Years prior to training Functional Patterns, I started doing 10-day silent meditation retreats that had me sitting a long time. As I used my mind to contemplate my body's sensations and observe the fluctuating activities in the mind, seeing them arise and pass away, there was a self-compassion and equanimity that arose in me-- qualities I highly value. I learned to sit with intense pain caused in part by the long sitting, but often this causation blurred with other apparently more subtle causes in the mind, and the pain would be penetrated and released. It would often pass away and change, and sometimes it would appear to be other kinds of sensations that were more subtle than what I initially thought. It would continue to change in various ways. Meditation taught me the power of having patience with myself, being able to have a steady awareness, not reacting strongly to either pleasure or pain. However, my physical body ended up a bit of a mess over the years. My scapulas were winging and unbalanced, I had a flared out and unstable rib cage, and I started getting bad ankle and back pain when attempting to serve youth on a long mountain hiking trip. I wanted to show up more physically capable in my life, and FP showed me a way. My bodily awareness and patience really helped me enjoy FP more as I continued into it.
Functional Patterns training-- a simple, scalable and ingenious ecosystem of bodily exercises, and principles for regenerating the human body in alignment with our ancient functions of standing, walking, running and throwing, gave me a reference point to bring back the activities and functional movement I still held dear. Though my meditation practice remains of deep value to me, because-- while I sacrifice some stiffness in the short term, I almost always come out of short retreats with a renewed joy and sense of creativity for my social life and physical training practice. In this way, I believe that the practice of breath meditation and contemplating our suffering can deeply support our patience when trying to create new or regenerate functional myofascial connections in the body, as well as challenging its gait mechanics to stronger more stable vistas as in an intense FP "chamber." Meditation allows the mind to be prepared for uncomfortable sensations, and helps one create an inner sense of well-being in the face of sometimes painful somatic experience. A memory or sense of self-hated may arise in the mind, and you contract your tissues around it. Sometimes the physical practice helps us release it, though having a calm awareness and a sense of grounded breathing can also support this healing process.
So whether you consider yourself a meditator or not, having time to yourself in nature where you can simply be aware of your body is an important quality to cultivate. If we cannot calm ourselves down and let go of our stimulants, allowing our nervous systems to settle down, it is hard to make changes in our body that really stick. Though being around other Functional Patterns practitioners more also helped me understand what it meant to really challenge my physical structure to bring deeper change. This combination of qualities is what I hope to bring to my clients.
