I treasure my Structurally Integrated body. I really do. More precious than any jewels or gold, I carry connection with the heavens and earth inside my bones, within my tissue. I am a living conduit. Life Force flows through me, connecting me with all that is, with home, with what I call Source Energy where there is no beginning and no end.
Such a gift—this body. Such a marvel! Speak to me body, of your wisdom, of your knowing. I will listen now. I can listen. Intelligent hands have helped clear the way in my connective tissues. Information can move and flow from one place within me to another. Rosie Spiegel said, “Truth is in the body.” I can hear you more clearly now. Life’s knocks don’t need to be so hard to gain my attention. The still small voice inside of me has become louder. Tell me body, how to live in a good way. Teach me to honor your needs.
And what about intense sensations that people sometimes experience with Structural Integration? We Structurally Integrators may take a breath, and explain. Yes, there may be some discomfort at times. It is not our intention to create more pain in a person’s body; and it is our intention to assist the release of stuck pain that may have already been there for a while. Thomas Meyers, a teacher and practitioner of integrative bodywork, once said that there are three kinds of pain. There is the pain of injury, the pain that gets stored in the body, and the pain of releasing that stored pain. That is what people may feel during a Structural Integration session. I tell my clients “Bless the burnies.” The burning sensation is due to tissue change in what is called myofascial release. As fibers lengthen and separate, heat may be released as more space is created in the tissues. My client Kate remarked, “Blessed be the “burnies” and bring on the freedom!” Yes, Structural Integration is a path of purification, and sometimes by what feels like gentle, fire. If you are looking for change in your body and your life, a Structural Integrator’s table is a good place to be.
The day my pelvis became horizontal. Ah, that was a good day; one that I will always hold dear.
What a feeling of elation! A fellow student practitioner during my Structural Integration training in San Francisco had just finished releasing my psoas muscles while under the supervision of our beloved teacher Neal Powers. The work was intense. I had disorganized this core level muscle in the lower abdominal area by incorrect training as a gymnast. As a result, my hips were tilted forwards, creating an exaggerated lumbar curve or sway back, as it is also called. Medical terminology refers to this posture as lordosis. Young girls and women with lordosis often have painful menstrual cycles and difficult pregnancies with painful back labor.
Neil guided the practitioner. I felt my psoas muscles lengthen. I got off the table. My feet touched the ground in a different way…. more solidly. My head felt closer to sky. There was a feeling of lift through my torso. I went outside to take my newly Structurally Integrated fifth session body for a spin. I started walking. It was wonderful. I started skipping. It was even better. And the running… Oh, what joy. I felt like I could fly. My body moved with such freedom! The words of a song come to me now in my reminiscing. Many of my friends know it. The first line goes…. “My head is in the sky, sky, sky. My feet are on the ground, ground, ground”….
If I had not been Rolfed® back in 1991, I know my body would have suffered through the years from my old gymnastics training and injuries. Not now. Now my body is upright. I have a horizontal pelvis. There is connection with the heavens and earth and the gravitational fields of energies run through me, supporting me. If I do sustain an injury now, it is more likely to heal with greater ease and speed. My Structurally Integrated body knows what to do to find its optimal condition. That is true on other levels as well. Time and time again I have noticed the accelerated evolution of my clients as they spring into optimizing their potential as human beings. Dr. Rolf, the founder of Structural Integration, said that Structural Integration is not about fixing the body, it is about creating a greater human being.