Laila  (& Precious) yielding

Another of the gifts of having a long visit with my grand daughter Laila Rose is the opportunity to do some hands on revisiting of Body-Mind Centering, the groundbreaking work of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen.  According to Bonnie, all of our movement is built upon these five fundamental actions (1) yielding, (2) pushing, (3) reaching, (4) holding, and (5) pulling. Any movement can be seen as a variation or combination of these basic actions.

I am especially interested in the yielding, as that is the action that I find personally the most challenging.  I don’t yield a lot.  So besides playing with Laila using yielding, I have been using yielding in my riding.  Yielding my hips into the saddle and then into the horse’s back and then yielding my legs down to the ground, and practicing a yielding contact on the reins.  That is different from “giving the reins away.”  It has to do with the Aikido principle that Mark Rashid taught us about softening toward the horse’s mouth without actually moving the hands. When I yield my hips into the horse, there is a corresponding (subtle) push and then a reach through the head that creates a beautiful balancing counter-tension.  Naturally, breathing has to support the yielding (and everything else).

Interestingly, Bonnie’s husband Len is a longtime practitioner of Aikido.  Connections everywhere!

For those of you who want to know more, dance therapist and BMC practitioner Susan Aposhyan describes these fundamentals this way:

Yielding is a quality of resting in contact with the environment and underlies our basic relationship to the world. It is about the state of being versus doing, and forms the basis for the ability to act effectively in the world. In being in contact with the environment, discernment can be developed as to whether push, reach, or pull is desired or appropriate.

Pushing separates oneself from the immediate environment. The action contracts (shortens) all the musculature around the pushing limb resulting in the body becoming denser and more substantial. This action supports the capacity to psychologically feel, establish, and maintain boundaries, thus promoting an internal sense of support. It also supports the process of individuation and confidence building.

Reaching is an action that supports going beyond the sense of self. It is a way of extending out towards others or towards objects. Psychologically, reaching manifests curiosity, desire, longing, and compassion. This action may, however, expose one to risk taking and a sense of vulnerability.

Holding and Pulling allows for reaching out into the environment towards something/someone desirable and bringing it closer to oneself. Psychologically, the ability to hold and pull depends on the capacity to yield, push and reach. These actions provide the opportunity to reach out and take in from the external space.