By Chris Hagey

We are all kinesthetic - through our sense of kinesthesia we learn by feeling through touch, space and movement. This is one of the 3 recognized main styles of learning and is a very large way that we as humans, alongside our Visual and Auditory cues, decode and understand ourselves and our world. We might otherwise sometimes call this our tactile sense.

There is a new format of kinesthetic bodywork emerging which deliberately pairs our empathy and intuitive nature with our kinesthetic capability. It is like an esoteric yet tactile sense. Through this type of special attunement we can start to pick up the hidden locked doorways that cause triggers in us - emotional, mental and even physical triggers. With this bodywork modality we can not only pick up these hidden trigger areas but we can easily begin to hold loving space to help them process. Processing is where it's at for us in terms of gaining a healing foothold. To process is to move through something that is stuck. This bodywork allows our subconscious to express itself in a very fluid and gracious way - often this can ease the inner tension and anxiety levels that may have resisted all our best efforts with other alternative formats.

Of all bodywork and therapeutic touch modalities this is perhaps the least invasive. In fact, it could as easily be termed "hands-off" bodywork more than a hands-on style because often it will involve working well off of the body itself.

Sometimes the distance can be as great as 2 or more feet away from the physical body. This almost places it into a remote category of energy work, yet it is definitely very involved with the spatial hologram in and around the body itself making it bodywork. The combination of distance and light touch in a dance with the body make this a truly unique format for our kinesthetic sense .

In my experience, this is the modality to use to bridge to other formats of bodywork that may seem too heavy or forceful. That can include even such a light-touch therapy as Craniosacral which is considered to be the least invasive bodywork of the more mainstream techniques. Light it may be, but if our subconscious is bursting at the seams to express itself and sensitivity levels are ultra heightened, then even the lightest touch can be perceived as too much. We will not receive well anything that is felt as too much for us. That could leave us with a sense that the type of therapy is not for us.

The fact is that craniosacral and all formats of therapy are incredible tools for us. They can be highly effective if they are the right tool applied at the right time. In the kitchen we like to use the right tool for the job. It is very much the same need while working with healing.journey. I find that kinesthetic bodywork fills a very specific purpose that helps bridge and weave together other therapies into a protocol beautifully.

Our intuitive sense of kinesthetic will know just how to feel out the subtle expressions of pain or challenge that are emanating. In fact, these patterns are always emanating - we just do do not tune into them in this way! That is like leaving an important sentence unheard - and often this is the way our subconscious speaks. With practice, we will be able to pick up the dissonance and irritation that crackles in the airspace between our hand and the actual physical body. We will feel places on our body or slightly off that are heavier or where easy flow stops.

Sometimes this will feel like crackling or an uncomfortable vibration we cannot quite describe logically. Sometimes it can feel like heat or cold or a knot. We can feel this type of locked pattern far, far better than we might be able to see or hear it. We can use our sense of kinesthetic feeling in this way to follow the energy flow along and around the body . Simply doing this is so very validating for us that it can open new doorways instantly and release the tension. At other times however we will need to follow this flow for some minutes, watching as it shifts positions in unlocking itself. Our hands will naturally follow the progression and aid the release. Our loving intention and focus on the flows we are feeling are all that is needed to work healing magic.

In doing this type of subtle bodywork, we allow the flow patterns to present themselves to us. We allow the tension and pain to speak out through movement along the body In practice this will mean that we might feel a subtle airflow moving our hand along the body, likely above it rather than on it. We will feel what subtle movements are happening to the whole body from head to toe in a holistic way even as we might have our hands on one or 2 specific areas. With our kinesthetic learning style we can feel far more depth at any one moment than we can see or hear! That is why using our kinesthetic sense can be the ultimate key to unlocking issues , pain or patterns that have held us back.

The best part about this bodywork is that we each come standard with the empathy, intuitive and kinesthetic sense we need to do this for ourselves. We need only practice to flex and build the "muscle" of pairing these together and working with them formally.

This is not only bodywork for everyone, it is extremely powerful bodywork that we each can do anywhere, anytime. When we can't think of what to do next, we can turn to our empathy and kinesthetic sense to help us feel out the way to go. This is on for us even when our brain may not be as clear.

Step 1: Relax the mind: Mentally tell yourself that this is your personal exploration - it is not a test! This is an activity of self-love and nurturement. As such, the very practice of this bodywork is a win-win for you no matter what you experience. We need to turn off our mental mind and logic, so it is important to think about these aspects of ourselves and to work with them gently in this way. There is no pressure, there is only practice. Practice makes us more and more able to attune to the subtle flow movements and sensations we are searching for.

Step 2: Relax the body as well as possible, with a special focus on our shoulders and arms, since that is what we will be using to do our bodywork. Shoulder rolls, neck rolls and grasping our hands behind us to squeeze our shoulder blades will all help to release tension in our neck , arms and shoulders. If there is floor space available, we might also want to sit and stretch our spine by spreading our legs in a V and then gently leaning forward to stretch our spine.. If you have favorite yoga moves that stretch your spine, those can also be used

Step 3 : Step Down our Brain Wave State If we find that we have not slipped down a peg in brain wave status into a format we might think of as more meditative - otherwise known as the Alpha or even Theta states - we want to step ourselves down into that at this point. We need to be in "receive mode" in other words to the best of our ability. If we are at our normal Beta state of high awareness, we will be less likely to feel the subtle flows we are looking to follow.

Step 4: Consider How to Position Yourself   From this point onwards, we want to allow our intuitive and empathy to do the choosing for us. We need to allow our intuitive to guide us to the proper vantage point for our bodywork. We can lay down, we can stand or we can sit. either on a chair or on the floor. The position we take to do our bodywork matters…this is all about body movement and spatial attunement therefore absolutely everything related to our body matters - even the basic perspective from where we begin to work. We may start by sitting in a chair and feel at some point in our session that we need to shift body positions. Only our empathy and intuitive will be able to correctly navigate us in this. And our kinesthetic sense will tell us through more tactile feelings or sense of movements that we need to shift.

Step 5: Tune Into Yourself and begin moving your hand above your arm, leg or other area in a slow motion to pick up any locks or cold spots or other such anomalies. There is no rule here…it is all going to be intuitive and fluid. There are endless ways that you may feel yourself moved - and each will be perfect timing in that moment. What you work on one day or hour will likely not be repeated next time.

As you encounter an area that feels off, you can stop and keep your hand there hovering just overhead.   As you do this you are tuning into that spot more effectively….do you feel that your hand is too close to the area? Do you feel such resistance that you want to back off? Then that is your kinesthetic sense guiding you to move outward. Allow the spike of tension you have picked up to push your hand outward away from it. You may find your sensing hand to be even 2 feet away. That is fine. In fact, that is excellent because you can now *really begin to work on the extent of the pain. It lies there, in that 2 foot area of so-called air between your hand and your body. It is in the space between that the action of healing will take place! If you ignored this area and simply placed your hand on the skin there, you would be applying far, far too much force and healing would not take place. But by backing off and beginning at the edge of the distress - as far out as you need to go - you will be truly allowing the ultra sensitive area to finally rest and release. Don't be surprised if along with that come sudden memories or smells or colors or emotions.

As this release happens you will feel your hand slowly begin to naturally move in…you are following the contours of the distressed energy. As this dissipates through your steady loving focus, the space between will grow shorter and shorter until finally you find your hand gently touching your body there. The trick to remember is that you are not moving your hand…you are merely following the flow of the distress getting smaller and smaller, naturally drawing you back to the body. We can and will feel this if we allow ourselves to do so.

That point is when physical touch can commence there!

What I have learned in my practice is that there is nothing more critical to our long term healing process than to work on the space between in these ways. And when we can touch our body we have acheived incredible victory! Many people, when they first begin this therapy say "well , I can touch this area right now"….however, often this is merely our brain / logic simply doing what is normal to us from the time we learned body coordination and movement as a baby. .Just because we can create the motor coordination and muscular movement necessary to touch our body in an area doens't mean we *can truly handle* being touched there. There is a world of difference in healing between these. . How we distinguish that is through our empathy, intuition and kinesthetic sense.

Kinesthetic Bodywork is Moving Meditation.   If we were to think about all the minute details we perform during one session of bodywork, we would think it to be a hopelessly complicated technique to master. However our intuitive is aptly suited for this task! The more we can turn off our logic and allow our intuition and empathy to guide our movements, the more we will find ourselves moving effortlessly from one position to the next. We might work ourselves form head to toes and back again over and over. There will be areas we "know" we can touch and that want to be lightly touched and areas that will not be able to receive touch yet. Often we will have each hand working together in this way. We may be scanning our right arm form about 2 inches above slowly when all of a sudden we feel that we need to go down to our ankles, grab then both gently and just stay there focused on them like this …until we feel it is time to move on again. The timing of how long to stay in any one place is entirely keyed to reading the feelings of our body. This could be 10 seconds or it may be that we feel we have had enough of that release for today and know we will come back to it another day.

Not only will our intuition and kinesthetic sense be able to guide us from area to area in quick succession, but this will also tell us exactly how we must place our hands.

For example, perhaps we feel that our knees are wanting to be touched. When we move our hands there and place them on the kneecaps we right away feel that this is the wrong position. We need to place only the fingertips of our hands on the very central position of our patella. And we hold that there until we feel tiny click of release…that may be tangible or less tangible. But when we feel it, we will also simultaneously feel the urge to move our hands into another position or to begin light scanning again.

We might feel we want to use the entire fingers of our hand on our knee instead of the fingertip. We might feel to use the palm of our hands instead and we might feel that we need to place our palms not on our knee but slightly above it.

All of this is seamlessly decided through the powerful team of our empathic, intuitive and kinesthetic sense. We dance our way through it, moving where, when and how we feel best for us. While in the flow of this and moving to the tune of our body's needs, it is a fulfillment unlike any other and it will free many locks for us. This form of self nurturment is incredibly soothing and relaxing. It can also be facilitated for others and there is a wider range of possibilties to work on our backside energy flows when another aids us.

Opening up to the full capacity of our kinesthetic sense is going to offer us a modality that can heal issues and hurts which may have felt as though they could not be found or released before with any other method of attunement work. The fact that this is bodywork we each can do makes it all the more appealing and easy to put into our tool box of techniques.

For ultra sensitivity of any sort.   When any amount of touch therapy would be far too uncomfortable or intimacy issues loom large and uncomfortable. I note that kinesthetic bodywork beautifully paves the way for more solid touch therapies. However, it is also an excellent synergistic modality to use with any and every other type of healing tool.

Anytime there is longstanding anxiety or tension that resists all other methods to release it is another excellent time to apply kinesthetic bodywork. . Sometimes we try to use our visual or auditory learning styles to help heal….but sometimes we really just need to use our kinesthetic learning style.

Anytime we need to rebuild chronic challenges such as with PTSD kinesthetic bodywork needs to be in our protocol. . In order to debilitate our system enough to change the actual brain and nervous system structure such as is found with PTSD, we know that we have had a sledgehammer of stress applied to us. The law of opposites is applicable here to help bring that stress to the middle - kinesthetic bodywork is at the opposite end of the force spectrum.

Anytime there is a chronic procrastination problem. This is a classic war happening, with subconscious locks holding our feet in cement, nullifying our conscious desires to move forward. Kinesthetic bodywork is superb for allowing subconscious patterns to be felt and validated. .