save your body for the holidays

I’m pretty sensitive to the shadow side of the holidays.

During my childhood, my mother made a big huge effort every year – she was stapling lights to the house, festooning the place with ceramic Santas, making cookies, stringing popcorn and cranberries for garlands. She would tire herself with the purchase of dozens of perfect presents for everyone; it was a full-tilt 1980s materialist glut of new possessions every Christmas morning. I loved being spoiled by her, and I have fond memories of our Christmas prep together; nonetheless, I am aware, and could even feel then, the timbre of desperation in her efforts…. the slightly crazed people-pleasing, and the freighted attempts to pacify and make happy my father – who’s lack of interest and respect for the proceedings was noticeable even to a child.

As my brother and I grew into adolescents, things grew darker; finally, over Christmas holidays in my senior year of high school – my parent’s marriage went into dissolution. That was the beginning of their break up.

As a late adolescent, living and attending university here in London – I spent some extraordinary Christmases with friends – it  felt liberating to be with a bunch of creative grown-ups, preparing our meal together in style over what had in the past been such a fraught ‘family-only’ time – nonetheless – we were all drinking (and some friends were drugging) a LOT. The crazy party Christmas model got me through my early twenties; it was only when I decided to spend a Christmas volunteering at a homeless shelter that I realised – in my sobriety – how sad I got every year at this time. It was also around this time that I first experienced chronic physical pain.

In my mid-twenties I started doing therapeutic work. I started to see the emotional component of physical holding patterns so clearly; it astonished me – both in the capacity that we have to hold all that stuff, and also to release and transform it. I studied the effect of the stress response on the tissues of the body. I started helping people to un-pack tension, and found they would quickly get free from pain they may have had for years; they would recover freedom of movement and ease of being; and I was delighted to have a way of empowering them to work on themselves with the ball work at home after they left my treatment room.

Even when people came to me with sports injuries or accident-related injuries, I started to notice that there was often an emotional-conditioning issue at play – either in the attitude of ‘no pain no gain’ people held in approaching their work-out, or in the part of the body effected by the injury. It was uncanny to me at the time. Now I understand that the body, our mind, our experiences – this is all one thing. And addressing any of these areas of self can set off a release in the others.

In my own self-healing,  I have done a tremendous amount of work over the years – from straight psychotherapy, to some pretty ‘out-there’ healing modalities. I have become an advocate of ‘perfect storm’ healing – simultaneously initiating healing practices that work on different levels – the psyche, the nervous system, the structure of the body, the subtle energy of the being – in order to create the perfect conditions for total healing. I have experienced so many moments of magic release – I truly count myself as lucky.

Body Rolling is an excellent physical aspect for ‘the perfect healing storm’, for three notable reasons:

1 – It addresses the body directly. We can’t rationalise or pretend the issue isn’t there, or get into our heads about it. The tension is there, we get on the ball – and we release it. Simple.

2 – It allows the student to do it him/herself. So many times when we have a physical problem, we have to go to someone else. There is something naturally empowering about going in there ourselves, in a supportive environment, to tend to our own healing.

3 – Body Rolling is effective. I often say it puts the foam roller to shame. And Yamuna Zake – my bodywork mentor – is rather ingenious in her approach to the body – her protocols allow you to ‘sneak’ into places you perhaps didn’t know were contracted, and comprehensively get everywhere in the body in a short period of time to ensure maximum release, and release that lasts.

I can earnestly say that Yamuna Body Rolling changed my body, and changed my life.

Going into the body to get clear and free in the midst of the holiday madness – even if you don’t experience the Christmas blues like I used to – just makes sense. Even if we genuinely are trauma-free, we still experience the human stress response. In the push to get our work done before the new year – to get all the shopping done – to look after our kids while they are off from school – to get through all the Christmas parties – there’s a million ways to get wound up at Christmas.

In the season known for it’s imperative to ‘give’ and ‘be merry’, I invite you to serve yourself first – and consider how much merrier you can be with greater freedom in your body. It’s my honour to spend this time with you, and share something that has been so meaningful to me in my own healing process.

May your days be merry and bright – and may you have a deliciously decompressed holiday this year.

Leila Sadeghee is a personal mentor, therapeutic bodyworker, and yoga teacher with well over a decade’s experience in guiding people to physical, mental, and emotional well-being. She has been teaching Yamuna Body Rolling, and practising the deep bodywork that gave rise to it, Yamuna Body Logic, since 2001, when she became the sole apprentice of the work’s creator in New York City. After four years of intensive study and practice, she came to London to open her own private practice in 2005. Her teaching is inspiring, radiantly clear, informative, supremely fun, and driven by a commitment to serve people in opening to their highest potential, both in the classroom, and in the whole of their lives. She is the co-creator of the Freedom and Wellbeing Immersion and the Practices of Leadership and Empowerment Yoga Teacher Training, and she leads events and retreats in London and abroad that support becoming free from pain, and ‘up-levelling’ your life’s vibrancy in every way. For more information please visit: www.leilasadeghee.com

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