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."

How Does it Work???

Bodywork....how does it work? How does it cause or facilitate change? Truth is, a lot of it is Mystery--beyond our cognition--that is part of its gift. In the West, we practically worship our brains. Now don't get me wrong--I'm all for the brain. I would not have gone to school as much as I have if I didn't believe we can learn by use of our brain. But in our society (and even the Church at times...) we treat our minds as if it is the only portal to learning. WRONG!!!!

Deanne Juhan writes:

    "When the conceptions of reality that we maintain do not square with the things we are experiencing insert.... thinking, feeling, sensing, etc] it is not because we are flawed or because our experiences are wrong, but because our conceptions cannot contain all the facts as we perceive them. And there is no constructive way out of this crisis but to enlarge our sense of reality to include our actual experiences." (from Job's Body: A Handbook for Bodywork).

So what I experience shapes reality? Of course it does! This is known as subjective experience. The "hard" sciences have traditionally "poo-pooed" subjective experience--as being biased (read: flawed). But that does not discount it at all! One's experience, in fact--is the "meat and potatoes" of psychological work, spiritual growth and personal awareness. Hence the of quoted question of counselors, "How do you feel?"

Not only do we often limit our awareness and learning to only what our brains take in, it is more insidious than that. There is a tendency in human nature to only take in what already agrees with what we know or believe--and do discredit, discount, deny any input that does not already square with what I already 'know." In some way, it is so we can feel more secure or in control of our lives and "destiny." We are so stubborn sometimes!

What does this have to do with Bodywork? Oh boy---hang on!

Deane Juhan shares:

      "No matter how much I move myself around, my strongest tendency is to move in the same ways I  have always moved, guided by the same deeply seated postural habits, sensory cues, and mental images of my  body; but if I can succeed in surrendering to the movements that another person [bodyworker] imposes on my body, without my own system of cues and responses interfering, it is possible to treat my mind to a flood of sensations that are novel in important ways...this moment of surrender and new sensation can demonstrate to me that I am not permanently obliged to continue acting out a habitual compulsion. I can see that the habit is a habit...And if I can drop a compulsive behavior or attitude for a moment without causing a crisis, then perhaps I can dispense with it altogether."  (Juhan, p. xxvi).

So one powerful opportunity that bodywork affords is the opportunity to experience myself in ways that are different than my own self-generated limitations--and physical often translates into emotional and spiritual realms. Bodywork, like psychotherapy, offers the support and experience of an Other--that has the potential to expand my own being into more abundant life.

Bring on the growth! Bring on the Bodywork!  :)