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This post focuses on how to actively train gear shifting. With a framework for gear shifting skills and a number of models and exercises.
REFLECTION IS THE GEAR SHIFT KEY
The concept of gear shifting is important for the practical work with the ideas and instructions that we talk about in this book. Gear shifting is about becoming aware of shifts of any kind, of knowing what is happening while it is happening. And gear shifting is thus a very simple method of becoming present in general – and specifically in relation to shifts.
A crucial human ability is the ability to reflect – to know from knowing. With the reflective ability we are potentially lifted – from the self-organizing process of living systems – where the basic dynamics are about survival – and subsequently have reproduction as their goal. We are lifted momentarily free from habit when reflection expands our awareness in time and space and brings us into an immediate existential situation.
Shifting gears is about opening up to the body's and nervous system's self-organizing balance-regulation dynamics - with the shift, practicing experiencing and '‘see'’ how the system does all the time – sometimes with more flow and other times with greater inertia.
Any exercise that aims to experience, see and become aware of realities or 'who you are right now' – is in this understanding a gear shift.
The basic form is to make the body – and with particular focus on the autonomic nervous system – an area for practice. To raise awareness change of any kind – knowing what is happening while it is happening – a very simple method of becoming present in general – and specifically in relation to shifts.
LIFE PROCESSES
Life processes orient themselves, among other things, via various forms of polarity – tension/relaxation, attraction/repulsion, pleasure/displeasure, heat/cold, light/darkness, etc. – one could describe all these pairs of opposites as a relationship or a dynamic between plus and minus.
There is now a great deal of knowledge about life processes. This includes both general and subtle specialized knowledge. About the human interior and about interpersonal processes, about living systems, about connections and overall forms of organization, about ecology and sustainability. Overall, there is a very extensive amount of knowledge, and all too rarely is this knowledge included and used in an interdisciplinary manner in a holistic context.
CONTACT WITH ONESELF
We can sharpen our awareness of transitions by using exercises and training with conscious presence. Knowing fundamental aspects of oneself from within is, for the individual, a discipline in sustainability – the very act of nuanced sensing and articulation of body, emotions, thoughts and relationships, as they are experienced from within, builds the ability to access a more comprehensive feedback from one's own system. This also contributes to the ability to be present and in contact with the surroundings and other people increasing. So overall, feedback from both within and without is improved, and over time a more fundamental flexibility is incorporated into the adaptation and adjustment of life processes.
Shifting gears is about being able to optimize contact with oneself, with the central orientation system that constantly scans the overall atmosphere in the spaces we are in – with oneself, in contact and in the whole.
HUMAN BEING – BODY, FEELINGS, THOUGHTS, RELATIONSHIPS
In our way of being present within ourselves in the present, we have each found some basic forms or patterns to orient ourselves within and from there out into the world. For example, some people identify most with their body. They experience themselves and talk about themselves based on sensory concepts. Others are much more identified with their emotions. They experience and describe their inner state with emotional concepts. Still others are so absorbed in inner dialogues and thoughts and describe themselves and their world mentally – intellectually. Or they reflect themselves in others and are so externally controlled that they mostly experience the world seen from outside themselves.
Being primarily identified with a central part of oneself is widespread and common, and in the long term it results in limited self-knowledge. It also results in limited utilization of one's resources and feedback opportunities.
Body
Bodily sensations form the basis for the brain's rational decision-making processes. Before words, all kinds of sensations unfold that help shape and create the inner subjective experience.
(…) the execution of all these processes – emotion, feeling and consciousness – depends on representations of the organism. Their common core is the body. – Antonio R. Damasio
The amygdala is popularly called the body-self, because the constant scanning sensory attention in the amygdala uses all parts of the body system as an assessment parameter. This is what Antonio Damasio has developed in his theories about somatic markers.
Bodily sensations of any kind are what refer to the physical changes that take place in the body and nervous system prior to an emotion.
· Feelings
Emotions, feelings and moods are among the crucial information flows within and between people. We use emotions to orient ourselves, to assess whether something is positive or negative. Emotions and feelings guide the energy flow in the consciousness process and add qualitative depth and value nuance to the inner representations. Feelings are absolutely central to the integrative processes that have to do with increasing complexity and balance in any system.
· Thoughts
Thinking is a central element in our information processing, and it often takes place outside of consciousness. – Siegel
Thoughts are generated from the body and sensations inside and outside and the associated emotional attention patterns. Thoughts come and go as part of the self-organized, implicit 'sense-feel-alertness process' that is always going on. You cannot choose not to think. You can choose to know that you are thinking.
The fact that the major language area (Broca) of the human brain is also critical for imitation and contains mirror neurons offers a new view of language and cognition in general (…) Our mental processes are shaped by our bodies and by the types of perceptual and motor experiences that are the product of their movement through and interaction with the surrounding world, This view is generally called embodied cognition, and the version of this theory especially dedicated to language is known as embodied semantics. The discovery of mirror neurons has strongly reinforced this hypothesis that cognition and language are embodied. – Marco Iacoboni
· Relationships
In the face of another person we encounter our own being as a human being. It is only in the moment we recognize and acknowledge each other as human beings that we become fellow human beings. – Bauer
Thus, when we perceive another's emotional or emotional expression, this state is automatically created within us due to mirror neurons. (Siegel). It has been known for many years that all mammals have a developed limbic circulatory system to 'read' the internal states of other individuals; primates have also developed a unique ability via mirror neurons to create an internal state that resembles that of others.
The brain is built to mirror, and it is precisely through mirroring – through simulation in our own brain of the felt experience of another's mind – that we can more deeply understand what others feel.
NEXT POST: THE PENAGON
This post is an edited excerpt from the book Social Sustainability – Everyday Expressions of Trauma – and Restoring Balance. In the next post we look at the perspective and training landscape called The pentagon, the innate competencies:
Michael Stubberup, cand.mag and head of SYNerGAIA.
Co-founder and vice-chairman of the Association for Children's Life Skills. He has 20 years of experience as a manager. Established SYNerGAIA Rehabilitation in 1999 and is currently the acting chairman of the board. He has also been responsible for development and continuing education in SYNerGAIA Innovation. Together with Steen Hildebrandt, he has also founded Sustainable Co-Creation. Michael is one of Vækstcenteret's permanent teachers.
