Family Holidays 

BY CHRIS WRIGHT

You’re at the Thanksgiving table, fumbling for the Tums, wondering why you ever had that third helping of Spam-and-walnut stuffing. The ache in your gut, though, may have less to do with mom’s cooking than it does with your feelings about mom. According to " Integrated Awareness " teacher Mark Fourman, emotions can be pinpointed by identifying physical sensations — a pain in the lung, for instance, may suggest grief and denial. This Saturday (Nov. 16), Fourman will host a " Family Holidays: Blessing or Curse " workshop, in which he will help students navigate " the body map of consciousness, " and so prevent a repetition of last year’s unfortunate incident with little Jimmy and the turkey baster.

Q: What is Integrated Awareness?

A: It’s the patterns in the mind and body. From the minute it’s born, a baby is eating, using its bowels, interacting with the family, all that stuff. Early on, our brains aren’t developed enough to remember what we’ve learned. So where does all that learning go? The simple answer is in our body posture — the energies and emotions that get stored in our bodies.

Q: How will that theory play itself out in your workshop?

A: People will adopt a posture of how they are in the family. If someone leans over to the left in a particular way, that might be compressing the spleen, which is related to issues of unfairness. In that case, I might suggest everybody think of something in the family which they consider to be unfair, then I suggest they make a movement to how they try to deal with this unfairness.

Q: I don’t get it.

A: If something feels unfair, how do you move? Do you sit up straight? Do you thump the table? How you react is going to be how you move as an adult — I’m not going to put up with this. Next, I have you move like you can’t do anything about it, and that’s how you moved when the unfairness was first imprinted on the body. From there, we’ll encourage the body to find a new movement. I’ll suggest a new way of interacting, which repatterns the root of the problem.

Q: So family squabbles can be solved by sitting in a different way?

A: No — by revisiting unconscious patterns. As I talk about unfairness, I slump down on my spleen — there’s a feeling of hopelessness. But if you repattern so there’s no longer the pull to slump, the problem will be solved.

Q: Okay. So how will this help when someone’s brother hogs the turkey?

A: My little brother always felt that he didn’t get enough attention as a kid, so he acts the clown. In my world, he got more attention, so I felt ignored. I’m going home for Christmas this year, and I’ll get pissed off. What I’ll do for people in workshop, I’ll explore my issue in an Integrated Awareness way, try to get to the root of where that pattern resides in my body. I’ll find something that’s outside of awareness, probably something that had its roots in when I was two.

Q: What other issues might arise at the Thanksgiving table?

A: Resentment — you’ll see that in the gall bladder. A feeling of shame, which is in the colon. The insides of the knees are related to self-abandonment. With guilt, you’ll feel it in the lower intestine in guys, in the ovaries for women. Self-judgment, this will be on the brow. Sadness would be a collapsing around [the] solar plexus.

Q: If this works so well, how come you still have issues with your family?

A: I’ve been in Integrated Awareness for about five years, and I’ve grown more in that time than [in] any period in my life. A few weeks ago, I found a place in the back of my left lung that was highly charged emotionally. It felt like it had to do with the grief of my mother dying. When I explored the feeling, I found out it was stuff from when I was young. My mother was caring, but not very emotional. So it was the pain of not feeling a connection. Discovering this had a stunning impact on my relationship with my girlfriend; it really increased the level of intimacy.

Q: People must think you’re crazy.

A: Absolutely. I’m used to it.

Copyright 2002 Phoenix Media Communications Group.