Containment
Containment is an important somatic skill. Containment means that all my personal energies stick together, like the yolk of an egg or the insides of a cell. Containment keeps me safely apart from what is not me and not mine, protected by a membrane, skin, shell or wall.
Containment also means being able to hold onto myself and what I experience without necessarily releasing my thoughts, feelings, sensations or urges out in the world.
Containment relates to having boundaries, and to holding onto oneself, as well as feeling held. When contained, I am held together, held onto, and held safe.
Otherwise, our energies may disperse like clouds or fly away in the wind. We can’t easily sense the proper, natural boundaries between what’s inside ourselves and what is outside us. We merge, feel mushy, or like there’s nothing to hold us from being spilled out, flowed away, or soaked up.
Containment is a sensible cure for many problems, making the sharing of energies volitional, something we may do or not do, as we see fit.
Take a moment to do a quick body-scan style sketch, of how you sense the condition of your energy containment at this very moment:
The Just Right Container
We need all need a container for our energies. A bottle with a stopper, a crystal jar with a heavy lid, or a big clay pot with a nice top on it. Maybe our best container is soft and flexible, sac-like. Maybe our container needs to be like a seed pod, a clamshell, a mama koala’s pouch, or an irridescent, transparent bubble of soap.
Whatever our container is like, we need it to do these things:
Keep our insides in. The substance of us, our material, our inner stuff, needs a safe, private, lovely place to be.
Keep the outsides out (unless we decide to let them in)
Let good, nourishing energies in when we want them
Keep bad, toxic energies out, always
My Invitation to you: Play with the topic of containment through the following EXA process.
Supplies and Materials:
A small box with a lid, such as a matchbox, a mint box, a candy box. It is important to be able to open the box and to be able to close it fully
Paint, paint pens, oil pastels, or any other medium that can be applied to the surface of the box. It could also be a different kind of container, such as a glass jar. As long as it has an inside and an outside, and a way to seal it totally, it will work for this.
Part 1: Set an intention regarding containment
Take a moment to find the right words for framing your containment EXA work today. What is your intention in doing this process? What do you hope it will do for you? If it works just right, how will you sense that?
I would like to experience more/better/stronger/softer containment so that…
Or I would like help containing…
I want to be held by…
I want to be held in…
I want to hold onto…
Part 2: Five to Ten Minutes of Movement Exploration
Movement Instructions
Come to a standing position. Start with just noticing your energy as it is. If there are somatic sensations, just acknowledge them kindly. Then start to play with the idea of containment, using any or all of these three ways of exploring body experiences:
-Connect with your skin. Using one palm, gently stroke all of the skin you are able to easily access. As you touch your skin, you may want to notice there are two areas of sensation. One is the sensation in your moving palm as it touches “you” (as it might touch another person’s skin). The other sensation is your skin as it is being touched (as you might be touched by another). Observe this experience of giving and receiving touch at the same time, reflecting on the fact that your skin is your body’s container - it keeps all that belongs to your physical body on the inside, and all that does not belong inside your body on the outside.
-Hold yourself. Play with simple holds and look for holds that feel pleasurable, warming, soothing, comforting, containing. Start with crossing your arms and placing your hands on each upper arm. Stay in that hug and take it in. With hands crossed over your midline, hold your belly, or your ribs. Explore holding different parts of your body, including your head. Hold your own hand. Just notice what sensations arise. Any shifts, inner movements, spontaneous breaths? Shaking, stiffness, or something else?
-Play with Expanding and Contracting. Start with pulling your physical body inward, perhaps thinking of the image of a seed, a bird folding its wings, or a cat curling up. Pull your limbs into your core, whichever way feels comfortable. Then gently, without pushing, allow your energy to expand and unfurl, stretching gently outwards. Don’t push, just allow yourself to release and open. It doesn’t have to be a stretch, but it can be. Whatever feels right to the body. As you open, you may want to work with the image of a flower blooming, a tree growing leaves again in the spring, or a paper fan opening up. Move back and forth a few times, allowing breath to do whatever it wants naturally with this movement.
Tip: Do the movement portion of the process for as long as you feel like, but not so long that you get into a trancy state or get carried away by what’s coming up. This is just for connecting with your senses and body, not for a deep exploration.
It is fully ok to do it quite quickly (in 1 -3 minutes, for example). If you’re a little skittish of feeling into the body, go slowly and lightly, since you’re doing it on your own without a therapist tracking what’s coming up for you. Come out of the movement if it starts to be activating.
If you notice a triggered state, stop and do something to soothe and regulate, such as:
lengthening your outbreath - try adding 2-4 extra seconds to the outbreath
putting your hands on your heart
grounding by moving your legs and feet and focusing on the sensations there
lengthening your spine, by imagining your tailbone pushing down towards the earth while the crown of your head tries to press up towards the ceiling
look around and use your senses to notice pleasant things you can see, hear, touch, smell and taste in the room around you now.
For more resources for dealing with the triggered state, straight from people who developed these tools, please see Pat Ogden’s PEACE or Peter Levine’s SCOPE protocols
Now whatever you did or didn’t experience, let go of the movements, and get ready to move into Part 2: Painting Your Container!
Part 3: Paint Your Container
Transform your small box into a visual art piece anchor that can express and remind you of containment. Using paint or other materials to apply color, shapes, lines, expressions, or symbols. There do not need to be representations or figures, but there can be. If you want to, use collage and words too.
The inside of the box or jar is for your insides, where you want to be comfy and safe, and the outside of the container is the part that faces the world.
Work with all of the surfaces of the box, until you are feeling a sense of containment and completion, like all surfaces are covered in the right way.
Once your box is dry, play a little bit with opening and closing it, placing things inside your box, and emptying it out.
Is there anything that should be in there? A bit of cotton, some beach glass, a bead, or a stone to weight it down? Some bits of sage or something else that will make it smell good? If it needs to be empty, trust that too. Just appreciate this image of your containment intention.
If you are happy at this stage, feel free to stop here. If you would like to have a more mental understanding of what your piece is showing you, move on to Part 4 to have a written conversation with your piece.
Part 4: Dialogue with Your Container
To close and harvest any insights that might be useful for your mental body, write out a dialogue, asking questions and allowing your piece to speak to you. Like so:
Me: Hi dear container. Thank you for being willing to talk.
Container: You’re so welcome. How can I help you?
Me: Well, I’ve really been wondering about this egg image, with the kind of jelly-bean like colors inside.
Container: Yes, that’s your insides.
Me: I know, but…what are those things?
Container: Your different frequencies and vibrations. Like, your sound tones. Your signature energies. What’s yours. Parts of the real you. The colors your have.
Me: Huh…and the image overhead?
Container: Yes, that’s your cathedral ceiling, your loving overlooking Guardian Face looking down over you. Reminding you of the heavens, of what you’re entraining towards, looking up to, anchoring and reaching out into. Your cosmic home and origins.
Me: Thank you so much…I’m moved by that. Is there anything I am…supposed to do? Should do?
Container: Enjoy it. She is singing to each of the little jelly beans, and they understand her music, they dance and jump and vibrate and hum as She is sending out the Song of You. They know Her, they know You, they know Your Song.
Me: And they are inside my body?
Container: Inside your energy field, yes. Anchored into your physical body, too, in different organs and Parts. But also having a life that extends beyond the literal physical body. There is a kind of medium-sized version inside your auric egg body, your Energy Body let’s say, this egg yolk sac aura you’ve been working with, and also there are way bigger versions of the same thing, like a version of each little jelly bean that is as big as the planets, as big as the sun, as big as the universe.
Me: In just layers upon layers upon layers…?
Container: You see, you do understand. These are just the tiny representations. The parts that are literally inside you. Jumping for joy and wriggly alive liveliness.
Me: Thank you so much. Ok, anything I should…
Container: Do? (Smiles at my obsessing). No, lovie. Truly not. Just enjoy all this inner aligning, attuning, centering, lining up, all this self-cohering. This is you containing yourself, containing the All, and the All containing You.
Me: Thank you so much!
Container: You are so, so welcome. Bye for now, lovie.