The Resonant Life

Interacting lately with sound healing ninja, Fabeka Fatunmise, I have been reminded of my shin tai teacher, Saul Goodman, who operated on the perspective that the truly healthy body has resonance. Listening to Fabeku's singing bowls, and feeling the vibrations penetrate deep within me, I can totally get what he means by that.

The shin tai work, as I've written before (in part one of a series that kinda languished), is about restoring that resonance. And so what does that mean?

If you have any experience with stringed instruments, bring to your mind a visual of that.  A guitar string, for example, plucked gently, will vibrate and waves of clear and true sound will emanate outward. Pulled too tautly or with too much give, or even some hindrance on the string, and the sound is dull, flat, and lacking in fullness.

In shiatsu, we can view the body in a similar way, with the spine and central nervous system being the physical manifestation of the instrument of resonance. Palpation and rocking of the body show us where stuckness and tautness is held, as well as where energy is lacking. And the wave motion (or lack thereof) of the backbone with each breath, shows us where the guitar string needs tuning.

When our bodies are in tune, we feel a more healthy and free interchange with our environment and the other beings in it... like the way a tuning fork can start to hum within the proximity of another that is vibrating. Harmony. Resonance. We have more clarity about what and who we do resonate with, and what we don't.

Physical issues... tension, posture, injuries... all these things can impinge on our resonance, but so can emotional stuff. Inner conflicts. Which makes sense as this is the stuff that generally gets manifested in our physical form and subdues and distorts our true tone.

I'd to explore some of those things in future posts, and identify what goes in to creating a resonant life. Or rather allowing your natural resonance to be expressed.