How are you managing within these challenging, rapidly changing times we find ourselves in?
When we perceive threat, as human beings, we quickly shift into defensive fight-flight or freeze nervous system states, designed to meet potentially life-threatening danger. In the process, we prepare to mobilise with heightened alertness, and increased muscle tension. Our immune system and organs of digestion and maintenance become less of a biological priority in survival states and receive less blood. If we perceive overwhelming threat, we shut down in a freeze state, dissociating from sensation, often having reduced tone and presence in our tissues. These defensive measures can support survival for very short periods but when extended can interfere with our immune system functions as well as other aspects of maintaining health and well-being.
In the face of ongoing massive threat like our current viral pandemic, fighting, fleeing and freezing don’t work. The anxiety, irritability, depression and tension they can produce interfere with our ability to creatively meet the challenge. Here we need resilience. Resilience can be defined as our capacity to recover and bounce back quickly from difficulties.
In Continuum, we understand and foster resilience in relation to qualities of water or fluid, of which our bodies are primarily composed. When water is frozen, it is less resilient. It can be cracked or broken. It has less ability to bend in response to forces it meets. Our dense, tense bodies are like ice. They are less flexible and less able to meet contingencies. The more fluid we become, the more resilient we can be, like water flowing freely in a stream, easily negotiating rocks and other obstacles, and more easily dissipating toxic or noxious substances.
The gentle breaths, sounding and mindful movement of Continuum support us in slowing down, deeply resting, becoming more present in our awareness and our bodies, as we dissolve tension, stress, and nervous system activation and return to our inherent fluid intelligence. We emerge renewed, ready to more easily meet our current challenges with creative fluid resilience.Â
