Everything, Everywhere,  All at Once

Yesterday’s session with Lois: Lois came in because she has a very bad left hip which is complicating her right hip. She had a left hip replacement which affected the iliotibial band on the left side.

In the past several months, she’s been getting pain in her right hip, and so she began favoring her left hip, putting more weight on the left leg and hip to favor or care for the right hip, thereby causing pain again on the left replaced hip. Suffice to say she is not bearing weight equally through her pelvis and therefore her legs.

In my lesson with her, I came away with the realization of “everything, everywhere, all at once.”

What does that mean? It means every movement affects everything, everywhere, all at once.  Nothing moves in an isolated way. There is a dynamic relationship between all of the parts.

In her case, if she is lengthening her right thigh by having her right foot standing on her left ankle (left knee is bent out to the left); and therefore opening her right hip joint, ideally the right side of her chest should open and widen. In other words there is a relationship between her chest and pelvis; that is, the turning of the pelvis to the left communicates itself to the chest.

In another movement variation, while Lois was sliding her head to the right and opening her right hip joint, she was shortening her chest – she was not allowing her chest to move the way it was designed to move. She was stuck in her habitual pattern of shortening her whole right side; and not allowing her chest to open to lengthen and widen.

She was performing a parasitic habitual movement instead of allowing her skeleton to guide her in an organic manner. No wonder when I first palpated, her legs initially felt leaden. She wasn’t engaging the proximal part of herself – her pelvis, hip joints and torso.

Feldenkrais used to say his Method will generalize to other aspects of your life.  And it does.

For instance I now cook better. Why? Because in the same way I move slowly, I cook slowly, usually on low heat, attend to the dish at hand constantly. And pay continuous attention to what I’m doing.

Feldenkrais used to say, ”whatever you do, you will do it better.” Meaning you will be a better parent, a better carpenter, or mathematician or physician, a better lover;  whatever.

Why?  Because when you bring all of yourself, to the task at hand and monitor your sensations internally as you approach whatever you do; you do it with more Awareness and therefore do it better; with more ease and comfort and skill.