Tell Your Story With The Power Of Gesture & Release Emotions

Tell your story and release stored emotions from your body by using the power of gesture. My guest Jen Aks will explain this joyful process in this episode of the Breathe Love & Magic podcast. How Did the Power of Gesture Begin? My first question was how did she come up with the Power of Gesture? Jen said she didn’t come up with it. This truly came through her soul and she feels like a passenger on a train being taken through and guided in this experience. It is pure soul work. She’s been a movement practitioner and a dance educator for three decades and she has been moving through life in all sorts of ways. But now, Jen has paired her love of movement with her passion for emotional wellness to help you tell your story with the power of gestures. Early in her life, Jen struggled a lot because she could not find the words to express herself and communicate in the way she wanted to connect. She felt stuck in her body and movement became her language. Jen says dance saved her life and brought her kind of communication to the world. Breaking COVID’s Isolation A few years ago when the pandemic hit, she organically wanted to help people stay connected to their bodies. Knowing first hand what its like to feel disconnected and disembodied, Jen knew the pandemic made things worse with so much isolation happening. Jen decided to try out an idea she had and worked with people she was close to. Her aim was to help them move through their emotions and reconnect them to their bodies. During this process, she just kept saying the words “The power of gesture” as she did this work with people. Over time, Jen realized this process she created to tell your story is a real method that is helping people. The work has been really transformative for her clients and for herself. Jen has free 30-minute workshops every Tuesday at 10am ET and Wednesday at noon ET, because she wants people can give this a try. You Want Me to Move? My first reaction to hearing about this process is, “That is not for me.” I’m not into ecstatic dance and that sort of thing (nothing wrong with it just not my way of expressing myself). But for some reason, (spirit nudging perhaps) I decided to try a free session. I showed up feeling dread for what Jen might make me do in this online workshop. But there was none of that awkward, embarrassing feeling at all! On zoom, we were in our own little boxes in the gallery view. Everyone stayed seated, and just moved our arms or bodies from the hips up. There was no dancing! It was easy and fun and I fell in love with the process. Tell Your Story in a Group Jen also does this with larger groups where each woman created a gesture and practiced it. Then she put on the music and each woman did her gestures, which we all followed. One by one, we did every woman’s gesture to music all in a row and it was a total blast! I was shocked at how uplifting and joyous this exercise was. That’s why I wanted to have Jen as a guest because I want everyone t know about this practice. It’s fabulous! I asked Jen how she figured out that creating a gesture would help tell your story and help move emotions through the body. Turns out Jen knew this from how her own life unfolded, expressing herself through dance. She knew she was really communicating through her body. At first this whole thing was very experimental. Jen wanted to create