Alternative POIS Forum

rom feeling that your nonexistent heart is full ... Real fearlessness is the product of tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your heart, your raw and beautiful heart.You are willing to open up, without resistance or shyness, and face the world. You are willingto share your heart with others.'What accompanies this opening up on a bodily level is a melting of the muscular armour inchest and shoulders, so that we are able to breathe fully into our chest - and out again. There isvery often some interruption to this full cycle of inbreath and outhbreath. As we have seen,one person may hold her chest permanently half-full of air, never breathing out, while anotherperson may never really breathe
in
. Often there is a prolonged pause between breathing in andbreathing out, or vice versa.


Exercise 7
  If you return to the mirror, you may be able to see what these two opposite forms of holdingmean. Breathe in as deeply as you can, and hold it: what does this look like? Now push all theair out of your lungs, and hold this position: what attitude to life are you portraying?
 You may well find that with your chest held full, you look
afraid
. Gasping air is a reflexaccompaniment to a frightening shock. A permanent gasp goes along with high tightshoulders, and often with clenched hands. These are all part of the same fear pattern, inscribed

on the body by repeated frightening experiences in early life. The fear is often covered upwith
defiance
- sticking out your chest to make yourself look big, clenching your fists to look aggressive - but there is a tension, and often a look of powerlessness, in the arms whichreveals the underlying meaning. It's a common result of having an authoritarian father, andcan often be seen in skinheads and other teenage gang members.When you breathe out as far as possible, your chest now caves in and your shoulders slumpdown and forward: an image of
defeat
. People who are stuck in this sort of posture havegenerally given up. Through constant frustration, especially in early life, they have formed theidea that it is safest and least upsetting to have as little energy as possible in their bodies so, asfar as is compatible with staying alive, they've given up breathing in,Which of these postures felt more natural and easy to you?There are many styles of protecting our heart from the world. Some people's chests scarcelymove at all as they breathe: if you press down gently on the breastbone, it feels like a solidplate of armour, or a thick layer of rubber. With others, the chest gives completely to the leastpressure - there is no assertiveness at all, no sense of 'here I am'. Sometimes one feels afraid topress at all, there is such a sense of brittleness and fragility. Some people are 'pigeon-chested'or 'barrel-chested' - two different ways of sticking yourself out rigidly and ungivingly into theworld; not allowing the easy natural exchange of energies represented by the in-and-out of thebreath. Everyone has their personal style of armouring.Whatever else may be going on in a person, their shoulders are usually a reservoir of unexpressed rage. This rage, again, can be held in many different styles: high and tight, orpulled back to scrunch between the shoulderblades, or screwed up in the armpits. Generally itneeds release via the arms, smashing your fists down on to a cushion, beating a mattress withyour elbows (often necessary before energy can come down into the forearms and hands),scratching, tearing, pinching.
 Exercise 8
 You can find out how free your shoulders and arms are by moving them around: 'shrug' your shoulders in a circular movement from back to front, and then from front to back, working your elbows like a clucking chicken. Raise your arms slowly in front of you until they point right up in the air, then open them out at the sides to shoulder height Remember to breathewhile you do it! Are any of these movements difficult, physically or emotionally?
 As the armouring of our chest and shoulders starts to dissolve, we come into our power. Wesense ourselves as strong, real and formidable, without being aggressive or having anything toprove: a
soft
power, which asserts our need for contact yet is able to deal with hostility orcoldness.Crying is done with the chest as well as with the eyes and mouth. Sometimes people think they are crying when a few tears leak out, but without any deep sobbing that moves the heartand the whole being. The pain here may be much more profound and shaking, and along withthis comes a much deeper release, a sense of inner cleansing and lightness on a different levelfrom the effect of simple weeping.The heart segment is the seat of much of our passion, our intensity and vibrancy. Only whenwe are willing and able to let our chest and shoulders move -
be
moved - with our breath, can
we deeply and seriously engage with reality. We say 'seriously', but this doesn't implyanything solemn: among the emotions of the heart segment is robust, hearty laughter, oftenheld back in 'ticklish' irritable muscles in the sides and under the arms. Tickling can be aremarkably effective bodywork technique; it helps to 'unstick' the ribs from each other,opening up the independent movement of the intercostal muscles.Armouring in this segment has a negative effect on the functioning of the heart and lungs,predisposing these organs to disease. In particular we see a relationship between suppressedanger and bronchitis and chronic coughs; between deep fear and asthma; and betweenphysical heart failure and 'heartbreak'.
Waist segment ('diaphragmatic')
 As the illustration shows, the diaphragm is a big, dome-shaped muscle that runs right throughthe body at waist level, separating our upper and lower halves(with holes for the oesophagus,veins and arteries, etc.). Above it are the heart and lungs; below, the stomach, intestines, liver,pancreas, kidneys, and so on