What does a container really hold? Nature has a unique way of simply not seeing barriers to its growth. Concrete never stopped a dandelion, nor can barbed wire ever stop a tree’s trunk from expansion. Yet, we as humans really enjoy putting things into little containers; stacking them, organizing, re-organizing and storing them.

I am not much of a pack-rat, necessarily, but I have, throughout time, held onto things of particular sentiment. Specifically, many years ago now, memories of my late husband were being kept alive and (if I had, had my way) forever stored in the form of particular objects. However, the universe had another idea in mind for these things. Due to several moves, little unknowing hands, and various mindless acts over time, all of these items became small piles of unrepairable ruin. Each time something broke, I broke…broke down into hopeless tears. As each one fell, so did my surrender consume, and letting go of my containers became symbolic trips to the trash.

Now, some of you may think this is sad, and yes, at the time it was, but believing that things always work out for the best has led me to look for stability and comfort within myself instead. Since containers that were external continued to come and go (excluding my son, of course), the only constant container to put my energy into was me. It was a good place to begin.

Today, as I was working on a client, I spoke about these breaking sentimental objects, but the words that came were brand new. Much to my surprise, I was referencing the broken pieces as ‘containers that could not contain’ the vastness I attempted to store there, so of course they had to break. What was my sentiment if not in the very air that I breathed every day? Were we not one and the same, and therefore uncontainable?

Allow me to explain…Physics says everyone and everything (whether man creates it or it occurs ‘naturally’ in our surroundings) are all made from the same matter as everything else, atoms. So this would also mean that every ‘container’ is the same as the energy being stored in it and the energy that surrounds it, right?

The Russian matryoshka doll, for example, holds artistically painted dolls inside each other, and has been used as a symbol for the relationship of an ‘object within a similar object’.

A fish in the medium of water, is made of water, lives in water, breathes water, moves around quite well in water. What can possibly separate it from water?

Humans sleep in bedrooms, live in houses, work in buildings, escape to wide open spaces of nature, and dream of the moon, stars and planets. All of which are maintained within the unseen force-field of gravity. Yet all are made up of the same material, atoms, pulsing in a variety of frequencies and vibration.

The body is a natural, porous container wherein thoughts, feelings, vibration, frequencies, can easily come and go. When we try to capture our thoughts and hold onto them inside the body, then they are likely going to rot, like bad food in the refrigerator. How can a refrigerator hold today’s fresh tasty morsels when it is filled with yesterday’s old, rotting food. How then can the body store all that we are as biological beings with creative consciousness? … It was never meant too.

What about identity you may ask? Similar to two-year-olds saying ‘mine!’ we want ownership of ourselves; some type of solidity and identity, importance and separation. It is likely that this identity is based on the past. And, it is likely that the idea of a separate ‘container’ was formed from negative feelings rather than positive ones. Think about it…can you look at life from your innocence and see anything but innocence? Can you peer out of happiness to the world surrounding you and see anything except connectedness and unification of all living beings?

Nature continues to show us connectedness and porous similarities. How much energy is then used up to believe and maintain the idea of separation or a ‘container’? When ‘holding patterns’ are released from the body through bodywork, it is not uncommon to experience exhaustion. The energy required to hold the lid down on identity is no longer flexed… so the body opens, exhales, and can finally be set free.

Simply allowing each breath and thought to move through the porous mind and body each enjoyable day, keeps it free of yesterday and open to explore tomorrow. In nature, I do not suppose any plant would say, “Well, it was cloudy yesterday, so I won’t grow as much today”. No, it simply takes the clouds, sun, and rain as they all come in turn and says, “Thank you, I’ll grow from that”.