So I was picturing someone doing a really high kick. This is likely because I have just started studying kung fu at the Taoist Institute here in North Hollywood, CA (www.taoistinstitute.com). While picturing this, in my mind’s eye, I felt something like a ligament or a pelvic floor muscle feel a great straing while I imagined myself doing such a kick.
This leads me into the subject of flexibility and visualization. Coming from a background of rather limited hip flexibility, I have begun to notice that when I picture myself doing things requiring what most would call “great” flexibility, it is difficult for me to even IMAGINE.
I could NOT picture myself in these positions. I was able only to picture myself at my current level of flexibility. So one of the major things that I have begun to do in addition to stretching is to try to picture myself in the splits, with my head touching my ankle in a seated hamstring stretch, with my heels touching the ground in a wide downward dog, doing a high kick where my foot reaches over my head.
I have found this to be a slow, but effective process. Especially if I focus on my breath and staying relaxed, it’s as though I am almost retraining my mind to include these movement possibilities, whereas before, I was almost fighting myself–I would try to stretch but I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be anymore flexible.
For instance, at this point in time, my hips do not “roll forward” in a seated groin stretch, like the one below:
As I have started to notice this more and more, and rather than trying to FORCE my hips forward, have begun to go deeper into my own anatomy, I have begun to discover that the ligaments which connect the femur to my hips are quite tight and they are PREVENTING the femur and hips to rotate around each other
As I have begun to get in touch with these ligaments, I focus on them intently while breathing deeply and I use visualization to imagine them melting (either butter melting on them or warm coconut oil being massaged into them). On top of this, I look at a picture of someone comfortably in a stretch like that (like the one above) and picture MYSELF in that position and focus on what would need to relax in order for me to comfortably hold such a position.
Here are several other images which you can use as a guide for visualization. What would need to relax or strengthen in order for YOU to be able to do these various stretches and kicks??
I will leave you with that for now, but I suggest you consider trying to re-map the brain, for if the brain can’t picture it, the body most certainly can’t do it. And I think once you loosen the brain and include greater movement possibilities in its horizon, you will find the body (slowly but surely) beginning to loosen on its own accord. Good luck!
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