Song of the Week: Chasing Shadows by Santigold.

Listen and let it open you up.

This is a memorial I made with birch, moss, lichen, cedar, white pine cones, and mullen for a Northern Flicker about a month ago. There are all sorts of rituals I think about, but death rituals that impact me the most. I’m going to talk about death rituals here, and how they relate to the framework I use in my somatic therapy/coaching sessions.

When my father died, everything was so rushed, disjointed, and the situation so impossibly hard that my sister and I weren’t able to be with my father’s body in the way we should have been able to. The whole way through the process I was thinking, “this ain’t right”. His body was rushed away— decisions were made and few of them were healing in any way. Since then, I’ve given my body and spirit the opportunity to heal from this wound by creating burials for the bodies of animals I find. I bring them back to earth in the way I wish I had been able to with my father. I become highly focused when I do this. It fills me with a knowing that what I wanted, didn’t happen, but that what I wanted is happening now. With another life, yes, another time yes, and the cool thing is my body doesn’t really know the difference. It’s a gorgeous translation amidst death processes that can be very ugly. Northern Flicker, dad, bird, human, it all becomes fluid, layered, and connected.

This ritual follows the way that somatic experiencing, mindfulness, and many indigenous healing practices around the world work. Check out the images below. In the story where we don’t get what we need, the diagram is a circle; it is labeled as “experiencing fear and helplessness” which then leads to “immobilization”. Opposed to the second image, where breaking free of this cycle is represented with a wiggly line. In this image we get to “run”, “escape”, and finally experience “empowerment”. This is where when we experience hardship and are successful in healing from the wound, we get to move into further mobilization and expansion that I call living. Escaping the threat, we actually increase our capacity to do hard things. We expand our bodily container. We can handle higher levels of overwhelm before it overwhelms us, stay connected to our bodies, reduce chronic inflammation, problem solve, mobilize out of a situation faster, feel more attuned to our body/mind/spirit, and find our wisdom and discernment in a more easeful way. Sounds good right? It feels good too, which is a bonus. I invite for you all who are reading this to think about ways that you are able to give yourself things you need but didn’t get. If you need help with that, reach out to your healers for support.

*P.S. Yes, I wore many layers of gloves while handling because, the Bird Flu.

Schedule With Me

OTR/L, BA, MHP, LMT,
she/they) Integrative Therapies

I offer trauma informed somatic informed therapeutic coaching, craniosacral therapy, Swedish massage, Thai bodywork, myofascial release, group workshops, and healing through art, play, and connecting to nature.

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Community Events

Minneapolis Community Adult Education Classes Spring/Summer Registration Begins!

There are SO many good classes here, look through it. Classes sign up fast so check it out this week.

Thanks for READING! xoxo Eiko

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