A man told me the other day that his shoulder hurt. This is not an uncommon experience for me. I work with people 1:1 to help them resolve issues like this.

What I realised as I spoke to him is that he was viewing his body in a particular way. He was viewing it as separate parts. This part is my shoulder. This part is my back. This part is my knee. Etc.

Again, this is not uncommon. We hear songs early in life, like "head, shoulders knees and toes". We need to be able to label and box different bits of ourselves for our language and shared understanding.

But this way of seeing yourself can set you up for pain and difficulty in your movement. It's a perception problem and I believe it's at the root of a lot of painful experiences people have in their body's.

To change this situation, there are different ways of seeing yourself which mean that our movement and sense of being alive is more joyful and pleasure-rich.

Perception influences reality

Our thinking - the way we imagine ourselves to be - has an influence on the way we function.

Imagine you're a robot and you're lifting your arm towards the ceiling. Notice how that feels.

Now let go of the robot idea and imagine your lungs are filling with warm air. And because warmer air rises, it begins to flow up through your shoulder and your arm and your arm begins to float upward. The higher it rises, the more the warm air gently fills your arm and hand and encourages it to rise all on it's own, up towards the ceiling.

Notice that those 2 experiences are different? Which image requires less effort to lift your arm?

Nothing changed about your physical arm. Your perception of your arm and it's movement changed. This influenced the muscular contraction patterns that guided your arm to move in that way.

Your perception or self-image influenced your physical reality.

If we go back to this man and his perception of himself as individual parts it creates a certain lived experience of movement and sensation.

In this particular way of viewing himself, he was creating pain for himself.

And if you're wondering - yes I AM saying that the way he view's himself creates the pain he's in.

But what could he have done differently? Well, what's the opposite of differentiated parts?

Integrated whole.

That's right, when I can see myself as a whole integrated being (the whole integrated being that I ACTUALLY AM), my life gets a heck of a lot easier. My movement becomes more fluid. I get more coordinated and the quality of my movement improves. I feel more powerful, connected and joyful about life too.

But this isn't just a simple mind trick like the robot vs. warm air.

Changing ones self-image takes practice. Because practice gives you the lived experience that you actually ARE a whole integrated being.

I remember the first time I saw a real live heart. It had just been taken out of a goat that had been alive moments earlier. It was still "beating". Though beating is a terrible description.

Rippling with waves is a more apt description. I realised that I had been imagining a heart based on a more mechanical image. I was thinking it was more like a pump. Something that goes thump, thump, thump, thump etc etc.

But seeing the reality of a real live, organic heart completely changed my image. Hearts are beautiful. They produce waves of movement. They're fluid and smooth and rippling. They are more akin to a musical instrument creating pulsing rhythmic sound.

These are the types of experience that practice can give you. They can help to update your image of what your body actually is. An organic, pulsing, living, fluid, rippling organism that is dynamic and changing and ALIVE.

If you'd like to learn the type of practice that can help you see yourself in this more accurate and empowering way, PM me.