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My trauma resolution journey (consciously) began…

I’m lying on my back on a massage table, fully clothed. It’s surprisingly comfortable. I’ve been asked to recall a recent car accident.

As I drive along Paseo de Peralta, on my way to pick up the kids after a full day of clients, I’m frazzled and short on time. I pull up to an intersection…

At this point, Peter asks me to pause. He interrupts my story and gently invites me to slow down. Slow waaay down.

In slow motion, driving my Subaru, I approach the intersection, and my perception shifts, and curves. A strange, involuntary jerking takes over my neck, as my head twitches trancelike unwinding. I strain to see … something is approaching from a dark corner of my periphery.

Floating in a dimension beyond space, and time, where all perception flows open, I dissipate into spinning molecules that dissolve into vast slow-moving galactic star systems. 

The body quivers and shivers autonomically, dissolving pathways of frozen life force. A supernova explosion.

I float and with a gentle touch, I am brought back to the present moment. I feel fragile, vulnerable, and full of grace.

There was no need to recount the story of the accident. No need to analyze the events. The frozen trauma residue is released. My nervous system feels vibrant, alive, and full of gratitude.

That was how I learned through direct experience, (and later through theoretical teachings) to resolve the effects of trauma through the body. Peter Levine and Pat Ogden were (and continue to be) visionaries in trauma resolution and body-centered psychotherapy. I had the honor to study with them both in the 1990s.

I am a somatic movement educator, not a licensed therapist.

My work, over the years with thousands of performing artists, painters, musicians, dancers, and writers embraces the body’s inner wisdom as a transformative doorway into well-being and creative expression.

The powerful work I learned from Pat and Peter continues to root and inform my work.

Today, I welcome students into a playfully immersive world of trust, safety, and inspired curiosity, where past wounds melt away, and love, joy, and beauty rise to the top, like cream.

It’s true, we learn and grow 10 times faster through play!

If the inspiration calls, join us at Embodied Living online or in person.

With joy and gratitude,

—Melissa

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When we individually and collectively cultivate a daily dose of returning to a well-balanced state, life feels less chaotic, overwhelming, and more joyful.

As Anais Nin said many decades ago, “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.”

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I’ve spent most of my life exploring ways to re-calibrate my system. Learning to be alert and centered were survival skills while I was growing up. Keeping a low profile, communing with nature, and ecstatically dancing were my primary ways of re-centering.

Classical dance training was my first conscious introduction to a daily centering technique.

The legendary ballet teacher, Maggie Black was my first sensi in the art of one-pointedness (centering).

Being too tall and wild to be a ‘real’ ballerina, I over-compensated with passion and dedication.

Each morning, at the barre, I am surrounded by ballerinas from the best companies in New York. We begin with an intense focus on the simple root movements of dance. Each demi-plie, tendu, and port de bras is done with specificity, as we aspire to execute perfect tone, quality, effort, and shape.

Chopin waltzes are played on the grand piano, infusing the room with rhythmic harmony and beauty.

We are each in a fierce altered state of dedication, as we struggle to appear effortless on the altar of an illusory, centered perfection.

I hear Maggie loud and clear above the waltz, “Higher, lift higher, Millie! Lift your center higher!”

Every cell in my body works to ascend. Sweat and blood flow from my pours. I rise higher and higher until the ephemeral prize of being on center, at last, is mine!

At that moment, on the sacred dance floor, as Maggie shouts, “Yes, Millie, Yes!” my inner body wisdom whispers, “There are less effortful ways.”

After many years and tens of thousands of hours of centering practice, I am sure of a few things:

—Centering involves listening to the body’s innate wisdom (sometimes called ‘the blueprint for your perfect body’s unfolding’).

—Centering demands the wholeness of you (body, heart, intellect, and soul).

—Centering is a lifelong journey.

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The ways I re-centered as a teenager and young adult are very different today.

Yesterday, my daughter, some friends, and I paddle-boarded out the glassy smooth Dingle Harbor onto the Wild Atlantic Way.

The waves are getting choppy. My feet go on high alert. Every cell explores possible wave-riding balance options. Fear takes over curiosity. Tension shouts at the lovingly trained tissues to stay on balance. Center gives up, body wisdom takes the reigns, and I fold to the safety of my knees as we paddle out the Harbor mouth to Thunder Cove. A miraculously psychedelic array of colors, temperatures, and sounds delight our senses as the seagulls squawk, rock formations rise and fall from the sea, and the sparkling waves gallop.

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Today my centering practices dwell within all aspects of life — inner body wisdom, emotional well-being, and inspired expressions of joyful wonder.

In my online groups and destination retreats, we explore the art of re-centering, from the inside out, as an inspired creative path.

The post Return to center again, and again, and again appeared first on Melissa Matson.

Many years ago, while juggling the new-mom-transitioning-out-of-a-beloved-dance-career, I landed a summer job at the Penland School of Arts and Crafts.

My sweet toddler Matt and I woke up early each morning. Encircled by the Smokey Mountains, we hiked down into the valley.

Sleepy-eyed potters, weavers, glassblowers, and photographers entered the little log cabin studio (mostly in their PJs) for an hour of embodied movement practice.

You see, back in the early days of Penland, the founder’s wife discovered embodiment. Practices like Ideokenesis and the Alexander Technique were just being born, and hip New York artists were exploring them. Many discovered their artwork being set free by the awakening body wisdom.

After a morning of cellular consciousness movement practices, the artists were inspired to tackle their chosen medium in fresh new ways.

Later in the day, Matty and I visited the studios. It was pure magic. Glass blowers, swirl the hot glass into vessels. Weavers, spider-like create colorful fabrics. Potters, mold lumps of clay into objects. Photographers, peacefully observe life.

Studio by studio we entered, interacting with the makers as they worked. Reminding their cells to align with my hands. Gently inviting heart and mind coherence, relaxed attention, and alert stillness with my presence. All this informed the creative process to awaken.

The glass blowers were Matty’s favorite. The fiery alchemy made his 2-year-old heart jump for joy!

I particularly enjoyed the potters. The benefit of my work was tangible. As the potter’s body settled and centered, so did the clay. As the cells came into coherent alignment, so did the walls of the pot rise clear and strong.

I felt like the fairy godmother —floating from studio to studio, spreading blessings of centeredness, clarity, and inspiration.

Artists are fortunate— the way you are is made visible in the work you create.

When you are distracted, out of sorts, full of anxiety or fear —your pot wobbles, your weaving is wonky and your glass is off kilter.

Your inner state is the way you express your work in the world. That’s true for all of us, no matter what the work is.

From the way you drive a car, make dinner, build a house, or run a large corporation — it is all a reflection of your inner state of being.

We haven’t been back to Penland in 30 years. Yet, I still feel a bit like a fairy godmother. I continue to spread coherent alignment and inspired direction to many creative people all over the globe.

On-line classes are an amazing way to touch (virtually) people far away.

Intimate retreats (in great locations), are wonderful ways to enjoy heart/mind coherence, relaxed presence, alive stillness — with touch, movement and voice, in the studio and the landscape.

Here’s a short 9 minute.

It’s an illustration of my hands-on work and a taste of embodiment practice.

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Here I am, the artist (uncomfortably pretending to be a businesswoman) at a power luncheon, surrounded by real businesswomen, hungrily networking and selling.

I’ve always found this town confusing. Built on a marshy bog at the inter-section of warring tribes— it’s never felt like home to me.

After many years, I’m back in Chicago. My mom needs support. My dad recently died. And I must work (for my sanity and financial comfort).

I find a seat next to a friendly-looking woman. We chat. She tells me all about her financial planning business. I love hearing other people’s stories. They get so full and animated and take the spotlight off me in an open-hearted, safe way.

The dreaded question comes, “What do you do”?

The world stops, my brain drains, my mouth opens and miraculously words pour out.

“I teach body wisdom skills, that offer real-life tools for transformation. When life feels overwhelming and is filled with stress and anxiety, my work can help, a lot.”

She leans in with interest. You see, she’s a 40-something-year-old mom, wife, and financial advisor drowning in overwhelming stress and anxiety.

We talked long into the afternoon.

That was 5 years ago. Today, we continue our work together. Throughout the challenges of the pandemic, market instabilities, family upheavals, and health issues, her life continues to evolve and transform.

Learning to slow down, pause, and deeply listen (in a present-moment body wisdom way) is the tool.

From the fluctuating financial markets to her client’s fears and family’s desires, her gaze has shifted from worrying about possible future scenarios to experiencing the present moment.

Learning to slow down, pause, and listen (in a present-moment body wisdom way) is a great way to enjoy life!

The post The body holds the wisdom to access real-life change appeared first on Melissa Matson.

This temple was dedicated to a virus named COVID-19.

He was ostracized and ordered to close it down.

He argued that if God is in everything and everyone, then God is also in this virus. He had a point, they all agreed. Yet, he still had to close it down.

What if trauma’s primary purpose is for healing and transformation? What if this is the primary way, we humans evolve?

The West African Bobelu (healer-priest-cosmic mediator), through the agency of dance, and sound, enters the patients’ cracks (traumatic wounds).

Within the cracks and open spaces, it is said, the gods thrive.

These gods hold the seeds of the blueprint for patterns that are yet to unfold. And when the Bobelu dance and sing with the gods, these pattern-holding deities animate the new pattern, and the seeds of change sprout.

The transformation blooms and the patient takes off on her healing journey.

As painful as the cracks (traumas) are, they hold the potential for conscious evolution.

I love it! The Bobelu healer’s job is to move and sing with the transformational pattern-holding devas.

In normal modern life, we’ve gotten so far away from moving and expressing ourselves in ways that hold the divine. Being so stuck in right and wrong beliefs isolates and disconnect us from ourselves, from one another, and from All That Is.

I’m reminded of my many years of classical dance, and ballet and the rigorous manipulation of a choreographer’s esthetic. By the end of my professional dancing years, I had almost forgotten the joy of movement.

In our work, here at Embodied Living, we feel what is alive between the cracks (even when it’s difficult). Sense the space inside and out that inspires new directions. Explore a new ground that allows creative possibility, safely in community.

I’m inspired when:

• playfulness infiltrates dualistic dysfunction.
• an open creative mind supports many perspectives.
• being held in wholeness feels safe and comfortable, even when unfamiliar.
• we support one another to think, move, and express ourselves uniquely.
• we collectively shift from isolation and duality to unity and oneness.

We are all here to hold sacred space with the divine

Please join us, online or in person.

Embodied Living Gatherings

Transformational retreats in special locations, like this one next month in Ireland!

Awaken Your Wonder

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This weekend I took a road trip down to West Cork. It’s only about 80 miles away but, the winding rural roads feel like a different world in a different time.

Clonakilty (a village in West Cork) is where our Irish Retreat will be next month. I was inspired to connect with the landscape, listen to good music, and eat delicious farm-to-table food.

I think of West Cork as being the California of western Ireland. Good food, lots of amazing coastlines, friendly conscious people, and sheep (OK, sheep aren’t very California-y but they are adorably sweet and gentle).

The drive south rekindled my sense of adventure and restored my soul.

I’ve been in West Kerry for over a month, with my family. Road trips (big and small) rekindle my gratitude. And the solitude is a restorative and healing reminder.

First stop, Domberg, the neolithic stone circle.

After a challenging drive, I climb out of my car and scramble up the hillside to the sacred stone circle.

I walk the perimeter of the standing stones. Spiraling out. I find myself far from the stones near a holy well. In a lush, low-walled circle garden, overflowing with spring-green flowers, and plants. I feel welcome. At home. I belong here.

As I settle in. A group of tourists arrives. Disturbing my peace, they ask me to move. This particular spot is perfect for their photo.

Offended, I walk up the hill.

Uncharacteristically, this irritation dissolves instantly.

A new location calls me. A place of blessings. As if the frequency has been turned up, this spot magnifies the sacredness of all landscapes.

Silently, I thank the tourists.

Perched on a rock, high on the hillside, I melt into the afternoon. The buzz of a bee, the crash of far-off ocean waves, and the warmth of the sunlight dissolve me.

My eyes close. The sea, the rolling green hills, the bee, the stones, the water, the tourists — all merge into the sweetness of Oneness.

I’m not exactly falling asleep. I’m falling into deep peace. Swept away on an earthy flow of love, safety, and belonging.

The sun sinks into the ocean. The temperature drops. Blissfully in the sacred Oneness of nature, with teary-eyed gratitude, I move towards the car park.

This weekend’s adventure restored my feelings of trust and belonging. The landscape opened my heart and gave me permission to give and receive Big Love. With trust restored, fear dissolved, and Big de-romanticized Universal Love swept ‘me’ away.

The landscapes of Ireland inspire heartwarming awe and wonder. Miraculously, there is still one spot left in our Irish retreat. Click the link and explore. Is this your time to Awaken Your Wonder?

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Joni Mitchell was my shero – singing and playing her songs at the top of my lungs kept me sane during my turbulent youth.

At 17, Joni’s inspiration flew me from Chicago to California.

Sitting on a bench at the San Francisco airport. Guitar by my side and a dance bag slug over my shoulder. “CALIFORNIA, I’m coming home…”

Being a bright, creative, and adventurous kid; I graduated high school early, jumped on an airplane, and established residency as a Californian before starting UC Berkeley in the fall.

I had 500 dollars in my bag and two good friends in California. I felt wealthy. Ready. Alive!

Here I am many years later, on another adventurous threshold…

I’m boarding a plane for Ireland in a few days. With a negative COVID test in hand, face mask on, healthy, and totally ready for the next great adventure!

I’ve always thought at this time in my life I’d be working internationally. Guiding transformational retreats in exotic locations and supporting the rich and famous to deepen into meaningful and purpose-driven lives.

Well… four years ago after my dad died, my mom fell apart and I came back to Chicagoland. My mission was to keep an eye on her as she transitioned.

It’s been an incredible four years – loaded with challenges, amazing new friends, lovers, clients and some very healing family times.

Last march in the midst of all that family – the once in a century pandemic hit.

My in person, hands-on somatic movement practice shifted radically into a full out online global transformational coaching business.

It’s magically effective to work non-locally with you virtually. And our global Embodied Living community is a delicious way to shift obsolete mindset patterns, through the body. And embrace life on purpose. No more excuses. It’s our time.

A new program has birth and it begins February 10th!

The post On a threshold appeared first on Melissa Matson.

The guide is attached to my back. He counts 3, 2, 1, push – we are hurtling through space. We are sailing through open sky.

Breathless, forcing myself to take long slow breaths. Eyes desperately wanting to shut, and forcing them to remain open. Feeling the power rush through every cell in my body and simultaneously the cells are screaming, ‘this is not safe!’

I remain conscious of the clouds, blue sky, and horizon all around. I sense the beating of my heart and the rush of blood and fluids through me. I stretch my arms wide and fly. This is amazing!

An entire lifetime passes by in only 2 minutes.

The guide pulls the ripcord. We peacefully float to earth.

With euphoria coursing through my veins, I rest on the grass for hours with a big blissful smile on my face.

It was my 57th birthday and my son decided I needed to skydive. He’d been jumping out of airplanes for several years. The exhilaration of hurtling through space was a total life changing experience for him. And he wanted me to experience it, too.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing” –Helen Keller

Life can feel like an adventure or an habitual water treading, excruciating auto pilot sentence in the doldrums. Your choice.

Moving from auto pilot to presence can be as dramatic as jumping out of an airplane – or as simple as choosing to experience this moment, fully.

Sometimes the challenge to do something new and scary, with all its accompanying fear is difficult. Yet, when we pause, and meet the pain (or even the pleasure) suppressed power arises. The pain and power dance together. Just like the mix of fear, euphoria, and exhilaration when skydiving.

Give it a try, next time you find yourself on auto pilot (bored, depressed, overwhelmed, numbed out); pause, meet your pain and your power. Let them dance together.

Embodied Living Soul Gatherings are an empowering way to move from auto pilot to presence. We meet weekly and practice the art of moving into presence.

Want to find out more? Let’s chat!

We meet Tuesday evenings from 6-7:30pm CST (Central US time) and beginning mid February 8–9:30pm CET (Central European time). Join us!

With appreciation!

—Melissa

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