Not all communications use language. The psyche uses the body to communicate dissociated emotional experiences. The body remembers everything that ever happened to us. The human body is a carrier of trauma, unfinished business, unlived potentials, deep psychological insights, and sacred meanings.
As early as 1904 Jung realized that there is a somatic aspect to deeply unconscious psychic elements. He noticed through his word association test in conjunction with pulse and respiration (breathing) rate measurements as well as the psycho-galvanic reflex phenomenon that important or difficult content is associated with physiological reactions that are beyond the control of the will. This led to his theory of complexes. Jung points out: ‘it is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing’. (1)
Marion Woodman focussed on the integration of psyche and soma, seeing the body structure as a ground for opening to consciousness. She advocated for an ‘embodied consciousness’ in her BodySoul Rhythms (BSR), making a significant contribution to engaging the body in healing the body/psyche split. Body work is Soul work, “a way of accessing the spirit in matter and discovering insight through a deep, loving relationship to the body as life.” (2)
Tina Stromsted writes: “A more evolved awareness of self makes possible a more sensitive and nuanced relationship with one’s environment – interpersonally, politically and ecologically. The body plays a central role in this; for with a more vital, felt sense of one’s own embodied experience, one cannot help but resonate with the life force that animates all living beings. Instead of fleeing to spirit when feelings in the body are too uncomfortable to bear – thus passing them from generation to generation through unconscious trauma patterns – one can find a spiritual home in the body.” (3)
The more we become attuned to our own bodies, the more we will realise that “the body is an instrument of truth” (4), and that true intuition can flow through it. We need to hear, recognise and decipher the body’s messages before they become symptoms of distress or illness.
Join us this month as we explore the importance of the body from a Jungian perspective. Sign up for our public lecture later this month: Breathwork as a pathway to embodied consciousness in the journey towards individuation.
Written for @jungsouthernafrica
Image credit: La Danse - Henri Matisse
References: (1) Jung, Carl Gustav. The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, 2nd edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969, p. 215, para 418. (2) Menter, L. L. (2018). Transcendence from below: The embodied feminine mysticism of Marion Woodman. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 37 (2). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24972/ijts.2018.37.2.49 (3) Stromsted, Tina. (2014). The alchemy of Authentic Movement: Awakening spirit in the body. In Williamson, A., Whatley, S., Batson, G., & Weber R. (Eds.), Dance, somatics and spiritualities: Contemporary sacred narratives, leading edge voices in the field: sensory experiences of the divine (pp. 35-60). Bristol, United Kingdom: Intellect Books. (4) Reeves, Paula M. (1999) Women’s Intuition: Unlocking the Wisdom of the Body, Berkeley: Conari Press.
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