Learning to Feel Movement Thoroughly Is as Subtle as Learning to Taste Water

This blog post was written by Handspring author Sherry Brourman, author of From Bodily Knowledge to Intuitive Movement.

When it comes to sensing distinctions within our own movement, I believe natural human longing for safety coupled with our perfectionistic culture breeds a special self-conscious movement impatience. We’re compelled to know, to rush, to categorize, to perform—whether for others or ourselves—and all of this obstructs bodily presence and the self-awareness that comes with it.

Even the simple intention to shift into a calmer, slower gear—the state needed to take the time to truly feel movement can seem ambiguous or uncomfortably unfamiliar. Initially, just setting that intention may bring anxiety. This isn’t resistance to truth, a character flaw, or the absence of some innate ability that only some people have. Yet it appears and feels subtly defensive.

In over fifty years of observing, discussing, and guiding people toward greater movement sensitivity, I’ve come to believe that simple underexposure is the main barrier. Whether chemist or athlete, most people have had little experience with this kind of inner attention—and so we can grow shy, even to our own witness, much less someone else’s.


Please sit upright in a chair as you read this next part. For today, I’m choosing a less common area as more familiar tensions often fade into background noise making them harder to discern—so we aim for a place new enough to grab your attention. The exploration begins with the more recognizable layer (physical) and moves to deeper layers (mental, emotional, spiritual) as we stay with the process.

Please begin leaning a bit forward in your chair and lifting a heel so that you’re leaning on the toes and ball of that foot; toes pressing into the ground and heel lifted. ‘Listen’ to your toes, as they press into the ground. Then:

  • Pause and scan your body for tension.

Now, trace what else is involved in this sensation.

  • Is there tension in an adjacent joint or muscle?
  • Does an entire leg or even the entire body weigh in to this sensation?
  • Might this reflect a movement habit like commonly lifting a heel when sitting, that repeats regularly.

Try describing every nuance you notice:

“When my heel rises, I press my first three toes into the floor along their medial sides. My knee rolls inward slightly, my same side hip gets tired, and my medial calf stays subtly tense.”

Now, widen your scan:

  • Is there unrelated tension in your jaw, neck, or chest that tends to accompany this pattern?
  • What about your breath? Don’t change it—just observe its rhythm and depth.

If you notice shallow breathing or a rhythm shift, pay close attention—Is it familiar? Does this breath rhythm feel relaxed or somewhat tense? Now, down-shift even a small amount to level the rhythm a bit. Then ask:

Did that shift also influence the tension in my toes? Anyplace else?

As you notice and name sensations, the language you choose becomes a bridge: between subtle awareness, physical action, and your relationship with other bodily systems. This kind of linking is at the heart of bodily awareness.

And then perhaps—if you stay with it—you might sense even finer threads:

  • Does this tension carry an emotion?
  • Is it old?
  • Does it muddy or clarify your current thoughts or intentions?

This sample can be tricky since just reading and sensing in this position can be cumbersome and render it seemingly useless. Do this process- take your time with a different posture/tension and then talk someone through as their guide. With a little more sampling, you’ll be able to use it comfortably and get a good sense of how reading inwardly, articulating for yourself, brings bodily awareness and improves your ability to articulate with others.

***

From Bodily Knowledge to Intuitive Movement prepares physical therapists, yoga therapists and all movement practitioners to recognize various components of discomfort including the bio, psycho, social and spiritual contributions to posture, movement patterns, and to their pain. This book offers practical advice, real-life examples and case studies as well as deep insight into how individual bodies can move and heal within each body’s ‘normal.’ Sherry Brourman masterfully coalesces physical therapy, yoga therapy and pain science to create this valuable resource that ultimately utilizes intuitive movement for better health.

How Aroma and Aromatherapy Support Trauma Healing

Written by Helen Nagle-Smith, author of Aroma, Aromatherapy and Trauma and Working with Unusual Essential Oils.

How important is your sense of smell to you? As an aromatherapist, I really value my nose and the complex relationship between my sense of smell and brain. I understand that my olfactory bulb is closely linked to the parts of the brain that process emotions, memories and fears. In the millisecond we smell something we can have a negative or positive response. Inhaling the scent of a rose, takes me back to happy, sunny summer days as a child, playing in my garden with my sibling making rose perfume. 

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Treating Eczema and Neurodermatitis with Chinese Herbal Medicine

Ahead of the publication of her newest book, Sabine Schmitz, talks about why she wrote the newest book and what you the role of Chinese herbal medicine in dermatology.

What inspired you to write a book about treating eczema and neurodermatitis with Chinese herbal medicine?

That’s an easy one to answer: During my TCM studies in China, I had quite a hard time finding English literature on Chinese dermatology that covered the various specialized topics. This was especially challenging since I needed to write my Master’s thesis on psoriasis. As a Westerner, I spent hours, even days, searching for books and reading literature that often wasn’t specific enough and repetitive. That’s how the idea to write a handbook series on TCM dermatology came about, to fill this gap in the literature. And let’s be honest, a medical tradition with over 2,500 years of experience should have appropriate publications on these topics. In Western medicine, there are numerous specialized books for each medical field—a tradition I wished for in TCM as well. This is crucial to making knowledge accessible to many therapists and laying the foundation for specialization.

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Nutritional Therapy in Traditional Chinese Medicine: An Introduction

Written by Sabine Schmitz, a TCM practitioner and Singing Dragon author of Treating Acne and Rosacea with Chinese Herbal Medicine and Treating Psoriasis with Chinese Herbal Medicine. Sabine’s upcoming title Treating Eczema and Neurodermatitis with Chinese Herbal Medicine will be published with us in September 2024.

In this blog post, Sabine delves into the topic of Nutritional Therapy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), highlighting its significant role as a fundamental component within every TCM treatment.

Nutritional Therapy in Traditional Chinese Medicine

There are many things to love about China, and one of them is undoubtedly its wonderful cuisine. As delicious and diverse as Chinese food may be, did you know that the Chinese also use food as a means to regulate and restore balance to the body? This form of nutrition is known as Chinese nutritional therapy, and that’s exactly what I want to talk to you about today.

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Sensing Through the Skin

Leonie Taylor & Charlotte Watts explore how our skin is the first line in communication, both to our internal landscape and the world around us.

The integumentary system (aka the skin)

The integumentary system, otherwise known as our skin, is both a boundary and a contact surface, a sensory organ. Every inch of our skin hosts over 2.5 million bacteria. The make-up of the skin microbiome varies greatly between individuals as well as where on the body it is, influenced by:

  • Physiology: sex hormones, age and site
  • Environment: climate and geographical location
  • Immune system: previous exposures and inflammation
  • Genotype: susceptibility genes
  • Lifestyle: occupation, hygiene
  • Pathology: underlying conditions
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Meeting the author – Carol Rose

Below is a chance to get to know Carol Rose, author of upcoming Integrating Clinical Aromatherapy in Palliative Care, publishing 18th May.

How did you become interested in essential oils and aromatherapy?

My first encounter with essential oils happened in the 1980’s as a newly registered nurse specialising in oncology at London’s Royal Marsden Hospital.  During that time, I observed patients receiving gentle hand massages using simple blends of lavender and sweet marjoram, fragrances that captured my attention and also my curiosity. In those moments of connection, where touch was non-medicalised, a different level of communication was taking place. Patients were visibly relaxing by this compassionate form of physical touch and tangible act of caring.  For me, something transformational happened as I listened to these patients speak of their restful night’s sleep and tranquil dreams; a paradox given this was a busy hospital environment and they were all confronting a life-threatening diagnosis of cancer.  This discovery of a different level of patient care spoke straight to my heart.

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Meditation and the microbiome

We explore why listening in to and cultivating compassion for your microbiome can affect your whole health, including your immunity and mood…

Written by Charlotte Watts and Leonie Taylor, co-authors of Yoga Therapy for Digestive Health and Yoga and Somatics for Immune and Respiratory Health.

When we explore a meditative yoga or somatic practice, we bring attention to the subtle body, our interior landscape, as a means of then expanding clearer compassionate connection to our environment. In scientific terms, this plays out in the relationship between our microbiome and our whole body-mind integration, and out into the world around us.

The importance of the gut environment – the microbiome – on all aspects of our health, including psychological, is being increasingly researched. We are home to trillions of bacteria and, in a healthy digestive tract, 80% friendly, 20% pathogenic. The beneficial or probiotic bacteria help keep harmful bacteria as well as colonisers like yeast in check. Low probiotic bacteria levels are associated with depression and fatigue states, whereas a healthy gut flora can modulate the hypersensitivity that may come from chronic exposure to stress. Our microbiome is now believed to be a large part of the signalling mechanisms up through the gut-brain axis, where its communication plays a vital role in healthy brain function.

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The vitality of nasal breathing

How we breathe effects every system in the body, from our energy and stress levels, our focus and creativity, to our immune and digestive health.

By Charlotte Watts and Leonie Taylor, co-authors of Yoga & Somatics for Immune & Respiratory Health

Pranayama, yogic breathing, means ‘extends life force’. This points to the importance of the breath to our whole health; healthy breathing patterns not only support respiratory health but also affect our immune capacity. This in turn affects our digestive and whole body health.

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Boosting sperm quality with integrative Chinese Medicine-finding ways out of ´Spermageddon´

Dr. Pojer is president of the OGKA (Austrian Society for Controlled Acupuncture and TCM) and an academic at the Medical University of Graz (Austria). She has written a post based on the topic of her new book Integrative Treatment of Male Infertility with Chinese Medicine.

On average one out of six European couples experience sub/infertility. Looking at the reasons for unfulfilled parenthood, approximately 50 percent are due to female pathology and 50 percent are due to male issues. However, society as well as medicine (both Western and Eastern approaches) tends to focus on treating the female side of childless couples. Since the percentage of male factor infertility is the same as that for female infertility, treatment of the male partner is underrepresented. The overall sperm quality has dropped by 50% within the last 40 years but additionally, the COVID pandemic has aggravated the problem. On top of this, the male factor plays an important role in early pregnancy loss and should be treated to prevent miscarriage.

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