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“Safety, at its foundation, means physical and material safety. This is having
nourishing food, shelter, health care, access to education and learning,
clean water and air, and freedom from physical and sexual violence and
neglect—not only to your own being, but to those around you.”
– STACI HAINES, The Politics of Trauma
Given the sense of insecurity and uncertainty of current times, what are the best practices that invite us to feel safe and grounded in our lives? How as touch therapists and Mindfulness facilitators can we best support the sense of safety in people who seek our services?
These are questions that I have been asking myself recently, as I continue to observe the suffering and the level of disconnection people bring to individual and group sessions.
In my life I have come to familiarise with and cultivate three practices that continue to rescue me from various experiences and levels of pain - pain within and that has been generated from being a member of society. One is cultivating mindfulness, being present with the physical sensations of what is hurting, learning to gradually allow them, noticing how they inform or are informed by feelings, thoughts, moods and impulses to act. Learning to extend care to what I am feeling, rather than cutting myself off or entering overwhelm. At the same time being mindful of the impact of social circumstances and the way one is triggered and shaped by external events, e.g.: injustice, racism, power control, sexual discrimination and climate change. Working to expand my window of tolerance, compassion and activism.
The other two are somatic practices of Seiki-Shiatsu Touch and Amerta psychosomatic Movement. They invite one to keep listening and trusting the body intelligence, and its unfolding evolution, to show what is going on, to surrender to its ability to adapt and return to a state of homeostasis. The body here is a dynamic, everchanging process that inter-connects the heart and the wholeness of who we are and it is always in conversation with the natural and collective environment.
These methods are what I have come to offer over the years to people who come to my practice or to courses I facilitate, especially those of us who are sensitives. I have appreciated helping people to feel safe and connected again as well as being shown that the sense of safety does not respond to quick rescue fixes. How one cultivates safety is a complex and dynamic process that involves a multi-disciplinary approach as well as the making of a safer society.