Working on the Dog

I love taking my dog for a walk. It's our time to connect, explore and enjoy a short journey. I use this time to keep my human brain active by watching Cali walk. My eyes are first drawn to the contra lateral movement of her spine. The spiraling, zig-zag of movement that makes her belly swing from side to side as if unattached to the hind legs or shoulders. I am always thrown into baffling amazement when I scan down to her hips and watch three-dimensionality expressed. Every axis of space is occupied by a rhythmic, precise movement that somehow does not belong to the rest of the dog. Yet here she is walking beside me tung flapping in the wind, lips pulled back resembling a smile, eyes squinting in the sun. Now, the Cali-Girl's head..... Sometimes it bounces up and down, other times it is perfectly still. The stillness does not denote the fact that the rest of the dog is moving in so many directions at once, spirals, zig-zags, prancing legs, sauntering shoulders, whipping tail, heaving chest. Cali's movement is non inhibited, coordinated perception. She is just being. Totally unaware or concerned with how she looks, weather she is doing it right, good enough or not, successful enough, etc. Freedom. 

This has taught me how to watch humans walk with more precision. We move with a lot more restriction than most dogs. We hold ourselves still in many parts of our bodies. Men don't sway there hips. Women don't lift there chests. Our hips move in as many axis of space as my dog but we choose one over the others and commit to it as if this were the law of survival. If I dare to mimic what it is that I am seeing on the streets I have to pull myself in very tight, rigid, erect, tucked under, collapsed. And when I do this I can feel that I am using a lot of my energy reserve. I can feel that my body is not in harmony with my environment. And if I remain in this restriction for any length of time my mind begins to become rigid as well. I am a little less forgiving. I find myself reacting to things that I do not wish to pay mind to. Stress adheres to me instead of deflecting off of me. 

Is this what most of the world lives in on a daily basis? 

Massage

I get bodywork once every two to three months. That seams to be the length of time it takes stress to sink it's way into my tissue and mess me up.  The modalities that I choose to receive are either Rolfing or Cranio Sacral. The person I receive Rolfing from was unavailable when I requested an appointment. I am new to Costa Mesa and do not know a reputable CranioSacral therapist, so I agreed to do a trade with a massage therapist near me. I've learned a very valuable lesson.

I want to preface my story with a plug on massage.

I use to be a massage therapist and I believe that massage is a very therapeutic modality. More people should seek out its relaxation and circulitory benefits.  I think it would help bring happiness and health to the country. With that said.........

I set up an appointment with a massage therapist, actually a trade. The massage was lengthy, lasting well over 90 minutes. It was an overall good relaxing massage, but honestly I should have told the therapist at times that the touch was too deep but I with-held and I paid for it the day after. I left the office feeling like I was on a cloud and there was a clear separation between myself and the world. I like to feel that way. But by the next morning I felt irritable, achy, feverish and like I would rather stay in bed than do anything.  

I spent the entire day listening to my body complain. Some would say that my body was processing out toxins. I am healthy and clean. I've spent the last 21 years healing the past in my body, mind and spirit. The idea of transference came into my thoughts more than once during that day, but I paid it no mind.

For twenty four hours I felt badly. My body began to loose adaptability and I was no longer able to find ideal posture in gravity. This progressed slowly and steadily over the course of seven days. I finely could not bear the direction I was going any longer and went in to receive a Rolfing session. It was while on the table receiving work that I realized, the healthier therapist heals the other; even if the more healthy of the two is the receiver.  

Holistic Practitioners provide a wonderful service to the world. Even when you have to listen to your body complain, see yourself slipping down the hill to learn one of the most important elements to bare in mind while facilitating healing for someone....Transference.