[At the end of the post is a gift.]
Men are realizing they are the one, consistent variable in their lives. So, if they want a different life, they need to change.
When we think of change, we think of emotional change.
For sure, your emotional state needs to change if you are to create the life you want.
What we aren’t taught is that there is a shortcut. There is a quick and often easy way to create emotional change, personal growth and professional success.
When you change your body, you change your life.
Science tells us that we store our stress and trauma in our soft tissue, and that soft tissue tension perpetuates, increasing the stress responses. Over the years, as your body became tenser it became more susceptible to stress and emotional reactions.
I see men struggle to break emotional patterns, patterns that haunted them for years. They would get a little change, then something would pull them back into an old destructive pattern.
A few of these men would look outside the traditional box of personal development to receive bodywork. The ones who saw the quickest and greatest change were the men who found a good Rolfer. With some men, decades of stress and limiting behaviors shifted in a few months, never to return.
I was one of those men 40 years ago. By nine months after my ten sessions of Rolfing Structural Integration, I was 3/4” taller and 20 lbs. lighter because my old stress left my body. But by far the biggest benefit was that I was relaxed for the first time in my life. Like many men, I never knew what it felt like to be relaxed. Once I felt relaxed, I began to feel happy. My relationships started working. I had the courage to pursue a career in Rolfing (SI). Within ten years I had the largest practice in the country, and I loved what I was doing.
Over the last 35 years, I’ve worked on every imaginable soft tissue issue and type of man. I had ditch diggers to Olympic athletes, surgeons who didn’t want another back surgery to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) vets, who’d given up on getting better.
Your body and mind have an amazing ability to heal when the stress in your body is gone. Until the stress leaves, you are stuck in survival. Surviving is more important than healing, so all your resources go to surviving. You can strong-arm your stress response only so long; it will always return to sabotage relationships and your goals.
A lot of what we think is a psychological issue is a physiological issue. Your response under stress is likely to be a reaction to the stress and less an interaction with another person. A tense body is much more likely to react, as if it’s threatened. A stress response thwarts creativity or interaction.
You can’t Rolf yourself. You need to find a Certified Rolfer who is skilled at releasing the chronic tension. You can go to www.rolf.org, our professional organization to find a local Rolfer. Ask around for a recommendation. Interview the person. If he or she says they do gentle Rolfing (SI)—don’t use them. You need someone who can release decades of tension. Unlike what some will tell you, good Rolfing (SI) is not more painful than a good yoga class or workout.
You can read more about Rolfing (SI) on my website, www.align.org. There is a free ebook on how to walk and run naturally.
You are worth the investment! I get men emailing decades after their Rolfing (SI), telling me how their Rolfing (SI) continues to benefit them.
I have ten free audio versions of my new book, The Power of Rolfing: What Rolfing Structural Integration Can Do for You. The first ten people who email at: marcus [at] owenmarcus.com will receive the new Audible version of the book. If you feel inspired after listening to the book, please leave a review. Thanks.
Leave a comment below if you have a question or want to talk about your Rolfing experience.
