Collapsed distinctions
After an amazingly powerful and invigorating final CTI coach training session over the weekend, I came home on Sunday night, collapsed on my couch with an exquisite glass of champagne proffered by my championing husband. We toasted the end of my in-class training and the new chapter of my life as a Life Coach. It was very very lovely to sink into it all. And then, the pain crept into my shoulder. Acute, severe and debilitating. I realize how dramatic that sounds, but it was so. Typing, writing, reading, walking, even talking all gave me, well, a pain in the neck. The pain started in my neck and radiated to my fingertips.
After two days of an ineffective treatment course of Jacuzzis, muscle relaxants, ice packs, more champagne, heating pads and complaining, I finally suspended my life-long disbelief and went to see a chiropractor highly recommended by a friend (Victoria Dixon…makeup artist to and the stars…and me). The diagnosis? Vertebral subluxation. In layman’s terms… a pinched nerve.
The skeletal model of the spinal cord that the chiropractor showed me reminded me of a concept that our course leaders Deborah and David introduced us to: collapsed distinctions. We all have them…and like two vertebrae bearing in on a nerve, they can restrict movement….and cause a great deal of pain.
The chiropractor adjusted me this morning (hence my ability to type this…alas, yoga is still a ways away yet) and relieved some of the pain. This will be a process of adjustment, absorption and repeat.
I can’t help but think that this is what happened to me on Sunday night: “training’s over now you’ve got to DO IT!!!!!!!”. Uh oh. Sounds to me like “new” and “scary” are two distinctions that I need to pull apart so I can move forward. Maybe LEAP forward might be a better description.
Here are some distinctions that may be familiar to you:
• Work = hard
• Sex = love
• Generous = wimpy
• Independent = alone
• Nice = insincere
• Tough = mean
• Easy = not valuable
• Leader = aggressive
• Kind = weak
• Collaborative = simpering
Consider what distinctions you yourself have collapsed. What movement would it give you to pull them apart and adjust accordingly?
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