Answer lies in how you act.
Healing the back is like unravelling a tangle of knots. When you try to release a single thread from the snarl, you soon realize you gain nothing by force- ful pulling. You need another strategy. It might be better to find the patience to observe one thing in relation to the other, to trace the uniqueness of each knot.You try first to pull the thread that gives easily, and at the same time you follow the effects as it drags through the whole tangle. You do this gen- tly so that you can stop at any moment and circumvent further entangle- ment. Or you can retract and try another direction, taking into account what you observe in the changing configuration. The subtlety of your movements as you undertake this open-ended maneuver is what ensures your success.![]()
Geoff McFetridge: Us As A Pattern (Copyright © Geoff McFetridge, 2014)
There is an old tale that describes a test of character put to a prospec- tive bride on her visit to the home of her intended bridegroom's parents. She is given a tangled ball of thread to unravel, and asshe works at the task she reveals her qualities: sensitivity of touch, resourcefulness, the fidelity to inner grace which avoids impatient confrontation, the ability to breathe through frustration and derive from it more ideas for solution.You need this intelligent state of mind when you come to unravel the knot in your back. Blind obedience to standard exercises which lack creative exploration will leave your back in an endless struggle. Surely you are famil- iar with the frustration that comes from performing exercises that are meant to help you, but which leave you in greater pain, despite your faithful per- severance.
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Geoff McFetridge: A Different Kind Of Understanding (Copyright © Geoff McFetridge, 2018)
Possibly the answer lies not in the kind of exercises, not in the config- urations they outline, not even in the wisdom behind their design, but rather in the manner in which you execute them.
Should you seek to rehabilitate your aching back through imitation based on borrowed theories, you relin- quish your individual sensitivity to all that is special about you, missing the unique and subtle sensations within yourself-sensations that change moment by moment-and only they can guide you in the discernment of the bound- aries safe for you, the limit beyond which you can do yourself harm. When you aren't attentive to your own inner Signals, you become more vulnera- ble to recurring injury, like a person lost in the dark.Geoff McFetridge: It’s Not Getting Worse It’s A Loop (Copyright © Geoff McFetridge, 2020)
It's amazing to what extent people are willing to follow strict, demand- ing, mechanical instructions, exercising dutifully each day, trying hard to do their best, carrying out directions as strongly and as quickly as possible, without considering the sacrifice of so much labor and the meagerness of the results. Some people are willing to invest any effort and pay any price to be free of back pain, except for this one thing: they are unwilling to give their full attention to themselves, to look inward and communicate patient- ly and kindly with their body.
超个人心理学｜具身现象学｜身心学 | soulwork｜生·活
