“If a system was not bound in time, would it be susceptible to the impact of the environment?” – Emilie Conrad
It was a moment in time. A moment, but outside of time, beyond that ever-present ticking of time. Tissues melted, soft expanse of wholeness that is me and more than me. I return to embryonic fluid, primordial anatomy, stem cells stimulated.
We all have embryonic stem cells available within our bodies, ready to be harvested by areas in need. Shhhhh…Let the secret of our embryological potential arising be manifested by the lightness of my arm floating into space, the vast umbilical cord connecting me to Cosmic bio-intelligence. Shhhh…I love this breath. Shhhhhh…outbreath elongating. Shhhhhhhhhhh…What was once me is no longer relevant.
“The early embryo is manifesting its cosmic connection. This is a planetary creature resonant with a vastness that goes far beyond cultural filters that are soon enough imposed.” – Emilie Conrad, Life on Land
Developing in the womb, we are in direct contact with an intelligence far greater than any one of us can express. In Craniosacral Biodynamics, we speak of the “Breath of Life,” and its “potency,” an embodied life force, that carries the “Intelligence with a capital I” into our embodied form in the embryo and throughout life. Emilie Conrad described the same bio-intelligence and how our Cosmic connection becomes inhibited as we learn to function on land.
“In effect, amnesia sets in as Earth greets us.
Each little muscle learning to grasp makes the memory of its cosmic connection dimmer until finally, standing up and, in our case, becoming Western bipeds, we have forgotten and become deaf to the cosmic song.
Except of course, for the undulation waves taking place inside us that will sing with their ancient voicings. The spiraled cradle that we lie in becomes sealed in our cells like an umbilical memory.” – Emilie Conrad, Life on Land
We form in relation to our environment. For many of us, although we were in more direct communication with the Cosmos than we may be now as adults, our life in the womb and within our family environments as little ones was not ideal. There may have been stress, violence, discrimination, social or political uprisings or war. All of these contributed to our formation. Most often, we contracted, attempting to pull in and away from potential threat and harm around us. Our tissues densified in protective withdrawal. Our defensive nervous systems activated, ready for fight-flight or freeze, wary of continuing threat.
Many of us continue to carry ourselves around on land in these densified shapes, rigidified against feeling the intolerable, resisting taking in what is too toxic to digest, avoiding repeated overwhelm. In our protective mode, we may fail to notice that we have already grown up, having survived the worst of our early life. We may not perceive the safety and support available in our current reality.
Hopefully, our life now offers a different kind of environment. At least the field of a Continuum class can offer a context quite different from the dangers of a hostile womb or early family life. As we melt within this new context, dissolving our cultural anatomy, not only do our tissues soften and spread, but old, obsolete patterns in our psyche can also dissolve.
Within this new nourishing environment, fed by the sounds and breaths and micro-movements of our inherent fluidity, we return to embryonic liquid form, awakening our spiralled cradle, undulating waves dissolving density. When we emerge, we re-formin relation to our new world, where breath can flow more freely, tissues spring with fluid resilience, tone and flexibility and our psyche can embrace what it has previously feared. We begin to relish the novel, unfamiliar, endless possibility.
Leaving the constraints of time for awhile, returning to our original embryological potential, we re-enter life within time renewed, refreshed, re-potentized. The sense of slowing down and safety required for healing and integrating our past conditioning is also hopefully available with a good Craniosacral therapist, psychotherapist or other practitioner. Particularly helpful is including body sensation and awareness of subtle intrinsic movement, both naturally generated in Continuum practice.
I swim through my life with extended, ongoing gratitude for this fluid potential and for being able to access it through the liquescent practice of Continuum.
Note: If you are drawn to explore the fluid mindful movement practice of Continuum, please check into the online courses at www.resourcingyourlife.org, as well as those in person classes listed at www.birthingyourlife.org. I also teach Craniosacral Biodynamics and courses in pre- and perinatal psychology and therapy, including somatic explorations of embryology. My new book, Fluid and Cosmos: Embodying our Original Embryological Potential, is almost done. Please stay tuned for more information on its publication soon!
