This might look like an idyllic scene, and it is.
I was walking in these woods a few weeks ago with my friend Randee when I tripped on a root crossing my path.
I stumbled forward, accelerating down the slope at what could have been, literally, breakneck speed. Then I tripped a second time, on another root.
I’ve been practicing the MELT Method, an approach to self-care which uses a set of soft balls and a soft roller to rehydrate connective tissue throughout the body. Connective tissue is the three-dimensional scaffolding that runs from bone to skin and from head to toe, protecting our visceral organs, supporting our upright posture, anchoring our sensory nerves.
As I’ve shared MELT with others, I’ve said these words time and again: This intelligent web of connective tissue is what supports, balances, and stabilizes our bodies, without our conscious control.
This walk in the woods served up the proof of the pudding.
MELT saved me from breaking a wrist, shattering a knee, bashing my teeth in, and/or fracturing my shoulder, my jaw, my neck.
If I’d had any one of those injuries, the hospital bill could well have soared into the millions. The pain and dislocation of those injuries could have been enormous.
Mercifully, I avoided all that. Practicing MELT has rehydrated my body’s connective tissue so well that, even as I was tumbling down toward the ground, nerves and reflexes communicated seamlessly with postural muscles to pull me upright.
I kept on walking — no bruises, no sprains, no broken bones — with gratitude for marvelous MELT.