Simplicity & Flow
Well, we made it to June and our world is beginning to reopen. Licensed Massage Therapists in NY have finally been given a clear reopening designation: phase 3. I will be reopening my home practice Wed June 17th if all stays on track. I’m currently reaching out to clients to reschedule postponed appointments first, then onto my waitlist. I have disinfected the workspace and made accommodations in regards to CDC recommendations. As always, universal precautions and medical standards of cleanliness are upheld for each and every client. Please come prepared with a mask until further notice. I am eagerly awaiting returning to my work with you. I hope you are well and in good spirits.
This has been an enlightening period of time. I went quiet after being initially very active because there was a lot I needed to take in; both personally and in the broad scope of current events. We tend to diminish our own experiences as not being as chaotic as we might view historic events to have been; but a survival situation is a survival situation- no matter the time or circumstances in which we find ourselves. My life changed drastically in three weeks. Then we entered a global pandemic, and everyone else’s lives changed drastically as well. I wasn’t alone in my survival state, and I was so grateful for the chance to collect myself under the cover and grace sustained by the shut-down of life as we knew it.
I’m often told “be gentle with yourself” and “you are so hard on yourself.” I keep this in mind and do what I can to take it easier on myself, but the words continued to echo. I couldn’t seem to understand what they meant. I needed to simplify. Slow down. Stop. Look around and see what was happening. I needed some time to be still and assess the situation. I needed to regain some perspective. I needed time to heal.
In survival mode, our power is reserved and delegated by the incredible wisdom of the body. Our various systems work together to regulate the whole unit, keeping us in a kind of low-power state to conserve and maximize energy- like a hybrid vehicle at a stoplight. Essentially, our bodies have an alternator function. The nervous system has multiple branches with varying degrees of conscious control, from voluntary to involuntary. Training our attention to increase the sensitivity of our awareness fosters a more connected state of being overall, encouraging healing and increasing immune function. Our somatic experience (how we feel our own movement) is enhanced by our ability to voluntarily, seamlessly shift our power between momentum generated by other sources, and that of our own generation; using the environment as a propellent along the way. Athletes and artists refer to this as a sensation of “flow.”
The key factor in obtaining a state of flow is trust. Bringing this concept to the body means trusting the body unit to function effectively by relying on instinct, and relinquishing control. We’ve all had moments of excellence in certain skillsets; and others in which excellence is what we strive to obtain. If we aren’t naturally blessed with a specific skillset and we want to improve, we can train the mind and body to instinctively respond through practice. The reason trust is key is because If this instinct is questioned for even a moment, the flow is interrupted- and this can have drastic consequences. Those interruptions come from one place:
Fear.
Fear of a loss of control,
Fear that we cannot trust our body to survive without our attention; or that our very attention means feeling the pain which we may have been avoiding by disconnecting from it.
A few weeks ago, I was dealing with some pretty intense emotions. I’d planned to sit by the lake, writing until sunset, but I couldn’t find an access point in the area I’d selected. Instead, I found myself at a trailhead. I love being outdoors and keep a selection of items in my car for impulsive moments of adventure: a camping hammock system, sleeping bag, boots, etc. Even so, a 10 mile hike through mountains was not something I was fully prepared for. I didn’t have my daypack or enough water, and I’d even skipped breakfast; but I’m a fast hiker and I figured the emotions alone were intense enough to push me as far as I needed to go. I ate the sandwich I’d brought, grabbed my 32oz water bottle, and took off.
6 hours later, I returned to my car badly dehydrated. About 6 miles prior to that moment, I was licking my lips and realizing I’d gotten myself into a wilderness survival situation. I knew where I was headed and remained calm; but I also knew I was ill-prepared for conditions and needed to keep my pace very quick or I’d really be in trouble. When the trail was clear enough, I used the grade of the land to pick up and transfer momentum. I was increasing my speed without much effort, and getting myself that much closer to home. Instead of holding back while descending, I let my body be carried by gravity, focusing my energy on simply keeping my body softly and gently balanced. Instead of fearing falling, I consciously relaxed into the movement as I allowed my speed to increase naturally. If I had allowed the fear to manifest, my body would’ve tensed, sending me tumbling out of control. I had to maintain peace in my body in order to preserve the flow state…and I needed to preserve the flow state so I could get home safely.
Wherever possible, I used momentum to launch myself over, under, and around fallen logs, and leapt from stone to stone; increasing ground covered without increasing effort. Athletes, musicians and artists of all kinds know the feeling of flow well, and how powerful a force is the streamlined energy of the body. Parkour, a type of street gymnastics, is rooted in ease of movement based on trusting the body. Before we lived in cities, we were wilder...closer to nature. We moved across vast distances and through difficult conditions. We were at ease with nature, comfortable and sure of our movement through our environment. This type of movement is at the root of our instinctive flow state (Here’s an interesting video with more details on that concept).
In times of stress and survival, our bodies adapt. We are made of intelligent, interconnected systems which have the capacity to function on their own with, or without our conscious involvement. Our body alternates between our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, allowing rest and healing states to occur between activity and events; much like an alternator on a vehicle, or AC electricity. We are electric. Our cells have a resting membrane potential of -70 millivolts, and everything in our body operates on an exchange of energy at a cellular level. In time, and with intentional work on mind-body connection development, one can learn to voluntarily initiate this state of being, synchronizing and calibrating body systems to operate at maximum efficiency with minimal effort. (Check out this guy who’s proving our ability to regulate the nervous system. There’s a good video partway down the page).
I began to deepen my mind-body connection when I started working with my breath. I first noticed how it enters and fills the body, which helped me to learn to feel the outlines and space of the body from the inside out. From this, we can learn to feel more deeply into our bodies, developing a deeper relationship to our stillness. We can learn to let go of muscles we didn’t even know were tense. We begin to trust the frame created by our bones to hold up our body, while allowing the muscles to melt around our physical structure.
When we simplify our focus, it becomes much easier to access that innate flow within us. When we learn to adjust perspective, viewing the simplicity of the container, rather than getting mired in the complexity of its contents, we are able to access incredible states of consciousness. By voluntarily stepping into a more observational role during times of chaos, we are allowing ourselves to be carried by a flow; the energy of which is generated by other sources, and in which we are all contained.
If we let go of our fear, we are able to flow through periods of difficulty with much more grace and ease. When we let go of questioning our bodies and trust that they will continue to exist without our conscious control, we learn to trust in our own being. When we trust, we are able to remove ourselves from the complexity of the details of conscious control, revealing peace and stillness. Once we step back and gain perspective, we find simplicity…and within that simplicity is our incredible capacity for healing.