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Brain Is to Mind

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Pages: 6-11

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[:en]Author?s Note: This zine, ?Brain Is to Mind,? is the text I use with clients to help them understand how Rolfing® Structural Integration works. It is a theory of mind that involves the body. Most folks don?t think about thinking, nor do they think they will have to do so when they arrive in my office. But people can change under your hands, and they should know why and how.

Muscular tone is the relationship between the mind and body. Thoughts are energy, and energy has the capacity to do work, so what ?work? thoughts do is to change the body by changing muscular tone. Some thoughts ingrained by experiences are beliefs, and these are often unconscious ? things like ?the world is a harsh and dangerous place? or ?I have to work to earn love? will result in different ways of being in the world, different bodily/postural habits. Rolfing SI can serve to make people aware of their unconscious attitudes.

Parents can pass their attitudes on to their children. They create the container, for good or for ill. When we work with our clients, we have a different way of being with them than their parents did, and when we reflect what we see without judgement, with compassion, they can change.

Parents form secure attachments to their children when they pay attention to their children?s body language and take a guess at their feelings and attitudes. That?s what we do as Rolfers when we ?see?. We pay attention, we feel with them, we give feedback, we mirror ? and that?s the way our brains grow to begin ith. I find that clients especially appreciate the
material on ?bad containers?, which gives simple explanations of loss, narcissism, and addiction/ mental illness.

The second chapter lays the groundwork for Walking Towards, an exercise I use as the primary way to teach someone about his edges, and how he experiences his right to exist. In the zine, I take time to show that the things we think are edges are not: they don?t separate anyone from anything. If people?s minds flow towards one another, they merge. Connected is the default state. But when I walk towards someone in the Walking Towards exercise, his boundary habit will speak volumes. He may stop breathing, step backwards, the subtle signal to the world of ?here, you take this space, I?m not really using it.? The separation, the true boundary, is not outside of us created by others but one we create for ourselves, within ourselves. This is a terrible thing. Without the right to exist firmly implanted in our habits, there is no internal sense of safety. With no line outside of themselves, our clients cannot be met. And we must meet our clients if we wish to help them. A line between two states or countries is a symbolic one, it separates nothing. But to create the line between two people is how we can all be ?Out of Many, One? ? our edges are where we meet.

This material on centers and edges is discussed in more detail in two earlier articles:

Drummond, B. 2014 Dec. ?Edges.? Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute® 42(2):42-43.

Drummond, B. 2013 Jun. ?The Center of Rolfing SI.? Structural Integration: The Journal of the Rolf Institute® 42(1):43-44.

Chapter 1

. . . as log is to fire.

That means, you cannot always expect to find
the mind inside the body.

Energy is the ability to do work

based on its movement

or position

Thoughts are constantly in motion.

They can go forward or backward in time . . .

. . . and space.

And thus, thoughts are energy and have the ability to do work.

Fire has the ability to do work.

It can also rage out of control.

Fire works best when it is contained, like when it stays close to the log, and the log becomes coals ? only then can it cook our food.

The mind is the same way ? it works best when it is contained.

This is very difficult.

Thoughts are like sheep, constantly moving in many directions, and containment is like a border collie. The skill and discipline of the dog, its ability to follow the whistles of the shepherd, keep the sheep moving in one direction.

Disciplined thoughts are the only way an adult can truly use the mind to do work.

But adults are children first.

The energetic responsibility of the family is poorly understood.

Some families think discipline means punishment.

Or that containment means putting the fire out.

However, the best container is a mirror.

The child?s mind is reflected back to himself without distortion.

This is love.

Many mirrors are even better.

But often things go wrong.

When a mother and father get divorced or someone dies . . .

the missing mirror leaves a gaping hole and the child?s mind escapes.

Some parents expect a child to mirror them . . . but children are too small to do this.

And some parents are lousy mirrors. So the child cannot see himself. The child grows up thinking he is broken.

We in the West believe our minds are in our bodies and under our control.

But we cannot control events, processes, or energies of which we are unaware or that we categorically deny. If we base our culture on incorrect assumptions, we all become a little bit broken.

Chapter 2

If two fires start in different places and burn towards one another, soon you will not be able to tell them apart.

There are no lines between fires.

There are also no lines between countries when you see them from an airplane.

We create imaginary boundaries between things to make a complex world more manageable.

Some lines are more real than others . . .

The line between cliffs

and the ocean is a line,but the land continues under the water, so
they are not separate.

If a lion is defending his territory he will fight other lions who challenge him . . . But when the lion dies, his territory dissolves.

That is not a permanent separation either.

You can?t even tell where the environment ends and you begin, because the light from the sun goes into your eye, changes form, and goes into your brain.

You are interpenetrating.

There are few energetic boundaries and that?s what makes it so confusing,

because all of us behave as if when we draw a line, we actually create separation.

Some people would say the answer is simply to stop drawing lines.

NO. If you think things are confusing now, just wait.

Energy is real,but matter is real too.

And it can really hurt you if you run into it.

unless you run into it.

So, perhaps, there is NO separation of anyone from anyone else, or anything from anything else.

I?m sure that last statement is giving rise to some questions.

If we are all supposedly so connected, why do we feel so disconnected?

Perhaps we don?t physically run into each other enough.

We don?t use our bodies enough to actually show people what is on our minds.

Use your body. Show people what you feel.

In the process, we will learn about ourselves as well, and bring the fire closer to the log where it belongs.

So, when you talk,get as close

or far apart

as you feel from one another.

Mind gets closer to the body when you use body language.

You can mirror a body and give a child clues about his mind.

If we show people they are connected

and it truly feels that way, perhaps they won?t be so afraid of being separate.And vice versa.

Our founding fathers may have been able to imagine this day when they wrote,

?Out of Many, One.?Brain Is to Mind[:]

Brain Is to Mind

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