Ida Rolf Is Still Talking

Strength so often is an idea that has effort in it, and this is not what we are looking for. For Rolfing you need the strength that is the result of balance.

Now realize this, Ida Rolf did not invent structural integration the body invented it. If I hadn’t come along seeing it and hearing it, someone else would have, some time. Because all you have to do to get structural integration is to hear and feel and see the body. I don’t say this is the only method, but I do say that at this moment it is the shortest, most predictable method.

There are certain hallmarks of a balanced body one, when the sacrum moves with each breath-there’s no mistaking it. Another, a little beyond that, is when you begin to feel movement at the dorsal hinge.

In the first session, we’re talking about a change in the actual chemistry o f the fascia as it gets stretched. You as Rolfes know that because you have felt it under your hands. There is a change in the feel of the fascia as you stretch it It’s not just letting the same fascia lie in a longer place; it’s letting a different fascia-which you have just created-lie in a place that is long enough for that different fascia to maintain its difference. Tissue processes are affected by environment, by new chemical and mechanical relationships. It isn’t like the old lady who comes home and takes off her corset at night You’re doing more than must letting it out, you’re changing it. There’s a functional difference in terms of the cells.

Living in the extrinsics is characteristic of the very young; it is characteristic of the immature. As long as you pre-eminently use the extrinsic muscles, you are immature. Maturity is the balance that results when you get the instrincis into the picture, when the child gets a hold on himself from the inside.

Since the body is made of segments, we have to relate these to a vertical line. You could just as well substitute the word gravity but people aren’t necessarily as familiar with that concept. The vertical line consists in a relationship of individual parts.

The lumbar plexus lies on the psoas. Now realize what this is saying. It is saying that when the psoas is free to move, as it moves it gets an exchange of fluids within its own boundaries, gets an exchange of fluids within the surrounding fascial layers. And unless the psoas is free to move, the lumbar plexus-which is the center of innervation for the entire lower part of the body the lumbar plexus is a deprived area. When you look at someone walking down the street, observe whether the psoas is moving. I f the psoas is moving, you immediately know a great deal about that individual. You realize that he has a fundamental basis for health.

The psoas has other functions as well. It joins the legs up into the trunk, to structures that re adjacent to the diaphragm. Functionally it joins the legs to the diaphragm. If your psoas isn’t working, walking is no longer a particularly good exercise. If your psoas is working, walking is an outstandingly good exercise.

In the 8th and 9th sessions, you are coming into a recognition and a discussion of integration. What does structural integration mean? We talk mostly of structure; we have not put as much emphasis on integration. So many know how to take a body apart, and so few know how to integrate it. You are integrating the body, you are not restoring it. You must ask yourself how you can put the elements of the body together so that they are a unit, an efficiently acting energy unit, a system. As you come to the 8th hour, you realize that most of the prior work had to do with things that had to be taken apart. In the first six hours, you approach largely from the periphery to the center. When you get to the 8th hour, you are going to start at the center and go toward the poles. (My eyes automatically go to the crest of the ilium.) Your job in the later Rolfing sessions is to create something new, something better. You can no longer depend on the recipe, you have to start to think about the body which is standing in front of you.

Hard work can hurt your body. As Rolfers, have another Rolfer get after your arms; don’t be so proud that you don’t get help. You work very hard. It’s easy to employ the words that if you do it properly it won’t hurt you. Those words are probably true, but there has never yet been a Rolfer including me who did it properly all of the time, or even most of the time. You get into a situation and you’re going to take care o f it, no matter what it takes; it’s part o f your self image. You’re going to insist on doing the job, and you do it. As you see in this class, I won’t walk from here to there unnecessarily yet I’ll see something I want to do over there and I’ll go aver and do it. And there will be just as much strength behind me as there ever was. This is the way every one o f you behaves; you lead different lives professionally than personally. This takes it out o f you, so you’d better have a good friend who is also a Rolfer who can take you off the hook.[:de]Strength so often is an idea that has effort in it, and this is not what we are looking for. For Rolfing you need the strength that is the result of balance.

Now realize this, Ida Rolf did not invent structural integration the body invented it. If I hadn’t come along seeing it and hearing it, someone else would have, some time. Because all you have to do to get structural integration is to hear and feel and see the body. I don’t say this is the only method, but I do say that at this moment it is the shortest, most predictable method.

There are certain hallmarks of a balanced body one, when the sacrum moves with each breath-there’s no mistaking it. Another, a little beyond that, is when you begin to feel movement at the dorsal hinge.

In the first session, we’re talking about a change in the actual chemistry o f the fascia as it gets stretched. You as Rolfes know that because you have felt it under your hands. There is a change in the feel of the fascia as you stretch it It’s not just letting the same fascia lie in a longer place; it’s letting a different fascia-which you have just created-lie in a place that is long enough for that different fascia to maintain its difference. Tissue processes are affected by environment, by new chemical and mechanical relationships. It isn’t like the old lady who comes home and takes off her corset at night You’re doing more than must letting it out, you’re changing it. There’s a functional difference in terms of the cells.

Living in the extrinsics is characteristic of the very young; it is characteristic of the immature. As long as you pre-eminently use the extrinsic muscles, you are immature. Maturity is the balance that results when you get the instrincis into the picture, when the child gets a hold on himself from the inside.

Since the body is made of segments, we have to relate these to a vertical line. You could just as well substitute the word gravity but people aren’t necessarily as familiar with that concept. The vertical line consists in a relationship of individual parts.

The lumbar plexus lies on the psoas. Now realize what this is saying. It is saying that when the psoas is free to move, as it moves it gets an exchange of fluids within its own boundaries, gets an exchange of fluids within the surrounding fascial layers. And unless the psoas is free to move, the lumbar plexus-which is the center of innervation for the entire lower part of the body the lumbar plexus is a deprived area. When you look at someone walking down the street, observe whether the psoas is moving. I f the psoas is moving, you immediately know a great deal about that individual. You realize that he has a fundamental basis for health.

The psoas has other functions as well. It joins the legs up into the trunk, to structures that re adjacent to the diaphragm. Functionally it joins the legs to the diaphragm. If your psoas isn’t working, walking is no longer a particularly good exercise. If your psoas is working, walking is an outstandingly good exercise.

In the 8th and 9th sessions, you are coming into a recognition and a discussion of integration. What does structural integration mean? We talk mostly of structure; we have not put as much emphasis on integration. So many know how to take a body apart, and so few know how to integrate it. You are integrating the body, you are not restoring it. You must ask yourself how you can put the elements of the body together so that they are a unit, an efficiently acting energy unit, a system. As you come to the 8th hour, you realize that most of the prior work had to do with things that had to be taken apart. In the first six hours, you approach largely from the periphery to the center. When you get to the 8th hour, you are going to start at the center and go toward the poles. (My eyes automatically go to the crest of the ilium.) Your job in the later Rolfing sessions is to create something new, something better. You can no longer depend on the recipe, you have to start to think about the body which is standing in front of you.

Hard work can hurt your body. As Rolfers, have another Rolfer get after your arms; don’t be so proud that you don’t get help. You work very hard. It’s easy to employ the words that if you do it properly it won’t hurt you. Those words are probably true, but there has never yet been a Rolfer including me who did it properly all of the time, or even most of the time. You get into a situation and you’re going to take care o f it, no matter what it takes; it’s part o f your self image. You’re going to insist on doing the job, and you do it. As you see in this class, I won’t walk from here to there unnecessarily yet I’ll see something I want to do over there and I’ll go aver and do it. And there will be just as much strength behind me as there ever was. This is the way every one o f you behaves; you lead different lives professionally than personally. This takes it out o f you, so you’d better have a good friend who is also a Rolfer who can take you off the hook.[:fr]Strength so often is an idea that has effort in it, and this is not what we are looking for. For Rolfing you need the strength that is the result of balance.

Now realize this, Ida Rolf did not invent structural integration the body invented it. If I hadn’t come along seeing it and hearing it, someone else would have, some time. Because all you have to do to get structural integration is to hear and feel and see the body. I don’t say this is the only method, but I do say that at this moment it is the shortest, most predictable method.

There are certain hallmarks of a balanced body one, when the sacrum moves with each breath-there’s no mistaking it. Another, a little beyond that, is when you begin to feel movement at the dorsal hinge.

In the first session, we’re talking about a change in the actual chemistry o f the fascia as it gets stretched. You as Rolfes know that because you have felt it under your hands. There is a change in the feel of the fascia as you stretch it It’s not just letting the same fascia lie in a longer place; it’s letting a different fascia-which you have just created-lie in a place that is long enough for that different fascia to maintain its difference. Tissue processes are affected by environment, by new chemical and mechanical relationships. It isn’t like the old lady who comes home and takes off her corset at night You’re doing more than must letting it out, you’re changing it. There’s a functional difference in terms of the cells.

Living in the extrinsics is characteristic of the very young; it is characteristic of the immature. As long as you pre-eminently use the extrinsic muscles, you are immature. Maturity is the balance that results when you get the instrincis into the picture, when the child gets a hold on himself from the inside.

Since the body is made of segments, we have to relate these to a vertical line. You could just as well substitute the word gravity but people aren’t necessarily as familiar with that concept. The vertical line consists in a relationship of individual parts.

The lumbar plexus lies on the psoas. Now realize what this is saying. It is saying that when the psoas is free to move, as it moves it gets an exchange of fluids within its own boundaries, gets an exchange of fluids within the surrounding fascial layers. And unless the psoas is free to move, the lumbar plexus-which is the center of innervation for the entire lower part of the body the lumbar plexus is a deprived area. When you look at someone walking down the street, observe whether the psoas is moving. I f the psoas is moving, you immediately know a great deal about that individual. You realize that he has a fundamental basis for health.

The psoas has other functions as well. It joins the legs up into the trunk, to structures that re adjacent to the diaphragm. Functionally it joins the legs to the diaphragm. If your psoas isn’t working, walking is no longer a particularly good exercise. If your psoas is working, walking is an outstandingly good exercise.

In the 8th and 9th sessions, you are coming into a recognition and a discussion of integration. What does structural integration mean? We talk mostly of structure; we have not put as much emphasis on integration. So many know how to take a body apart, and so few know how to integrate it. You are integrating the body, you are not restoring it. You must ask yourself how you can put the elements of the body together so that they are a unit, an efficiently acting energy unit, a system. As you come to the 8th hour, you realize that most of the prior work had to do with things that had to be taken apart. In the first six hours, you approach largely from the periphery to the center. When you get to the 8th hour, you are going to start at the center and go toward the poles. (My eyes automatically go to the crest of the ilium.) Your job in the later Rolfing sessions is to create something new, something better. You can no longer depend on the recipe, you have to start to think about the body which is standing in front of you.

Hard work can hurt your body. As Rolfers, have another Rolfer get after your arms; don’t be so proud that you don’t get help. You work very hard. It’s easy to employ the words that if you do it properly it won’t hurt you. Those words are probably true, but there has never yet been a Rolfer including me who did it properly all of the time, or even most of the time. You get into a situation and you’re going to take care o f it, no matter what it takes; it’s part o f your self image. You’re going to insist on doing the job, and you do it. As you see in this class, I won’t walk from here to there unnecessarily yet I’ll see something I want to do over there and I’ll go aver and do it. And there will be just as much strength behind me as there ever was. This is the way every one o f you behaves; you lead different lives professionally than personally. This takes it out o f you, so you’d better have a good friend who is also a Rolfer who can take you off the hook.[:es]Strength so often is an idea that has effort in it, and this is not what we are looking for. For Rolfing you need the strength that is the result of balance.

Now realize this, Ida Rolf did not invent structural integration the body invented it. If I hadn’t come along seeing it and hearing it, someone else would have, some time. Because all you have to do to get structural integration is to hear and feel and see the body. I don’t say this is the only method, but I do say that at this moment it is the shortest, most predictable method.

There are certain hallmarks of a balanced body one, when the sacrum moves with each breath-there’s no mistaking it. Another, a little beyond that, is when you begin to feel movement at the dorsal hinge.

In the first session, we’re talking about a change in the actual chemistry o f the fascia as it gets stretched. You as Rolfes know that because you have felt it under your hands. There is a change in the feel of the fascia as you stretch it It’s not just letting the same fascia lie in a longer place; it’s letting a different fascia-which you have just created-lie in a place that is long enough for that different fascia to maintain its difference. Tissue processes are affected by environment, by new chemical and mechanical relationships. It isn’t like the old lady who comes home and takes off her corset at night You’re doing more than must letting it out, you’re changing it. There’s a functional difference in terms of the cells.

Living in the extrinsics is characteristic of the very young; it is characteristic of the immature. As long as you pre-eminently use the extrinsic muscles, you are immature. Maturity is the balance that results when you get the instrincis into the picture, when the child gets a hold on himself from the inside.

Since the body is made of segments, we have to relate these to a vertical line. You could just as well substitute the word gravity but people aren’t necessarily as familiar with that concept. The vertical line consists in a relationship of individual parts.

The lumbar plexus lies on the psoas. Now realize what this is saying. It is saying that when the psoas is free to move, as it moves it gets an exchange of fluids within its own boundaries, gets an exchange of fluids within the surrounding fascial layers. And unless the psoas is free to move, the lumbar plexus-which is the center of innervation for the entire lower part of the body the lumbar plexus is a deprived area. When you look at someone walking down the street, observe whether the psoas is moving. I f the psoas is moving, you immediately know a great deal about that individual. You realize that he has a fundamental basis for health.

The psoas has other functions as well. It joins the legs up into the trunk, to structures that re adjacent to the diaphragm. Functionally it joins the legs to the diaphragm. If your psoas isn’t working, walking is no longer a particularly good exercise. If your psoas is working, walking is an outstandingly good exercise.

In the 8th and 9th sessions, you are coming into a recognition and a discussion of integration. What does structural integration mean? We talk mostly of structure; we have not put as much emphasis on integration. So many know how to take a body apart, and so few know how to integrate it. You are integrating the body, you are not restoring it. You must ask yourself how you can put the elements of the body together so that they are a unit, an efficiently acting energy unit, a system. As you come to the 8th hour, you realize that most of the prior work had to do with things that had to be taken apart. In the first six hours, you approach largely from the periphery to the center. When you get to the 8th hour, you are going to start at the center and go toward the poles. (My eyes automatically go to the crest of the ilium.) Your job in the later Rolfing sessions is to create something new, something better. You can no longer depend on the recipe, you have to start to think about the body which is standing in front of you.

Hard work can hurt your body. As Rolfers, have another Rolfer get after your arms; don’t be so proud that you don’t get help. You work very hard. It’s easy to employ the words that if you do it properly it won’t hurt you. Those words are probably true, but there has never yet been a Rolfer including me who did it properly all of the time, or even most of the time. You get into a situation and you’re going to take care o f it, no matter what it takes; it’s part o f your self image. You’re going to insist on doing the job, and you do it. As you see in this class, I won’t walk from here to there unnecessarily yet I’ll see something I want to do over there and I’ll go aver and do it. And there will be just as much strength behind me as there ever was. This is the way every one o f you behaves; you lead different lives professionally than personally. This takes it out o f you, so you’d better have a good friend who is also a Rolfer who can take you off the hook.[:ja]Strength so often is an idea that has effort in it, and this is not what we are looking for. For Rolfing you need the strength that is the result of balance.

Now realize this, Ida Rolf did not invent structural integration the body invented it. If I hadn’t come along seeing it and hearing it, someone else would have, some time. Because all you have to do to get structural integration is to hear and feel and see the body. I don’t say this is the only method, but I do say that at this moment it is the shortest, most predictable method.

There are certain hallmarks of a balanced body one, when the sacrum moves with each breath-there’s no mistaking it. Another, a little beyond that, is when you begin to feel movement at the dorsal hinge.

In the first session, we’re talking about a change in the actual chemistry o f the fascia as it gets stretched. You as Rolfes know that because you have felt it under your hands. There is a change in the feel of the fascia as you stretch it It’s not just letting the same fascia lie in a longer place; it’s letting a different fascia-which you have just created-lie in a place that is long enough for that different fascia to maintain its difference. Tissue processes are affected by environment, by new chemical and mechanical relationships. It isn’t like the old lady who comes home and takes off her corset at night You’re doing more than must letting it out, you’re changing it. There’s a functional difference in terms of the cells.

Living in the extrinsics is characteristic of the very young; it is characteristic of the immature. As long as you pre-eminently use the extrinsic muscles, you are immature. Maturity is the balance that results when you get the instrincis into the picture, when the child gets a hold on himself from the inside.

Since the body is made of segments, we have to relate these to a vertical line. You could just as well substitute the word gravity but people aren’t necessarily as familiar with that concept. The vertical line consists in a relationship of individual parts.

The lumbar plexus lies on the psoas. Now realize what this is saying. It is saying that when the psoas is free to move, as it moves it gets an exchange of fluids within its own boundaries, gets an exchange of fluids within the surrounding fascial layers. And unless the psoas is free to move, the lumbar plexus-which is the center of innervation for the entire lower part of the body the lumbar plexus is a deprived area. When you look at someone walking down the street, observe whether the psoas is moving. I f the psoas is moving, you immediately know a great deal about that individual. You realize that he has a fundamental basis for health.

The psoas has other functions as well. It joins the legs up into the trunk, to structures that re adjacent to the diaphragm. Functionally it joins the legs to the diaphragm. If your psoas isn’t working, walking is no longer a particularly good exercise. If your psoas is working, walking is an outstandingly good exercise.

In the 8th and 9th sessions, you are coming into a recognition and a discussion of integration. What does structural integration mean? We talk mostly of structure; we have not put as much emphasis on integration. So many know how to take a body apart, and so few know how to integrate it. You are integrating the body, you are not restoring it. You must ask yourself how you can put the elements of the body together so that they are a unit, an efficiently acting energy unit, a system. As you come to the 8th hour, you realize that most of the prior work had to do with things that had to be taken apart. In the first six hours, you approach largely from the periphery to the center. When you get to the 8th hour, you are going to start at the center and go toward the poles. (My eyes automatically go to the crest of the ilium.) Your job in the later Rolfing sessions is to create something new, something better. You can no longer depend on the recipe, you have to start to think about the body which is standing in front of you.

Hard work can hurt your body. As Rolfers, have another Rolfer get after your arms; don’t be so proud that you don’t get help. You work very hard. It’s easy to employ the words that if you do it properly it won’t hurt you. Those words are probably true, but there has never yet been a Rolfer including me who did it properly all of the time, or even most of the time. You get into a situation and you’re going to take care o f it, no matter what it takes; it’s part o f your self image. You’re going to insist on doing the job, and you do it. As you see in this class, I won’t walk from here to there unnecessarily yet I’ll see something I want to do over there and I’ll go aver and do it. And there will be just as much strength behind me as there ever was. This is the way every one o f you behaves; you lead different lives professionally than personally. This takes it out o f you, so you’d better have a good friend who is also a Rolfer who can take you off the hook.[:it]Strength so often is an idea that has effort in it, and this is not what we are looking for. For Rolfing you need the strength that is the result of balance.

Now realize this, Ida Rolf did not invent structural integration the body invented it. If I hadn’t come along seeing it and hearing it, someone else would have, some time. Because all you have to do to get structural integration is to hear and feel and see the body. I don’t say this is the only method, but I do say that at this moment it is the shortest, most predictable method.

There are certain hallmarks of a balanced body one, when the sacrum moves with each breath-there’s no mistaking it. Another, a little beyond that, is when you begin to feel movement at the dorsal hinge.

In the first session, we’re talking about a change in the actual chemistry o f the fascia as it gets stretched. You as Rolfes know that because you have felt it under your hands. There is a change in the feel of the fascia as you stretch it It’s not just letting the same fascia lie in a longer place; it’s letting a different fascia-which you have just created-lie in a place that is long enough for that different fascia to maintain its difference. Tissue processes are affected by environment, by new chemical and mechanical relationships. It isn’t like the old lady who comes home and takes off her corset at night You’re doing more than must letting it out, you’re changing it. There’s a functional difference in terms of the cells.

Living in the extrinsics is characteristic of the very young; it is characteristic of the immature. As long as you pre-eminently use the extrinsic muscles, you are immature. Maturity is the balance that results when you get the instrincis into the picture, when the child gets a hold on himself from the inside.

Since the body is made of segments, we have to relate these to a vertical line. You could just as well substitute the word gravity but people aren’t necessarily as familiar with that concept. The vertical line consists in a relationship of individual parts.

The lumbar plexus lies on the psoas. Now realize what this is saying. It is saying that when the psoas is free to move, as it moves it gets an exchange of fluids within its own boundaries, gets an exchange of fluids within the surrounding fascial layers. And unless the psoas is free to move, the lumbar plexus-which is the center of innervation for the entire lower part of the body the lumbar plexus is a deprived area. When you look at someone walking down the street, observe whether the psoas is moving. I f the psoas is moving, you immediately know a great deal about that individual. You realize that he has a fundamental basis for health.

The psoas has other functions as well. It joins the legs up into the trunk, to structures that re adjacent to the diaphragm. Functionally it joins the legs to the diaphragm. If your psoas isn’t working, walking is no longer a particularly good exercise. If your psoas is working, walking is an outstandingly good exercise.

In the 8th and 9th sessions, you are coming into a recognition and a discussion of integration. What does structural integration mean? We talk mostly of structure; we have not put as much emphasis on integration. So many know how to take a body apart, and so few know how to integrate it. You are integrating the body, you are not restoring it. You must ask yourself how you can put the elements of the body together so that they are a unit, an efficiently acting energy unit, a system. As you come to the 8th hour, you realize that most of the prior work had to do with things that had to be taken apart. In the first six hours, you approach largely from the periphery to the center. When you get to the 8th hour, you are going to start at the center and go toward the poles. (My eyes automatically go to the crest of the ilium.) Your job in the later Rolfing sessions is to create something new, something better. You can no longer depend on the recipe, you have to start to think about the body which is standing in front of you.

Hard work can hurt your body. As Rolfers, have another Rolfer get after your arms; don’t be so proud that you don’t get help. You work very hard. It’s easy to employ the words that if you do it properly it won’t hurt you. Those words are probably true, but there has never yet been a Rolfer including me who did it properly all of the time, or even most of the time. You get into a situation and you’re going to take care o f it, no matter what it takes; it’s part o f your self image. You’re going to insist on doing the job, and you do it. As you see in this class, I won’t walk from here to there unnecessarily yet I’ll see something I want to do over there and I’ll go aver and do it. And there will be just as much strength behind me as there ever was. This is the way every one o f you behaves; you lead different lives professionally than personally. This takes it out o f you, so you’d better have a good friend who is also a Rolfer who can take you off the hook.[:pb]Strength so often is an idea that has effort in it, and this is not what we are looking for. For Rolfing you need the strength that is the result of balance.

Now realize this, Ida Rolf did not invent structural integration the body invented it. If I hadn’t come along seeing it and hearing it, someone else would have, some time. Because all you have to do to get structural integration is to hear and feel and see the body. I don’t say this is the only method, but I do say that at this moment it is the shortest, most predictable method.

There are certain hallmarks of a balanced body one, when the sacrum moves with each breath-there’s no mistaking it. Another, a little beyond that, is when you begin to feel movement at the dorsal hinge.

In the first session, we’re talking about a change in the actual chemistry o f the fascia as it gets stretched. You as Rolfes know that because you have felt it under your hands. There is a change in the feel of the fascia as you stretch it It’s not just letting the same fascia lie in a longer place; it’s letting a different fascia-which you have just created-lie in a place that is long enough for that different fascia to maintain its difference. Tissue processes are affected by environment, by new chemical and mechanical relationships. It isn’t like the old lady who comes home and takes off her corset at night You’re doing more than must letting it out, you’re changing it. There’s a functional difference in terms of the cells.

Living in the extrinsics is characteristic of the very young; it is characteristic of the immature. As long as you pre-eminently use the extrinsic muscles, you are immature. Maturity is the balance that results when you get the instrincis into the picture, when the child gets a hold on himself from the inside.

Since the body is made of segments, we have to relate these to a vertical line. You could just as well substitute the word gravity but people aren’t necessarily as familiar with that concept. The vertical line consists in a relationship of individual parts.

The lumbar plexus lies on the psoas. Now realize what this is saying. It is saying that when the psoas is free to move, as it moves it gets an exchange of fluids within its own boundaries, gets an exchange of fluids within the surrounding fascial layers. And unless the psoas is free to move, the lumbar plexus-which is the center of innervation for the entire lower part of the body the lumbar plexus is a deprived area. When you look at someone walking down the street, observe whether the psoas is moving. I f the psoas is moving, you immediately know a great deal about that individual. You realize that he has a fundamental basis for health.

The psoas has other functions as well. It joins the legs up into the trunk, to structures that re adjacent to the diaphragm. Functionally it joins the legs to the diaphragm. If your psoas isn’t working, walking is no longer a particularly good exercise. If your psoas is working, walking is an outstandingly good exercise.

In the 8th and 9th sessions, you are coming into a recognition and a discussion of integration. What does structural integration mean? We talk mostly of structure; we have not put as much emphasis on integration. So many know how to take a body apart, and so few know how to integrate it. You are integrating the body, you are not restoring it. You must ask yourself how you can put the elements of the body together so that they are a unit, an efficiently acting energy unit, a system. As you come to the 8th hour, you realize that most of the prior work had to do with things that had to be taken apart. In the first six hours, you approach largely from the periphery to the center. When you get to the 8th hour, you are going to start at the center and go toward the poles. (My eyes automatically go to the crest of the ilium.) Your job in the later Rolfing sessions is to create something new, something better. You can no longer depend on the recipe, you have to start to think about the body which is standing in front of you.

Hard work can hurt your body. As Rolfers, have another Rolfer get after your arms; don’t be so proud that you don’t get help. You work very hard. It’s easy to employ the words that if you do it properly it won’t hurt you. Those words are probably true, but there has never yet been a Rolfer including me who did it properly all of the time, or even most of the time. You get into a situation and you’re going to take care o f it, no matter what it takes; it’s part o f your self image. You’re going to insist on doing the job, and you do it. As you see in this class, I won’t walk from here to there unnecessarily yet I’ll see something I want to do over there and I’ll go aver and do it. And there will be just as much strength behind me as there ever was. This is the way every one o f you behaves; you lead different lives professionally than personally. This takes it out o f you, so you’d better have a good friend who is also a Rolfer who can take you off the hook.[:]Ida Rolf Is Still Talking