In these times of stress and so much suffering on our planet, and even for the planet, how can we remember and augment our sense of health? From Craniosacral Biodynamics I learned the basic osteopathic principle that inherent health is always present. This health is expressed in each of us through our potency, an embodied form of life energy. Potency guides our formation as we come into life as little embryos in the womb. It then continues to guide our formation and re-formation throughout life as we continue to develop and adapt to various conditions that we meet.
In the words of Rollin Becker, an osteopath who inspired our work with Biodynamics,
“At the very core of total health, there is a potency within the human body manifesting its interrelationship with the body in trauma or disease” (Becker, 1997, p. 157).
When we are in pain, we may forget that it is our inherent health and the power of potency that enable us to be here. We tend to be seduced by the struggle. We may even become addicted to it.
Trauma and Health
There are times when surrendering to challenge is the most adaptive, protective stance we can take. For little children being abused for example, there may be no practical escape. The safest thing to do may be to dissociate so as not to feel the pain so intensely. Freezing may prevent the child from acting in ways that would draw more violence. These reactions are intelligent expressions of health, given the conditions.
Years later, maintaining the same reactions are unlikely to be either necessary or supportive. Remembering the health in the original reaction can contribute to having compassion for the child that needed to do what they did. This might apply to ourselves, if we were that child, or to a client, friend, or acquaintance.
Remembering the health might also help to shift the behaviour in present time. This might involve not only acknowledging how that reaction may have saved the child’s life back then, but also recognising the strengths, skills, accomplishments available to the person now.
I invite you to take a moment to consider your own tendencies that may have developed very early in your life in response to an overwhelming situation. This may not have been childhood abuse. It may have been chemical toxicity in the womb, or emergency interventions at birth. It may have been an older sibling who teased you mercilessly. It may have included challenges for your parents, your family, and even your ancestors, that were passed on to you through epigenetic changes, as well as how you were treated.
The health will also support parents in raising their children to avoid or defend themselves from such dangers as racism, anti-Semitism, religious fanaticism, gun laws encouraging violence, misogyny, war, climate change, etc.
The health acts in ways to protect and maintain the whole.
Healing and Re-organizing
When the person encounters a safe situation, the potency can begin to act to heal and integrate the wounds of the past. In Biodynamic sessions, the first step is to settle our nervous system as practitioner, which helps through resonance to calm that of the client. We practice establishing and maintaining a safe relational field, where healing can occur. In such a field, the potency can shift from its protective function, where it coalesces and generates tissue density, to a healing function. This supports discharging held defensive energies, usually leading to a sense of enhanced space, expansion, softening, melting, and more flow.
Once old protective forces are released, the potency shifts to its original organizational function. Here a re-formation ensues. This might feel like returning to a fluid embryo state, as the same organizational process is in action.
We form and re-form in relation to what we often call the original blueprint. Like the blueprint an architect draws to guide the building of a house, we seem to have an energetic blueprint representing our original design or intention.
Our original blueprint, which I also like to refer to as our original embryological potential, enables us to return to a more whole, integrated expression of health.
In these troubled times, I find it so helpful to practice orienting to the health that I understand is always present. The wars, the climate, the viruses, etc. are all adaptations to conditions, as well as providing conditions to be adapted to. They tend to be intensely seductive.
How many hours of the day do you spend thinking about or worrying about the challenges that face us globally or those that you encounter personally? How many hours do you spend appreciating the perfection of the body and the life that you have? Is it not a miracle that you can breathe? That your heart has been beating since Day 22 after you were conceived, usually without disruption? That you can read this page? That perhaps you have experienced love or affection, even for a pet, or a tree, or a rainbow?
Orienting to the health does not imply ignoring the problems. On the contrary, it can augment our ability to face and hopefully resolve the problems.
Health, Settling, and Safety
I have learned so much from Biodynamics that I hope you can also benefit from. Orienting to the health is a major point. Settling the nervous system involves slowing down, perhaps pausing to orient to what supports us, feeling the earth under us, allowing the breath to deepen, resting into the moment. These are usually helpful to practice. Establishing and maintaining a safe relational field involves awakening our social engagement nervous system that enables us to recognise the safety available in this present moment in this relationship.
As I enter my body more fully with my awareness, I can come into my eyes, my face, my heart, my supportive muscles, bones, and breath. This allows me to soften. I begin to melt old defences and return to the fluidity of the original blueprint. In this state, warmth and compassion become available. I see you and feel you and perhaps you can see me and feel me too.
These are expressions of the health. We all have this ability. Imagine if the world lived this way! Imagine if all the politicians lived this way…
My heart melts. My heart opens. I find myself feeling with tenderness and often grief the suffering of others. From my heart in its healthy receptivity, I wish us all peace.