Talk to your toes, Scarecrow

It's an interesting feeling when I know my body is talking to me.  Sometimes, it's also a challenge to listen.

There are the obvious times, like when my body tells me it's hungry or full, sleepy or wide awake, hot or cold.  Those times, it's usually pretty easy to listen.  Grabbing a snack or throwing on an extra sweater is really no big deal and kind of automatic.

The physical human form has a language all its own.  And not one that's always audible.  One of the things my Russian mentor taught me was to "talk to your toes", which really applied to the whole body and all of its parts.  No, seriously, ALL of them.  Each joint, tendon, muscle, and ligament - down to the baby toes and the webbing between the fingers.  "Talking" to them didn't just mean sitting down and saying, "Hey, look guys, what's the deal?  Why are you sore?"  Though, trust me, that's part of it.  Communicating with the body is more of a warm-up that just goes on all the time. 

There was an exercise we used to do in Russia called "Gladiators".  Like the show American Gladiators from the late 80s/early 90s.  Remember how they used a thumbs up or down to show if the guy lived or died?  Well, do that with your toes.  The big toe is the thumb.  See if you can make them all listen - it's not as easy as it sounds.  The thing is, it should be.

The problem with most of us is that we've lost touch with our bodies - we're letting our brain control the body's movements instead of separating the two and letting the body do the things for which it was designed.  Because we constantly have our feet in shoes and use them primarily to walk and not much else, our brains have programmed the toes to work together as one unit.  But they are separate for a reason.  They are individual parts.  We could, if we wanted to, climb a tree barefoot or dig a hole in the ground with our feet - though, that's not particularly useful anymore - especially in the concrete jungle of New York City. (Note: I do not and will not run barefoot or wear the Five Fingers - let's not get into that.)

The thing is, the body is made up of parts.  If you're not using all of them - if you're "making one feel left out", as my mentor would say, the body isn't functioning as well as it could.  Because it is all fucking connected.  There's a reason so many people have back problems.  And joint problems.  And constant headaches.  And...and...and...  The list goes on and on.

Now I'm not about to go writing a scientific paper here about anatomy and physiology and the workings of the human body.  What I am saying is that on a daily basis, so many of us don't know what the fuck our body is doing at any given moment.  Nor do we really care - we're too busy getting from one place to the next.  So how the hell can we even hear what our bodies are saying, let alone give them what they need?

One of the parts of my Russian experience that I very sadly let drop was the daily "talking to my toes".  For many years, part of my morning routine was checking in with my body.  It lasted well over an hour.  I would start on the floor with my eyes closed and just breathe.  Each breath would get deeper, as I checked in with every single part.  "Well, hello there, shoulders, you're a little tense today."  "Oh, hi, hamstring, what's that little spasm you got goin' on?"  "Hey, pinky toe, relax.  I feel ya.  I know you're there.  You can drop in line with the rest of them."  And so on.  Followed by an extensive warm up that was separated into two parts.  Warming up the body first, then the brain with coordination exercises.  What happened as a result was that I was much more aware of everything going on with myself physically for the rest of the day.  I was in a constant state of checking in, so to speak.  If something needed attention, I gave it some freakin' love.

Right now I'm dealing with a pretty annoying case of tendinitis.   It's been physically painful and mentally exhausting - I'm a runner and a dancer, after all.  The fact that there seems to be no explanation for how it started and no remedy that works to make it better is a total mindfuck.  So yesterday, I started the "check-ins" again.  Boy, is my body pissed!  And, let me tell you, it's not listening to a word I say - like a spiteful toddler, my body is giving me the silent treatment for ignoring it for so long.  I can't even tell which area of tension or place of tightness could have caused the problem to begin with - or which combination thereof.  Or what other problems might be lurking.  It's a tangled mess.

The thing is, I haven't been listening.  The pain?  Ignored it.  The tightness? Brushed it off.  The tension?  Didn't have time for it.  Besides, when my body is telling me something I don't want to hear, like SLOW THE FUCK DOWN when I'm in the middle of training, it's harder to listen to in the first place.

I think I should start listening.  I think my body knows way more than I do.  No wonder the Scarecrow was such a good dancer once he got back on his feet.  He didn't have a brain.