Given increased stress and illness can wreak havoc on our body’s systems, we may wish to find creative ways to nurture moments of relaxation, meditation or individualized forms of prayer. The rhythm expressed on the ocean sand depicts for me the rhythmic waves felt deep within the body. This fluid motility pulsates within the body and creates specific rhythms that are palpable. One of the sweetest experiences I have come to know is expressed in the four regulated rhythms in the body’s fluid system as referenced by Michael J. Shea, Ph.D. (Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Volume One), known as:

* Quiet (Dynamic Stillness)
* Slow (Long Tide or Pimary Respiration)
* Medium slow (Mid Tide), a term from Franklyn Sills
* Fast (Cranial Rhythmic Impulse or CRI)

Within the context of Craniosacral therapy, the practitioner senses these rhythms first within his/her own body and then in the client’s body, all-the-while supporting stillness, a quieting and slowing down of body movement within the client. William Garner Sutherland, DO, founded and developed osteopathy in the cranial field of practice, discovering the body’s multiple rhythms, calling it Primary Respiration.

For our purposes here, there are components of these rhythms that are incredibly nurturing to our health and wellbeing, and with which we can be a participant. The particular rhythm dear to my heart is the long Tide. Primary Respiration breathes in 100-second cycles which means the Long Tide includes an ongoing cycle of inhalation for 50 seconds, and exhalation for 50 seconds. We may liken it to riding an awe-inspiring ocean wave that never ends. Because we may need to return to our work or play of the day, we will likely choose to move out of this stillness at some point and stop tracking the Long Tide internally.

Discovering our Long Tide may come to us when we are lying still, meditating, and waiting patiently for the rhythm within us to reveal itself. The same can be true for discovering our Mid Tide which is expressed in 12-30 seconds of inhalation and 12-30 seconds of exhalation. The third rhythm, the CRI, is expressed in 5-14 cycles per minute and is normally not utilized for craniosacral therapeutic purposes.

During our embryonic development, the Primary Respiratory System finds expression from what is called Dynamic Stillness. The third week of prenatal development reveals the notochord (vertical midline, spanning from the nose to the pubic bone), a significant developmental process from which all other organs develop. The Long Tide and Mid Tide call forth the stages of embodiment as experienced from within, and our embryonic reality begins to shift from primarily fluid to that of the fluid now being protected by membranes, revealing an empty space in the middle of the inner and outer membranes that will be eventually be filled by the heart, thus, completing the cycle from what began from Dynamic Stillness and concludes with a stillness that resides deep within the heart. Thank you to Michael J. Shea, Ph.D. for his ingenious work and contribution to the body’s healing journey. I have utilized his conceptss in this post in an effort to encourage us to discover the healing rhythms that are within each of us.

According to Shea, the Long Tide is the “organ of spiritual form passing through and shaping our biology.” With this premise, it’s best to take our time when waiting patiently for these rhythms to reveal themselves as we are silent and still within. Having compassion for the part of us that may long to sense these rhythms in our body is our intended goal, inviting them to rise up within us when we least expect it. We may be tempted to jump into thoughts of judgment if the Long Tide doesn’t surface within us in a timely manner, but our expectations only hold us captive in the illusion of time where we may perceive there’s not enough time for us to experience this. Actually, there is enough time for the revealing to occur in its own time. Hang in there, wait, feel, and sense the many pulsations within the body. It’s worth the wait and it’s all part of connecting with a deeper sense of beingness within ourselves. The Long Tide is very stable and is ever present within us. For me, the Long Tide is expressed in one portion of my body and spreads outward to other portions, but can be expressed quite differently for each person.

May we be open to the ways in which some of the mysteries of our existence and existential longing can be revealed. The Long Tide is filled with mystery, awe, and a patterned consistency that confirms respect for the intricacies of the human body. It is here that our health and wellbeing may be guided by a very stable internal rhythm within us – when stress, illness and chaos may live unbridled around and within us. As we connect into the rhythms within us, may this be our experience: our relationship with self deepens, compassion moves through us, the incessant voices of the ego cease, healing flows through our being, and the pulse of life is palpable.

12 May This entry was published on May 12, 2015 at 9:57 PM and is filed under counseling, health, mental health, prenatal, therapy, wellness. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.