199
Calibrating the Body
Still moving, distil your experience into three or more keywords for lines and three or more keywords for circles. Let your writing be part of your movement exploration. What have you learned?
What has moving with these polarities and shapes taught you? How does it feel to translate your
movement experience into written words? 14
We can explore any type of question in movement. Ingredients and tools of somatic practices
can support our inquiry, for example through concepts such as sensory awareness, touch, textures,
weight, speed, density, resistance, posture, how we relate to place, space and atmosphere, and pairs
of tension/relaxation, unity/diversity and light/dark. This awakens our body awareness as well as
tangible, physical connection with the space around us (which includes both material and immaterial aspects). 15
NATURE IMMERSION
Nature offers a space where we can fully be ourselves, and therefore provides an ideal place to practise all the above, especially with regard to cultivating our right-brain abilities and (re)connecting
with what surrounds us. Simply being in nature can give us a different sense of perspective. One
option is immersion without an ‘agenda’, regarding such time as a creative, meditative space that
can resource your body and your imagination. You can, for example, fnd a ‘power place’ and let the
energy of that specifc spot nourish and rebalance you so that you return refreshed to your daily life
(see, e.g., Lüttichau, 2017: 81–87).
Another option is to prepare a specifc question beforehand and regard your time outside as a
‘medicine walk’ or ‘mini vision quest’, asking nature to be your teacher. Open yourself to receive
specifc answers to your question that can come from, for example, the direction of the wind, the
shape of a leaf, the behaviour of an animal, a repetitive number you might see in a cluster of fowers,
trees, or times that a specifc animal shows itself. Observe the interaction between your body-being
and the land around you. Do you see fences or hedges? Are you in the dark or in the light? Do you
feel connected or separate? Such observations might all contribute to an answer to your question.
If you know that you have a wonderfully critical left-brain mind, and rightfully take pride in that,
try to let go of any specifc expectations, and do not go into an immediate mental analysis about how
to read, or whether to dismiss, a specifc sensation or experience. Taking the frst steps of calibrating
your body is a process of slowly creating a greater familiarity and intimacy with your instrument,
which will increase trust of the things you perceive. You can even take your mind ‘by the hand’
and say ‘please let me have this experience to learn and experience something without analysing or
dismissing it right away, and we will look at it critically afterward’.
CLOSING
This chapter addresses ways to attune the body to subtle information around us, which can be applied
in the ontological shift from a world view based in matter and particles, to understanding nature
also as (electromagnetic) waves and information. As agriculture moves from a ‘traditional’ to a more
quantum-informed perspective, different ways emerge to explore the relationship between various
aspects within ourselves as human beings, and between human and other-than-human-beings that
we work with and/or are entrusted in our care.
I propose that the body is a multi-layered phenomenon, consisting of physical matter (particles),
infused with feelings (waves), intuition and consciousness (information). Similar qualities exist
externally, and through techniques of clear focus and expanded consciousness, we can connect
14 This exploration is available as a free online video resource via the National Centre for Research Methods website:
https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/online/embodied_methodologies/
15 The Somatics Toolkit (Kieft et al., 2019) offers another free online resource with audio recordings to explore different
ways of moving with questions, emotions and concrete aspects of any research cycle as well: http://somaticstoolkit.coventry.ac.uk.
Calibrating the Body
Still moving, distil your experience into three or more keywords for lines and three or more keywords for circles. Let your writing be part of your movement exploration. What have you learned?
What has moving with these polarities and shapes taught you? How does it feel to translate your
movement experience into written words? 14
We can explore any type of question in movement. Ingredients and tools of somatic practices
can support our inquiry, for example through concepts such as sensory awareness, touch, textures,
weight, speed, density, resistance, posture, how we relate to place, space and atmosphere, and pairs
of tension/relaxation, unity/diversity and light/dark. This awakens our body awareness as well as
tangible, physical connection with the space around us (which includes both material and immaterial aspects). 15
NATURE IMMERSION
Nature offers a space where we can fully be ourselves, and therefore provides an ideal place to practise all the above, especially with regard to cultivating our right-brain abilities and (re)connecting
with what surrounds us. Simply being in nature can give us a different sense of perspective. One
option is immersion without an ‘agenda’, regarding such time as a creative, meditative space that
can resource your body and your imagination. You can, for example, fnd a ‘power place’ and let the
energy of that specifc spot nourish and rebalance you so that you return refreshed to your daily life
(see, e.g., Lüttichau, 2017: 81–87).
Another option is to prepare a specifc question beforehand and regard your time outside as a
‘medicine walk’ or ‘mini vision quest’, asking nature to be your teacher. Open yourself to receive
specifc answers to your question that can come from, for example, the direction of the wind, the
shape of a leaf, the behaviour of an animal, a repetitive number you might see in a cluster of fowers,
trees, or times that a specifc animal shows itself. Observe the interaction between your body-being
and the land around you. Do you see fences or hedges? Are you in the dark or in the light? Do you
feel connected or separate? Such observations might all contribute to an answer to your question.
If you know that you have a wonderfully critical left-brain mind, and rightfully take pride in that,
try to let go of any specifc expectations, and do not go into an immediate mental analysis about how
to read, or whether to dismiss, a specifc sensation or experience. Taking the frst steps of calibrating
your body is a process of slowly creating a greater familiarity and intimacy with your instrument,
which will increase trust of the things you perceive. You can even take your mind ‘by the hand’
and say ‘please let me have this experience to learn and experience something without analysing or
dismissing it right away, and we will look at it critically afterward’.
CLOSING
This chapter addresses ways to attune the body to subtle information around us, which can be applied
in the ontological shift from a world view based in matter and particles, to understanding nature
also as (electromagnetic) waves and information. As agriculture moves from a ‘traditional’ to a more
quantum-informed perspective, different ways emerge to explore the relationship between various
aspects within ourselves as human beings, and between human and other-than-human-beings that
we work with and/or are entrusted in our care.
I propose that the body is a multi-layered phenomenon, consisting of physical matter (particles),
infused with feelings (waves), intuition and consciousness (information). Similar qualities exist
externally, and through techniques of clear focus and expanded consciousness, we can connect
14 This exploration is available as a free online video resource via the National Centre for Research Methods website:
https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/online/embodied_methodologies/
15 The Somatics Toolkit (Kieft et al., 2019) offers another free online resource with audio recordings to explore different
ways of moving with questions, emotions and concrete aspects of any research cycle as well: http://somaticstoolkit.coventry.ac.uk.