Shame is a heavy vibration that can sabotage our vitality and pleasure and block us from living our best lives. I feel it's the number one thing that stands between us and full embodiment of our sensuality and the self love/body love that is a natural byproduct of that.
The hammer of shame has been used as a control program for thousands of years and it's come down hard on women's sexuality, sensuality and body image. When we add ageism to the equation it becomes even more toxic.
The experience of shame is a high activation of the nervous system. The response to an experience that causes shame puts us into state of numbness or shut down. This can greatly impact our pleasure, passion and our physical and mental health. Shame can be the result of our own experiences and passed down for generations. Regardless of its source, shame can be stored in the body for years, even a lifetime unless we release and integrate it.
Shame stored in the body can show up in many ways. One of the ways I often see it in my work (and I've also witnessed it in myself) is something I call "functional freeze"; a state of selective freeze where we can function in the world, but are cut off from the full aliveness that's available when we inhabit our sexual and sensual selves.
Here I riff on:
Some links for you: