OGT Daily Day One Hundred and Sixty Three BOUNDARIES

Everyone has them, but how aware of them are we?  For some boundaries and keeping them are a given for maintaining personal space and a sense of bodily integrity.   I thought I was one of those people.  I grew up in a family with nine siblings where it wasn't unusual to be forgotten at dinner and not have plate of food passed to you.   It was necessary to stake out your own personal territory.  I remember drawing a chalk line across the floor the bedroom I shared with my younger sister and saying,  "This is my side.  That is yours."   We jealously guarded our possessions and were somewhat wary of the distance between each other except when we were playing and metaphor for boundaries and aggression were absorbed into the story.


What if you had the chance to rewrite that story?   That is essentially what happened for me this weekend in Somatic Experiencing training.    I spent a session focused on the left and right hand of my body.   While I am quite aware of the imbalances in my body, I was unaware that focussed attention could cause those entrenched patterns to dissipate.   I learned first where the boundaries actually lay in my physical being and the extent to which they represent old emotional of physical injury.  Right dominant in handedness, I was unaware how bullied my left side felt in comparison.   A physical shaking of the left became apparent for which I could not account, but there it was.