Hi,
My name is Orit Krug,
Board Certified Dance Movement Therapist and Trauma and Relationship Expert.
Today,
I would love to share with you a movement meditation on feeling safe to be happy.
When we experience trauma in the past,
We store this belief in our bodies and in our nervous systems that it is not safe to be happy.
Maybe the last time you were happy was the same time that you unexpectedly got hurt and lost it all.
Or maybe your happiness drew in too much attention and made the people who hurt you angry and hurt you even more.
Even if this happened many,
Many years ago and you can tell your mind that it is safe to be happy,
We need to make sure your body believes it too.
So in this meditation,
I'm going to help you connect to your body so that you can understand deeply and clearly what needs to happen in order to finally feel safe to be happy again.
You can begin in any position that feels comfortable for you.
And once you find that,
We're going to take three deep breaths together.
Breathing in and breathing out.
And breathing in and breathing out.
One more time,
Breathing in and breathing out.
Closing your eyes or lowering your gaze.
I'm going to invite you now to visualize or imagine a version of you that is truly happy and allows yourself to be happy.
Picture this version of yourself in your mind's eye.
How are you moving your body now that you're happy?
How are you holding yourself in your body now that you're happy?
You might see yourself on your two feet walking a certain way.
You might see yourself walking into a room in a certain way.
Maybe you just see yourself sitting down somewhere holding yourself in a different way.
Whatever this visualization looks like for you,
I'm going to ask you to start inviting movement into it.
So how does your body naturally want to respond to this image of a happy version of yourself?
If you saw yourself holding yourself in more softness,
You may literally invite that into your body.
If you saw yourself with more energy and bounce in your step,
You can also literally invite that kind of movement into your body.
If you were safely a happy version of yourself,
How would you move right now?
Invite that in,
Allow yourself to experience how you might hold yourself differently.
This can be as simple as standing up and allowing yourself to walk,
Maybe with your shoulders more open,
Your chest more open,
Maybe with your head up a little higher.
What would it look like for you to be happy and safe to be happy?
Move this,
Let your body lead.
Your mind and your thoughts might want to dominate here and tell you how you should be moving or holding yourself differently as you're safe to be happy.
And if that happens,
That's normal and that's okay.
But just bring the focus back to your body,
Allowing movement to organically and naturally come up,
Letting your body lead you to a taste of this safe,
Happy version of you.
You may be repeating the same movements over and over again,
Or maybe you're finding that your movements are developing into something else,
Maybe expanding more out into space.
So maybe this happy version of you takes up more space in a powerful way.
Maybe you find yourself physically touching yourself more,
Connecting with yourself more,
Holding yourself in a compassionate and loving way.
That might mean that your movements look smaller right now and that this happy version of yourself is connected to you being in stronger connection with yourself through love and self-compassion.
There's no right or wrong here.
I'm just providing some examples of what might come up.
You might simply find yourself standing up on your own two feet and holding yourself more confidently,
More powerfully.
You might find that you start moving in spontaneous ways,
In ways that are more daring and bold.
Maybe you take a little leap through the room,
Or you turn,
You twirl.
It could be a young spirited vibe to your movement.
Any or all of these things could come up and maybe remind you of a time where you were happy without worrying about losing it all or worrying about it creating more trauma for you.
If you can connect to a taste of this version of yourself,
Then you have the physical experience in your body that it is possible to become this version of yourself.
When your body believes that truly it is safe to be happy,
It quiets down the mind that says it's not.
And it also comes to agreement and alignment with the mind that's trying to say that it is.
If you can feel a taste of being happy right now in your body and in your movement,
You know it's accessible to you.
So keep moving right now,
This happy version of you that feels safe to be happy.
And if you ever feel stuck at all during this experience,
You can always pause,
Close your eyes,
And visualize this happy version of you again and inviting organic movement.
If you feel stuck at all through this,
It might just mean that you've come back into your mind,
Which makes it really hard to tune into what your body wants to do.
And that's okay.
That's an important part of this experience too.
If there are things getting in the way of you being this version of yourself that is happy,
Acknowledge those too.
If you find yourself getting stuck in your head of what to do or is this right or wrong or doubts of can I really be happy?
Then this experience has revealed to you that it is the getting stuck in your head and the thoughts that keeps you from feeling safe to be happy.
And that could be a matter of shifting the thoughts.
Or if you've tried to shift those thoughts before and they still won't shift,
Then you know it's a matter of unresolved trauma that will not shift until it shifts through the body.
Perhaps fear stops you in the moment from truly allowing yourself to try on this happy version of yourself.
You might hear some words,
What if I lose it all?
What if this isn't real?
What if I can't hold on to this?
Move with it.
Don't try to push it away,
But allow your movements to move with it,
Move through it.
And in a moment,
I'm going to start asking you to gradually,
Slowly make your movements smaller and slower so that you can incrementally come down to a close so that you can gently find an ending here or at least a pause if this feels unfinished.
So however you're moving right now,
Whatever you're doing,
Start incrementally making your movements slower and smaller until you reach a satisfying ending.
You might want to find an ending pose for this,
Something to signify that this is the end of this experience.
See where your body leads you.
And once you've slowed down and have found stillness and maybe even a pose,
We're going to take a deep breath in together.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Whatever this experience was for you,
See if you can find meaning from it on how your body allowed you to feel safe to be happy or perhaps how your mind didn't allow you and your body to feel safe to be happy.
Whether you see your experience as positive or negative,
It really is neither.
It just is an experience where you can gain more meaning about where you're at and what you can do next.
And if you're not sure,
You can come back to this meditation and continue moving through the layers.
Thank you so much for joining and until next time,
You deserve to be happy.
