Many of you have commented on my post about softness.  I want to give full credit to Mark Rashid here.  It began when I heard him at Equine Affaire, and has continued as I have been watching his DVD called Developing Softness.  It is available from his website and on Amazon, and is well worth the price.

For me, the idea of softness was new.  I love that!  Something new in the somatic world?  I have thought a lot about ease, flow, relaxation, releasing, opening, expanding – but not about softness in a specific way.  So I have been thinking & feeling deeper into that subject.

I am someone who has always enjoyed quickness.  I love a quick mind and moving quickly.  Alacrity, sparking, lightening, tap dancing – all feel good to me. Sometimes the quickness is nervous energy – un-centered and twitchy.   When things go slowly, or slower than is my habit – like that driver in front of me – I get a physical itch, a discomfort, because that person is not going at my speed.  Or at the speed that is my habit.

My question is, can we be habitual and centered?  I think so, if the habit is something like bringing ourselves back to the breath.  I find that many habits are reflexive or reactive and unconscious.  Going fast is a way to not be in the moment, especially if it is an uncomfortable one. Hurrying is a good avoidance technique.

So back so softness.  When I feel myself accelerating, or hardening – as is often the case with my sutbborn pony Amadeo – letting that feeling remind me to soften is proving to be very effective and brand new to this pretty educated body.  The sensation is more palpable than relaxing, and more specific than just breathing, although breathing is part of it.  It is a physical/mental/emotional letting go, opening and centering in that place just below the belt buckle that I talked about the other day.

How do you soften?  Do you soften?