A Sway in Your Hips
I love to watch hula dancers. They move their hips so freely and emanate an immense amount of command . I, on the other hand, was a highland dancer. This is a very rigid dance where not much motion occurs in the hips. As a result of doing this for 10 years starting at age 7, I developed lots of challenges in my legs and low back and had to work extremely diligently to regain the freedom of motion that was lost from doing this activity.
When an area of the body is restricted, it doesn’t only affect you physically, but also energetically. This will have an impact on your emotional state as well as your belief system. The hips are in the area of the first and second chakra, the first relating to survival, the second to how we experience pleasure in relationship and with ourselves. There is more to it than that, however when the physical body has created adhesions that create rigidity in this area, feelings of safety and enjoying pleasure are skewed.
I can personally relate to this. My younger years were extremely challenged. I had intense anxiety, struggled in relationships to feel worthy of love, and had a tremendous amount of guilt and behavioral challenges that only increased with time. I was caught in a cycle of self-abuse. I longed to feel normal and experience a life that I saw others having, yet I was so disconnected from a healthy mindset that joy eluded me.
As time went on, my belly continued to accumulate size and tension. I was extremely short waisted and struggled with constipation. I hated this area and felt it took me away from feeling sensuous in my body. No wonder, that area was so full of waste not released; how can one feel beautiful and graceful when the past is literally trapped inside the core
When my journey of fascia decompression began, it started with me working in the belly. The amount of scar tissue I was connecting to was alarming as I hadn’t had injury or surgery in this area. I have learned over the years that what I was feeling resulted from adhesions that developed over the years from using my body in forceful ways that took me away from correct alignment and conscious breathing.
Dancing is just one of those activities, but I can see how the combination of the dance combined with the energy around the experience created this tension within.
Firstly, with highland dancing, a strong turn-out is one of the positions the body is constantly positioned in. All movements and actions come from this alignment which ultimately creates a shortening of the hip flexors. Combined with the sharp and rigid actions of jumping on 1 leg on the ball of the foot while taking the other leg into a variety of movements, intense compensations occur over time resulting in a powerful migration of fascia. Physically, I had a flat butt and a thickening in the pelvis -- not the look I was going for.
This combined with the energy around the experience really sealed the deal. I am not Scottish, so right away I felt disconnected from the community. I also won several championships yet wasn’t celebrated like the others as I was an outsider (at least this was my perspective). I had this drive to perform and succeed yet had no friends in the community and didn’t relate. My first 2 chakras were confused, and I felt isolated and alone.
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The day I began diving my hand into my abdomen was the seed of everything to come, and I will be forever grateful for that anxiety attack that led me to doing this work. Immediately I felt a freedom that I always longed to experience, and a breath that had control.
Deanna Hansen - Founder
There were many things that happened in my life that brewed this sense of confusion, but I truly believe there was a lot in this one experience that created immense pain and suffering. The combination of the physical adhesions from the actions of the dance, combined with the negative emotions surrounding the experience left me feeling like a fish out of water, vulnerable and without a way to relate to others in a healthy way.
The day I began diving my hand into my abdomen was the seed of everything to come, and I will be forever grateful for that anxiety attack that led me to doing this work. Immediately I felt a freedom that I always longed to experience, and a breath that had control. I also felt the change in my size and shape within 2 days which brought immense excitement to me as I had struggled for years with my weight. The freeing of adhesions over time created a movement in the hips that I only dreamed of in the past, and I have to say I continue to learn and refine this area of my body as I dive through the deeper layers and mindsets that cemented me in this unhealthy and habitual pattern.
As with everything, there needs to be an understanding of the alignment of the body in order to create freedom combined with stability to be able to explore the reaches of our potential, while staying safely within the ranges to prevent injury. This week of the 21-day pelvis, legs and feet program comes in sequence, after we have created A Solid Stance in week 1, and a Spring in Your Step, in week 2. Now we can safely move into the pelvis to restore the natural alignment we were given at birth which allows access to flow, grace and ease.
I love to dance now. I feel I can take my hips to ranges that I never could before and move with a sense of freedom that awakens the sensual being that was lost for years in the adhesions. I feel immense pleasure within my body as I let go and appreciate the way it moves, reminding me of the hula dancers I admire. I may not look like they do, but I feel like I look like they do, and that for me is magical!
Breathe & Believe
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