BodyAlive! Interview with Jai Deardorff

JT: Aimee, you are a graduate of Still Point Center for Massage aren’t you? The school is pretty famous.

AKS: Yes, I am. Stillpoint Center drew a great deal of attention in the 90’s for it’s thorough teaching process which blended hard science of physiological and kinesiological aspects of bodywork with more progressive teachings about personal growth. I was fortunate to be in school in 1993. It was at the turning point when massage was being recognized as an effective complementary medical therapy and yet we were also steeped in the sacred nature of a bodywork session, something some modern schools have felt necessary to let go of.

JT: How does this training and experience translate into your work now?

AKS: Since my initial training I have continued to cultivate an ability to be completely present with my client and deeply attentive to what is happening in their tissue and body/mind. My intention is to help bring to consciousness the physical and energetic movements that will promote greater vitality and healing. Currently I am working with the breath, energy, movement, and deep tissue release work. I encourage clients to release holding and experience stability and rest so they can move through life with greater vitality. To feel connected, fully experiencing one’s own body and its cycles is an honor and a pleasure! All this comes with the conscious choices and commitments we make.

JT: Aric, your work with Structural Integration is about creating change and movement too, isn’t it?

AS: Yes it is. A founding principle in Structural Integration (SI) is that there is no such thing as a local injury in the body since every single cell is woven and working together into a beautiful aggregate which we know to be ourselves. An injury or trauma affects the whole body – your entire structure. The brilliance of SI is that we can take old compensation patterns, months or years old and unwind them. The results are amazing.

In addition to less pain, more range of motion, and more energy, a more clear sense of self-correcting and self-healing mechanisms come forth. What you get is a more organized and much more expressive human being. The bottom line is that it is exhausting to be carrying around decades of old injuries.

Approaches like SI, Live Foods, & Breathwork are about cleaning up and organizing the systems of the body so that you can reach higher degrees of vitality and live fully in each day beyond just surviving.

The SI series helps to really alter your life. It fosters elemental transformation because you are literally changing body from the feet up. It is about creating more options in our ability to move through the world. There is a deep sense of freedom that goes through allowing yourself to open your body.

Going Live!

JT; Both of you are very involved with live foods.

AKS: On my journey, I have had various experience and experiments with food, I’ve had a lot of questions that have brought me to explore live foods and I’ve found this particular way of being with food has created more movement in my life than any other way of eating.

AS: In 1997, I was at the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center with Dr. Gabrielle Cousins. Being there, I realized how my relationship with food was such a large part of my day and therefore really shaped my life. I realized how to use this system of eating to revitalize my body with food instead of devitalizing my body through poor eating. It was the most expansive act I could think of. It is the most simple amazing thing!

Through live foods you can not only stop assaulting and hurting your body, but revitalizing it every time you eat. I have studied and practiced it ever since.

JT: So that really connects it to your body work. How does that work?

AS: Well, what’s the most integrity filled, vital thing you’ve ever seen in your life? Undoubtedly it’s living!

AKS: Bodywork is designed to increase integrity and vitality, livefood is designed to increase integrity and vitality – they are beautifully synergistic.

Live foods have none of the toxins brought about by chemical changes from cooking. Eating live and raw results in getting all the enzymes we need. Our bodies thrive by absorbing, assimilating and eliminating efficiently. Every cell goes through this process. When we eat a clean, enzyme filled diet all our systems are able to access the nutrients from our food and have an easier time eliminating – it’s the essence of good circulation!

When doing high levels of live food, I experience far less discomfort in my body, my joints move easier, I have more energy, my skin is clear and soft. The quality of tissue changes so much that you will transform old physical patterns more readily when receiving bodywork! I just have never found any way of eating which creates such dramatic effects.

JT: You really see Live Foods as a tool for making life changes?

AKS: Yes! I do believe that we each have to find what works best, though. People have been asking about raw foods – it’s gaining national attention, even in the NY Times. I started classes to assist the growing exploration locally.

Eating raw foods can be simple or gourmet – but it is always attractive, beautiful. Aric and I place a high value on being simple and efficient and creating beauty. Change can feel overwhelming. We advocate finding what makes life feel simple, enjoyable and making changes at a pace that suits you. By incorporating live foods into our diets 50%, 75% or 100% - we are investing in greater levels of health and can feel more connected to the earth from which whole foods come. Earth body/ human body – there is something about seeing, smelling, feeling and tasting say, a stalk of celery that reminds us of the high level of physical and energetic integrity it takes to be vital, to thrive. What we need to support our bodies is the same as what we need to support our planet -and support the people who grow what keeps us alive. Every time I share a (preferably locally grown) raw food meal, I feel I am taking part in something very sacred. It is so much fun and I feel great afterward!

JT: Aimee, this is a gift you have with people, to help them to move how they want to move, to release what they are ready to release, and to change how they want to change.

AKS: It’s not about one right way, just about sharing and facilitating what we have learned that may better another person’s life; supporting them to strive toward the results they seek and letting the how of it emerge.

Cultivating

Essence

JT: So tell us more about Body Alive!

AKS: Aric and I are creating this business together, BodyAlive!, toshare the pursuits that we are passionate about. They all have to do with raising our level of vitality and capacity for movement in the world. Our practice encompasses our complementary styles of bodywork and raising consciousness about how we eat and relate to our food - and enjoying fully how we express ourselves.

JT: What’s the long term vision of Body Alive!

AS: Our long term vision is a center that is a resource for people in this whole region. Where they can come here and experience live food classes, all the different kinds of bodywork that we offer. We would like to be a teaching facility and train other bodyworkers.

AKS: Also, we dream of creating a big, beautiful movement and performance space, a community kitchen and classroom, live foods café, pilates/gyrotonics workout space, and of course studios for bodywork! What manifests of this vision will probably be a collective effort and will most importantly be a central place that our community gravitates to because it feels so good to be there! We are dedicated to learning and living out the connection between personal potential and planetary potential. And, we have this ulterior motive – we want to get every body dancing – literally and metaphorically! What drew me here was the vibrancy of people’s spirits and I want to help that grow. It’s not something we can do alone – cultivating our essence. Discovering the very best of who we can be is not a solo expedition.