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10 Sett 2008 – CORRECTED VERSION OF STRETCHING & TANTSUSTRETCHING & TANTSUBy Fabrizio Dalle Piane & AteekaIn Tantsu, we invite and encourage the receiver’s body to express itself.We are not seeking to change any situation but to co-create aharmonious atmosphere in which the natural state of health arises. The cradles of Tantsu help to create this safe environment where thereceiver can relax profoundly and shift from a mode of repetitivepatterns to a place of “flourishing” where creation and healing thrive.In this space of pleasure and flow, there is no goal and our sharingbecomes one of deep connection and expansion.As we hold someone in a Tantsu cradle, listening and responding to thespontaneous “dance” that unfolds between us, we are often called toplayfully knead, stroke, apply pressure or stretch the body. All of thesecan be intuitive tools that help the receiver’s nervous system to resetand be in an open mode of learning. Our systems learn throughplayful, present moment, goal-less, open-ended exploration. It isimportant that the actions we engage in when giving a Tantsu reflectthis attitude of exploration.Understanding the nature of flexibility will help us to respond withgreater sensitivity when intuitively called to “stretch” a limb of ourpartner. Flexibility is the ability for the nervous system to accept andadapt to what presents itself from moment to moment. The agility of the musculature is simply a reflection of the state of the nervoussystem.An experiment regarding flexibility was conducted in an Americanteaching hospital. A muscle-bound athlete and a “stiff” elderly manwere both put under general anesthesia. With care, the research staff moved both the athlete and the senior into various advanced yoga-type positions . . . surprisingly with great ease! There was nodifference between the performance of the old man or the bodybuilder.“Inflexibility” comes from a fixity and repetitive patterning in thenervous system.It is the state of our nervous system, which determines whether we arefighting against our own bodies or if we are allowing the body a fullercreative expression of itself through movement. Often our authenticsomatic identity hides behind the mask of a traumatized, on-alertnervous system. In this state, we become fragile, less “flexibile” and
 
weak. The cultural conditioning of having a “strong, tight” physique furtheragitates the nervous system. Repetitive movement in the gym orother fitness regimes creates bodies that are “frozen” into a single setof movement options. Authentic strength is adaptable whole bodysystemic functioning, not simply the capacity for one group of musclesto perform a task. Because our bodies are systemic wholes, everysingle movement we “do” affects all other parts of our body. Strengthis the instantaneous and innovative response of the entire system to apresent moment experience. In this the nervous system “resets andrenews” rather than “repeats and depletes.”Ultimately, the sum of authentic strength and flexibility is dexterity,which allows the nervous system to integrate with ease the informationit receives in each moment and responds to it with unified coordinationand global movement.As we widen our comprehension of flexibility, we understand that wedo not need to stretch a muscle but help the receiver’s body to accessand integrate new information. The fibers of muscle groups travel inspiraling motion. It is a well-known fact in physics that “information”travels in spiral forms, accelerating at the curves. In Tantsu, we sensefor the spiral of the “stretch” and follow it without force. The receiver’ssystem can learn new, unpatterned ways of being. (for the bodyBeing=Movement)In Tantsu, the receiver is in a place of supported relaxation because thecradles provide this support. We sense the call of the stretch of thebody in the cradle and follow it.If we force a stretch, or move along predictable lines with the opposingmuscle contracted, the “stretch” simply pulls or tears at possibleexisting trauma in the receiver’s connective tissue. Respectful,explorative “following” of the body’s call allows the connective tissueto slowly unravel where it is bound, return through whole body globalmovement to its natural state of elongation, and recognize this newpossibility of tensionless trust.As the body relaxes and nervous system opens our bodies becomemore BREATHABLE. Intuitive, flowing stretches to your partner’s bodyenhance the capacity for the breath to profoundly permeate the tissueof the body. The body becomes more buoyant and in turn opens tomore full and spontaneous breathing. As a giver, you too mayexperience this enhanced full body breathability because our systemsunite in a state of coherence or unified presence. What benefits one
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