August 26, 2018
“It’s magic!” seems to be the most frequent comment heard by Ortho-Bionomy® practitioners during sessions. With a runner-up of “How’d you do that?!”
The simple answer is that Ortho-Bionomy® taps into the body’s innate healing energies and physiology in such a way that the body releases and reorients with seemingly no effort, no pushing, prodding or digging into, and certainly no “pain in the name of healing” during the process.
So how does this magic happen? How does Ortho-Bionomy® work? First, a little background.
Being biological organisms, we’re hardwired to heal, to survive as individuals and as a species. As homo sapiens, however, we have the mixed blessing of a thinking brain that can override instinctual behavior. This is good news if we’re driving, in need of a rest room, and traffic stops in a construction zone–we can control our sphincter a bit longer until we get to our destination or a rest area. Bad news when at a desk job and our back is throbbing, demanding a lie down. With yet three hours before the workday ends, we tighten here, tuck there, try to get comfortable, medicate and make do. And we’re not even aware of having stifled the body’s innate healing process that had inspired our desire to lie down. Or backpacking, we turn an ankle a mile from the day’s destination and water. Wrap it up and keep going, right? We may be conscious of “this isn’t a good thing to do,” but life is such that we sometimes have to do what isn’t ideal for our body.
“Make do” costs us in the short term with discomfort and a longer healing time, and in the long term with accumulated tension patterns and turning off our self-corrective reflexes.
To feel better we want to release discomforts and tensions. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes not. Tensions tend to return unless the patterns that hold them in place are also released. This is when reactivating those shut-down self-healing reflexes comes in. These reflexes are more easily explained in context than by physiology—You’ve experienced them when a high fever broke after a night of sweats; when you saw a dear friend you hadn’t seen in many months; in the moment just before you suddenly breathed very deeply; when you met a deadline with two minutes to spare and your entire body let down; when you see a rainbow. These reflexes direct our body’s systems, including psyche, toward “ah,” toward internal balance, health, and well-being arising naturally from within, and toward our alignment with the larger picture. Ortho-Bionomy® consciously engages these healing reflexes, moving the body toward these “ahs,” and genuine healing from within that indeed feels like magic. And after all, if the body’s resilience and healing isn’t magic, what is?
In upcoming posts, I’ll describe some of the principles and concepts of Ortho-Bionomy® that lead to the subtle, gentle, and deep healing it stimulates and offer suggestions for you to put these concept into action in your body and your life. Stay tuned.
