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Bearing in mind it is your intention that kinda matters here you can pretty much use any form of exercise or movement as long as you are using it to tune into how your body feels. You need to develop your awareness in terms of sensations and your reactions to them, such as do the feelings/sensations scare you? Do they bring pleasure or relief? You see most of us do a really good job of freaking out when we actually feel the physiological stuff happening. We are more comfortable intellectualising about our emotions. This is easy to relate to if we consider panic or fear, but many of us also stuff down lovely feelings such as pleasure and excitement. Of course the whole range of emotions applies.

With body-oriented methods we seek to feel how our body feels without judgement and certainly without needing to describe it in terms of why we have those feelings (which is the challenge of journaling). Actually the body-oriented methods make more sense and have greater integrity than mind-oriented ones because it is the mind that gets us into the whole TMS mess. Once we become at greater ease with how our body feels (and looks, operates etc) and we no longer deny these feelings, TMS loses its reason for being. Emotions are short-lived and sometimes very intense but they pass quickly and leave us completely if we feel them and ideally express them, so crying, shouting, laughing and such.

The ways I have embraced this approach is mainly by swimming. Twice a week I go to the baths and swim and then I use the jacuzzi and sauna. I find there is something very soothing and emotionally healing about being in water and this sense is shared by many others. There are lots of walking-wounded there overcoming a range of challenges from car accidents through to operations and injury, and there are a handful of severely autistic kids who can be massively calmed down just by being in the pool. There is something primal about the relationship humans have to water.

Speaking of primal, sexuality is an awesome healing path. Mostly because pleasure tips the rage-to-soothe ratio in our favour but also because there is an ancient tradition devoted to channelling sexuality into health and happiness. Tantra is fabulous and it doesn't have to be esoteric and weird. I really like this audio series:

http://www.soundstrue.com/store/taoist-sexual-secrets-608.html (Taoist Sexual Secrets)

A lot of people love yoga. I favour Yin Yoga because you hold easy poses for longer periods and my body likes that. It often releases emotions and memories during practice and I gently contemplate them. Massage reigns supreme on body-oriented methods. I honestly believe a good massage once or twice a week would fix pretty much anything. Finding the right person and affording it is a challenge for most of us. Lastly there are very specific psychosomatic techniques that really do the job. Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) are incredible, can be self-taught and leave you feeling so sublimely peaceful and at one with your body and mind it is almost a religious experience. You'll find a book by David Berceli on Amazon and there are videos on YouTube. Essentially Berceli devised these techniques to help people overcome the horrific traumas of war and disaster. They are very popular with veterans and totally obviate the need for therapy. I don't do them any where near as often as I'd like because you really need some privacy and time afterwards to bask in beauty of the release, but I thank god for Berceli because TRE is amazing. Watch this:



Hope some of these ideas help. Feel free to ask more questions if you need to.

Plum x