First, and foremost, I’ve decided on a name for the new service. After many wonderful suggestions from the likes of you, as well as a fairly involved, slightly intoxicated debate with a bunch of people who had never been Rolfed, I’m happy to announcing the brand new Kick-Ass Rub! Thanks for all of the suggestions, input, and slightly inappropriate comments (you know who you are). I’m excited about the new session and now I’m excited about the name as well. Yay!
Speaking of excitement, Demo Day is tomorrow. Love those things. If you have someone in your life who’s been wanting to check out this Rolfing/SourcePoint thing as well as this Theresa Zordan person, this is the way to go. I still have a couple after-work appointments open, so have them give me a call (303-261-2568) or shoot me an email (t.zordan@gmail.com) to set up their 30 minute trial session for $10.
Okay, on to the learning bit. Let’s talk about Left-Right Balance (and Imbalance). I capitalized it to make it look important, but that’s just what I call it. Ideally, your body has this whole communication thing going on between your right side and your left side. Your two sides work together. Sometimes they work a little too well together, such as when you hurt your left shoulder and a little while later your right shoulder starts hurting as well. Really? Come on. Not cool, Body. But what’s more common in my office is a complete breakdown of communication between the two sides of the body. And I can spot it in the first 5 minutes of the first session. Now I’m going to teach you how to spot it as well.
In the first 5 minutes of a session, I ask people for their body history. Falls, accidents, surgeries, broken bones, problem areas, etc. The conversation, when there’s a significant lack of communication between the left side and the right side of the body (and therefore the brain), goes a little something like this.
Me: Which foot did you break?
Superstar Client: My right one, when I was 7.
Me: Oh, and your shoulder surgery in 2005, which shoulder was that?
SC: My right shoulder.
Me: Cool. And you have carpal tunnel in both wrists?
SC: No, just my right wrist.
Me: Oh, and you have TMJ?
SC: Yeah, my jaw pops on the right side.
You get the picture, right?
So, why does this sort of thing happen? Well, we have a chicken and the egg sort of situation here, and I certainly can’t tell you which came first. It’s possible that with the original injury to your right side, such as the broken foot when you were seven, you learned subconsciously, not to trust your right side. And since then, you’ve been paying a little less attention to that right side of yours. Therefore, you’re a little more accident prone on your right side. And the next time you get a bump or a bruise on your right side, it just reinforces your belief that you can’t trust your right side. So you put things you don’t like there, such as tension and stress and anger, all the while ignoring it a little more and a little more. Poor right side. It didn’t want to have a broken foot any more than you did, except for the cool cast for all your friends to sign.
The other option for how it all started is a bit more woo-woo and out there. But you know me, I’m a bit out there (not to mention woo-woo), so this is the one I like more. In this option, we look at why it was that you broke your right foot, and not your left, in the first place. Which brings us to theories about what the right side of your body means, and what the left side of your body means. Typically, the right side (of the body and left side of the brain) is associated with things like masculine energy, logical and rational thought, and generally a German way of operating (I’m German, I can say stuff like this). Get stuff done. Do step one, then step two, then step three. Dominate. Dictate. On the other hand (literally, ha!) the left side of the body (and right side of the brain) is generally associated with feminine energy, intuition, creativity, listening, and an Italian way of operating (I’m Italian, I can say this too). Go with your gut, listen to the universe, pay attention to signs and omens. Dance, draw, light a candle not for light or warmth, but for the beauty of it.
With this second, woo-woo option the interpretation can be a bit messy. For instance, are all of your injuries on the right side because you don’t trust the masculine forces in your life or in yourself? Are you uncomfortable operating from a place of logic as opposed to intuition? Or do you over-identify with the right side, relying on it too heavily, so that it can’t get the support it needs from the left? Don’t look at me. I don’t have any idea. But chances are, you do. And if you’re one of those people who suffers from Left-Right Imbalance (there, I did it again, doesn’t it look important?) maybe you could take a minute or two to think about your relationship with logic and intuition. Masculine and feminine. Talking versus listening. ‘Cause the thing is you need both. They were designed to work together. That’s why you have two hands, two eyes, and two legs. Just one would make things a little more difficult and a lot more unbalanced. Just a thought.