The Systematic and Spontaneous styles of attending are introduced in Somatic Silence, but the ideas are important enough that they deserve their own page.
In essence, these are our two main “modes” we can step into—our two main styles of experiencing everything we experience.
They’re complementary, and both are important; we’re not here to demonize one at the expense of the other. But we are here to note that one of these styles is deeply connected with somatic resonance, while the prevalence of the other style is one of our main obstacles.
note: these two styles or modes are drawn largely from a combination of personal experience, work on the conscious and unconscious mind, extrapolation from Reggie Ray’s talks, passing familiarity with Ian McGilchrist’s work, and some engagement with the I Ching; please attribute the best of these ideas to those sources, and any mistakes or shortcomings to me.
The Systematic style of attending to experience is associated with things like:
The Systematic style is online when we are spinning concepts and breaking ideas down to their parts, so we can manipulate and rearrange them.
We’re drunk on the Systematic style when we find ourselves neck-deep in an interesting problem, and we immerse ourselves in it only to emerge and find that what felt like no time at all was actually the entire day.
We’re at the mercy of the Systematic style when we can’t stop compulsive thought loops or cruel inner narrators from taking over our head-space.
We’re unwittingly lost in the Systematic style when we feel a compulsive need for certainty, an arrogant constriction around our sense of the correct way to view something.
And most importantly, for our purposes: we can recognize the Systematic style by the way it draws us into the head, and turns the body into an assortment of useful tools “beneath” us.
If we can find our way back to the body, free ourselves from the constriction of being locked in the head, everything else begins to follow.