space ~ a quantum approach to bodywork
(and a perpetual work in progress...)
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and science.
- Albert Einstein
So we've come to the heart, to the core of this work as I've experienced it. What I do no matter what I do is invoke space and spaciousness. In terms of bodywork, the purpose of using any particular form is as a means to suggest and invite a lengthening of muscle, to witness the spreading and unwinding of fascia, to negotiate opening in tight, holding places. Each form is a particular way to encourage the release and letting go of physical trauma and stuck or blocked e[nergy in]motion, and reflect the patterns of conditioned reflex and response. No matter which form (language) I use to speak to the body, Iam constantly seeking to invite, suggest, encourage, sometimes coax, negotiate, hold, witness, and reflect space and a felt sense of spaciousness. In my experience, this intention in conscious practice induces exactly that: a felt sense of spaciousness. As a client once said, it is like hypnotism for the body. And if you remember the premise of this practice:
all
that is truly required for what we call 'healing', 'wholeness', or
'integration' is the space to realise it... in this moment...
in the flesh.
in the flesh.
The many forms I practice, that I've wrap up neatly in the form of erissage * Integrative Bodywork, all of them are like signposts pointing to an expansive, dandelion-covered field of vivid green grass and cool blue sky, because what the world needs now is... yes, yes, love too, but really what we need is space. At least that's what my clients come to me for, whether they consciously know it or not. What they do with that space is what I find so fascinating. The possibilities and variations are endless. It's also not something that I'm particularly concerned with. I trust that where space is present, everything just kind of sorts, balances, re-organises itself.
Let me step back for a moment to clarify: a dandelion field is not necessarily a happy space, nothing against dandelions. What it is is a safe space – a space to be happy if that is what is present to be experienced, a space to be in pain, to cry, to be naked, to be seen and heard and held, to be left well enough alone, to giggle, to moan and wail, to fart, belch, and snore. To be. It's for this that I am able to charge a premium, because safe space is a pretty rare commodity in this world. Well, at least people believe it is... both a commodity and rare.
The beautiful thing about being a space salesman, besides the very low warehousing overhead, is that there is actually an inexhaustible supply of space to flog. There is sooooo much space to be realised in the body/mind.
This space is not limited to the physical structure, nor the space in time taken for oneself out of life in order to have a session. On a quantum level, everything and everyone in the world we see around us is actually 99.9% empty space. This space is “the space between things". I see it through this work as the space between nucleus and electron, between idea and creation, between stimulus and response. This is the space of no mind, no time, no self, no problem. Being.
I have this theory that most of us focus our entire awareness, energy, and vitality on the .1% of our reality that we can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. It seems to me we mostly ignore or subordinate the meta- and non-physical realms – worlds of emotion, memory and the collective unconscious. Instead, we choose to invest our belief in the sublime holographic projection of whizzing electrons that we collectively call “the real world.”
In practical terms: tight muscle that is completely fixated on being tight gets an invitation to stretch out into a space that is being held open by the practitioner – a space that has been there all along but the muscle, its neural controller, and most importantly the consciousness in charge have simply not realised it.
(to be continued...)