In the previous article, "Unwinding Part One," I wrote about how we often treat our bodies merely as tools, neglecting to shift our awareness from a thought-dominant state to the body itself. I explored the process through which liberating the body from the confines of thought can lead to a deeper experience of freedom. This time, we will delve further into this profound subject.
Mystical Somatic Experiences through 5Rhythms
Since 2018, I have been dancing the 5Rhythms of conscious movement. 5Rhythms invites us to move through five distinct rhythms: Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical, and Stillness. These five rhythms are also the five elements cherished in Unfolding Bodywork, serving as an objective lens through which to perceive life, and indeed, embodying life itself.
As I immerse myself in 5Rhythms, my body liberates itself from the grasp of thought, gradually expanding into boundless freedom. Sometimes, I find myself entering into an extraordinary phenomenon where the body begins to move spontaneously, without conscious effort—a state commonly known as a trance. In this state, not only is there a profound sense of comfort, but also an embodied realization that all is one. Much like the "oceanic feeling" experienced in meditation, where the boundaries of the self dissolve into a sense of oneness with everything, such mystical experiences vastly expand the perceived possibilities of the body.
Unfolding Bodywork and the Art of Unwinding
Within Unfolding Bodywork, as we engage in a deep dialogue with the body, sensing how it yearns to move and offering our support, the phenomenon of Unwinding sometimes arises—where the body begins to move spontaneously. These movements can evolve from subtle, repetitive motions to large, dynamic expressions, akin to a dance without choreography. On occasion, to ensure the client's continuous movement, we may gently guide them from the massage bed to the floor, supporting their unfolding dance there.
As we convey in this blog, our bodies are living expressions of our life's journey, much like an embodied resume. Furthermore, as I highlighted in the previous article, no matter how freely one moves, individual patterns and habits inevitably surface within those movements. This signifies that even within our physical expressions, the patterns of our life are deeply etched. Indeed, many individuals, due to their lifestyles, may find their movements limited to standing, sitting, or walking. Supporting the Unwinding process is, therefore, also about unraveling the unnecessary twists and knots of life that manifest within the body.
Experiencing Unwinding, I believe, is akin to experiencing the trance states of meditation or dance. Having personally encountered these states, I view Unwinding as a process of shedding the superfluous, leading to an awareness of our absolute, inherent nature. From birth, we continuously learn and grow from external information, a necessity for adapting to society. However, this is largely an act of recognizing a relative self, one perceived from the outside. Consequently, just as our values and personality might shift when we move to a different country, our very sense of self can change with our environment. While this relative self is certainly necessary, I feel that by experiencing Unwinding, we are guided towards recognizing and embracing the absolute nature of our being, that which is intrinsically ours from birth.