I Found A Miracle
When My Body Really, Really Needed One!

By Suresha Hill

Being athletic most of my life, playing sports, dancing, and enjoying many forms of martial arts, it stunned and frightened me when I injured my back. A friend asked me to pose for a dance photo holding my leg in the air, but after a while, my body was starting to feel the strain. I complained, but when my friend said, "Hold on a few more minutes; we're almost finished!" Admittedly macho, I stayed until the end of the session and figured I could take a hot shower and stretch it out, but I only knew later that this time was different.

The next day when this weird pain shot down my leg I realized I'd hurt myself in a new way. After seeing a chiropractor, the sciatica switched to the other side and I found myself limping and taking anti-inflammatories. Massage and continued chiropractic only seemed to aggravate the condition which turned into a spasm - inflammation cycle that was crawling up my entire spine. I'd grown so weak and full of pain I could barely hold a plate of food. It didn't make sense to me. I could duke it out with men twice my size, but couldn't hold my leg up in the air? This was plain scary!

I went to doctor after doctor, trying everything short of surgery until one day one of them revealed that my pelvis had been subluxated during the initial adjustment of the low back. The mal-alignment had irritated the sacro-iliac joint, spasming the hip muscles, which counter-irritated the low back in a vicious cycle of pelvic instability. During a hug from an old friend who was much shorted than I was, I noticed that my back felt much better with a tight squeeze, so I got myself an elastic brace and pushed on in chronic pain.

Years later while working for a physical therapist, we'd invited Tom Hanna for an in-service at the clinic. Although Feldenkrais trained, he'd presented and demonstrated a style of bodywork called Hanna Somatic Education. My back improved more after 10 minutes of this approach than after 4 years of all the others! Call it fate, luck, chance, or someone hearing my prayers, he was offering his first training to pass on his secrets the coming summer.

During the first month of the training, after doing the movements every morning and practicing the techniques on each other every afternoon, I was out of pain. It was as if an elephant that had been sitting on my back suddenly got up, and everything in my body sighed with relief! It was a Hallelujah moment, a real miracle! It took time to completely shake off the elephant's impact, but I never wore the back brace again.

I've gone much deeper into neuromuscular reeducation over the last 17 years, feeling dedicated to understanding and resolving chronic pain, and to passing on the principles and techniques that have transformed my body, my career, and my life.