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Vibrant Days…. 

Flourishing with Sensory Processing Sensitivity

January 2016

Relate

How To Tune In To Your Body – by Alanis Morisette

I was taught very early on that some parts of my humanity were “allowed”— namely: being sweet, being affable, smiling, showing controlled joy, and being helpful

Ultimately, what once served as a way to relieve unwanted pain becomes the mechanism through which we remain perpetually estranged from ourselves. And the havoc that this lack of self-intimacy and self-knowledge can create permeates every area of our life.

These parts that we have cut off to “make it this far” are parts that we may now need to be able to love our spouses well, to create success as we deem it in our lives, to foster intimacy, or to find a deep sense of peace of being here on the planet.

I have come up with my top favorite ways to “come back into my body.” They have served me well in what I call the “slow crawl back home.” Sometimes entertaining some of these has me come up against some profound fear … for laying down some of my survival strategies seems, well, at odds with my survival!

In those moments, I forget that life is different from when I was younger — that I have some agency now, that I am a grown woman, that I have resources and knowledge and hard-won wisdom now that I didn’t have such easy access to then. Or even as simple as the fact that I am not reliant upon someone older to keep me alive.

It is very important to take any of these suggestions through the filter of your discernment and proceed slowly if you want to investigate any of them — even getting explicit permission from the many parts within yourself that seek to protect you. Without this permission, the process could cause more harm than good. And you might proceed at a pace that could simply pour salt into a wound.

Some of the below are my favorites; feel free to add yours. Slowly and tenderly … that is how I recommend you approach the inquiry process. Let’s find ways to come back home, into the exquisite and unique body we were given to move through this life.

19 Tools to Come Home To Your Body

1. Massage that feels good (soft, medium, deep tissue, your call, always)

2. Mindfully eating (Thich Nhat Hanh has a sweet story of mindfully eating an orange)

3. Hot baths, hot tubs, hot showers

4. Deep-breathing exercises (Dr. Andrew Weil)

5. Body-scan exercises (Jonathan Foust)

6. Nonsexual touch exercises with partner (Wendy Maltz “relearning touch”)

7. Consistent gentle grooming

8. Gentle yoga

9. Long walks in nature

10. Somatic-experiencing therapy — by Peter Levine, or Bessel van der Kolk’s work — part of which includes a big emphasis on “noticing sensation” in a nonjudgmental way

11. A workout that promotes proprioception — “help in the relative sense of positioning of parts of the body”

12. Skin scrubs (for me, light ones!)

13. Acupuncture

14. Internal Family Systems Therapy by Richard Schwartz

15. Qigong or tai chi

16. Gentle stretching

17. Cranial sacral work

18. Dance (my personal favorite is 5rhythms)

19. Mirror work (Louise Hay or The Body Image Workbook by Thomas Cash)

Watch/Listen

This video was posted live during SSL :: stimuli + simulation from Sensitive Leadership on Livestream.comhttp://livestream.com/accounts/2082677/events/4664879/videos/109015002

Ponder

As a body everyone is single, as a soul never. 

~ Hermann Hesse

Participate

Having “plans” weighs on me all day

This is one of those weird things that’s a little hard to admit, and I’m not sure if other people feel this way….and it’s whiny. Well, here goes.

If I have one thing to do in a day, it weighs on me all day long. Even if it’s something enjoyable.

There will be a kernel of anxiety in my brain all day, until the event happens.

For example, the other day I had a Pilates class at 6:30pm. I was looking forward to it.

But, for some reason, everything I did the rest of the day revolved that class…in my head, anyway.

I remember thinking at 1pm: “I have 5 hours until the class.” Even though 5 hours is a long time, and plenty of time in which to get things done, it’s almost like I felt I couldn’treally get anything done until the class was over and out of the way.

Until that event or engagement takes place, I can’t truly engage in anything else.

The worst is airplane flights. If I have a flight early in the morning, I will barely sleep all night. And if I do doze off, I’ll dream about missing the flight.

And if I have a flight in the evening, I will feel seriously anxious all day, until I get to the airport.

On days where I have multiple engagements? Say, brunch with friends and then a birthday party at night? I won’t be able to do a thing all day and will feel like I just have too much going on.

I’m sure anyone with kids is reading this and thinking, “stfu!” because what I’m complaining about it so minor. I am fortunate to have been able to structure my life so it is not as stressful as it used to be (at least for now) but I know others are not able to do that. (Getting out of the cubicle helped.)

So I know, I know…I’m whining about something unimportant.

But the reason I bring this up is because I want to know if anyone else feels this way. Does having plans in the middle of the day make you feel anxious all day? Do you have a hard time really focusing and engaging in other work until the event takes place?

Submitted by: Kelly

In this together,

Candy