Really elegant framework for integrating presence with structured inquiry. The Being-With Practice resonates with what I've seen in somatic work, where naming and locating feeling states creates a different quality of intimacy than just talking about emotions. The North Star recursion reminds me of laddering techniques from user research, but applied inward. I'm curious how this maps onto parts that resist articulation altogther, the ones that kinda show up as bodily resistance before any felt sense emerges.
Thanks for your comment! Yes, the Being-With Practice and similar ways of engagement in somatic work have a way of checking story and interpretation at the door. When we do that, we more effectively allow ourselves to bring our full awareness to the space we're inhabiting and how we're inhabiting it with one another. This field dimension of consciousness occupies real space, and when we're not caught up in our habitual ways of being focused in thinking, we can bring our awareness to it. (We'll commonly refer to it as a "vibe" or "presence," that sort of thing.)
Good question about the North Star exercise and hidden parts. When you get the hang of how to turn your attention in the direction of feeling, bodily resistance can be a good place to start. Overall, you want to bring the inquiry to "this part of me" for which the physical experience is central. It will usually help to give it a name, no matter how vague or imprecise.
From there, situating yourself firmly as the inquiring witness in conversation with this part, you can directly ask, "What do you want?" and give plenty of space for whatever wants to show up, welcoming it as expressions, no matter how subtle, of that part. Once you have the first response, it usually will work to continue the recursion.
Similarly, you can start the mapping process with something like, "As I am experiencing this body resistance (with details about tension, etc.), if I were to say the actual felt experience of this [state name] is located somewhere in or around my body, different from but parallel to my somatic experience, where would I say that might be?" And continue from there.
Once Volume 2 gets rolled out, you'll have an opportunity to see also how the foundational 9-part topology enables us to excavate hidden parts pretty reliably. Basically, you start with what is on the surface, available to awareness, and as you map and move those parts, the others invariably show up.
Really elegant framework for integrating presence with structured inquiry. The Being-With Practice resonates with what I've seen in somatic work, where naming and locating feeling states creates a different quality of intimacy than just talking about emotions. The North Star recursion reminds me of laddering techniques from user research, but applied inward. I'm curious how this maps onto parts that resist articulation altogther, the ones that kinda show up as bodily resistance before any felt sense emerges.
Thanks for your comment! Yes, the Being-With Practice and similar ways of engagement in somatic work have a way of checking story and interpretation at the door. When we do that, we more effectively allow ourselves to bring our full awareness to the space we're inhabiting and how we're inhabiting it with one another. This field dimension of consciousness occupies real space, and when we're not caught up in our habitual ways of being focused in thinking, we can bring our awareness to it. (We'll commonly refer to it as a "vibe" or "presence," that sort of thing.)
Good question about the North Star exercise and hidden parts. When you get the hang of how to turn your attention in the direction of feeling, bodily resistance can be a good place to start. Overall, you want to bring the inquiry to "this part of me" for which the physical experience is central. It will usually help to give it a name, no matter how vague or imprecise.
From there, situating yourself firmly as the inquiring witness in conversation with this part, you can directly ask, "What do you want?" and give plenty of space for whatever wants to show up, welcoming it as expressions, no matter how subtle, of that part. Once you have the first response, it usually will work to continue the recursion.
Similarly, you can start the mapping process with something like, "As I am experiencing this body resistance (with details about tension, etc.), if I were to say the actual felt experience of this [state name] is located somewhere in or around my body, different from but parallel to my somatic experience, where would I say that might be?" And continue from there.
Once Volume 2 gets rolled out, you'll have an opportunity to see also how the foundational 9-part topology enables us to excavate hidden parts pretty reliably. Basically, you start with what is on the surface, available to awareness, and as you map and move those parts, the others invariably show up.
Let me know if any of this is helpful.