Inner Fluidity
You are a fluid creature.
The ground of your physical body can be experienced as a substantial fluidity. It’s like you have your very own internal swimming pool.
Inner fluidity: A Private Sea of Bliss
When your mind is still, and when your body is deeply relaxed, the fluid expression of your body can come into the forefront of your experience. This fluidity is palpable.
Your fluid body is a magical place, where you actually feel like you slip, slide and move from within, without any thought or effort. Your fluid body is a realm of bliss within your body. You feel as if you are an aspect of a vast and deep ocean.
The fluid world is a world of motion, flow and movement. This world is not a stagnate one. The fluid world is open to and moved by healing forces – the forces that generate and maintain you. Currents and waves move through you as you resonate with the world that you are part of.
“I feel like I am in the sea”
It is often a big surprise when you experience your fluid nature. It’s also a very important aspect of Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy.
Fluidity in the Body
Science can point to some ways to understanding the experience of your inner fluid body.
For instance, your body (depending on who you ask!) is approximately 55 to 75% water. This percentage varies depending on your age and weight. Your cells are fluid and live in a fluid world.
Fluids our dispersed throughout your body. For instance, think about your blood and all the kilometres (100,000!) of liquid rivers flowing through all those arteries, capillaries, and veins.
Fluids are part of your tissue world and can be found at the microscopic level. You have a network of fluid-filled space throughout your connective tissue called the interstitium. The experience of fluidity that can open up in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is a medium of the body, that is a wholeness, which is possibly related to the physical structure of the interstitium.
EMBODIED EXPERIENCE
Within our culture, the notion of a fluid body is quite challenging as most of us are not in relationship to this inner world. The sense of having a fluid body is not a ‘thing’ we are taught, nor do we normally talk about it.
One person who has an incredible relationship to his inner fluid realm is Cass Phelps. He has done a lot of inner work to access this realm, so that it aligns clearly and is visible in his body.
The following Youtube clip is a demonstration of this state. Notice how his movements are soft and buttery. There is no resistance to the flow. He moves as a single wholeness. His fluidity is so refined that wave motion passes through his tissue body with easy and visibility.
Impact of Trauma on Our Fluid Ground
To access your fluid body state you need a still mind. When your body is activated it is very hard to have a still mind, to be present in the moment.
You are activated when you feel stressed, anxious, or restlessness. If you sit still, you might find you have a restless monkey mind. This restlessness happens because of unresolved overwhelm and trauma activating your system. The effects of the monkey mind is compounded by everyday life adding to the stress load that you are carrying.
When you experience overwhelm and trauma your body contracts and your tissues compress. Imagine all the microscopic tiny droplets of water in the body being compressed and squeezed as the threads of fascia and connective tissue are pulled in.
Without the resolution of your trauma, these contractions stay and get compounded. Sensitive touch can feel these contractions – the grooves in the fluid body have become stagnant, locked in.
I believe that your body wants to be healthy, that you are trying to come out of trauma and recover your fluidity. Your body needs tenderness, compassion, and understanding. When your body receives gentle, attuned, and aware touch you are supported to process overwhelm.
A healthy body feels like a fluid sea. A body with lots of holding, injuries, and traumas doesn’t. Instead of micro cushions, there is hardness – like layers of tiny strands of fibres stuck together. Hardness leads to a lack of movement, a holding in.
FELT-SENSE
You can explore your relationship to your fluid body through your felt-sense. When you have a settled mind, you can open up to sensing the internal space of your body. When your fluid body is ‘awake’ in you, you will be able to sense its existence and internal movement.
The majority of people won’t feel fluid. They are much more likely to feel nothing, which is an affect of trauma. Unresolved trauma in your body cuts you off from your internal sensing capacities.
If you are able to feel fluidity, you may feel in some areas much more strongly than in others. The more you tune into your fluidity, the more relaxed you will feel.
“I feel so relaxed, I have become part of the table. I feel at home.”
Fluidity brings a sense of inner bounce and padding. When my feet became fluid, I realised I felt like I was walking around with shock absorbers in place. Not only is it very pleasant; it feels healthy, a good thing for my body.
As fluidity increases, aches and pains release and fade away. It’s as if these symptoms are being metabolised back into wholeness within your system. A deep resolution of our history has happened.
Paradoxically, you may also become more aware of holding, tensions, and strains because these are being shown up more. These layers of holding can also transform; it is a process.
HOW FLUID DO YOU FEEL?
How supple do you feel when you move?
Do you experience yourself as a fluid being? All throughout your body, or only in parts?
Is the idea of directly experiencing your body as a fluid medium a) really cool b) a bit weird or c) totally impossible!?
Coming Back Into Optimal Health
Your inner fluid realm is important for optimal health. It is a place of no resistance. Your tensions simply dissolve and melt back into the ground of your body. It is a place of inner freedom where fear, anxiety, and tension have no lasting hold on us. For this world to show itself to you, you need a still mind and your body needs to feel safe and calm in a very deep way.
No matter your history, no matter what illness, disease, pain, or tension you have experienced or experience today; I believe you can learn to gently come into relationship with your fluid body. We will all have degrees to which this is possible. For some of us, this journey will be much longer than others because your body has been through so much more. A lot of transformation is possible with Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy. I see it happen all the time.
