The Still Point
by John Bodary
Editor’s note: John uses the term “friend” when referring to a client.
So what is a still point that leads us into our work.
A still point was a complete mystery to me the first time I heard Jim Said use it at an early APTA meeting. My understanding was not much better when I heard Franklyn Sills use it at a conference here in Southeast Michigan. Slowly, as I worked with it, I began to get a better feeling for it.
Now, for me, a still point comes out of silence and presence. Silence is that place that leads us into ourselves to meet what is really important for us. It does not come from a theory or a process. The quiet stillness of silence just lets whatever needs to arise in us to come forward. I just have to wait for that arrival. Being present to my friend on the table, I now have to await in silence for the stillness to arise for them. The still point creates a relationship needed in order to really begin a session both for me and my friend. We are now both aware that silence has brought us to the point of beginning.
The still point is a pause in the movement of the energy in me and in my friend which allows for a shift in energies from a held place to a new place of possibility for me and for my friend. It creates a mutual field allowing the work to follow.
The still point means I wait, am patient and feel the quality of our energy, and let it flow to that place where subtle change can occur.
Now, presence to self and my friend1 move again into silence. Presence is really the relationship of energy in me (elements) and the relationship with my friend. Silence and presence go hand-in-hand and come to create a still point so that the rest of the session can proceed.
A still point has been described as “a place that feels like nothingness.” It is a place of knowing without thinking which is colored by how both I and my friend are conditioned by our past. A still point is not becoming anything. It is just stillness that creates knowing.
Without the still point, I have a tendency to move into a piece of work based on what I know. Waiting for the still point to come, which means an easing of the process about to occur, is often slow and quiet. Waiting always takes time but it sets the stage for a process of probabilities and change to begin. The peace that the still point brings about is when the shift in energy occurs so that a process of change begins to occur.
Be still, stay aware, wait. It will come and the rest of the process will follow.