In Rolfing we often speak of awareness as a vehicle for change. When speaking of bringing awareness to any part of the body, or the body as a whole, we are usually referring to sensation. Trying to explain what this really means can be difficult, because we must first clarify what we mean by sensation. Is it the feeling of the wind on my face, the feeling of my feet contacting the floor? Does it revolve primarily around the sense of touch, or all of the five senses? Is it primarily proprioception, i.e. the sense of where I am, or where a part of my body is in space. Is a feeling of self, is it my concept of self? It may in some way be addressed by all of these experiences and information that is being taken in by a sensitive being, but the other side of the question is- how much of the information being taken in by an individual is being taken in with awareness, with consciousness, how much is unconscious, and how much does that matter either way?
We are constantly taking in information from all of our senses, information from outside, and information from inside, far more than we could ever process consciously, but can taking in this information with more awareness be helpful to my situation? From the standpoint of Rolfing, we believe it can if that awareness does not necessarily cause us to react and interfere with the process. One may ask “what process”? Just as the process of breathing has its way of taking in substances from outside like air, and assimilating nutrients as well as expelling waste, so does my digestive system do so with food. Likewise, the nervous system depends on input from the senses to find proper health and balance, both conscious and unconscious, so perhaps we can think of the process of taking in sensation as a sort of food as well.
As I often mention, Ida Rolf spent some time working with the ideas of G.I. Gurdjieff from his student J.G. Bennet. In Gurdjieff’s system of development we learn that he has categorized 3 types of food that humans need to survive, ordinary food, air, and impressions. Ordinary food, this includes water, is easy enough to understand, and one can probably recognize air as a sort of food as well, but the idea of impressions as food is not so easy to understand. All these foods require taking in some sort of substance or energy from outside, and assimilating it through some sort of digestion. The digestion of food on a basic level is obvious, and respiration as our means of digesting air makes sense if one things about it, but what about impressions?
Let's consider the first two foods, physical food and air. One can eat food, digest and assimilate it well or not if digestion is poor. If the food is not digested, it is not helpful. In severe cases of poor digestion like crohn's disease, one could eat all they like and still be malnourished to the point of death. If someone has a condition where their lungs can not absorb enough oxygen, then this can result in sickness and death as well. So we can say that an individual’s ability to digest and metabolize food and air can vary. What Gurdjieff taught his students is that if one takes in food consciously with attention, one absorbs more nutrients and digestion is better. We know this with physical food, this is why it is commonly recommended to eat in a calm environment instead of doing so while rushing to work. What is not considered is that taking in and processing air properly can lead to more oxygen absorption. Gurdjieff claimed that we are absorbing more nutrients from air than just oxygen and that someone who takes in air consciously will absorb more nutrients than someone who does not. Thus even the waste products of an individual who lives in a greater state of consciousness throughout the day will be different than a person who does not. What does this say about impressions?
The concept of impressions as food may be hard to swallow, pun intended, but one can break it down more easily by considering that all of our senses depend on taking in some sort of energy from outside and processing it. Vibration in the form of light, vibration in the form of sound, touch, smell and taste also in reality depend on taking in vibration from outside. All of these energies are taken in, blended together by the nervous system and processed to make impressions, and most of it is unconscious. The senses help us map our surroundings, but they also help us map ourselves, to know where we are in space, where we are standing and walking in relation to gravity, where in space our limbs are- proprioception. Just as I can parallel park a car by the feeling of the boundary of the car once I am familiar with it, I also have a mental map telling me where my body is in space, but this map can be more or less detailed, more or less accurate. To come back to a sense of my body as I go about my daily activities can help to fill in the details of my mental map, and to help the body’s own intelligence to adjust and make changes when necessary.
If Gurdjieff’s system could be boiled down to one phrase it would be to “remember yourself”. This is based on the idea that we are generally not aware of ourselves often throughout the day. If an individual can mindfully practice coming back to a sense of the body throughout the day, along with observing the emotions and the mind together, they are more present throughout the day. If a person takes in food while being present, it is said that they absorb and assimilate that food better, and this also goes for taking in air and taking in impressions through the vehicle of sensation. It is believed that this will deposit an energy in the body over time that will become more refined and help one to be more conscious throughout the day as well as develop a deeper sense of being.
This is a lot of information for people who may not be particularly interested in Gurdjieff’s system, but please take it as food for thought. More puns intended. When approaching structure and function through Rolfing, we are trying to help the body’s innate intelligence to adopt better posture and movement. This must be done by manually addressing restrictions, but those changes can not be retained unless the nervous system feels it is best. If there is a restriction that is part of a compensation pattern the nervous system feels is necessary, it will just come back again. What the system needs is more input, a more comprehensive map of the self, and this can be aided by bringing one’s attention to the sensation of the body throughout the day. A light sense of self, nothing too heavy, nothing that interferes with the functioning of the body, but just the light of conscious sensation, or mindfulness if you will, can make the changes over time that lead to transformation.
Working with taking in sensation and movement consciously acts as a food that both nourishes and tones the nervous system. Studies have shown that walking barefoot on a path of river polished stones for a period of time daily, an old Qigong practice in China, can significantly reduce blood pressure and improve balance. Just think of how many other exercises in sensing the world around us may also have benefits! A good way to get out of our habitual mental rambling is to slow down what we are doing a bit, and allow sensation to come in more fully. This takes us out of the fight or flight mode we tend to often be stuck in during our daily lives. Digestion stops during fight or flight states, we know this about physical food, but what about the food of impressions brought to us through sensation? This is a food that can be taken in a bit more mindfully, a bit more slowly. Try to chew on this idea for a while.