Translating: From One Field to Another....

It has long been a calling of mine, to be a bridge person. Another way to say this is that I often find myself translating concepts of one discipline to the understanding of another. This in itself is ironic, because it is my elder sister who is the one who has a PhD in Linguistics! Lucky for me, I don't have to be able to spell or pronounce the words I use (thank God for spellcheck)...I just get to write about them :)

So...what is the latest translation/bridge I am working on? It is the translation of the concept of energy, Chi, or Qi--which Bodyworkers are very familiar with. But you talk to a mental health professional or a theologian about "Energy" or "Chi" and they think you have fallen out of your rocker. So...here goes.

For Psychology People: "Energy" can be translated to "Embodied Emotion." We know that we don't just have cognitions about how we feel...we FEEL our emotions. And that feeling often has a level of force to it, i.e., energy. Anger for example...when you are angry, you may feel like decking someone. That is a force to be reckoned with. Or maybe you feel love for someone, that makes you tender and attentive to them. Emotion "moves" you, and, our physicist friends know, that to move something you need ENERGY. Hence, emotions are energy expressed through the body. Does this reduce emotions to energy? No, of course not--emotions are more than energy--but energy is required to feel them.

For Theologians: "Energy" can be translated to "power [of the spirit/Spirit]." Energy moves things...and the spirit/Spirit moves things. Do we know how? Nope. Jesus said, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8. Of course, also interesting is the word for "power" in the Bible is also "dunamis"--the same word we derive the English word for "dynamite"--and we know that is powerful stuff. So when we talk about the power/energy of the Spirit of God, we may be using the word "dunamis." The Spirit moves things. This is often why, in a worship service where people find themselves, clapping, raising their hands, or crying--they say, "The Spirit was moving in today's service." Why? Because they felt their emotions connecting with their faith. They felt MOVED. And that is the job and power of the Spirit. Does this reduce the Spirit or our own spirit to our emotions--of course not. The wind is not reduced to its effects...our emotions may be the effects of the moving of our or God's Spirit.

So finally, is energy (chi or Qi) simply a force? This is where I would diverge from some bodyworkers. Some do believe energy is only a force. I believe that God is more than an impersonal force. We would surely be in trouble if God were reducible to a "force." A "force" cannot love, care, redeem, protect, etc. But God can--and does through the Spirit. So, God is more than this, but our language limits us. But our language, doesn't limit God.

Transmisson...

Nope--not talking about my car...although that is something I had checked last week! :)

One of the fascinating things about Somatic work is the concept of transmission/resonance. I think different theorists call it by different names,  but it is the experience of the Bodyworker's emotional (or energetic) state being picked up by the client by means of contact with the therapist. In other words, my own grounding and centered-ness as a Bodyworker can be transmitted to a client through my touch. Of course, in everyday life we do this when we put our hand on the shoulder of a friend who is upset. Our groundedness (peace) can be transferred to them by this contact. Bodywork amplifies this and focuses this experience. Particularly for someone who is anxious or upset.

Conversely--and many of you may have already made this connection--my other emotions can also be transferred to a client....Anxiety for example. If I am anxious before a session--my client may pick this up. Obviously, not a therapeutic session! This is why self-care for bodyworkers is so important--your client will pick up your stuff. Work on your stuff--less stuff for you and client. Very Important!

What this has meant for me as a practitioner is that I have found my own grounded-ness emotionally (energetically) functions like a lightning rod. My clients come in--and their emotional static (energy in the form of anxiety, stress, depression, etc) gets grounded and released by connecting with me through the bodywork. Fascinating Stuff. Hard to explain--but very real.

Change--How does it happen?

Well...have had a few days that were less "scheduled" due to inclement weather (about 8 to 10 inches of snowfall) so I have had time to catch up on some reading I have been wanting to do. I am taking a reading course on Somatic Psychology...and ran across this quote from an article by Ian Grand:

"In working somatically, one of the things one is trying to do is to allow the tissue state of a person to reorganize itself, learn different responses, and grow and form itself in a different way....It is generally recognized that to build a state of muscle with which one can lift several hundred pounds, or the cardiovascular and muscular ability to run 20 miles, requires a training that actually changes the tissue state. Alterations in muscle fiber, metabolism, capacity for oxygenation, liquid flow and hormonalization are required to permit these kinds of performances. The same thing is true emotionally. It is quite easy for someone to want to be more tender or more assertive or able to tolerate anger without violence or collapse; but to actually enact these changes requires an organismic learning so that the tissue itself can tolerate the different streams of sensation and feeling and project them into the world."

 WOW.  This explains a bit more about "How does it (bodywork) work?" which I have explored a bit before  (Part One here). Change does not just magically happen. Awareness that change is needed is usually the first step--even if one does not know what it is exactly--one just knows something needs to be different. What is the AA definition of insanity? "Doing the same thing the same way and hoping for different results." yeah. Doesn't happen. So change requires us to recognize, hopefully with either some degree of humility and hope--that something different needs to occur.

One of the gifts of Bodywork as a therapy is to introduce more options somatically (through touch, movement, breathing, etc) which then translates emotionally into a person's experience! Is that cool or what? This is good news--for it means there are several ways to introduce change into our lives. A change in one part of the system will impact the others. You can work directly to solve a problem--or go through a back door--but it will work. So, the Dove Chocolate quote of, "Change your mind--Change your Body" could just as easily be written "Change your Body--Change your Mind." (Yes--I love Dove Chocolates :)

Therapists of all stripes introduce new ways of doing things. Problem is with most of us, is we either are afraid to do new things (due to a negative experience) or don't think we can do new things (we reason--we would already be doing them if we could). Ah--but not so...we only THINK or FEEL we cannot do them....and that is where counseling, bodywork, personal training, tutoring, etc. comes in. Someone who is a few steps ahead of us on their journey helps us take the next few steps.

Bodyworkers are therapists--they introduce new ways of doing things.

For example, when a person is emotionally depressed, they often feel they have no more options (things will always be the same and they will never get better.) This feeling of hopelessness causes a person to "shut down" to conserve energy in what feels to be a "closed system." Somatically, a person who is depressed is also often "shut down" or kind of "curled in" on themselves--to save energy and to shield and protect oneself from others who are perceived to be dangerous. Only problem is that this kind of "shut down" prevents a person from at least 2 things:
1.seeing the other options that may be available
2. being open to receive good/nurture from those who are safe

So, a Bodyworker will help them to:
1. discover and work through what the original fear was that caused the "shut down" 
2. become more open to life and receive now that danger has passed
3. experience new options that are available.

So...are you ready to try something new in order to experience change? As the chocolate says:
"Change your Body...Change your Mind."