What to expect

Barbara Neubauer

by Barbara Neubauer

Story

This book is about my journey starting as an enthusiastic runner, to suffering from pain in my Achilles tendons, to finding a way out of my chronic pain. It’s supposed to give you, dear reader, hope. For me, the best healing method was achieved through practicing Bowspring on a regular basis. Even though I am a huge fan of Bowspring, you might find another way to improve your way of moving, thus leading a healthier life.

This book is addressed to those who are open-minded and who are willing to look at the body through new perspectives. At least, these perspectives were new to me. What I had learned at school didn’t equip me with good skills to lead a healthy life. I made so many wrong choices. Bought unhealthy shoes. I sat all day during the week and took way too few breaks because I was often completely in a flow and forgot about my body.

This book is intended to be fun. If you know some of my teachers, you might have extra insight into these stories. My movement journey had some ups and downs, a few funny misunderstandings, but it was mostly full of wonderful encounters. Lots of them had been online due to the pandemic but in a peculiar way, this became a possibility to ‘expedite’ my understanding and improve love of my body. I met so many inspiring people from different continents. Unfortunately, only some of them get mentioned in this book. It could be a book with no end because there are likely new stories happening this very minute.

This book is my first book in English. Please be compassionate and understanding with me and my words. For me, my movement journey was also a language education program. I attended classes in English and Spanish. Even though I already had a fairly good understanding of these languages, it was still a challenge to learn all the vocabulary about the body I hadn’t known in much detail before.

This book is not only about me but about the people I met and the knowledge I gained along the way. It’s about what I incorporated into my daily life and what I eventually embodied. Literally, the shape of my body changed a little bit. But what changed the most was the acceptance of my body and the joy of movement. With a Bowspring inspired movement practice, I found a way to move that was fun for me and an alignment pattern that I could apply to all other activities; even to something as static as sitting. Come with me and dive in into my short stories about my long journey towards improved body awareness and movement happiness. As I started enjoying hopping, you should also enjoy hopping from story to story, which can be read in any order as it may best please you.

This book is not an official Bowspring textbook, nor may it reflect the official Global Bowspring doctrine fully. I am only sharing my own student’s experiences with a movement practice inspired by Bowspring.

This book does not intend to replace medical advice and should not be used as such. Neither me nor the publisher can accept any liability with regard to the content.

© Barbara Neubauer 2022-03-30