Introduction
I’m Hidefumi Otsuka, offering Rolfing sessions and nutrition and tarot counseling in Shibuya (Ebisu), Tokyo.
Through the First Three Sessions — Securing a Personal Sense of Place
Rolfing is a method in which, once every one to two weeks, using manual technique, treatment is carried out each time along a theme. Because it polishes “bodily sensation” while organizing the body, the body’s troubles (stiff shoulders, low-back pain) improve as well.
In Rolfing, I introduced how — in the first session, organizing the breath; in the second session, organizing the soles of the feet; and in the third session, organizing the front-back balance — polishing bodily sensation influences the “mind” in each session.
Through sessions 1–2, “bodily sensation” becomes usable by separating the upper and lower body, and the body can be grasped two-dimensionally. (The parentheses are the influence on the “mind.”)
When the upper body is organized, “breath” deepens. (As an influence on the mind: through the autonomic nervous system, the mind settles.)
When the soles of the lower body are organized, sight and hearing become usable in good balance. (As an influence on the mind: the field of vision widens, and it becomes an occasion for broadening the way of thinking.)
And the front-back balance allows “bodily sensation” to be grasped three-dimensionally. (As an influence on the mind: how the distance between others and the self is taken in building relationships.)
Grasping three-dimensionally means the “space” around the body becomes easier to grasp. It becomes an occasion to consider the question of how much distance to take from others and from space.
When the body is placed in the external environment, unless the way the brain is moving through space has been grasped, responding to the unexpected (for example, a car or bus heading toward the body, a person approaching) becomes impossible.
Coming to grasp three-dimensionally becomes an occasion for acquiring the sensation of being able to engage calmly. Furthermore, grasping the body three-dimensionally leads to directing awareness toward the position of the center within three dimensions. (In terms of the sphere below, being conscious of the middle.)
What comes next is the session that organizes the central axis.
By Entering the Core — Noticing the “Emotions” Inside the Mind
Sessions 1–3 treat the superficial muscles (on the outside of the body). The superficial muscles can be seen with the eyes, so they are easy to handle. The sessions that organize the central axis, on the other hand, treat the deep muscles (on the inside of the body).
Because the deep muscles are in a deep place in the human body, it is difficult to see “where the problem is.”
Also, when entering a deep place in the body, accumulated emotions can come out, and approaching there is impossible unless a relationship of trust with the client has been formed.
I have practiced yoga for many years, and when I do backbend-type poses, the chest opens. But when the chest opens, emotions accumulated deep within can come pouring out all at once, and there are cases, even among yoga practitioners, where emotion wells up. Going into the Core this way shows how much the human being is an emotional animal.
In fact, when the deep-muscle sessions follow the superficial-muscle sessions, a few people a year drop out, saying, “I don’t want to expose my own heart.” It could be said that the body is that delicate.
So, how on earth should the mind be handled?
心は５つの層からなる〜心を磨くとは、内側に入ること
The Mind Is Made of Five Layers — To Polish the Mind Is to Go Inward
On the mind, Kazuo Inamori’s (hereafter Mr. Inamori) Ikikata: The Most Important Thing as a Human Being (only in Japanese) is detailed.
Kazuo Inamori, who built Kyocera and KDDI from scratch and rebuilt JAL, says the secret of management is “polishing the mind,” and that when the mind is polished, mysteriously, management goes well.
Mr. Inamori’s view of the mind is multilayered. He sees the mind as a “multiple structure,” in “concentric circles,” and considers five layers:
- Intellect: knowledge and logic acquired after birth.
- Sensibility: the mind that governs mental functions such as the five senses and emotions.
- Instinct: desires and the like for maintaining the body.
- Soul: the true self clothed in the experiences and karma of this present world.
- True self: that which lies at the center of the mind and forms its core, full of truth, goodness, and beauty.
What is interesting about this mind is that it regards the human mind, as it grows, as forming emotion outside instinct, and then coming to have intellect. The point is that knowledge is regarded as being acquired strictly on the outside of the mind.
Conversely, to polish the mind is to shed intellect, reach sensibility, polish that sensibility to reach instinct, and polish that to arrive at the true self. And once the true self is reached, all truth is understood, and life can be lived for the sake of the world and of others, without being misled by “instinct” or “sensibility.”
To “polish the mind” is to go inward.
Approaching the Core ① — Directing Awareness to the Body’s Interior
To enter Rolfing’s Core is, like peeling an onion skin by skin, to go gradually inward. Just as the mind is “polished” toward the true self, the body’s interior (the Core) is approached.
However, because the deep muscles are far inside, they can be neither touched nor easily trained. For this reason, the approach taken is to activate the deep muscles by directing “awareness” toward them.
To do this, the client’s awareness is widened so as to widen the “space,” the “room,” within the body. When the client becomes conscious of space within the body, the deep muscles, of their own accord, come to move toward it.
In the end, as the deep space within the body widens, the client — the human being — goes further into the inner self, and the body’s degree of organization improves as well.
Approaching the Core ② — Guiding Toward the Intended Place
As for the approach, likening the hand to a stethoscope makes it easy to understand. The hand explores the Core and identifies the place of the problem.
Once the place of the problem is known, a stimulus is given from the hand, and a response from the Core is awaited. What matters is that the change occurs from within.
In Rolfing, when an appropriate stimulus is given to the Core, the body, of its own accord, chooses and heads toward the place it feels is “here!” The practitioner becoming neutral and devoting themselves to the role of guide is what matters.
In the end, the practitioner does not hold the correct answer; the client does. Because the client “has the answer inside their own body,” the stance of “waiting for the answer to emerge” becomes important.
Approaching the Core ③ — A Personal Standard of Judgment Becomes Clear
In Rolfing, organizing the deep muscles across four sessions (sessions 4–7) organizes the central axis. A question likely arises here: “What is organizing the central axis good for?”
When an axis forms in the body, then within gravity — in work, play, and relationships — judging “how much muscular force to put into the body” becomes possible unconsciously.
However, when the central axis cannot be sensed, energy comes to be used consciously for posture. Because of this, the muscles cannot be controlled unconsciously, and developmental-disorder-like phenomena occur — the neck muscles become extremely weak, concentration on learning becomes difficult, and reading and writing become hard.
Furthermore, things can no longer be judged by a personal axis, and judgment ends up being made by an axis that others have set.
In short, what makes it possible to consider “Where is this life heading? What is the purpose of this life?” is the central axis.
Conclusion
This time, I have focused on the influence on the mind — on what kind of change occurs within the body when the body’s Core is approached from the fourth session onward, after completing Rolfing’s sessions 1–3.
Next time, I’d like to take up how the sessions unfold from the fourth onward.