Exploring MY BODY and learning how to work with her...

Hummingbird & flower - Art by Sylvia Kay

For the last couple of years I’ve been working on a new connection in my repertoire of conscious ties between my parts and faces...   MY BODY...  I mentioned on my “Nouvelles” page on my web-site last year that I’d added work with the Feldenkrais Method and the Alexander Technique to my existing explorations with Acupressure and Craniosacral Therapy...  ALL offer beautifully gentle, non-invasive ways to connect to my physical self... so  I’ve continued these explorations this year (2024) and they are definitely helping me!  I didn’t continue with the Acupressure Courses themselves...  As I’m not interested in working with other people,  I found that I had the pieces I needed to work on myself with just the 1st year of Michael Reed Gach’s Acupressure Training Circle Course and his Acupressure Mastery Course which covered the points, the meridians and the extraordinary vessels.  The 2nd year of the Circle Course just wasn’t adding material I felt I needed, so four months in, I stopped taking this course...  but I continue to use what I studied in that 1st year and in the Mastery Course...   

I’ve also added a few other ways of perceiving and working with my body...including a new understanding of the brain’s neuroplasticity.  The Feldenkrais ATM's (that I speak more about below) are REALLY helping me to discover how this can apply to me and my body...  Discovering the ubiquitous complexity of the fascial  network enervating my whole self has completely changed how I view my body!  Studying it has been revolutionary!!!  I’ve also incorporated some of Ida Rolf’s ideas concerning structural integration...  

In the process I’m discovering that:

• Although others approaches have definitely given me valuable insights, no one approach has been anything close to a seamless fit. I’ve needed to get little pieces here and there from MANY sources and figure out a way to integrate them and apply them to me and my body as it is now.

• Attention to my body, how it feels and what it’s trying to tell me is what is MOST important!  My body is there to help me once I make it clear that I’m REALLY ready to listen AND act on what it has to say.  I have to be VERY careful to not get caught up in the “what” I’m doing or want to do and pay attention instead to the “why” I feel a need to do whatever it is and “how” I do it...  I’ve found these last two factors to be MUCH more important than is commonly believed! It’s also been most helpful to think of my body as a VERY informed, interesting person I've just met who wants to help me do things I’m  interested in doing...

• It just doesn’t work to try to copy what I see anyone else “doing”.  I have to feel my own way SLOWLY and CAREFULLY with ATTENTION to what is unfolding within me and adapt my movements to suit.

• Although the information supplied by others specializing in various forms of body work can be VERY helpful, it's IMPORTANT to remember that each body is unique and none of them ever comes with an instruction manual...  so NO-ONE really knows!  My own explorations and experimentations are ESSENTIAL for understanding and working with MY body!  What these others suggest can be helpful but I need to REALLY pay attention to what MY body has to say as I try out their different approaches...  

• My body is also intimately connected to both my soul and my mind...  It takes TIME to understand what these connections are and how they operate. 

• My eyes do more than see... My ears do more than hear...  The shape of my mouth and mobility of my toes and ankles can have far reaching effects... There's SO MUCH to explore and sense and then to understand and integrate...

• There isn’t any ONE “right” way to do anything... There are a myriad of possible patterns and connections between parts that are available to be explored and  then utilized on a daily basis... The more options I have available, the easier it is for me to choose a "best" approach  for each situation I face...

• It is so IMPORTANT to go very slowly, so I can stop or modify or otherwise change direction the instant this is required!!!  

• Going slowly is also essential to unravel the ways in which I DO move, which have become largely automatic and unconscious.  Re-inventing the wheel constantly is cumbersome and impractical, so I think most of us work out patterns that seem to get us where we need or want to go and then repeat them endlessly... and  I'm no exception. However, I'm seeing that these patterns are frequently sub-optimum and therefore eventually cause my body unnecessary difficulty... Bringing the how I move into conscious awareness, opens the possibility to modify and improve on what I am doing...

• Paying close attention to all parts of my body not just a part that is hurting...  and to go very slowly by just beginning to move in a direction and feeling what happens... noticing how smooth the movement is, what other parts participate or don't and for the first signs of tension are so IMPORTANT!  It's very common for the breathing pattern to change, with tension, but this can show up in MANY other ways too... For instance, for me, I first notice tension beginning in my tongue... long before ANYTHING happens to my breathing pattern...  It's possible to smooth out the movement by increasing the overall tension... BUT I know I do NOT want to do this... If the movement isn't smooth AND relaxed, I know I need to go slower and/or do less.  I may also need to relax more by allowing and accepting me JUST as I am now. understanding best I can how this is and why...  However I am it's OK and PERFECT for whatever I REALLY need to experience and learn NOW!!!  If no matter what I do, I find I add tension or it hurts,  I’ve also learned it is possible to reap many benefits by doing movements just in my imagination!  Unlike only reading about something or simply watching what someone else does or listening which have never done much for me, DOING something in my imagination DOES seem to do something!  A very important bridge between mind and body seems to be forged when I work in this way...

• I’ve also learned that a part can hurt, NOT because it is weak and needs to be strengthened, but because it is over-worked or over-burdened by attempting to carry a load it isn’t designed to carry.  It needs support, often from a quite distant part that is under-worked and not carrying its proper load.

• Over the years I’ve also accumulated A LOT of excess tension that prohibits movement generally.  It takes TIME to sense this, discover its roots, learn to release it and get used to all the NEW feelings that suddenly emerge as a result!

• When "exercising" my body, I now understand it's generally "better" to stay within 70% of what I think might be possible... going past this seems to stretch things unduly.  Stretching between 70% and 100% can be temporarily and infrequently necessary... BUT it feels definitely NOT "good" if I make working in this range a general habit...  Generally working within the 70% range, on the other hand, seems to gradually permit an increased mobility with a MUCH more comfortable process...  It's slower and takes more TIME... but feels more effective in the long run.  TIME is also required to re-learn the many OLD patterns and beliefs that I've accumulated by living so far... Patterns and beliefs that have pushed me into the 70% to 100% range MUCH more frequently than feels really necessary NOW...

• My body is just like all my other parts and has difficulty with unfamiliar and strange...  so it's important to be able to discern the difference between this difficulty which may need to be worked through and others which can't...  Also some of something can be VERY beneficial, but to go the FULL nine yards to the movement I see someone else doing can be TOO far and/or TOO much for my body as it is now...  maybe later... maybe not at all... maybe some variation of... or... I need to listen and then my body REALLY does guide me.... I think our bodies are always giving us guiding messages... but mostly we're not trained to listen or act on them...

THE MAGIC OF TRYING, EXPLORING & EXPERIMENTING...

I’m finding the Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Lessons (ATMs) with their wonderful movement explorations  particularly helpful.  Their slow, gentle, generally small movements are REALLY helping me improve my awareness of my body and gradually I'm also noticing improvements in how its parts work together!   I’ve found lessons ranging from about 5 minutes long to just over an hour, which means I can fit one into almost any available time frame.  ALL the lessons I’ve explored from ALL sources have proved MOST helpful, but it’s best if you’re interested, to do your own search as the ones you discover for yourself will likely be the ones that will be MOST beneficial for you...   

The Internet offers such an amazing gift... even better than a World Class Practitioner offering classes in your home town! If you’re interested or even just curious, you may want to search around and give the Feldenkrais ATMs a try... and see...  If you can afford to pay there are a TON of options, but even if you have limited resources , like me, there is A LOT offered for free or low cost...  Although all can be helpful to some degree, every practitioner has their own style and all won’t “resonate” equally.  Needs can also change over time, so what seemed to suit perfectly yesterday may not still suit today or tomorrow... I know I need to allow myself to change and to stay open to new or different feelings and sensations, which means I’m SLOW to fix anything too solidly in place...  Part way down a path may be just PERFECT... while going to the end of the road can be less, rather than more... 

If what I've shared intrigues you... maybe you'd like to give these a TRY and SEE; feeling how they work for YOU in YOUR BODY!  The learning model at the heart of the ATM's mimics how babies learn... ALL babies learn "organically" by simply exploring and experimenting....  Remembering this, has made it easier for me to open to the ATMs... allowing me to experiment and explore various, often strange or different, movements with where and how I am now ... It's also helped me to let go of maps and recipes... Babies don't come with these either... I think, exploring, experimenting and feeling are all that's really needed for learning...

I’ve also remembered this idea that less can be more from my Craniosacral work ... Here, with what might be no more than a couple of nanometers difference in the articulation of a cranial bone I could usually perceive a corresponding substantial shift in my consciousness...  The smallest of movements, if it’s REALLY the “right” one can make a surprisingly BIG difference.  I’m re-applying this principle elsewhere with micro-movements and a slower, lighter, low breathing pattern, focusing on the umbrella like action of my diaphragm as it opens and closes just below my ribs... This breathing pattern increases my ability to tolerate carbon dioxide, which seems to have amazing benefits.  It turns out this isn’t just a useless waste product, but something my body REALLY needs.  In fact, surprisingly, I’ve read that we have a greater need for this than for oxygen... However, changing such a fundamental pattern does take TIME! I’ve also incorporated micro-movements into sitting, so I now sit STILL as little as possible.  I also generally stand and move much more than I sit.

I’ve also found that exploring the developmental movement patterns babies do, can yield surprising results as can walking or running backwards... and I continue to work with both pandiculation and unwinding, which are techniques I’ve used regularly over the years and am now re-visiting and refining. 

Since I’ve found if I focus on understanding and feeling, that necessary changes often happen by themselves, I’m not inspired to focus on trying to change much at ALL at least initially! Even if I find something VERY difficult or uncomfortable, I’m MUCH more interested in staying with the experience...  exploring, experimenting, feeling and discovering... to increase my understanding of myself and life in general...   Once I understand what is already here in me AND why, I'm better equipped to also understand what if any changes might really be necessary!

However, if you’re primarily interested in the possible benefits.. these are well documented.  In fact, most practitioners “sell” their work based on its probable benefits....  If you're curious... check them out and see... for yourself... However,  the benefits you're expecting may not be the ones you ultimately get... So often I've found that the benefits I thought I'd get from something weren't the ones that showed up... However, the ones that ultimately arrived did REALLY help in unexpected ways!  Maybe for you too, some unexpected magic happens... as you try, explore and experiment with attention and small, slow steps... 

Hummingbird & flower - Art by Sylvia Kay