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Welcome to Mission Evolution Radio Show with
Gwildowaka, bringing together today's leading experts to
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uncover ever deepening spiritual truths and the
latest scientific developments in support of the evolution
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of humankind. For more information on
Mission Evolution Radio with Gildawaka, visit www
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dot Mission evolution dot org and now
here's the host of Mission Evolution, Miss
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Gwildawiaka. Many view the body is
only physical on nature, but is there
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more to it? What if one
of the body's major functions is to ground
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us into physical reality? What if
our bodies are a major gateway to evolution?
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Can structural imbalances impinge on this amazing
and very necessary ability. Mission Evolution
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Radio TV show is coming to you
on Exone Broadcast Network and SIMULTV. We
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are produced by Realmar McConnell Media Company
with studios and corporate offices in Saint Catherine's,
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Ontario, Canada. With the CIS
Hour to explore the body's major role
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in presence and evolution is Mary Bond. Mary is the author of a Body
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Mandela, Posture, Perception, Presence. She trained directly with doctor Ida Rolf,
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the originator of structural integration. Her
three books based on Rolf's philosophy of
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gravity is a healing force for human
transformation have been translated into five languages.
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Her website Healyourposture dot com. Mary, thank you so much for joining us
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on Mission Evolution. Welda. It's
my big pleasure to meet with you and
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talk with you and your and your
listeners. So's it's amazing to me you
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studied with Ida rolf What what drew
you to study Rolfing in the first place.
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Well, because I got rolfed,
you know, I had to sorry
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to hear that. Well, No, I had the experience I was.
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I was in a dance program at
UCLA, studying to get my degree in
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choreography, and my roommate, who
I knew could not do a double pirouette,
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suddenly was doing them in the pallet
class and I was like, well,
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what happened to you? And so
what happened was that she became better
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aligned through this body therapy, manual
therapy called structural integration. So I thought,
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well, I got to get me
some of that. And then doctor
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Ralph came to town. She came
to give a sort of demonstration, and
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she was talking about gravity, and
I was so interested in how the body
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worked as a dancer, and actually
my ballet teacher had been talking about gravity,
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so so I kind of perked up
and I asked her if I could
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study with her, and she started
to say no, and I said,
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well, I don't really want to
do the work. I just want to
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see the way you see bodies.
So that's what happened. How long did
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you study with her? Well,
let's see, probably probably five years or
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so. You know, I kind
of came in and out of it.
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I was I was dedicated, and
yet I had other things going on in
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my life like family. As an
answer, yes, that's pretty all encompassing.
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So for those of us that don't
know what is ralphing exactly, ralfing
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is a manual therapy developed by doctor
Ralph that has to do with reorganizing the
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body's structure or some people say posture, but she was insistent that posture was
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a activity and structure was what you
have underneath the activity. So it's about
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realigning the structure in accordance with the
pull of gravity so that everything would work
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better, that the muscles and the
bones would be more able to move freely,
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and that within the body also the
functions would be working more correctly.
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So how does rothing differ from massage, say, for instance, Well,
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because it's targeted when we're trained to
look at the person's organization, the way
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they are, where they move,
the way they stand, and to address
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our manual contact according to what we
see is out of alignment. So does
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I know massage works even deep tissue
massage works mostly on the muscles. Does
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rothing work on the muscles as well? Or where old? Does it work?
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Well? Actually, nowadays we I
think massage therapist as well as Ralpher's
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are talking about fascia, so we
think of it all as myofascia, and
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the fascia is the connective tissue that
surrounds all organs in the body. Not
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just it's like envelope around the muscles, but it's an envelope around every tube,
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every wire, every vessel, every
organ in your body, and it's
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very interconnected. So doctor Ralph's idea
was that when you've got your hands specifically
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targeting that tissue, you actually were
always touching the whole body rather than targeting
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any one single part. Well that's
interesting, So how does it get out?
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I mean, you know, obviously
you're treating something. How does the
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fashion get compromised because of repetitive motion. For example, doing the same thing
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always over and over the same way. Typical example was holding your phone,
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you know, So then over time
you would get the fascia in this part
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of the body would become contracted and
dehydrated. Actually, another example is injuries,
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some kind of impact or something that
wounds the body and then their scar
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tissue, and so then what happens
is the fascia becomes more densely connected,
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kind of like velcrow again dehydrated.
So the work of the manual therapist is
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to not just stretch, but actually
rehydrate that tissue so that it's more plastic.
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And how do they do that?
I can see them with a you
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know, with a IV. No, it's with slow penetrating but gentle targeted
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touch, so manipulating the area to
bring circulation and that sort of thing.
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Yeah, okay, that makes sense. So what differences do you see in
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the original form that you studied and
what's being practiced and called rolfing today.
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Well, there are at least I
think seventeen maybe twenty five different schools of
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structural integration that have branched off from
Idorolf's original guild, and many of those
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different approaches have added other kinds of
techniques, mostly borrowing from osteopathy, so
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bringing in more information about the way
the biomechanics of the bones, for example,
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so really looking more specifically at things
that can tor and twist and compress
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through the skeletal system, that would
be one way. Others are looking more
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energetically at the at the organization of
the body. Some are also working with
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the movement within the body of the
visceral tissue, you know. So there's
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lots of different approaches that are being
sort of woven into the Roffing philosophy.
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But I think always all of us
listen to her original message, which was
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that gravity is the therapist. So
how do you explain that one for me?
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What do you mean by gravity as
the therapist? Well, gravity is
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the force that holds us to the
planet and holds the planets to each other,
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right, And so when the body
is out of alignment with gravity,
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then we tend to be twisted or
bent or compress or buckled and not open
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and free to move. Well,
so when the body has been processed,
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doctor Rolf called it processing, when
the body has been freed of certain restrictions
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that habitual restrictions. Then gravity can
move through us as an energy that uplifts
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us and heals us continually, rather
than being something that breaks us down.
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So it's kind of like building with
child's children's blocks. If you start pulling
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them out of alignment, pretty soon
they crash. Well, that's one way
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of thinking about it. That's a
simplistic way of thinking about it. And
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actually that was doctor Rolph's preference.
I think she was trying to communicate with
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the most possible people, so she
used that stack of block imagery as her
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logo. But in fact, yeah, and so a stack of blocks is
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actually a compression, one thing that's
on top of another pressing down. But
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more recently we're looking at the model
of tenseegrity, which means tensional integrity,
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which is a what's the word harmonizing
between the compressive members of a struction structure
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and expansive or stretching members. So
example of ten segrity structure would be Buckminster
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Fuller's geodesic dome. I don't know
if people remember those the way they were
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struts held together through wires tension.
And so this way of thinking about the
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body allows more spaciousness and more plasticity
in our way of bringing it back intoy.
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Is it kind of like a suspension
bridge? Yes, okay, that
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makes sense to me. And this
is all done by physical manual manipulation.
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Well yes, yes and no,
because always built into the I mean,
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if you do it the way doctor
Rolf taught us, built into the manual.
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The physical manipulation of the therapist is
what she called calling for a movement.
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So she used to say, put
the tissue where it belongs and then
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ask the person to move. So
the person on the table is not just
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lying there passively, but they're engaged
in their own process. And she also
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developed and taught us to train people
to help themselves maintain the gains that they
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had gotten through the therapy through movement
practices. Oh so we're about out of
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time in this segment. So you're
saying that we have habitual movement movement movements,
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and you start to work beyond those
habits because again, once you're doing
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repetitive motion, exactly. Pretty fascinating
it is. That's the part that I
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love. Yes, it's it's inaction. Well, it was a dancer,
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you would, wouldn't you. It's
what brought me to the work. Well,
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it is time for that station break, Mary, and I will return
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very shortly, so don't go away. This is Mission Evolution www dot Mission
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evolution dot org. What is body
awareness? With this hour discussing the importance
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of structural integration, is Mary Bond? Mary? What is body awareness and
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how why is it so important?
Well, everything we do we do through
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the body. You know, our
whole our lives are lived in in our
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bodies and our thoughts, our dreams, our imagination voices. We might hear
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images, we might see in our
dreams. All these things are coming to
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us through our senses. So I
think what has happened since the Western religions
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have sort of given us the belief
that connection with the spirituality of our lives
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has to be transcendent, that has
to be outside of the body. But
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in fact, I think we're starting
to learn, through certain kinds of research
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into trauma therapy, for example,
that in fact body and mind are completely
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integrated, and that what we experience
within us is as connected to the universe
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as it always has been throughout history. Fascinating. So, in other words,
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we don't have to leave the body
to be present and functioning in this
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reality spiritually. Rather, it's almost
the opposite, isn't it. I think
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so. I think the body is
a gateway, it's not an obstacle.
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So what does fasha that we were
just talking about earlier, what does that
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have to do with body awareness?
Oh, it was so fascinating fascia.
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Years ago, you know, when
people did dis sections to try to understand
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what's going on inside the body,
they would throw this stuff in a bucket
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and just ignore it. You know, it was just not important. But
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since actually, doctor Rolf I think
put fascia on the map, at least
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in the most recent period of time. So there have been now many conferences
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and research studies where body workers,
people like me and academics who are studying
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fashia in the laboratories have gotten together
and begun to compare notes. Lo and
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behold, fascia has free nerve endings
in it. So this means that it
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can receive communication. So much of
what we feel inside our bodies is communicated
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through the fascia. Fascinating it is, It's amazing, and they just throw
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it in a bucket, right A
long time ago? Yeah, no more,
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no more so. The fascia really
integrates the body in a way.
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That's right. It's everywhere. It's
down to the cellular level. So every
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cell in your body has a little
tiny thin membrane of fascia around it.
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So and that's interconnected all the way
out to the fascia which is like an
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envelope around your whole body, you
know, the skin, just under the
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skin. So if you are if
you've damaged fashia in one area and it
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starts to become restricted, does it
then restrict fascia throughout the body or in
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neighboring areas or how does that work? Yeah? Actually, in doctor Rolf's
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book, she has an illustration of
a sweater where you have a sweater that
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has a pole on it, and
how that pole pulls through the whole sweater
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and distorts the shape of it.
So it's a simplistic image, but it's
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exactly what happens. You could have. I remember having a client years ago
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who was complaining of a neck problem
she'd had, she'd had an accident and
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she had been told that she didn't
get next surgery, she would end up,
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you know, not being able to
walk. And the class that I
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was teaching that she was in happened
to be about the feet, and she
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stood up to have us look at
her feet, And when I looked at
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her, I saw that there was
absolutely no structural support under the side of
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her neck that was having the problem. So later on I had the chance
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to work with her several times and
to not only manipulate her feet and her
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legs and her spine, but also
to teach her that she could bear her
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weight through that foot and thereby relieve
the neck problem. So from head to
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toe. So if we've been in
an accident and we favor a limb,
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and as a body worker, I've
seen this happen. You favor a limb
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and then but then the injury's gone, but you still now are habitually favoring
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that limb. Does that indeed impact
the entire body? Yes, yes,
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So we continue to have some kind
of movement pattern that has maybe originated thirty
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years ago, but we don't remember, or we don't realize it, or
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we don't think it's important right until
something else happens, and then the body
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is no longer as adaptable as it
could have been. One of the things
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that you know, our modern era
is plagued by is automobile accidents, how
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does that impact the fashion? I
mean, we're always in either just a
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fender bender, you know, some
major accidents and most everybody's experienced it.
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How does that impact this whole thing? Well, that's that's a blow to
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the body, you know. So
it's like you have a blow to the
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body, and the body tries to
secure itself, tries to stay safe,
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and so the muscles contract and then
they stay contracted, and then the fascist
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says, oh, okay, I
mean, I'm being silly, But it's
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like the fascist says, okay,
you want to stay in that position,
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Okay, we'll We'll just tighten up
this part of your neck and that's that's
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how you'll be. So it's protective, but it's not totally intelligent. We've
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heard I have certainly of holding emotion
in the body. Do you work with
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that and how does that impact this
fashion? Well, emotional impact is just
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like a car, like a fender
bender. Something comes at you, harsh
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words or even a physical blow that
is like a wound, even though you
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might not see it. There might
not be any blood, but something happens
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in the body, and something in
you stops and says, I have to
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stabilize and protect myself from this,
and so you build some kind of not
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exactly what could be a wall,
or it could be just a barrier to
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things coming in anymore from that direction. Yeah, and you can see that
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in people's posture sometimes sure like a
wincing Yeah exactly. So we starting to
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see how doctor Ralph had a good
idea, right, exactly how long ago
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was this? So we hear a
lot about being present and grounded. How
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do these concepts relate to rolfing.
Well, let's take this example of some
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kind of emotional impact that has happened
to somebody, and let's say the response
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has been to lift themselves up,
to hold themself up and hold themself together.
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This is pretty pretty common. I'm
kind of doing it right now.
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You can kind of feel it.
I've pulled up through the bottom of my
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pelvic floor, contracted my buttocks,
contracted my diaphragm, and I'm holding myself
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up. Okay, so I'm not
grounded right. Instead of being allowing the
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planet to support me, I'm trying
to support myself. I'm doing all the
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work right. So the therapy would
be to invite the whole system to learn
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again how to trust the ground,
which also has implications about how to trust
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other people, how to trust life
itself. Right, So grounding into the
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planet I think has a huge implications
for someone's life and to be able to
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settle and relax again and rest and
feel like I'm I have something underneath me,
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I have something at my back,
and I'm okay. It's not a
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quick learning experience, but it's essential
in order to be able to be free
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of that whatever it was that caused
you to grab yourself. So that holding
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yourself in a posture like that is
energy expense if as well, isn't it.
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Oh it's exhausting, Yeah, yeah, exhausting. I've also heard that
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you can actually take on a person's
posture, you know, examine how they're
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standing, and stand like them,
and pretty soon you're starting to feel the
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emotions they do. Have you worked
with that at all? Uh? That's
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that's a phenomenon called mirror neurons mirror. We have little cells in our brains
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that mirror the movements of other people. And so so for example, if
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you're watching a ballet, let's say, and what makes you enjoy what you're
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seeing? You know, the movement
and the beautiful costumes. All of that
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is because you're actually feeling that in
your own body. Uh. If you've
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studied ballet, for example, then
in that case, you would enjoy it
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even more because your mirror neurons would
be educated. Right. So, but
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we use this all the time in
terms of talking to other people, being
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with other people, because we mirror
what they are feeling, because what we
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feel is always expressed in movement,
even though the movement might be very very
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tiny. So then if we take
this forward, if we have restrictions in
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the fascia that prevent us from taking
on particular positions, we're limited in our
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ability to mirror. I think,
So, I think, and so interaction
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is impinged I would yeah. And
you see that with people who've experienced terrific
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trauma that they that they pull back
from from being from social engagement. You
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know, they have less capacity to
be present with others. And being present
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involves being balanced and in cooperation with
rather than fighting GRAVI being present for me
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is being able to be with,
for example, you right here right now,
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rather than worrying about what I'm going
to do tomorrow or what I did
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yesterday. Right. So I'm trying
to give you a good example of being
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presents. It's the feeling of being
supported by gravity that I kind of described
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earlier. That you're here, you're
okay, you trust what's going on,
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you feel safe, so therefore you
feel adaptive to what's going on, and
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responsive and creative and open. All
of those things are available when you're present.
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If you're not present, if you're
worrying or remembering, then you're not
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as available to what's going on right
now and our power. Yes, right,
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I think so, Well, it's
it's time again for us to take
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a station break. Mary and I
will be right back to continue our discussion.
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So stay right there. This is
Mission Evolution www dot Mission evolution dot
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org. What is embodied presence?
This is Mission Evolution, Mission Evolution dot
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org. With us discussing Ida Roff's
work is Mary Bond. Her latest book
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is Body Mandela, Posture, Perception, Presence. So, Mary, that's
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the sixty four dollars question. What
is embodied presence versus disembodied presence? Well,
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let's see if I can say something
about presence. First, If if
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you're not present, we were just
talking about this, that's when you stub
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your toe, right when you're not
present, you're not all there. You
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stub your toe, and part of
that is that you're not in your body
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at that moment. Right. Uh. Similarly, when you're not present,
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you're thinking about whatever something, that's
when you back up and bump your bumper
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into this other car, Right,
that's when that happens. Also, I
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think presence is as we were saying
earlier, the body is a gateway rather
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than an obstacle to uh, whatever
wisdom might come to us from from the
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greater universe. Right, And it's
when we're present that we're able to open
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ourselves to receive that. So when
we're in our body, ah, then
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that comes through us as whole,
as a whole response, rather than something
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that we have cognitive cognitively designed.
You know, you can just be present
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with your mind and it's I think
much less compassion, much less gentle,
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much less open. But when you
have the body, there's something that allows
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you to connect with all bodies with
all that that we're all connected to one
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another as well as to the planet. So that's the body puts out an
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electromagnetic field. Is it through that
electromagnetic field if we're in the body to
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detect it that we connect to others. I suspect that's that's correct, you
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know, I don't. I don't
think about things in those terms. I'm
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thinking more in terms of the more
pedestrian idea of perception, you know.
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But I think that we are energy
and that we're surrounded by energy. I
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read something recently that I quite like, but I can't remember where I read
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it, and if anybody listening knows
where I read it, I would love
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to have you send me an email. What it was was that everything is
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made up of light, heat,
and gravity. Like that's like, yeah,
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I think that's true. So that's
true of our interactions as well.
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If we have had a lot of
trauma, like people that have been war
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torn countries and this and that,
and in addition to probably injuries, when
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do you start noticing that your life
is not working anymore because you have all
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these restrictions. And do you think
we're often can treat that? Oh?
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I do. I think people are
so traumatized. There's a wonderful program I
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wish I could remember the name of
it, but it's working with therapists in
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countries surrounding Ukraine to teach them how
to intervene and help people who've been traumatized
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by the war there, And I
think there have been many such programs over
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the years. They're always small because
we are alternative health, you know,
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we're not medical mainstream. But I
think that being able to be in communication,
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either physically or through through words and
whatever kind of therapy there can be
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as immediately as possible, helps such
people to overcome or at least manage the
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dire circumstances in which they've been throwned
to. When you say immediately, is
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that because the sooner you treat it, the less embedded it gets in the
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body. I believe that's true.
I don't know for sure. Yeah,
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pretty fascinating. So let's talk a
little bit about surgery. What happens when
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you cut through the fascia in surgery
is you know, what happens, same
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thing as if you had a knife
wound from a burglar. You know,
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it's still it's still an injury.
I mean, it's an injury in a
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positive sense, a positive injury that
has saved your life. But all the
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same, there's going to be a
network of increasingly dehydrated scar tissue that develops
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around that wound, and which would
it would be extremely beneficial to have someone
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who knows what they're doing work with
that tissue and soften it, relieve it
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so that the scar tissue of the
positive wound doesn't end up being a negative
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have a negative impact on the system
as a whole. And ralving can do
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that, not just ralfing, but
other kinds of modalities as well that are
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focused on a whole whole body healing. Does it matter how long it's been
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so safe? For instance, a
person had surgery twenty years ago and now
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they're just hearing about this and they
know that that hip has never moved the
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same since the surgeries healed. Can
you go into it now and still have
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an impact with these therapies? Yeah? Absolutely? Not too long ago.
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I worked with a woman who had
had several cesareans surgeries, several cesarean births,
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and had a terrific scar across her
abdomen that was pulling her, pulling
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her down and in and just relieving
that scar. It took a long time,
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more than one session. And scar
work is very slow, very gentle.
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It's not rough. You're not trying
to suddenly make this all smoothed out.
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It's you have to be kind and
gentle and patient with that tissue.
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But over time that whole compression in
her gut area softened and opened up,
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and she was able to stand much
more upright and move much better through her
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legs. I understand scar tissue is
fairly insidious. Does it kind of regrow
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and you have to get back in
there and coax it to soften again?
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Is that why it takes more than
one session? It depends on what the
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scar is about. You know where
it is and so on. So,
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but it's it's not the scar doesn't
just stay where it is, but it
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sort of sends out little little feelers
around it. And so all those little
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feelers do they become they're restrictions.
Yeah, it's all restrictions. Yeah.
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So you want you want things to
be moving. And so when I'm saying
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moving, it's not like, you
know, great big movement, but it's
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it's it's uh, when you put
your hands on a body, you can
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feel whether it feels solid, or
whether it feels like there's energy or blood
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or you know, gentle movement moving
through it. And the more impinged we
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are, the less movement and the
less life. Really exactly interesting. Let
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let's talk a little bit about how
this impacts our functioning in the world,
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not just our physical functioning, but
our productivity, our creativity. Well,
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as you said, it takes a
lot of energy to hold something back,
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right, It takes a lot of
energy to maintain protective stance. So that
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means that you have that much of
yourself devoted to maintaining the status quo,
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which I think probably distracts from your
creative output, from your ability to come
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forward into the world with your whole
beingness, with your whole with all the
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things that you are capable of.
Yeah, so yeah, restrictions are restrictions.
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Huh, Yeah, there you go. You suggest that an awareness of
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space around the body influences how the
body functions. Would you explain that,
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please? Absolutely, so if you
don't, if you don't mind, I
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would give the readers or the listeners
an example. So, for example,
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if you right now, imagine that
you're holding your phone, your device in
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your hand, and you're scrolling through
it, and you're looking for an urgent
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text from somebody, and just put
yourself into that frame of mind, in
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that sense in yourself, and notice
if you stay that way for just another
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few moments, how you're breathing,
how the breathing fells, how your body
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feels, and how comfortable you are. And then let's just put the phone
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down for a moment and imagine if
you stretch your hands way out to you
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know, touch the walls on either
side of you, and imagine that you
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can see. Let your awareness,
your eyes take in that space through your
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peripheral vision, not your focus.
Your focused vision was looking at the phone.
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Now you're using more your peripheral vision
to sense the space around you.
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Imagine the space behind you. You
know what's there because you walked through it
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to get to where you are,
So there's space behind you, space all
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around your space above your head.
Notice you're breathing in that situation, the
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way your body is, the way
you're sitting, and your comfort. And
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then, because I can't stop giving
a lesson, see if you can keep
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that openness and pick up the phone
again and look at it, but don't
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lose the space, keep the space. There's a challenge, and we walk
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every day focused on the phone at
this point, yes, and there's becoming
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more and more injuries and more and
more posture problems and more and more breathing
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problems, you know, neck it's
like text neck people have. And when
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you have text neck, it's very
hard to breathe through the nose, so
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people begin to open the mouth and
you have more and more people with slack
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jaw just you know, like that. So that impacts the ability not only
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does it impact breathing, which is
a problem, but it also impacts the
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ability for the head to rise up
above the neck. Also, doesn't it
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impact your feeling of safety in the
world if you aren't aware of the world
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around you, absolutely, you know, if our ancestors weren't aware of the
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space around their bodies, they would
have been lunch. You know, they
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wouldn't have been catching lunch. They
would have been lunch, and we end
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up being a spot on the pavement. Yeah. Well, it is again
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about time for us to take another
commercial break. But while we're in this
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break, everybody give that a try. See how that lesson works for you.
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Please stay with this is Mary and
I continue to explore the physical body
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as a major tool for spiritual evolution. This is Mission Evolution www. Mission
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evolution dot org. Are you a
victim of dreaded body patterns? This is
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Mission Evolution, Mission evolution dot org. We're Continuing our discussion with Mary Bond,
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the author of Body Mandela, Posture
Perception Presence. Her website is Heal
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Youourposture dot com. So, Mary, I pose the question, what is
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body patterns? They're just habits,
you know. Habits are the way you
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do things. So a habit would
be that you put more weight on one
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leg than the other, but you
don't realize it. So oftentimes one leg
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will actually be more muscular, stronger
than the other side. Over time,
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that whole side of the body becomes
more compressed, so you begin to have
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a curve towards the side of the
shorter leg. And little by little you
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get older and older and you begin
to have a limp. You don't know
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it because it's developed since you were
like probably eight, you know. So
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that's a pattern, and the pattern
persists unless you've studied it first of all,
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waked up to it, you know, and then decided it's important to
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change it, and then go about
some kind of process of balancing yourself so
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you have more equal weight on the
two sides of your body. How can
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we wake up to it, to
body patterns? Well, lots of times,
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I think when we go to a
therapist whether it's a doctor or an
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alternative therapist, we just want the
pain to go away. You know,
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I think most people these days are
just they think about body awareness is not
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all that important. What's aware?
The only thing they're mostly aware of is
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pain. Or number two is how
they look, you know. So those
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are the two motivations that people have
when they come to a therapist, and
408
00:40:00.639 --> 00:40:07.039
the therapist is expected to fix that. Right, if you're lucky, you'll
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00:40:07.119 --> 00:40:13.320
run into a therapist who instead wants
to educate you and help you understand how
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00:40:13.360 --> 00:40:16.360
you got that way. So my
advice is to look for that kind of
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00:40:16.440 --> 00:40:22.880
person who can help you understand your
patterns and help you find a way through
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00:40:22.960 --> 00:40:27.280
them. Now, this could be
a yoga teacher, it could be a
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pilates teacher. You know, it
doesn't have to be a manual therapist.
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It just needs to be somebody who's
willing to help you change the way you
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00:40:37.599 --> 00:40:43.239
do things rather than make you more
just make you more comfortable or more attractive.
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If you're very much right handed and
you do it so, you intend
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to do things one sided. Are
there some activities you can engage in that
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00:40:55.760 --> 00:41:00.800
can start helping you correct that that
involve by it movement, Oh, I
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00:41:00.840 --> 00:41:04.800
think so, yeah. I mean
I think that's, for example, a
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00:41:04.840 --> 00:41:09.960
good reason to study yoga or dance, any kind of dance, or gymnastics
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00:41:10.079 --> 00:41:15.199
or you know, anything swimming,
you know, whatever we do that that
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00:41:15.320 --> 00:41:23.239
engages the two sides of the body
as equal partners. If the handedness has
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00:41:23.400 --> 00:41:30.440
become a problem, then you'll notice
it. You'll notice that you do certain
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00:41:30.719 --> 00:41:37.760
postures or exercises more readily on one
side than the other. Well, it's
425
00:41:37.800 --> 00:41:40.320
this more difficult side. That is
the side that you need to work on,
426
00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:44.320
and it's not what we want to
do, you know, we want
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00:41:44.360 --> 00:41:47.079
to excel. So we are very
happy to do the side that works.
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00:41:47.119 --> 00:41:52.840
Great, do all those pirouettes to
the right, but it's doing them to
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00:41:52.920 --> 00:41:57.920
the left that's going to help you
the most, change your brain, change
430
00:41:57.960 --> 00:42:06.840
the way you do things. Is
you mentioned how important movement is is intentionally
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00:42:07.440 --> 00:42:13.400
working bilaterally, intentionally doing the equal
amount with one side as with the other.
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00:42:14.360 --> 00:42:19.599
How does that affect our overall functioning? Well, it's not my expertise,
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00:42:20.119 --> 00:42:24.239
you know, but my suspicion is
that it's improved, improves functioning,
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00:42:24.920 --> 00:42:29.760
you know, improves the probably the
two sides of the brain working more more
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00:42:29.760 --> 00:42:34.360
in tandem, you know. But
again it's not it's not something that I
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00:42:34.440 --> 00:42:39.800
necessarily have people do. So what
what kind of movement you say in rowing
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00:42:39.960 --> 00:42:45.760
that you engage the client to move
when you're holding a position or you know,
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00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:49.599
pressing on some fashion. What does
that look like? Explain that to
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00:42:49.679 --> 00:42:54.239
us A little bit. Movement might
be breathing might be just the breathing is
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00:42:54.280 --> 00:42:59.760
a movement, right, So for
example, someone who breathes into the upper
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00:42:59.840 --> 00:43:06.239
chain, this kind of person needs
to learn to breathe into the lower ribs.
442
00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:12.320
So perhaps I would place my hands
around the lower ribs and say,
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00:43:12.679 --> 00:43:16.639
see if you can inflate your lungs
into my hands. See if you can
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00:43:16.719 --> 00:43:22.960
find that widening through the lower part
of your rib cage. So that is
445
00:43:22.039 --> 00:43:27.880
a new movement, and it's a
new sensation, and it's a new understanding
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00:43:27.920 --> 00:43:34.199
of breathing. So that would happen
perhaps on the table. And then when
447
00:43:34.280 --> 00:43:40.039
we sit up, can you bring
that into the being upright in gravity?
448
00:43:40.519 --> 00:43:45.119
Can you still breathe through that lower
part of the lungs or do you have
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00:43:45.199 --> 00:43:52.639
to breathe up here? Okay,
So then you practice it doing walking or
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00:43:52.719 --> 00:43:57.559
doing the dishes, or you know, whatever it is. So you have
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00:43:58.760 --> 00:44:04.880
an opportunity to feel a different way
of moving and then to blend that way
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00:44:04.920 --> 00:44:10.679
of moving into daily life as well
as into whatever practice that you do,
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00:44:10.880 --> 00:44:20.320
sports or somatic practice. How important
is bringing the attention a person's attention to
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00:44:20.360 --> 00:44:22.360
a different body part when you're doing
this. Does that have any effects?
455
00:44:22.480 --> 00:44:27.119
Oh? Absolutely? You know,
if the person is not paying attention,
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00:44:27.840 --> 00:44:34.679
then they're getting nothing out of the
whole embodiment purpose of the process. You
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00:44:34.719 --> 00:44:38.920
know. So if the person is
on the table chatting away about their latest
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00:44:38.960 --> 00:44:45.960
knitting project, you know it's not
going anywhere. You know. It's what
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00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:51.639
I call first aid. Maybe if
you're lucky, you know. But by
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00:44:51.679 --> 00:44:57.880
being truly present, present in your
body while somebody is doing the work,
461
00:44:58.360 --> 00:45:04.360
then there's an opportunity to feel yourself, to sense yourself differently. And it's
462
00:45:04.440 --> 00:45:12.400
that opening up of your awakening your
awareness of your body that is I think
463
00:45:12.559 --> 00:45:15.239
the whole point of it. Well, Mary, is that time of the
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00:45:15.280 --> 00:45:23.639
show when I get to ask you
what is your mission? Okay? I
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00:45:23.719 --> 00:45:32.000
think that people who truly respect their
body's wisdom and understand their bodies, understand
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00:45:32.039 --> 00:45:38.840
their patterns. I think those people
are more likely to be receptive, to
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00:45:38.920 --> 00:45:44.239
be compassionate to themselves, to other
people, and to all of life.
468
00:45:45.360 --> 00:45:50.840
So that's my purpose, is to
bring more people to that place of understanding
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00:45:50.880 --> 00:45:59.360
and respect of the body. Very
beautiful, very beautiful. If we are
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00:45:59.519 --> 00:46:08.639
to start to engage and bring forward
more structural integrity, what are the first
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00:46:08.719 --> 00:46:20.000
changes we can expect to see?
It's so various. People are so different,
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00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:23.679
you know. So I don't think
that I could say there's a blanket
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00:46:24.360 --> 00:46:36.599
thing, but in general, I
think people feel more. People could say
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00:46:36.639 --> 00:46:39.239
something like they might stand up from
the table and say, oh, I've
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00:46:39.320 --> 00:46:45.400
never felt my feet before. My
god, I have feet right, Or
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00:46:45.679 --> 00:46:51.360
my breathing is amazing. I didn't
know that I had such capacity in my
477
00:46:51.880 --> 00:46:57.960
rip cage. Or gosh, I
went home and I was able to talk
478
00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:02.519
to my husband without fighting with him. Yeah. So you know, all
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00:47:02.639 --> 00:47:09.320
kinds of things can happen when you
begin to intervene in the system in a
480
00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:20.199
holistic way that allows the person,
the system, the body, mind to
481
00:47:19.800 --> 00:47:27.920
to let its own wisdom come forth. Okay, so here's here's a good
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00:47:27.960 --> 00:47:32.039
one for you. What is a
body mandela? Oh? I made it
483
00:47:32.119 --> 00:47:43.639
up. You know. A mandala
is an image used often in Hindu and
484
00:47:43.719 --> 00:47:47.679
Buddhist practices, but other religions as
well. It's an image to used to
485
00:47:47.800 --> 00:47:54.840
focus the mind for meditation, and
it's usually has a container around it with
486
00:47:54.960 --> 00:48:00.599
a central idea, which is whatever
the central images has to do with self
487
00:48:00.639 --> 00:48:07.960
realization or enlightenment. And there are
usually gates on the four sides of the
488
00:48:07.039 --> 00:48:15.559
mandala, so those represent pathways into
the center. So for myself, when
489
00:48:15.599 --> 00:48:19.480
I wrote this book, I thought, well, the purpose of this book
490
00:48:19.519 --> 00:48:28.119
is really body awareness, but there
are many avenues towards that central, self
491
00:48:28.159 --> 00:48:32.679
realized, embodied presence that I'm looking
for, and one of them is posture.
492
00:48:34.159 --> 00:48:37.360
Posture is the most accessible to most
people. Most people are aware of
493
00:48:37.400 --> 00:48:43.519
that movement, how you move,
how you walk, what the rhythm of
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00:48:43.559 --> 00:48:50.920
it is, how it's yeah,
you're basically your movement. That's another access
495
00:48:50.960 --> 00:48:54.599
point. Third access point is what
you feel. That your sense is what
496
00:48:54.679 --> 00:49:02.159
you hear and the impact of what
you hear on your body. And the
497
00:49:02.199 --> 00:49:07.559
third one is your self expression.
So for example, your self expression in
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00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:14.119
walking would be different when you're taking
out the garbage than when you're going to
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00:49:14.159 --> 00:49:17.280
see your best friend. You know, you walk differently in those two ways.
500
00:49:19.039 --> 00:49:25.239
So beginning to feel those patterns through
those gates is a way of working
501
00:49:25.280 --> 00:49:32.320
yourself towards that goal of more embodied, more open, more receptive presence.
502
00:49:34.400 --> 00:49:37.199
That's a beautiful image. Mary.
You know, unfortunately we're out of time.
503
00:49:38.320 --> 00:49:40.760
Thank you so much for coming on
the show and sharing your wisdom.
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00:49:42.199 --> 00:49:45.360
It's my pleasure to be with you, Gilder, truly, thank you so
505
00:49:45.480 --> 00:49:49.960
much. You bet our guest is
hour has been Mary Bond. Mary is
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00:49:49.960 --> 00:49:54.639
a structural integration practitioner offering Somanic movement
coaching and the author of three books based
507
00:49:54.639 --> 00:50:00.400
on Ralph's philosophy of gravity as a
healing force for human transformation. To find
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00:50:00.440 --> 00:50:05.039
out more about Mary and all the
wonderful things she has to offer, visit
509
00:50:05.079 --> 00:50:09.920
her website Heal Your Posture dot com. This has been Mission Evolution with Gold
510
00:50:09.920 --> 00:50:15.039
of Ryeka. For more information or
to enjoy past archived episodes, visit www
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00:50:15.320 --> 00:50:21.440
dot Mission evolution dot org. But
most importantly, please be sure to join
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00:50:21.480 --> 00:50:25.639
me right here next time. This
mission will continue to bring information, resources
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00:50:25.679 --> 00:50:29.320
and support to our rapidly evolving world.
1
00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:14.919
Welcome to Mission Evolution Radio Show with
Gwildowaka, bringing together today's leading experts to
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00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:20.640
uncover ever deepening spiritual truths and the
latest scientific developments in support of the evolution
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00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:27.559
of humankind. For more information on
Mission Evolution Radio with Gildawaka, visit www
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00:00:27.640 --> 00:00:33.719
dot Mission evolution dot org and now
here's the host of Mission Evolution, Miss
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00:00:33.719 --> 00:00:43.960
Gwildawiaka. Many view the body is
only physical on nature, but is there
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00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:48.600
more to it? What if one
of the body's major functions is to ground
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00:00:48.679 --> 00:00:53.600
us into physical reality? What if
our bodies are a major gateway to evolution?
8
00:00:54.880 --> 00:01:00.359
Can structural imbalances impinge on this amazing
and very necessary ability. Mission Evolution
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00:01:00.520 --> 00:01:06.480
Radio TV show is coming to you
on Exone Broadcast Network and SIMULTV. We
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00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:11.640
are produced by Realmar McConnell Media Company
with studios and corporate offices in Saint Catherine's,
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00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:17.359
Ontario, Canada. With the CIS
Hour to explore the body's major role
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00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:22.760
in presence and evolution is Mary Bond. Mary is the author of a Body
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00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:29.159
Mandela, Posture, Perception, Presence. She trained directly with doctor Ida Rolf,
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00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:34.719
the originator of structural integration. Her
three books based on Rolf's philosophy of
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00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:41.120
gravity is a healing force for human
transformation have been translated into five languages.
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Her website Healyourposture dot com. Mary, thank you so much for joining us
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00:01:47.359 --> 00:01:52.159
on Mission Evolution. Welda. It's
my big pleasure to meet with you and
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00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:56.400
talk with you and your and your
listeners. So's it's amazing to me you
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00:01:56.439 --> 00:02:00.840
studied with Ida rolf What what drew
you to study Rolfing in the first place.
20
00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:07.360
Well, because I got rolfed,
you know, I had to sorry
21
00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:10.439
to hear that. Well, No, I had the experience I was.
22
00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:16.840
I was in a dance program at
UCLA, studying to get my degree in
23
00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:23.159
choreography, and my roommate, who
I knew could not do a double pirouette,
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00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:28.840
suddenly was doing them in the pallet
class and I was like, well,
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00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:32.840
what happened to you? And so
what happened was that she became better
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00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:40.560
aligned through this body therapy, manual
therapy called structural integration. So I thought,
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00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:46.199
well, I got to get me
some of that. And then doctor
28
00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:50.319
Ralph came to town. She came
to give a sort of demonstration, and
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she was talking about gravity, and
I was so interested in how the body
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00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:59.840
worked as a dancer, and actually
my ballet teacher had been talking about gravity,
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so so I kind of perked up
and I asked her if I could
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study with her, and she started
to say no, and I said,
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well, I don't really want to
do the work. I just want to
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00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:16.639
see the way you see bodies.
So that's what happened. How long did
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you study with her? Well,
let's see, probably probably five years or
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00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:25.599
so. You know, I kind
of came in and out of it.
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I was I was dedicated, and
yet I had other things going on in
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my life like family. As an
answer, yes, that's pretty all encompassing.
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So for those of us that don't
know what is ralphing exactly, ralfing
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is a manual therapy developed by doctor
Ralph that has to do with reorganizing the
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body's structure or some people say posture, but she was insistent that posture was
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a activity and structure was what you
have underneath the activity. So it's about
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realigning the structure in accordance with the
pull of gravity so that everything would work
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better, that the muscles and the
bones would be more able to move freely,
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and that within the body also the
functions would be working more correctly.
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So how does rothing differ from massage, say, for instance, Well,
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because it's targeted when we're trained to
look at the person's organization, the way
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they are, where they move,
the way they stand, and to address
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our manual contact according to what we
see is out of alignment. So does
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I know massage works even deep tissue
massage works mostly on the muscles. Does
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rothing work on the muscles as well? Or where old? Does it work?
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Well? Actually, nowadays we I
think massage therapist as well as Ralpher's
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are talking about fascia, so we
think of it all as myofascia, and
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the fascia is the connective tissue that
surrounds all organs in the body. Not
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just it's like envelope around the muscles, but it's an envelope around every tube,
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every wire, every vessel, every
organ in your body, and it's
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very interconnected. So doctor Ralph's idea
was that when you've got your hands specifically
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targeting that tissue, you actually were
always touching the whole body rather than targeting
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any one single part. Well that's
interesting, So how does it get out?
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I mean, you know, obviously
you're treating something. How does the
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fashion get compromised because of repetitive motion. For example, doing the same thing
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always over and over the same way. Typical example was holding your phone,
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you know, So then over time
you would get the fascia in this part
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of the body would become contracted and
dehydrated. Actually, another example is injuries,
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some kind of impact or something that
wounds the body and then their scar
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tissue, and so then what happens
is the fascia becomes more densely connected,
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kind of like velcrow again dehydrated.
So the work of the manual therapist is
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to not just stretch, but actually
rehydrate that tissue so that it's more plastic.
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And how do they do that?
I can see them with a you
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know, with a IV. No, it's with slow penetrating but gentle targeted
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touch, so manipulating the area to
bring circulation and that sort of thing.
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Yeah, okay, that makes sense. So what differences do you see in
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the original form that you studied and
what's being practiced and called rolfing today.
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00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:24.879
Well, there are at least I
think seventeen maybe twenty five different schools of
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structural integration that have branched off from
Idorolf's original guild, and many of those
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different approaches have added other kinds of
techniques, mostly borrowing from osteopathy, so
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bringing in more information about the way
the biomechanics of the bones, for example,
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so really looking more specifically at things
that can tor and twist and compress
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through the skeletal system, that would
be one way. Others are looking more
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energetically at the at the organization of
the body. Some are also working with
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the movement within the body of the
visceral tissue, you know. So there's
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lots of different approaches that are being
sort of woven into the Roffing philosophy.
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But I think always all of us
listen to her original message, which was
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that gravity is the therapist. So
how do you explain that one for me?
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What do you mean by gravity as
the therapist? Well, gravity is
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the force that holds us to the
planet and holds the planets to each other,
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right, And so when the body
is out of alignment with gravity,
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then we tend to be twisted or
bent or compress or buckled and not open
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and free to move. Well,
so when the body has been processed,
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doctor Rolf called it processing, when
the body has been freed of certain restrictions
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that habitual restrictions. Then gravity can
move through us as an energy that uplifts
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us and heals us continually, rather
than being something that breaks us down.
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So it's kind of like building with
child's children's blocks. If you start pulling
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them out of alignment, pretty soon
they crash. Well, that's one way
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of thinking about it. That's a
simplistic way of thinking about it. And
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actually that was doctor Rolph's preference.
I think she was trying to communicate with
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the most possible people, so she
used that stack of block imagery as her
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logo. But in fact, yeah, and so a stack of blocks is
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actually a compression, one thing that's
on top of another pressing down. But
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more recently we're looking at the model
of tenseegrity, which means tensional integrity,
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which is a what's the word harmonizing
between the compressive members of a struction structure
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and expansive or stretching members. So
example of ten segrity structure would be Buckminster
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Fuller's geodesic dome. I don't know
if people remember those the way they were
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struts held together through wires tension.
And so this way of thinking about the
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body allows more spaciousness and more plasticity
in our way of bringing it back intoy.
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Is it kind of like a suspension
bridge? Yes, okay, that
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makes sense to me. And this
is all done by physical manual manipulation.
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Well yes, yes and no,
because always built into the I mean,
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if you do it the way doctor
Rolf taught us, built into the manual.
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The physical manipulation of the therapist is
what she called calling for a movement.
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So she used to say, put
the tissue where it belongs and then
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ask the person to move. So
the person on the table is not just
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lying there passively, but they're engaged
in their own process. And she also
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developed and taught us to train people
to help themselves maintain the gains that they
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had gotten through the therapy through movement
practices. Oh so we're about out of
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time in this segment. So you're
saying that we have habitual movement movement movements,
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and you start to work beyond those
habits because again, once you're doing
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repetitive motion, exactly. Pretty fascinating
it is. That's the part that I
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love. Yes, it's it's inaction. Well, it was a dancer,
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you would, wouldn't you. It's
what brought me to the work. Well,
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it is time for that station break, Mary, and I will return
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very shortly, so don't go away. This is Mission Evolution www dot Mission
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evolution dot org. What is body
awareness? With this hour discussing the importance
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of structural integration, is Mary Bond? Mary? What is body awareness and
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how why is it so important?
Well, everything we do we do through
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the body. You know, our
whole our lives are lived in in our
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bodies and our thoughts, our dreams, our imagination voices. We might hear
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images, we might see in our
dreams. All these things are coming to
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us through our senses. So I
think what has happened since the Western religions
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have sort of given us the belief
that connection with the spirituality of our lives
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has to be transcendent, that has
to be outside of the body. But
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in fact, I think we're starting
to learn, through certain kinds of research
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into trauma therapy, for example,
that in fact body and mind are completely
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integrated, and that what we experience
within us is as connected to the universe
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as it always has been throughout history. Fascinating. So, in other words,
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we don't have to leave the body
to be present and functioning in this
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reality spiritually. Rather, it's almost
the opposite, isn't it. I think
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so. I think the body is
a gateway, it's not an obstacle.
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So what does fasha that we were
just talking about earlier, what does that
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have to do with body awareness?
Oh, it was so fascinating fascia.
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Years ago, you know, when
people did dis sections to try to understand
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what's going on inside the body,
they would throw this stuff in a bucket
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and just ignore it. You know, it was just not important. But
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since actually, doctor Rolf I think
put fascia on the map, at least
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in the most recent period of time. So there have been now many conferences
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and research studies where body workers,
people like me and academics who are studying
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fashia in the laboratories have gotten together
and begun to compare notes. Lo and
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behold, fascia has free nerve endings
in it. So this means that it
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can receive communication. So much of
what we feel inside our bodies is communicated
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through the fascia. Fascinating it is, It's amazing, and they just throw
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it in a bucket, right A
long time ago? Yeah, no more,
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no more so. The fascia really
integrates the body in a way.
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That's right. It's everywhere. It's
down to the cellular level. So every
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cell in your body has a little
tiny thin membrane of fascia around it.
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So and that's interconnected all the way
out to the fascia which is like an
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envelope around your whole body, you
know, the skin, just under the
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skin. So if you are if
you've damaged fashia in one area and it
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starts to become restricted, does it
then restrict fascia throughout the body or in
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neighboring areas or how does that work? Yeah? Actually, in doctor Rolf's
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book, she has an illustration of
a sweater where you have a sweater that
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has a pole on it, and
how that pole pulls through the whole sweater
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and distorts the shape of it.
So it's a simplistic image, but it's
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exactly what happens. You could have. I remember having a client years ago
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who was complaining of a neck problem
she'd had, she'd had an accident and
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she had been told that she didn't
get next surgery, she would end up,
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you know, not being able to
walk. And the class that I
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was teaching that she was in happened
to be about the feet, and she
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stood up to have us look at
her feet, And when I looked at
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her, I saw that there was
absolutely no structural support under the side of
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her neck that was having the problem. So later on I had the chance
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to work with her several times and
to not only manipulate her feet and her
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legs and her spine, but also
to teach her that she could bear her
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weight through that foot and thereby relieve
the neck problem. So from head to
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toe. So if we've been in
an accident and we favor a limb,
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and as a body worker, I've
seen this happen. You favor a limb
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and then but then the injury's gone, but you still now are habitually favoring
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that limb. Does that indeed impact
the entire body? Yes, yes,
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So we continue to have some kind
of movement pattern that has maybe originated thirty
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years ago, but we don't remember, or we don't realize it, or
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we don't think it's important right until
something else happens, and then the body
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is no longer as adaptable as it
could have been. One of the things
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that you know, our modern era
is plagued by is automobile accidents, how
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does that impact the fashion? I
mean, we're always in either just a
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fender bender, you know, some
major accidents and most everybody's experienced it.
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How does that impact this whole thing? Well, that's that's a blow to
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the body, you know. So
it's like you have a blow to the
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body, and the body tries to
secure itself, tries to stay safe,
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and so the muscles contract and then
they stay contracted, and then the fascist
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says, oh, okay, I
mean, I'm being silly, But it's
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like the fascist says, okay,
you want to stay in that position,
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Okay, we'll We'll just tighten up
this part of your neck and that's that's
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how you'll be. So it's protective, but it's not totally intelligent. We've
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heard I have certainly of holding emotion
in the body. Do you work with
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that and how does that impact this
fashion? Well, emotional impact is just
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like a car, like a fender
bender. Something comes at you, harsh
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words or even a physical blow that
is like a wound, even though you
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might not see it. There might
not be any blood, but something happens
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in the body, and something in
you stops and says, I have to
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stabilize and protect myself from this,
and so you build some kind of not
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exactly what could be a wall,
or it could be just a barrier to
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things coming in anymore from that direction. Yeah, and you can see that
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in people's posture sometimes sure like a
wincing Yeah exactly. So we starting to
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see how doctor Ralph had a good
idea, right, exactly how long ago
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was this? So we hear a
lot about being present and grounded. How
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do these concepts relate to rolfing.
Well, let's take this example of some
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kind of emotional impact that has happened
to somebody, and let's say the response
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has been to lift themselves up,
to hold themself up and hold themself together.
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This is pretty pretty common. I'm
kind of doing it right now.
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You can kind of feel it.
I've pulled up through the bottom of my
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pelvic floor, contracted my buttocks,
contracted my diaphragm, and I'm holding myself
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up. Okay, so I'm not
grounded right. Instead of being allowing the
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planet to support me, I'm trying
to support myself. I'm doing all the
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work right. So the therapy would
be to invite the whole system to learn
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again how to trust the ground,
which also has implications about how to trust
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other people, how to trust life
itself. Right, So grounding into the
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planet I think has a huge implications
for someone's life and to be able to
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settle and relax again and rest and
feel like I'm I have something underneath me,
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I have something at my back,
and I'm okay. It's not a
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quick learning experience, but it's essential
in order to be able to be free
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of that whatever it was that caused
you to grab yourself. So that holding
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yourself in a posture like that is
energy expense if as well, isn't it.
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Oh it's exhausting, Yeah, yeah, exhausting. I've also heard that
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you can actually take on a person's
posture, you know, examine how they're
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standing, and stand like them,
and pretty soon you're starting to feel the
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emotions they do. Have you worked
with that at all? Uh? That's
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that's a phenomenon called mirror neurons mirror. We have little cells in our brains
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that mirror the movements of other people. And so so for example, if
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you're watching a ballet, let's say, and what makes you enjoy what you're
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seeing? You know, the movement
and the beautiful costumes. All of that
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is because you're actually feeling that in
your own body. Uh. If you've
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studied ballet, for example, then
in that case, you would enjoy it
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even more because your mirror neurons would
be educated. Right. So, but
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we use this all the time in
terms of talking to other people, being
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with other people, because we mirror
what they are feeling, because what we
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feel is always expressed in movement,
even though the movement might be very very
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tiny. So then if we take
this forward, if we have restrictions in
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the fascia that prevent us from taking
on particular positions, we're limited in our
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ability to mirror. I think,
So, I think, and so interaction
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is impinged I would yeah. And
you see that with people who've experienced terrific
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trauma that they that they pull back
from from being from social engagement. You
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know, they have less capacity to
be present with others. And being present
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involves being balanced and in cooperation with
rather than fighting GRAVI being present for me
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is being able to be with,
for example, you right here right now,
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rather than worrying about what I'm going
to do tomorrow or what I did
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yesterday. Right. So I'm trying
to give you a good example of being
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presents. It's the feeling of being
supported by gravity that I kind of described
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earlier. That you're here, you're
okay, you trust what's going on,
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you feel safe, so therefore you
feel adaptive to what's going on, and
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responsive and creative and open. All
of those things are available when you're present.
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If you're not present, if you're
worrying or remembering, then you're not
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as available to what's going on right
now and our power. Yes, right,
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I think so, Well, it's
it's time again for us to take
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a station break. Mary and I
will be right back to continue our discussion.
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So stay right there. This is
Mission Evolution www dot Mission evolution dot
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org. What is embodied presence?
This is Mission Evolution, Mission Evolution dot
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org. With us discussing Ida Roff's
work is Mary Bond. Her latest book
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is Body Mandela, Posture, Perception, Presence. So, Mary, that's
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the sixty four dollars question. What
is embodied presence versus disembodied presence? Well,
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let's see if I can say something
about presence. First, If if
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you're not present, we were just
talking about this, that's when you stub
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your toe, right when you're not
present, you're not all there. You
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stub your toe, and part of
that is that you're not in your body
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at that moment. Right. Uh. Similarly, when you're not present,
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you're thinking about whatever something, that's
when you back up and bump your bumper
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into this other car, Right,
that's when that happens. Also, I
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think presence is as we were saying
earlier, the body is a gateway rather
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than an obstacle to uh, whatever
wisdom might come to us from from the
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greater universe. Right, And it's
when we're present that we're able to open
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ourselves to receive that. So when
we're in our body, ah, then
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that comes through us as whole,
as a whole response, rather than something
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that we have cognitive cognitively designed.
You know, you can just be present
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with your mind and it's I think
much less compassion, much less gentle,
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much less open. But when you
have the body, there's something that allows
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you to connect with all bodies with
all that that we're all connected to one
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another as well as to the planet. So that's the body puts out an
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electromagnetic field. Is it through that
electromagnetic field if we're in the body to
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detect it that we connect to others. I suspect that's that's correct, you
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know, I don't. I don't
think about things in those terms. I'm
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thinking more in terms of the more
pedestrian idea of perception, you know.
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But I think that we are energy
and that we're surrounded by energy. I
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read something recently that I quite like, but I can't remember where I read
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it, and if anybody listening knows
where I read it, I would love
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to have you send me an email. What it was was that everything is
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made up of light, heat,
and gravity. Like that's like, yeah,
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I think that's true. So that's
true of our interactions as well.
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If we have had a lot of
trauma, like people that have been war
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torn countries and this and that,
and in addition to probably injuries, when
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do you start noticing that your life
is not working anymore because you have all
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these restrictions. And do you think
we're often can treat that? Oh?
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I do. I think people are
so traumatized. There's a wonderful program I
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wish I could remember the name of
it, but it's working with therapists in
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countries surrounding Ukraine to teach them how
to intervene and help people who've been traumatized
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by the war there, And I
think there have been many such programs over
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the years. They're always small because
we are alternative health, you know,
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we're not medical mainstream. But I
think that being able to be in communication,
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either physically or through through words and
whatever kind of therapy there can be
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as immediately as possible, helps such
people to overcome or at least manage the
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dire circumstances in which they've been throwned
to. When you say immediately, is
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that because the sooner you treat it, the less embedded it gets in the
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body. I believe that's true.
I don't know for sure. Yeah,
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pretty fascinating. So let's talk a
little bit about surgery. What happens when
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you cut through the fascia in surgery
is you know, what happens, same
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thing as if you had a knife
wound from a burglar. You know,
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it's still it's still an injury.
I mean, it's an injury in a
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positive sense, a positive injury that
has saved your life. But all the
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same, there's going to be a
network of increasingly dehydrated scar tissue that develops
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around that wound, and which would
it would be extremely beneficial to have someone
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who knows what they're doing work with
that tissue and soften it, relieve it
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so that the scar tissue of the
positive wound doesn't end up being a negative
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have a negative impact on the system
as a whole. And ralving can do
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that, not just ralfing, but
other kinds of modalities as well that are
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focused on a whole whole body healing. Does it matter how long it's been
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so safe? For instance, a
person had surgery twenty years ago and now
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they're just hearing about this and they
know that that hip has never moved the
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same since the surgeries healed. Can
you go into it now and still have
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an impact with these therapies? Yeah? Absolutely? Not too long ago.
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I worked with a woman who had
had several cesareans surgeries, several cesarean births,
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and had a terrific scar across her
abdomen that was pulling her, pulling
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her down and in and just relieving
that scar. It took a long time,
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more than one session. And scar
work is very slow, very gentle.
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It's not rough. You're not trying
to suddenly make this all smoothed out.
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It's you have to be kind and
gentle and patient with that tissue.
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But over time that whole compression in
her gut area softened and opened up,
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and she was able to stand much
more upright and move much better through her
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legs. I understand scar tissue is
fairly insidious. Does it kind of regrow
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and you have to get back in
there and coax it to soften again?
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Is that why it takes more than
one session? It depends on what the
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scar is about. You know where
it is and so on. So,
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but it's it's not the scar doesn't
just stay where it is, but it
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sort of sends out little little feelers
around it. And so all those little
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feelers do they become they're restrictions.
Yeah, it's all restrictions. Yeah.
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So you want you want things to
be moving. And so when I'm saying
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moving, it's not like, you
know, great big movement, but it's
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it's it's uh, when you put
your hands on a body, you can
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feel whether it feels solid, or
whether it feels like there's energy or blood
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or you know, gentle movement moving
through it. And the more impinged we
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are, the less movement and the
less life. Really exactly interesting. Let
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let's talk a little bit about how
this impacts our functioning in the world,
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not just our physical functioning, but
our productivity, our creativity. Well,
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as you said, it takes a
lot of energy to hold something back,
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right, It takes a lot of
energy to maintain protective stance. So that
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means that you have that much of
yourself devoted to maintaining the status quo,
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which I think probably distracts from your
creative output, from your ability to come
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forward into the world with your whole
beingness, with your whole with all the
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things that you are capable of.
Yeah, so yeah, restrictions are restrictions.
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Huh, Yeah, there you go. You suggest that an awareness of
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space around the body influences how the
body functions. Would you explain that,
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please? Absolutely, so if you
don't, if you don't mind, I
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would give the readers or the listeners
an example. So, for example,
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if you right now, imagine that
you're holding your phone, your device in
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your hand, and you're scrolling through
it, and you're looking for an urgent
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text from somebody, and just put
yourself into that frame of mind, in
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that sense in yourself, and notice
if you stay that way for just another
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few moments, how you're breathing,
how the breathing fells, how your body
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feels, and how comfortable you are. And then let's just put the phone
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down for a moment and imagine if
you stretch your hands way out to you
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know, touch the walls on either
side of you, and imagine that you
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can see. Let your awareness,
your eyes take in that space through your
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peripheral vision, not your focus.
Your focused vision was looking at the phone.
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Now you're using more your peripheral vision
to sense the space around you.
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Imagine the space behind you. You
know what's there because you walked through it
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to get to where you are,
So there's space behind you, space all
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around your space above your head.
Notice you're breathing in that situation, the
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way your body is, the way
you're sitting, and your comfort. And
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then, because I can't stop giving
a lesson, see if you can keep
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that openness and pick up the phone
again and look at it, but don't
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lose the space, keep the space. There's a challenge, and we walk
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every day focused on the phone at
this point, yes, and there's becoming
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more and more injuries and more and
more posture problems and more and more breathing
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problems, you know, neck it's
like text neck people have. And when
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you have text neck, it's very
hard to breathe through the nose, so
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people begin to open the mouth and
you have more and more people with slack
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jaw just you know, like that. So that impacts the ability not only
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does it impact breathing, which is
a problem, but it also impacts the
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ability for the head to rise up
above the neck. Also, doesn't it
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impact your feeling of safety in the
world if you aren't aware of the world
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around you, absolutely, you know, if our ancestors weren't aware of the
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space around their bodies, they would
have been lunch. You know, they
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wouldn't have been catching lunch. They
would have been lunch, and we end
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up being a spot on the pavement. Yeah. Well, it is again
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about time for us to take another
commercial break. But while we're in this
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break, everybody give that a try. See how that lesson works for you.
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Please stay with this is Mary and
I continue to explore the physical body
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as a major tool for spiritual evolution. This is Mission Evolution www. Mission
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00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:58.679
evolution dot org. Are you a
victim of dreaded body patterns? This is
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00:37:58.760 --> 00:38:02.599
Mission Evolution, Mission evolution dot org. We're Continuing our discussion with Mary Bond,
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the author of Body Mandela, Posture
Perception Presence. Her website is Heal
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Youourposture dot com. So, Mary, I pose the question, what is
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body patterns? They're just habits,
you know. Habits are the way you
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do things. So a habit would
be that you put more weight on one
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leg than the other, but you
don't realize it. So oftentimes one leg
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will actually be more muscular, stronger
than the other side. Over time,
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that whole side of the body becomes
more compressed, so you begin to have
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a curve towards the side of the
shorter leg. And little by little you
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get older and older and you begin
to have a limp. You don't know
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it because it's developed since you were
like probably eight, you know. So
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that's a pattern, and the pattern
persists unless you've studied it first of all,
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waked up to it, you know, and then decided it's important to
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change it, and then go about
some kind of process of balancing yourself so
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you have more equal weight on the
two sides of your body. How can
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we wake up to it, to
body patterns? Well, lots of times,
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I think when we go to a
therapist whether it's a doctor or an
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alternative therapist, we just want the
pain to go away. You know,
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I think most people these days are
just they think about body awareness is not
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all that important. What's aware?
The only thing they're mostly aware of is
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pain. Or number two is how
they look, you know. So those
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are the two motivations that people have
when they come to a therapist, and
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the therapist is expected to fix that. Right, if you're lucky, you'll
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run into a therapist who instead wants
to educate you and help you understand how
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you got that way. So my
advice is to look for that kind of
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person who can help you understand your
patterns and help you find a way through
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them. Now, this could be
a yoga teacher, it could be a
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pilates teacher. You know, it
doesn't have to be a manual therapist.
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It just needs to be somebody who's
willing to help you change the way you
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do things rather than make you more
just make you more comfortable or more attractive.
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If you're very much right handed and
you do it so, you intend
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to do things one sided. Are
there some activities you can engage in that
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can start helping you correct that that
involve by it movement, Oh, I
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think so, yeah. I mean
I think that's, for example, a
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good reason to study yoga or dance, any kind of dance, or gymnastics
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or you know, anything swimming,
you know, whatever we do that that
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engages the two sides of the body
as equal partners. If the handedness has
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become a problem, then you'll notice
it. You'll notice that you do certain
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postures or exercises more readily on one
side than the other. Well, it's
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this more difficult side. That is
the side that you need to work on,
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and it's not what we want to
do, you know, we want
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to excel. So we are very
happy to do the side that works.
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Great, do all those pirouettes to
the right, but it's doing them to
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the left that's going to help you
the most, change your brain, change
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the way you do things. Is
you mentioned how important movement is is intentionally
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working bilaterally, intentionally doing the equal
amount with one side as with the other.
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How does that affect our overall functioning? Well, it's not my expertise,
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you know, but my suspicion is
that it's improved, improves functioning,
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you know, improves the probably the
two sides of the brain working more more
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in tandem, you know. But
again it's not it's not something that I
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necessarily have people do. So what
what kind of movement you say in rowing
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that you engage the client to move
when you're holding a position or you know,
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pressing on some fashion. What does
that look like? Explain that to
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us A little bit. Movement might
be breathing might be just the breathing is
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a movement, right, So for
example, someone who breathes into the upper
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chain, this kind of person needs
to learn to breathe into the lower ribs.
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So perhaps I would place my hands
around the lower ribs and say,
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see if you can inflate your lungs
into my hands. See if you can
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find that widening through the lower part
of your rib cage. So that is
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a new movement, and it's a
new sensation, and it's a new understanding
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of breathing. So that would happen
perhaps on the table. And then when
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we sit up, can you bring
that into the being upright in gravity?
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Can you still breathe through that lower
part of the lungs or do you have
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to breathe up here? Okay,
So then you practice it doing walking or
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doing the dishes, or you know, whatever it is. So you have
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an opportunity to feel a different way
of moving and then to blend that way
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of moving into daily life as well
as into whatever practice that you do,
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sports or somatic practice. How important
is bringing the attention a person's attention to
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a different body part when you're doing
this. Does that have any effects?
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Oh? Absolutely? You know,
if the person is not paying attention,
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then they're getting nothing out of the
whole embodiment purpose of the process. You
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know. So if the person is
on the table chatting away about their latest
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knitting project, you know it's not
going anywhere. You know. It's what
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I call first aid. Maybe if
you're lucky, you know. But by
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being truly present, present in your
body while somebody is doing the work,
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then there's an opportunity to feel yourself, to sense yourself differently. And it's
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that opening up of your awakening your
awareness of your body that is I think
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the whole point of it. Well, Mary, is that time of the
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show when I get to ask you
what is your mission? Okay? I
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think that people who truly respect their
body's wisdom and understand their bodies, understand
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their patterns. I think those people
are more likely to be receptive, to
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be compassionate to themselves, to other
people, and to all of life.
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So that's my purpose, is to
bring more people to that place of understanding
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and respect of the body. Very
beautiful, very beautiful. If we are
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to start to engage and bring forward
more structural integrity, what are the first
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changes we can expect to see?
It's so various. People are so different,
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you know. So I don't think
that I could say there's a blanket
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thing, but in general, I
think people feel more. People could say
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something like they might stand up from
the table and say, oh, I've
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never felt my feet before. My
god, I have feet right, Or
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my breathing is amazing. I didn't
know that I had such capacity in my
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rip cage. Or gosh, I
went home and I was able to talk
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to my husband without fighting with him. Yeah. So you know, all
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kinds of things can happen when you
begin to intervene in the system in a
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holistic way that allows the person,
the system, the body, mind to
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to let its own wisdom come forth. Okay, so here's here's a good
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one for you. What is a
body mandela? Oh? I made it
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00:47:32.119 --> 00:47:43.639
up. You know. A mandala
is an image used often in Hindu and
484
00:47:43.719 --> 00:47:47.679
Buddhist practices, but other religions as
well. It's an image to used to
485
00:47:47.800 --> 00:47:54.840
focus the mind for meditation, and
it's usually has a container around it with
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a central idea, which is whatever
the central images has to do with self
487
00:48:00.639 --> 00:48:07.960
realization or enlightenment. And there are
usually gates on the four sides of the
488
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mandala, so those represent pathways into
the center. So for myself, when
489
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I wrote this book, I thought, well, the purpose of this book
490
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is really body awareness, but there
are many avenues towards that central, self
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00:48:28.159 --> 00:48:32.679
realized, embodied presence that I'm looking
for, and one of them is posture.
492
00:48:34.159 --> 00:48:37.360
Posture is the most accessible to most
people. Most people are aware of
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that movement, how you move,
how you walk, what the rhythm of
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00:48:43.559 --> 00:48:50.920
it is, how it's yeah,
you're basically your movement. That's another access
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point. Third access point is what
you feel. That your sense is what
496
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you hear and the impact of what
you hear on your body. And the
497
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third one is your self expression.
So for example, your self expression in
498
00:49:07.679 --> 00:49:14.119
walking would be different when you're taking
out the garbage than when you're going to
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see your best friend. You know, you walk differently in those two ways.
500
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So beginning to feel those patterns through
those gates is a way of working
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00:49:25.280 --> 00:49:32.320
yourself towards that goal of more embodied, more open, more receptive presence.
502
00:49:34.400 --> 00:49:37.199
That's a beautiful image. Mary.
You know, unfortunately we're out of time.
503
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Thank you so much for coming on
the show and sharing your wisdom.
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It's my pleasure to be with you, Gilder, truly, thank you so
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00:49:45.480 --> 00:49:49.960
much. You bet our guest is
hour has been Mary Bond. Mary is
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a structural integration practitioner offering Somanic movement
coaching and the author of three books based
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on Ralph's philosophy of gravity as a
healing force for human transformation. To find
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out more about Mary and all the
wonderful things she has to offer, visit
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her website Heal Your Posture dot com. This has been Mission Evolution with Gold
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of Ryeka. For more information or
to enjoy past archived episodes, visit www
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dot Mission evolution dot org. But
most importantly, please be sure to join
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me right here next time. This
mission will continue to bring information, resources
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and support to our rapidly evolving world.
