arcticorangutan on Nostr: A Process of Elimination A while ago I wrote a post about the “Paradoxical benefits ...

A Process of Elimination

A while ago I wrote a post about the “Paradoxical benefits of subtraction”. I recently came across a quote by Tom Myers that applies this principle to movement and the body:

“I remain unsure to this day as to whether we can truly ‘add’ anything to a person. It’s debatable. We add information, we add sensation, we encourage experimentation in movement, but in fact the best structural bodywork is more of a process of elimination — a taking away of the tensions and holding that have been imposed by their accidents, traumas, training, and the heroes they emulated. We don’t want to ‘impose’ good posture on top of that accumulation of compensations but rather progressively decompensate them to ‘expose’ the essential individual within.”

This perfectly summarizes my own experience of my body.

I used to hold a lot of tension, making me feel highly inadequate in the first few Yoga classes I joined. Initially I thought that I had to add an understanding of postures or new movements to make my body more pliable.

Of course, the opposite was the case: It has been all about dropping tension and holding patterns through various practices. Today I still hold plenty of tension, but my body is infinitely more capable and flexible.

The reason this can be a a slow and difficult process, even after becoming conscious of this principle, is that we have to work against decades of habits and compensations.

It’s worth every second.