Receiving Love: How to use subtle movement explorations and guided awareness to expand your experience of love.

Most healing modalities engage just one or two levels of consciousness to support healing: talk therapy works mostly with the mind; energy healing like Reiki works mostly with energy; and many forms of body work focus entirely on physical structures. But the whole person includes all of these ...Most healing modalities engage just one or two levels of consciousness to support healing: talk therapy works mostly with the mind; energy healing like Reiki works mostly with energy; and many forms of body work focus entirely on physical structures. But the whole person includes all of these levels of consciousness – and more.

How can you engage your whole person to expand your experience of love?

Here is Alison’s experience in my workshop on Receiving Love. By using subtle movement explorations and guided awareness, she engaged her whole person to expand her experience of love.

Allison’s Experience

We’re sitting on the floor, eyes closed, and Mark’s voice is quietly giving us movement suggestions. This is my third workshop, so the process is becoming familiar, even if the results are unexpected every time. Mark reminds us to turn our attention inward, work slowly, and just see what happens.

“Pick a person from whom we would like to receive more love.” I pick my grown son. We have a good relationship, but I feel there is something that blocks me from receiving his love, and I don’t know what it is. That should be an easy place to start.

“Reach for that love.” My right hand starts to move slowly up and outward and absolutely stops. I’ve got a metal band across my chest and around the top half of my arms and my arm won’t move. I try again, slowly, over and over. Same thing, but all by itself, my face is turning toward the left and downward. It is a shame gesture! My face is turning away in shame!

Tears start to trickle down my face as the reason becomes clear. Years ago, when he was a teenager, I was not being as caring as I should have for this soul who I love so much. In the quietness of my body I am being reminded that I was not there for him back then. Did I have a reason why at the time? Of course! And it was a powerful reason at the time. I’m generally a caring person, and I love him. But my own shame is now in the way of the clean relationship I want with him. What a surprise! The depth of the feelings and the clarity of this 27-year-old experience are both available for me to examine and grow from. Wow!

That evening I tell my son about the workshop. We talk about that time, so many years ago. It is not easy to admit to shame, but as I try to make amends for that period in our lives I feel something shift between us. And as we wipe tears from each other’s faces, the “bands” are gone and I can raise my arms now to receive his hug.

Everyone Is Different

One remarkable thing about these subtle movement explorations with guided awareness is that they are specific enough to be evocative, while being general enough to encompass the very different interests of different people. Alison used the exploration to deepen her relationship with her son, I used it to expand my relationship with my girlfriend, others have used it to build their relationships with parents, opposite-sex partners, same-sex partners, family members and friends. We all need love, but love means very different things to different people.