For me, the pain associated with rolfing comes in three nearly distinct levels.

On the first level, I hide out from the pain, usually in my head, perhaps fantasizing another place or time to forget a portion of what is happening.

On the second level, I begin to accept the pain and its location, but I furtively circle the site, much as a nervous Indian would approach the circle of light from another hunter’s fire, but staying well in the darkness.

On the third level, after getting closer and closer to the pain, I finally “Jump in” and accept it totally. When I finally succeed in this, the pain usually “inverts” into a sort of pleasureable release.

Generally, when I can truly get to the third level in an area, never regress back to the first level, even if a lot of time intervenes between rolfings.On Pain