We’re continuing our theme of sensing the skeleton this week, and will be looking at releasing the neck and shoulders. It’s a topic close to my heart, and that in a strange way started me on this journey towards Feldenkrais teaching.
When I lived in Holland, I had exhaustion from IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). After a long saga I’ll spare you, it was clear nothing was wrong that needed a doctor. So the doctor suggested going to see a bio-psychotherapist for a little while. (It doesn’t really translate, as it’s not something you’ll find much of in the UK. But a psychologist who also works with the body.)
My inability to digest was coming from the large amounts of anxious tension I was feeling all over my body. Except it was so normal for me, I couldn’t feel it. I didn’t know I was tense.
In sessions Monieke would put a stethoscope next to my bowels, attached to a speaker. A small one. Embarrassing at the start, but I became accustomed to it over time. Sessions started by talking, and then moved on to physical relaxation techniques.
Often starting in the neck. As she alleviated neck tension, I could literally hear the gurgling of my digestion starting up. (I now know that’s the parasympathetic system being able to kick in. It doesn’t work when we’re under duress, our energy is reserved for survival techniques.) As I lost excess tension, the gurgling crescendoed.
If she had only told me about the connection it wouldn’t have made sense. Insight is not the same as practical experience. It was only when tension was unwound that I could feel the immediacy of the connection to the digestion.
Understanding on its own wasn’t enough. I needed to be able to sense what I was doing, how I was holding my body. And to experience something new to realise it could be different. And then learn techniques to change it longer term.
The Moving Brain, Emma Alter Feldenkrais 