Pisa Update!

So, you ask, what’s with the Leaning Tower of Pisa?

Did you know that by 1990 the Pisa tower was leaning by nearly 4 ½ meters off center.  Scientists have so far removed a small amount of soil from the base and the structure came back nearly 2 ½ centimeters.  Centimeters!?  They plan to remove 50 cubic meters more of soil and expect that this will cause it to come back another ½ meter.  This is predicted to add another 350 years to the tower’s life!

If you look at your body in basic architectural terms…compared to a simple vertical line… how do you stack up?  If you visited Pisa, would you blend in?  Does your body look more like a question mark than an exclamation point?  Are you zagging when you want to be zigging?  If you followed your nose would you be going uphill or down? Should we call the Ministry of Silly Walks?  If you were a pizza, would the topping slide off?  Does the girl next door like you just the way you are?…Next door!  Huh, bunky?

Seriously, how our bodies stack up in the earth’s energy field, gravity, makes a lot a difference in the quality of our health and aliveness. We mostly don’t pay much attention to this “gravity factor” in our day-to-day living.  Unless, if we accidentally drop something or have a spill; then, gravity asserts itself quickly and quite emphatically.  So as we age we find ourselves too quickly breaking down and in need of all kinds of unnecessary outside supports.  We live below our normal potentials.

Good news!  We have choice.  And it’s right at hand.  Now, just to do it!  Synchronizing yourself with the earth’s great energy field is easy.  Stand up straight, already.  Sit upright; with dignity.  Move consciously and be present to the simple messages gravity is giving you in your felt sense of things.   Like mamma said, “don’t slouch.

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Rolfer Montclair, New Jersey
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Gravity and Aging…

Word “Up”!

My approach to health is based on balance.  Balance in gravity.  I’m also for everybody using the resources at hand to empower and enrich their lives. As Henny Youngman might say…”Take gravity, please.”

Dr. Ida P. Rolf saw chronic symptoms such as pain and stress, fatigue, poor self-image, early aging as “…signals pointing to a single problem so prominent in their own structure, as well as others, that it has been ignored.  They are at war with gravity.”  She developed an approach that offers personal assistance to individuals to live effortlessly upright, stress free, and supported by the energy field of the earth itself. 

Imagine that.  Talk about deep ecology! The force of gravity itself is a vast untapped natural resource for human health and wellness.  An old friend of mine recently (finally!) got it about gravity and said, “It’s amazing that with all the interest in ecology and natural living nobody’s talking about gravity.”  (Much less doing anything with it, I would add.)  We certainly wouldn’t buy that house if the foundation was off and the walls were cracking.  Or drive down the street with our front end out of alignment.  At Pisa I’ll let you take my picture next to the tower; but, no way am I going up there.  But when it comes to our own physical architecture--how our bodies stack up--we don’t look at our own stance in gravity.  My friend suggested that I write a piece on “gravity and aging”. So here we are. Thanks, buddy. 

There is a problem with talking about gravity as such. Gravity is the most prominent physical force the body has to deal with.  It is also so constant and ubiquitous a presence in our life that it’s not noticed.  Perhaps we’re reminded of its being there when we drop something or take a spill ourselves.  Mainly it doesn’t register.  It’s as if you asked a fish, “how’s the water?”  “What water?”  Imagine if human beings were adapted to gravity to the same degree as the fish are to the sea.  If dolphins can leap into the air, what can you imagine humans could leap into?  Art Bell listeners, stay tuned. 

So what about gravity and aging, you ask?  Simply this…doesn’t it make just plain common sense that if you are not spending energy keeping yourself up, keeping yourself together, that you have more of it for living?  You got to be in it to win it, though.  And when your body is in balance along the lines of gravity you will discover its inner secret:  It uplifts you.  It is supportive, nourishing.  It energizes. You feel great.  You live well.  And you last longer too.

 

Now that you’re all convinced that you should have more gravity in your life, now what to do?  (While I offer clients personal assistance to balance their bodies along the simple lines of gravity, my aim in writing this is to give some pointers that will get you started.  Should you want a helping hand, there are qualified practitioners in my field and in so many others that you can call on.)  My Rx: This may seem a little strange to you at first; but you gotta try it.  Just like when you drive your car you pay attention to the road (unless you’re one of those with a cell phone glued to your ear), so from now on—are you ready--feel your feet.   That’s right, feel your feet. 

Your feet are the foundation of your body, literally.  By always feeling your feet you will start creating the habit of paying attention to your body.  Such mindfulness will become an ingrained habit. It will grow to the point where you will become conscious of the felt sense of your whole body and the feelings that are moving through it.  That’s when you will also be able to be aware of the signals your body gives when it is out of balance in gravity or any other way.  Then you can make the necessary adjustments yourself. Comfortable, relaxed is the hallmark of living in balance. It’s in you. Go there.

Rolfing New Jersey
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Rolfing Montclair, New Jersey
Rolfer Montclair, New Jersey
Structural Integration Montclair, New Jersey

Don’t Let

The Forecasted Earth Polar Shift

Find You

Standing Beside Yourself

               

I am not at all an expert on the subject of the predicted earth polar shift. That notwithstanding, they have been known to happen, you know. And the New Age community is expecting a doozey to mark the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 as a historically memorable event. We’ll see. Let’s just say the word on the street is—if you want to retire to ocean front property— Phoenix, Arizona is a good long term bet.

However, I do wonder what it would be like to wake up one day after a sudden and dramatic polar shift has occurred. Would I automatically roll out of bed? Would I find everything leaning sideways?  Would the syrup pour into my coffee cup instead of my pancakes? Sort of, like…looking down at the Empire State Building from 30 Rock. Or…finding the Leaning Tower of Pisa straight and everything around it leaning? (What I call the “Pisa Effect.”) If all our familiar landmarks, large and small, became unexpectedly topsy-turvy would we be able to find our balance? Or would we get dizzy and stumble around?  Would we know where we were…who we are?

Here’s a concrete example of what I’m talking about: I was once visiting the town of Ayr in Scotland (where our dear Robby Burns was born—eat more haggis!).  Not far from there is a local curiosity known as the ”Electric Brae” (hill).  I was in an automobile and it appeared that we were going uphill.  My driver stopped the car, put it in neutral, and (wow-wee-wow!) the car slowly moved forward, up that hill!  Click your heels three times if you believe in magic!  As for me…my best scientific analysis is that we were really pointed downhill but the local features somehow made it appear otherwise.  Search “electric brae” on the web if you want to learn more.  But first please read the rest of this. Okay? 

We all implicitly know that because of gravity, our feet go toward the ground and the rest of us points upward. (Just like we know that our nose is not 12 inches long; or it would be a “foot”.)  The point I am gradually working to is this:  are you centered within yourself or do you rely on outer references to such an extent that, were the familiar changed or taken away, would you be upset, lost, without bearing. Beside yourself. Literally.

In my field called Structural Integration we are mainly concerned with relating the body to gravity.  If you take a look at your own body and of those around you, notice how you and others stack up in terms of the architectural fundamentals of plumb and square.  When the human body synchronizes in balance with gravity this is a place of deep centeredness, firm rootedness, presence.  Your sense of who you are comes from an inner knowing rather than identification with circumstances, roles, and relationships. Realizing a proper balance with the inner and the outer.

When the boys from the hood ask you “wussup?” I can give them a sly smile and point upwards.  And that’s without having to figure out “up” from checking with the nearest lamp post.

Rolfing New Jersey
Rolfer New Jersey
Structural Integration New Jersey
Rolfing Montclair, New Jersey
Rolfer Montclair, New Jersey
Structural Integration Montclair, New Jersey