Make the Offering – Opening to love with Structural Integration.
I found this interesting blog post written by a psychologist speaking of his experience with session 5 of the Rolfing Structural Integration 10 series. It’s an intense session for many, encompassing deep abdominal work that many have never experienced before. This can be a hotbed for emotions, as is often said we feel things “with our gut”. He goes on to talk about what to do with the feelings that surfaced during his session. It’s a good reminder about the importance of gratitude and love.
“ What could you offer?
The Practice:
Make the offering.
Why?One of the strangest and most meaningful experiences of my life occurred when I going through Rolfing (10 brilliant sessions of deep-tissue bodywork) in my early 20s. The fifth session works on the stomach area, and I was anticipating (= dreading) the release of buried sadness. Instead, there was a dam burst of love, which poured out of me during the session and afterward. I realized it was love, not sadness, that I had bottled up in childhood — and what I now needed to give and express.
We can hold back our contributions to the world, including love, just as much as we can muzzle or repress sorrow or anger. But contribution needs to flow; it stagnates and gets stinky if it doesn’t. Thwarted contribution is the source of much unhappiness. For example, the wound of loneliness and heartache is about not having others to give to as much as not having others to get from. And one of the major issues with adolescence in technological cultures is that there are few opportunities for teenagers to make a real difference, to matter and feel a sense of earned worth.
Now, “contribution” covers a lot of ground. It includes big things like raising a child, inventing the paperclip, or composing a symphony. But mainly it’s a matter of many little things. You give or receive hundreds of small offerings each day, such as doing the dishes, treating customers with respect, picking up a gum wrapper, encouraging a friend, having good intentions, or staying open to feedback. You contribute with thought, word, and deed, and both by what you do and by what you restrain yourself from doing.
In addition to the offerings you already make, you may sense other things inside that want to be offered. Can you open to these and let them flow? It does not matter how large or small they are. As Nkosi Johnson — a South African boy born with HIV who became a national voice for children with AIDS before dying at about age 12 — once said: “Do all you can, with what you have, in the time you have, in the place where you are.”
How?
Appreciate some of the things you already contribute through thought, word, and deed. Let yourself feel good about this.
Moving through your day, try considering your contributions as offerings — particularly the little things that are easy to overlook, such as the laundry, courteous driving, or saying thanks. When you relate to everyday actions as offerings, you feel an intimacy with the world, more kindness, perhaps even something sacred…”
-Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
[Read the rest of the blog post here.]
