“Movement is the only way we have of
affecting the world around us...to understand movement is to understand the
whole brain...Memory, cognition, sensory processing, they’re there for a
reason, and that reason is action.”
- Daniel Wolpert, Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience, Cambridge
University
Since movement is how we navigate the world, when we brace against it, something is amiss. Bracing in the jaw can mean any number of things. Remember bracing against the warning that the pin-prick of a vaccine would only sting a little? The involuntary impulse takes on a life of its own, as if holding still might prevent the inevitable. Bracing is not only how we cope with pain, it’s how we attempt to control the uncontrollable.
It’s human. We crave control when life takes off in unwanted
directions. Bracing in the jaw, a precursor to chronic TMJ syndrome (temporomandibular
joint pain), is also a factor in resentment. It is usually an unconscious
response, but the evidence is there, the body speaks its mind through unwanted
tension. The question is, do we listen? Do we listen when the body braces
against fear or loss or rage? Or, do we silence ourselves to comply with social
expectations of acceptable behavior? Do we tamp it down inside with pharmaceuticals
or recreational drugs? The response to the response is where the feedback loop
cannot function because we deny it. This, then, is the gift of the Feldenkrais
Method: first and foremost, it reminds us to take heed of the intelligence our
own body is offering. That’s nice, but clearly awareness alone is not enough,
and neither is knowledge. The true brilliance of Feldenkrais is how it gives us
the opportunity to acknowledge, to refine the ability to sense these vital
signals and it gives us the creativity to choose another, better-feeling response.
For who in their right mind would choose tension over comfort? Most of us, as
it happens, every day.
It’s time to break the cycle. Actually, it’s time to stop ignoring
the cycle and tune into the magnificent feedback loop that is yours by birth:
your nervous system. Your nervous system is more sophisticated than any laptop
computer in the number of functions it manages and executes simultaneously. All
parts of the feedback loop which your nervous system manages include intelligence from vision, thought, memory, sensation, blood pressure, immune
function, and breath. These are all things so close to home (i.e, your primary environment: your internal experience) that you barely give them recognition.
Bracing in the jaw, because of resentment, is a seemingly involuntary response to life. It's a somatic response, a bodily
response to people and experiences unwanted. To make matters worse, resentment
which is a form of judgement, is solidified even further by values that imply
it is bad, or not spiritual, or that you, personally, as a person are bad for
feeling it. “Good” people don’t walk around resenting others. Here’s where the
rubber really hits the road, for when tension is heaped upon tension through a
series of layers affecting emotion, thought and actions you find your way
forward is blocked. It impedes good relations with anyone around you, and, more
importantly, with yourself. When you judge yourself, ironically, it only makes it harder to move freely, because both judging ourselves or feeling judged has look that even the untrained eye can see: it looks like deer, frozen in time. This is because the
somatic response to self-judgement is the equivalent of going in two directions
at once. It’s like a two-headed serpent, each arguing about which direction to
go in. Hence, the concept of integration in Feldenkrais. Integration is when
every fiber of your being is going in the same direction and life is one big, “Hell,
Yes!” Integration is the “incredible lightness of being,” or the sense that
wild horses could not stop you.
Society programs you to listen to others, because that’s what makes
a society work. It makes it safer. But assuming you are not dangerous to
yourself or others, at some point, you have to start listening to yourself.
Bracing in the jaw may have become an unconscious habit, however, given the
right environment, the cost of it can easily become conscious. It’s just one of
many possible expressions of emotional pain with somatic consequences. As you
brace, you brace against the world. The maseter muscle of the jaw is one of
the most powerful muscles in the body. When you lock it, you lock yourself in
even as you lock the world out. It’s like being the Man in the Iron Mask.
Gabrielle Pullen, GCFP is a Feldenkrais Practitioner in
Jacksonville, Oregon. For help with this or any other somatic pattern of bracing
against the world, against injustice, or emotions, check out the schedule, keep up-to-date with retreats or find online resources to use at home at
www.gabriellepullen.info
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