When I notice my small house plant by the window, I see a love affair between the plant and the sunlight. This connection gives rise to the plant’s movement toward the light, and the sun validates this movement by pouring light on the plant. It is as if the plant is saying to the sun “I love you, and I need you,” and the sun keeps giving. In the words of the Sufi poet Hafiz, the sun never tells the plant “you owe me”. Such a love affair “lights the whole sky”.
Just as my house plant spontaneously moves toward the sunlight,
there is in each of us a natural impulse for moving toward wholeness both
individually and collectively. This striving toward wholeness can lead to
embracing oneness of our humanity.
As my Somatic Experiencing® studies progress, I become more
convinced that this movement toward wholeness and embracing oneness needs to
involve working with our collective nervous system. We all have an autonomic
nervous system that given proper care can shift toward a social engagement
system. This engagement can be infused with kindness when we focus on our
loving resources in life and the bodily sensations that accompany it. Through
somatic awareness, we can notice the sensation of love in our hearts and let it
intoxicate our nervous system. From this grounded emotional base, we can
lovingly impact our social engagement system.
When we become a kind and supportive resource for each other, on a
collective level, we are letting the sensation of love, like a thread, weave
our nervous system together. This is how humanity can embrace oneness not just
as a beautiful concept but as a lived experience. By tracking the sensation of
love, we are imprinting our nervous system with the power of love. We are
teaching our nervous system to shift away from greed and competition and stay
with the desire to cooperate and connect. The world in its current state needs
more love. With one nervous system at a time, we can learn to release the
effect of our unresolved trauma which often blocks our movement toward
wholeness and redeem our aliveness. Increased somatic awareness of aliveness
can help people not to stay frozen in oppressive political circumstances and
march toward liberation.
For many, the journey toward wholeness can be in a circular motion.
When I recall supportive resources in my life, I often notice a warm pleasant
sensation circling around my heart, and one of my hands spontaneously moving in
a circular motion above my chest and getting closer to my heart. When I slow
down the movement, it is like entering a warm life-affirming vortex of love
which is opposite to the vortex of trauma. The image that arises spontaneously
is a whirling dervish dancing in ecstasy and merging with the Beloved. As
I notice the sensation, I can go deeper and deeper into the vortex of love and
move toward homeostasis of oneness with humanity. This is what the wisdom of
the body can do for us, and this is how in the words of Rumi, we can "find a voice that does not use words."
For more articles by Dr. Payam, please click on the following link: https://drpayam.com/articles_and_book
© Payam Ghassemlou, Ph.D., is a SE student and
a psychotherapist (licensed marriage and family therapist) in private
practice in West Hollywood, California. www.DrPayam.com