Sacred Catharsis: A Personal Healing Journey Amidst the Forced Pause of Pandemic
To feel is to be alive. In 2021, Kelli Hansel Haywood shares the story of her personal journey of self discovery and easing her body of chronic physical and emotional pain which culminated in a very focused practice of movement and mindfulness during the COVID-19 pandemic requirements of physical distancing. She describes how she used the ancient system of the chakras as a sort of scaffolding to uncover the traumas and tensions in her body that created the patterns of her pain. Considering the themes of each chakra as applied to her life’s narrative, she addressed each through movement (mainly yoga), mindfulness (meditation & pranayama), and deep release through fascial training and sacred practices.
Kelli’s work is the story of an average person in daily life applying already existing practices to heal in the midst of a global crisis. This is the rarely seen part. Part personal essay and part practice journal Sacred Catharsis gives us the part of a story that we are seldom privy to - how a self healing process looks applied to real life day in and day out. It’s not just about the result, but what it feels like in practice.