God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
Dr. Larry Ward, senior teacher in Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition, explains that there is a social battle afoot that at its core is actually an energetic battle (Young, 2022). He explains that this is a battle for attention led by elite corporate mechanisms of power to divert individual and community attention away from movements for justice, equity, and wellness (Young, 2022). He seeks to raise awareness of the mechanism that force people to use their energy in degenerative and wasteful ways by teaching people to identify the energy of division, racism, and individualism and disconnect from and transform it into a regenerative energy of goodness, wellness, justice, and harmony (Young, 2022). What follows is an exploration of this energetic battle through the lens of evolutionary neurophysiological and polyvagal theory (Porges, 2003), prosocial and socially dominant behavior theory (Gilbert, 2015; Martin et al., 2015), and in-group/out-group motivations toward altruism and compassion (Chin & Kales, 2019; Clapton & Hiskey, 2020; Dagar, 2020).
In the literature, the practice of Yoga is identified as a successful evidence based intervention that supports the development and stratification of prosocial behaviors that led to altruism (Dagar, 2020). This review will go on to explain how the practice of Yoga affects the neurophysiological system in ways that enable the autonomic nervous system to move towards regulation (Chin & Kales, 2019; Porges, 2003) and how once in regulation prosocial behavior spontaneously emerges (Dagar, 2019; Mulla, 2014; Porges, 2003). This review concludes by identifying gaps within the current literature and aims to contribute to the field of research by addressing the potential of using Yoga as an intervention to support regulation of individual and community nervous systems to strengthen prosocial movements of social justice, equity, and altruism in the commons and away from socially dominant behaviors of division and marginalization and loss of hope or belonging.
Evolutionary Neurophysiological Behavior: Prosocial and Socially Dominant Theory
Long ago, mammals had to determine friend from foe, interpret safety in the environment, and communicate with their social networks using limited neurobehavioral survival based states (Porges, 2003). Over time, more regulated visceral states evolved due to the organization of neural networks (Porges, 2003). This evolution supported more nuanced abilities to perceive threat and mitigate it, engage in social interaction, and embody prosocial behavior (Porges, 2003). Now, because of evolved physiological states humans are able to manage their range of behavior and psychological experiences, as well as determine the range of emotional expression, quality of communication, and regulation needed (Porges, 2003).
Prosocial behavior (PSB) is defined as a broad range of actions intended to benefit others (Pfattheicher et al., 2022). PSB bolster the protection of offspring, kin related community, and in group survival (Porges, 2003). Using PSB, conflict and threat are often mediated by using feelings of compassion, empathy, sympathy, and the behavior of altruism towards others (Gilbert, 2015). These feelings and behaviors are ignited by a biological desire within to support others (Gilbert, 2015) and are often performed without the expectation of receiving external rewards or avoiding aversive situations (Pfattheicher et al., 2022).
Social dominant behaviors (SDB) have been identified within the theory of social dominance (SDT) which explains the tendency for humans to form and maintain in-group out-group hierarchies for survival (Sidanius, et al., 2004).
Socially dominant behaviors include ruthless ambition, rigid callousness, obedience, submissiveness, narcissism, and cruelty and are often found in the upper echelons of business and government (Gilbert, 2015). These behaviors are the result of evolutionary history and adaptive functions such as self protection and can persist as a result of trauma or unique brain chemistry (Martin et al., 2015). Self dominant behaviors often fear, block, or resist prosocial behaviors to uphold their hierarchy (Martin et al., 2015). Most often groups defined by socially dominant behaviors are exclusive, easily provoked, and champion virtues of tradition that typically uplift some while oppressing and marginalizing the majority out-group (Sidanius, et al., 2004).
Prosocial and Socially Dominant Behaviors Dysfunctional Intersection
Some individuals have the ability to access prosocial behaviors with ease; this feels natural for them and creates feelings of safety and supports the development of diverse communities of affinity (Gilbert, 2015). Dominant social behavior groups, who do not have access to these prosocial behaviors often feel threatened or aversion towards PSB groups (Gilbert, 2015). In some cases, DSB group members’ neurological and physiological pathways that are meant to support the experience of compassion are offline and inactive (Porges, 2003). Because of this these individuals experience neurophysiological symptomatology that communicates a threat which engages the autonomic nervous system and creates heightened levels of cortisol, decreased blood flow and heart rate (Porges, 2003). To protect themselves and to find belonging these individuals often exist within in-groups that are exclusive, powerful, isolated, and that hoard resources (Giroux, 2013; Martin et al., 2015).
When those within the prosocial behavior group experience threat or trauma they are more likely to have a toned sympathetic nervous system response, be more resilient, and have access to compassion and self care which mediates any potential need to give up prosocial behaviors around socially dominant behaviors (Gilbert, 2015; Porges, 2003). Due to this variation in response to threat, there is a breakdown of social functionality and a social hierarchy that has evolved to benefit the few while the majority are systematically oppressed (Gilbert, 2015; Sidanius & Pratto, 1993). Those who exist in a core identity of dominance are often provoked by PSB groups affinity and social justice work(Martin et al, 2015). Although prosocial behaviors like altruism and compassion have shaped our communal group evolution and survival, we now find ourselves in a time where socially dominant behavior groups are extorting the majority, their social welfare systems, their resources, and the planet for profit and power (Giroux, 2013; Sidanius & Pratto, 1993).
In Western society today there is a lack of grounding in higher order ideals that promote altruism, ethics, and social responsibility (Dagar et al, 2022). While Western society grapples with a hegemony of superiority and social and political dysfunctions (Pratto, 1996), other societies rely on ancient cultural practices such as traditional martial arts and Yoga as ways of cultivating prosocial behaviors, morals, and ethics (Clapton & Hiskey, 2020). Due to this hegemony of superiority in the West, corruption, commodification, and repressive governments are in power and broadcasting ideological, psychological, and political dogma that bolsters its goals of wealth and resources accumulation and dominance (Giroux, 2013; Pratto, 1996). This study sees this as an energetic battle, Dr. Larry Ward discussed. This is an energetic battle between mechanisms of power and movements for social justice, for the people. What follows is a discussion of how Yoga can be used as an intervention that promotes prosocial feelings and behaviors and supports social justice movements that are facing power struggles with social dominant behaviors at a systemic level.
Yoga as an Intervention and Support for Prosocial Altruistic Social Justice Movements
The practice of Yoga is an eastern spiritual tradition that integrates physical, behavioral, mental, emotional, and spiritual practices for the purpose of attaining personal well-being, mental peace, a moral life, and spiritual elevation (Dagar et al, 2022). Yoga based practices support the “bottom up” polyvagal theory that explains autonomic regulation is possible through interoception, self regulation of brain networks, vagal pathways, executive functioning, and the release oxytocin which all influence altruistic behavior (Chin & Kales, 2019; Clapton & Hiskey, 2020; Dagar et al, 2022). Yoga can support an increase in mindfulness, support conscious relaxation and impact biomarkers of physical wellbeing (Dagar et al, 2022). It also targets the amelioration and healing of trauma through body-mind connection and is supportive to those who find it difficult to access and benefit from verbal therapies because it embodies and enacts non-violent and conflict resolution strategies through self practice (Clapton & Hiskey, 2020).
These effects of practicing Yoga can be applied to movements for social justice in ways that support and reinvigorate the minds, bodies, and spirits of the individuals championing them (Clapton & Hiskey, 2020). By practicing Yoga, the body’s energy can be redirected away from stress responses resulting from threat and towards vitality which stimulates the experience of exuberance and positive affect (Dagar et al, 2022). When wielded intentionally this energetic vitality has preventative effects on depression, stress, anxiety, and anxiety-related disorders and gives practitioners access to positive emotions that can empower them to stay neutral in tense emotional settings and be more helpful and cooperative (Dagar et al, 2022).
Dr. Larry Ward teaches methodologies that support the nervous system in resisting provocation for the benefit of accumulating energy and using it to develop and invest in prosocial movements (Young, 2022). These prosocial skills and methodologies cultivated through mind body practices translate into real world situations where the body and mind are able to have a greater tolerance to distress and respond wisely to challenges such as relational conflicts and other day to day challenges (Clapton & Hiskey, 2020). Dr. Ward warns that the tendencies of the provoked nervous system create more fighting and more diffusion and urges people to not put their energy to these behaviors (Young, 2022). Instead, individuals, groups, and communities can approach dominant behaviors and systems from a resourced and less provoked place which can lead to skilled action that is reasoned, assertive, and conflict ending rather than mindlessly aggressive and designed to excessively hurt one another or exacerbate an entire group (Clapton & Hiskey, 2020).
Embodying these practices can support the development and sustainability of community networks and affinity groups that sustain and uplift prosocial behaviors and movements that protect its members from socially dominant behaviors and systems and reflect in-group values back to them when they are faced with a threat. In reviewing the current research literature there are many studies that discuss Yoga as an intervention that positively affects nervous system regulation (Chin & Kales, 2019; Clapton & Hiskey, 2020) as well as studies that explain that when the nervous system is regulated and toned it responds to threat by accessing prosocial behaviors rather than socially dominant behaviors (Gilbert, 2015; Martin et al, 2015). There are few studies that explicitly study Yoga as an intervention that empowers and sustains those working within social justice movements. This research aims to fill these gaps by studying the direct impact the practice of Yoga has on initiating and sustaining prosocial behaviors and movements in the face of dominance and threat.
References
Chin, M. S., & Kales, S. N. (2019). Understanding mind–body disciplines: A pilot study of paced breathing and dynamic muscle contraction on autonomic nervous system reactivity. Stress and Health, 35(4), 542–548. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2887
Clapton, N., & Hiskey, S. (2020). Radically embodied compassion: The potential role of traditional martial arts in compassion cultivation. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.555156
Dagar, C., Pandey, A., & Navare, A. (2022). How yoga-based practices build altruistic behavior? Examining the role of subjective vitality, self-transcendence, and psychological capital. Journal of Business Ethics, 175(1), 191–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04654-7
Gilbert, P. (2015). The Evolution and Social Dynamics of Compassion. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12176
Giroux, Henry A.. (2013). The disimagination machine and the pathologies of power. Symplokē, 21(1–2), 257. https://doi.org/10.5250/symploke.21.1-2.0257
Martin, D., Seppala, E., Heineberg, Y., Rossomando, T., Doty, J., Zimbardo, P., Shiue, T.-T., Berger, R., & Zhou, Y. (2015). Multiple facets of compassion: The impact of social dominance orientation and economic systems justification (No. 01674544; Journal of Business Ethics, pp. 237–249). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2157-0
Pfattheicher, S., Nielsen, Y. A., & Thielmann, I. (2022). Prosocial behavior and altruism: A review of concepts and definitions. Current Opinion in Psychology, 44, 124–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.021
Porges, S. W. (2003). The Polyvagal Theory: Phylogenetic contributions to social behavior. Physiology & Behavior, 79(3), 503–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-9384(03)00156-2
Pratto, F. (1996). Racism, conservatism, Affirmative Action, and intellectual sophistication: A matter of principled conservatism or group dominance? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://www.academia.edu/56812625/Racism_conservatism_Affirmative_Action_and_intellectual_sophistication_A_matter_of_principled_conservatism_or_group_dominance
Sidanius, J., & Pratto, F. (1993). Racism and support of free-market capitalism: A cross-cultural analysis. Political Psychology, 14(3), 381. https://doi.org/10.2307/3791704
Sidanius, J., Pratto, F., van Laar, C., & Levin, S. (2004). Social dominance theory: Its agenda and method. Political Psychology, 25(6), 845–880.
Young, A. (2022). Dr. LARRY WARD on Healing the Colonial Mind (No. 296). Retrieved October 22, 2022, from https://forthewild.world/podcast-transcripts/dr-larry-ward-on-healing-the-colonial-mind-296
© 2024 Rachel “Rachelle” Tuck. All rights reserved.
Often, I sit and wonder how we are where we are and what my purpose is in these times. I read the news and am often distraught by the panic, mania, chaos, and lack of resolve offered. In the background, I hear the war drums beating.
To this beat, my eyes scurry over the words in the headlines and articles and on posts on social media. Panic, helplessness, fear; a drumming up of those emotions seems to be the purpose.
In a moment of reverence to these feelings, I decided to engage in a practice I’ve developed when I’m feeling lost in words. Word Play is what I’ve called it. It is sort of like Tarot, but instead of using cards with major and minor arcana, I pull words. So I began my practice with the words I was reading “overcome fear”. I sat with it first and wondered how I would like to engage with fear.
“Am I trying to overcome fear?” I asked myself. To me fear is an emotion that sends a message telling me something is amiss. It is a signal that supports me in staying safe. So the word “overcome” felt incorrect.
I searched synonyms of "overcome" and settled on the word “to master”. I then looked up that definition, “to become completely proficient or skilled in, to deal with successfully.” This seemed closer to what I was looking for, but wasn’t hitting the spot so I kept on.
I again searched for synonyms, but this time for “to master” and found the word proficient. The definition of proficient is, “having or showing knowledge, skill, aptitude.”.
Ah, aptitude, that buzzed when I saw it. So I searched the synonyms for aptitude and found adept.
Adept, I could get behind this word. I can become an adept, I thought. The definition for adept is “having or showing knowledge, skill, aptitude. Someone who is skilled in any field.”. This is the word I needed. This is the word I needed the headline to use to nurture a sense of empowerment in relation to fear.
So I write this little piece for us, the humans, who are moving through such intense and paradigm-shifting times to say… It is not that we must overcome our fears to feel better and safer, but learn to listen to them, become knowledgeable of them, and develop a skill set to be in relationship with them.
If our fear shows up with a message for us, generally coming from our basic instincts or intuition, we should not be oppressing or overcoming them, but thanking them for warning us and then, pulling up a chair to listen.
Our fear is ancient and wise. It is so fantastic that it comes to us as a feeling that our sympathetic nervous system responds to… put the pedal to the metal and get me out of here! That is profound. It is our duty and our nature to put words to this feeling of fear. It is our responsibility as sentient beings to be care full with our words and how we wield them and to become adept at using them.
So I leave you with this… when you come across a headline, a social media post, a news article, or any kind of media that haunts you, that “terrorizes” your mind… turn towards the emotion that comes, identify the trigger word, and then use this process to untangle yourself.
We are the only ones who can create this perspective shift. As our media sources run wild to the beat of the war drums, we must remember that it has not always been this way. We must educate ourselves to know our history of terror and war and why it happened and for what. We must ask ourselves, “Who benefits from this war?”. And then do what we can to support ourselves and others in becoming liberated from it.
My work, Evoking Reverence, is devoted to supporting a Great Turning…If you’re interested, join me and others who are turning the narrative.
We are engaged in a great learning in these times and it is our duty to study and shift the narrative.
May you find peace in these trying times and remember your breath is your pathway back home to yourself.
I’ve included a link in my bio to offer you a gift: E-Book: Word Play: Following our Felt Senses to Reclaim Language.
Lay down your burdens old girl.
Those thoughts tighten your belly til they have you sick.
Til you’re walking around your concrete jungle thinking that sickness is your norm.
Lay yourself down by my streams and exhale.
Unravel.
Give your belly of worries over to me.
Go sit among your Oak Tree Sisters.
Steady and vital they will hold your heavy heart.
They will hold your powerful wail.
They will ground that wicked energy pulsing through you.
To help you get through to Relief.
As you tremble and unwind watch the Grass as she blows with the Wind.
Find the Sentinels in the forest.
Sit with them.
Receive Darshan.
Sing with the Ravens.
Dance with the Thunder.
Let the rain drops give your tears permission to fall and bless our Earth.
Give yourself over to the Lightening.
Let its crackle stir your density up.
Out it goes!
Ha Ha Ha.
And the sun comes out.
Spacious and bright.
A new day comes here in this moment.
A snake slithers
A river meanders
The wind surfs the hills and valleys
As rain falls the soil drinks
Birds chirp
And I’m here
My awareness moves like snakes out of my body into everything around me
Sensing
Interpreting
Contracting
Expanding
Burrowing
Hiding
Expressive in places familiar
Estranged in places not understood
New languages
Less expression
Less flow
More ideas
More certainty
More Protocols
Organizing
Expectations
Holding my breath.
Rigid
How do I evoke the courage to bring myself out into these watering holes?
I fear my language won’t be understood.
That I’m unwelcome.
I’m not being met.
This is a certainty.
Currently.
I stay quit.
Interpreting.
Gauging words.
Feeling out certainty of thought.
Studying for fluency.
Striving for connection.
When I collide with new worlds
I’ve never been the one to be proud or certain.
I’ve stayed quit.
Tried to learn the prestige of fluency.
Worked to build bridges for entry.
It’s been 11 months in a new land and I’ve just gathered some materials to begin building.
My hands tremble.
My heart aches.
My mind scrambles.
I work to contain my awareness.
To sit and let it weave together meaning for me.
Maintaining a container for this process is trying.
Discipline.
Restraint.
Moving in and out of the Chitta mind into Jnana wisdom.
In this world I’m in today the Wisdom of the Heart seems to not have a welcome space.
So I cultivate it inside.
Inside my sanctuary.
In my gardens.
My altars.
My journals.
My relationships.
I sit and crash up against the edges of my own heart centric assuredness and pray that the nature of things will move through me.
Sometimes I look down at my journal and weep.
Surprised at what is written and shared.
Thanking the Mother for having not forsaken me.
To have the bridge built for me, through me...revitalizes me.
I keep on praying that Ill be able to connect these worlds and walk them.
That I’ll understand the other languages soon.
That I won’t feel wrong in intellectual spaces.
That I will meet those on the edge and that they, feeling familiarity
Will help me through the thick fog.
I had an experience this summer that gave me the opportunity to weave together three decades worth of study.
It brought me to my knees. I just kept saying.. wow, what a gift, what a blessing.
I’ve followed my interests and the little breadcrumbs so earnestly for my entire life.
I was raised in the forests. Brought up through Southern Baptism.
Participated in Student Government, Mock United Nations and Youth Legislature.
I was President and Vice President. Lawyer, Supreme Court Justice, Most School Spirited.
I got a degree in Environmental Economics and Policy, a minor in French, and was a Public Policy Scholar.
I studied abroad in Ghana, traveled in Europe, and spent time in Guatemala, Indonesia, and around.
I worked in Washington, DC presenting research on public perspectives towards renewable energy and on creating sustainable economies in coal counties.
I learned that statistics and polls are based upon a sample size that often does not represent the whole AND that most academic journal entries and presented studies are backed by sources chosen to support the hypothesis.
I saw that DC politics was more about perpetuating a culture than creating great change to support a better world.
I learned I was heart centric not certainty dependent.
I left and traveled.
I heard the trees of Oregon tell me I needed to save them.
I became a park ranger at Arches National Park in Moab, UT and had the millions of years old rocks laugh at me... they mocked me for thinking I could save the world... reminding me one day I’d be just a layer of dust in their great walls of time.
I moved to Northern California and dove into a deep practice of yoga.
I became certified as a preschool teacher and taught Waldorf preschool for years.
Worked on a food farm, learned how to save seed and the significance of seed sovereignty.
Built out age appropriate environmental curriculum for children pre-k through high school.
I spent several years building a yoga school (business) and taught folks how to teach yoga, traveled and taught in different regions and cultures.
And broke a huge societal spell that had stolen my nature for far too long.
I learned how to sustain an awakened heart.
And I found God again. This time she was the Mother.
I quit my career and left the mountains. Now I’m here in Sacramento.
This past summer I had my story told back to me and it was rich, meaningful, and timely.
It helped me understand a bigger picture.
This page is me taking a step out of my privacy to share how I make sense of the things going on out there in the external world.
As someone who has such a deep internal sacred reality, I want to share how I move in and out of the realms... mostly by weaving.
I’ll be here weaving together all things sacred with all the terror and confusion.
Drawing lines between new and old, imaginary and real, felt and feeling and all things in between... with the purpose of Evoking Reverence for this life.
In these times.
I’ve been called back to council
My day to day tasks have been sidelined
My pleasure delayed
The sun is out
I’m affirming this life
As the day goes on the knock of the staff gets louder
Outside of my eyes are my friends and my activities
But behind my eyes
Deep in the cave of my heart
The women are gathering
My actual floor creaks
My window budges open
A presences passes
Today, I unknowingly prepared
Cleaning the house
Opening the windows
Clearing the space
Caring for myself
Now I’m here.
Seated.
Initiating my sacred
Evoking Reverence for the now that has passed
In each moment I lived today.
It takes me a long time to get warm even though the fires are lit
For the world outside of me has my attention.
I’m sitting, reeling it back.
I’ve willingly gone out beyond my recall
Offering my practice up to be forgotten
Having faith, I will remember.
But not knowing when remembering will return.
Now I’m here seated.
Being ushered to my seat by my remembering
There are others who sit in council with me.
Angelic voices who serenade.
Singing into our space a living presence from a world long forgotten
There is even a smell.
Sweet.
Robust. Buttery.
Earthy, like dirt but magenta in its richness.
As I relax my jaw, my shoulders are pulled back
My hair is being braided
I’m being prepared
Cloaked
Refilled
As I come to sit
It’s an initiation every time.
A Homecoming.
The forgetting is longer.
And the heart inside of my chest burns.
When I come home to council, I sit.
I sort information, experiences, personality types, my responses to a new daily life.
I am in dialogue with those who I sit with.
Receiving information, epiphanies, advice, direction, support
Then the sensation of closure comes.
It’s time to go.
The fires are put out.
The warmth leaves.
And I’m left with a knowing.
That I’m not alone.
That forgetting is coming again.
And to trust it.
Trust is a different type of timeline.
There’s an ache in my chest
She speaks to me through Feelings
Gasps I take
Bolsters I lay over
Salves I spread
Always present, never not there
To soothe this I’ve begun singing
It’s here that the ache in my chest speaks to me
She quivers with delight as she sees her potential liberation
This ache knows me so well
She’s seen my attempt to love her
To care for her writhing
To ease her colicky ways
She’s ancient Grace
A gift planted deep inside
Abandon
Complete Abandon
Her yearning to be freed through sound is unbearable to me.
Her roots sprout and slithering through my body deep down into the earth.
Preparing me to be anchored as I open to the power of prayer through song.
She’s teaching me. It’s amazing.
Two parts.
Grounding in
Opening up
At the same time
Soaring with oblivion
Steadied in rich soil
A body full of breath
A familiarity with awareness
I manage this Instrument of Wonder.
Sing sister sing.
Let me serenade you
Hold you.
Take up space around you
I am just getting to know this wisdom
This ancient Grace
It’s part of me
But right now I don’t call it mine
This wisdom is that of those that came before me
I can feel them in my throat
The effervescence
The ache in my chest
This portal has awakened
When asked what it is I do
I’ve always answered…
I sing but with energy.
I am anchored in awakening
Being pummeled by my forgetting
And by an Ancient Grace being loose in my uptightness.
