When a Shoulder Has a Say
When a shoulder decided to take over and talk about its problems
The client was frustrated with a shoulder pain that would not go away. Health care providers had been unable to find anything to treat or cure, other than suggest the use of anti-inflammatory medications. “What would your shoulder tell you, if we asked” I offered. “What do you mean?”, was the curious answer. “If you could give your shoulder a voice, what would it say?” This was how an incredible session began. Through the voice of the client, this painful shoulder “complained” about being overworked, ignored, about being in charge of protecting my client from frequent situations that were causing them stress and sadness.
During my experiences as a holistic coach, I have heard bodies speak about things my clients were not aware or had been consistently ignoring. However, since childhood, humans have been educated to quietly sit in classes, many of us for more than a decades, seeing and listening to knowledge being shared with our minds. During these long hours, our bodies are mostly immobile, twitching and itching, craving for movement we are not allowed to display. If we are not involved in work that requires constant movement, our daily jobs also mimic the school experience. During these long office hours, our bodies are minimally involved while the mind informs our arms and hands what to write, type, say, or talk on the phone. When we experience issues and look for psychological support, once again, we find ourselves seated in chairs, with our bodies mostly quiet, while the mind takes over and we talk.
Listening to shoulders, knees, feet, arms, lower backs, and even a headache, has made me a strong believer in that the body needs to speak and we have a lot to learn by listening to it. I have found that clients experience surprise, disbelief, amazement, and relief by listening to the body as a way of knowing about their own stories. But mostly, I have witnessed the results of the body and mind integration, translated as empowerment and resolve for change.
Are you curious about what your body would have to tell you?
More than Talking
It all begins with an idea. The idea that thinking and moving are interconneted.
As I moved through my 200h yoga training, during the hard times of the pandemic, I was also working on getting my integrative life and wellness coaching certificate. Very early in this process, it became obvious to me that coaching and yoga had much to talk to each other., and much to learn from each other. That is how I started imagining my BodyMove coaching practice. A practice that could start from the coaching dimension and incorporate yoga and body movements or the other way around.
It is very Western of us to sit in front of a computer or in an office room and talk to someone about our challenges while our body is just made to be almost immobile. We sit and talk without paying attention to the body’s needs to express sensations, feelings and thoughts. Well, isn’t the mouth doing its job while expressing these same thoughts, sensations, and feelings?
Actually, even as sophisticated as our 21st century language has become, our ability to verbally communicate what goes inside our body has limitations. The need to stretch, to yawn, to flex our spine or any other almost irresistible desire to move our body after certain day events are examples of how the muted body tries to communicate its needs for expression.
As you start to work through a specific life challenge or project with a coach, therapist, or a friend, your body is “listening” and actively participating in this conversation. As we ignore the body’s dialogue with the mind, it will continue to manifest itself by other means, such as discomfort, aches or pains, a need to lie down, or a crying need for a walk or a run.
Movement is an integral language of being human we have almost forgotten how to use. This coaching practice propose to rescue this powerful tool so that while the words express the mind and body through verbal vocabulary, the body is also invited to participate in this dialogue, adding richness and complexity to ways of knowing what we know and what we find out.
Movement is organic, beautiful, necessary, and part of what defines our humanity. Growing in life is more than talking.