A path to go beyond words

Posted by Manuel on November 21st, 2011 - Follow me on Twitter and Google+

I was not comfortable with meditation at first. It sounded like a new-age thing that did not make any sense.  Perhaps you think meditation is not for you and it’s a little too much esoteric. What I call ‘meditation’ now is something I experiment on a really physical and practical level. It really feels like exercising my brain like I can exercise muscles. Perhaps I am not meditating but I guess there is no meditation regulation committee so I will continue to use this word.

I’ve experimented with a new technique recently.  This is just a small ‘trick’, it’s not even a technique really, more like a concrete observation.So you can use this as “how to” meditate better (or close your eyes and think).

Here is the technique: I close my eyes and I completely relax my tongue. I know… it sounds strange. I don’t know about you, but my tongue is almost always activated, pressing against my teeth or the roof of my mouth or simply floating in my mouth. It rarely becomes relaxed and pulled down by gravity. I noticed it also gets tensed when I am preparing to talk or when I am writing. Am I weird or are you the same?

Relaxing my tongue seems to have an effect on the muscle in throat and my shoulders. It feels like everything was locked there and suddenly became able to relax.

In the book I read (Anna Wise – The high performance mind) it is explained that when the brain commands the tongue it puts us in verbal mode. Our brain responds to the somatic activation of the tongue (and vice-versa) and we find ourselves stuck in this mode. To sum up: we think the way we talk. I believe this is how most of us “think”. This reduces our meditation process to our language grammar when our brain could actually go to other layers of abstraction.

We all had these experiences that we can’t describe with words because the feelings involved would be lost in translation. Somewhere between the brain electrical memory and the words, a filter cuts a part of the experience. I’m sure you have some examples that come to mind. When we try to over-analyze a feeling with grammar in mind we reduce the meditation to an inner dialogue, we think with words. I almost can ear myself and picture the words I am using. But when I go beyond words, new layers of idea associations get accessible.

I’ve experimented with this for the last couple of months. It’s not an instant ‘ta-da’ recipe. After a while I started to observe that my brain had more difficulty to think on a grammar level when my tongue was relaxed. Then it was a little disturbing to perceive things differently and to get these ideas that did not have any concrete descriptions. I get more and more comfortable in this process now even if I feel I can’t ‘grab’ the ideas. I find myself capable of observing them from a different perspective. It does not provide better answers and this is not a magic formula but it is just interesting to observe ; just a different approach.

Did you already experience this? Do you have a similar meditating technique? Leave a comment and share your experience.

Manu

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  • http://www.identitales.com Esther van der Wal

    That sounds interesting Manu, I should try it out. And I’m glad there’s no regulation committee, so I can’t meditate ‘wrong’ :)

  • http://gracefulsimplicity.com Grace

    Interesting idea. In yoga class sometimes the teacher will instruct you to relax your tongue and you suddenly realize that you’ve had your tongue pressed firmly into your teeth (creating tension in the jaw, too) the whole time you were supposed to be relaxing ALL your muscles. As soon as your mind moves on through, the tongue is back up, pressing into your teeth. It’s just not something you think about. So I guess what you are saying could affect the brain in some way. It would be another method of concentration, like concentrating on the breath or an object, your mind constantly wanders, and you have to bring it back to the point of concentration (in this case the tongue).

    • http://www.inspacewetrust.com Manuel Loigeret

      I talked about it to my yoga instructor and he did not seem to know this technique but he told me to try and do it for all the asanas. I must say it takes discipline to think about it all the time :)

  • http://twitter.com/arbitraryjane shawnacy

    Manu, this is fantastic. i often think in this way – in wordless ideas – but seem to be at the mercy of whenever the ideas feel like coming, and have been searching for a way to facilitate that kind of thought intentionally. what a fascinating idea that the engagement of the tongue puts the brain in a verbal context, and that negating that engagement could facilitate non-verbal thought. (!!) SO appreciate this. i’ll definitely be putting it into practice.

    • http://www.inspacewetrust.com Manuel Loigeret

      Yes. Come back and tell us how this practice resonates with you.

  • Alyson Earl

    Years ago, I had the privilege of teaching people with language-based learning disabilities. Though I was the teacher, it took me a long time to understand that my ‘non-verbal’ students truly thought differently than I did. Non-verbal doesn’t mean non-speakers, it’s about how they think and process ideas. Words are merely symbols we use to try to represent an idea. As you pointed out so well, our words often fall short of the mark. It was my job to teach people how to use word-symbols in order to navigate the education system while making sure that each student saw the value, beauty, and functionality of non-verbal thinking. Another opportunity for both/and instead of either/or.

    • http://www.inspacewetrust.com Manuel Loigeret

      That is fantastic. My mother was a teacher for deaf people at some point. Most of them were taught to vocalize words at school (that was how the french system solved the problem). I had several occasions to go to social events at sign languages schools and I was always amazed by 1) how easily I can understand sign language (it’s really theatrical) and 2)the physical meanings it could imply (and that words could not replace). It seemed more complete from a certain point of view.
      Thank you for your comment

  • Anonymous

    Very nice! I will try this. I have a lot of tension in my jaw/throat. Maybe this is the magic bean that will solve it :-)

    • http://www.inspacewetrust.com Manuel Loigeret

      I don’t know if there is anything magic with it. I can just say that over the time I found some benefits from this practice. Come back and tell me about it when you will have experimented with it.

  • Samantha Brightwell

    I used to be a prolific writer and to organize my thoughts I had to put them into language. Words were my passion.
    Then something changed. I went through a sort of breakdown and withdrew from writing. I also withdrew from many of the social settings that required me to talk. I began making art instead.
    Now I think in feelings and ideas and visual images instead of words.
    And now I find it difficult to articulate my ideas in conversation – to put things into words.
    Now my tongue is fully relaxed!
    I find words tiring. They elude me now. I don’t care for them so much any more. I don’t care much for conversation either. I prefer art and feelings and images.
    Some will say that I have lost something precious, but I feel that I have gained something better.

  • jeff barbieri

    The relaxed tongue is a terrific observation. Not only do word thoughts decrease but intuition increases because the tongue forms a bridge for energy that travels up the back and down the front. When the tongue floats the circuit stops in the head, illuminating the head centers.