Both cultures and religions conspire to marginalize the body, and now, of course, technology reinforces the problem. Our physical activity and sense of being at home in our bodies has diminished. Nielsen ratings note, for instance, that children and adults spend an average of six hours a day sitting in front of some screen or monitor.
In quest of antidotes, somatic trainer and counselor Christine Caldwell provides a hands-on manual with many practices she designed to discern the body's role in the development of consciousness, the achievement of emotional maturity, the connection with others, and personal, social and spiritual transformation. Her 30 years of teaching at Naropa University, where she founded the Somatic Counseling Program, give her a remarkable range of experiential reflection exercises to share.
With just the right mix of critical edge and hopefulness for change, she speaks out against the personal and societal problems which have resulted from bodylessness — ignoring, hating, or making the body into an object or project, and considering one's own or another person's body wrong.
Be sure to make good use of her four practice pillars of breathing, moving, sensing, and relating. "They provide the means through which we can increase our wakefulness," she writes, "and make our actions more conscious and contributive."
