While the benefits the Budden Process work are often very clear, the mechanics can be mysterious.
They are a mystery in part because we are working with consciousness, and consciousness is, almost by definition, a mystery. Many spiritual traditions that are based in mindfulness practices are studies of consciousness. We don't study it much in our culture. Scientists call it 'the hard problem.' For one thing, how does one observe oneself objectively, when even the most minute particles of matter seem influenced by the observer?
Certain principles show up again and again in Budden Process sessions. So we can use these to deepen our understanding.
Transformational Anatomy - The Abdomen
The body is a conduit for life force. This FLOW is hampered by tightening the abdomen. We learn, in our culture, to tighten our abdomen to fit into some programmed, artificial concepts of beauty. We also learn it through the unnatural postures we engage in regularly (sitting, for instance, and standing in certain footwear). We also may tighten the abdomen so as not to feel our deepest fears; our core wounds.
Honoring the entire spectrum of sensations, Flow and Non-Flow and the Transformational Anatomy of the Psoas)
Sensations are always arising and passing away... arising and passing away. We put a lot of energy into labeling these sensations.
Sensations don't create our reality; the labels do. The same sensation never shows up twice.
Included are the tools for making the most of this fluid state.
The Psoas: Esoteric Anatomy
The psoas runs from the lower 5 lumbar to the top of the femur or thigh bone. When it is congested, it can affect posture, digestion, circulation, sexuality, and the urinary system, to name a few.
Here are a few critical distinctions and tools for opening.
Gaps in Awareness (and how to fill them)
In day to day living, we are largely unconscious. We often behave mechanically, going from pattern to pattern automatically, moving through our days and lives. We live in the liminal spaces, looking forward to life events, or back with nostalgia on the past.
Here are some practical tips for bringing awareness back, using the body as a springboard. (Hint: this has nothing to do with meditation).
Holistic Postural Analysis
'We are all different. Still, standing in the way that the body was designed to stand becomes effortless. Living around our discomfort, (as our adapted posture is usually a way to avoid pain), is taxing to the entire system. Muscles suffer; bones suffer; organs suffer; we suffer. We drain our energy into a black hole, rather than pour it into creative expression, leadership, love... the building of dreams.
Standing in flow is a way to stand with whatever is, and to face it head on. I say we meet life with our whole body; nothing tucked away; nothing twisting to deflect; nothing collapsing so as not to feel.
Here are a few guidelines...
Soften the Belly; Meet the Moment, the Lover, the Ocean with your Whole Self
Soften the belly in interactions with the lover. Soften the belly in interactions with the ‘enemy’. Soften the belly in interactions with the crushing ocean or the dark forest. Something interesting happens… they soften too, as if on cue.
Your softening impacts the ocean, not because the ocean compromises her fierceness, (that would be to give up her nature), but because her fierceness was a projection of yours; and now the two of you are free meet in an entirely new world. Now her vastness and serenity can surface (projections of yours).
Deepening your Healing Practice
Faith is critical during this process, because healing happens outside of linear time. We weave in and out of childhood as though time didn't exist, welcoming back old abandoned pieces. Most of the tools we learn for measuring and quantifying in life do not apply here.
How do you measure the healing of the heart and soul?
How do you compare one moment to another, in a constellation where 'change is the one constant?'
The flowing forward calls upon an inner knowing; on following an inner compass that is uniquely your own.
Radically Enhancing Aliveness
A radical enhancement of aliveness occurs in the realm of being itself. It means we move through a blockage foundational enough to shift the entire system. In this context, present moment awareness increases; vulnerability increases; vitality increases; joy increases; access to emotion increases; courage increases; leadership increases. In this matrix, life improves exponentially, because all pieces of life are transformed via the new way of being that is brought into the equation. More present moment awareness increases focus and effectiveness, so productivity increases, and quantifiable success increases; the increases in vulnerability and emotional intelligence means that relationships improve... usually, by leaps and bounds.
Investing in personal evolution or enhanced consciousness
Consciousness is eroded not by experiences, but by the reaction to experiences. Have you seen a really luminous child devolve after a series of traumas or setbacks to become a bitter, angry, depressed adult?
We become masterful at seeding our devolution: through the over-use of pharmaceuticals; by ingesting non-foods over decades; by indulging in destructive practices of all kinds; by indulging disempowering thought patterns over a lifetime. The list goes on.
What happened to the child, so full of light?
How do you move forward without backsliding? Give the body the opportunity to catch up with the mind.
The body becomes the tangible expression of the unconscious. Once you can hone into and locate where in the body these beliefs are manifesting, and how, they can be revealed, adjusted, shifted, and moved. Sometimes they are revelation and the adjustment occur at the same time; sometimes they are staggered.
There are certain practices you can engage in that ensure that the unconscious beliefs shift with the body, even if you don't know what these beliefs are. Vipassana is one example, as are certain therapies with a somatic component. Most of them only skim the surface, unfortunately, though they plant the seed of eventual deepening.
Invite whatever is happening into the dance
Evolve and let others Evolve (no two paths are alike)
Walk your path; discover your lessons; transcend your wounds. Regather the pieces of yourself that you've left scattered in the past, and put them back on the road. When you slip into judgment, consider that all of these roads may be leading to the same place.
If you're glaring at someone else because their path appears different, you may miss that beautiful flower blooming on the roadside. If your chest is constricted, how are you going to catch this next breath?
The process ripples out into your whole life
The deeper the work... and by that I mean, the more thorough the excavation process, the broader its scope. Powerful practitioners can really jostle things loose, sometimes to such a degree that life becomes barely recognizable. If you work the body into the process, this can all happen in seemingly 'impossible timeframes.'
Of course, total discombobulation is not the object. Skilled facilitators can balance the uprooting with predictability, and sustainability. Otherwise there is the chance that a person immediately gropes back for their old ways.