It’s always possible that a difficult situation will also provide a gift. This happened when I traversed the sudden and bewildering end of a friendship. The other person’s ego was triggered and they accused me of intentionally harming them. Then they refused to talk it about it. I apologized for my part in the conflict but I was not going to apologize for something I didn’t do. The very moment I refused to absorb their personal issues I became physically aware, for the first time ever, of my own physical boundary.

We’ve all heard a lot of discussion about boundaries and how important they are. We’ve been told to practice creating and maintaining them. Most of that is something we do with our heads, not our bodies. It’s something we think about, not something we feel. When I chose not to absorb my former friend’s issues I actually saw and felt my own boundary. It appeared as a soft flannel blanket, tan-colored, and very soothing. It was like having a comfortable cozy-space to relax in.

Several months later, I had the opportunity to experience Armor Therapy.  ‘Armor’ refers to the defensive energy built up in our bodies over our lifetime. It is a fully developed energy system, just like our digestive and cardiac systems. And just like those systems, it can become unhealthy. Our armor system can develop clots of defensive energy that are intertwined with our muscles, fascia, and bones. Targeting those energy clots can release them and help all of our energy flow more freely.

Following my Armor Therapy session, I felt softer and more at ease. I was also given the vision-gift of seeing my new and improved armor system––my boundary. Again, it was a light tan color, but this time it appeared as interwoven strips of a light, spongy material. It was a mat that would protect me but also a landing pad that I could relax into when needed.

A new Teacher came with this boundary. When I rest my attention on him I have more presence in my body, more grounding, especially in my legs and feet––he is connected to the land, to the Earth. His name is Ricardo.

He is motioning out to the sky, the blue sky today full of early winter sunshine with a few white clouds. 

This. This is the physical world where you live. This beauty and space and freedom and hope. You have learned, through trauma to your body, that this is not a place to be trusted. The hurt has taught you that even your own body is not a safe place, and you have turned your Life Force energy into a solid shield like the bark on a tree. But you are not a tree, are you? You are human, an animal, with a soft and mobile body. You need to be able to move. You cannot grow and flourish inside a hard shell.

Armor Therapy has helped to dislodge this hard shell. Now it is up to you to grow outward, with your energy, into the beautiful space which this life allows you. You need to be in Love with this world, with all of the opportunities which it is offering you. Let yourself be soft. My job is to step in when it is truly needed, which is not actually very often in this place where you live. But I am here. I am your protector. I am your guardian. You are safe with me.

Your work now is to practice being soft. Soft and fluid and free. Let your energy free. Flow with the world around you. It will soften the world within you. It is all the same. You are ready. It is what you have been working for, and now it is here. Allow it, welcome it, Be it. 

Open up, to the sky but also the Earth. There is the balance that will support you. Practice Beauty and Gratitude.

Then share it. This is your path.