This technique is drawn from the work of Christine Caldwell a Somatic Therapist (someone who works with body posture and felt senses)

The Moving Cycle is a process-oriented model, so it does not assume specific goals or outcomes, they are determined by the client.

Christine Caldwell observed that when change happens naturally, in mind and body, it follows distinct movement sequences. It's a cycle because the same thing happens again and again - albeit at a deeper and more profound level.

The underlying principle is that problems are best worked through than got round. This means working through the feelings, through the sensations,through the old limits and further into the body that is our home. This sense of "coming home" is the reason why this technique works so well.

The first stage of the cycle is AWARENESS. You often find yourself desensitized to the point where you have lost the art of conscious awareness. This can be both a frightening and an enlivening experience as you acknowledge your feelings, not cut them off or hide them away. It's about letting out and acknowledging what you actually feel. This starts as a very physical process of tracking and reporting tensions in the body and how you physically experience pleasure, hunger or whatever. This holds the key to effective transformation.

The second stage is called OWNING. This involves being ruthlessly honest about what is being experienced. This overcomes denial or the shifting of responsibility for your feelings outside yourself and onto others. This deals with blame, excuses and rationalisation that that remove your power to do what's needed. Telling the truth and keeping promises to yourself and others means you find out what it means to to be alive and how to feel good about it. Aliveness requires you to recover sensation through focused attention (concentration) and broad attention (relaxation).

I find that behind the inability to take responsibility is a lack of boundaries, or inadequte limits. Self-controlis about removing the unbounded feeling that dissipates our energy. It's about getting clarity and focus into our actions so we put energy into those things that really matter to us. This also involves allowing our bodies to contain our energy and emotions so we can feel more alive inside. This makes us feel secure, appreciated and in control.

The third stage is ACCEPTANCE. This requires us to deal with any shame or guilt that may live in our bodies. It can literally weigh us down in excess pounds or bring tension and even illness to specific parts of our bodies. Ful breathing often creates space for new sensations to emerge. Breathing into a feeling helps you take responsibility for it as an experience that you alone have generated within you. I cannot make you feel or do anything - it's your choice to respond or not.

This can often mean a reclaiming of your spirituality - that sense of love - to be love, in love, of love and for love. Change starts by loving and respecting your body, your mood state and the language you use.

The last phase is ACTION. This begins when you can sustain uncritical and loving attention to yourself. With this ability you can engage with the world in a healthy manner in which our very presence becomes a force for positoive change in everything and everyone around us. You are now relating to the world in the same conscious, responsible, accepting way that you relate to yourself. Your body and your mood communicate more than your words do, so pay attention to the messages they give out.

Intentions & Interventions
The four phases of the Moving Cycle combine to promote recovery and transformation at all levels: physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual.

The process requires you to be a powerful observer of yourself and your impact on others (inside-out), noticing what is happening physiologically (body) and being able to describe (language) the sensation and quality of the experience (mood). With this understanding you can become a more powerful observer of others and their impact on you (outside-in).

Within the Moving Cycle there are FIVE INTENTIONS:

To nurture - affirming, accepting and loving
To suport - feeling held or joined within clear boundaries
To challenge - accessing the truth with right thinking
To reflect - feeding back what you see and what's hidden
To provide space - focusing on silence and breathing

There are also FIVE INTERVENTIONS:

To repeat - heightening awareness to investigate
To contrast - considering the shadow side/alternatives
To intensify - turning up the volume/brightness
To specify - providing focus to achieve clarity
To generalise - applying to the whole not just parts

By keeping a body emphasis it is possible to access current, spontaneous experiences to deepen your inner life and encourage self-exploration.

Christine Caldwell herself comments "What keeps us in the life limiting category is often not unresolved trauma, but simply a belief that we are not supposed to get too happy, too successful, too excited, too aroused. Our families and cultures teach us 'how much' we can be." From "Getting our Bodies Back" Shambahala 1996

Conclusion
We are all on many Moving Cycles at any one time, each of them moving forward at their own pace, all interconnected with each other the the bigger world. It is patterned on the natural processes of the body and how it likes to operate optimally, vibrating with controlled energy.

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