Man Doesn’t Live by Balls Alone

I have heard all the ball jokes, seen all the different methods of using balls, and love using them myself and sharing The Miracle Ball Method with others. There are balls used to massage our muscles, roll around on, and exercise with. They come in all different sizes and firmness’s. People love the balls. What’s different about the Miracle Ball Method; it’s really not about the ball, but the method. The ball facilitates the Method, and the miracle of the method is your body.

When I do the method, the best part is what my body does on the balls, not what I do to my body using the ball. The way our bodies respond is not arbitrary, it is leading us. That is the reason with the Miracle Ball Method we use the ball to feel the weight of the part on the ball and notice our breathing. The simple shifting on and off the ball stimulates connection to the nervous system. That is the electricity behind everything.

Although this can sound very foreign to many, once you experience the body you find there is a whole world that isn’t about the ball. You use the sensory experience you get on the ball to feel your body. That ability can then translate to anything you do. Once you understand it’s your body and not the ball you can take this ball work one step further and learn to use your instrument.

Think of this way. You have a grand piano in your living room. A child who doesn’t play the piano comes along and enjoys rolling around their fingers up and down on the piano with tremendous joy. We are thrilled they love the sounds, and they are having a good time. If that child is excited by that experience with the piano, they might then be inspired to learn more. They might realize that they can use individual fingers, play different notes, make louder and softer sounds. This depth of connection through their sense of hearing the sounds can be deeply moving and profoundly enjoyable for their entire lives. In fact, the possibilities of growth are endless.

It’s the exact same thing with our bodies. We can enjoy the balls and roll around them with great pleasure. In fact, that may be all you really want to do. And if you are getting what you crave from that experience, great. For me, I needed to play the instrument. I wanted to move freely without pain and know what I was doing that caused me so much difficulty when I moved. As I began to develop the method over years, it became very clear how to play this instrument, my body. Even more surprising to me was it wasn’t about relaxing and letting go, I became stronger, using my body more with confidence. There is an intelligence in our nervous system beyond our understanding. I have learned to listen.

You can begin to use the experience of different parts and start to combine movements differently. You can unclench muscles that you unknowingly might have locked for years and begin to use them differently. This is by getting the feedback from your body.

Find joy in using your instrument. We are partners with this body, and we have to respect what it can do, and know when it is telling us something. It can’t send us an email. It can only speak through pleasure and pain. But don’t be fooled, it is telling us something very specific. Its how we respond that makes the difference. Eventually learning the instrument is like being a child again. We learn what we once knew.