Bearing and carrying weight
How well supported we are when we carry weight is precisely connected to how well we are supported when we have “only” our own weight to carry. I put “only” in quotation marks because for many of us carrying our own weight, even if we are not overweight, is not a simple task. Some tire rather quickly from it.
Those of you familiar with my imagery will find some familiar ground in this imagery advice… yet this is new. The illustration directly below is one of my “bear rug” depictions (perhaps it looks more like a “reptile rug”). This is the depiction of our dorsal surface stretched out.
The image to the left is a depiction of where we most benefit from sensing freedom through our bodies. It is an illustration of splits running through the body (but not to the edges). These splits show areas of freedom most important to graceful and fluid movement. Imagining freedom in the body in this way is counter-intuitive… and new. The locations suggested for promoting (imagining) maximal freedom in the body are unexpected… down through the spine, along limb bones, and other strange locales. But that, I suspect, is partly why these locations are valuable to see as free… even almost totally free or disconnected…as shown in the drawing. We allow ourselves to remain tied up in these areas (even when we physically stretch to limber up our head, limbs, or trunk).
What is most interesting is the “fact” (test it and you will agree) that these same locations where I suggest that we benefit most from imagining splits, separation, or total freedom in the body are also where we most easily can carry weight (even our own) without doing damage to ourselves. It is also where we can benefit from imagining that our body weight, plus any additional weight, is carried from.
You can see that at the bottom of this first illustration (above) are instructions for where, especially, not to allow a sense of being split, or being weighed down dorsally, to prevail. This is because these areas… at the mid and lower back, at the neck and lower part of the neck (often described as the upper back), and at the bridge of the nose… are structurally weaker spots for many people, places that often do not feel strong or sturdy. The image instructions below can help overcome those problems. Before reading the imagery instructions, however, it can be useful to look at where the locations of splits or weights would appear on a human, which is evolutionarily more complex in shape than the simplified version first shown.
Illustration showing the dorsal and ventral side of the splits (the dotted lines)
(Splits on the ventral surface of the face are not shown).
Illustration showing weights attached to the dorsal side of the body.
Perhaps imagining that weight is being placed upon you is easier than that splits are showing up between sections of your body. It is also the topic of this blog entry. So first, I will explain the image of weights being precisely placed on your body:
You can either be sitting up or standing for this image exercise. Imagine that someone is placing long, narrow (approximately 1 inch in diameter), heavy, and very flexible black tubes on your body on the locations indicated on the above illustrations. Perhaps it is a long sock-like black tube filled with lead beads and the tubes are narrow, heavy, and yet passably comfortable when placed on the body. In places, where the body is upright, it has to be imagined as glued to and pressing in on the body. All the tubes can be attached to each other where they intersect.
As you succeed in imagining one section or the other of this full body image, either your body will begin to move around a little or you will want to do so. I suggest that you neither prevent the movement nor encourage it. We want the image to do its work, so being too eager to experience the changes can bring about a desire to help them take place, which is counterproductive.
You may notice in the process of doing this exercise that you actually feel better and more energized by imagining these new weights where suggested. I suggest that part of that experience is due to a perhaps unnoticed phenomenon… you are simultaneously “removing” unconsciously perceived weight from other inappropriate locations. Those are the locations mentioned in the top illustration. Congratulations, you have done two things at once. Learned where to place or carry weight and where it is unhealthy and bad feeling to do so. Incidentally, you can make small adjustments in the position of each these imaginary weights on your body, just as you might adjust clothing you are wearing. A small movement of the weight down the back or up higher on the shoulders, for example, may bring about valuable improvements which you will notice if you calmly study the various effects a bit. However, the general schema is complete and accurate in it structure improving effect.
After experiencing this image for a while, you can proceed to changing the image to make the same locations the place where the body is split and freed from formerly adjoining segments. The directions for imagining this are to try to create splits as shown in the illustrations. If you have some success in imagining some splits, there still will be a strong tendency for the splits to seal or “heal” and for the new sense of freedom to disappear. This image, which takes much practice to succeed with in many areas of the body at once, will show you a lighter way of experiencing fluidity in the body… fluidity that is accompanied by effortless body support.
Finally, the weights can be re-experienced on the body, this time having slipped through the slits on the dorsal surface and caught from “falling through” by the ventral surface.
It may seem to be getting crazier and crazier, this imagery. Perhaps… but what is learned from it can also relieve you of unnecessary weakness, insecurity, and pains that are generally a part of many or most people’s daily experience.
Update - I now have sort of a rerun of this imagery exercise on my Facebook page, Posture Release Imagery .
Good luck,
John