From the Winter 2006 Schedule

“Just Getting Old”

       Last week as I was driving home on 95 from a trip up North, I stopped to eat. As I set my tray down on a table, a man with white hair and a youthful face came up to me and said, “Don’t I know you?”

I said, “You look familiar.”

He said, “Well, where do I know you from?”

I said, “Well, why don’t you sit here with me, and we can figure it out while we eat.”

Leonard was just about to take a bite of pizza as I told him what I do for work. Instead, he lowered it and said energetically, “Oh! I have a frozen shoulder!” and pointed to the right one. “I have been to physical therapy, and I have gotten some relief. But they discharged me and gave me exercises to do at home.” His voice lost energy as he continued, “But I don’t really do them. I know I should, but they don’t seem to help.”

I said, brightly, “You are just the kind of person I can often help.”

After taking a bite and swallowing it, he said with a resigned voice, “Oh, I don’t know. I think the real problem is that I’m just getting old. I’m sixty now.”

Shortly after that Leonard picked up his tray, wished me well, and headed out for the highway. I never had a chance to explain how I can help. So, here’s my chance!

Everybody is getting older. But there is more than one way to do it.

When we are young, and when given the good fortune of a healthy childhood, the body works beautifully. Even when there are injuries, it recovers quickly. But, as we get older, as everyone knows, it works less well automatically and recovers less quickly from injury. This is how things go AUTOMATICALLY.

But it is also possible to introduce something INTENTIONAL into your life. There are secrets of longevity; there is a fountain of youth. But it is not someplace external. It is in a set of internal attitudes that express themselves in youth-extending actions.

Do you do everything on time? Or, sometimes, do you procrastinate? Why not --procrastinate on old age?

The Feldenkrais Method is one way to do so. By taking group classes or private lessons in the Feldenkrais Method, you can learn more about how your body works and so have a better relationship with it. You can learn, and practice, taking better care of yourself.

“Frozen shoulder” is not just about the shoulder. It is about all the rest of the body “conducting” itself in such a way that freezing the shoulder is the logical consequence. You can learn to shift those unprofitable patterns.

By coincidence, Leonard lives nearby. I gave him my card. Maybe he will call, or maybe he will read this online. I hope so. I would really like to show him that he still has “lots of the good stuff”  -- in front of him.