In this article I list ways of dropping into Wordlessness as given by Martha Beck. This is what I’m experimenting with right now on my journey to a balance, inspired, fulfilled life.
Wouldn’t it be lovely to skip all the chatter and noise of the world and drop into joyful silence from time to time? To most of us most of the time, being chased by fears, news and to dos, this seems impossible. But it doesn’t have to be.
Wild New Ways
Participating in Martha Beck’s summer class Wild New World, I learn about the Four Technologies of Magic.
Yes! These are, according to Martha, based on the things real shamans and enlightened people all over the world do to navigate life in a way very different from our usual culture and society. They are both Wild New Ways and ancient ways that existed before our society of the past 2000-5000 years.
Martha Beck, famous life-coach and author of bestselling books, talks about the Four Technologies in her TEDx Talk, you find it here on YouTube.
Martha also writes about them in her book Finding Your Way in a Wild New World. Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want which I’m also reading right now.
So, let’s get on to Wordlessness.
Wordlessness
The course is mind-blowing. It is all about psychology, neurology and social science. But put together in a way that matches a more ancient approach.
The fundamental skill we learn is Wordlessness – silence, stillness – what Deepak Chopra called „being centered amidst chaos“.
And it is accessible.
Most importantly, Wordlessness is relaxing! Who doesn’t need that nowadays?
We all seem to struggle hard all the time.
And only partly because the situation is difficult (which it is!).
Partly it is just because we have learned to do things in a tense, fearful way and keep doing it until we relearn things.
So, what is Wordlessness like?
It is like a light touch. Like wind in the trees. Like a smile. As if the world stops for a moment.
And it does, in our minds.
A different brain state
Wordlessness means shifting your brain state to the other side:
From the usual left hemisphere to the right.
From structured, logical, tense, maybe even fear-driven to timeless and intuitive.
If you want to learn about the hemispheres, try Jill Bolte Taylors TEDx Talk: My Stroke of Insight.
Most important take-away: Wordlessness often seems far away and inapproachable.
But it isn’t, because it is just part of our normal brain function.
Wordlessness equals being centered
Getting to feel the silence of any given moment is delicious.
It is like the space surrounding living beings and objects. It is always there.
If you feel this, you are centered. You may feel
- calm,
- curious,
- connected,
- courageous,
- clear,
- compassionate,
- confident.
These are all characteristics of our Self (according to IFS Internal Family Systems Therapy, but we’ll talk about this another time).
Of our soul or most advanced part of self. The center that has an overview over the whole bunch of ambitions, hurts, interests, needs that makes up our personality.
The Self is in everyone of us, and it is in calm and silence. It is fearless.
It is possible to access you calm, centered Self
If you feel none of these, right now you are mostly acting from the left side of your brain, captured in a fearful or stressful part of yourself. To be honest, most of us seem to be exactly that, most of the time.
We can change that.
We can experience calm clarity.
And we can practice dropping into this state more often.
By doing so, we make quiet easier and easier to experience, thus changing the possibilities of our future.
9 Ways of dropping into wordlessness
I’ve collected the ways Martha names, mostly in her book Finding Your Way in a Wild New World. Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want.
Just try them in your mind, giving each one a minute or more.
I’m sure, one of them is going to work for you right away:
- Sense drenching: Try dropping into Wordlessness by remembering pleasant experiences stored in your memory with all 5 senses. Like that: Remember something you love to see, something you love to hear, you love to feel, a thing you love to smell, something you love to taste. They can be different from each other and can be mixed like a sensory collage. Just enjoy the feeling. A pleasant sensory state.
- Falling into awe: Let yourself be amazed by the wonders of the world, by happy accidents, by things that trigger your awe and amazement. For many people, it’s aspects of nature, landscape, art and music, or synchronicities. Find one and take the time to feel the awe.
- Switching your gaze to soft focus (Open Focus Brain, Les Fehmi): First watch a thing in front of you for a few seconds. Then shift without moving your eyes and only look at the background. Change back and forth. Then let all things be equal. It is a concentrated relaxed state.
- Brain huddle: Access your compassionate brain, your kindness, and let it surround and sooth your fearful self (Whole Brain Living, Jill Bolte Taylor). Let kindness be bigger than fear. I’ll write more about that another time …
- Feeling the insides of your hands (Eckart Tolle). I always feel the streaming of energy when I do this. And life energy is always in the present, always timeless. If you can feel the energy streaming, it is a direct way to Wordlessness.
- Feeling your bloodstream circulating (Tom Brown Jr. / Apache technique). Is similar to #6. Takes you directly to your body sensation.
- Experience a pleasant situation with all your senses: Choosing to drop your attention into all the pleasurable aspects of a sweet situation you are in right now: Really be present with all your senses. What do you see, hear, feel, smell, taste? Have you noticed how we often go into negative situations and avoid positive ones?! We can change that by using our senses. Be present in joy through your senses.
- Accept Shaman’s Sickness: Treat sickness (being a typical symptom for creative, sensitive people) as an opportunity to reach a very deep level of Wordlessness, where pain is a mentally and emotionally neutral phenomenon, like a cloud in the sky, and you are not “in pain” but in the Sacred Silence. Many people from the healer’s tribe (which Martha calls Menders or The Team) suffer from stuff all the time, including sleeplessness. Give in to sickness for a moment. It might teach you something.
- Surrender to a difficult situation: If exposed to a difficult situation that you cannot change right away, don’t despair. Surrender your mind’s resistance to what is happening even as you work to improve your situation. For the moment, give in to fatigue, hunger, difficulty. Let go of resistance and be present now as the situation is. This could take you to deep Wordlessness.
I hope you can use some of these.
Which are your favorite ones?