embodiment boxing

My boxing story began in 2017, but really I think it began when I was a child with pent up aggression and nowhere to put it. In my adult life, some of the trauma I experienced manifested itself through crippling anxiety. I was getting chronic panic attacks, and for a while I had to give up basic everyday tasks like driving after having a major panic attack behind the wheel. My anxiety also impacted my work because the panic would set in at inconvenient times, like in front of the camera while teaching a class on set. Through therapy, I understood where my panic attacks were coming from, and that I was essentially experiencing extreme dissociation, involuntarily "leaving my body," which created physical instability and caused panic. 

When I was introduced to boxing, I realized that "hitting shit" had a magical way of landing me back in my body in a way my many years of talk therapy never did. Since discovering boxing, combined with the use of breathwork, I feel I have a tangible tool to come back to my body when feelings of dissociation overwhelm me. Since, through personal training, group classes, and retreats, I have used boxing as a way to facilitate embodiment for women like myself who have been through traumas that lead to experiences of dissociation. I have used boxing as a form of therapy for myself and my clients to return to embodiment and therefore experience a sense of freedom. I like to think of it as "returning home" when we can come back to our bodies, through the act of boxing.