The last blog for now in the stress-common-thread. I say emphatically for now, because stress plays such a major role in your not well-being in today’s contemporary society, that it is bound to keep popping up in future blogs in one form or another.
Your body is that magnificent mechanism through which you can experience life. Your body is a perfect thermometer. Your body is smarter than your head. Your body experiences life without a filter, whereas your head mostly has conditioned thought processes. Your body is the direction indicator that tells you exactly which way you want and need to go. When you cannot say ‘no’ with your head, your body will do it for you sooner or later, in the form of stress, disconnection, dissociation and/or diseases. For example, if you are living your life according to someone elses wishes or expectations, which you might not even recognize as somebody elses anymore, you will lose touch with yourself. Losing touch with yourself creates stress on every level. Movement and touch are two wonderful possibilities to get back in touch with yourself, with your body, with your passion, with what your life is all about, which is different for everybody of course.
Haptonomy/haptotherapy is about touch and connection and re-establishing communication. Haptonomy studies the emotional life and its significance for human development. The sense of touch is essential, because it is our most original ability to discover ourselves and the world around us. Our ability to feel is closely related to the sense of touch.
I have very vivid memories of me exploring the world as a little girl. Every time I saw a new object, I would ask what it was and my mom would give it to me. I could touch it, feel it, get to know it and when I was done, my mom put the object back in place and all was well in my world. And in hers, because no wining, no crying, no yelling.
Sometimes it happens that the emotional life does not develop further or that due to society’s demands, stress or trauma, thinking, doing and feeling are no longer in line; or get (partly) disconnected. Then you can get stuck in work, study, in relation to yourself and others. Restoring connection with yourself and others is the basis of recovery.
Haptotherapy is the therapeutic application. Through experiental exercises, touch and conversations with the therapist, you can learn to feel again, to get re-acquinted with the subtle signals of your body and get in better contact with others.
Myoki
