I’ve always been an active person and had my fair share of bumps and scrapes but nothing I considered serious. So when pain surfaced in my shoulders and neck two years ago - a condition that soon became chronic - I attributed it primarily to too much time spent at my desk. Through Rolfing, however, it became obvious that seemingly minor injuries from the past had also played a huge part in shaping my body.
Rolfing triggered memories of these all but forgotten injuries and served to reshape me physically. It also gave me a heightened awareness
of my body, allowing me to be an active participant in the changing process and signaling me when I fell into old habits such as tilting my
pelvis forward. The changes I've undergone I can see visually - in particular in the way that the discrepancy between the length of the
right and left side of my shoulders has virtually disappeared, and feel physically - pain in my neck and shoulders has been greatly reduced.
When pain does occur, I take Mr. Kawahara's advice and walk, which almost always provides relief. This is probably the best advice I've
ever gotten! Previously I had feared too much movement and as a result, held myself rather stiffly and exacerbated the pain, forcing me to
abandon the one thing I loved most - running. These days I'm happy to say that I'm at my most comfortable in running shoes - in fact, this is
when I am most aware of my new body! Mission accomplished!!
I am 43 years old, but have been having problems with my posture for several years. I am American and taller, at 172 cm, than the average Japanese women, for whom the smaller-scaled apartments I've lived in are designed, and this has caused my
posture to deteriorate gradually with time. I learned on Dr. Andrew Weil's web site that rolfing is a possible treatment for people with posture problems, and decided to give it a try.
Like many people, at first I thought that rolfing was primarily a form of massage, but rolfing is actually not a passive activity. The individual undergoing the treatment is actively involved and works with the rolfer throughout each session.
I would almost describe it as a combination of light exercise and massage. Prior to starting the sessions, I had heard that rolfing might be painful at times, but I did not find it to be so. Mostly I found it so relaxing that my biggest challenge was staying awake to do my part.
Another very important factor in the treatment is that during each of the rolfing sessions Mr. Kawahara spent a great deal of time studying my posture, walk, and general movement. Having a professional's viewpoint was particularly beneficial
for me because he was able to see problem areas that I could not, and he was able to suggest ways in which I could improve my gait and posture. He explained that I have been locking up my knees and generally holding myself in a tense position.
In the past I had the idea that I could improve my posture by holding myself more rigidly. Mr. Kawahara recommended that I try something different:by holding my knees in a more relaxed position, and keeping the pelvic girdle looser, I found that
my back was more likely to fall into better alignment. He also gave me a number of exercises to do at home in order to retrain my body to remember this more relaxed position.
Overall I found this series of ten sessions to be very beneficial and enjoyable. The rolfing massage helped to loosen up tight areas and reorient the way I have been holding myself. The independent evaluation of the way I was walking and standing gave me insights that I am able to use every day to help my posture to continue to improve. Surprisingly, there was also an improvement I did not expect.
I have had a sports-related knee injury for 15 years; whenever I was walking downstairs or hiking down the side of a mountain, one or both of them would pop out of alignment and start to hurt, slowing me down quite a bit. Remarkably I have not had any pain in my knees whatsoever since about mid-way through these sessions. As for the pains in my back, while I'm still washing dishes in a Japanese-sized kitchen, my back isn't complaining about it quite so much!