Ive talked about this before but i have learned alot more about after research and reading and practicing Stephen Porges, Peter Levine, and *Bessel van der Kolk in rope session. if your not familiar these are the authors Polyvagal Theory which essentially is how our nervous system responds and how that is influencing our social behavior and emotional regulation, Waking the Tiger which is how to encourage and recuit the body own systems for healing, and the body keep the score which is which show how you how your body and your mind actively reshape on another. This creates a Language to communicate with. while this is not strictly rope related it has help me craft session with more intention and precision.

When I begin a scene, I’m not thinking about the restraint—I’m thinking about architecture. How the body folds or opens, how tension is built or released, how position speaks to you.

Closed shapes like fetal, curled, knees tucked inward—often inspire feelings of safety, introspection, and containment. They activate the parasympathetic nervous system, inviting rest, digestion, and co-regulation.

In contrast, open positions—arms wide, heart exposed, pelvis elevated, or exposed—evoke vulnerability, surrender, power, or display. These shapes carry both somatic charge and symbolic weight. To expose the belly is to show trust. To lift the chest is to offer the heart. to offer the neck is a sign of submission.

“The way shapes we hold changes the way we feel.” A tied body is a speaking body. The body speaking is the psyche speaking.

I have noticed a Listening Beneath the Skin. The body is more than a vehicle—it is an archive.
Our fascia holds memory, our **nervous system catalogs our experience , and our posture encodes and outputs both our past and our reality.

Have you noticed how different ties evoke different emotional states—regardless of physical intensity? For example, How a chest harness make someone feel held?

Resonance teaches us to listen to the echoes of sensation. A tight waist line may feel like a good back stretch—or a trigger. A ascendion may feel like flying—or floating away .

The I think the key is intention, presence and purpose. The body responds to our invitation sympathetic (arousal) and parasympathetic (release) systems creates a dances with transition. We charge, then we discharge. We constrict, then we soften.we bind and we release.

Some of the studies presented show what the mystics have been saying: _Change your posture, and you change your consciousness._

“Power poses” increase testosterone and lower cortisol. Upright postures increase confidence and social presence. Slouched shoulders invite withdrawal. These postures are chemical**.

Have you noticed your baseline. I have build the structure with the natural shape; but in doing invite them to inhabit new shapes which corresponds to new states of minds. That is where the invocation comes in. When I tie someone into an open shape, I’m not just putting them on display—I’m summoning a version of them that may not always get space to speak. When I collapse their posture into a fetal fold, I’m not making them small—I’m offering sanctuary. Sometimes, the most powerful thing you can offer someone is a shape they forgot they were allowed to inhabit.
I feel like we are braidingourselves into the nervous system.** We attune with our bottom with communication, with check ins, but on a deeper level im watching the way the breathe, where in the body is holding energy, where pain or sensitivity might be coming from. I looking for signs to tell me whether we are moving into regulation or dyregulation. so that kinda the language that is being spoken. The rope carries a current we activate with compression, with rhythm, with co-regulation. You create this kind of resonance and type of coherence. I think this is why sometime the rope session feels like therapy. or going to the chiropractor. its a kind of realign with self.

The body plays “game” to survive.
When threat is perceived, energy mobilizes: fight, flight, freeze.
But rope invites new games. a kind of ritualized renegotiion helping the body discover a new strategy, a new story.

By intentionally altering state through posture, sensation, and presence—we give the nervous system a chance to complete unfinished survival loops or unfinished business. To release what was held. To try on a different possibility. This is why a session may end with tears. Or laughter. Or silence.
Because something moved. the body finally had space to speak its own language—and be heard.

I guess im trying to say the body is not passive—it is alive, intelligent, and aware.

To tie well is to listen deeply.
To be tied well is to trust fiercely.
And to witness both is to remember what it means to feel whole.