Body Basics

Everyone of us is individual and unique. Our bodies are wonderful creations, a complex collection of bones, connective tissue, nerves and organs in which everything is connected and woven together. It is all of these parts, working together, in concert, which makes us what we are.

Without movement the body would not survive. It is the difference between health and dysfunction, vitality and fatigue, joy and despair, and ultimately between life and death.

Movement may be visible, voluntarily initiated, limited by pathology or enhanced by training.

BUT,  just as important and vital to health and well being are the invisible movements within our bodies, which are continuous whether awake or asleep, as long as we are alive, eg

food entering the mouth, being digested, assimilated, selectively absorbed or eliminated as it passes down our digestive system; or

blood being pumped from the heart to be oxygenated by the lungs and then rhythmically distributed to every cell in the body from head to toe, to name but two.

To make it easier to understand the workings of muscles, think of the body as having only one muscle, whose millions of fiber-like cells are distributed through the facial network and oriented in innumerable directions and creating innumerable lines of pull. Although we feel pain when muscles are tight or in spasm, the problem isn't necesarily located in the muscle that hurts. A problem in one area can ultimately affect another area - the consequence of everything being connected and woven together.

There is no sensation or emotion that is not translated into a muscular response of some kind; these feeling states are the basis of our habitual postures and our individual patterns of behaviour.

We need to become aware of our bodies and the signals they are trying to convey to us. Once you begin to note the signals your body is sending, you have the opportunity to choose how to respond to them - you might ignore them, in which case they will persist and most likely increase, intensify and progress; or perhaps pay attention to them and do something to put them right.

When our bodies are balanced they move more easily, have a greater sense of vitality and more resilience to meet the challenges and stresses of life.

Get a massage without feeling guilty

Touching hands are not like drugs or scalpels, but like flashlights in a darkened room - the medicine they administer is self awareness.