For about as long as we’ve had language, humans have been dividing our world into two complementary forces. Sun & Moon, Masculine & Feminine, Yin & Yang, Order & Chaos.

None of these map exactly onto each other, things like this tend to be useful in one domain and less so in others.

For our domain, Somatic Resonance, I’d like to propose a set of complementary modes of experience: the Systematic & Spontaneous modes.

We’ll save more specifics for other pages, and simply note the broad strokes here:

The Systematic Mode of experience is very concerned with control. It wants to know how things work so it can break them down to parts and make them work differently. This informs how we experience the body when in this mode:

• We are in the Systematic Mode when we view our body as an object we are “inside.”
• The Systematic Mode draws us to stay behind the eyes and between the ears: that’s where my “Me” is kept by default.
• The Systematic Mode experiences the body only at a distance—it only allows us to pay attention to what it has already decided is important, relevant, and real.

The Spontaneous Mode of experience is less concerned with control and more concerned with openness. It wants to be available to whatever experience presents itself so it can understand the full being of its interconnected world. This informs how we experience the body when in this mode:

• We are in the Spontaneous Mode when we are the body, not a little ball of awareness riding around in it.
• The Spontaneous Mode has a more relaxed “Me” (sometimes it disappears entirely), and allows experience from the entire body to present itself.
• The Spontaneous Mode experiences the body directly—it allows us to receive whatever we are experiencing, no matter how subtle, unexpected, or strange.

You may notice (most do) from the description of the Systematic Mode that it describes the way you tend to go about your day most of the time—the way any modern person tends to go about their day.

And you may notice from the description of the Spontaneous Mode that it points in a very similar direction to the exercise we did on page 2. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of this point. This will become clearer the more we talk about these two modes, especially about the ways that they are made of clusters of traits, styles, experiences, etc.

For now, it will suffice to say that when we take one step towards the Spontaneous Mode (like stepping into its way of experiencing the body), we are taking a step towards its wider sense of openness, receptivity, creativity, and spaciousness. This move is critical.

For a more in-depth, malleable practice on finding and staying in this space, try the core practice of Somatic Resonance: Somatic Meditation

SR3. SpontSyst.mp4

please see note on videos; this video covers the same material as the text, and I suggest you revisit it later to review the same material in a fresh way