Source: Robert Dilts

Select a shape.

Make the pattern with your finger.

Add body parts to create a more complex movement pattern.

Have your partner guess the original pattern.

Switch roles.

Test.

Practice intuiting deep structure, and explore how this is a useful skill for mutual understanding. This pattern draws upon the somatic syntax model.

Step 1: Choose a shape. #

Do this pattern with a partner. Select a simple shape, such as a triangle or figure eight, but keep it secret for now.

Step 2: Use your finger to create the pattern. #

As your partner keeps their eyes closed, make the pattern with your finger.

Step 3: Include more body parts to make a more complex movement pattern. #

Keep this up, and begin adding body parts. Start small, perhaps with your wrist, and expand out until your entire body is involved as much as possible. Explore this as though you were creating some kind of new dance. Don’t try to make your body express the original pattern as an imitation. Instead, you are allowing it to act as a “seed move” that inspires new movements.

Step 4: Have your partner guess the original pattern. #

Ask your partner to open their eyes and try to guess the deep structural pattern (the original shape you started with) that led to your somatic fractal (the end result of your movement expansion into a more complex move). This is called a “fractal” because, metaphorically, it is a complex expression or result of an underlying formula (the original shape). Instruct your partner: Notice how you must call upon a kind of intuition in order to seek the deep structure that leads to the more complex movement. Get a sense of how this intuition lives in you and how to access it. "

Step 5: Switch roles and do the exercise again. #

Step 6: Test. #

In the coming days and weeks, notice any ways in which accessing this intuition becomes easier and more useful. Notice any ways that this metaphoric way of seeking deep structure can play out in life situations and be valuable.