Deepika Sheleff
Interview with Deepika, San Anselmo, CA, 03.10.2010
Deepika, how were you introduced to Pulsation?
My very first introduction to pulsation was at the German Bakery in Pune, in the spring of 1998. I was sharing with a friend that I was feeling very emotional, but was unable to cry. Something felt all dried up and stuck inside. Then he told me that if I lay on my back with bent knees and breathe deeply it might help. He had just done a 3 day pulsation group, and said that it had worked for him, but I was skeptical. How would breathing help my crying issue? But with nothing to lose, I decided to give it a shot. Miraculously, it worked...! My body became more alive, and I was finally able to cry the tears that had been stuck for weeks. I was intrigued...
Then, a few months later, I joined the the Osho Therapist program, and a big part of it was the Pulsation training. By the end of those first 3 weeks, I was much more than curious, I was hooked!
What made you fall in love with the work?
Well, for me Pulsation has always felt like love at first sight. When I participated in my first training I felt so liberated and alive. I have always been very energetic, even as a child. But that energy was also tight and over-busy, and there were all these tangled knots in me about how I should be, how to control my emotions and hide my needs, my longing, my sexuality, my anger. Pulsation was the place where I discovered the joy of my own aliveness, and I could finally really connect with the deeper layers of myself and not be ashamed. It was a huge healing for me personally, and I loved being able to support my friends through this process. Giving sessions always came very naturally to me, and I think it was my own excitement about the process that allowed me to hold space for others.
What do you most enjoy about Pulsation?
I totally love the way Pulsation goes right to the core. There's no way of hiding from yourself any more. I also love the tangible, tingling vibrancy it brings. I do other types of body-centered healing work, but nothing gives that intense sense of pulsing aliveness and joy of being in the body like Pulsation does. I also like the precision of the work; in pulsation we're not just getting a 'high' from the breathing. We're also consciously working on unraveling those knots, releasing old emotional blocks and gaining awareness about the ways we hold ourselves back. This is profoundly healing, while also being fun!
What is it about Pulsation that works for your clients?
I work mostly in California these days, so I'm seeing how helpful pulsation is for getting people back into intimate contact with their bodies. in the US, and generally in western cultures, there is a growing tendency to treat the body as an object. Some THING, like a car or a plant that needs to be groomed, shaped, managed in some way. People treat their body as if it was completely separate from them, and this causes enormous suffering and inner instability. So Pulsation helps people discover the pleasure and aliveness of living IN the body, and offers a taste of deep intimacy and oneness with all the different aspects of themselves. I'm also using Pulsation to teach people about healthy emotional expression. Giving them a hands-on taste of the human realness of feeling. There are many concepts about emotions, like the idea that anger is toxic or fear is shameful. It’s a great revelation to discover the difference between repressed anger, and the healthy alive intelligent nature of true anger. With Pulsation people get very direct contact with themselves, and they feel very joyful and grateful to have that pathway. I have clients who have changed many things in their life thanks to this work, including their sense of themselves, their personal relationships, work, meditation, even their sexuality...
Why are you doing this work, and what do you hope to share with your clients?
I love the work, and I am hoping to help people have much more flow and ease in their life. It’s really helpful to have a safe place for people to be themselves, to feel, to allow their body to do whatever it wants, to express themselves with no inhibition. Just that alone is huge. And having some deeper insights and skills also helps to move the energy and get people in touch with their natural organic alive self. This is the most gratifying experience for me, when a client realizes and celebrates their true nature...!
What is the most important thing you've learned from doing this work?
Hmm, hard to say, there are so many things. I think the main learning is that everything is made of the same stuff. There's no difference between 'bad' energy and 'good' energy - no, it's all the same energetic stuff, it just depends on how it's used. The same life force can be used to judge myself and keep myself small and contained, or it can be used to celebrate myself, to play in the world. The energy can be used to hide from myself and others and make things complicated, or can be used to access my vulnerability and openness. So there's no point in fighting against myself - the life force is here, it's always available, it’s always moving through my body. It's just a matter of reclaiming it and giving it space to move naturally, and then all the problems and issues disappear.
What other methods do you use together with Pulsation and how do your clients benefit from the combination?
I'm always mixing things in and using other tools to support the Pulsation work. I am trained in Hakomi, a body-centered psychotherapy that was developed in the '70s. In Hakomi, we work in a way that truly supports the wisdom of the body, and we even support defenses in a way that helps the person become much more aware of what they are doing and what the deeper intention is behind it. Supporting the 'old defensive habit' opens space to feel what’s underneath and to find new and more constructive ways of taking care of oneself. I also use energy healing work to support movement in the more subtle energy centers and chakras.
I find that when clients only do pulsation, they can sometimes forget the importance of awareness. It's helpful sometimes to slow things down and explore the underlying beliefs and systems that are holding the emotions in a certain pattern. As a practitioner I see these patterns clearly in others, but they don't always recognize it from the inside. I find that the combination of breathwork with mindful exploration of belief patterns is very powerful and transformative, helping bring real change into daily life situations.
Is there anything else you want to say before we finish?
I'm just delighted at how much Pulsation is spreading and expanding in the world. It's so great to see people who were participants years ago becoming practitioners, and more and more people benefiting from this beautiful work. It's such a great foundation for any other growth work and for being able to hold yourself and your emotional nature with love and spaciousness. This is sooooo important and makes life so juicy! I just want to encourage everyone to keep nourishing this juiciness and to support their aliveness as much as possible.
Life becomes so much more fun that way ;-)
Return to the Pulsation Practitioners Page >
Deepika, how were you introduced to Pulsation?
My very first introduction to pulsation was at the German Bakery in Pune, in the spring of 1998. I was sharing with a friend that I was feeling very emotional, but was unable to cry. Something felt all dried up and stuck inside. Then he told me that if I lay on my back with bent knees and breathe deeply it might help. He had just done a 3 day pulsation group, and said that it had worked for him, but I was skeptical. How would breathing help my crying issue? But with nothing to lose, I decided to give it a shot. Miraculously, it worked...! My body became more alive, and I was finally able to cry the tears that had been stuck for weeks. I was intrigued...
Then, a few months later, I joined the the Osho Therapist program, and a big part of it was the Pulsation training. By the end of those first 3 weeks, I was much more than curious, I was hooked!
What made you fall in love with the work?
Well, for me Pulsation has always felt like love at first sight. When I participated in my first training I felt so liberated and alive. I have always been very energetic, even as a child. But that energy was also tight and over-busy, and there were all these tangled knots in me about how I should be, how to control my emotions and hide my needs, my longing, my sexuality, my anger. Pulsation was the place where I discovered the joy of my own aliveness, and I could finally really connect with the deeper layers of myself and not be ashamed. It was a huge healing for me personally, and I loved being able to support my friends through this process. Giving sessions always came very naturally to me, and I think it was my own excitement about the process that allowed me to hold space for others.
What do you most enjoy about Pulsation?
I totally love the way Pulsation goes right to the core. There's no way of hiding from yourself any more. I also love the tangible, tingling vibrancy it brings. I do other types of body-centered healing work, but nothing gives that intense sense of pulsing aliveness and joy of being in the body like Pulsation does. I also like the precision of the work; in pulsation we're not just getting a 'high' from the breathing. We're also consciously working on unraveling those knots, releasing old emotional blocks and gaining awareness about the ways we hold ourselves back. This is profoundly healing, while also being fun!
What is it about Pulsation that works for your clients?
I work mostly in California these days, so I'm seeing how helpful pulsation is for getting people back into intimate contact with their bodies. in the US, and generally in western cultures, there is a growing tendency to treat the body as an object. Some THING, like a car or a plant that needs to be groomed, shaped, managed in some way. People treat their body as if it was completely separate from them, and this causes enormous suffering and inner instability. So Pulsation helps people discover the pleasure and aliveness of living IN the body, and offers a taste of deep intimacy and oneness with all the different aspects of themselves. I'm also using Pulsation to teach people about healthy emotional expression. Giving them a hands-on taste of the human realness of feeling. There are many concepts about emotions, like the idea that anger is toxic or fear is shameful. It’s a great revelation to discover the difference between repressed anger, and the healthy alive intelligent nature of true anger. With Pulsation people get very direct contact with themselves, and they feel very joyful and grateful to have that pathway. I have clients who have changed many things in their life thanks to this work, including their sense of themselves, their personal relationships, work, meditation, even their sexuality...
Why are you doing this work, and what do you hope to share with your clients?
I love the work, and I am hoping to help people have much more flow and ease in their life. It’s really helpful to have a safe place for people to be themselves, to feel, to allow their body to do whatever it wants, to express themselves with no inhibition. Just that alone is huge. And having some deeper insights and skills also helps to move the energy and get people in touch with their natural organic alive self. This is the most gratifying experience for me, when a client realizes and celebrates their true nature...!
What is the most important thing you've learned from doing this work?
Hmm, hard to say, there are so many things. I think the main learning is that everything is made of the same stuff. There's no difference between 'bad' energy and 'good' energy - no, it's all the same energetic stuff, it just depends on how it's used. The same life force can be used to judge myself and keep myself small and contained, or it can be used to celebrate myself, to play in the world. The energy can be used to hide from myself and others and make things complicated, or can be used to access my vulnerability and openness. So there's no point in fighting against myself - the life force is here, it's always available, it’s always moving through my body. It's just a matter of reclaiming it and giving it space to move naturally, and then all the problems and issues disappear.
What other methods do you use together with Pulsation and how do your clients benefit from the combination?
I'm always mixing things in and using other tools to support the Pulsation work. I am trained in Hakomi, a body-centered psychotherapy that was developed in the '70s. In Hakomi, we work in a way that truly supports the wisdom of the body, and we even support defenses in a way that helps the person become much more aware of what they are doing and what the deeper intention is behind it. Supporting the 'old defensive habit' opens space to feel what’s underneath and to find new and more constructive ways of taking care of oneself. I also use energy healing work to support movement in the more subtle energy centers and chakras.
I find that when clients only do pulsation, they can sometimes forget the importance of awareness. It's helpful sometimes to slow things down and explore the underlying beliefs and systems that are holding the emotions in a certain pattern. As a practitioner I see these patterns clearly in others, but they don't always recognize it from the inside. I find that the combination of breathwork with mindful exploration of belief patterns is very powerful and transformative, helping bring real change into daily life situations.
Is there anything else you want to say before we finish?
I'm just delighted at how much Pulsation is spreading and expanding in the world. It's so great to see people who were participants years ago becoming practitioners, and more and more people benefiting from this beautiful work. It's such a great foundation for any other growth work and for being able to hold yourself and your emotional nature with love and spaciousness. This is sooooo important and makes life so juicy! I just want to encourage everyone to keep nourishing this juiciness and to support their aliveness as much as possible.
Life becomes so much more fun that way ;-)
Return to the Pulsation Practitioners Page >