Breaking through Character: Learning to Yield
I.
In my bodywork, my throat is one area of consistent tension. I have had to consistently revisit this region over the years. These days, I can quickly feel the tone of the area change with different sympathetic states induced by my environment and bodily state.
This work is never complete. After all, we are a dynamic system and largely fixed into place for good, for better or worse.
I now understand this is due to my structural postural deficiencies, and for the most part, I've been using troat work as a bit of a band-aid. Or at least incompletely attacking it. This is an unfortunate feature of being a lanklet. Nevertheless, I have started a recent run on the throat in conjunction with posture work.
During these sessions, several essential things crossed my mind. I've written previously about applying the accelerator and brakes. This is a common analogy for explaining the interactions of the various nervous system branches in popular culture - if indeed there is such a thing.
In a more specific context, that of bodywork, the highly granular applicability of this has become apparent to me over the last year or so. In particular, whilst working with the breathing of others, noting their various biometrics and using some limited bodywork to assist them in breathing more deeply.
I tell people now from the outset that when learning new bodily habits of this type, one primary principle must always be considered:
This (bodywork) is the process of learning to surrender or allow the body to let go, trust, and lean into whatever is going on during the session. To Yield and allow.
I mean this in a definite bodily sense, not in the vague esoteric cosmic woo-woo sense.
With breathing clients, most initial work is centred on having them learn to let go enough for the breath reflex to work at maximal efficiency. I've not had hundreds of clients by any stretch yet, but so far, I've not had one person that can even take a fully relaxed, deep breath.
Indeed this may result from them being exposed to my terrifying aspect, but probably not since I can see it's deeply ingrained and not mere nervousness.
II.
In my bodywork experience, most exercises are primarily constructed to induce a species of physiological surrender. This is the essential fulcrum of how they work.
Character and self are elements of physiological contraction - ergo, if someone has problems in life, the way to break through this dysfunctional contraction is to induce loosening or expansion. Loosening, of course, requires conscious awareness and an attitude of yielding or surrendering within the body.
The ultimate aim is to have a chain of muscles integrate correctly with other body segments and to work as they should, with maximal efficiency, as they are related to the inherent structure of the individual's body and its interaction with gravity.
Part of the reason this does not occur or occurs badly is self-contraction during developmental phases, where the child seeks to protect itself before it has a fully developed pre-frontal cortical region. The strange, wrangled shapes that lend themselves well to caricature are the character knots people had tied themselves into before they knew any better. Such patterns are also seen in the beautiful to varying extents - I'm sorry to say to some of you.
You can measure this objectively through various technologies without the need for faith, belief or screeds about "what I believe" using mere words.
You can see that the body IS NOT working as it should be.
Everyone I've tested so far is running on autopilot, sub-optimally. This also applies to me; the only reason I got into this stuff is that I was running sub-optimally. And was acutely aware of this.
III.
Without exception, the means to increase the efficiency of these systems is the process of learning to yield to yourself.
In effect, a yielding or allowing of yourself to yourself.
To become aware of patterns of contraction or rigidity.
Part of surrender, as I've become more cognizant of recently, is also acknowledging that some structures, in fact, require a degree of tension. As I've learned with K-Mac's posture work.
Yet the essential principle is the same because yielding yourself to a different form of conscious tension is, nevertheless, the process of yielding or surrendering. Stretching out contracted fascia and changing skeletal structure over time requires the same psychic and mental posturing.
My formula, simply put, is, therefore:
NATURAL STATE: CONTRACTION & RIGIDITY, DAMMED ENERGY - NO LONGER USEFUL, OR SUBOPTIMAL "ENERGETIC NEURAL TRAILS"
RIGIDIFIED PATTERNS IMPLY A LITERAL DEFICIT OF FREE OBSERVATIONAL ABILITY, "ABILITY TO OBSERVE" OUTSIDE OF THE CONFINES OF THE PECULIAR "CHARACTER STRUCTURE"
THE YIELDING PROCESS & THE "BRAKES", INTERTWINED WITH THE REINTEGRATION OF FASCIA AND STRUCTURE, CREATE A LIBERATION OF SO-CALLED BIO-ENERGY AND OF THE POSSIBILITY OF AKSHUNS
THE SLOW LIBERATION OF BIO-ENERGY CAN BE CONSCIOUSLY DIRECTED INTO NEW, SELF-SERVING AND SELF-DEFINED PATTERNS OF INTERACTION WITH THE ENVIRONMENT
IV.
As a teacher of mine once said, the fundamental aim of this kind of work is to become self-defined - above all else - because no one is at all. Otherwise, it's just a state of luck - and we want to take as much of the chance away as possible.
We don't need any longer to rely on chance arising. You probably aren't it anyway, like I'm not it, and I'm not just going to wait around for the next overman to appear. I'm taking life by the balls on my own terms. I guess you can think that you’re it - but if you’re still reading this you already know what I think of people who think they’re something after reading a book.
Therefore, allowing yourself to yield breaks down rigidity and frees up observational space, thus creating space to act that was not otherwise available. This is about your life being good also - remember.
It's worth remembering during any of this work, which up-regulates parasympathetic pathways, to try to relax into the prescribed movements, practice, or mindfulness object of focus or contemplation. This is the essential posture to successfully obtain results.
This principle will be worth remembering as I release the first insight exercise tomorrow.
Ok, until then.