Healing as Binding & Unbinding (Part XII)

Welcome to Part XII of the series exploring the question, “What does it mean to heal trauma?” This post explores the idea of healing as the experience of “unbinding.” This implies that there was a previous binding experience. This can be seen to be literally true as the energy created during events can become held, trapped, and bound in the body (for example, holding back rage or terror during an event in order to survive). These bindings are constrictions not just of the energy of an experience, but constrictions of the physical body itself, including the muscles, fascia, and organs. Experiencing healing as “unbinding” refers to the release of these contractions and constrictions, freeing the body, unleashing energy, as well as unbinding the mind from the trapped or stuck places of the body.

Author and trauma therapist Judith Blackstone suggests in Trauma and the Unbound Body that “the fascia stores the emotional charge of trauma and even the memories of the trauma,” and that this may provide “access to those memories” (Blackstone, 2018, pg. 6). Her work, which she calls the “Realization Process,” focuses on helping trauma survivors to inhabit the body, to actually experience the felt sensation of not just being aware of the body, but being the body. A great deal of this work entails that someone feel safe inhabiting the body.

For folks with histories of trauma, and especially sexual trauma, safety in the body is usually destroyed, and dissociation a common ongoing tactic and survival strategy that survivors employ in order to feel safe and make sensory experience more tolerable. In addition to establishing the ability to inhabit the body, as folks use her process for healing, she integrates a way of tapping into what she refers to as “Fundamental Consciousness,” which she thinks of as the fundamental ground of being (what in yoga might be thought of as Brahman or the Absolute, which yogis may experience in states such as samadhi). In quantum physics, this might be thought of as the quantum field from which all material reality manifests. In Taoism, it might be thought of as the Tao itself, or as fundamental qi. Whichever way in which one conceptualizes this, her approach allows survivors to begin resourcing themselves with the power of tapping into and feeling, directly experiencing, Fundamental Consciousness while also feeling safe inhabiting the body. This total process can be thought of as unbinding the traumatized body and consciousness, releasing it into its full safety, power, and potential. Healing, in her formulation, is releasing (unbinding) the trapped energy patterns in the fascial tissue of the body, establishing safety being in the body, and restoring one’s sense of wholeness through a direct experience of Fundamental Consciousness.

Hatha yoga can also be considered a path of binding and unbinding, and thus a path of healing. The word hatha is made of two Sanskrit words, ha- meaning Sun and –tha meaning Moon. The idea is integrating and balancing these polar energies in the body and mind towards the ultimate purpose of yoga, freedom through union with the Absolute. In addition, sometimes hatha is translated as “force,” and thought of as the yoga path of forceful or intentional effort, especially with the body, towards the state of yoga. However, some teachers suggest that hatha is actually referring to two fundamental forces in the cosmos: prana, the animating Life Force energy that literally animates living things, as well as consciousness (cit), meaning that everything in the cosmos is “made of” consciousness, is conscious and has consciousness or awareness (even if this consciousness manifests at different levels in, say, a rock versus a cat). Thus, hatha refers to integrating and harnessing the forces, the powers, of prana and cit, life and consciousness, in the body in order to purify and spiritualize one’s physical being in order to better prepare and pursue total liberation (kaivalya or mukti in Sanskrit).

The practices of hatha yoga include purifying practices, physical exercises (asana), breathing practices (pranayama), and meditation. Each of these practices can be thought of as unbinding the body from impurities, bound energies, and mental blockages. As the body becomes unbound, it naturally begins to exhibit more of a sattvic quality, and to become more balanced in the movements of rajas and tamas. This spontaneously leads to more of a sense of union with the Absolute, a freedom of which is experienced as a complete release into Pure Being. Thus, the goals of healing and the goals of yoga find themselves naturally aligned as the process of unbinding the body results in a greater sense of health and wholeness.

In addition, some of the physical exercises themselves, in both the asanas and pranayama practices, are practices in which an intentional binding of the body takes places. Some of these practices are actually called “bindings” (Sanskrit, banda). These practices, such as holding a pose, creating a hand gesture, or locking one’s body during a breathing practice, create sensations of binding or restriction in the body. There is effort that is being exerted to bring the body into a condition of temporary binding. The body is being held in the posture, gesture, or tension. The practices include movements of release, or unbinding, as well. The result is often a sense of deeper release, relaxation, letting go, and experiencing greater space within one’s body and mind. There becomes a greater sense of balance within the movements of prana and cit.

This intentional movement of binding and unbinding is not necessarily novel. It can be thought of as a cultivated example of the more general experience of increasing and releasing various kinds of felt tension, such as hunger or the sex drive, that is then released through satisfying the appetite or through sexual activity. Most folks experience this on a daily basis through sensations of feeling hungry, thirsty, tired, or simply having to use the restroom. The tension that is created through the various physical pathways to motivate the appropriate actions results in the release or unbinding of these various tensions once the need or drive is satisfied. Many folks engage with various practices in which tensions are intentionally created and then released: romantic gestures intended to heighten sexual arousal, fasting or even more simple means of restricting then satisfying appetite, exercise, training, and competitive athletics, and many more.

Thus, with hatha yoga, these intentional binding and unbinding experiences provide practitioners with the felt sensations of tension and release, which tends to promote sattva and prepare and support efforts such as meditation in order to experience a deepening sense of connection and wholeness. For trauma survivors, this can be experienced as unbinding the tensions and patterns of trauma in the body-mind, and releasing these trapped energies and patterns, resulting in a greater sense of health and wholeness. It is experienced as healing.

One final way of exploring this thread is through the lens of interpersonal neurobiology. Siegel talks about the effort to heal trauma as practices to help loosen what he calls “the restrictive filters of consciousness”  (Siegel, 2018).  In the IPNB framework, there is a plane of consciousness called the “plane of possibility” or “POP” which maps to the quantum field. It is the realm of all possibilities. From this POP emerges actual things and experiences in the universe, including both our bodies, minds, and events that happen. Trauma tends to create what Siegel calls a “filter” of consciousness in which a person’s possible experiences become restricted and “filtered” through a priming that occurs due to experiences, and limits how a person sees and experiences the world. The “priming” means the probability of certain experiences (e.g., having anxiety, depression, irritability and so forth) is increased and more likely to occur. As these things occur more frequently, it tends to tighten these filters of consciousness, and result in greater restrictions through reinforcing experiences that become self-fulfilling. (This line of thinking parallels directly with the yogic concept of samskaras, previous experiences that become like seeds in the mind, and which continue to sprout and influence current thoughts, feelings, behavior patterns, and actions.)

Siegel suggests that interventions are required to help free (unbind) people from these restrictive filters of consciousness in order to provide them with more possibility (hope) in their lives. Thus, healing becomes the unbinding of one’s filters of consciousness, and becoming open to experiencing more possibility in one’s life, as well as one’s sense of meaning, connection, purpose, health and wholeness.

Part XIII continues this series, exploring the challenging concept of healing through surrender.

REFERENCES FOR THIS SERIES

Aurobindo, Sri. (1990). The Synthesis of Yoga. Lotus Press.

Badenoch, B. (2018). The Heart of Trauma (First edition ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

Banerji, D. (2016). Seven quartets of becoming (Second impression ed.). Nalanda International.

Blackstone, J. (2018). Trauma and the unbound body. Sounds True.

Damasio, A. R. (2019). The strange order of things : life, feeling, and the making of cultures (First Vintage Books edition, February 2019. ed.). Vintage Books.

Freud, S. (2010). Civilization and Its Discontents. W. W. Norton & Company.

Herman, J. L. (2015). Trauma and recovery. Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

Larson, G. J. (1969). Classical Sāṃkhya (1 ed. ed.). Motilal Banarsidass.

Levine, P. A., & Frederick, A. (1997). Waking the tiger : healing trauma : the innate capacity to transform overwhelming experiences. North Atlantic Books.

Levine, P. A., & Kline, M. (2008). Trauma-proofing your kids : a parents’ guide for instilling confidence, joy and resilience. North Atlantic Books.

McLaren, K. (2010). The language of emotions. Sounds True.

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Heal. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved November 23, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heal

Miller, A. (1997). The drama of the gifted child : the search for the true self, revised edition. Basic Books.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory : neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation (1st ed. ed.). W.W. Norton.

Porges, S. W. (2017). The pocket guide to polyvagal theory : the transformative power of feeling safe (First edition. ed.). W. W Norton & Company.

Siegel, D. J. 1. (2012). Pocket guide to interpersonal neurobiology : an integrative handbook of the mind (First edition. ed.). W.W. Norton & Company.

Siegel, D. J. 1. (2018). Aware : the science and practice of Presence, the groundbreaking meditation practice. TarcherPerigee, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Solomon, M. F., & Siegel, D. J. 1. (2003). Healing trauma : attachment, mind, body, and brain (1st ed. ed.). W.W. Norton.

Van der Kolk, Bessel A. 1943-. (2015). The body keeps the score : brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.