Levels of Stick Work
There are a few levels of stick work that someone can consider as they begin stickwork.
Desire
Trust
Honesty
Breathing and Relaxation
Transmuting Pain
First, all someone needs is to have a desire to change. We’re often driven to change by what we consider uncomfortable. That discomfort is all someone needs to start moving, a willingness to no longer continue to suffer through the same thing. If all there that exists within someone is a desire to change their discomfort, we’ll start small, finding the easiest of movement that will get the ball rolling.
Once someone has a desire to change, then they can begin to trust themselves to make that change while also trusting the process to help them make that change. Often, the process itself is mostly irrelevant, but finding trust that change is possible will create the magic of belief: belief in one’s own capabilities and belief in what they are doing will create change. Once some movement has started and someone has seen a change occur, they can start to find that trust, and the momentum of movement increases.
Honesty can often seem daunting. There tends to be a lot of narrative added to the truth when the truth is simple and basic. The most basic truths are our senses, and yet those senses limited by focusing on all the areas that are limited. Shifting perspective to where there is freedom of movement allows someone to realize how much space they actually have to exist in. In stick work, there will be times where the sticks are moving through a particularly painful spot that can leave one feeling stuck and limited. By a simple shift in perspective to realize the freedom of movement that exists and all the areas of the body that aren’t hurting, their view broadens to become less hyper focused on one sensation. They then become a bit more honest about their overall condition rather than only seeing the narration of limitation, helplessness, and suffering.
Breathing and relaxation becomes key in letting go of the tension, the conditions, and the patterns. The breath opens a space for where observation can occur: an observation of what is happening both inside and outside the body. This awareness allows for one to start to make decisions, such as finding the ability to relax while tension is being As the work intensifies, getting down to the more tender areas that we protect, one will learn to use their breath to find space between what’s happening in their life. In that found space it can start to be seen that underneath the hard shell of tension that is being carried, there’s a softer, more vulnerable side that brings an ease to one’s suffering.
Once one has found the ability to breathe and relax, opening that space to see clearly, they can start to see how their mind has created the pain and suffering in their lives.