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This embodied practice can be done solo or with the support of a friend or family member who could read it to you. It can be used before or after abortion and throughout your healing process. Gratitude to the influences of qi gong, Willa Blythe Baker’s book The Wakeful Body, and the ancient Hindu system of the chakras.
Put on Into the River by Starling Arrow, or soothing music of your choice. Take the time you need to get comfortable, sitting down, lying down, standing.
Take a few full breaths and let yourself arrive.
As you feel ready, lay your hands on your feet. Breathe fully and sense into your feet. Feel their edges, the full space they take up, their strength, their uniqueness. How are they feeling in this moment? With your hands, offer them some love and gratitude for all that they allow in your life. With your breath, stay gently focused on your feet. You can massage them if it feels good, or wiggle and spread your toes.
As you’re ready, run your hands up your legs, sensing into them, checking in, offering love and gratitude to your legs.
Spend some time with your hands on your hips and your low back. You can gently massage if it feels good. How is it with your hips in this moment? Offer them love and gratitude for all that they hold and allow for in your life.
As you’re ready, lay your hands over your womb space, below your belly button. Spend some time there if it feels okay, just breathing. What do you sense and notice? With each breath and with the warmth of your hands, infuse that space with love, radical acceptance, curiosity. Whatever comes up, breathe with it and allow it.
When you’re ready, move your hands up to your heart. Sense into any feelings or sensations that are there. Offer love and gratitude back to your heart for the immensity it is capable of holding, for its strength, for its tenderness, for the steadfastness with which it beats.
Move your hands up to your neck and throat. Offer yourself gentle massage if it feels good, feeling into your neck and throat. What do you notice? With your hands and your breath, direct love and radical acceptance to your neck and throat.
Then rub your hands together, creating heat and building energy. Cup your palms over your eyes, sensing into how your eyes feel in this moment. Offer love, gratitude, and fresh energy to your eyes. Do the same with your forehead.
Moving your hands to the crown of your head, sense into the energy there. Stay with it and play with it if it feels good, moving your hands around your head. Offer love and gratitude for everything your head holds and makes possible in your life, for how it contributes to your wholeness.
When you are ready, return your hands to just below your belly button, cradling your womb space. Ground in the energy there, and feel the giving and receiving from your hands. Stay here for as long as you like.
When you are ready to move, put on a favorite song. (You can use one of Abortions Welcome’s playlists for this; another favorite is Sovereignty Hymn by the Bengsons). The song will be your container for movement. Let yourself move freely in whatever way you feel led – softly, slowly, staccato, banging with your hands, sharp and loud. Roll on the floor, stand up. Whatever you are feeling, embody it for the length of this song. There is nowhere you can go that God or Spirit or Love is not.
Your movement could be as small as some hand motions, as large as rolling on the bed or floor or some gentle dance. Trust your body. Let yourself look silly. See what wants to move through and trust it. Release thinking about it. For the duration of the song, let yourself move with your life force energy, perhaps cycling through the same places you just blessed and felt into in your meditation: feet, legs, hips, womb, heart, throat, eyes, crown. How can you let each of those energy centers guide your movement?
When the song finishes, lie down or sit in stillness. Tune into your breath.
Chant or say or silently repeat one or more of these affirmations to yourself. You can also make up your own, one which feels right, or replace words with other words that feel more aligned with your needs and experience.
There is nowhere I can go that God is not.
My body is a whole, dynamic, interconnected part of Earth.
I trust my body’s needs as I heal.
I trust all of my feelings to guide me through to healing.
I trust the dance.
Place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly. Take three deep breaths. Blink your eyes open, wiggle fingers and toes, stretch, and bring yourself out of the ritual.
