Body Holding Patterns

This is about a new, self-empowering way to look at human health and performance. A basic part of which is to understand body holding patterns and how they influence our life experience.

Who wouldn't agree that balance is the thing. When you look at balance in the human body — that is, structural order in the the arrangement of the body, how the parts fit together — such balance is defined in terms of vertical alignment and symmetry. This is basic Anatomy and basic Physics.

As you probably know, Rolf Structural Integration is principally concerned with training an effective human stance in the world, based on having the body balanced in respect to the dictates of gravity. This just means that the human beings by design and potential can live with bodies structured to align with the constant pull of the gravitational force. There's the line of gravity; there's the vertical line of the body. When these two are in sync, you're really alive. Just basic science, folks. It's been around a long time. Mostly ignored, however.

Again, this is not a new idea. It's the same basic understanding every architect and trades worker takes as given. In their jargon, "plumb and square." It's as old, in fact, as the pyramids; even earlier, for as long as human beings have lived and been building on the Earth. 

But, it may be new to most people in terms of something to look at concerning their own individual level of health and well being. 

As I write this the 30th Olympiad is being staged in London. What a glorious demonstration of what potentials and capacities humans can bring forth. Certainly it should be easily apparent that balance of the body is a fundamental necessity for such athletic accomplishment.

Here now, however, we are addressing the question of human balance as an everyday option for average men and women; people of all ages, varying levels of physical ability, and life circumstances. Simply put, doesn't it make plain sense that you live better with balance in the makeup of the body? We suffer unnecessarily for having imbalances and, sadly, for not recognizing how these holding patterns are prime culprits. And, this continues for not being informed that these issues are easily resolved. 

I am not just making a case to call your nearest Practitioner of Rolf Structural Integration. (That would be me.) It's how I earn a living, so I must admit a certain natural bias. But, as an educator committed to training human self reliance, I am duty bound to inform you that there are things you can do yourself. Just look at some of the other items on this website for self-help tips. But, of course, Rolf Structural Integration is peerless and definitive if and when you would choose to speed things along and get some expert assistance. (Again, that would be me.)

It is rather easy to get that imbalances in the makeup of the body are prime contributors to chronic pains and stress. What is not so commonly recognized—could it be simply because it is so widespread throughout the general population that it is ignored—is that the average individual is at odds with gravity, living with imbalances and their compensations, below their natural potential; further, unaware of how these holding patterns themselves are a drain on energy, limiting not only general health, but effective performance and expression.

Another way of looking at imbalances in the makeup of the body is to call them "holding patterns." Simply defined, they are ineffective and inefficient ways of moving the body that have become ingrained into the body's fabric with repeated use over a period of time. Add in reactions to accidents and traumas that have not been resolved, and you can  begin to understand how the average individual arrives at adulthood with a life history showing a random set of unique imbalances in how the body fits together along with an equally unique pattern of compensations to maintain some semblance of normality. The tendency is to identify with this complicated situation; we say, "That's me!"

But, let it be stressed, while this may be the usual, it should not be confused with normal. Normal in structural terms—again, think pyramids—has been established from the dawn of creation to be vertical and symmetrical. This is solid science and practice worldwide, but now to apply it to the human condition itself. That would be new.

As was stated, the peerless and definitive approach to balance in the makeup of the human body is Rolf Structural Integration. It defines the category.

Naturally, I would love to keep you reading for several more pages so that I could fully educate you on the subject. There is plenty of information here and on my other websites and through an Internet search.

For now, I would like to make one point. About those imbalances, holding patterns. There are a lot of fine treatments and therapies that address such things. Many apply their techniques to local symptomatic areas. Others work more generally, taking into account broader sets of relationships. So many wonderful choices.

Rolf Structural Integration does not address imbalances and holding patterns per se. This doesn't mean that in the process such issues don't get handled. The main idea, however, and what makes this approach unique, is in how it cultivates verticality and symmetry as the first order of business. Resolution of chronic pains and stress due to bodily imbalances then resolve automatically as a by-product of having inculcated a more global framework of order. This may appear to some as a purely semantic distinction. The difference, however, is one of goals and intentions. The result of having head to toe balance introduced into the makeup of the body, is relief of symptoms of chronic pain and stress, and—very significantly—long term retention of those resolutions. And, a lasting ingrained foundation for self-evolution to higher levels of potential. Rolfing New Jersey
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