Sometimes, you have to go through the dark place to move beyond it. This is something that I think all of us learn at some point, don't we? Facing your fears, or emotions on a deeper level.
For tweens, I think this can be a tough thing since it might be very new to them. Being able to feel strong feelings and work through them can be hard- especially for those kids that are feeling (or recognizing) them for the first time. Not to say that younger kids don't have strong feelings, but as we get older we tend to be more in touch with our feelings and I think that can make them harder to face. And of course, the same could be said about older teens and adults too.
But if we think about those tweens, as they face these type of tough situations, what do we (as parents or teachers) do?
We try to talk to them, right?
Now before I say anything else- just as a little disclaimer here-please understand that what I'm about to talk about is just the approach we take a Brain Fit. I am not saying that talk therapy, or counseling or anything like that isn't beneficial because they definitely have their place. But one of the many things that I love about the approach we take at Brain Fit is that we can work others (or ourselves) through strong emotions and feelings without having to talk about them. We literally can move through emotions by setting an intention (a goal) and moving our bodies using different movement activities. Talking can be helpful, but my focus here is on movement.
I've mentioned in another blog post about how I have worked through many of my own struggles using the Brain Fit methods. I attended the adult primitive reflex class many times, as well as the Brain Gym® 101 class (also a number of times). And as I did so, I worked on me. I moved through my own struggles and experienced it first-hand. And I continue to use these methods on a regular basis. As a Brain Fit coach, I help my clients to work through their own struggles using the same approach.
Is it always neat and pretty and wrapped up with a bow? Nope. Are deep emotions ever?!? Does it sometimes mean that there are tears during a session? Yes, there could be. Do we do a lot of talking? No, because we don't need to. The purposeful movements do the "talking" for us. We move through the feelings by doing the movement activities that the body- the subconscious- tells us we need at the time.
Afterwards? Some people might feel the shift- like a weight lifted. Some people don't, and that's ok too. Either way we could still see a breakthrough. Moving into the dark place so that we can move beyond it.
And the coaches job? Well, our job is to help facilitate the movements and hold space for the person while they work through it.
As I've said before, we're here to help. Sometimes that help is as simple as working through a primitive reflex or teaching Brain Gym® movements.
And sometimes, it means we help you move through the dark place.
Through the dark to the lighter, healing side- to the breakthrough.
