Introduction to Rolfing - I

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Feb 28, 2003

One evening after a long and seemingly unending day at school, what with term papers, research paper schedules, exams, quizzes and a teaching assistantship to boot, my friend Betty walked ...no... scuttled back to her student apartment all the while remotely aware of her strange gait. Ever the self-critic she might have spared her emotionally-spent self the many recriminations that sprung to mind. But nevertheless, she cursed all the way home.

For some years she had been noticing distinct changes in her stride and step on which she seemed to have no apparent control. One month it was the right shoulder drooping, two years later her left hip decides to help the former out; another passage of time and her chest hurts; give her some time again and she stops teasing her sister about those "old-woman" back pains. The worst of it all came the following morning when on her way out to school, as usual, her room-mate and friend helpfully volunteered, "Betts, there's something off about your butt in those jeans!" Oh horror of horrors!... noticed, someone noticed! Betty had taken to wearing loose shirts over all forms of lower body attire-pants, skirts, pajamas and on goes the list-because apparently her once proud posterior end had recently begun resembling two very sadly and badly dented cantaloupes; today her shirt was a tad short (I promise I had no idea of the history behind this unenviable, fructiferous outcome when I made that sincerely concerned comment).
"I wasn't always like this" she wanted to explain to her newly gained roommate and friend; "I was a born dancer, hurdler, skater, skier...all wrapped in one I'll have you know!" But who would believe her now she reckoned. I probably would not have but I do now (if you're out there somewhere Betty).

"I wasn't always like this"...how many of us do you think have said that to ourselves at some point in time? Alright!-there is no need to be literal you might have said something like," How did I get to be like this?" or " How did I get this way?" or "Who on God's earth would date a hunchback!" or any one of the many unoriginal commentaries we all spew forth which in essence mean all the same thing. There is an answer to it. It's time to think back-injuries, slouching, slumping, hunching, favoring (not really!) one foot over the other when holding up your weight-does any of it rush back into memory. Why? -because it matters, that's probably what disrupted the natural, balanced structure of your body and pulled your body parts quietly out of alignment all the while leaving you mystified about your metamorphosis into this hideously proportioned Gorgon! Of the many bodywork systems, Rolfing is one that seeks to restore the body back to its natural state of balance. Yes, there is hope (possibly for you too- of the "hunchback" exclaim!)

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