Yoga And Rolfing Lead One To Wholeness

For the last 30-some years, yoga and Rolfing® Structural Integration have enjoyed a unique and vibrant relationship, teachers and practitioners from one discipline immersing themselves in the other, in order to magnify and deepen their bodily transformation. This is because the two, combined, create a synergy that is far greater than the sum of its parts. Together, Rolfing and yoga create a dance of rich, somatic opening in us, because they share the same fundamental principles and goals. Only their methods differ.

In yoga, you move through precise postures with full consciousness and intent. In Rolfing, the Rolfer's hands directly release restrictions and unbind myofascial tissues in your body, while you participate with full consciousness and intent. Rolfers are rigorously trained to work with fascia, the connective tissue that wraps every muscle, organ, nerve, blood vessel and bone in the body and which, like living packing material, literally gives us our shape. As a Rolfer, I work mindfully and reverently with the fascia and muscles, tendons and ligaments. I listen with my hands as I lengthen tissues, soften bodily armor, unwind patterns, and, overall, integrate and align the body in gravity. Simply put, the same natural laws that inform yoga inform my work, as well.

On the physical level, both yoga and Rolfing emphasize structural alignment and whole-body integration. Both involve balancing the joints in the body, getting space in the joints (rather than compression), and differentiating the various bodily segments. In general terms, Rolfing and yoga are both about freeing-up, opening and lengthening the body. Both disciplines result in expanded range of motion, increased circulation and energy flow throughout the body, more grace and fluidity of motion, and a body that's more resilient to injury.

Beyond the physical level, Rolfing and yoga both facilitate deeper levels of consciousness and aliveness. As a Rolfer, it is this level of the work for which I have the most passion. All of our emotional and attitudinal patterns, including the unconscious ones, are expressed--and perpetuated--in our bodies; in our posture, our patterns of holding, our very bodily shape. In my work, I encourage these old, fixed patterns in your bodymind to melt, to become fully conscious and integrated. As this process deepens, you find yourself living with greater spontaneity, freedom and presence. The more aspects of your being you embrace and include, the more wholeness you experience. The more you become who you are!

In addition, Rolfing, like yoga, simply brings you more and more deeply into the experience of lush, resonant embodiment. Coming to live more fully in the body allows a silent but dynamic stillness of mind and a relaxing out into life. It softens you into the boundless present moment, which, whether we notice it or not, is the only place the body exists!

Of particular interest, and even wonder for me, is that--for those so inclined--this whole body living helps to create a vessel which can truly receive Spirit and serve this world, and all our friends, from the heart. And who knows? This may just be what these amusing and so very temporary bodies of ours were created for, a mysterious potential waiting deep in our cellular being to unfold.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Powell - He is a certified Rolfer practicing in the Uptown/Kenwood area of South Minneapolis since 1997. 612-823-4399 is his phone number and his email address is Mark_powell@adidam.org should you be interested in his healing work. He also teaches the Radiant Eating Program, Transforming Your Diet as an Inner Path. Additionally, Mark has been a student of Avatar Adi Da Samraj for 12 years, whose Spiritual Teachings have irrevocably shaped his approach to Rolfing (and everything else) and, therefore, much of the approach reflected in the article above. See his site with more articles.

Yoga - Articles and Resources

Yoga And Rolfing Lead One To Wholeness

ABOUT THE AUTHOR