All of us have gone through one form of trauma or another during childhood, resulting in the blocking of the flow of experience throughout the body.
There are conditions that you’ve experienced early on in your formative years that have either encouraged you, or restricted you.
How can traumas manifest in our body?
If one grows up in an environment where religious beliefs and rules dominate the household, then you can be sure that the child will likely be subject to suppressing behaviors, views or desires that don’t fit in the family’s dogmatic belief system.
Let’s say that the topic of sexuality was strictly unacceptable, how do you think the child will relate to his own sexuality as he develops around non sexually open parents? The child’s only reference point IS his primary caretaker or parent, so if sexuality isn’t reflected back as being delightful or acceptable or encouraged, the child will slowly but surely block that part off in himself or herself, and deny it.
This dividing process of splitting the psyche up is a form of survival; compartmentalizing aspects of one’s self in order to fit in the rigid environment, otherwise, it may mean being outcast, abandoned, rejected, reprimanded. For the young child, that is not even an option.
When we compartmentalize and bury natural parts of ourselves, these suppressed emotions and repressed sub-personalities become unconscious, blocking the natural open flow of energy in the body.
How can we work with the unconscious?
The good news is that if there is a block in the mind, or body, we can see it as an opportunity to dig deep and get real curious about what has been buried, because right now we no longer are that helpless child, we made it through those primary conditions, and it is our chance to unapologetically reclaim our natural feelings and instincts and live a big full life.
The catch 22 is that what you’ve locked up years ago is locked up, and unknown to you. But if there’s just a bit of curiosity in you, you are ready to begin.
