GROUNDBREAKING NEWS (an ode to physical therapy)
I never ever in my whole entire life expected to voluntarily tolerate, let alone enjoy, let alone REVEL in, physical therapy. Since I was a kid it's been annoying at best, alienating and shameful at worst – I grew up with medical professionals telling me all about my body and what was wrong with it, and as kind and well-intentioned as some of them were, honestly it sucked. I resisted intensely and neglected most of the exercises and advice I was given – my own little 'rebellion' (which was obviously unproductive in the end). So as you can imagine I'm blown away by the fact that I actually DO MY HOME EXERCISES and actively LOOK FORWARD to my pt appointments! This is revolutionary! I think it's a very lucky convergence of having a badass physical therapist, being in a good place to take care of myself in that way, actually seeing some positive results, and having lots of thoughts around embodiment, performance, care and expression that continually give me new and stimulating ways of engaging with pt. O praise be this mighty collision of forces that gets me to lay on the floor for minutes at a time and lasso my legs with a belt!
A thrilling and unexpected side-effect is that, as I learn how to actually feel what it feels like to be in my own body and respond to that, what do you know, I am more embodied as a result. By that I mean, I feel more grounded in, aware of, in control of, relaxed in, and playful about my body. And what do you know, all of that finds its way into performance!!!
