Rage Practice

Did you know that each day of the week is associated with a different planet in the solar system? Well, Tuesday is Mars day and even though the sun just left Mars ruled sign Aries, I thought I’d share a bit on Mars energy and anger. 

As a Mars ruled Aries rising, I’ve always had a strong relationship to anger. But it never made sense to me because my astrological knowledge was quite limited and I only focused on my sun sign energy (Cancer) which is ruled by the moon and focuses a lot of the feminine and because of that, very little on anger. 

Women and anger typically don’t go together in society. If you’re an angry woman you’re bitter, a bitch, unattractive, unhinged. 

Like the majority of us, I didn’t learn a good way to express my anger and as a result, spent a long time repressing, then abruptly expressing in unsafe ways like explosions of rage. 

As it turns out, anger isn’t as much of a problem as we make it by trying to avoid it, shame tor bottled it up. 

Anger, like any other emotion, deserves a seat at the table, and further, they deserves the same four course meal that joy, passion, love and adoration do. 

The longer it gets at the table to work through its meal course the better its expressed. 

What do I mean by all of my food analogies? Simply that when approached correctly, anger is beneficial, leads to positive change and teaches us much needed relational and life lessons. 

The best way to approach the practice is with a feeling, person, place or specific point of anger in mind. Don’t worry that if you use a person something terrible will befall them, this is just a safe way of expressing an emotion that is valid. 

Often we fear that anger we hold toward others that would likely be more temporary if we could allow for it and move through it.

This of course doesn’t apply to those who have harmed us greatly. 

And remember, anger isn’t bad, this practice is less about distancing ourselves from anger and more about having a safe place to put it. 

If you use this rage practice practice I’d love to hear how it goes for you. 

Bodily Sensations Tracker~

When trauma occurs one of the things that can happen to us is that we lose touch with our bodily senses. Many parts of the brain that are associated with body awareness, what is called the default mode network, becomes diminished as a result of trauma.

When this occurs our intuitive senses, gut feelings and bodily sensations such as needing to urinate or feeling full are no longer easy to feel. Enough dissociations in response to trauma and numbing our senses as a coping mechanism can cause us to be living outside of our bodies.

In his book, ‘The Body Keeps the Score,’ author Bessel van der Kolk did an experiment with his patients who suffered from PTSD. He asked them to hold objects in their hands without seeing what they were and asked them to identify the objects. The majority of the clients were unable to identify what they were holding in their hands without seeing them. This experiment highlights the disconnection that is created between the brain and the body post trauma.

But it is possible to heal through trauma recovery work; regulating the nervous system, somatic practices and slowly tracking and becoming aware of when these sensations arise and listening to them as they do.

In order to get you started I’ve created a downloadable tracking sheet for everyday bodily sensations (access below). You can keep track of how often throughout the week you are noticing them, ignoring them and responding to them. This will give you a good idea of how in tune you are with your body and if it turns out that you aren’t, tracking these sensations will help you to become more in tune with your body over time where you will be able to better feel your body’s cues.

Each sensation has a space for each day of the week. If you feel and respond to a sensation you will mark it with a *. If you feel but ignore the sensation you will mark it with a X. If you don’t feel the sensation at all you will mark it with ~.

Please note that ‘thermoception cold’ is not feeling the sensation of cold weather and ‘thermoception hot’ is not feeling the sensation of being hot.

If you download and track your sensations I would love to hear how it’s going for you. Leave a comment here or send any comments or questions to ashleymarshallhealthcoach@gmail.com