“Just by telling your story (or even writing it) you begin to release it’s negative effects on your body”
~ Marcelle Pick
When I began dancing as a young girl, I felt I had discovered a new language. Over the years, I learned to express my emotions and feelings into the dance choreography through the connection of music and movement. Dancing was and still is a therapy for those brave enough to do it over a long period of study. When we dance, an inner child we have repressed in the deep recesses of our psyche seems to come out to play. To come out to be healed.
After being introduced to yoga in my early 20’s, I realized the therapeutic power of moving your body slightly under the melody of the music in an energetic flowing vinyasa form where deep belly breathing motivates the next movement. It was a deeper form of mind-body therapy. It was a way to tell my story on the mat through the breath, feeling my feelings, and being in-tune with the mind-body connection. Each asana (posture) in yoga was telling the story of my mind-body. Where it had been, where it is now, and where it wanted to go. It was expressing myself, and through THAT, the negativity within’ and around me began to become manageable. Pessimism transformed into practical optimism. Depression and anxiety into an authentic Merissa. I began to feel better about life in general. Everything became more sweet, beautiful and fun. Less worried. Less anxiety. The body, breath, music, and movement with asana was a deeper therapy then I had ever experienced or known.
Dance gave me the therapy of synchronized movement to music, expressing myself, telling my story through emotional feeling connection with the movement. Yoga Asana helped me to go deeper inside by moving with the breath slightly under the melody to a specific count. Of course this was my journey. There are so many ways we can move out of cynicism. To know how to bring balance back into yourself is such a gift.
How do you tell your story? How do you release the negative holds it has on your body transforming it into love. Our stories are beautiful and make us who we are, but when the pain can let go, then we find freedom to enjoy the stories that live within’ us, that make us who we are today.
I want to share with you my go to therapies. I find the best ones bring me closer to the vibration of earth. The more physical realm frequencies. Deep infrared or bright flowing expansive clarity. In a wholistic approach, all therapies for all areas of our being, depending on what we need, are so important for longevity.
Body:
Exercise: Any exercise is better than none. Methods are good to devote yourself to or mix with other forms of exercise as long as they are on different days.
Massage/Sauna/Cold Plunges: My experience with Shiatsu at yoga teacher training was THE best feeling. The massage therapist goes deep into the places you hold emotional energy and releases it through forms of acupressure. But really any form of massage is so therapeutic. Hot and cold therapy is all the rage now and helps regulate your metabolic health through timed time in a sauna as well as in a cold plunge. Alternating heat and cold.
Making Love: Making love is very different then having sex. Making love is going slower, looking into each others eyes, feeling deep energetics, and wanting your partner to feel the best orgasm. It’s not a “fuck” and it’s not a 5 minute “let’s get off,” it probably needs to be at least 20 minutes and filled with deep affection if it’s a good nourishing therapy.
Hormone Therapy: Being in my early 40’s I have noticed a change. For the first time in my life, I don’t feel invincible. I’m all about aging gracefully and as we age we lose estrogen, we start to really feel like we are losing a huge part of our womanhood. Think of estrogen as that divine feminine feeling of vitality moving through you. As women age, studies are finding that premenopausal and menopausal women are needing and wanting estrogen supplementation through hormone therapy. It’s still a new concept as stated on the mindbodygreen podcast, but it’s a form of therapy for middle aged women to find relief for their changing bodies.
Mind:
Meditation: Even if for just 10 minutes a day, it can put things into perspective. Slowly working up to 30 minutes or even an hour a day. This is time for stillness, reflection, feeling emotions deeply, and being in touch with what flows within’ and around you. Vipassana meditation is such a life changing overhaul that I recommend to anyone to try at least once. It’s so hard at first, but you feel like you have so much vitality at the end of the 10 day/10 hour sittings.
Conversation: Talking vocally with someone you trust out loud at a medium volume in pleasant conversation, moves sound vibration through every part of you stimulating the nervous system. Although tied to ego, helps you to feel more alive. Ego is good when it has a reliable checks and balances. Your able to express yourself, share your thoughts and feelings, feel connected, and hopefully understood at some level. It works to help free the mind and heart. I feel kinder people have regular conversations in sharing their thoughts and feelings.
Reading: Nothing new, but reading is a form of being in deep meditation while the brain soaks up info like a sponge. Learning words, ideas, as well as ways to better your life, bring intrigue, hope, memorization, and imagination to life. It can set the mind into regulation.
Soul and Spirit:
Dancing: Works directly with spirit. Spirit can be the energy, the guides, and the feeling of something beyond moving with/through us. Dance is the movement of nature, of spirit in so many forms. When I dance, I feel one with god.
Any Religion with prayer: Praying to a higher god is so important. Acknowledging we are powerful within and of our prayer, yet ultimately, there is always a presence with a better design far greater than we could possibly comprehend in one lifetime. This brings joy because there is so much to learn, explore, and share with each other.
Singing: When I sing I feel the vibration of the universe run through me. Even if I’m off pitch, which happens often, yes, I’ll admit that, I feel like a bird soaring on the notes of love with a message. My soul is then stirred into a deep felt sense.
Ayuasca: Now I’ve never done psychedelics before, but if it’s similar to dreaming, and from what I’ve heard, a cathartic unearthing of your deepest imprints, repressions, past lives, and soul purposes unleashed. I feel it’s probably extremely therapeutic for your heart and third eye in particular. Helps to calm the nervous system healing deep samskaras or deep unhealthy habitual patterns. Probably best to do no more than once every 3 years or so, but again, I’ve never done it before.
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Other similar therapies like walking barefoot on the grass, being in nature recreationally, writing, and seeing a therapist or even shaman or energy healer can heal us. Even money therapy. Having more money can release large stress burdens on you and your family.
Checkin’ with yourself, what do I need to fill my cup up so I can be of better service to others? Maybe that might mean not serving others for a time or backing off or really listening to what they may need. We can’t help heal ourselves, others, or the oneness of our planet if we are all being vindictful, stressing each other out and disregarding our bodies. I’m all for having guilty pleasures, but it’s time for us to let each other get good nourishing sleep when we need it, and find time to rest and digest. Therapeutic practices do that. This is what will help not only live longer lives, but also enjoy them in a deeper love of appreciative satisfaction.