The Satisfaction Cycle and Sensitivity Cycle are common frameworks used in somatic therapy. The Satisfaction Cycle reflects how engaging in the environment shows up developmentally and somatically and discusses ways that developmental wounding disintegrates these five actions. The Sensitivity Cycle provides a similar schema and exploration but focuses on how direct action differs from adapted indirect action. Each schema discusses ways barriers or blocks can appear at each stage of the cycle and recognizes that each barrier and block comes from some form of wounding and subsequent adaptation. The Satisfaction Cycle from Body Mind Centering The Satisfaction Cycle is a guiding principle within Body Mind Centering, intertwining physical movements with the developmental stages that shape our early years. Rooted in the simplicity of infancy, this cycle manifests through five core movements: yield, push, reach, grasp, and pull. In this exploration, we note key points of each phase and contemplate its impact on our internal experiences as adults. YIELD: Receiving Support with Presence Yielding is relaxing into gravity and the support of the chair, bed, or ground as you sit, lay down, or stand. Like a loved infant, you fully trust what holds you, melting into your container. You are present but your awareness is soft, oceanic, and expansive. You consciously enjoy this held feeling with a sense of gratitude. You do not feel stuck, trapped, or frozen as in a collapse or resistance state. Rather, you feel that you can rest and connect here until you feel ready to use this surface as a sturdy base from which to launch in a graceful, integrated way. Without the trust of the yield all other movements are compromised.
PUSH: Grounding, Knowing and Asserting the Self Pushing refers to how the body interacts with gravity and the sturdy base. It involves pressing body parts into supporting surfaces, which creates a compression in the tissues, bones, and joints. Pushing represents the internal awareness of ourselves and asserts our separate sense of self, laying the groundwork for setting boundaries. Lack of boundaries or overly rigid defenses can emerge if independence was either rushed or thwarted.
REACH: Toward Space, Levity, and Desire Reaching is the body’s relationship to space. Reaching brings our attention to what is external to the body and the self. It uses the support of the sturdy base and the strength of the push to create lightness and buoyancy in body parts as they extend out into the world. Reaching lengthens muscles and tissues, supporting the ability to say "yes" and move toward desires. Without yield and push (trust and strength) the reach can become frantic, compulsive, restricted, or confused. Examples of this are people pleasing, not pursuing your own wants and needs, feeling unable to identify someone you want to connect with, and not knowing how to take initiative.
GRASP: Actualizing Desires, Learning, and Achieving Goals Having mastered yield, push, and reach, we enter the grasp phase. This stage involves actualizing our desires, taking responsibility, and integrating knowledge. It symbolizes a deep understanding that allows us to actualize our inner authenticity in the external world and marks part one of the culmination of the satisfaction cycle. Without the support of yield, push, and reach (trust, strength, and agency) grasping (effectiveness) is elusive. In that case, grasping can become like binging food or television long after satiety, or neurotic perfectionism where one never allows the project to be done, or getting the promotion but avoiding the learning and responsibility that goes with it, or reading a lot of self-help books but never putting the the advice into practice, or receiving a proper apology with a behavior change but continuing to resent the person who apologized.
PULL: The Moment of Transformation The pull phase completes the cycle, bringing us back to yield. As we pull what we desire towards us, we enter a state of enjoyment and gratitude, reflecting on our achievements. Pull is a stage of transformation. Knowledge becomes wisdom, responding becomes an outcome, food is assimilated into the body, work becomes a product, an apology becomes a repair, a promotion becomes a fulfilling wonderland of challenge and growth. Accepting what has been received or accomplished readies us for a new cycle or interest.
Thus the action yield, push, reach, grasp, and pull work together building a foundation of trust upon which flexible strength can develop, which lends itself to the lightness of desire that ignites our effective action in the world that provides results that foster enjoyment and gratitude which in turn creates more trust and stability. Mastering the Satisfaction Cycle create a positive feedback loop that leads to fulfillment, connection, and abundance. The Sensitivity Cycle and the Barriers to Aliveness
Invented by Ron Kurtz, the Sensitivity Cycle is a central theory of the Hakomi Method, attempting to explain the intricate ways in which individuals perceive, process, and navigate their experiences. When the sensitivity cycle functions optimally it presents as a harmonious interplay of four key elements.
A seamless synergy of these four elements cultivates a sense of flow in one's life. However, due to developmental wounding, trauma, and the adaptations that follow, there exists the potential for getting "stuck" in unhealthy patterns or situations that can be thought of as barriers at one or more of the stages of this cycle.
Regardless of the specific barrier type, a core belief persists that you cannot directly ask for or obtain what you want or need. This deeply embedded belief that came from long ago, usually childhood, influences your ability to act in relationships and the world. Instead of being direct, you develop complex strategies aimed at fulfilling your wants or needs. However, despite your efforts, these strategies consistently fail to get you what you want and need, leading to ongoing frustration, disappointment, and deprivation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorProsopon Therapy Archives
April 2024
Categories |