Bodywashing
We often talk about brainwashing, but what if more than the brain is capable of being “washed"? Let’s talk about BODYWASHING. People can be physically indoctrinated through training into thinking and being a certain way. Movement poisoning can lead to purpose poisoning which can take years and years to undo, liberate, and find soul purpose.
Premature stylized movement indoctrination, just like brainwashing that teaches you what to think instead of how to think, programs the body into what to dance instead of how to conduct authentic movement from your soul and develop a healthy and capable body and nervous system. Such training later in life felt like a surgery that was performed on my body and nervous system without the surgeon understanding my anatomy. The highly competitive dance world motivated me to desire achievements, to pursue status, certain looks, and to get approval from the dance industry so I could maintain my social identity as a professional dancer and satisfy my ego needs. All that debilitated the connection to my soul, misaligned me physically and energetically for quite some time but never really disconnected me completely and served as a reason to look deeper, and to answer the subtle callings of my soul.
Being raised as a rhythmic gymnast and later joining international ballet and contemporary dance schools, becoming a professional dancer made me realize I was taught a foreign language of physical expression before even learning and discovering my own, the native language of my soul that speaks authentically through the body in movement. For many years I participated in the world of sports and later danced internationally focusing on achievements and destroying myself with work, daily technique-perfecting training, and career goals from awakening into my authentic nature.
Premature body indoctrination with specific sport or dance techniques (locked, movement patterns, limited movement vocabulary, overtraining) not only programs your body, but it also creates specific psychological and nervous system containers through which people experience their lives and see the world. According to Carl Jung, all human motivations fall into two categories "persona-driven" and "self-driven". Personality-driven comes from false self, the masks you wear to get approval and avoid rejection, to maintain social identity (career ambitions, achievement desires, and status pursuits).
Self-driven comes from your authentic core, the part of you that exists beyond social conditioning and ego needs. This motivation doesn't seek external validation because it emerges from internal alignment.
