growl,

You can push,

You can kick,

Anything here is welcome.

Freeing up this energy as a body,

With your movement,

With your breath,

Continuing to really trust,

To remember your body knows how to do this,

It knows how to move with the energy,

It knows how to move emotions through.

So can you trust that?

Can you let it?

Taking nice,

Full,

Deep breaths,

Continuing to breathe,

Continuing to follow the energy,

Continuing to meet what's here.

Then you're going to slow it down for a few moments,

You're going to come back to standing if you're not there,

Really feeling now the sensations,

The temperature,

The movement,

The pressure,

The waves of energy,

The tingles,

Feeling the physical sensations in the body,

Feeling the quality of energy that is here now.

And then for just a few moments,

You're going to go back into the freeze,

In the shutdown,

In the contraction.

And it might feel weird,

It might feel uncomfortable,

It might feel less true,

It might be easy,

But you're just going to see if you can physically feel what it's like to have energy flowing and for you to try to shut it down in the ways that your body does,

In the way that you contract or tighten or stiffen or hold or grip.

Getting a real physical sense of what it's like to have energy flowing and for your body to shut it down.

For a few breaths,

You're going to be contracting and trying to stop and block the energy in the ways that you know that you do,

In the ways that you freeze,

In the ways that you shut down,

In the places in your body where you get tight,

Where the energy gets stuck.

For three more breaths,

You're going to feel this,

This conflict of energy that's happening in your body.

Not going to guide you to come out,

You're going to start to deliberately change and shift this experience.

You're going to start to soften and undo and breathe and be really diligent in undoing the contraction and allowing the free flow of energy.

Bringing in lots of breath,

Starting to allow the body to move,

Starting to come back to following the energy,

To letting it lead,

To untangling and undoing any holding,

Any tightening,

Starting to really let the fluidity of the energy flow freely through your system.

Bringing in lots of breath,

Really trusting the body to take the lead here,

Starting to move in a way that is so fluid,

Really evoking the imagery and the embodiment of water.

Water never hesitates,

It just flows,

It just moves,

It's just ever changing.

Feeling how maybe you can start to embody those qualities a little bit more with your movements,

With your breath,

Flowing,

Becoming the energy.

Moving here for just a few more minutes,

Really feeling that fluidity.

Can the breath be like water?

Can my movements be like water?

Can I really flow with this energy and flow with the waves that are here?

Letting the body show you,

Continuing to follow,

Continuing to flow,

Continuing to really feel.

And if this is feeling really good and the body wants to keep moving,

You can pause this recording.

If it's time to start to slow down,

You're going to once again come to standing if you're not there already.

You're going to close your eyes and for a few moments you're going to go back to that area of your life or that time or that moment that you're working with that you froze,

That you shut down,

That you got stuck,

That you lost a part of yourself,

And you're going to refuse to contract.

You're going to feel what it's like,

Feel what has to happen,

Feel what you have to feel in order to not lose yourself,

In order to not tighten or stiffen or contract or hold.

Continuing to breathe,

Continuing to,

There might be movements that want to happen,

There might be fear that you have to feel.

Whatever is here,

Without even having to analyze or name it,

You're just going to be very deliberate about not organizing yourself around the energy,

Letting go in the belly,

In the groin,

In the chest,

In the face,

Feeling the energy moving,

Feeling yourself in relationship to this thing,

This moment,

This situation that usually brings you to shut down,

Feeling if maybe it could be different.

Maybe you could allow the energy to flow a little bit,

Maybe you could feel in this moment what in that moment you are unwilling to feel.

For a few more breaths,

Feeling the sensations,

Feeling the emotions,

Feeling the energy as a body,

And starting to let that go,

Letting the body move or wiggle or shake in any way that it wants to,

Starting to move towards some integration and rest.

So when we open up these energies,

We really want to give time for them to be digested and absorbed and fully integrated.

So finding a place to lay down,

A place to rest,

And staying physical,

Staying with your body.

So not checking out,

Staying with the energy,

Feeling the qualities of energy that have woken up as you rest,

Really giving those space to spread,

To receive the nourishment from them,

Almost as if they were water and they can trickle into the places that are parched within you,

Feeling the aliveness,

The energy,

The qualities that perhaps might feel familiar or feel like a remembering,

Or maybe they just feel really good and something that you want.

So encouraging,

Letting them flourish,

Letting them take up more space,

Letting them fill your body,

Soak into your skin,

Letting them absorb into your bones,

Taking a few last sweet breaths,

Maybe bringing some movement,

Some touch,

Some love to your body,

Really feeling what it's like to be you now,

On the other side of this practice.

Taking your time,

Knowing you can stay resting,

You can move towards journaling,

You can just keep loving yourself right here,

Doing anything at all that would allow this practice to feel complete for now,

Noticing what it feels like to be you,

What your body feels like,

What the sensations feel like,

Taking one last full deep breath into your body,

And this completes your practice.