Embodied Boundaries - Guided Practice

This short guided practice explores your sense of personal space and boundaries through the body. Standing, you stretch into the space around you, imagine a bubble or containing shape marking its edges, and notice its colour, texture and thickness, any holes in it, and who you allow inside. You then consider what changes you would like to make to your bubble and notice how it feels in your body to be inside it. This content is educational and is not a substitute for one to one professional care.

Transcript

We our body tells us. Whether it's not okay when someone comes in to our personal space, For example. Or whether it does feel okay. So we have that visceral feeling often in our gut or there'll be some kind of contraction that happens in our bodies. So for this first exercise, You'll need to be standing. So I'll just let you take your time to find a place in the room where you can move easily. Okay, So as you come to your feet, Just feeling your feet grounded, So just bringing your awareness into your own body, Feeling. Some sense of the ground and also you may just want to stretch your body in sitting. And just as you begin to stretch and move your body, However your body wants to move right now. Starting to stretch to explore with your hands and your arms this space around your body. Space above you. The space to the side. Behind you. And out in front of you. And you can close your eyes and just sensing as you reach and stretch that this is it. Your personal space. That you're moving into and exploring this space around your body as your personal space. And that there is a boundary. That you can imagine as A bubble? Or another containing shape. That marks the edges of your personal space. So you may want to close your eyes if you have your eyes open. To visualize this bubble or this containing shape. What colour, What texture. Does this have? How thick is your bubble? What kind of material is it made out of? And if it's a containing shape, What kind of shape is it? And notice if there are any holes. And you pop on or you shine. How close it is to your body. Or how far away. So really visualising it, Getting a really clear picture of this. And then just. . . Bringing to mind, Who do you allow into your bubble inside? To come close. And who is on the outside of your bubble. And then just imagining are there any changes you might want to make to your bubble. So how would you like your bubble to be? And it might be that it's as it is, Or it may be that there are some changes you would make. Perhaps there are areas you'd like it to be thicker. Texture. Or if there are holes that you don't want there to be holes. For the colour to be different. So as I invite that, Just see what comes to mind. How you'd like your bubble to be. And just really noticing how you feel inside this bubble. So what are the sensations in your body? Your relationship to the ground as you visualize this.