The headache.
I awoke with a headache a few months ago. Still lying in bed, I tried to relax the area where I could feel the tension stemming from.
… Partial success.
The fly. A few days later, I noticed a fly in the room which kept on attempting to get through the middle of the three windows in the bay – which was closed. The windows at the sides were both open, but it was repeatedly attempting to crash dive the closed one; even though a fly has virtually 360 degree vision, it seemed to have tunnel vision.
Perspective. It occurred to me that my headache was also a matter of perspective, and like the fly, I wasn’t taking the over-all view, I was focusing too specifically.
Since then, I’ve had a couple of minor wake up headaches, usually coming from my upper back, and each time I’ve tried the ‘perspective relaxation’ technique, for want of a better name.
What I should have done. I put myself into the position of what the fly should have done to achieve its intention. This was like standing outside yourself, and, with that overview, I was then able to relax a much wider area than just the specific point of pain. This noticeably reduced the discomfort, as though, by releasing the periphery of the pain, it reduced the core.
Stand outside yourself. This perspective is like standing 1 or 2 feet outside yourself. It doesn’t work if you try to feel and judge the results at the same time. You need to ‘get outside yourself’, and attempting simultaneously to feel the results only brings you back inside yourself to the place where you experience the discomfort.
Taiji, Qigong, and The Alexander Technique. If you’ve tried Alexander Technique lessons, you will know about taking in the whole picture as this is the basis of lengthening and widening, and fundamental to the concept of release, or ‘not holding on’. This ‘openness’ is also fundamental to the movement of energy in tai chi and qigong.
Widening your perspective so that you see your body moving as a whole, and relaxation will ensure that your tai chi & qigong movements, instead of feeling clumsy, off-balance and heavy, will feel loose, coordinated, and flowing.
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