Seven years have passed since the encounter with Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, one lineage within yoga (on that encounter, see “How I Found Yoga — Exercise, Habit, and the Long First Step“). Bodily sensation sharpened through the practice; at the same time, two or three years in, something else came into view. Effort was entering the shoulders and neck, and in forward bends and backbends the body showed its rigidity.
Two questions followed:
- How do the postures improve?
- How does one apply effort, and release it?
Pursuing these questions brought bodywork into the practice.
There was a period of attending Under the Light Yoga School (Yoyogi, Tokyo, Japan), in order to encounter lineages outside Ashtanga — Iyengar, Yin, and Restorative yoga. The RYT200 teaching certification came out of that, in February 2013.
From February 2013, an Alexander Technique teacher came to my house once a month for a workshop. The Alexander approach attends to the relation between head and spine, on this understanding: the skull presses down on the spine, and out of that come stiff shoulders, a stiff neck, and a range of other troubles; stop the pressing, and the troubles resolve. There was also a period of attending Body Chance, the Alexander Technique school directed by Jeremy Chance.
The Alexander work produced its own results, and the postures deepened considerably. Rolfing came into view as an extension of that.
December 23, 2013. At a party celebrating the wedding of a friend living in Italy, an encounter occurred with Akinori Ito, one of the practitioners who work with Rolfing.
Some of the background was already familiar. Through the Noh performer Noboru Yasuda’s Yurumete Reset: Rolfing Kyōshitsu (only in Japanese) and Yasushi Fujimoto’s Karada no Home Position (only in Japanese), it was known that the method carries the name Rolfing because it was developed by Ida Rolf, a doctor of biochemistry (on the contents of these books, see “On Rolfing (1) — Books Worth Recommending When Explaining Rolfing to Clients”). It was known, too, that working through the fascia offers a way of releasing the body.
Some kind of connection. A booking was made with Ito on the spot, and the first session took place on December 29, 2013.
What changed in the first session was the breath. It grew deeper. The effect was there to feel.
Ten sessions followed at a pace of one per week — three Sleeve sessions, four Core sessions, three integration sessions. The tenth finished on March 2, 2014. Settling into the body took a little time, but the stiffness in the neck and shoulders that had troubled me for so long largely resolved. Walking changed as well: the hip joints came into use, and effort dropped out of the gait. There was a sense of the upper and lower body connecting, an emerging grasp of how effort leaves the body, and a new pleasure in sitting in a chair and in moving.
The effect on the yoga postures was substantial. On April 28, 2014, Kapotasana — one of the difficult backbending postures of Ashtanga, out of reach for two and a half years — became available. The heels came within reach of the hands, and the strain went out of the posture.
What is remarkable about Rolfing is that it concentrates into ten sessions of ninety minutes each and then ends. Afterward, no particular practice is required; gravity handles matters. In direct experience, some time after the sessions closed, not only did the stiff shoulders and lower-back pain improve, but a range of other benefits appeared in the body.
“Someday I want to study this. I want to acquire it myself.”
That thought arrived around the time work reached a natural pause (touched on in “The Decision and What Comes Next”).
Taking an extended leave to face myself, and deciding to pursue certification as a Rolfer — where this will take a life remains unknown. It stands as a challenge.
In her 2008 Harvard commencement address, the author of the Harry Potter books closed with a line worth carrying: what matters in a life, as in a tale, is not its length but its quality.
Once around, and only once. That is the kind of life worth wanting.