Gnarled oak or creaking gate?
Which would you rather be, a gnarled oak or a creaking gate? A gnarled oak can continue to flourish, bent over, for hundreds of years. A creaking gate gets creakier every time someone lifts it up and moves it. If I had to make the choice, I know what I would choose.
More than that, a gnarled oak magically sprouts mighty new growth, just by being itself.
But what’s this got to do with straightening a bent back?
How not to straighten a bent back
If your back is bent and you continually try to force it straight, you actually re-enforce both the muscular pulls that are bending your back and the habits that produce those muscular pulls. The more you try to straighten up, the more crooked you’ll end up.
Instead, you need to be yourself and listen to the inner forces that know how to grow you into what you are meant to be.
Find yourself
Because if you don’t listen to those inner forces, that essence of you-ness, you will be trying to please everyone who comes along and tries to tell you what’s good for you. Every time you listen to them, you’ll end up falling a bit lower, a bit more out of tune with your real self.
So don’t struggle like a creaking gate, soon destined for the farmyard bonfire. Be a gnarled oak. Enjoy feeling little buds develop into wide, strong new branches.
Next: Why must you do semi-supine if you want to improve quickly?
Further Resources
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When you join, you will:–
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If you’re further away and can’t get to Liverpool
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- I suggest you also do the things I listed above for everyone:–
- Read my weekly articles
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Next: Why must you do semi-supine if you want to improve quickly?
This blog post makes for fascinating reading.
http://blog.goethe.de/tanz-de-ca/index.php?/archives/44-Dr.-Josef-Ilmberger.-Dance-is-conducive-to-the-postural-sway.html
Okay, Katja, here’s a challenge. Write another post that brings out the connections you can see between my post and swaying and dancing.
The underlying idea in both cases is that posture is a dynamic and not a static process and that it involves continual subtle corrections. The dance article shows that sway is a necessary component of postural adjustment and that healthy people have a complex sway pattern. Both articles point out that the static balance of inanimate objects is an inappropriate model.