Physical Intelligence is a vast untapped area of knowledge that enhances our ability to work powerfully and effectively, while reducing stress, waste and uncertainty. It is the practice of accelerated learning through body movement and awareness. Behavioral scientists tell us that approximately 90% of all communication is non-verbal – Physical Intelligence is a unique process for tapping into the innate wisdom of the body – it is an opportunity to bring the whole person to work.

One of the primary reasons why people have difficulty in changing habitual patterns is that all patterns are grounded in physical expression. Just because we learn new information doesn’t mean we will change behavior. To accelerate learning and unlearning it is important to discover the physical moves that correspond to beliefs, assumptions and habits and experiment with new physical expressions that support the desired changes.

Physical Intelligence is loosely based on the Five RhythmsTM work of Gabrielle Roth adapted to organizational learning and change management. These rhythms represent energetic patterns or cycles that connect parts of any system. The Five RhythmsTM are just a map --one that can take our awareness into great depth and detail --- but the real power is in the practice. By putting our bodies in motion we can heal, transform, and reach levels of consciousness never before imagined. This is far more than just a health practice or change management tool; it is a moving meditation that can lead us to the heart of what it means to be human. The potential impact on organizational health and vitality is beyond imagination. What would it be like to have a work force that was truly awake? To have a workforce made up of people who were focused, aware, and fully in touch with their creative, intuitive, and energetic capacities?

Physical Intelligence can help to revitalize an individual or organization in the following areas:
Leadership Development
Focus and Direction
Data Collection
Clarity and Precision
Team Building
Authentic Communication
Conflict Awareness and Resolution
Creativity and Innovation
Stress Reduction
Increasing Stamina and Presence

The Five Rhythms™
“Movement is the spiritual essence of life. When I surrender to the wild, ecstatic embrace of the dance, I find a language of patterns that delivers me into universal truths, truths older than time.”
            Gabrielle Roth

Developed by Gabrielle Roth, the Five Rhythms™ are an exhilarating, liberating, and ultimately ecstatic approach to body awareness, available to everyone, regardless of age, shape, condition, or experience. The Five Rhythms™ process liberates the spirit of the dancer, dormant in all of us. Movement opens a direct channel to creativity, enhanced awareness, profound stillness, and peace of mind. This still place reveals our natural creativity, healing power, and sense of belonging. The Five Rhythms™ are made up of the different energetic states of flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness. These rhythms are a map for deepening our awareness. They allow us to bring all the richness that life offers us fully into the present moment. The rhythms are an access to a natural state of thriving! Our bodies know what we need and how to read what others need. Through movement we learn how to listen to what our bodies are telling us. Dwelling in the present movement of our own physical intelligence, breathing, seeing, and acting, we can discover the pure ecstasy of just being alive. By being more fully aware of our bodies we can bring thriving to every part of our work and lives.

The five rhythms come together to create a wave, a moving meditation practice. Each rhythm is a teacher and provides great lessons in understanding and moving with our individual energies and the energies and dynamics of an organization as a whole.

Flowing

“If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold onto.”
          Tao Te Ching

To flow is to move smoothly and easily. It is the state of being flexible, loose, and connecting with and grounding our energy. It is the circular process of continuous change, moving around obstacles and distractions without interruption or collision.

In the process of implementing a project, flowing is the rhythm of discovery, research, and taking in information. In the energy of flow we access opportunities, plan, gather energy, take in current conditions, collect data, and assess available resources. Flowing entails playing with an idea, brainstorming, and gathering new information and resources.

In flowing we discover our own unique individual, team, and organizational energy. To begin a project it is important to be grounded in reality. This is difficult when we jump from meeting to meeting and task to task, with little or no attention to our own energy, vitality, and impact on the larger system. Flowing is about staying centered, feeling the energetic direction in our bodies and within a system, and being able to move with it rather than resisting and pushing against it.

The opposite of flowing is the tendency to fall into inertia, where we remain in a fixed condition without change. This resistance to movement, experimentation, or deviation keeps us acting in habitual and predictable patterns. We all know places in our lives and organizations where we have become stuck in a place of inertia. To get out of this state requires movement and presence. Change is impossible when the state of inertia is more comfortable than the pain of exploring new patterns of movement.

By increasing our awareness of our own energy, beginning with our own body, we can recognize reoccurring patterns that exist and operate in human as well as organizational systems. With this deepened awareness we are more able to accurately read the energy of the people around us. This knowledge helps us to pierce the veil of familiarity and move with the existing energy rather than resisting, and thereby strengthening that which we resist. We can act more harmoniously while better understanding the needs, fears, pains, and desires of others. This allows us to become more compassionate and supportive of the needs of those around us and to act more effectively as a whole.

Staccato

Staccato is about doing! It is about taking action, not just talking about it. This is the rhythm of defining and delivering. We define our boundaries, focus and direct our energy, deliver our communications, and produce work in this rhythm. Staccato is the energy of precision, clarity, and performance. It is a fiery, passionate energy that comes from the heart and goes directly towards the fulfilment of an objective, goal, task, or vision. The energy is focused on the out-breath and moves in lines rather than circles. Staccato builds on the lessons of flow and brings all of our attention and focus to the present, where past and future disappear in the passion of the moment.

“Past and future veil God from our sight, burn up both of them with fire.”
          Rumi

In the process of carrying out a project, we focus and direct our energy by engaging in activities such as contracting, focusing attention, creating support, putting our plan into action, establishing clear boundaries and lines of accountability, and bringing clarity, definition, and action to the project. People who have difficulty moving with this rhythm often have a hard time setting and maintaining boundaries. By learning to focus on the out breath and define our movement awareness in the body, we can learn to clarify and set boundaries as well as engage in more effective action.

The shadow or danger of staccato is in becoming rigid, unyielding, inflexible, firmly fixed, not deviating or relaxing, tense. This can manifest as resistance to change or being frozen in place. In staccato we can recognize reoccurring patterns in our bodies that correspond to beliefs, assumptions, and themes in our everyday lives. We can see where we are stuck in old ways of doing things that are no longer appropriate to current needs and opportunities. This shadow manifests as forcing, pushing without clarity and knowledge of the current situation, and applying old solutions to new problems. Effective expression of staccato means that we are fully in the present, have a clear sense of direction, and are guided by our own passion and inner fire.

Chaos

Chaos is the collision of flowing and staccato energy. The meaning of the word comes from the Greek word, khaos, meaning empty space or abyss. This emptiness provides a blank canvas for creation, where contraries dissolve and we disappear into the realm of pure creativity. Gabrielle Roth describes it as “the gateway to the intuitive mind, the part of us that holds the key to our destiny, our purpose, our contribution, our presence, and our individuality.”

“Dance til you shatter…”
           Rumi

In the project process this rhythm is about dissolving all that is extraneous, resolving contradictions, and dealing with underlying concerns. It is about accessing the intuitive mind and letting the linear, rational way of thinking go. Here real creativity can find its expression. This is where a project seems to take on a life of its own, and we need to let go of the old, redefine parameters, let new ideas emerge, fine-tune the project, and embrace what wants to be born.

Chaos is about learning to let go of indecision, turbulence, and stuckness. It involves breaking patterns of attachment to the past (guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness) and future (unease, anxiety, tension, stress, and all forms of fear) that keep us from being effective in living our own dreams and vision in the present. Physically and emotionally Chaos is about releasing the points of stuck energy in our lives and bodies. This is the rhythm of surrender and acceptance. It is an intense state of presence and clarity.

The shadow of chaos is confusion and control. In confusion we fail to distinguish between things. Every thing gets jumbled together and mentally mixed up. In this rhythm we must deal with our unwillingness to take responsibility for things as they are. We desperately hold on to control for fear of letting go and trusting our innate wisdom. We hold on to the old familiar ways of doing things, while the new is trying to emerge naturally and organically.

Lyrical

Lyrical is the energy of self-acceptance that actualizes in the aftermath of chaos. It manifests as a light, airy and flexible quality, expressing feelings of enthusiasm and playfulness. It is the process of lightening up after letting go of the thousand things that weigh us down. As Gabrielle Roth says, “in lyrical we realize that we are all works-in-progress. Nothing is fixed, particularly our identities. Its deeper teachings are those of self-realization, the product of detachment and fluidity.”

In a project process this rhythm involves celebrating accomplishments, acknowledging participants, playing with the project, and fine-tuning it. In Lyrical we learn through play and experimentation. It is effortless unfoldment, where we try on new patterns and ways of doing things. This is a time of joy and celebration.

The shadow of Lyrical is spacing out, being caught in fantasy, daydreaming; being disconnected. Many people in today’s organizations find themselves so overwhelmed that they can do little more than stare out the window dreaming of their retirement or winning the lottery. Lyrical can either be an extremely creative rhythm or a very nonproductive source of escapism.

Lyrical is the energy of adventurous play. True play is without predetermined direction or definition. When we play we explore, probe, and experiment. Learning becomes a product of our fascination and interest. And most of all we laugh, we let go of being so serious, and we see the humor in our needless suffering and futile efforts to be in control. Here we try on new patterns, new ways of doing things in a more playful and joyous way.

“But yield who will to their separation
my object in living is to unite my avocation and my vocation
as my two eyes make one in sight, only where love and need are one
and work is play for mortal stakes, is the deed ever really done
for heaven and the future’s sake.”
           Robert Frost

Stillness

In stillness we return home to the place where everything waits. It is a place with little or no commotion or agitation; it is tranquil, calm, and serene. It is being a clear witness, becoming the breath, entering a state of total presence and emptiness. This is a place without strategy, agitation, agenda, or mental chatter. Here we regenerate and tap into the well of wisdom where life becomes a moving meditation and we see our interconnectedness everywhere. This type of centered awareness is not a common characteristic of people in today’s organizations.

In stillness we take the time to sit and take ourselves out of the rush, the stream of frantic energy, and just be. Action born of this still place will be concise and effective. The lessons of stillness are, “wisdom, compassion, and inspiration.” If we feel lost, we must learn to find that still place of absolute clarity and recognize our own spirit. Here we learn to stop searching and let the answers find us!

In stillness we integrate what we have learned in a project. We look at what’s so with an objective eye, raising awareness of what worked and what didn’t. It is here that we develop compassion for ourselves and others who have worked on the project. Here we allow natural creativity to lead us into the next energetic cycle.

The shadow of this stillness is numbness. In this weakened state we feel deprived of the power of feeling or moving. In today’s organizations it is not uncommon to feel a sense of deadness, where people have become insensible and unable to even say how they are feeling. Without a sense of connection to one’s own feelings compassion cannot exist, and behavior that shows no concern for others can be the result. This is a dangerous state where real treachery and evil can exist, such as some of the fraud and illegal practices we are witnessing today.

When someone is in shock the first thing to do is to have him or her become aware of his or her body. As they feel their hands and feet, look around the room, do an inventory of their body they become more and more present and aware of the place and people around them. This awareness allows them to regain consciousness. When we feel lost we must learn to be still and tune into the wisdom of the body otherwise we will truly be lost.

LOST

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying here
No trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you
           David Wagoner