Core transformation: What better way to get motivated and conquer that last set of sit-ups, than in a full room where competition bares its fangs setting aside the humility needed to stop while others persist? This was my inner monologue accompanying my 6:30 A.M. arrival at the first session of Psalm Isadora’s three-week intensive dedicated to empowering the core by opening the lower chakra (energy centers). Never having met Psalm, nor taken a class grounded in chakra balancing, I entered with astounding naïveté.
With the roots of an old oak and the petals of poppy, Psalm invited our seven-person group to begin a confrontational journey into the emotional processes and safety mechanisms we’ve stored within our physical body: guiding us through physical postures and movements focused on stability in the core and the manipura (fire or power) chakra, harnessing our personal power and transformational fire.
The intensity and repetition of intense yin (long, passive holds) poses allowed for a complete awareness of my control tendencies, physical tension and frustration stored in my shoulders and jaw. I learned how to open the pinched energy in these areas and breathe from my core power, thus opening my heart. I became aware of the stuff held in many emotional storage units (pointed out by Psalm as frequently found in the hips, shoulders and groin). These can become physically tight as a result of our subconscious efforts to cling to past memories and emotions, rather than letting them release and heal.
Psalm created a trusting space encouraging us to work out emotional tightness and fear, reintroducing the loving relationship between the emotional and the physical body many of us choose to ignore. For the record, my abs are stronger than they’ve been in years…and without doing hundreds of sit-ups. psalmisadora.com
Anneliese Vandenberg is a writer, actor and model finding more trust and acceptance in her practice and wanting to create more peaceful change in the world.
