Solstice in the Liminal Field
/It is almost the Summer Solstice. Peak light amidst dark times. I’m not a fan of bypassing and would rather embrace what is and transform from there, knowing that the process of transforming structures both intrapersonally and collectively is messy and something that occurs over time. It is, as anonymously quoted by the psychologist Ira Progoff, “this solitary work we do together.”
I think about this quote a lot as it captures a specific dynamic of our professional lives. We are often in a room, just us with one other person doing our work and yet we also need a community of colleagues with whom we can share the totally weird and unique dynamics our job involves. Seriously, what other job is like ours?
Also, the quote is a simple formulation of how we nurture the conditions for collective liberation. We each have to do our personal work and yet we can only truly do that work with each other.
I keep re-reading these lines from Victoria Chang's incredible collection, With My Back to the World.
"...Tears do not
come from the heart. They do not come from the eyes,
or the body. They come from outside of us like time,
from one large repository, which is why we cry when
other people cry. In this way tears are communal. We
depend on each other for our sadness."
We grieve and feel outraged because we are connected. And, we experience joy and meaning also because we are connected. Connection is the root of change, at the individual and collective levels. The Solstice is a time when we often emphasize our connection with natural rhythms, they become most obvious to us at peak light and peak dark. Our connection with the land and attuning ourselves to its impact on us is also “this solitary work we do together,” the togetherness being us with the non-human as well as the human.
At the end of our Craniosacral Series we got into an interesting discussion about “energy work” and “bodywork.” It comes up a lot, understandably. There is an implied binary of energy work OR bodywork. But I don’t think that exists. This form we have, our lil meatsack, is animated by energy. The actual nature of our physicality generates and channels energy. Energy needs the form to become more specific, to do work, to guide and create connections. Body and energy are mutually interdependent. If we ask how our form experiences itself, if we shift the locus from our mind to our body I don’t think our body carries this binary distinction, it just is itself animated by energy moving around in this beautiful and tragic world.
I’ve continued to think about this since class ended and am more convinced than ever that the most important energy work is the process and experience of cultivating connection. Connection is transformative, it is potent, it happens both with and without physicality, it is local and non-local. Our communal tears dwell here in possibility.
There are some insights from the field of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) that I love on this topic. IPNB is an entire study on how we are connected,
The core tenet of IPNB is; “the mind is an embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information.” (1)
This is a fun one to play with. It’s even more fun when we encounter the fact that our nervous system would just be a mess of tissues if it were not for the specific textures of our relational experiences that give our individual nervous system its specific contour and dimensionality.
“The structure and function of the developing brain are determined by how experiences, especially within interpersonal relationships, shape the genetically programmed development of the nervous system.” (2)
This is the “one large repository” Victoria Chang is pointing us towards, our shared nervous system. This nervous system that we love talking about is shaped by the energy transmitted between us and our primary developmental relationships. This fundamental relational dynamic structures our actual neural networks. We continue to shape our neural networks through the social contexts we navigate both on the interpersonal level and the larger collective level.
IPNB also offers this formulation that I never get tired of playing with in my own personal work and in my clinical and teaching roles. I have adapted this from Dr. Dan Siegel’s writings.
The brain is enskulled. The mess of brain tissue is housed in our skull and vertebrae.
The brain is embodied. This implies the vagal system and the dispersal of sensory neurons distributed throughout the fascial milieu. It also points towards more elusive fascial properties, that stimulating the fascia’s energetic properties shifts our consciousness to an open field state. Usually, this is from movement practices, made even more potent when done together.
The brain is embedded. Our neural reality is embedded within the totality of our social experience. This reality originally shapes our neural fabric and continually offers opportunities for reshaping ourselves in this way. Our social selves are intimately twined with our nervous system.
This is the solitary work we do together body bound but also interwoven into not just the fabric of each other but also the interstitial loom of the natural world. So, when we meet a client or a patient, we have the opportunity to create and nurture connection and all that implies. It’s a profound honor. It’s not only about emphasizing the peak experiences but more so the willingness to mix it up in the mundane, the mud and muck of our actual lives.
We do depend on each other and our shared sadness is rooted in our shared love. As we navigate living and working in these specifically tumultuous and disruptive times, times that are tearing at the fabric of our shared humanity, we can still cultivate both connection with ourselves and with each other in mutually interdependent ways. Our time with our patients or clients is a liminal terrain that comingles both the solitary and together. We support our people in bolstering their capriciousness for connection. It seems to be our best and messiest path. (3)
Endnotes
Siegel, Dan. Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology. W.W. Norton, 2012.
Siegel, 2012.
These ideas are discussed in depth in James Oschman’s, Energy Medicine in “Therapeutics and Human Performance” and in Valerie Hunt’s, “Infinite Mind: Science of the Human Vibrations of Consciousness.”
