A Much Bigger Picture
Did you ever try something and not really like it, only to try it again years later and realize it was the best thing ever? Nothing about the thing itself changed — but somehow the way you experienced it was very different.
I remember teaching a woman a simple placement of the ball under the back of the head and neck. A couple of years later she came up to me, a little bit perturbed. I could tell she was actually very happy because she had just felt something she had never felt before, and it was quite a wonderful experience for her. But she was also frustrated with me.
She said, “Why didn’t you ever say that before?”
Anyone who has been to the classes may have had the same experience.
I was teaching a gentleman who lived in California — the other side of the country from where I am. He was at a party when another guest was surprised to hear that he was taking classes with me. The person didn’t realize that I taught live classes.
My student Wayne explained what the classes were like and said, “You wouldn’t believe it. No matter how many classes I’ve taken, they’re always different.”
I find that very funny because I feel like I’m doing the same thing over and over again and saying the same things repeatedly.
The beauty in all of this is that it shows it’s not just an exercise or a ball. It’s what you are asking of yourself.
In a world where so much is already decided — even the way we breathe, our routines, and the constant flow of information — we rarely consider that those patterns might prevent us from experiencing something completely new.
Your body already knows where balance is.
It knows how to make adjustments and how to breathe more easily.
If you follow some simple directions, it will often do exactly what it already knows how to do.
In some ways we resist that idea. It leaves out the ego, the planning, and all the work we’ve done trying to control everything. Instead, we have to enter a different realm of possibilities.
You might not feel something the first time.
You might feel something completely different the next time.
But if you stay open to the mystery — the magic, even the miracle — you may receive exactly what you need.
Many times the beauty of the physical body is that it can only experience what we allow it to experience. Yet we often feel we must control it. We think it’s up to us to make the body perform amazing things — or nothing will happen at all.
There are countless exercises, therapies, and treatments, and we believe we are controlling the healing process. In some ways we are. But we can also unknowingly prevent that process.
Just like the woman who, for two and a half years, placed the ball under her head believing she was doing exactly what I said.
Notice the word believing.
Was she feeling the weight of her head resting?
Was she aware of how that weight might affect her breath?
Did she notice how the weight transferred through the body?
Was she curious about areas that might not be responding?
Was she holding her breath without realizing it?
Many times we even tell ourselves what we’re feeling when we’re not actually feeling it. That isn’t really so mysterious.
I think many of us want control. We want a quick outcome. We think we know what should happen.
I can relate to that.
But what I love about the body is that you’re never going to get to the bottom of it. You’re never going to know everything.
And sometimes the greatest discoveries come from something very simple:
Do you feel the weight of that part of your body?
Where is your breath?
I didn’t say make the weight. You didn’t invent gravity, and you don’t have to stress yourself trying to create it.
And I didn’t say breathe. I said notice where your breath is.
Small, simple directions can make all the difference.
So whether every class feels different, or whether you hear some things and miss others during a class or while reading the book, that is simply part of your journey.
If you didn’t feel much this time, it doesn’t mean the next experience won’t be remarkable.
You just don’t know. And if you like the idea of control this is a different kind of control. You are in control of being open minded, not jumping to conclusions that you know whether its working or not. This is not my Method it is your bodies method.
My best advice is to stay curious.
Instead of feeling like you have to make something happen, simply notice what is happening.
Perhaps that’s why children feel so much. When they are very young, they are simply responding to their environment. They are not trying to make life happen.
They are experiencing it.