Remember the old song: the knee bone's connected to the shin bone...? It happens it's true.
We tend to think of our muscles and bones as isolated pieces, and complain about our tennis elbow or our tweaked knee. In fact, we call the ocean many things too. Sea and bay, inlet and strait. Pacific, Aegean, Indian, saline, choppy, Caribbean blue. But it's all one body of water. And the reality is that we are one too are a single interwoven unit, where pain is often felt far from where the misalignment causing the pain originates.
If we allow the foot to pronate, the muscular connection can travel up the shin and into the knee. Rounded shoulders can pinch the bracchial nerve and affect the carpal tunnel of the wrist. We might trace the pain in our inner knee to a tight illio-tibial band. Everything is connected.
Just as you can reshape the body by developing different muscles, you can re-train the body to move away from pain by altering your alignment, by releasing connective tissue, by strengthening underused muscles to relieve compensatory action.
The key is to find a balance in the body where all the pieces are working together. Nobody's taking over, overriding everyone else. And no one is getting a free ride on someone else's effort.
How do we affect this change?
We ignite the inner voice to overcome outer resistance, listening to the heart to overcome the head. We open to the possibilities within, to our deepest desire. We move from where we are, to where we want to be. We soften our outer edges and expand our potential from the inside out, rather than setting up boundaries from which we have to work to escape.
It's physical. And it's philosophical.
Because if you want to take it off the mat, you have to live it. Otherwise, it's just exercise.
