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All living things move, and change, however imperceptibly. For that is
almost how we define life - by the ability to move, towards and away from, to
open and to close, to interact with the world around. Time-lapse photography
has given us breathtaking pictures of flowers opening and closing their petals
in the dance of life, and slow motion pictures allowed us to observe the sheer
delight of the movement of seagulls' wings in their elegant and sinuous three
dimensional figure-of-eight flight patterns. In order to see and appreciate
these movements, we needed to adjust time - to speed it up, to slow it down.
Similarly, in bodywork, I've learnt that time, and the rhythms of
movement, have a logic and beauty quite of their own . It matters most to
find the time it takes to focus inward - on a body part, or body process, on
the flowing and ebbing of body rhythms and movements. Then, real insight
and a new awareness, or a memory, can open up and be connected with the
here and now. In bodywork, as in meditation, or in paying intense attention to
a friend, or when absorbed in some creative activity, time changes. It expands
and contracts to quite a different beat - and we are all the richer for it.
Of course, the body is not uniform - different parts move at quite
different rates of speed and frequency. The head is fast and, often, has a high
rhythm and buzzy frequency. The heart takes much more time, and in the
"middle ground" moves more gently and more slowly. The belly has a really
low frequency, and slower rythms still - fuller and rounder. Other factors too
influence the movements of the energetic cycle: the more on the outside
events and processes are, the quicker tend the rhythms to be, and the more
inward and deeper, the more the need for time.
To allow the rhythms to vary, to give time to breathe, to take in, to
hold, to assimilate, to focus , and then to let go - these 'breaks in time' form
the essential warp and woof in weaving a web of connectedness and
understanding with ourselves and with others And the time spent "doing
nothing" often is the most important time in bodywork. It is then that the
meshing between the parts takes place, that attention has time to travel to
and with the energetic flow.
Learning to respect the rhythms of a person, an experience, a
movement; learning to give ourselves the proper time to be with somebody or
something, is a life skill. It is a life skill that often gets damaged by an
upbringing and a society which lives by clock time, by public time, and by
other peoples' timings. The small child who is constantly harrassed to hurry up
will end up losing the trust and attentiveness to the inner rhythm, and will be
alienated from its own bodily felt reality and knowledge, and the ability to self-regulate.
Just to give time often is the greatest gift another human being can
give us - time and attention, and a willingness to adjust to shared time and
rhythm. Observation of nonverbal movement and communication patterns
allows us to observe a "dance" between the people involved, where on a
bodily level - and almost certainly unconsciously - the partners move in near
simultanious rhythms, co-ordinating their interaction - like birds in a flock.
When working with the body, I am forever fascinated by the changes in
speed, in frequency, in energetic landscapes, which I encounter. I am intrigued
too by the sense of liberation which comes from tissues taking time to
breathe in properly, letting go deeply - and then moving on to change.
The childlike ability to be totally in one sensation, one emotion, one
movement pattern - and shortly after to change utterly and completely, and
follow a different rhythm, pattern and emotion - does not get lost with
growing up: only frozen and stuck. And it can be recaptured, and inform our
living once again, if we allow the time to complete unfinished movements and
patterns. The sparkle of the "now" can arise with new life, like a phoenix from
the ashes of the old - and often it only takes time, and attention, and a
willingness to play with rhythms.
© 1994 Silke Ziehl
Silke Ziehl can be contacted at
www.entelia.com