Resilience : Application and Practical exercises: Core technique: Gesture-Response

A systems view of biological health

Section 4: Application and Practical exercises

6 : Core technique: Gesture-Response

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There is a communication loop that applies to all interactions between living entities and parts of living entities:

[; Awareness →; ] Gesture → Response [; → Acknowledgement ; ]

This pattern will be repeated time and time again...

Aware – we become aware of the general state of the body-mind, not taking much time – it's just "this is how I feel at the moment in a very general way" - with some emphasis on healthy sensations [1]. A one-or-two-second check-in to the mental and emotional and physical status-quo. This is described elsewhere as a good general habit - the background awareness of a somatic-mental-emotional-sensory here-I-am / familiar ground state.
Gesture – we send a message to the body : there are many ways to do this – through interest (curiosity) in specific sensory information, through movement, or adopting a particular body or limb position, through accessing a memory or thinking about some particular topic, etc., etc. Some Gestures have a higher priority and are more useful (in accessing resourced adaptive states) than others. If ther eis more than one Gesture at a time, then the response can be complex, so we (i) aim for simplicity and (ii) stack gestures together than tend to have similar useful effects.
Response (effect) – we become aware of how the body responds, if at all, to those Gestures. It might not respond – that's OK. It is important to be honest (so that you do not make things up) and at the same time open minded (so you do not doubt your impressions). Over a relatively short period of time, if there is genuine curiosity as to the effect/response the body will begin to respond - by sensations changing when you give it some information. If you feel no response, this is also a very good reason to persist.
Acknowledgment – If there is any kind of response to the gesture we have just made, we acknowledge the body’s response. The acknowledgement may simply be by being more aware of its detail (your body is aware that you are aware of it!), or by literally saying something like “Yes - I can feel that”. This deepens the quality and depth of communication (between your mind and the body's physiology) that has just occurred and helps tp consolidate any changes.

The whole point of all of this is to communicate that you are safe - as deeply as possible into the physiology and cells of the body, in a way that the body understands, so that the nervous system has a "reality check", and then recalibrates itself to the safety of your real world.

It is not possible to just say “"" ” or “everything is OK”. This might satisfy your copgnitive mind, but the body will not usually be satisfied by these bland arm-waving statements. The message of safety is conveyed by real (congruent) emotions that confirm this, plus real (congruent) use of sensory attention that also confirm it. And further reinforced by entering a feedback loop - by paying discriminatory attention to the somatic response (interoception focussing on comfortably alive sensations). This cannot be done initially in a disturbed, over-busy or open public space, because so far as the primitive alarms of your brain are concerned, these are not particularly safe places. If you practice in simple well-contained situations, eventually there may be enough skill to apply this in more busy and complex environments.

Notes on what a healthy and alive body feels like

Physical "health" is a physical experience. It is NOT a "comfortably numb" feeling – and neither is it a feeling of something not being quite right. In between these two extremes of "absence" (dissociation/numbness) and ?"loud somatic noise?" (pain, big emotions), there is a middle ground - of multidimensional possibility, of sensations of health in the body that say "here I am and I'm alive, and everything is OK-enough". When making a deliberate conscious choice to discriminate sensory experiences, the most useful choice you can make is to focus on health:

If you find a part of your body that is numb, blank, absent, void-like, dizzy, leadenly heavy, exhausted, disinterested, overwhelmed, , dull or disconnected, then

recognise that these (absent sensations) are sensations in their own right – so you don’t need to look any further!
spend a short time (probably no more than 5 or 10 seconds) being curious about the quality of that absence - and then
acknowledge the part of your body in which you feel it (because it's your body) - wish it the best from your heart (as best you can) - “Yes - I can feel that”, and then
say to yourself “What else is there?” and be curious - is there anything else in your sensory awareness (preferably but not necessarily in your body) that is different from this experience?

So you can let go of this part of the body, and look elsewhere in your body to find sensations of health.

Similarly, if you find a "loud noise" – pain, stiffness, rigidity, tension, anxiety, breathlessness, panic, agitation – then:

recognise that this part of your body is doing its best and is not trying to harm you in any way
check – do I need to do something about this right now? - if you do, then DO IT! If not, or if you cannot do anything about the pain right at this moment, then
spend a short time (probably no more than 10 or 20 seconds) being curious about the quality of pain, stiffness, rigidity, tension, being particularly curious about its physical 3-D presence - does it have a shape or a thickness or volume? - is that clearly defined or fuzzy? - how far does it persist in any direction? - and then...
acknowledge the part of your body in which you feel it (because it's your body) - wish it the best from your heart (as best you can), “Yes - I can feel that”, and then
say to yourself “What else is there?” and be curious - is there anything else in your sensory awareness (preferably but not necessarily in your body) that is different from this experience?

So you can let go of this part of the body, and look elsewhere in your body to find sensations of health.

Once you filter out these two extremes of interoceptive experience, you are left with all the sensations that say "I am here now, I’m alive, I’m healthy and the world is OK-enough". These might just be contact sensations (pressure, warmth, texture of surfaces, space and air round your face, solidity and texture of whatever is supporting you, sensations of clothing, etc). Or they might be very physical sensations – muscle texture, or blood, or pulsing, or the shape and position of bony joints, or the various sensations of teeth and softness inside your mouth (etc). Or they might be more subtle sensations – tingly, fizzy, electric, buzzy, airy, cottonwooly presences (etc). Or maybe just a sense of being energised, and having the capacity to move. There are many, many possibilities. Health also tends to feel light more than heavy, and move-able rather than excessively dense and rigid.

Now explore this Health as a 3-Dimensional presence - a bubble of sensation - being curious how far it extends in any direction, does it have a specific texture or shape or seem to be made of any particular material, or remind you of anything. Is its shape anatimical in some way (such as a specific muscle or limb) or is its shape “something else?”. Does it have clear easily identifiable boundaries/edges or is it fuzzy?.

This schema and map of interoceptive experience is based on the Window of Normal Adaptation - see videos and description at Normal adaptation: Plan A Plan B and Surviving extremes.

References & Notes

1) Note that here and in the descriptions following some people may have a fear of inner feelings, or a general dissociated loss of inner feelings, or obsessive relationships with inner feelings - and this also is OK. The general instructions in this book are for “most people” - recognising that with a significant number of individuals (maybe as high as 5% or 10% of the general population) there is not a formulaic approach, and something more individually tuned is required. If you do not relate to any of the things you read here, that does not mean it is all useless for you. Rather - a general description aimed at people with average somatic experiences is inevitably not going to match everyone's inner experience and situation.