The Gokhale Method® has given me my life back from daily pain. I had two head injuries as a child and started having headaches in third grade. They turned into full migraines in my twenties that got progressively worse until I was in pain daily and in a constant cycle of migraines by my forties. The pain was intense, traveling from my neck to the inside of my shoulder blade and from my temple into my eye.
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People often come to the Gokhale Method® when they suddenly can’t enjoy what they love to do. Their days playing golf, sailing, dancing, hiking, or simply playing with their children or grandchildren, are threatened. Life becomes an obstacle course of injuries, pain, and rehab. Their body is no longer a comfortable home where they feel good and self-confident.
Every testimonial for the Gokhale Method® represents somebody’s journey out of pain, often after many years of misery, fear, and unsuccessful efforts. All of these people have done the hard miles of being in pain, and then been surprised at the simple pathway to being pain-free that is the Gokhale Method®.
Whether you have just discovered the Gokhale Method®, or know my book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back from front to back, I'm thrilled to share with you what’s new in the upcoming second edition, and why it’s an exciting step forward in our mission to end back pain.
If you are suffering from back pain, the most likely reason for it is hiding in plain sight. Like most people, including your medical and complementary health professionals (!), you are just not trained to see it. The root cause of most musculoskeletal problems, whether it be lower back pain, a frozen shoulder, neck pain, plantar fasciitis, or a knee issue, can usually be detected in your posture and your resulting movement patterns.
I’ve been doing therapeutic bodywork and massage for 25 years. One of my clients, who owns the garage that services my car, had trouble with his hip—I did what I could to help. About a month later he came back, and was walking much better. I asked him what had happened—and he told me he had taken some Gokhale Method® classes. Intrigued, I ordered Esther Gokhale’s book.
Our teachers often field questions about tucking the pelvis for Tai Chi and Qigong. It is frequently perceived that Tai Chi recommends tucking the pelvis as part of a baseline stance, purportedly to facilitate “the Qi to flow unimpeded.” It’s a central tenet in Gokhale Method® philosophy that the baseline pelvic position be anteverted, and that tucking the pelvis is a “wrong turn” Western society took about a century ago (think flapper posture). So students who encounter a seemingly exactly opposite guideline or model in Tai Chi are understandably confused.
Tomorrow will be the Fourth of July, or Independence Day in the US. It is the national day when US citizens celebrate the 1776 Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. Today I invite you to travel back in time with me to look at a well-known work of art that commemorates that historic event.
Esther:
Dance has been a part of my life from a very early age. Due to my Dutch mother’s love of all things Indian, I was taken for Kathak lessons at age 3(!) and then Bharata Natyam classes for many years. Later I developed a passion for various forms of South American, Caribbean, and Congolese dance. When I created the Gokhale Method 1-2-3 Move online program back in 2020, it was natural for me to weave into it the traditional dance moves I knew—plus some I discovered in the process!