My spouse and I recently attended a driving safety class. During the class, the instructor compared a car designed in 1959 and a car designed today. The 1959 car was well-built, but it was not built with safety in mind. In fact, many people died in cars of that era, including my husband’s father at the age of 39. In contrast, cars built today are not only equipped with seatbelts, airbags, and automatic door locks, but the actual design of the car has been created to disperse the impact of a crash.
To demonstrate this difference, the presenter showed a video of a head-on collision between these two cars. The older car took the hit directly and the condition of the dummy left little doubt of survival. The newer car, built for safety, dispersed the impact of the head-on collision around the front of the car, leaving the dummy virtually unscathed.
Watching the video, I couldn’t help but think of my own physiology and wonder, “Does a ‘head-on’ stressor to my body leave me intact or crumbled?” “Are my body, mind, and heart more like the old car or the new car?” “And why?”
I continued to ponder my answer to this question in the context of my current studies. I am working towards certification in NFFM (NeuroFascia Flow Method) with Dr. Satya Sardonicus where I am learning about structural, neurologic, and energetic resilience. Dr. Satya defines resilience in these various areas as the ability to return to integrity with minimal damage after the impact of a stressor. The stressor could be something like falling down the stairs, a loud late-night party next door, being around grouchy people, being fired from a job, or eating something the body is allergic to.
Here is where it gets intriguing to me. The degree of damage lessens as the ability to disperse impact increases. Just like the modern car designed to disperse the force of a crash across its structure to protect the driver, we are able to return to integrity minimally unscathed when we can disperse a stressor throughout our system.
How does this happen? Mostly through fluidity and a soft strength. In the body it happens when we can fluidly articulate between the joints and soften into the tense muscular holds. Neurologically it happens when we learn how to create safety in our bodies and hang out in our parasympathetic nervous system. Energetically it happens when we can let emotions move through us.
And let’s not forget the fluid, soft strength of vulnerability, humility, compassion, letting go, allowing, ease, and a beginner’s mind. When life is met with the quality of this kind of power, we can process change, chaos, suffering, hatred, and lies, digest them, and respond to them with truth and love.
Like the modern car, we can far more easily meet life’s challenges when our bodies are fluid, our minds are open, and our hearts are tender.