When I work with women, the theme that comes up again and again is apologizing for taking up space. For centuries, women have been taught to shrink themselves – to make themselves small, to dampen their voices, to hide in the shadows. Women have been conditioned to believe that they don’t have the right to take up space, to be heard, or to speak their truth.The insidiousness of shifting into apologetic mode is so deep-rooted that it’s easy to forget that we’re even doing it. We apologize for our thoughts and opinions, for asking questions, for taking up too much space – literally and figuratively – and start all of our sentences with “I’m sorry”.
As a somatic movement guide, I help women to reclaim their bodies and their voice. The process begins by slowing down and getting quiet, tuning into what’s happening in the body. When we tune in, we often find that we’re holding certain tensions in the body that represent the ways we’ve shifted our stance to make ourselves “smaller”. In this way, our body becomes a physical metaphor for all the ways we’ve been apologizing for ourselves out of habit.
Moving through this tension – moving forward, standing taller, letting our crowns reach toward heaven, letting our beautiful curves expand in all directions leading us through our movement, expanding our presence into the infinite space around us – allows us to come into a deeply embodied experience of standing confidently in our worthiness and our right to occupy space. By actively reclaiming our physical and energetic presence in the world, we can break free from this cycle of apology and redefine how we show up in the world.
When we allow ourselves to inhabit our bodies without shame or apology, we open ourselves up to experiencing more joy, creativity, and self-expression. And we can start to reconnect with our true power – the power of being exactly who we are, with no need to apologize.
