Nurturing Your Movement

‘Dance with whatever happens.’ - Effie Abraham

Marching into the season of spring in the western hemisphere, this month of earthly renewal, we recognize the history of Women and celebrate International Women’s Day around the world. I take pause here to acknowledge the events of October 7, 2023 and the aftermath of the suffering that continues to the present day. I dedicate this article to the souls of women whom we are now healing with in spirit. To the women who are still in need of our nurturing in whatever circumstances they are living on our planet, may they once again celebrate life and dance with their loved ones.

Nurturing Your Movement by Ginny Connon with Effie Abraham There’s a moment in a celebration that is not planned and comes together without any effort. Music is playing and there is an unspoken, magical cue that brings people together in movement. A circle is formed by joining hands or shoulders together. Someone expresses their elation and leaps into the middle for a beat or two or three. A line is formed holding the back of people’s hips creating a bobbing, swaying river passing others eager to join in. The beat of the music seems to take over. The moment elevates the next level of unison. There is no written manuscript. There is just letting go and allowing the celebration to take on improvisation of its own. When I think of dance, my mind immediately goes to hearing music. It’s programmed to know music and dance as a duet. Keeping in time and harmony on the same track and pausing from any dissonance that shows up along the way.

Traditionally symphonies have four movements. What movement of life are you currently living? How are the previous movements of your life playing in your background? Well-being trends suggest putting lighter emphasis on notes of our limited beliefs, written in the manuscript of childhood. There are many somatic therapies available today to aid in moving past these flat melodies and riffs, repetitive thought patterns. The goal is to promote restringing in our minds and sing in a more positive tune. I have worked on keeping my well-being harmonized in my life over many years. I set an intention to wake up to a new morning reprise in the form of dance and movement. I allowed time for my mind and body to warm up to changing my morning routine. I used my practice of turning my resistance into compassion, knowing fear, in the form of resistance, was an old song playing only in my mind. I was getting used to my new strings once again and dancing outside my comfort zone.

It's keeping my body and mind younger than ever before! I’m unconsciously breaking down emotions and allowing them to move and eventually dance right out of my body. I feel personal celebration in adopting this new somatic stress buster and gratitude for Effie Abraham, the practitioner who introduced it to me. When Somatic Therapy Coach, Effie Abraham discovered the transformative dance of intuitive movement 
it became her gift to teach others. She describes her journey, ‘Picture nightly dances, a sacred ritual in front of the mirror, initially cloaked in darkness, gradually bathed in soft light. In these moments, I encountered unfamiliar aspects of myself. Through the rhythmic embrace of intuitive movement, strength, belief, and courage emerged, guiding me through a dance of self-discovery. Instead of merely dancing, it became a profound catalyst, a transformative force that aided me in alchemizing grief, pain and fear into a powerful reservoir of love. Allowing the rhythm and music to be our guides, we navigate the dance of life.

This intuitive movement is a celebration of our feminine energy, an acknowledgment of the wisdom carried in our hips, a dance that intertwines with our ancestral heritage, and a conscious connection to our body through feeling’. She aids her clients with reactive responses such as fear explaining somatic healing is called ‘body mapping’. ‘Certain people have fear around the word ‘dance’. A beautiful way to change up the fear is to understand what you are feeling and connect into your body. You are allowing your body to have a choice of movement. You are connecting with different sections of your body and giving them a decision to make. This is where intuition comes in, the intuitive movement. This is what (my) body feels that it needs. There is no right or wrong.’ What happens when we turn down the volume on the music? Starting my new morning practice, I found hearing music in my mind made my sleepy body easier to move at first. Then I started listening to the proactive rhythm of my breath. My breath became my music. I eventually held my healing crystals as I danced and pulled a spirit or angel card for a message to finish off my new routine. I created a morning ritual and let go of some limited beliefs that were lingering.

I intuitively manifested a space in my home that was waiting for me to show up. My strings were starting to play a crescendo in my current movement. Effie describes rhythm as life being one big dance. ‘Sometimes you slow dance, sometimes you dance faster, sometimes you just shake it off. It's kind of a movement and you just allow your body to flow with that, allowing feelings, without that, you’re just running away from everything. I feel my body is so connected to what is happening. By allowing yourself to feel, you’re allowing things to process and that’s what I call dancing with the rhythm of life. I just sit or stand and allow that rhythm, the way my body moves, whether it's the flow of music, sometimes there is no music.’ Intuitive movement enlightens our well-being with soundtracks we play on a daily basis.

It can benefit from a more steadier groove of emotional balance and a healthier routine. It can fill your day with mindful, lighter tones. Effie encourages dance as a daily practice to make triggering moments easier to cope with. She explains it helps in those moments before, not only when confusion happens. ‘Dancing on my own is a form of meditation for me. It's focusing on me, on the inside, on my heart. Just being in the moment. Listening to my heart as I dance into my breath, as I dance. Really connecting to that. You are just here in the now. Your body is moving here and in the now. There really is nothing from before and there is nothing in the after. You are taking the time to connect and to just find inner peace on the inside by releasing by just getting expansive.’ Nurturing enters our melody sometimes conducting outside a solid, confident tempo and moving out what does not serve us any longer.

When we are thrown off our timing, we lean on others for support. When confused by others we can put on a headset and listen to their symphony. We can search up previous movements to find compassion in any form to face our current fears and understand theirs. We can play a song and hear their light. Changing up tempos we meet new people who enrich our lives. Their gift is inspiration to breathe, move and manifest an unchartered celebration into our beautiful soul. Effie Abraham, Breathwork Facilitator & Somatic Therapy Coach, guides women on their healing journey through intuitive movement and deep connection to the body, heart, and soul. Single Mom of 3 amazing teenagers, passionately embracing life. Her purpose is to help others find love within alchemizing trauma, pain, anger, and uncertainty into the transformative power of love on their own dance journey. Visit www.breathenflow.com and follow Effie on Instagram @breathe_flow_connect to find upcoming events.

Ginny Connon is a Certified Relationship Coach, clairaudient, and light worker. She specializes in higher-level listening and energy alignment. Visit Ginny's Coaching and Energy website for links to her 'Nurturing' articles, podcast interviews, and upcoming events.