Lie down, breathe, relax. “It’s that last part—the relaxing–” says James Arena, “that so often eludes people, and it is relaxation and harmony that Arena helps people rediscover.”
In the late 1970s, while working in Yosemite, Arena began to suffer from severe depression, lack of energy, and pain in his guts. When he went to a physician, he learned nothing was wrong, but the doctor recommended Polarity Therapy, a form of holistic, integrative bodywork. Arena discovered, through both bodywork and cleanses, that his body carried debilitating patterns from childhood. Polarity enabled him to release those patterns. It literally saved his life.
Not only did Polarity Therapy save his life, it became a way of life. Ever since Arena has been a practitioner, living, working, and teaching in Santa Monica, as well as in New Orleans, Albuquerque, and Tempe.
“In these times of high stress,” Arena says, “it’s important to preserve our vital, core energy. Polarity helps people do that.”
“Our bodies,” Arena says, “carry the story of our lives. They are maps of our emotional and mental patterns, a crystallized expression of our journeys, and those journeys can leave scars.” Polarity Therapy is the art of healing and health, integrating the primary systems in the body—the chakras, the supportive energy system in our body, the spine and its fluids, the life force in our body, and the umbilical forces of digestion—how we take life into our systems. Using pressure point balancing, cranial therapy, and other elements of Polarity, this therapy unifies forces within the body to create balance.
“The therapist is the facilitator in creating harmony,” Arena says humbly; he is a soft-spoken, gentle giant of a man whose work is so tender and powerful, it’s difficult to think of him as a mere facilitator.
“Polarity is a powerful tool particularly in recovery—post-addiction and post-illness. In recovery, peoples’ nervous systems have become unbalanced. We need to feel centered in order to relax enough to improve, to work through, for instance, addictive behaviors. People must first feel good in order to be inspired to heal.”
“Lie down, close your eyes, breathe, relax…” That last part seems actually possible after a single hour with this magnificent teacher and healer.
For more information on the specifics of Polarity Therapy and on James Arena, please visit his website at www.arenapolarity.com.
