Moshe Feldenkrais once said "all negative emotions end in Flexion". What do the terms negative emotions or even flexion refer to? Feldenkrais was a Ukrainian/Israeli physicist who developed a system of subtle movement to help increase better functioning and self awareness. He and Ida Rolf were students of John G. Bennet who was a student of G.I. Gurdjieff. Both of these teachers expounded a system of development that starts from the idea that we are not conscious of ourselves through out the day but through the training of attention to our minds, bodies and emotions simultaneously we can cultivate the ability to be more conscious of ourselves. These ideas are embedded in the practices of Rolfing and Feldenkrais movement.
The term "negative emotions" will immediately evoke Gurdjieff's teaching to anyone who is familiar to it. Also referred to as "unpleasant emotions" they are classified as an automatic reaction to stimuli that causes us to be identified with something outside or even inside ourselves, and waist a good deal of our energy. Contrary to popular psychology, Gurdjieff said that these emotions have no objective usefulness and has his students try not to give immediate expression to negative emotions, but to struggle with them internally. Popular wisdom disagrees with this, but Gurdjieff never thought highly of modern psychology anyway. Whether or not you give this idea any credit, I think we can direct our attention to something more obvious. Unpleasant emotional reactions cause muscle tension in the body.
Flexion is defined as the natural movement of a joint to shorten the distance between the two bones that end in a joint. To do this the muscles associated with the joint need to shorten to pull it closed. To allow this, the opposing muscles, the extensors, need to lengthen to allow it. As Rolf often said "when the flexors flex, the extensors must extend". Although people do have issues with over active extensors too, more often than not the primary issue most people face over all is being stuck in a state of flexion in many of their joints. This not only amounts to bad posture, but a lot of unnecessary muscle tension.
Flexion is a natural protective action that we have inherited not only from our development from a fetus, it is something we share with the quadrupeds we have evolved from. In being upright beings, all of our vital organs and other important structures are along our front and easily exposed to danger. It is a nature reaction to stressors in the environment to flex and turn inward to protect our sensitive areas. In quadrupeds, these areas are more protected as they face the ground, but flexion, bringing their undersides low to the ground, bringing the head down and arching the back are all common protective mechanisms that we see in four legged creatures. Unfortunately, these all become habitual in humans who are not necessarily exposed to direct physical threat, but to stress, trauma and all sorts of less immediate danger.
Humans are upright beings, it is our birthright. If posture and habit do not allow us to stand up tall and not fold in on ourselves, then we have an unhealthy relationship with the world around us, both structurally and emotionally. As Rolfers, we only work with what we can touch, so the emotional elements that cause one to get stuck in unhealthy patterns are not within our realm of exploration, but addressing the physical restriction can affect the emotional. To walk around folded in on ourselves, not to stand upright and extend into the space around us, is to be stuck in a trauma response. The first step toward coming out of this trauma response is to bring one's awareness to oneself. The next step is to let go of unnecessary muscle tension, and the next step is to repeat the first two steps over and over again. A Rolfer can help with the unnecessary muscle tension that comes from restriction and lack of stability, but the rest is up to you.
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