The Open Book: bodypsychology
When we look at the body as a track, we realize it is a record of so much living history. It's form depicts how that person perceives the world, and the choices they make. How can this help us better understand others?
Learning to 'read the open book' of someone's body and mood as represented through their physiology is something we each do all the time actually. We are born for it, from the moment we breathe our first breath. As a society we just don't spend a lot of time interacting with our natural environments or communicating in person anymore, especially through healthy touch. By observing purely and using all our senses, by asking many questions and listening intently, we can begin to rediscover the subtle communications most people miss.
First, let's realize the majority of our (species) communication does not happen on a verbal level. Instead, we communicate with our entire beings through a whole range of movement: gesture, posture, vocal tone, inflection, patterns, emotion, pheromones, neuropeptides, other chemical signaling, and so much more. We all pick up on the subtle communications primarily on a subconscious level. But like all sensory systems, the more we use and apply it, the stronger our neural connections and subsequently the more acute our perceptions of what passes under the radar (subconsciously) for most people. In this case, you need to make observations, ask questions, and listen with your entire being.
As a bodyworker, healer, and tracker, I am gifted each day with the opportunity to read these tracks and to offer my clients the opportunity to learn what their body is telling them through these very same tracks. Learning to read the 'track' of the body is done in much the same way as we would read an animal track, such as one found in the silt of a riverbank.
Tracking 101 requires us to begin with observation. What is the baseline? Then we change our perspective, and continue to make observations. Only after we have saturated ourselves in observation for a while do we begin to ask questions (often silently), such as: Why is this persons hip slightly elevated on their left side? Why is their left shoulder lower than their right? How does the curvature of their cervical spine influence the muscles in their jaw? How has their body adapted to chronic (perceived) stress, and how is this influencing their chief area of complaint? Then we do our best to resolve those questions, which often (hopefully) leads to more questions. Then the cycle continues as we bring apply this knowledge to future observations.
Here's a fun way to experiment with this. First, close one eye.
Then open your eye again, remembering which one you closed.
Our eyes have to do with more that just visual acuity. They are very important in our regulation of spacial orientation / balance as well. You may think that we're evenly balanced perfectly between both eyes, but one tends to dominate as the one we 'see through' more - the one we focus through more intently. Usually we close the one eye that is not our dominant eye.
Which eye did you close?
By focusing on the communicators, such as "What am I seeing here," and then allowing space to listen, we empower the communication. Subsequently we respond by using those same communicators. It's not just the 'thing' itself that is important: it is the space between things, and the relationship between things, that allows perspective and awareness.
Here's another example. When you wake up feeling fantastic, ready to greet the day, have you noticed specifically how that feels in certain areas of your body, such as your solar plexus? Conversely, when you wake up feeling depressed or down, how does it feel in those same areas? How does your entire body shift form in order to maintain that emotional state?
Not only are the internal feelings different in these two situations described above, but our entire physiology changes as our internal state changes. These dynamic internal and external changes are constantly moving like a 'flickering flame,' and are communicated through our bodies as a shift in patterns of pressure/tension (tensegrity). Learning how to 'read the body' is as simple as paying attention to how your own body shifts in response to different circumstances, paying attention to how other people respond to those same circumstances, and noticing the differences. You have to put on your Sherlock Holmes hat.
Often when we have insight into deeper aspects of ourself or a situation, it's like a certain 'remembering' that is happening – we've known it all along, in a way. And subconsciously, we have. It is paradoxically through this deeper contact in ourselves that we gain more perspective externally. We are able to see with more clarity how the events of our past have shaped our perspective and experience of the present. We can see how our body literally shapes itself to form the record of those experiences, and subsequently influences future communications and perceptions. We discover how our insights and choices made in the NOW can shift those historical trends and bend the current of life toward a more harmonious future.
And, we realize, we are not alone. This is a shared experience among all people.
If you would like to understand yourself better, relieve chronic stress or anxiety, and promote your own wellness plan, you can always book a massage or healing session with us at Arbor Vitae Wellness.
We also offer other programs, classes and events. Visit us here to find out more! Hope to see you soon.
All good medicine,
~ Zeb Browne
Arbor Vitae Wellness is a place of healing. We help you make deeper contact with life through embodied connection in yourself. We address conditions such as chronic stress, muscle tension and chronic disease by providing massage therapies, integrative healing services and programs rooted in nature.
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