Dog Tails

Well this week my post went to the dogs.

As a massage therapist, I can’t stress enough about how observing animals can teach us about our bodies. Their lack of self-consciousness allows them to act in accordance with their nature in a way that can bring up feelings of shame for us. By observing animals we can learn how we would treat our bodies if all we cared about was physically feeling good.

Humans, of course, have pretty sophisticated social interactions that require a degree of repression. Other animals generally don’t want anything to do with our social customs. They seem happy to inhabit the present moment, acting on their instincts. We humans all too often use our gifts of abstract thought to worry about the future and regret the past. We linger in our heads and are often estranged from our bodies. Paradoxically, though I feel it's natural that we sapiens are alienated from our physical nature a bit. We are naturally social, living in a shared mindscape as much as any particular habitat we find ourselves in. But we can learn from our other earth mates to become aware of all the inherited intelligence that's woven into our bodies.  

I witnessed an example of this idea the other day. I was playing with a canine friend of mine, watching her dopey expression as she whacked her tail against all the surrounding furniture to express her happiness. I don’t have a tail, but if I did I would like to think I would be a bit more careful with it. I generally don’t want to repeatedly hit any part of my body against hard surfaces. She seemed unconcerned by this though. She was happy and she was going to flail her tail with wild abandon, end of the story. 

This got me pondering why do dogs even have tails. What do they use their tails for? They can’t grab with them. They don’t seem to need them for balance. They don’t use them in fights except maybe to protect their underside a bit. But I don't see a tail being that good of defense for such an important task. Then it dawned on me. Tails are for communication.

No dog hides their emotions. Whatever emotion a dog is feeling is constantly being embodied by the dog. A tail allows those embodied emotions to be telegraphed greater distances. Realizing this I have a moment of tail envy. Having tails would make avoiding angry humans so much easier. I can easily see how this ability makes it easier to avoid would be enemy dogs.

Why I bring dog tails up is to point out that we have similar ways we embody our emotions.  Let's think of when a dog gets scared. It tucks its tail between its legs while crouching down. To tuck its tail in this fear pose it has to tilt it hips inwards. When humans engage in this same posture its called posterior pelvic tilts. There are many reasons why people would tilt their pelvis inward rather than anxiety. Bad chairs, acquired postures, compensation patterns for wearing high heels, injuries. That said I don't feel we can separate the emotional component to this pose.

My experience practicing bodywork lend me to believe more often than not there are emotional factors that contribute to this. Not all the time, but I think we should pay more attention to it than we do. It's no secret we live in stressful times. Many of us have more anxiety than is helpful in our lives. Acknowledging these emotional connections in my experience can add to whatever massage, bodywork, movement practice you partake in. Also, this work both ways. When we hold our body in a position it has genetically associated with danger our mind will fabricate a story to justify why we should be scared.

Regardless of the cause of tucking our phantom tails though, holding this posture requires us to compensate in other areas of our body to maintain our balance. We often roll our shoulders in and crane our neck forward to maintain balance when we tuck our tail bone. The pain in between our shoulder blades can be caused by those muscles being stretched forward by those rolled in shoulders. Those headaches can be caused by the strain on our neck. 

So let us pay attention to our inner dog. What information would we be signaling with our tails if we had one? Are we in a fear pose that is taking its toll on our body? If so are we in actual danger, or are we carrying our emotional baggage into areas of our lives where it has no purpose other than weighing us down. If so let's see what we can do to bring a bit of wag into our lives.

Anthony Bruni