Body, Breath and Beat

Bettina Rothe is leading Body, Breath and Beat: A 5Rhythms® Workshop at The Haven, July 5–8.

Your body is a “library of your stories”. It keeps score of the myriad of your life experiences. It holds your truths – nothing is forgotten in your tissues, muscles and bones. Your personal stories and the stories of your ancestors are held in the soma.

If you have a skilled person looking at your body, they can often tell you the history of traumatic things that have happened to you. The problem is, all of the experiences that have been incomplete are still in our bodies, and if we are people who are completely shut down, our bodies still know. Our bodies register. Our bodies don’t have a shield.

The 5Rhythms® movement practice helps us to discover and let in what our bodies are holding, so that we can express and let out. It doesn’t matter if we understand the emotions or responses that are coming up and out, it matters that we let them move and complete themselves. When they are fully expressed, we can let them go and return whatever residue we still feel in ourselves down to the earth. Often we feel a sense of completion of a Gestalt, a bit more empty and spacious.