We all want to do better in life, and that includes our own health and well being. We want to push ourselves to achieve our goals. Everyone knows there needs to be friction to create a fire, but what we overlook is that there also needs to be enough space for the fire to breathe or the flame will extinguished. In terms of or health and performance, both in everyday activities and with exercise, we see the need for improvement, which can only come from a higher degree of balance and order. Injuries can not heal and problems can not right themselves until there is enough support and rest, the conditions have to be right. When the balance of our bodies is compromised by unnecessary strain, we do not have the time to heal, and over time this can lead to frustration and even resentment. How can the body thrive under an attitude of resentment?
For change to occur there must first be an awareness of our current situation. Not just an intellectual awareness, not just an idea but an ongoing real time awareness that revolves around being in moments of direct sensation, being able to feel oneself, our issues, the relationship with the whole in action and at rest. There needs to be cultivated an attention to the body that does not react nor interfere. In the west we are accustomed to fighting what we do not like, and that extends to the self. We see slogans like "Fuck Cancer!" (Please pardon my Anglo Saxon). We probably all have friends and loved ones affected by cancer, naturally we hate it, but how can healing occur under an attitude of hate when it is really only love and nurturing that can produce healing and growth. Everyone knows that plants and animals do not thrive in an environment of anger. When we hate our injuries, our sickness, our condition, we direct that hatred inward to ourselves.
Change toward greater balance can not occur without self awareness and that requires our attention to be directed our bodies, at rest and in action. Attention to the sensation of our bodies invokes and sustains presence. Done with an attitude of acceptance, rather than the violence of wanting things to be different, that will allow the space that will create an attitude conductive for health and healing, this will allow change. Attention, consciousness and being present to sensation is the food that will nourish the nervous system and allow for a higher degree of order to begin to take place. This is exactly
what we are trying to accomplish with Rolfing, the Rolfer can only assist in the process. A fire can not take place without the space and air it needs to burn. Attention and acceptance is the space for this inner fire of change, not easy by any means, but it is essential.
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