Unlocking Genuine Progress: Embracing Individuality in Somatic Practices

Chapter Twenty One | Free One Million Minds: The Limits of Limitation: Discovering Genuine Progress

12/31/2024

Duration | 3 minute 15 seconds
Guest: Dr. Symeon Rodger

Synopsis

In this final chapter, Dr. Symeon Rodger and Jamie Meyer discuss the importance of embracing individuality in the learning and practice of somatic disciplines like Tai Chi and Qigong. Dr. Rodger emphasises the need to avoid mimicking external movements and instead encourages practitioners to explore and feel their bodies from the inside out. He warns against relying too much on external feedback, especially from less experienced teachers, and advocates for a more personal, experimental approach to discovering one’s unique expression of the practice. Jamie Meyer adds that rigid templates or cookie-cutter methods cannot define one’s full potential; true progress comes from internal exploration and self-awareness. The chapter highlights that while external guidance may introduce a practice, real mastery and growth are internal and personal journeys.

dialogue summary

Dr. Symeon Rodger:
The one thing you never want to say to yourself is, “I’m probably doing this wrong.” Uh, and it goes to like, if you know, when we’re doing things that are very somatic, very bodily embodied, like Tai Chi and Qigong, the tendency is to mimic. Right?

So if I’m moving in a certain way, there’s a tendency to want to mimic. I look at you externally and I think, okay, how do I do that? It goes like, uh, no, no, no. Go into your body, try different things, see how each one feels, and don’t tell yourself anything is wrong, right or wrong. If there are such things, you will discover them. But go into your body, you have to feel your body from the inside out. That’s the whole point. The whole point is internal to the outside. It is not, let me mimic this. Okay, yeah, if you’re learning a Tai Chi form, you start off by kind of, uh, mimicking. Okay, it’s Yang style and this is, uh, the single whip goes like this, okay, um, very nice. Um, but that isn’t the movement. That’s an external of the movement. You have to, at a certain point, go into your own body and be willing to play and be willing to, you know, if somebody comes up to you and says, oh, it isn’t quite it. It’s a little bit more like this. Low-level teachers say that typically. You have to be able to go in and play and experiment and live inside your own body, and be somewhat immune to people’s criticisms, especially people who are less than masters. Uh, their criticisms of, oh, you’re doing this too fast, or you’re doing this too slow, or you’re doing this, or this arm is too high, or this arm is too low, or this is… Yeah. Ignore it.

Jamie Meyer:
The format or the cookie-cutter or the template cannot be your… the height of your potential in that particular instance.

Dr. Symeon Rodger:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You’ve caught the copy and it gets you an introduction, but that’s all it is, gets you in the door. The rest is an inside job. And it’s very liberating, and it’s very true.

Credits Begin to Roll

Jamie Meyer:
Most people like do not try this at home. Symeon and I are like try all these things at home.
Final Credits Roll

References

Somatic refers to anything related to the body, particularly in terms of bodily sensations, movements, and experiences. It is often used in the context of practices or therapies that focus on the physical aspect of human experience and how the body holds and expresses emotions, trauma, and consciousness.

Embodied refers to the expression or manifestation of an experience, feeling, or concept through the body. It emphasises the connection between mind and body, suggesting that physical sensations and movements are integral to understanding and integrating emotional and psychological states.