Resilience : Practical exercises: Core technique: Gesture-Response

A systems view of biological health

Section 4: Practical exercises

6: Core technique: the Gesture-Response cycle

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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. A one-or-two-second check-in to the mental and emotional and physical status-quo.
Gesture – we send a message to the body : there are many ways to do this – through awareness (interest in a specific part of the sensory system), through movement or adopting a particular body or limb position, through accessing a memory, etc., etc.
Response – we become aware of how the body responds, if at all, to the initial acts of awareness and gesture. 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 time 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… 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 of the body, 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 "I am safe". 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 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.

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?" and ?"loud noise?", there is a middle ground - of multidimensional possibility of sensation in the body that says ?"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, dizzy, or disconnected, then

recognise that numb, blank, absent, dizzy 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), and then
say to yourself ?"what else is there??"

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 – 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), and then
say to yourself "what else is there?"

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". 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.

This schema and map of interoceptive experience is based on the Window of Normal Adaptation - see simplified image below...

The three main zones of the window of normal adaptation, c Andrew Cook 2024

... and also see videos and description at Normal adaptation: Plan A Plan B and Surviving extremes.