Thresholds - Mindfulist

A conversation with somatic psychotherapist Maira Holzmann

On Arriving Through the Body—A conversation with somatic psychotherapist and coach Maira Holzmann.

On Arriving Through the Body

A brief note: This conversation was shortened and very lightly edited for length and clarity.

What does “arrival” mean in the body, not as an idea?

MAIRA: Arrival, for me, is when attention comes out of the mind and into the body—when we are no longer living 90 percent of the time from the neck up. It’s the moment we begin to sense our lived experience directly: the breath, the sensations, the movement, the contact with the ground or the chair.

Often, arrival begins with something very simple. Just noticing the rise and

The Second Half Rhyme

Imagine your life as a poem you’re still writing. The first verse has its own music, but the poem isn’t finished.

"Just as in the second part of a verse bad poets seek a thought to fit their rhyme, so in the second half of their lives people tend to become more anxious about finding actions, positions, relationships that fit those of their earlier lives."

— FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Nietzsche’s words land with a certain clarity. We spend much of our early life establishing rhythm—the familiar rhyme of work, family, friendship, and routine. Those patterns become the poem of our first years. Then, somewhere along the way, we notice the rhyme no longer holds.

The instinct is to tighten our grip,

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What does “arrival” mean in the body, not as an idea?