Unwinding the Belly by Allison Post

Author:Allison Post [Post, Allison]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58394-477-6
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Published: 2011-10-17T16:00:00+00:00

A CLIENT STORY

When I was in my late twenties, one of my main concerns was to remain as thin as possible. Now that I can look back on it with equanimity, I can say that my behavior was quite erratic. Some days I would maintain a rigorous diet, consisting of only one meal per day of fruits and salad. On other days I managed to not obsess, and I indifferently ate anything that came my way. And some days, I have to admit, I would binge. This fluctuating diet, coupled with the other usual stresses of life, brought me to a state in which my body temperature was uncomfortably hot, and most of the time I was severely constipated. I think I went on like this for five to seven years.

I knew my digestion was poor because everything in and outside of me began to feel heavy, as if life were slowing me down. I knew I had a lot of energy, but could never tap into it. I sought out massage therapy because my body usually felt like it had been beaten up and needed to be soothed. A friend of mine passed on a brochure describing Unwinding. Two words stood out: “digestion” and “metabolism.” I was sold.

The first session was uncomfortable. It wasn’t painful, but touching around the navel felt odd and unnatural. I felt the stiff muscles around the navel that I had never felt before.

Soon I learned to breathe naturally by watching my belly go up and down as I practiced.

Now I look forward to rubbing my own belly. Whenever I feel pain or constipation I practice the technique of starting under the left rib cage and following the path of the large intestine. I can get my digestion and metabolism to run more smoothly just by breathing and touching. Every time I feel panicky and out of control, I hear a little voice in my head saying: “Breathe!”

All this is wonderful, and yet I made another unexpected discovery. Unwinding can definitely be an emotional experience. During the first few sessions I felt like bawling. At the time, I was contemplating divorce—that was part of why I felt so emotional—but I learned how we hold onto old patterns of tension in the center that effect how we feel in the present moment. This rang true for me. As I continued to loosen up with my self-massage sessions, I felt the whole bag of past emotional garbage that I was carrying around unload into the accepting earth, where it belonged, where it could be recycled.

Another wonderful thing was that I began to feel more comfortable with my belly. I still wanted to maintain a good figure, but in a healthy way. This was because I was touching and relating to my belly; I wasn’t sucking it in and hiding it, pretending it wasn’t there. I could look at my own belly and even enjoy the sight of it. My motivation to stay thin is now in balance with the rest of my life.

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