An unexpected benefit

Two weeks ago I was talking with Stephanie, one of my students, as we were waiting for the evening Feldenkrais class to begin. Stephanie is in her mid-20’s, vivacious and charming. She started coming to my class several months ago for help with back pain.
We were sitting on a balcony overlooking the gymnastics gym. As we watched the girls flip around, I asked her, “How’s your back doing?”
She said, “It’s much better, thanks. But, you know, a funny thing happened. This past weekend I was with my family in California for my brother’s wedding. My mother and I were getting changed in one of the bedrooms. She was standing behind me and all of a sudden she said, “Stephanie! What happened to your bruises? You’re not all bruised any more. Where did they go?”
Stephanie said, demonstrating, “I twisted around and looked at my legs and my back. Then I said to my Mom, ‘You’re right! I’m not full of bruises.’ “
Stephanie took in the question mark on my face and explained that she is a manager in a shop where there is a lot of equipment coming and going. Every day something heavy and awkward is in a place where it was not yesterday. She has a long habit of bumping into these things.
“Before,” she reported saying to her mother, “I was always ahead of myself. I was thinking about the next thing. I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was. Now I am more focused on my self, on where my body is in space, and on what’s around me. All that! So I am not getting bruises.”
We both agreed: this is a nice, and unexpected, benefit from the classes.