Within the context of “wholism”, the viewpoint that work on the whole body is more effective than work done on just one part, lies the mind-body connection. And I write with the hope that my words will allow fellow practitioners the chance to strengthen this vital link in themselves and also for those within their practice.

With that said, the premise of this paper is to show that by applying yoga principles and practices to Rolfing sessions it is possible to achieve a level of healing that interfaces with mind and body. I will also emphasize that the ground from which all change happens is energetic.

WHAT IS YOGA?

Many people think of yoga as a way to help them achieve a balance of flexors and extensors. True, when executed skillfully, yoga postures do help to balance the medial and lateral arches of the feet, thereby activating the inner line of the legs. This in turn balances the pubic bone and tailbone. As this support reaches up to the next “station”, it equalizes the opposing structures of T12 and the sternum, which invites the shoulder girdle to free itself from the ribs and neck and opens up the thoracic outlet. The head is then able to naturally find balance on the neck. The final result is a physical posture that mirrors the Rolfing paradigm of “equipoise.”

Both yoga and Rolfing recognize the significance of activating core strength so that the extrinsic muscles can be used for what they are good at: large movements rather than the subtleties of gait. As the intrinsic/ phasic and extrinsic/tonic muscle tissues differentiate, we move with the grace that comes with freedom from postural patterns of tension. We begin to realize that we can engage with life without over-efforting. As we take the strain out of the system, we no longer “accelerate while our emergency brake is on.”

YOGA AND THE PHYSICAL BODY

In yoga philosophy, all of the above dynamics can be understood in terms of the three elemental forces or building blocks, collectively called gunas: sattva, ragas and tamas. When considered in this light, yoga takes on new meaning and importance. It is much more than a series of postures.

Yoga philosophy also considers the energy of emotion and how it relates to structure and function. Ragas is the energy of passion, motion, and desire and relates to the “tight-flight” sympathetic channel of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Like the Chinese principle of “yang,” excessive ragas manifests somatically as a hypertonicity and emotionally as mania and hypervigilance (over focused). Tamas is the emotional quality of inertia, fixity, and dullness and relates to the relaxation response of the parasympathetic component of the ANS. Excessive tamas, analogous to the Chinese principle of “yin”, is associated with hypotonicity and manifests emotionally as depression and hypovigilance (being checked-out).

The balance of ragas and tamas is vital to health, and it’s no wonder that the term yoga implies “union”. And when these two opposing qualities (ragas and tamas) are balanced, the third guna aspect, sattva, is the result. To be in sattva balance is to experience a state of reciprocity with identical life force operating with balanced movement.

As can be seen, the yogic principle of the gunas bridges our physical structural tendencies, energetic style and emotional dynamics. When these three aspects are integrated, we realize our true form (svarupa) and find peace. One way to facilitate this integration is to apply the principle of the gunas to the subtle body.

YOGA AND THE ENERGETIC BODY

Yoga understands that the body is a collection of interrelated energy channels. The most important channels are the shushumna, ida (relating to tamas) and pingala (relating to ragas) channels. The ida and pingala are on either side of the shushumna, the central channel.

The ida and pingala weave back and forth across the central channel, and where they cross is where the chakras can be found. If the shushumna is not open, our energy and emotions get caught in the two peripheral channels. When “prana,” our life force, is balanced, then our core energy awakens and rises up the central channel taking our state of mind and perception to a higher level.

Consistent with the principle of the gunas, we have three basic energetic responses to life’s events: 1) energetic-charge (ragas); 2) energetic-discharge (tamas); and 3) relaxation (sattva). Alternately, these three primal forces form our life-force pulsation. Basically, our body-mind complex is motile energy that pulsates through this three-beat cycle.

In energetic terms, the vibrations we carry within our minds and bodies reflect our reality. When either the charge or discharge tendencies become chronic conditions, the emotional and physical impact results in a loss of presence (including mental and emotional obsessions), physical imbalance (including structural hyper- and hypotonicity), and chakra imbalance. Note: The normal curves of the spine are a physical expression of the ragas and tamas tendencies.

The expansive and contractive energetic cycles of the gunas are the energetic ground from which our emotional and physical life takes shape.[1] Let us take a look at how this works.

Like all other biological organisms, the human body continually produces energy. Essentially, all energy is a form of dynamic positive (ragas) and negative (tamas) charges or waves of energy that are constantly vibrating. These energetic vibrations form an endless series of sine-waves rising and falling at different rates. Light, sound, electricity and electromagnetic radiation are all expressions of this vibrating energy. The energy in our bodies is no different; it is a result of cycles of charge and discharge based on these fundamental principles of energy. The electric current traveling through the nervous system is a series of sine waves creating vibratory impulses.

The polarization and depolarization of the nervous tissue is an example of how this life force travels through the body. This has a direct affect on our muscular system. When a muscle is hypertonic, it has built up an energetic charge and is unable to release it. The long-term result is tighter, shorter muscles with reduced joint range. When our muscles have hypotonicity, they are unable to build an energetic charge, they are slow to initiate a muscle contraction, cannot maintain a contraction for long and do not fully contract before they relax again. The long-term result is loose and very stretchy muscles that never realize their full potential.

YOGA BALANCE WITHIN ROLFING SESSIONS

As Rolfers, if we were to approach each session applying yogic principles and practices to the imbalanced nervous systems we see every day, we would greatly enhance our effectiveness. Yoga approaches creating balance by practicing paradox; that is, by engaging opposing tendencies at the same time to support recalibration and balance. I recall the Ashtanga yoga teacher Richard Freeman once saying, “where opposites meet magic happens.”

For example, in a yoga practice, we build a charge and focus on staying grounded, and as we engage the ground we focus on building energy and heat in the body. As we exhale we maintain an awareness of the essence of inhaling, and as we inhale we stay aware of the quality of exhaling. “Paradoxical breathing” is another way to describe this. As we flex or extend we simultaneously engage the opposing action creating an isometric dynamic (thereby balancing “internal” and “external” upper- and lowerbody postural tendencies). As we effort, we hold an awareness of surrender (which allows energy to flow), and as we push off from the earth we settle in (Rolfer/movement theorist Hubert Godard’s “sky” and “ground”). Gravity paradoxically allows an equal and opposite ground reaction force (GRF) to animate and lift the body. With a little imagination we can find ways to apply this on the Rolfing table.

A second essential way yoga achieves balance is through tapas.[2] The root word tap means “to burn,” or “to glow.” Tapas is something we do in order to keep us physically and mentally healthy. It is a process of inner cleansing by removing things that we do not need through painstaking self-application. Tapas is pursued through the “frustration” of the body-mind’s habitual inclinations.

More specifically, in the practice of yoga postures (asana), tapas is created whenever we deliberately direct our actions and awareness in a manner that balances focused effort (sthira) and ease (sukha). In a Rolf session, we create tapas when we guide the client to allow his attention to be in the present while he relaxes and breathes to release bound tissues. The moment the client begins to hold his breath, we know too much effort is happening. If the client slows his breath to a resting state, we know too much ease is creating an imbalance.

This has a direct application to emotional states as well. By learning to calm down if anxious (unable to release energetic charge/ ragas) or speed up when depressed (unable to build an energetic charge/tamas), we engage in the practice of tapas and free the rubbish in our minds and bodies. Mind-body yoga practices of asana, conscious breathing, visualization, sounding mantras and present-centered meditations all contribute to this end.

As we deliberately create balance we develop energy and heat in the body. Depending on our physical and emotional condition, we apply either more effort or more surrender to our mind-body practice so as to alter habits that we don’t need. As we become aware of imbalance, we may first experience a sense of discomfort, a feeling of wanting to squirm away from our condition. But as we once again balance focused attention with effort and surrender, we can begin to feel the edges of our state of mind and body begin to change as if they were burning. This is the heat of tapas.

YOGA BALANCE AND THE THERAPEUTIC CONTAINER

A third central way that yoga supports balance is by, creating a “container” or “holding environment” of sorts, within which we come to life. This “holding environment” is established in a variety of ways.

In yoga, we start by first creating a container with our awareness through a process called nirodha (Yoga Sutra 1.2). Rodha comes from the root rudh, meaning, “to be wrapped in;” the prefix ni means “great internal intensity.” Just as a child needs the parent to provide a safe emotional container the young one can return to after exploring, to “put himself back together,” nirodha gives us a safe haven.

The most obvious examples of nirodha are when we are so focused on what we are doing that nothing else comes to mind; not the past (tamas) or future (ragas). In this state the full rapture of being alive is awakened. Embodiment is a sort of “indwelling” where we are “wrapped in great internal intensity.” When one is embodied, the fundamental existential questions of “Who am I? and “What am I doing with other people?” disappear. The experience of embodiment provides a sate container for the felt sense of authenticity.

We also create a holding environment when we don’t impose our agenda and yet engage the client and are contactful. The child development theorist Donald Winnicott made the observation that infants need a mixture of contact and breathing room within a safe context, which he described as “parallel play.” This balance allows the infant to learn to self-regulate within the context of a relationship. With this ability to self-regulate as an adult, we can then tolerate and enjoy intimacy as well as aloneness. Rolfing is a kind of “parallel play” that has potentially profound consequences.

YOGA BANDHAS AND THE BODY’S DIAPHRAGMS

Finally, in yoga we create a holding environment by engaging the bandhas. The word bandha means “to bind or tie together, to close.” In yoga, bandha means “to lock” and we execute this by contracting certain areas of the torso in a particular way. The old texts tell us that by using the bandhas we create an energetic container that enables us to direct “fire” to the exact place where we are blocking the flow of energy in the body.

The three most important bandhas are located in the neck, the solar plexus and the floor of the pelvis. These three areas are recognized within the Rolfing paradigm as structural and functional diaphragms. The diaphragms of the body act as a sort of hydraulic valve system maintaining the different pressure gradients that allow us to function in relation to gravity without collapsing. The human body is 80% water; it is as if our flesh floats in a bed of fluids. The fluid body is expressed through its motility, a quality that underlies the Rolfing notion of the ever-changing plastic body. Then again, in craniosacral therapy, the “breath of life” is an expression of the potency of spirit that manifests as somatic energy. According to craniosacral teacher and author Hugh Milne, this energy is thought to influence our flesh via body fluids. The flow of somatic energy causes body fluids to flow. Embryology studies have shown that it is the initial flow of fluids against the cell membrane that creates the human form.

Therefore, control of the primary diaphragms of the body plays a profound role in our personal evolution. They serve as a dam system of sorts that enables us to self-regulate the body, and to step up and build energetic charge or step down and spread the charge throughout the body. As we practice conscious breathing in conjunction with engaging the bandhas, we experience a feeling of pressure in the core of the body and a feeling that we are heating up. This heat is the internal fire of tapas that bums off blockages in the core.

If one learns to develop a sympathetic resonance with the “practice of paradox,” tapas and creating a “holding environment” while Rolfing or practicing yoga, it is possible to develop an ability to restore one’s natural energy cycles while cultivating the quality of sattva. And sattva is a state that reflects the Rolfing principle of “adaptability.”

In this sattva state, the energetic intensity that accompanies life’s drama can actually feel nourishing rather than overwhelming. The ANS is balanced, allowing us to respond to life’s challenges appropriately. Physically, we have optimal tonus; emotionally, we are able to maintain a broad perspective.

RHYTHMIC ENTRAINMENT

Another hugely beneficial aspect of approaching Rolfing like a yoga practice is that it allows the potential for “rhythmic entrainment” to occur. This happens when two waveforms develop a similar frequency and “lock into phase” with each other, meaning that the waves oscillate together at exactly the same rate, with the same resonance. When we are in rhythmic entrainment, we are influenced psychologically and physiologically. We are also on a deep subconscious level of inner vibration, as this state allows the wisdom inherent in mind-body practices to manifest.

On a purely physical level, our body’s structural tendencies are to a large extent determined by muscle tone. Muscle tone occurs at an involuntary level. Stretch receptors deep in the muscle detect change in muscle length. These receptors then tell the brain there is a stimulus, and the brain tells the muscle to contract in response. By “practicing paradox,” tapas and creating a “holding environment” in a Rolfing session, we effectively recalibrate the “neural set-point” for responding to stimuli. We can effect changes in muscle responses because it improves the brain’s ability to perceive changes in muscle length, preventing it from over- or under-responding to stimuli. This increases our ability to respond to life’s events optimally.

In the sattvic state that results, energy in our system spreads out throughout the entire container of the body rather than getting bound in muscular patterns of tension. We feel a sense of aliveness in the core areas of the body; often described as “streaming” current-like sensations, as we face the challenges of daily life unfolding before us. These physical sensations are the expression of a natural reciprocal buildup and release of energy and a sign of what in yoga is called prana or life-force. As bound energy is repeatedly spread throughout the body, we experience more aliveness throughout all the chakra centers.

Because energy is not getting bound up in muscular holding patterns or being directed at emotional fixations, it gets directed towards enhancing our sense of Self. This is a state that embodies the Rolfing principle of “wholism.” The Rolf practitioner approaches each session in a way that invites a shift in the whole mind-body dynamic, and the client has an inner experience of integration.

The increased experience of aliveness within us creates a subtle change in the body’s physiology that has a direct impact on our attentional stance. As energy spreads throughout the body, we develop a broad understanding of life’s events that holds wisdom. Rather than being hypervigilant and maximizing response in a fight-flight stance, or hypovigilant and minimizing response to distressing situations such as in dissociation, we have an inner awakening that is relaxed and yet alert. When we learn to remain relaxed and energized, we have a cortical physiological change from a state of high arousal to one of low arousal. When we don’t get thrown off balance due to physical injury or our emotional fixations, the body-mind system quiets down and invites a profound inner peace. This is a stillness that is infinite and cannot be bound by form. Ultimately our physical forms live within this formlessness. This is a journey from gross to subtle where the body itself becomes a conscious vessel of spirit. On this journey, Sri Aurobindo Ghose explains, “Limitations recede as the body becomes more plastic and responsive.” This was echoed by Ida Rolf.

[1] As one vibration flows into another it creates the energetic expression of samsara. In Sanskrit, samsara literally means, “that which flows together.” It is the perpetual flux of existence, the relationship of life as we know it. A three-dimensional expression of this is the helix, much like the shape of genetic DNA.

[2] The earliest term for yoga-like endeavors in India is tapas.