I picture my awareness practice like a grid in a military movie. A navy ship can detect what’s on their grid from many miles out. Our awareness spreads out in every direction like a grid that represents the whole of who you are.
What is on it?
Do you see the emotion of anger floating by?
Where is your creative outlet on your grid? (Is it even there?) on your grid?
A Gestalter is always inquiring into their grid. In Gestalt, we are about the whole, because the whole is greater than the sum of our parts. If only part of your grid is online, you’ll get lost. Imagine if only 25% of the Naval ship grid was working. It would be vulnerable to attack and would probably get thrown off course.
The moment matters
There is nothing elusive or tricky about tuning into your personal grid. It’s clearest right there in the moment, always beaming to you and through you. Your mind will try and look for the complexity on your grid and your mind will be lying to you. The clearest signals are nudges, emotions, and feelings in the body. And there are ways to bring the moment of your body into more clarity. Speak things out. Move around a bit. Express how you are feeling through a sound. Gestalt is never supposed to be two people discoursing sedentary in chairs across from each other. The practice is way more dynamic than that.
Slow down
I was on a call recently and noticed that my client had been speaking for five minutes straight. He was on a similar rant that I had heard from him before. This story was part of his programming. He believed it, and it was valid, but we weren’t getting anywhere. Verbal cognitive (talking) is an effective mode of expression, but it’s only one point of the six points of awareness that I use to facilitate Gestalt sessions. I told him I heard every word and that what he said mattered, but invited him to slow down just a bit. I asked him to check in with his body and move around.
I hoped that shifting his point of awareness might uncover what was underneath the story. When he slowed down, checked in with his body, and got quiet, tears came to his eyes. He expressed that he felt tension in his chest. Grief was right there in the moment all along, ready to be felt and expressed.
It’s easy to get consumed by our mind and its stories. When we get going too fast, we don’t stop to check in with our grid. We can miss the ship of grief sailing right across our chest.
Tune in
What is it you’re not saying or afraid to say? Are there feelings you are avoiding? Those represent the parts of your grid that are not online, often stifled by fear or shame.
With awareness, you can lean into that part of your grid and bring it back online. Maybe that fear is stuck in the throat. Or maybe you will get a surge of energy after leaning into that part of yourself. I heard a Gestalt therapist talk about how he is looking for stuck vitality. I love that and reference that phrase all the time. Be aware of your vitality and what might be blocking it. They are signals to awakening the whole of your grid. And as you are more aware of the whole of your body, inevitably, you will come back to it.