On reclaiming our 'I am here-ness'

As I watched my almost 9 year old go in through the school gates self consciously checking his newly gelled hair my heart broke a little.

He doesn’t want me to walk with him now, preferring to take up his own space but this act of gingerly checking he was acceptable broke me a little.

He’s reached that part of childhood where other peoples opinions are beginning to be really important.

Where he wants to make sure he’s fitting in, not looking ‘silly’ and no amount of parenting guidance is changing it.

I know he’s finding his place in the world but there’s a part of me that’s mourning for what he’s losing.

That sense of willingly and without question taking up space in the world, without a thought for what anyone thinks.
The ‘I am here-ness’ of early childhood.

I can see him shaping himself to fit and I want to whisk him away from the world and let him stay wild.

But I know all I can do is encourage his wildness from the sidelines and let him find his ‘right way as I try as best as I can to keep my own wildness in tact.

This is a big part of the ‘why’ behind the work I do.

Because from a young age we’re taught out of listening to ourselves, to our body’s.

We lose the skill of being connected to our inner validation and seek it outside.

We’re told to sit still and not wiggle, we’re told to curb the noises we make and speak at appropriate times, we lose the natural relationship we have with being in the world and we fit ourselves into societies ideas of acceptable or not acceptable.

This is why embodiment is so important to me: