Resolve to Feel Good
Shelly Shelley, LMP Certified SOMA Practitioner
As we enter the second month of 2012, what have you resolved to do this year? Are your resolutions aligned with your well-being or are you imposing rules upon yourself that feel punitive? I have found, over the years, that self-nurturance is far more effective than self-deprivation. There are many pathways to a deeper, more meaningful relationship to ourselves. They may require a road less travelled but the journey and the rewards are well worth it. Are you willing to cultivate a life guided by cues from within?
We each have a unique path of healing but it begins with a resolve to understand ourselves better and to live a life that feels good. This has been my strongest motivating factor. I consciously began the journey in 1989, the first time I experienced a Soma Series. The work deepened my relationship with my body; I began to cultivate a path of self-inquiry and learn to trust my inner voice for the first time. My means since then have included bodywork, yoga and other movement disciplines, meditation, burlesque, travel, writing, self-reflection, dance, relationships and many other endeavors that I received a strong calling to explore short and long term.
The journey to feeling good does not always feel so good. It can be arduous and difficult at times to reveal places of vulnerability and pain. Perhaps the most important element is learning how to self-nurture. No one can do this for you. Regardless of how much support and love you have around you, unless one is at peace within their own soul it is impossible to feel the love, to feel the support. You must put “feeling good” at the top of your list and that requires putting yourself and your well-being first.
Can you put yourself first? Can you look in the mirror regardless of outside circumstances and say “I really love and value YOU.” You will know within yourself if this exercise is simply an empty affirmation that you hope someday you will believe or if you really mean it. What is the answer? If it feels empty, can you resolve to embrace a life that will lead you to the moment when you can say it and mean it?
I tried this for the first time in 1991. When I looked in that mirror I had a sinking feeling of sadness. The woman looking back at me was miles away. I could not connect with her but in that moment I resolved that I would. That decision has shaped my life at every turn since. It is still a practice but she is solidly there and returns my gaze now as if to say “Yep, I’m here and we’re in this together, Baby! I will never leave your side again.” I find that the more I hone this relationship to me, the less I am tumbled about by outside influences and the more satisfied, effective and healthy I become.
The ability to self-nurture is an innate gift, a part of our power. It is our responsibility to do it and in doing so we show up infinitely more powerful for family, friends and colleagues. I have practiced Soma Bodywork since 1996; it is the gift that keeps on giving. Since then I have added Visceral Massage and Reiki to my repertoire and became an Independent Consultant for NYR Organic Skincare. These are all means of reaching, touching and communicating with this marvelous, miraculous, self-healing system with which we have all been equipped, the body. The common thread of all of these endeavors has been to establish a pattern of self-nurturance through addressing the nervous system and beginning to change the well-worn grooves of who we think we are. Yes, you can create new pathways and new options to choose; you can feel good!
Warmly,
Shelly Shelley, LMP
“…the journey is about learning how to self-nurture.”
