Three Choices - The Hip
This morning as I was riding around, being attentive
to my body, I realized my right hip was 'twisted' forward on
top in relation to my sit bone, creating a kink in the
column of the right side of my body.
Hmmm.... well, *that* explains a
lot.
What to do?
When something has 'deviated from the ideal' (it's in
quotes, because, really, how can anything ever deviate from
the ideal...) I tend to use one of three approaches to find
a greater sense of comfort, coherence, and harmony.
The pay off for this is I feel better and my horse moves
better. Win-win!
And the funny part - the 'doing' has to do with
changing how I think and paying attention.
To begin: set up an agreement with the
physical body
This is a conversation with the body which takes place
by setting up an agreement on how to communicate. I
like to use blocks for the hips. There's the real
bones and muscles and such, and then for the pelvis I chunk
it down to two blocks sitting next to each other:
Keeping track of two blocks is easier.
The first approach: emphasize the pattern
With this approach, which is based on Ortho-bionomy, you find the pattern and make it
more so. In this case, more so would mean making the
top of my right hip more forward - the right side of my
pelvis more 'twisted' - the top more in front of the column.
In my minds eye, I am aware of what is actually
happening and I 'superimpose' an exaggerated version of that
by holding the new image and start counting to 60.
Usually before 60 the pattern will release and the blocks
will shift back to 'the ideal' alignment of their own
accord. If not, I can do it again. I can't think
of a time it didn't get better in any event.
I see this: |
I imagine this while
counting to 60: |
Usually I get this: |
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The second approach: contrast the pattern
With this approach, which is based on Feldenkrais
technique, you find the pattern and slowly move from it to
an 'opposite' pattern, back and forth, staying within
comfort, to give the body more options, more choice, more
information, about how to be. This
is done slowly so that the body can register what happens
when it is behaving differently.
I say so that 'the body can register' because what's
happening is that the proprioceptors are getting different information
and responding to that. It's not about figuring it out
in the head and making the body hold a different
position. It's about changing the feed that's going
into the feedback loop so that the nervous system can do
something different.
In this case, I pretended to twist the right side of
my pelvis in the opposite direction so the top was behind
the sit bone and behind the column. I
moved between the two extreme images maybe three or four
times and then paused to see where the body went of its own
choice. This is all done mentally, although you could
do it physically as well.
I see this: |
I move into and out
of |
This: |
Then I pause and let the
body find it's comfort. Usually it will be
what I 'wanted.' ie |
|
<--> |
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The third approach: superimpose 'the ideal'
/ compare and contrast
With this approach, which is based on Alexander
technique, you find the pattern and hold it up to 'the
ideal.' In this case, two even blocks are the
ideal.
In watching this all unfold, the other thing I'm on
the look out for is what triggers me to twist my hip like
that.
To begin with, there's an awful lot of catching it
after the fact.
In this case, I'm riding and I realize, 'yup, it's
twisted again...' So I do the compare and
contrast for about half a circle and it sorts out and then I
get distracted and maybe think about my horse and what it's
doing and then realize, 'O look, it's twisted again....'
And thinking back to this morning, what triggers my
right hip to twist is the thought 'I need to turn
right.' Which, yeah, since I'm tracking right, I'm
turning right. But what's happening is ever time I
think that particular thought, a little gremlin jumps behind
the wheel and twists my hip!!!
So part of the solution here is to self monitor my
language - for instance, 'I'm aware of the back of my head
and the twirl through the length of my spine and how I
travel along the arc ....' (and yeah, there's this
sing song hypnotic quality going on, too) so that I don't
jump into an old, old, habitual pattern of tying myself into
a knot.
I see this: |
I move into and out
of |
This: |
Until I get: |
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<--> |
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Sometime ...
What I'll do sometime is 'rewire' my reaction to the
thought 'I need to turn right.' For that, I might use
Resonance Repatterning or Reiki or Psych-K. or
Tapping.
Until then, I'm checking in with my hip throughout the
day.
Have you got anything like this going on in your
riding or in your body?
I can provide insight about what is happening in your
body along with approaches for increasing your comfort and
ability.
'til next time,
L
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