YES and NO…such powerful words, simple really…straight forward…right?
Ha!
How often do you say ‘YES’ when you really mean ‘NO’? Or perhaps you say ‘NO’ but wish you were saying ‘YES’. It can all be so complicated!
This is precisely why I love exploring yes and no through the body…through movement and through the powerful bioenergetics of each of these words. Try it yourself…say ‘YES’ and see what your body wants to do. Some times it helps to close your eyes and feel into it…then say ‘NO’ and see what your body does.
In our group this week we got curious about ‘YES’ and found a natural opening in the body, arms open and sometimes raised up was the corresponding body posture…a feeling of openness. We then explored ‘NO’ and found more of an edge, a punctuation, and feeling of tightness was reported by some. We tried adding a hip thrust while saying ‘NO’ and this brought more power and possession of the energy of no…a great discovery.
As the group moved through the evening with various experiments for movement there were giggles, shrieks and powerful exclamations. Things were heating up! Women were moving into the energy of YES and NO with more ownership, experimenting and building their capacity for fluency with embodied boundaries.
As this continued, I began to witness a shift in the room…as if something got unlocked. It was palpable, the range of expression and movement expanded. The YES became fuller and the NO more clear and defined. Timidness melted away and the essential energy of these words were being owned. Both power and joy entered these dancers. I could see and feel the magic we were creating.
As the music and expression began to settle and move towards quiet, as bodies began to rest and find their own stillness, I could feel more space in the room. So interesting. More space…when we practice boundaries, where we start and stop, what we will and will not allow, do or engage with, you might imagine it would be limiting. I experienced the opposite.
With clear boundaries there came new permission to fill out the YES space with more expansion and energetic possession of self in space, as if it became more ok to ‘take up space’ or to ‘exist’. I witnessed the safety that comes with trusting we have our own back, that we can count on our self to set a boundary, to stand for what matters. There is a relaxing into this holding, container or boundary that is invited and observable. Bodies were more at ease as they moved between expressing yes and no, movements freeer and expanded. Emotions seemed to be more available as well, smiles, tears, and powerful boundaried moves were all dancing together.
I get it: when we give ourselves permission to have clear, empowered, embodied boundaries we create more space for what really matters. We clear space for us…for our desires, our most important expressions. We invoke safety for our self so we can relax in knowing we will champion our most precious truth. We soften into this and simultaneously find the clarity that creates the container. What a powerful teaching from two ‘simple’ words moving in, through and with the body.
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