Healing My Back - I Researched and Then I Did Nothing
This weekend I sat down and watched YouTube videos on healing a bad back. It was informative. It was interesting. I learned some things.
I also did some self-assessments and wrote down what I found. I felt like I was writing massage therapy notes again... Old hat and all that...
"HT BL piriformis more on L side. Lat. rotated R shoulder..."
Etcetera, etcetera...
via GIPHY (This cat didn't ask her client for permission to massage the belly. Bad cat!)
Then, I looked at my book on Somatics by Thomas Hanna...
I watched some Feldenkrais videos...
...and I tried to figure out how to do things that won't make my EDS worse...
I researched. I developed. I planned.
And then I did nothing.
My plan was to start with the somatics book... I would skim the chapters on how exactly somatics is supposed to work and then I would spend the next 8 days working through the 8 outlined lessons.
From there, the plan was vague, mostly because I realized that I have a lot more research to do, and then I got overwhelmed... Overwhelmed with all the billions of next steps and questions and lack of structure after the somatics step.
There is no way I can find THE path to healing my back in only one month or three weeks or whatever.
My situation is complicated. My body is a bitch that just doesn't want to cooperate. I need to talk nice to it. I need to approach it slowly, like one would an abused animal. I need to woo it with treats and take my time, hoping to win it over. This process is not going to be figured out over night.
That's why the somatics approach is good, it's gentle, it's subtle, it's quiet. Somatics and Feldenkrais are both methods of increasing subtle body awareness. The methods effectively reawaken the body to itself. The side effects are relaxed muscles, increased ease of movement, and the decrease of pain for many practitioners of these methods.
I considered following the Feldenkrais videos on YouTube, but I've been carrying around the Hanna Somatics book for a few years now, and I figured I should put it to good use, if only to justify its existence on my bookshelf.
I've been feeling kind of bad for not jumping in with the somatics lessons this week, but I decided that it's okay for my challenge to get a bit of a wonky start this month. I began late and I wasn't completely clear about what I should do. I needed this week to realize that I was taking on too much - as I do - and that it is entirely OK for me to focus solely on learning the Hanna Somatics method from my book for the rest of the month, instead of trying to pile a bunch of other exercises and approaches to my healing process.
I know somatics works, because I used similar methods when I was practicing massage, and I've done some of the exercises before. After doing somatics, I have always felt like I'd just come away from a chiropractic visit - nice and aligned.
What I'm missing, is a deeper understanding of the "what, why, and how" and I don't have a sense of structure around what an ongoing practice would look like. That's why I like the idea of working through the Hanna book. Somatics will become a tool that I can more consciously use, like the qigong practices that I learned last month.
So that's it for now. I've begun reading the chapters on "what and why" and I will start working through the somatics lessons soon.
I'll probably jump on here at some point to bore you with an update.
You're welcome.
I also did some self-assessments and wrote down what I found. I felt like I was writing massage therapy notes again... Old hat and all that...
"HT BL piriformis more on L side. Lat. rotated R shoulder..."
Etcetera, etcetera...
via GIPHY (This cat didn't ask her client for permission to massage the belly. Bad cat!)
Then, I looked at my book on Somatics by Thomas Hanna...
I watched some Feldenkrais videos...
...and I tried to figure out how to do things that won't make my EDS worse...
I researched. I developed. I planned.
And then I did nothing.
My plan was to start with the somatics book... I would skim the chapters on how exactly somatics is supposed to work and then I would spend the next 8 days working through the 8 outlined lessons.
From there, the plan was vague, mostly because I realized that I have a lot more research to do, and then I got overwhelmed... Overwhelmed with all the billions of next steps and questions and lack of structure after the somatics step.
 |
| Are we to the download is straight into the brain part yet? (source: CollegeDegrees360) |
There is no way I can find THE path to healing my back in only one month or three weeks or whatever.
My situation is complicated. My body is a bitch that just doesn't want to cooperate. I need to talk nice to it. I need to approach it slowly, like one would an abused animal. I need to woo it with treats and take my time, hoping to win it over. This process is not going to be figured out over night.
That's why the somatics approach is good, it's gentle, it's subtle, it's quiet. Somatics and Feldenkrais are both methods of increasing subtle body awareness. The methods effectively reawaken the body to itself. The side effects are relaxed muscles, increased ease of movement, and the decrease of pain for many practitioners of these methods.
 |
| Oops! I got too close to my own body. Okay, okay, I'm backing away very, very slowly... (source: Piet Bakker) |
I considered following the Feldenkrais videos on YouTube, but I've been carrying around the Hanna Somatics book for a few years now, and I figured I should put it to good use, if only to justify its existence on my bookshelf.
I've been feeling kind of bad for not jumping in with the somatics lessons this week, but I decided that it's okay for my challenge to get a bit of a wonky start this month. I began late and I wasn't completely clear about what I should do. I needed this week to realize that I was taking on too much - as I do - and that it is entirely OK for me to focus solely on learning the Hanna Somatics method from my book for the rest of the month, instead of trying to pile a bunch of other exercises and approaches to my healing process.
 |
| This is what the ideas in my head look like. Time to Konmari that shit. (source: Kevin Utting) |
I know somatics works, because I used similar methods when I was practicing massage, and I've done some of the exercises before. After doing somatics, I have always felt like I'd just come away from a chiropractic visit - nice and aligned.
What I'm missing, is a deeper understanding of the "what, why, and how" and I don't have a sense of structure around what an ongoing practice would look like. That's why I like the idea of working through the Hanna book. Somatics will become a tool that I can more consciously use, like the qigong practices that I learned last month.
So that's it for now. I've begun reading the chapters on "what and why" and I will start working through the somatics lessons soon.
I'll probably jump on here at some point to bore you with an update.
You're welcome.
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