THE WISDOM OF ZERO BALANCING:
PRINCIPLES AND PRECEPTS
by David Laden © 2020 David Laden
Certified Zero Balancer, Zero Balancing Faculty Member
September, 2015
The more you practice Zero Balancing (ZB), the healthier you become. Both the client and practitioner feel better. There is no self-sacrifice.
ZB supports the basic wellness underlying all illness, pain or distress. We evoke wellness, and do not focus on disease. Wellness springs from the basic nature of all life. It is always present and alive.
Clearer, stronger fields of energy override weaker, less coherent ones. ZB evokes the Greater Field inherent in all beings. People get more in touch with “who they really are”.
Skilled touch has the potential to affect consciousness and alter one’s perception of oneself and the world. We gain confidence that we can affect our inner and outer environment.
In ZB we put our mind (our attention) on our fingertips. Our tools are feeling and sensation. Our thinking mind stays as quiet as possible.
We work with attention, not intention or any preconceived personal agenda. All information is gathered in the present moment. We stay present in order to serve the needs of the client as they are expressed verbally and through the structure/energy patterns we feel in the body.
Our clients feel well-met and fully engaged. When we touch people we are aware of structure (matter) and energy consciously and simultaneously, predicated on the knowledge that mass and energy are different only as a function of perceived density based on rate of vibration. Light behaves as both a particle and a wave according to our perception and attention. We are touching the whole person, potentially at the level beyond vibration. “The world of the two and the world of the one are One.”
Thought, energy and matter are intimately related and interconnected. All information is expressed through vibrational patterns and frequencies. In ZB we can approach all Field information through touch.
A “fulcrum” is a geometrical force, which held stable, allows a person’s system to re-organize at a higher level of order. Every fulcrum is an opportunity.
We touch at “interface”, fully engaged but with good boundaries and a stable base of internal support. Our sense of inner support is transferred automatically to the client and is essential for engagement. The person will feel engaged only to the degree that we ourselves are engaged at the level of our “donkey”.
The “donkey” is the token animal of ZB. It is a metaphor for that part of every person that needs to give and receive support, to lean in and feel met. It is below the level of conscious thought, seeking a body-felt experience of relief, calmness, pleasure and deep relaxation. The donkey is real and is seeking connection with other donkeys. ZB is a bodywork of relationship, relationship at a deep level of support and acceptance.
In scientific terms, ZB balances the autonomic nervous system, stimulating parasympathetic mechanisms, counteracting the “fight or flight” stimulus so that a homeostasis within all systems can be re-established. This renewed homeostasis allows for greater healing on all levels – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
The more stable you are within yourself, the higher you can go and the more expansive you can feel. Stability at the deep skeletal level allows us the feeling of being supported by the earth, lifted up without effort.
Energy moves in curves and is manifested fully in the vertical flows between “heaven and earth, earth and heaven”. The foundation and semi-foundation joints of the skeleton carry these vertical forces. If these joints are free to function well, those forces can flow with more power. Rather than having to do primarily with joint motion, the foundation and semi-foundation joints function to establish balance within the mechanical and energetic fields of the body.
Bone, being the densest tissue in the body, is able to transmit energy rather than absorb it. Bone holds the most potential energy within the body structure. Just as the heaviest chemical elements can be tapped to release vast quantities of energy held within their atomic structures ( E=mc2 ), so our work with the skeleton releases potential energy which is stored as tension and contraction in the body. In ZB we are not adding or subtracting anything. We are freeing the person’s own potential energy to flow more feely and in a balanced way.
Greater flow and openness in the system equals greater peace and happiness, a feeling of life force being liberated at a pace one can absorb and enjoy. Thus, the body itself becomes a “container”, capable of holding ever-greater amounts of life force of higher frequencies. Consciousness can expand so we experience more of what was previously unknown.
Energy states can shift or “jump” levels when a “tipping point” is reached. An amplified fulcrum can provide this critical mass. So can a compression of energy into a closed container provide this increased vibration necessary for moving across an energetic boundary. The “alchemical fulcrum” or an “alchemical session” in this case, becomes a catalyst for change.
A verbal “frame” for a session can facilitate change by creating an energetic “container” for the session. Containers amplify and focus energy. “Verbal fulcrums” are well-placed words or phrases that work in concert with the frame or any process that is relevant within the session. Verbal fulcrums are effective when they are simple and synchronous with a body-felt experience.
“Position-Pause-Action” : The “pause” is an inherent part of the rhythm of all living processes. Fulcrums build fields, step by step, field upon field. Pauses within the session and micro-pauses within the fulcrums facilitate this amplification.
Everything with form has a beginning and an end. A clear disconnect gives power to a fulcrum.
“Nestling” provides the experience of trust and gentle support, the essential environment for growth and change.
“Hedonic” (hurts good) fulcrums take people closer to Source. The paradox of pleasure/pain, resolved in the body, takes one out of duality and closer to the experience of Unity. When the left brain is confronted with the paradox of two simultaneous opposite sensations, perception is shifted to the expansive capacities of the right brain. Not all fulcrums should be hedonic but a few, when effectively placed, are powerful. All fulcrums should either “feel good” or “hurt good”.
Evaluations are an essential part of every session. They give us a lot of information and also future-pace the donkey so it is better able to let go and change form, taking advantage of the opportunity the fulcrum provides. Evaluations help the client experience their own donkey, acting like a mirror of feeling or sensation before the fulcrum evokes change.
“Working Signs” make us aware of the client’s inner experience. They give us information as to how we can best guide the session and serve the client.
Clearing disharmonies in the field will prevent them from manifesting somatically. We never know what we may have prevented. We have to get more comfortable with not knowing outcomes. We need only trust that we are doing good by creating clearer, stronger fields, supporting the potential for wellness, and holding each person in the highest personal regard.
“Holding each person in the highest personal regard” is the hallmark and essential foundation for each ZB session and ZB class. It is the prime example of how to move through every situation in life, every day - treating everyone (including ourselves) with love and respect, understanding and compassion.
“Equanimity of mind in the presence of confusion, yields insight”. ZB is an art based on scientific principles. Creativity resides in the ability to welcome uncertainty and the non-linear possibilities of spontaneous, unpredictable learning, insight and growth. We support all students in their process of learning new and unfamiliar concepts and techniques.
All change and energy movement happens in a “field of tension”. Each fulcrum creates one or more fields of tension and then operates within it. This field is created by taking the “looseness” out of the structure until the beginning of the range of energetic tension is achieved. This beginning of meaningful engagement with the energy body is called the “blue line”, though it is actually a small range of subtle possibilities. Beyond the “blue line” is the “area of evaluation”, beyond which is the “box” - the full range of tensional possibilities wherein fulcrums are placed. A fulcrum can go too far “out of the box” where it “overrides” the donkey, creating discomfort. All fulcrums are placed in the “feels good/hurts good” range of possibilities.
ZB vocabulary uses common, even folksy concepts to describe complex processes of nature. It makes learning, practicing and teaching ZB fun and accessible, while maintaining a high level of truth and integrity.
Feedback, given in an honest, kind and constructive way is an essential method for improving skills and for being teachers to each other. We should all welcome feedback and attempt to improve our skill at giving good feedback.
Learning and practicing ZB leads us deeper into the nature of reality through the medium of skilled touch. We learn to access ever more subtle levels of ourselves and others, always with a sense of respect, curiosity and awe at what is available to be touched and made more whole.
Articles by David Laden
What is Zero Balancing?
The Inner World of Zero Balancing: The Healing Power of Stillness
Thoughts on the Nature of Happiness and How Zero Balancing Promotes Health and Well-Being
The Hidden Messages in Water
ZB Principles and Precepts
A Deeper Look: A Broader Context