So yoga has been an
amazing tool for me to do uh-LOT of self-reflection, self-correction and
self-healing (sounds pretty self-absorbed, but it's all for the greater good!).
With yoga as a pathway, I've significantly transformed my life from my career
to personal relationships. (Always a work in progress!!)
As a professional yoga
instructor trying to make ends meet solely through teaching, I have been
struggling with my personal practice - just as I feared I would when
considering such a dramatic career shift! The challenge is to maintain a
personal practice while teaching sometimes as many as 25 classes per
week!
I've re-committed to my
mat, and I am currently on Day 96 of 365 days of yoga. I've slowly rekindled my
love and passion for this wonderful gift of yoga. However ... I am at a solid
plateau both on my mat and off. Not only has my practice stagnated, but I've
gained 25 pounds as a professional yoga instructor! I haven't weighed this much
since 2005.....
So, I'm at a point where
I am ready to bust out of my plateau and I am fully aware that I need some
assistance. More and more I am aware that life will unfold as it damn well
pleases and I have very little control over the outcomes. This lesson has
taught me to be open to all possibilities and options.
Enter Eunju Choi - an
amazing student and now friend who had literally been -- I hate to say
pestering -- pestering me about this bodywork she was having done and
how amazing it is in terms of releasing. For those that don't practice
yoga, it's ALL about the RELEASE. Letting go of tightness, judgement, self-consciousness
and whatever else we've stuffed into our bodies. Apparently she had been
talking to her body work guy about me as well describing the type of
energy releases she had been experiencing in my class.
After many months, Eunju
gave me a book that was sent from Everett Ogawa, her body work dude. I
read the book within one night - it described the method and gave several
case studies. I was intrigued and went in for a free intro session. I posted a
bit on FB about that first session. Indescribable how amazingly open and light
and free I felt. Everett said that it was a teaspoon of the full bodywork
sessions.
So needless to say, I am
IN!
Tuesday was my first of
TEN bodywork sessions with Everett Ogawa of Integral Bodywork. Integral Bodywork® is a transformational method of
hands-on bodywork that seeks to restore an individual's structural integrity
through release of the body's matrix of connective tissue.
So
thinking of your muscles as a micro system in your body and your
connective tissues as the macro system. This work seeks deep access and release
of connective tissues. It's the same exact concept as a Yin/Restorative
yoga practice; however, with much deeper releases and immediate
results.
Let me
preface this by saying this is WORK. There is extreme sensation involved,
sometimes even pain; so this type of body work is realistically for very
few people who are interested in clearing the clutter and psychological and
emotional crap and feeling the free flow of energy in their bodies. Not for
everyone! This first session was more than two hours but felt like 8.
So Session
One started with some basic neck stretches and some psoas release to create
some space in my pelvic area.
Then I
laid on my right side and he started working the entire illiotibial (IT) band,
the entire length of my outer leg. He put deep pressure in various points
starting from my outer hip. Once he got in deep, I would flex my knee
then straighten it and extend from the top of my thigh through my heel
while he dug in and lengthened the bunched connective tissues. BLOODY HELL!!!!!
But each pressure point is literally one cycle of breath. And I know
I can endure ANYTHING in life for one measly breath. After working both my
upper and lower outer leg, he instructed me to lie on my back and FEEL.
What did I
feel? I literally felt the blood and prana flowing freely through my entire
leg. Not only did my left leg feel an inch longer than my right leg, I looked
down and it was!! True story. He then asked me to focus on my breath. I was
able to breathe more fully and deeply on my left side body. He asked what did
that tell me as a yoga instructor. I responded that to breathe fully
through the body, you have to work the limbs as well as the torso. He then had
me stand up and my left leg felt so much more stable and grounded and my
left foot had even expanded slightly with my toes longer than my right toes. I
know - sounds insane.
Back to
the table where he started working space between my ribs and the tissues
surrounding the intercostal muscles there. OUCH!!!!! I have bruises where
he was digging his fingers in. He did some work on my back as well.
Then I laid on my back again and the breathing was incredible! I
could feel the spaces between my ribs as my lungs expanded.
Next, I laid
on my back and he worked to free my ribcage. yup, that's right. He dug his
fingers under my ribcage, and I then lifted my pelvis slightly and he pulled it
up and away. Excruciating sensation - I'm not even going to lie. After working
several spots, I was instructed to breathe. Holy shit! My ribcage felt like it
was floating in space and I felt incredible space through my abdominal wall and
my pelvic region!
Then came the upper rib work and shoulder work. I shudder
recounting this portion. He was accessing all of these areas mainly through my
arm pit. He dug in and separated my ribs. The most intense sensation was
when he accessed my second rib THROUGH MY ARMPIT and freed it from the connective tissues followed
by digging into the back of my scapula. The. Back. Of. My. Scapula. At one point, he broke away from me and started coughing uncontrollably. He then sprayed water all over the space and burned some sage. Apparently a huge toxic wave of energy was released and almost knocked him on his ass!!! As he did that, I closed my eyes to FEEL and, incredibly, my shoulder had dropped a
full inch and a half. The entire left side of my body felt it was tipping
to the left and my entire spine and left side body was FLAT on the table,
including the back of my pelvis and tailbone!! When I stood up, all I could say to Everett was that I felt like a primate. My left humerus bone was dangling from my
shoulder and my arm felt long and heavy like it was being dragged to the earth
with gravity, but it felt LIGHT and fluid and FREE at the same time. My left
hand was literally a couple of inches lower on my left thigh than my right
side.
The work after this point was a breeze. He worked my arm, elbow and wrist. By worked I think you've picked up that means digging deep into my body tissues. The sensation was still there but nothing like that rib business.
On to the right side. He said he used half the pressure on this side and I told him I felt twice the pain. He said that some people have tightened and hardened so much that he could hit them with a hammer on the shoulder and they feel nothing. People tighten and become NUMB to sensation due to pain and trauma and emotional "sucking it up." The pain is necessary to truly experience your body.
On the left side, the first side he worked, I focused on my inhale and exhale. I felt significant physical and emotional releases, but no specific memories or experiences surfaced. As he worked the right side of my body, I felt a lot more pain; and I had some crazy verbal releases. As I focused on my breath while he worked, involuntarily I started to scream out with pain, something that hadn't happened on the left side. I felt myself getting more and more emotional as he worked his way up to my right shoulder. In yoga, we know that the shoulders are the gateway to the heart, so I felt that there was a whammy of a release coming tracing back to this knot I've had in my right shoulder for the past 10 years.
On the right side, I needed more space to recover between releases. At one point, I rolled onto my left side and felt like i was about to cry, but the tears never came. I had a significant realization that came through a verbal outburst, which surprised both of us, and then made both of us laugh hysterically. He said that in his 23 years of body work, that was a definite first! I won't type here what it was, because I don't want to offend anyone. However, if you have actually read all the way to the end of this blog post, and ask me, I will tell you! lol
So we finished the session and I walked away literally feeling a hyper awareness of my body and in a state of significant mental clarity. It truly is indescribable the joy and pleasure it feels to truly inhabit this human body. And this was Session One.
Annica! Annica! Annica! Be happy! Be happy! Be happy!
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| These are the body areas that he worked in Session One. |
