A DEEPER LOOK: A BROADER CONTEXT
by David Laden © 2020 David Laden
Certified Zero Balancer, Zero Balancing Faculty Member
May, 2020
WHAT IS ZERO BALANCING?
Zero Balancing (known as ZB) is a gentle but powerful hands-on bodywork system that facilitates both structural balance and a clearer, stronger flow of energy in the body. ZB sessions produce an experience of deep relaxation and renewed vitality while helping to relieve symptoms of physical and emotional stress. ZB supports self-discovery, self-acceptance and a person’s ability to create positive, life-affirming change.
ZERO BALANCING FOR TODAY’S WORLD
ZB is perfect for our modern age. We live in a world that is hurried and pressured, competitive and stressful. Most of our time and energy is consumed with fast-paced activity and an overload of information. Most modern malaise is caused by chronic stress and emotional overload, a result of our attention and energy controlled by the demands of ever-increasing outer activity and stimuli.
ZB serves as an essential antidote to our modern condition. It supports the innate wellness beneath all illness, pain or distress. Grounded in precise technique and anatomical detail, its principles work in harmony with the natural world. ZB is a healing system that shares much in common with meditation, yoga, tai chi and other Eastern practices which promote deep relaxation of the body and mind. The skilled touch of the ZB practitioner redirects energy and attention away from the world defined exclusively by our senses and thoughts to an experience of living more from within: an internal feeling of calmness, mental clarity and inner peace.
WHAT DOES A ZERO BALANCING SESSION LOOK AND FEEL LIKE?
A ZB session usually lasts 30-45 minutes and is safe for a person of any age. One lies supine on a massage table fully dressed in loose, comfortable clothing. ZB touch consists of gentle pressure or traction into key joints and other bony landmarks. In a carefully organized sequence, the ZB practitioner engages the whole body by placing fulcrums of varied shape and duration, fulcrums being opportunities for rebalancing. Almost immediately the client feels a sense of deep relaxation. Being met and engaged at bone energy level, it is easy to release areas of deeply held tension.
The work is done slowly, gently and with attention to the client’s breathing and other signs of internal energy movement. During a ZB session people may feel a stillness of body and mind greater than they have ever experienced. People often report a state of not wanting to move, hardly needing to breathe. At the end of a session when people stand up and walk, they feel both grounded and effortlessly uplifted, stable and supported by the earth, extrinsic muscles at ease, feeling open, relaxed and alive.
AN ART BASED ON SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES
ZB practitioners are highly trained, sensitive to how energy is held and released in the client’s body. Like any art form or other skill to which one is devoted, there is no end to the level of mastery that may be learned and practiced.
The observed knowledge of how ZB effects people is backed up by quantifiable research- based data. This data clearly indicates that ZB stimulates the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. ZB counteracts the physiological and psychological effects of the “fight or flight” mechanism that causes anxiety, chronic muscular tension, and depletion of the immune system. Initial research also indicates that ZB stimulates delta and theta brainwave patterns in the brain. These vibrational patterns are intrinsically healing medicine. Delta and theta waves are akin to brainwaves experienced in deep meditation, states producing happiness, inner peace, and expansion of consciousness.
ZERO BALANCING IS ENERGY MEDICINE
The deepest flows of energy in the body are carried by the deepest structures of the body, the skeleton, specifically the foundational joints and their ligaments. These are structures designed for support and stability. Allowing minimal movement, they lift the body into dynamic carriage, the vertical flow “between heaven and earth” unique to human beings.
In supporting the strength and dynamic power of the vertical energy flow in the body, ZB is empowering. Bone, the densest living tissue in the body holds vast amounts of energy. Energy contacted in bone is gently redistributed throughout the system, releasing potential energy stored as tension and contraction. A person’s own life force is liberated to flow in a more free and balanced way, helping to resolve much pain and distress.
ZERO BALANCING AFFECTS CONSCIOUSNESS
Thought, energy and matter are intimately connected. Energy field information is expressed in the body through vibrational patterns and frequencies. ZBers use skilled touch to contact this information, facilitating the release of old trauma and negative conditioning held on a vibrational level. ZB approaches these patterns through skillfully placed fulcrums into both the physical body and the subtle field itself. Zero Balancing helps people connect with who they are as whole human beings – physically, mentally, spiritually.
Greater flow and openness in the system equals greater vitality and happiness - an ability to be with others and engage with the world from an inner sense of Self. The ability to integrate amplified vibration allows a person to feel more expansive and to experience love and compassion in their lives.
THE ROOTS OF ZERO BALANCING
ZB was developed in the 1970’s by Fritz Frederick Smith, MD, an American physician, osteopath and acupuncturist. Dr. Smith, born in 1929, is one of the first western physicians to study acupuncture, meditation and other eastern healing methods comprehensively. Zero Balancing is his legacy, a synthesis of Eastern and western thought and method. Dr. Smith is the author of INNER BRIDGES and THE ALCHEMY OF TOUCH. A biography of Dr. Smith, LIFE IN THE BONES, by David Lauterstein is recently published. He lives in Palm Desert, CA with his wife, Aminah Raheem.
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