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Get Out of (Your Own!) Way

© Robert Rickover

A man and his little girl were working in his garden. The girl was put in charge of watering the plants. All went well for awhile when suddenly she cried out, "Daddy, there's no more water!" The man turned to where she was standing and noticed that the child had inadvertently put one of her feet on the hose. "Just take your foot off the hose," he called out. She removed her foot and the water again flowed freely.

Then, after a few more minutes she cried "The water has stopped again!" A quick glance revealed that she had now put her other foot on the hose. The father once again said "Just take your foot off the hose." The girl did so and all went well for the rest of the day.

When it comes to physical fitness and well-being, we sometimes act like that little girl: We inadvertently block the free expression of own bodies with excess tension habits that we've acquired over a lifetime. And then, instead of standing back for a moment to examine just how we are restricting ourselves - and how we can release those restrictions - we plunge into exercises and fitness programs that leave the underlying tension patterns untouched.

Actually, it's worse than that because these new, usually quite vigorous, activities that we undertake in order to improve our situation are performed using the very tension patterns that led us to want to change. Indeed, these new activities often cause us to tense even more; we tend to exaggerate our worst posture and movement patterns when we increase our level of exertion.

You can easily see what I'm talking about by watching joggers or runners in your neighborhood. More often than not, you'll see tense necks, tight shoulders and pained looks on their faces. If you look at the same people when they're walking or doing other ordinary activities, those patterns will still be there, but in a much less extreme form.

So, what's the way out of this dilemma? Well, just like the little girl in the story, there's a lot to be said for learning how to get out of our own way. The girl had a wise adult to advise her and she merely had to follow instructions and get off the hose.

With us, the situation is not quite so simple. We need to learn how to say "no" to what are often fairly complex and deep-rooted tension patterns - patterns that usually feel "right" because we've been creating them for such a long time. And this is not an easy task to undertake on one's own.

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