Ouch.

To locate the Human Garage entrance you have to go down an alley behind Washington Blvd in Marina del Rey, then enter what looks like a speak easy from the 20's.  You find yourself in a yoga studio. Aha!  There is a sign pointing up a set of stairs.  When you get to the top, you find yourself in a moderate sized, but bustling space, with people walking, and others being worked on while lying on tables.  I can see why the name was chosen.  I smiled as I was reminded of the scene from The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her friends were getting ready to meet the Wizard, being fluffed and stuffed and worked on by many people at once.  

I was greeted upon arrival and just waited a few minutes until Ryan greeted me and took me right to a table.  Since I am visiting from North Carolina, I had sent in photographs and a video of me walking a few weeks earlier, and I had already had my phone consult with co-owner Garry Lineham.  So, Ryan got busy!

Being proprioceptively aware, I know where my basic issues and habituated actions are and where the pain radiates.  Ryan and his assistant Roman started at the base of the body.  During my first three sessions they will be working on legs, hips first, then core, then upper body and neck.   I had a brief feeling of "I'm in great shape" when he complemented me on the rotation of my ankles.  But then.
O U C H.  I did not realize there were so many layers of calf muscles.  I will say, much of the work today felt like a combination of Rolfing and deep tissue work.  I've never actually had Rolfing, but I've certainly winced on a table before.  The neat thing about the way Ryan and Roman were working is I noticed they were simultaneously using energy work and kinesiology to ask questions about what my body needed.  I have done lots of kinesiology, so this made great sense to me.

At the end of the long session (and yes I both laughed and cried), Ryan asked me to get up from the table (a challenging task on it's own because I felt I had had three different kind of therapies at once and was feeling a bit unstable) and walk back and forth.  At least 4 people were watching me.  It took about 5 minutes, but as I walked I felt my body start to shift and reorganize in a slightly new way.  After a few minutes, Ryan snapped new photos of me.  Here you can see the photos I sent in, next to the photos taken today.  Look at the changes in my upper body alignment, and he never touched any area of me above my hips!  My head is clearly more aligned over my shoulders.

Whitney Easton of Human Garage wrote a wonderful essay on Busting the Myth of the Mind/Body Split. You can read it here.  The quote of hers that jumps out to me was "Have you stopped and asked your body what it wants and needs from you?"

What is my body trying to tell me?  Am I listening?