Hanna Somatics: Learning To Let Go
Whether you’re a periodic or regular reader of this blog, you are likely, at least conceptually, familiar with Hara Development and Chosei Zen’s body-based approach to training. Today, I want to introduce you to Hanna Somatics, a neuromuscular education tool that Kushner Roshi and I are using more frequently in Hara Development. I will provide some background about the methodology and explain why I find it to be such a powerful support for Zen training and Hara Development.
Thomas Hanna (1928 - 1990) was a philosophy professor deeply interested in the bodily experience of self. He called this internal experience “somatic,” borrowing the Greek word for body, soma. In his drive to understand the somatic experience, he studied movement integration with Moshe Feldenkrais and took neurology courses at the University of Florida. His applied learning built upon Feldenkrais’ work, ultimately leading him to develop Somatics (Clinical Somatic Education or Hanna Somatics).
His key insight was that habits can become so normalized that they become functionally autonomic, meaning our capacity to choose is diminished. His challenge then was to develop a system that could reawaken the brain (especially the sensory motor cortex) to those patterns and help us learn to unwind them, thereby relearning choice. I describe this process as changing the software program that determines how we use and organize in our bodies.
Interestingly, Hanna’s work shares some important principles with our style of Zen training, making it compatible with a Zen training model. Both systems emphasize deep concentration, repetition, and feedback as the building blocks for training. To further enhance understanding, these modalities also break complex patterns into their component parts, encouraging students to work slowly and trust the non-linear process. This undertaking may seem simple when written out, but it also requires deep commitment.
If you’ve ever learned to hold a sword, brush out a Japanese character, or eat with chopsticks after years of using a fork and knife, your body knows the truth of the above list. In Somatics, we’re taking that same learning process and applying it to habits of tension. These tension patterns can have both acute and chronic causes, some of which are: traumatic experience, mental stress, repetitive physical training, injury, extended periods in one position, etc. Tension also inhibits our body’s natural pulsation, directly and indirectly restricting breath. Ironically, restriction in breath only further exacerbates tension.
Once a tension pattern becomes our “new normal,” outside intervention is required to break the cycle. Thomas Hanna’s intervention takes a spontaneously self-correcting action, called a pandiculation, and makes it voluntary.
A pandiculation has two distinct but equally important steps. First, we create a concentric contraction, shortening a targeted muscle or muscle group. We turn the habit on, making it a choice. In this phase, it is essential that we feel the muscle(s) fire. Feeling means our sensory motor cortex is activated, creating a learning opportunity.
The second step is a prolonged eccentric contraction. We move the muscle to a lengthened position under load (resistance), which requires an incremental reduction in the degree of contraction. Going slow lets our brain learn to feel and control the muscle at very small degrees of contraction. This refines control, increasing coordination, stability, and mobility. It also allows us to differentiate between very subtle degrees of engagement and release. This helps us unlearn the habit of held tension, typically held at a subtle level of contraction. Very few people walk around with their shoulders actually up at their ears.
In Hara Development, we use Somatics to target the trunk muscles and those related to respiration. Releasing tension here lets our breath naturally deepen. Refining our ability to sense and control the abdominal muscles helps us develop the coordination required for an exhalation with sustained abdominal pressure. This is a crucial feature of Hara breathing.
To learn how to pandiculate tension experientially, check out this short video, along with the Three Planes Practice we introduced earlier this year. Kushner Roshi and I also periodically offer HaraZen, an in-person training where we use somatic tools to help folks find their Hara. We are also actively developing an asynchronous online course that will cover similar material and add a lot more content. Stay tuned!
Ellen McKenzie