Posts Tagged ‘Non-Doing’
Cross-Training for Stillness: Meditation for Biodynamic Practitioners
While it’s the basis of the transformative work that we do, the Dynamic Stillness is not something that we can easily point to, because it’s not a thing or an experience. Meditation is one way that we can develop our recognition of this continuous, underlying stillness and thereby move our Biodynamic practice forward. We live…
Read MoreImprove Your Outcome Through the Genius of Non-Doing
Any Biodynamic practitioner will tell you that our stillness carries something valuable and trustworthy. When we stop trying to make things happen, we discover an underlying wisdom that effortlessly expresses itself. But how do we find our way to the genius of non-doing, when so much of our education and our very impulses are based…
Read MoreBig-Picture Biodynamics in 50 Questions
What is a body? What is your felt experience of the substance your body is made of? Does that substance ever change in feeling, texture, tone, or quality? Does the body have boundaries? Where are they? What is healing? What embodied disposition is necessary for healing to happen? What are signs that that disposition is…
Read MoreThe Chief Corner Stone: Not Seeking A Shift
Biodynamics abounds in paradox. Perhaps the most counterintuitive element of our work is that we don’t seek a shift in our clients. At least, we don’t seek a shift in the moment, while we’re in session. (I’ve written a previous blog about overarching intentions, which I distinguish from efferent activity.) Seeking for something to shift…
Read MoreNaming Things in a Biodynamic Session: Does It Matter?
We say we aren’t the ones conducting the treatment. We defer to a therapeutic agency more potent than our own will. Yet our education teaches us to follow the narrative arc of a session and to discern its features. “Is this a Neutral or a Stillpoint?” “Is this the Fluid Tide or the Long Tide?”…
Read MoreDo We Have an Intention — Or Don’t We?
One of the most confusing elements of biodynamic training is the emphasis on non-doing. Does this mean that our clients visit us in a professional setting, seek good care, pay us money…and yet we do not seek a favorable outcome to their clinical issue? Absolutely not! Let’s explore what it means not to have an…
Read MoreOn Not Being a Saint
Lucky for us, Biodynamics doesn’t rely on the practitioner having it all together. Instead, the work depends on the quality of our Neutral. Neutral simply means we are receptive to health. In a Neutral, we are free to shift in response to Primary Respiration. Being in Neutral is not an indication that we have achieved…
Read MoreDoubt and Uncertainty, Part 1: The Power of Not Knowing
Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous I don’t know. (Polish poet Wisława Szymborska) The Biodynamic paradigm expresses our essential clinical inability to be certain. The paradox is that the more we lean into uncertainty, the more successful our work becomes. The Biodynamic practitioner acknowledges that our mind doesn’t know with certainty what is…
Read MoreDoubt and Uncertainty, Part 2: Uncertainty Is A Name For The Neutral
Uncertainty is the very condition to impel us to unfold our powers. (Psychologist Erich Fromm) Our willingness to not-know (whether we are a healer, client, or human being) is what permits the most potent healing to unfold. Being comfortable with the unknown, dancing with chaos, is a recipe for health. We implement the Not-Knowing-Plan through…
Read MoreDoubt and Uncertainty, Part 3: The Fertile Territory of Not Making Something Happen
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. (13th century poet and mystic Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, also known as Rumi) I find that when I am trying to solve a problem with my mind, or I’m uneasy about not performing well, I retreat to trying to make something happen. It’s especially easy to see this in…
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