An Alexander Technique based somatic practice
Compassion has been on my bodymind lately. As a buddhist, I have found that sitting zazen seems to cultivate compassion. It arises on it’s own, sometimes when I don’t want it to.
Depending on context, there is always someone folks don’t want you to have compassion for, yet it still arises. It gets complicated, and that’s probably a good thing.
Some of you may know that I’ve been interviewing psychologists and therapists. I’ve so enjoyed working with this professional community in my practice, and I’m beginning to see common sources of suffering more clearly. I’d like to share some insights, and a somatic practice to address the most common issue across age and time in the profession: compassion fatigue. Perfectionism is a close second, but that’s a whole other topic.
Even if you are not a therapist, you may relate just because you feel empathy in connection to others, and get overwhelmed sometimes.
Compassion fatigue (as opposed to its lesser cousin, burnout) is no longer a hot new topic, but your body doesn’t care.
No matter how skilled and resourced you are, it’s a natural response to being present with a gazillion stories of suffering. It’s not a pathology or disorder, it just happens.
But some of us are present with more suffering than our bodies have evolved to handle. That’s why tools to mediate our natural tendency to connect with each other are so necessary.
Non-dualistically, you could say that the expectation you should always be connecting is not realistic or even healthy.
The Alexander Technique, a mind-body practice that indirectly restores posture, wellbeing, sensitivity, and cognitive clarity, is one of those tools.
I think it will prove itself if you have an experience. But first, let me give you some context for the practice with cranial nerves 5 and 7 that I share in today’s video.
Babette Rothschild is one of the few clinicians who has created specific, detailed exercises to prevent your system going into overwhelm in the presence of trauma. In her seminal book, Help for the Helper, she describes the physiology of empathy and the risk we take when we begin to feel other people’s emotions as our own.
She has also literally charted out in detail many observational skills needed by trauma psychotherapists, as well as the skills needed for accurate observation of and attunement to others.
It is equally important, however, to be able to un-attune yourself to others, to be calm and centered in the presence of trauma and suffering.
But how?
Rothschild calls it “mirroring” and “un-mirroring.” Mirror neurons and facial expressions play a key role, as does body position and postural gestures. Cranial nerve 5 is responsible for sensation inside and on the surface of your face; cranial nerve 7 controls all the muscles of expression. Practice with these two nerves can be a powerful intervention just by raising previously unconscious activity into consciousness.
We move our facial muscles in an unconscious mirroring of people we are attuned to. We don’t think about it, it just “happens.”
That’s because the nerves that supply facial muscles are both voluntary…and involuntary. Our face is part of the extrapyramidal nervous system (just like our “posture”, the system at the core of how the Alexander Technique works).
Rothschild posits that you can “catch” an emotional state from another person unless you know how to mediate this mirroring response.
When we put our faces and bodies in certain positions, feelings associated with those expressions and positions arise in us even if we were not in that emotional state before.
“Certain clients will feel more comfortable when you mirror them. However, many will actually feel relieved when you do not and are less in tune with them. Many of your clients will be better able to stay in touch with themselves when you are in touch with yourself.”
So how to un-mirror? Rothschilds suggestions are simple:
- Change posture
- Change breathing
- Tense up? Relax? Where?
- Change position? How?
- Get creative and experiment
Encouraged by #5, I am adding to this list with this week’s video, which guides you through an experience of the interplay between these two nerves and your visual system. It will take longer experimentation and confirmation with more practitioners to know how effective this can be in preventing compassion fatigue.
I was shocked to feel how much easier my face is when I look at the periphery of a face, instead of eyes, nose, and mouth. Whoa!
It works even in the mirror, or on camera in a Zoom meeting when you look at yourself or others. Let’s practice and find out more!
If you want to experience the whole sequence of 12 nerves:
Come to a donation based practice session on Monday, April 14, at 1 pm EST. Register HERE. There won’t be any explanation, just 30 minutes of practice and reflection. Once you register, the confirmation email will have instructions on how to donate.
If you want to learn the anatomy and science of all the practices, and be able to repeat them and share them:
Come to the Cranial Nerve Sequencing course that runs Six Thursdays from 12pm – 1:30 pm EST, starting May 1. Register HERE.