16. Letting off Steam                                        4/26/03

In The Future of the Body by Michael Murphy pg. 575 we find subject title;
The Virtues and Traits necessary for Integral Development. Within, we find the sub-category of Creativity. Within this field, the cultivation of Creativity, is #4. Willingness to take risks, b. Brainstorming exercises that prohibit inhibiting criticism.

My feeling understanding of subcategory b, is to allow ourselves to explore areas of our being that may seem odd to the conditioned mind. Therefore, we can take risks to open our Creativity.

An interesting area of examination is making unfettered sound. Freeing up our ability to make sound can reverberate through our body system and release held energies or untie knots placed before us by inhibiting criticism. I have been toying with the expression that I have heard often enough. I need to let off some steam! What does this point to in us? I assume that letting off some steam does have a physical component, like the basic dissatisfaction often equated with anger. Without making any value judgment on anger, the term pressure works for me as an underlying force of held energy that can build up in us.

We may feel some internal pressure that feels uncomfortable and we need to diffuse that pressure. By using sound, I believe that pressure is released and we then have less wear and tear on our psychophysical system. In other words we would be singing or humming or buzzing along.

This very idea of letting steam off indicates there is a build up of pressure. Generally by the time we get to letting off steam the pressure is so great that we are apt to burn whatever is near by. If we could work in such a way that pressure can be released as it is being received then we actually would be acting more spontaneously towards the source producing the pressure, whether it is of our own making or some external force.

Just like the kettle that whistles, we release pressure with sound. Very often we find that if we are resistant to doing something, pressure will start to build within. If we expressed, “I don’t want to do that”; this would let some pressure off. Interestingly, there may also be less resistance to doing the objectionable task, once expressed. Of course this is within our reasonable daily living situations and any truly adverse demand would require its own set of methods of releasing pressure.

Making noise is one way of letting off pressure. I find that there usually are sounds that match particular types of pressures that we are housing. But we may not necessarily know what they are unless we start making more noise or sound. A childlike temperament is helpful in exploring all the noises we are capable of. I’m sure, children could teach us a thing or two about making noise.

Very often when people talk to me of dealing with some intractable type of personality I will suggest they start a low internal grrrowl and see what that produces. This seems to work for many and it is reported it tends to change the texture of a conversation. Interestingly women love this sound and find it very useful when being hit upon.

The possibilities of different sounds we can toy with are quite large and any time put in on examining the spontaneous sound you feel like making, in any situation, should reveal some interesting noise.

An area where we may hold sound is while having sex. Maybe this is a good way to open up sound. Are we expressing all the sounds that we feel? Why not? This could possibly cause some very interesting changes in any relationship. I imagine this investigation with sound would help many of us and might qualify as and integral practice.

What say you?

Posted by harmon at April 26, 2003

Comments

Making "crazy" sounds can work well, but often we won't give ourselves the space, or the time, to do it, or we'll be too afraid that others we'll think we are, indeed, crazy, if we do this. Same thing for chaotic physical motions: sometimes I'll just shake my hands or my legs (in private), in ways that aren't thought "normal," and yet, I can tell that it has great value to just sometimes let things go.

Have you heard of Rajneesh's dynamic meditations, where people, as part of it, are at some point urged to make strange sounds and motions?

Posted by: Jordan on April 26, 2003 05:27 PM

Great Jordan, this can be a neglected area in us because of our difficulty with appearances. I am happy that you can enjoy the “crazy” childlike side of life. This kind of spontaneous stuff that arises and has no reason or rhyme other then the body feels like doing it can be a very rich exploration.

I have heard, second hand, about different works being done at Rajneesh‘s place and worked with a girl that was with him for several years. She related lots of interesting stories about the community in India! They did a thing called chaotic breathing, which was interesting, and as you know if you lay around and pant real fast for a half-hour many things are going to come up and out of the body. I loved his writings and they helped broaden my investigation of the esoteric fields.

I think the self-work you describe is more intuitive and organic. Bottom line, it feels good. I feel the objective of many workshops is to get us to that space where we can enjoy our own specific natural sound and motion as we respond to the ups and downs of living.

Posted by: harmon on April 28, 2003

Sounds right!

Posted by: Jordan Gruber on April 29, 2003 05:54 AM

Chanting is great, i did some deep resonating chants the other night with my window open. i dont really care if im not considered normal, because normal is a social construct of which i will never fit anyway. so hello crazy, cmon in and sit down for awhile. hehe

Posted by: Ron on May 1, 2003 05:37 AM

Hi Ron Good for you! I wonder how many of us are “closet children” doing things in private that we may think of as silly and abnormal. Could be, we spent so much time while growing up imitating the adults that act like they know what they are doing, and expressing there own ideas as absolute truths, that something natural in us gets lost.

Posted by: harmon on May 1, 2003

Home ∞  Breathing Session ∞  Stories  ∞  Health Cures  ∞ Testimonials ∞ Journal  ∞ Articles ∞ Book  ∞ Articles 2

15<>17