BODYLOGOS = The Body’s Divine Wisdom

It is a Practice and a Lifestyle outlined in

The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind

Turn Your Anger Energy into Positive Energy:

The BodyLogos Purpose

by Donia Elizabeth Allen ~ BodyLogos Instructor

Shortly after completing my Bodylogos teacher training in 2015, my husband and I left New York City to relocate and things went, as they say, a bit sideways: I couldn’t rent my condo, which I was depending on for income, my in-laws suffered health crises so my husband had to leave me abruptly, and I was hit with a health crisis of my own. Completely unexpectedly, I found myself in need of a job fast in a new city where I had few contacts, and in a state of total despair.

In response to all, I did what I have done many times in the past in similarly overwhelming situations: I got really pissed! Why is this happening to me? This isn’t fair! It made sense that I’d be upset – who wouldn’t be by unexpected health and financial woes – but tantrums have their limits. I got angry, and then very quickly, I got stuck, which was the last thing I needed to be in order to cope with rapidly changing circumstances.

How did being angry and stuck manifest?

• Mentally, my monkey mind kicked in and I started going over all the things I might have done differently to prevent our relocation from being so risky and turbulent. It was a worry-fueled, negative prayer loop.
• Physically, I started overeating – eating my feelings – and immediately felt tired, achy, and began having trouble concentrating. Talk about not helpful!

After a few weeks of this understandable but regressive behavior, I turned to Bodylogos – to the intuitive connections the practice makes between muscle groups and their emotional components. I knew that beating up on myself was not sustainable or helpful, and that, as familiar as that may be, it was disempowering. I resolved to move my energy in a different direction.

The first few days of re-aligning with a healthy practice is not easy!

It’s amazing how quickly energy gets stuck, and then gets used to being stuck! At times, I felt like I was literally dragging myself around. But focusing on one muscle group at a time, and doing so from a curious meditative stance, rather than a judgmental panicky one, helped tremendously.

The Bodylogos technique helped me connect to my agency: to my breath, to my physical posture and mental alignment.

• Could I control how often interested parties contacted my broker about renting my condo?
  
  No, but I could trust that doing abdominal crunches would give my whole spine a wonderful stretch, help release tension I was carrying, and quiet my mind enough to ask how I felt in that moment.

• Could I predict the results of a thyroid biopsy?
  
  No, but I could do biceps curls, and ask myself what I wanted to bring into my life (happy test results!).

• Could I take on all the challenges I was facing at once?
  
  No way! But I could focus my attention on strengthening my back muscles, the most protective muscle group shielding the vital organs, and ask myself what I could do to better support my efforts, to literally have my own back, rather than focus on all that seemed to be going wrong.
  

A few times, I stood in the gym and just shook everything out: wrists, ankles, elbows, quadriceps. I could feel that crazy anger I was carrying around release! Shaking things out physically had a mental impact: it created the relief and space I needed  to begin to visualize my life’s new direction.

Pretty quickly, I started to feel clearer about things and less overwhelmed. One of the most important things I got clear about was my ability to teach Bodylogos classes, which I began doing with a small but dedicated group.

Some of the situations I was dealing with had positive resolutions (no serious health diagnoses), others not-so-much (my marriage began to dissolve), but Bodylogos helped me cope with all in a way that was sustainable and loving in its approach. I was reminded during this period that a key component of a loving practice is one that encourages people to find their agency and sense of inner power no matter how chaotic their circumstances may be.

BodyLogos can help you connect to your breath and visualize the direction you want your life to go in as well!

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