by Fabiola Marelli
The self-image, the attitude of the body and the process of self-awareness are formed and formed by the individual through the emotional and physical difficulties encountered in the course of life.
All this represents the body scheme, defined by a dynamic set of postural, kinesthetic, temporal, somato-sensorial information, which is continuously modified because it gradually integrates with the information that reaches the body and which, in part, we are able to decode through anamnesis, observation and osteopathic palpation.
The impact on the body scheme is the greater the more the centripetal information will be perceived by the organism.
Motor coordination and postural attitudes develop through maps and neuronal paths initially not yet traced by experience, but which then become preferential lanes because they are perceived as more responsive to the needs of the individual.
If a given behavior is accompanied by negative reinforcement, it will be abandoned as soon as possible.
If the child is scolded when he exhibits an aggressive attitude, he will quickly learn that this does not guarantee survival (parental love), so he will develop a "fast track" to enforced meekness.
On the contrary, his body will not betray him, and will keep in memory the trauma suffered by the impossibility of releasing his aggression under the pattern of muscular contraction (perceived as pain).
Muscle contraction is always the translation of a defensive system in place.
It is a real conditioned reflex of which one is almost never aware and which over time could cause dysfunctions, "blocks", pathologies, which the sensitive and trained hand of the osteopath is almost always able to identify thanks to to the understanding of the fascial tissue communication modality.
(How many times does the body try to warn with small signals that gradually become stronger and manifest with pain, precisely because these small signals are not consciously heard by the individual? NdA).
All "muscle armor corresponds to a" character armor.
The traumas suffered are revealed by the shape of the body.
The posture, the muscular patterns of agonists and antagonists, tell the continuous adaptive effort of the individual to be able to counteract the emotional and physical gravity.
Our organism is much more than a set of elements that underlie the laws of biomechanics, yet, despite ourselves and our unconsciousness, our organism always tries to adapt, to continue.
Paradoxically, the body is governed precisely by that part of us that almost never reaches our conscience, and we are not referring only to the autonomic nervous system but also to all that series of repeated gestures without realizing it, of habitual postures, of those automatisms that collect, on the tip of the iceberg, the SUMMA of our life experiences.
The more they are unaware, the deeper their root will be.
It is the task of the osteopath, of his hand, to ensure that the still unconscious areas of the body enter into communication with the conscious body in search of health.
This is why consciousness means healing means well-being.
This is why self-awareness means self-healing means health.
Fabìola Marelli - Osteopath D.O.
Registered in the Register of Osteopaths of Italy - No. 268 and in the ASL of Como. She works as a freelance professional and researcher. Lecturer and master's speaker. Author of texts and treatises relating to Music and Osteopathy.
Administrator and teacher of the CRESO School of Osteopathy - Center for Osteopathic Research and Studies S.r.l.
Director of the publishing house CRESO Editions.
