Happier

Thank you to everyone who responded to my previous blog post, Not a Happy Camper. Though I lacked the oomph to respond to your good wishes immediately, their mood-elevating effect did manage to make it through my post-anesthesia fog.

As with every injury or surgery, recuperating from my recent hernia operation made for a conspicuous eye-opening experiential education about my muscles’ action. First, just finding ways to get out of bed proved an unforgiving laboratory for discovering the painless path of least resistance. Then there was the matter of picking the full teapot or picking up something from the floor. Sudden motions were definitely out of my ken for a week or so.

When I started feeling better and doing Awareness Through Movement® again regularly, in class, and on my own, my moments of inefficient movement — when I was not proportionally distributing my muscular effort — announced themselves. Mind you, I’m not talking about creating pain. The action of abdominal muscles that usually operated below the level of my consciousness became unmistakably evident. During one lesson,the improbably and inscrutably named SWINGING BENT LENGS TO STRENGTHEN K FERM or LENGTHENING THE ERECTING MUSCLES*, I was startled when the belly muscles of the right (healing) side engaged when I moved my left leg.

Yes, that is the title of the ATM®. And, yes, doing this lesson was a sign that I was already feeling and moving much better. Being on the mend has, indeed, made me happier.

The image above is from a brand camper trailer. I don’t own it, and I’ve never been in one. I was curious enough to check out their website, www.happiercamper.com, and be impressed by what they have to offer. Maybe, if I see the neighbor who owns it out in their yard, I’ll strike up a conversation and find out if I can get a peek inside.

*For Feldenkrais® teachers and aficionados, this is Alexander Yanai Lesson 227.