Flow – Practitioner Q & A: Doris Bergmann, Germany
We see the flow of life, like a river – as one great flowing journey. The essential flow of life is achieved when we understand the concept of flow and can integrate it into everything we do.
As part of a regular series, we are asking Pantarei practitioners from around the world, to share with us some insights into their life, their work and what flow means to them.
Q. Tell us about yourself and what you do
My name is Doris and I started studying the Pantarei Approach course in February 2018. I work for a small business consultancy, but I´m currently on parental leave after having my third child. It seems that questions around the body have been chasing me half my life – such as “what does the body of somebody else tell us? What can I sense and what can I tell from somebody’s body language?” It’s these questions that have remained unanswered and why I’ve always been so fascinated with how different bodies can look, move, and so on.
As a geographer – and I like to see this as my ‘top layer’ – I love this overview. A perspective of the world like a puzzle, that pieces together with its different societies, cultures, landscapes and developments over time. Working in consulting – and this could be some layer in the middle – I deal mainly with business and political questions, so I have gained some idea about how we desperately try to work more efficiently and competitively and be more influential in this highly complex world.
And now? I seem to be diving into yet another layer, the nucleus of it all – people and their bodies. It´s people with all their history, wishes, desires, wounds, fears, ideas and strengths. All that makes them so unique and motivates them to live some kind of life of their choosing every day. In the end, this is what our whole society is made up of. For me, it’s looking at the nucleus in a rather straightforward, down to earth, plain and hands-on manner – finally!
Q. What touches you about Pantarei Approach?
I´m sure that there are tonnes of ways in which we can look at, study and empower people to become more of what they want and to achieve their personal goals. One of the most amazing things about the Pantarei Approach for me – coming out of my two ‘layers’ – is the way it is taught, which also reflects the way in which we as practitioners work. Compared to any other learning experiences I had so far, we’re not occupied with the theory behind it, the book about it, the research, the statistics nor the masterminds (at least so far). I´m not saying that this won’t be helpful at a later stage, but for the time being we are allowed to be completely free to not know.
This means not knowing anything about a new client we meet, but also not referring to any additional knowledge there is in bodywork, body therapy and what not. Because – especially at the beginning – knowing things, can easily lead to assuming things. Your brain starts to work, your rational mind starts to overrule and we get distracted from our actual mission: which is to really dive into the client’s topic and to be with the client. Sometimes, the more we know, the easier it is for us to pigeonhole a person. How beautiful and what a relief to experience, that much of what we learn is already within us, when shifting our attention from theory, to the body itself. How revolutionary to be in a learning experience, where within clear boundaries and according to specific guidelines and values, we are absolutely free to develop according to our capabilities.
The other thing that highly impresses me, is the natural way this approach can empower people. Nothings seems to be imposed, nor forced. To be connected to somebody else and let something flow, has so much lightness and easiness; it’s direct and down to earth. Even the big questions in your life which you could analyze elaborately (in your head), are dealt with in such a down to earth manner, yet without simplifying or dismissing them. I’m not saying that it is easy to get there, but when we work, we work with something fundamental within a person, in a very straightforward way. To put it in other words, the approach is very much about working with your unconscious self in a mobilizing, strengthening and relieving way. As a client, this helps us to actually do and be what we can embody.
Q. What does being in flow mean to you and how have you seen flow in action in your life?
For me, the best way to picture what flow is, is to watch children play. They are happy, focused, totally with themselves and in an absolutely coherent state, independent from time and place. Moreover, they seem to be totally detached from expectations; and as parents we know how difficult it is to dissuade them from what they are set, when they are deeply engaged in playing. Whatever they do, feel and experience in this kind of stage, they seem to embody it from the tips of their hair to their toes – how beautiful it is to watch!
So how do we get these flows? There is something which is called the sense of coherence – something which is in harmony within ourselves. I always picture us humans as having the conscious and unconscious self. The conscious self is the one determining how we perceive ourselves by thinking; the unconscious self however, is the embodied self. The more they overlap and harmonize with each other, the higher the sense of coherence and the more likely we feel that there is this flow. And this is where our body and its layers come into the game. If an idea we have is not embodied, it’s not part of the unconscious self – it is not our ‘real’ self. To get this flow, we need to embody what we do. Hence, we all know these flows at least from childhood. And as adults we can learn much in the sense of embodiment to get as many of these flows back into our lives.
You can contact Doris by email.