In session 8, the two Girdles — the shoulder girdle (around the scapulae, clavicles, and sternum) and the pelvic girdle (around the pubis, sit bones, and ilium) — are approached and organized so that they can move freely in continuity with each other. The shoulder girdle and the pelvic girdle form the foundation, respectively, for the movement of the upper limbs (shoulder–elbow–hand) and the lower limbs (thigh–shin–foot).
In session 9, the body is organized so that it can move with continuity all the way out to the tips of the upper limbs and the ends of the lower limbs. The greatest ideal is to become able to move smoothly without being conscious of the pelvis or the shoulders. In class, this is expressed as the ideal of the pelvic girdle and the shoulder girdle becoming transparent (invisible).
Before entering session 9, it became clear that, despite the neck tension having eased, the balance between left and right within the vestibular sense was disturbed. How far can this be addressed in the remaining two sessions?
Also before entering session 9, an interesting exercise to test the vestibular sense was done.
- With eyes closed, rotate the body left and right several times.
- With eyes closed, bring the feet together following a partner’s guidance.
- Thrust both hands forward.
- Move the feet quickly, alternating left and right.
On opening the eyes, it turned out that the left foot leaned forward and the right foot backward, and that there was no strength in the right axis. Looking at how I appear in photographs, my face often tilts to the left. It became clear that there was a problem not only in the vestibular sense but in the right axis.
Furthermore, lying supine and observing how the left and right feet and hands move in coordination, it turned out that:
- Left foot–right hand: force enters easily and tension arises easily.
- Right foot–left hand: force enters with difficulty and tension arises with difficulty; from the right foot up to the right shoulder, there is tension in the pelvis and shoulder, and the flow is stagnant.
As something I feel in daily yoga practice, there is a tendency to use the right hand strongly and the left hand weakly. I think this has an influence.
First, sitting on a chair and, with the help of the practitioner’s hands, spreading the sit bones to free the sacrum further — beginning from there, a movement was done of lengthening from the sit bones up from around the sternum to the head, without being conscious of the abdominal muscles.
Next, lying on the bed with one side of the body down (right side down, left side up), the fascial tension from the toes to the sit bones and pelvis was released, and the awareness connecting the chest and the hand was organized. On the opposite side, the same procedure was done, with treatment moving the hand while stimulating smell, hearing, and sight (the way this released the force in the hand was a surprise).
Lying supine, the fascia from the thoracic vertebrae along the spine was lengthened, and the AO joint behind the cranium was released.
A sense of discomfort in the neck remained on the left side, but the feeling of blockage in the chest disappeared, and the openness grew larger still. The connection from the sit bones to the head became more sensible. Also, that it became possible to walk without being conscious, to some degree, of the pelvic girdle and the shoulder girdle, is significant.
The cause of the imbalance in the vestibular sense is unknown, but how far can Rolfing address it? I look forward to it, along with the final session, session 10.
Note, August 2026
The left–right difference recorded here is a trace that yoga practice left in the body. Using the right hand strongly and the left hand weakly — after nearly ten years of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga at that point, that pattern of use had settled into the body as an asymmetry.
In the entry on session 5 (the psoas major), traces of yoga appeared in the abdominal muscles and the psoas, and the fact that the front of the body alone would not release it became a concrete instance of Palintonicity. What appeared in this entry might be called the upper-limb version of the same thing. Left foot–right hand: force enters easily. Right foot–left hand: it does not. The diagonal lines held different qualities on the two sides.
At the time I wrote that there was no strength in the right axis, and left the cause unexplained. Looking back eleven years later, this was not a problem confined to one side; it appeared as a difference in the quality of diagonal continuity. That session 9 was the session addressing continuity out to the tips of the upper limbs and the ends of the lower limbs corresponds precisely to what is described here. It was not that a left–right difference became visible, but that the diagonal lines were the place where a left–right difference would appear — that is the order of things.
Yoga asanas are arranged to be performed evenly on both sides. Asymmetry remains nonetheless, because an evenly arranged sequence is received by an asymmetrical body. In the writing from this period, the recognition that some things are not resolved by the quantity of practice is already present, in a form that has not yet become language.