Do you secretly love/ hate to hear about odd things that people do in bed?
If so, this article might make your day! Sexy or not, I love to do a particular set of exercises every morning in order to stay open and feel more alive and to keep vital nectar circulating well in my body.
What is this sexy vital nectar?
Wilhelm Reich is an important influence in what I am about to share so all aspects of our being are part of the process. The gentle movements that I’m writing about help me feel present in my body and ready for the day before I even step out of bed. They loosen segmental blocks that have occurred and continue to occur during my life and keep me lubricated and open from the inside out.
Reich’s Segments
One of Reich’s important discoveries was his theory about the “Segments” of the body. This term refers to muscle groups and plasmatic currents that work together in the biopsychosocial system. They move on a horizontal plane across the body and have the capacity to either facilitate or block our emotional expression.
According to Reich, and true to my experience, our life force moves from the center of the body to the periphery, and then beyond, leading us out into the world. It is the expression of our natural impulse. When this occurs, we feel pleasure. As adults, these segments dictate what we express. When we subdue our impulses over time the segments block our expression and become a protective armoring that comes between our full self and the world, leading us to react habitually instead of in response to what may be best in any given moment.
Segmental armoring is both muscular and emotional. It stops the current of life flow like what occurs when a hose is pinched. Think about the strength in your jaw. You may be able to see how effective a muscle can be in cutting off flow. The spine undulates like a worm and the presence of armoring inhibits spinal movement and expression; it cuts off our life force from inside, trapping our energy in the system.
Reich’s work consisted of laying people down and provoking the blocks through specific physical and breathing exercises. As the muscle groups were stimulated, the emotional material arose to be worked through and expressed, leading to an opening of the segment through catharsis and resulting in life changes. In the work that has evolved into Core Energetics, we understand that the whole person must be addressed. That means that the issues that come up in treatment must be tracked and healed on all the levels of our being: the body, our emotions, our thinking patterns, and our will or the level of behavior, as well as our spiritual perceptions. I call this the 5 levels.
When an issue arises, we examine how the experience leading up to the situation manifests in energy, (most often colored by events from our early life experiences) and how this reactive energy is either expressed or trapped, not just in blocks and the literal armoring, but on all of these 5 levels. When we address each level for a particular set of experiences that led us to unconsciously form a block, we allow for deep grounded change to occur. We incorporate neurobiology and trauma theory to the work in order to avoid flooding the system during the treatment. And yet, in Core Energetics, we believe that expression is key to therapy, even while we understand that expression manifests in many forms. For example, a deep sigh can be a huge opening in the system. And sometimes a tennis racket, pillow, and the movement of long held deep rage is called for. Both effect change for the whole system and make room for life- force to flow anew.
7 Segments, 7 Blocks,
The Ocular Block controls what we see, what we allow into our field. Eyes are the “window to our soul”, our place of expressing and receiving, of bonding and boundaries and reality testing. Proceed with care here. The muscles around the eyes are the first and only ones that a newborn human can control so our youngest information, and our earliest wounding, may be stored and possibly activated through stimulating gentle eye movement. It involves the many muscles around our eyes and the entire ring around our head. Many people with ocular blocks get tension headaches.
The Oral Block affects the mouth, nose, throat, our food intake, smiling, swallowing, the
jaw, neck, sternoclydomastoid muscle, and the tongue, which connects to the cervical vertebrae. Babies explore the world through these muscles when they are 6-18 months old and many of the beliefs and patterns related to asking for and getting our needs met are stored here. It is also related to our libido, our experience/ expression of pleasure, of nourishment and of connecting. It, along with the eyes, are directly connected with the nervous system.
Neck Block, the hotbed of tension, includes the throat, which has the capacity to express the energy of our whole body. Including the gag reflex, it is tied to the diaphragm and also loosens some of the lower segments. When one is safe to express their true experience, there is a deep biological release and opening. It is directly related to speaking our ‘no’ or our ‘yes’, both with our voice and with our arms; to taking in nourishment and pleasure or rejecting what disgusts us.
Chest Segment involves the pectoralis, intercostal, deltoid, trapezius, ramrods, elector spines and other muscles. It integrates our experience with contact, presence, breath, self-compassion, boundaries, and what we can take in. It is our heart center, our feeling center and our center of perception as it is the seat of our largest nerve plexus that allows us to take in information from our senses. Our immune function is highly affected by this segment.
Diaphramatic Block forms a ring around our lower rib. It includes the stomach, kidney and liver. The solar plexus is affected by this block too. It is where the Will meets the involuntary system and regulates how much we can take in. Try to tighten your diaphragm and see how you can have a big relaxing breath! It is impossible because the muscle prevents the intake. When open, this segment seats our instinct and gut feelings. Think about strength and see how it is a central energy regulator as breath is key to all of this. This can be a place where underground power plays are initiated.
Abdominal segment includes all our back and abdominal muscles, and our digestive organs. This area holds information from our earliest connection – – the symbiotic exchange through our umbilical cord, and the preverbal bonding capacity that we learned. Think gut reactions, instincts. It is where we “digest” figuratively and literally. It affects metabolism, what we want or don’t want, trust, and our personal, rather than relational, sense of self.
Pelvic segment includes all pelvic and reproductive muscles. This segment cannot remain open unless the energy has somewhere to go. It also holds the key to our fuller life flow and orgiastic potency. It is the seat of kundalini, of the sacrum or sacred. It regulates survival, elimination, mobility, and pleasure. It initiates the pumping of the lymphatic system, which keeps us clean and alive, a place of potential regeneration. Be very careful not to provoke movement in this segment until the others are open and beware because we store a lot of sensitive material here.
Block Work
When we first begin to loosen the muscular segment in a therapeutic milieu, we watch for material to come through images, emotions, and one’s thinking patterns. It is important
for people to work with a trained practitioner when beginning to loosen these segments.
In treatment we see what the client wants to work on and through observation we can bring awareness to the segments involved in their interactions. When we begin to loosen the blocked muscles of the segments regarding the situation, it is most likely that images from similar experiences will come up. This is when we can dance between the 5 levels to see how we can unearth trapped energy from old experiences that haven’t been fully processed in order to free the client. What ensues can be a more accurate read on what is going on in their present situation and a transformation of old pervasive patterns of relating that had been formed from early experiences.
Once a person acclimates to this work and is equipped with a trustworthy observer mind that can help them track their process, they can begin to do these exercises on their own.
A Morning Exercise Process
Upon waking, begin to gently roll your eyes around in the eye socket, move them up and down and all around, zig -zag. Look far out, look close in. Find the sticky spots that your eyes tend to jump over and gently see if you can move in that direction and wonder what material might be stored in that muscle tension. Be gentle. Close your eyes. Relax. Repeat a couple of times.
Now begin to open your mouth wide and take in a boatload of air, maybe in segments by sucking a small bit of air in to the belly, some more into the mid belly, the low chest, then fill the chest and hold. Let go all at once, perhaps shaking a little to allow the full expulsion of your breath. Breathe all the way down to the belly. As you let go, let the air sound like a whisper, “ahhhhhhh”. Breathe deeply again. Hold the air in with your mouth open wide until a gentle sigh invites you to release. Do this a few times, making sounds across your vocal chords as you breath out. The next time you take in air, make the whisper sound, “uh, uh, uh ahhh” in larger gulps with your mouth opening increasingly wider before you let go. Hopefully, after some practice, this will take you into the spontaneous and involuntary depth movement of a yawn, which deeply relaxes the respiratory system from your mouth to the bottom of your lungs. Y-A-W- ahah ah ahN! Yes, I am suggesting that you literally teach yourself to yawn on a whim!
Now pause for a moment, feel the relaxation from the inside out. You may perceive moisture moving into your mouth cavity. Relax and enjoy the movement of your life processes into the periphery of your body.
Next begin to stick your tongue out and make the sound, “blah, blah aa aaah”. Stick your tongue out further. Maybe you will change the word to “ble eecch”. See if you can let your body express the feeling of disgust through these motions. While disgust might not be something you seek to feel, it is important for the body to have access to this natural reflexive response in order to protect us from toxins.
And in order to do this, our muscles must be flexible. It takes getting used to, but many of us stick our fingers down our throat, once again attempting to provoke the deep involuntary movement from inside the body, this time, stimulating the gag reflex. After this you should again feel deep opening and relaxation into many areas from your mouth through your neck and deep into your torso, and feel your fluids moving throughout the body. Take time to allow yourself to integrate and enjoy the opening.
Do note that people with a history of eating disorders may not be good candidates for working this particular segment on their own and in this way as it may stimulate their old eating disorder behavior and mindsets. But for many others, being able to open this expression can be life altering and I have seen many people positively impact their TMJ through gagging regularly. And maintaining the opening through a morning practice gives us all autonomy over our health.
Lastly put your feet flat while still lying on the bed. Pushing downward, begin to gently bounce your pelvis onto the bed. You will be making contact right at your sacrum. Do this for a few moments. Stop. Repeat. Rest with your knees together. Maybe move from your knees allowing them to gently open and close. Again, take time relax, feel your presence in your body in the moment. Put your legs flat and your arms overhead and stretch every which way for a few moments. When you are ready, come upright and let your feet find the floor. Rise and meet the day!
Conclusion
The body holds energy from all our experiences that have not been fully digested. Our emotions, muscles, posture, attitudes and belief systems form from this material and impact our experience and quality of life moving forward. The earliest life experiences are most impactful. Working gently to loosen the material and bring ourselves back into flow, combining it with expression and awareness, facilitates deep lasting change. Maintaining an open system is easy to do once we have begun to work. Sexy or not, I find these simple exercises help me to usher in my day with joy and presence, and I present them in the hope of lifting each and every one of you who have taken the time to read this.
