Balancing Act

It is easy to forget about the interconnectedness of the whole body.  Often an issue in one part of our body is caused by something seemingly unrelated. This was driven home to me once again in a very personal way this winter as I struggled with a sprained left ankle after a nasty fall on the ice.  I resorted to the use of an ankle brace for stability through the lengthy healing process – the stabilization controlled the pain but obviously compromised the range of motion in the entire left leg.  Deciding that I needed to do some yoga to work other parts of my body, I started with some gentle arms swings – forward and back.  The left shoulder moved fairly easily, but as I leaned forward to release all muscle tension by shaking out both arms, the left arm was complete uncoordinated!  I monitored the left arm and shoulder movement throughout the healing process of the left ankle.  Complete coordination was not restored until the ankle healed.

Moving beyond the interconnectedness of the body itself, consider the interconnectedness between the use of our body in daily life and the use of our body at our instrument.  Communicating with our body and increasing our physical perception helps bring our body into balance.   And it allows our body to become better coordinated for all our activities, not just the “important” ones.