The Psoas: Muscle of The Soul

I’ve just been so inspired by reading this article by DANIELLE PROHOM OLSON – The Psoas: Muscle of The Soul.

Quoting her I’m reminded of Vanda Scaravelli’s insights into yoga, along with those of other body work practitioners such as Peter Levine and Don Hanlon Johnson (Bone, Breath and Gesture):

‘ (Liz) Koch believes that by cultivating a healthy psoas, we can rekindle our body’s vital energies by learning to reconnect with the life force of the universe.

‘ Koch writes “The psoas, by conducting energy, grounds us to the earth, just as a grounding wire prevents shocks and eliminates static on a radio. Freed and grounded, the spine can awaken”…“ As gravitational flows transfer weight through bones, tissue, and muscle, into the earth, the earth rebounds, flowing back up the legs and spine, energizing, coordinating and animating posture, movement and expression. It is an uninterrupted conversation between self, earth, and cosmos.”elaxed psoas is the mark of play and creative expression.  Instead of the contracted psoas, ready to run or fight, the relaxed and released psoas is ready instead to lengthen and open…’

Easter Retreat on Dartmoor

This season is an echo of each year’s song;

Easter’s walk on the moor was cold and long,

We circled unsure of where we’d gone…

Weak light, for three days the sun’s not shone!

Together, yet feet treading earth alone,

The paths we’ve traversed feel all undone,

And in the bitter air we turn,

Track curling toward the river’s burn

Bending and dropping to where fish belong

And we happen upon the Healing Stone,

Open mouth of rock over watery tongue,

My body descends through the Healing Stone,

Cacooned in the circle of this Healing Stone,

Its ring the shape of an opened tomb,

I fall to the water, flesh and bone,

A descent that says I must unlearn,

Unravel, prepare for some deep unknown,

Not to count what is lost or what is won,

What body of truth I think I own…

The victory bell is the river’s drone,

Or the cry that rises from the womb.

The air resounds with what is done,

Its voice soft and yet so sweetly stern.

My feet to the great dark earth return,

Moving and knowing each step we’ve gone,

And behind each cloud the sun has shone,

The circle of life saying ‘Yes you belong.’