This evening, I had my first rolfing session. It’s made such a positive impact that I would like to share about the series of 10 sessions that I’ve signed up for. Mind you, I’m not going to see a therapist in the traditional sense. First of all, this is to get me onto a permanent road to recovery from the accident - yet I’m finding that it’s going to and already has begun to help in many other ways.
As mentioned in the previous post, I’ve tried to recover through the typical ways. Muscle relaxers, pain medication, physical therapy, and so forth. As I was describing what I was going through with a friend, she recommended rolfing to me. What? Golfing, but with an “R”. She said that it’s the only thing that has helped her, with the added benefits of things like elongating her torso, giving her increased energy, and improved posture.
After talking to the lawyer on my case this past weekend about the fact that the physical therapy wasn’t working and I was going to try something else - because I really wanted to get better - I started looking into rolfing a little more seriously. Rolfing is bodywork, structural realignment, yoga done to your body (not yoga poses), restoring range of motion. I went looking for the best rolfers in the area - if I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, I at least wanted to make sure I was working with the best.
I made my appointment yesterday and met with the rolfer this evening after work. It was just a one-room office with a small lobby area. He provided a general overview of what rolfing is all about, that it would be good to dialogue during the session from both of us so that he knows how I’m feeling and he can explain to me what is going on too.
Was I scared? Kind of, but something in me trusted this process. Perhaps because for what I had already read of this, its technique really resonated with me - in getting to the root of the physical issues with the tissues, and also drawing out energy. What really interested me was that it re-aligns your body in such a way that helps it to heal itself - essentially getting gravity to work on our side. Right now we have pains, aches, etc. because of the pressure of gravity on these areas that are out of balance, if you will. Brought on by all kinds of things, over time, some that we might not even have realized had some kind of effect on us.
There was no massage work done. I can only describe it as pressure points applied to the tense areas within my muscles and tissue, focused stretching, and gentle turning. He explained it as responding to the density in my body, which would produce 3 potential different effects - feeling pain, feeling great, or feeling numb. It’s different for each person and depending on what they are dealing with. It provided much more relief than even the best massages I’ve had done though! My neck feels significantly “lighter” and more free even after just this first session. My back still hurts considerably right now from the day of sitting, but that wasn’t worked on today. Besides, good bed tonight!
What struck me the most throughout the process was how much of what he said resonated at my core, with the life realizations and deepening of understandings that have been going on over the past several months. In fact, I would not even really understand it at this level without all the prior experiences of my life up to this point. For instance - he mentioned how I was tensing up when he was trying to work on an area, as my body’s way of protecting itself. How interesting that we would try to protect ourselves from something that is supposed to help us? Even when we’re not happy with the way we are now (in this case, tense neck muscles), yet we are so used to it, so we condition ourselves to “deal” with it and in so doing prevent ourselves from fully living. Is not life the same? Completely relate-able to experiences that I’ve been through.
Another towards the end of the session was related to past physical injuries. You could apply this next part to emotional injuries as well. Following the accident I found that previous injuries from years ago were hurting too, strangely - a sprained ankle from college, bruised ribs from several years ago. His explanation was that when we’re hit with something, it sends a shockwave, and that shockwave will get to those weaker areas because they are easier. We often tend to try to just deal with it, and it stays unresolved within us. When something else comes up later, then those injuries resurface. I even noticed this on the flip side - for instance, unresolved issues I had from previous relationships (whether or not I realized they were unresolved - of course I never realized when I was in them) would resurface in other ways in new relationships. Only when I took the time to sit with myself, to know myself better, did this come to light more clearly. I have learned it is better to sort it out in taking time for myself than getting involved otherwise. Even if I might have initially felt I might be missing out on a great opportunity - it has proven to be worth it.
Rolfing connected on yet another level the integration I’ve been seeing happening in my life. I had begun to see it as it pertained to my work - not just the work work, but how what I learn in the corporate world I can apply to the service work, and vice versa. I began to see it on another level when almost all my circles came together at the recent retreat - it was difficult to say the least - but I came to see that this is how it’s meant to be, this sense of unity, community, inter-connectedness. This is what God wants for us.
The community one has been a lesson that has really challenged me. Oftentimes, when we have a conflict with someone, or don’t get along with someone, or something like that, we simply decide to give ourselves or the other person space. That it would be easier this way, to avoid whatever it is. Yet it goes back to the unresolved issue referenced before - I have seen it over and over again, it’s not the other person that was the issue, it was me. God was trying to show me something about myself, i.e. there was something that God wanted to tell me through my “allergy” to the other person, that I wasn’t facing. It’s easy for us though - we can just not show up at events, we can not talk to the person, we can do all kinds of things… and lo and behold, if we’re lucky, it resurfaces in other ways later on.
Rolfing has been another reminder - in fact a confirmation of sorts - of this lesson for me, that it’s precisely by facing/dealing with/walking through the fire, if you will - of the areas that challenge us the most, that we want to avoid - where we will get to the root of the issue, to the core of who we are, and essentially our truest, fullest peace, joy, and happiness. Everything has shown me precisely this - even movies like Inception and Down the Rabbit Hole, the only way out is to go deeper, the only way to get out is through. I am convinced now - there is no other way to get to the best of ourselves. Yet we try to avoid, avoid, avoid. We’re so conditioned in this way and don’t even realize it. We take other ways, perhaps easier ones, and we’re happy… and yet keeping ourselves from our fullest happiness often without even knowing it. I can only say this now looking back on experiences where I see now, I have done this more often than not.
There’s so much more I could write, but this is already so long. Besides, there are 9 more sessions to go. =) All the concepts behind rolfing are very simple - common sense so common that it seems elusive, he said. It’s almost like, “oh yeah” - yet, to get it, and to be able live it out - and live it out completely, are two entirely different things. We’re on our way.
