I don’t think people are seeking the meaning of life as much as they are seeking the experience of being alive.” Joseph Campbell
“Organicity” is an unfamiliar, awkward word, and I have to confess I initially resisted it, but we really do need a new word here. Ignore what the dictionary might say, in this sense the word combines “organism” with “icity” to mean the nature of an organism. It focuses us on the living, natural organisms that we all are. We tend to skip right past that, but this principle brings us back over and over to the miracle of life. Brings us back to noticing what our living body is feeling and longing for. Living things are always healing. Always. Isn’t that amazing? A doctor might set a broken bone, but then it is up to the body to do the healing. When a 17 year old girl who I was very close to died of cancer I was devastated. A wise grief counselor told me that we are never the same after our losses, but to know that we are always on a path towards healing. That was comforting to hear. The counselor was reminding me to trust myself. To trust the organism that is myself to guide me.
I love to run. I have run pretty much my whole life. We as a species were born to run. Then why don’t more of us run? I have a theory. First of all a lot of people maybe never get past how hard it is initially. It takes at least a couple of weeks before it can feel really good. But even then many people force themselves to do it. I’ve seen lots of people set some huge goal like a marathon and actually achieve it only to never want to run again. Worse they sometimes push themselves so hard that they injure themself. Why would you want to keep on doing that? It works much better if you simply decide to run just for joy. I made a deal with myself that if ever after the first five minutes or so (it takes a bit to get going) I wanted to not run that day I would just stop. And here is the important thing — I honored that deal. It wasn’t often but every now and then I would just not be into it so I would stop. No beating myself up or second guessing myself, I just wasn’t in to it that day. And it worked! Sometimes running slowly sometimes sprinting so fast it felt like flying I would follow the joy in that moment. Eventually I found myself running for several hours — I probably ran close to half a marathon just for joy.
“Move in a way that makes your body feel good!” says my wise yoga instructor. This is the heart of it. Look for joy moment to moment. Trust and know that it really wants to happen, and just get out of the way.
But quite often something is blocking us. Sometimes we don’t know how to get out of the way. When I stood in front of that workshop room struggling to make the commitment to lead a deep, rich, meaningful life, I was really stuck. The facilitator then asked the group, “Everyone who believes he deserves this please stand”. And everyone stood. As I stood there sobbing something shifted inside me. I could feel it. Something in me that had been blocked was now flowing. That was a moment of organicity. I was still struggling with what I had to do next, but this internal knowing was driving me forward. Guiding me.
This getting unblocked is the core of Hakomi. Hakomi therapists help us get to those deep, core beliefs we made when we got really, really hurt. They teach us to honor those beliefs because they got us through. We survived and those beliefs were a kind of genius. They gave us a way to survive. But we now see that the cost is too high and maybe there is another way. What is this organism longing for? Trust that. What is holding us back? Work with that. What wants to happen next? Trust that internal knowing and follow it. For me as therapist this was quite humbling. I was not the healer. I was just the support crew. I had to surrender control – it was a leap of faith to simply trust organicity and I struggled with it. It was surprisingly hard to simply ask my client “What wants to happen next?”, and to trust that something may come to them or not and either way it was good. I had this mistaken notion that I needed to constantly direct things. But that is not how healing works – it always comes from within.
But this is not just a Hakomi principle. Forest bathing guides know that it is the forest that holds the answers for their participants, they are just opening the door. The more than human world will provide exactly what is needed. People just need a little support to step into that other, liminal world that is just right there. Every organism innately knows what is best for it. And organisms need to be with each other. Forest bathing reintroduces us to that wider world of relationship. Guides are taught to offer gentle suggestions for activities and then to step back and trust whatever happens next.
HAI also is grounded in organicity. HAI workshops immerse people into loving connection with themself and others. From that place of support and non-judgment people can discover what is blocking them and move past it. When they step up, usually naked to the microphone on Sunday there quite often is a sense of new worlds opening for them. HAI sets up an incredibly loving, safe environment and then steps back and waits for the magic to happen. That is the heart of organicity. HAI does very little explicit teaching. They don’t tell you what is wrong with you. Instead it creates an environment of loving support and steps back to watch the magic happen all on its own.
Have there been times when you too when you felt very clear on what had to happen next? Maybe you had been putting something off for a long time, but now it was so clear that it was time. Feeling within this tremendous knowing that something has to change. It is a very vulnerable, but oddly powerful place to be in isn’t it. Let’s go there next.