2 weeks of Back Hope

Discover all the many ways we can free ourself from chronic back pain.

Free Back Hope Telesummit.

Over 20+ experts will offer a number of alternatives to relieve and reduce back pain and discomforts.

For 10 consecutive days you can listen and learn about:

The Active Release Technique, the Alexander Technique, Bowen Therapy, CranioSacral Therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique, the Krane Training Method, Longevity, Nutrition, Osteopathy, Orthapedic Sports Medicine, Polarity, QiGong, the Satori Method, Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises, Transformational Energy Therapy Techniques, Theta Healing, Trigger Point Therapy, Yoga and more.

The list of doctors, therapists, authors, healers and experts can be found here.

You’ll be able to use their practical information right away as you listen in on up to 2 calls per day. Each of the calls will be available for a 24 hour period.

Back Hope Telesummit Starts Soon

The Back Hope Telesummit begins on Monday April 29th. See you there.

Related Blogs

Somatics exericses are simple movement patterns where we use the brain’s cortex to reset our muscles back to comfort. Instead of hard work, we use our body with ease in a very intelligent manner. All you need is gravity and yourself.

Check out our 3 New Training Videos

We’re changing our former free mini-course and now have expanded it with 3 comprehensive somatics training videos where you’ll also get to download and keep several audio mp3 trainings so you can:

• Regain Mobility
• Restore Natural Flexibility
• and Recover Quickly From Injury

Simply by using 3 Steps.

What you’ll learn in our new training videos

How you can get out of back spasms by yourself…

The key somatics exercise which is a bridge to the entire system of somatics…

How to end stiffness.

How to conquer tension.

How to take on stress and beat it.

How to remain comfortable for life and more…

New free somatics video trainings available now.

Related Blogs

The cat stretch is a misnomer even though we often see our furry felines appearing to stretch.

Cat Stretch is not Stretching

The result of a cat stretch could make one more restful.

When a cat stretches, it is actually tightening or contracting a series of muscles. We’ve come to find out this is called a pandiculation. When we do this entire act, our muscles lengthen and become more relaxed.

Our clever cat uses its brain’s motor cortex to initiate a movement, which at first glance looks like a stretch. You’ve seen a cat round its back. It’s not stretching the back, it’s pulling the belly in and using the abdominal muscles to pull back.

Then… it’ll release itself. The abs are reset and ready to be used. Healthy vertebrate animals naturally reset their muscles and movement system periodically throughout the day. No wonder they rest so well. If only we could do the same.

Cat Stretch – 7 Simple Movements

Fortunately, some 300 years after we learned about pandiculations. This very act brings muscles to rest. The system of somatics exercises teaches us how to go cortical and re-establish length and comfort in our movement system. Watch the fast version of the cat stretch below.

Here is what the 7 simple movements of the cat stretch address.

1. The first movement wakes up the brain, spine and hips.

2. The second movement helps to release tightness in our front side, such as the abdomen. This will allow the back to further lengthen.

3. This movement relaxes the muscles of the back, from the neck all the way down to the foot.

4. The fourth move releases held tension levels in the hips and chest. If we’re locked-in from too much sitting or hard work, this is a go to release.

5. Most everyone’s favorite movement, this delicious move lengthens the spine, frees up the hips and shoulders… and is enough to purr along.

6. A 3 part lower body sequence to free up the feet and ankles and connect up to the hips, back and head. This helps to straighten out the legs for better walking and balance in running.

7. The final movement of the cat stretch addresses the neck, back rotation and hip mobility in a delightful seated manner. You may not need the car mirrors anymore after this.

Cat Stretch Audio Recording

Healthy animals do a number of morning resets. We can simply follow along with a morning routine of the cat stretch somatics exercises designed for the human animal. Once you learn the routine, it only takes minutes to remind the muscles of their natural length, while at the same improving the mobility we need for the day.

Just like a good cat stretch at night, we can drift off and sleep more easily too.

The Cat Stretch daily maintenance somatics exercises program is now available to download and enjoy in the comfort of your home – meow.

As the pressures, tension and stresses keep adding up, what do we do to safely and effectively release the valve of pent-up demands on us?

The Stress of Neck and Shoulder Pain

All stress isn’t bad. There is both positive and negative stress. The good stress comes in thinking about all the wonderful gifts or things we’d like to do for our loved ones this season.

The negative stress may happen as we get ‘er done filling in the list with little time to do so. So how can we handle the negative stress so it doesn’t adversely affect us?

Pandiculate Neck and Shoulder Pain

One simple way is to pandiculate out the building negative tension. This way we keep it bay and can continue to take on stress as it comes.

Fortunately, we’ve systematized pandiculations as somatics exercises where we do very simple movements to get the brain to release chemicals of relaxation and this lowers tension levels.

In this giving season, you can give yourself a much needed break from rising tension which may add to any neck and shoulder pain.

Holiday Stress Buster – Neck and Shoulder Pain Audio Recording

If you haven’t accessed the free 15 minute audio routine to release the neck and shoulders. Try this for neck and shoulder pain.

You’ll be able to do these easy moves while your standing in line waiting or sitting in the car when traffic isn’t moving.

Have all the stress you want… and let it go as easily as a duck ruffles its feathers. Don’t let neck and shoulder pain slow you down for the holidays.

Certainly there are yoga poses where you turn the spine and pull back counter to the twist.

As one contemplates our breath and associated feelings, some people attempt to achieve greater length by trying to get more.

Twist and Shout Another Way and Lose the SMA

In Hanna Somatic Education, we use somatics exercises to engage the brain in order to affect a change of information the muscles receive.

Somatics exercises are unlike most approaches since we go at things from a brain based perspective where we use mindful movement rather than any static holding positions.

The brain, the one big muscle, can effectively reset the resting tension levels using a more delicate approach. Much like untying a knot, gently moving our tissues unlocks held tension and stiffness.

When we push a contracted area, the targeted muscles become shorter. They pull back to the known set levels. They have lost their way to neutral or rest with high tension levels. The term we use is sensory-motor amnesia (sma).

SMA, muscular stiffness, stress and high tension patterns are temporary yet ongoing phenomenons until we change things with a simple movement update using the brain’s cortex.

You are a self adjusting living organism and you can adjust the feel and sensitivity levels of your muscles so they remember their way back to neutral when you twist yourself about.

Birthright to Move Well – Twist and Shout

When I lived in the near 2 decades of chronic pain, I knew there was a way out. What I didn’t know was how to simply update the body’s movement software.

Using the brain and adjusting with what appears to be deceptively simple movement, I could live a comfortable life and take out any kinks, stiffness, stress, tension and recover from injury quickly.

Our birthright is to move well. When we get off track, we can use that space between our ears to get things back online, running smoothly once again. We can twist and shout for joy as often as we want.

Twist and Shout Class

The ability to twist our self in one direction and then another can be enhanced through conscious movement rather than arduous exercise or holding our self in position for any length of time.

If we find ourself sitting too much in a day, we can grow our spine to greater length by doing a few simple easy movements which may seem initially challenging until our brain remembers to inform the muscles to let go.

Surely they will… and you can twist and shout about it.

This week, I’ll be offering an online somatics exercise class where all you have to do is listen and follow along. You can join me live or get the replay.

You’ll learn one amazing somatics exercise pattern to counter what our back keeps encountering… its gradual decline and shortening.

In a few minutes, you can:

• feel taller, straighter and longer
• feel the back relaxing
• and have greater mobility so movement itself is freer

C’mon and twist and shout with us.

If you haven’t, you can order the book Hungry for Change and then you can get access to the movie and watch it on your computer or ipad.

Check out this trailer for the movie Hungry for Change.

The Hungry for Change people will not only give you online access to watch the movie.

You’ll get these goodies after you get the book, Hungry for Change:

• the audio version of the movie
• Food Matters Recipe ebook
• a Visualization mp3
• and the soundtrack from the movie
+ more.

If you’re not into dieting or you’ve tried any number of them, you might found out there’s another way to feeling good which can be way easier and tastier too!

After you order the book, to get all the goodies… which by the way, you’ve got until Saturday afternoon to do so. Then go here and get all the freebies listed above.

Get on Board with Hungry for Change

When Mom said to “eat your vegetables”. She knew what she was talking about. Thanks Mom.

Watch the movie, Hungry for Change, with your kids and lets end all the silliness about why kids are bigger and can’t move as well as we did when we were their age.

These so-called “sports drinks” are little more than water and sugary-tasting poison mixed together. Don’t believe me? Below is a list of the ingredients in a typical sports drink.

Typical Sports Drinks Ingredients List

Ingredients: Water, Brominated Vegetable Oil, Sucralose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Natural and artificial flavors, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Monopotassium Phosphate, Glycerol Ester of Wood Rosin, Artificial Colors.

Let’s see, first we’ve got brominated vegetable oil which is made from genetically modified soy, not to mention processed with all kinds of toxic chemicals. Then we’ve got high fructose corn syrup which is highly linked to the obesity epidemic and is probably one of the worst sugars you can consume. Then there are “natural and artificial flavors” which generally aren’t made in a very natural way and many of the substances that fall in that category are carcinogens.

Continuing on in the list of wonderful ingredients, we have artificial colors – many of which are not only linked to ADD and ADHD but are also carcinogens and teratogens (meaning they can cause birth defects).

So are sports drinks a health drink? Clearly not!

But what can you drink to make sure you get enough hydration when you’re exerting yourself so much as an athlete or working out in the gym or doing some other intense physical activity? Well, a little research into some old traditions show an amazingly ancient way of getting hydrated and keeping your energy levels high. In fact, it’s probably one of the oldest “sports drinks” out there.

One of the Oldest Sports Drinks

It’s called chia seeds and water.

You see, about 3,500 years ago, the Aztec people were known for having the fiercest warriors in the world. And they grew chia seeds for a very specific purpose – they were grown only to be consumed by the fiercest of the Aztec warriors in battle.

Why? Because chia seeds are loaded with healthy Omega-3 fats, protein and tens of thousands of phytonutrients and antioxidants. Chia seeds are also extremely light, meaning that a warrior could carry enough chia seeds to sustain them for a month or more out in battle if things got rough. And he could mix the chia seeds in water to make it easier to consume them while he hydrated.

You too can give your body the gift of hydration like an Aztec warrior by avoiding typical sports drinks and making your own at home (it’s a lot cheaper too!). Here’s one of my favorite chia water recipes for staying hydrated when I’m working out. I hope you enjoy it!

Chia Sports Drinks Recipe

Ingredients:

16 oz water

1-4 Tablespoons chia seeds (depending on how thick you want it)

Fresh squeezed lemon, orange or lime juice

Directions: Just stir the chia seeds into the water and add some fresh juice for flavor. Let the chia seeds soak up the water for at least 20-30 minutes, mix it again and enjoy! You can carry it with you in a water bottle and drink it during intense physical activity to stay hydrated and energized all day long like an Aztec warrior.

Tom Corson-Knowles is the founder of the Authentic Health Coaching show, the #1 Podcast show on Podomatic. Tom is the co-author of the revolutionary book Dr. Corson’s Top 5 Nutrition Tips. Tom also blogs regularly about nutrition, healthy recipes and growing your own food.

Free Books on Health LTO

If you go to this facebook page I’ll update the books on health after I review them. You have to act quickly as the free offers are time limited.

If you don’t have a kindle, no worries, you can download a free kindle reader for just about any computer.

Today’s books on health is on affirmations & guided imagery.

As I began my journey out of fibromyalgia, which was solved primarily through movement, an interesting set of words began to pour out.

When I arose in the morning… the sounds of “wach-tele” spewed forth from my lips.




I had no idea why these strange sounding words kept coming up for the following months.

Each time I would say them, my body felt energized. A new sense of aliveness grew. Finally, I accepted this as my body’s mantra. It was only until later that I thought about the word “wach” a form of wachen, in German to get up or awake and tele – in Greek, to transmit from a long distance.

Was it possible that my brain/body was talking to me? Was it telling me that an awakening was taking place in my still ongoing brain fog filled days?

Did it already know I was going to come out of this miserable state of ongoing chronic pain?

Our body is incredibly wise. Even if it is wracked with the difficult wiring we are dealing with for the moment – which can be too many moments like the ones I endured for nearly 20 years.

At the time, I was still living in too much brain fog to see and understand that in fact the clouds, veils and misty brain was clearing and a healthy vibrant body was in the midst of an enduring transformation.

Books on Health – Your Own Journal

Naturally, my journal was more filled with all the bad feelings I was living with, the ones which kept coming up – but upon review later on – I was surprised at how the dialogue changed in the journey out of the fog.

While I did get to experience a good day more often than I had in the past, I didn’t know many, many more were to come. The fog was lifting and as if veils were revealing themselves, I began to notice this after the fact.

Then as another veil lifted, transformed and vanished, I would relish this new found state of clarity or was it merely the return to normal senses and feelings of wellness which I could trust would continue.

“Would it hold?” Ever the question with the countless therapies – well I did count the 66 various health care practitioners up one day – and how simple that a belief to being well with movement paved the way.

As I continued to learn how to move well, meditate, use affirmations and allow my body to have its own. “Wach-tele” was well underway before I knew it.

This past summer I won medals at the state & national level. I earned another trophy with my mates as well as the first place plaque in our competitive local summer league.

Books on Health to Check Out

And how did this happen? Well I continue to use affirmations and guided imagery to set the course. I use the belief I create. Follow that up with some mental practice and obviously have to train my muscles so they can compete. Of course, I never exercise in the normal way and this continues to amaze those around me… but that’s another story.

Please hurry and go check out today’s books on health offer.

Today some 10% of us live in chronic back pain. Ouch! It’s probably not news that the number 2 reason we see a doctor is – for back pain.

Unless of course you’re a back whisperer.

While most adults have experienced back pain, some 14% of us will live with it for several days. 26% of us live with back pain for the entire day. That’s just wrong or so I say having had to endure back pains in my 20′s & 30′s.

The Back Whisperer and Back Spasms

Recently a client explained how he had helped a boy recover within 10 minutes from some back spasms.

“I was just at leadership camp and a kid went down with severe spinal spasms. I took a nod from you and moved him from completely rigid and incapacitated to walking around normally in under 10 minutes. Very cool.”

The kids who witnessed this now call him the back whisperer.

That is pretty cool since 39% of us live with back pain for a few hours. Are these people their own back whisperer or what is it that most of us do to overcome back pain?

Half, that’s 50% of the people pop pills. A good 1/4 use over the counter measures while 1/5 use prescriptions.

For the rest of us that are trying to do something about it, 34% do stretches some other type of exercises. Men outnumber women in terms of the percentages who are doing something.

Back Whisperer – Men or More Women

Does this mean women already do something right? Do they have less back pain? Do they know the way of the back whisperer?

In any case, the back whisperer secret is free for all of us to try. You can join our free mini-course and learn how to do the very maneuvers the back whisperer used on his young charge.

Hanna Somatic Educators know how fast back spams can resolve by carefully moving in simple, easy movement patterns when coupled with our awareness. By being aware of our movements, we resolve many holding tension patters and as a result, your body may say thank you.

Be Your Own Back Whisperer

No need for pain meds, no special equipment, and no arduous exercise involved. The secret of the back whisperer is awareness.

Instead of being yet another statistic, why not find out for yourself if you can be a back whisperer too.

A stealthy public health crisis is happening according to Dr. Lusting.

Is being a sugar baby leading us to obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease?

Watch this 60 minutes interview by CNN’s Sanjay Gupta.

The next time you try some sweets. Take a moment and feel what’s going on inside.

How does your body respond?

What do you do after dessert or drinking some pop?

How does it feel to be a sugar baby?

Lame hip flexor stretches…

Such as this one where many of us were taught and continue to do actually tighten the hamstrings. Look at how much tension we can create by pulling our heel to our buttocks. By moving the heel towards the buttocks, we are in effect contracting the hamstring although we are “trying” to stretch the hip flexor.

We’ve known for some time that when we stretch a contracted area such as the hip flexor, the brain will send a message back to the muscles retightening it since there is a program from the lower brain which has learned the set point.

In other words, say your hip flexor is tight. You pull it away as in the picture in order to lengthen it. Yet the program from the brain’s perspective is a 20% or so held tension level. When we “try” to lengthen it in the manner so many of us were taught, we “think” we are stretching and gaining length yet the brain remembers the set point and re-contracts back to the 20% or whatever held tension level.

Good news is… your hip flexor stretches are accomplished. The bad news is, you didn’t gain any length unless you’re forcing the tissues which then pulls on the tendons which don’t need any stretching.

So how do we counter this and use the brain to get the muscles to let go.

Back up those hip flexor stretches and get to know the startle reflex

The startle reflex is an old brain program so we can reflexively protect ourself by pulling in to ourself. When a shot gets fired or we’re startled, our muscles will go into a particular pattern which happens quickly.

If trauma or enough negative circumstances happen to us, we can adapt our muscles to “being” pulled in. We can have crow’s eyes, a tight jaw, tensed shoulders, a contracted belly, tight hip flexors and a tight groin and feet that’ll clutch to save us.

All well and good for a brief moment until the negative event passes. But what if our muscular system receives enough negative stress where for any number of reasons, it just can’t let go.

So what have we resorted to? Yep, those lame hip flexors stretches for instance which actually reinforce the pattern and truly do not let go.

You see, the one big muscle, the brain’s motor cortex can send information to the lower brain centers so the muscles get a new program. Unlike exercise which strengthens muscles and stretching which does not help us according to present day research – although there is still some debate on this. There is another way to release held tension levels which by the way is what we did as babies and young children.

When we were young, we pandiculated our muscles and movement system. In other words, we consciously tensed the tension pattern or tightness we felt and then the higher brain sent the information to the lower brain so the muscles would let go and be reprogrammed to lower tension levels. Thus setting the muscles free and we could move in our youthful ways.

The very same hip flexor stretches we are doing take us backwards rather than allowing for natural flexibility which the brain can handle. Fortunately we’ve systematized those youthful pandiculations and the system is known as somatics exercises where we use both our brain and body to reset the length of our muscles. The higher brain is used to both relax muscles back to lower tension levels and give them back their much needed function.

Do your hip flexor stretches do this for you?

Hip flexor stretches and the structural viewpoint

When we’re looked at from the structural viewpoint of being bent over, tight and held in position. Naturally we’ve been advised to gain length by the method of stretching muscles which does nothing in regards to its function.

Our muscles receive a message from the brain to contract while the opposite set of muscles ideally will lengthen and let go. How can they let go if they never receive the program to remind them of their function? Forcing the tissues into length is ill advised but of course some of you will still practice what goes against how our neurophysiology works.

Sitting too much can cause our hip flexors to remain tight and lose their function. Even our feelings and negative emotions impact our muscles. After all, we feel with our muscles and when we get depressed, don’t we feel like curling up or sitting down to hunker inwards. Our feeling and sense perceptions can take what appears to be our structure to places of where it is hanging out and maybe its learned to hang out there too long for own good.

The system of somatics exercises which works with the brain and muscles gives us the internal ability to change back the clock and refresh our movement system to its more youthful ways. We literally feel our way back to our comfortable senses. Movement is memory and we can enhance the brain’s motor cortex so that hip flexor stretches are not necessary.

Simple, easy movement done with our sensing by engaging those muscles and then letting them go with a deeper appreciation of our senses, allows the natural restoration and movement update to occur.

To find out how you can readily use the brain’s infinite and more vast repertoire of regaining length and re-establishing control with the muscles, you can join me for an online live somatics exercise class (or get the replay) where you’ll learn a completely different set of hip flexor stretches.

You’ll learn how negative events and startling circumstances can cause us to cringe and what muscles we can use so those hip flexor stretches can be a thing of the out dated past.

When we reset the brain’s motor cortex, the muscles will function at higher levels and you’ll have an entirely new way which can seem counter-intuitive yet these type of hip flexor stretches “not” will lessen the stiffness, aches, tension and stress of holding on which our brains and body knows how to do.

Watch this unique way to overcome sports injuries

Nancy was a strong and aggressive volleyball player and loved the competition of big tournaments. She started playing at age 12 and her coaches knew right away that she was something special.

One night during a game, she dove for a save and injured her ankle. As she stood up she found she could not stand on her foot. With tears streaming down her face, she was helped off the court.

Having always been tough as nails, she thought she would be back within a few weeks, but as it turned out she missed the rest of the season.

Fear and doubt with a sports injury

As the reality of her situation sunk in, her spirits took a big dive. For the first time in her life, Nancy felt fear and doubt in the back of her mind constantly.

She had put a lot of stock in her identity as a top-notch volleyball player and having it literally disappear over night was shocking. She was frustrated she could not play and worried if she would even be able to “comeback” at all.

Parents, this is perfectly normal. At a time when most kids are struggling to get to know who they really are, playing sports fulfills multiple emotional needs. It’s how they fit in, develop their own self-efficacy and form their perception of worth as a person.

After months of painful rehab, Nancy was physically ready to play, but something was still holding her back. She knew the fear wasn’t rational, because she had completely healed. She was a gifted athlete and knew what she was supposed to do tactically, like the back of her hand.

But as she explained to her coach, she now had a fear that she just couldn’t shake and, in practice, her coach noticed the difference too.

Instead of brushing it off and “putting it out of her mind”, the first thing she worked on was her focus, or, her dominant thoughts. Hundreds of doubting thoughts over a period of time, starts to “condition” your mind so you have to reverse that before doing anything else.

She had her go back to the reasons why she started playing volleyball in the first place and come up with a mantra she could repeat over and over that corrected her focus.

The next step was to release all those stored up difficult emotions resulting from her injury and the setback to her career. Telling herself simply to just “let it go” would not cut it!

The work has to be done at a cellular level, where the emotions literally get stuck. This is why we use guided visualizations in our training and it worked wonders for her. She told me how light and free she felt afterwards.

She gradually began to “trust” her knee and body again and went on to a stellar season.
A year later, realizing her dream of playing college ball, she told me that the lessons she had learned from using her mind to come back in volleyball, helped her in bouncing back from a lost relationship.

Sports injuries and life

ALL athletes experience major difficulty, fears, doubts and setbacks in their sport. How they come through it all, OR NOT has far-reaching, lifelong effects on all aspects of their life.

Doubt, worry and fear don’t stay locked in the sports arena, they creep into all areas of our lives.

It is crucial to address these fears and setbacks as soon as possible, so they do not become lifelong issues that hold your athletes back in other areas of their life.

Craig Sigl is the creator of 6 mental game training programs for athletes sold in 28 countries. His newsletters go to over 18,000 athletes, parents and coaches worldwide. 

He has been featured on NBC TV’s “Evening Magazine” show, numerous radio shows and the Seattle P.I. newspaper for his work with youth athletes.

For more great tips and to receive free “The 10 Commandments For A Great Sports Parent” ebook and Free training for youth athletes to learn how to “Perform Under Pressure”…
Go to http://www.mentaltoughnesstrainer.com/

Does the brain and nervous system let us live with stiff, tight muscles?

When we bear our weight more on one side or one leg, we tend to stand a bit shifted. Even if we mouse more on one side, we can develop a habit of using our muscles more on one side of ourself and before we know it, those side muscles tend to be a bit stiffer & less flexible.

Some of us tend to be more laterally flexed. You’ll see this when a neck slightly bends more to one side or the spine has what we call scoliosis. Either the spine is off center, the hip can be elevated, we feel short waisted or we’ve been told we have a leg length discrepancy.

To let go of our holding, habitual, protective patterns which are being programmed into the brain and nervous system can be accomplished with a little neurological rewiring which somatics exercises provide.

Change the brain and nervous system with the mind and body

Far more encompassing that just a body approach. With somatics we are dealing with both mind and body and the relationship of the sensory motor system.

Wherever we are compromised, we take alternate routes neurologically which may be less than optimal yet serve to move us around as well as we can. These states are temporary and can become more fixed. We forget the feel of what youthful movement was like. This state can last for years or repeat itself in cycles when we can not overcome a niggling injury or have something reoccur more often than we’d like.

If the pathways of the brain and nervous system are clear, the lines of communication facilitate better overall movement and comfort. Moving with less effort leads us to states of graceful movement we can achieve through our very own self-corrective living process using the brain and nervous system.

If we end up dragging ourself around or into ourself or stumble and have lost our youthful coordinated ways. We’re only moments away from restoring more graceful and balanced movements. The brain and nervous system are set up waiting for us to use it to more positive means.

As we age, certain concerns like balance or breaking a hip come up. An animal survives when it can move well. As the human animal we can survive without moving well yet our animals teach us the way back to getting on track through the act of pandiculation which we’ve known for some time can bring our muscles to rest.

A mindful pandiculation uses both the brain and nervous system to reset ourself. Somatics exercises are a system of differentiated pandiculations to enhance our mobility and restore natural flexibility. By paying attention and using our conscious awareness, we raise our game of moving well for life.

Brain and nervous system class

Through the conscious use of our sensory motor system, we can undo that which has been our undoing for some time.

By adding depth and dimensions to our movements opens our proprioceptive ability. We can sense our joint position and self-adjust to more positive feelings. The brain and nervous system are effectively used.

Whereas other approaches focus on the body, we can use what the brain and body are exhibiting to use that information towards self-mastery and understanding our inherent nature to move well using the brain and nervous system.

Our very own keen senses can lead us towards the comfort we seek and the very one we can maintain as we age.

Please join us for a very special online somatics exercise class where you can join us live or get the replay for future enjoyment of your brain and nervous system as well both the mind and body to recapture those childlike feelings of moving well for life.

How can we restore our body and balance?

Listen to how our pain and discomforts can be our greatest teacher and what to do to overcome what gets in our way.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Did you catch the somatics tips which will let us regain comfort in our body and balance?

Somatics tips for the body and balance

Here are some everyday useful tips when you engage in easy movements such as somatics exercises.

• Move with the least effort

This often goes against many people’s idea of how to exercise, yet when we live in discomfort this naturally makes more sense. Even if we are active, we can pay attention to our movements by noticing our sense of effort rather than pushing with our efforts. This slight difference makes a big difference.

• Breathe with your movement to restore your body and balance

Often times we’ll hold our breath unaware of how this is impacting our sense of effort or the actual effort taking place. By playing games with our breath we can feel the differences something so simple may make.

• We move as a system not as a muscle

The big muscle, the brain… sends messages to the muscles and receives back information in our sensory-motor feeback loop. When we become aware of how intimately involved our sense and level of effort is involved, we can improve our overall body and balance.

• Thoughts can affect our movement and impact our body and balance

As you do any exercise, think a thought while feeling what muscles contract in your body. Or play with an emotion and feel that as you move. Again, what are you muscles doing? To what degree can you sense muscles turning on or off?

• Comfort is king

Any small adjustment such as using a pad or pillow can alleviate any struggle we might find ourself when it comes to positioning ourself for a movement done on the ground. Even the slight adjustment of an angle may be the necessary thing to do so our body can be as comfortable at that moment we experience ourself in movement.

• An exercise can’t hurt us

If we do get in a pickle and we try to force our body, it will naturally react and pull itself back – and that might hurt. To learn how to navigate our internal terrain successfully is what is key so that “if” we bump into discomfort during any exercise or exertion, we can use that information to bring our body and balance back as quickly as possible. More often than not, our compensations and habits of movement get us to bump that pain switch on – even to the point of it becoming chronic. Ouch! In difficult times, use your ability to imagine the movement and it’s highly likely you won’t hurt yourself.

• Pain is our greatest teacher and gives us back our body and balance

In the practice of somatics exercises, we learn how to wield pain and discomfort to our advantage. Pain is merely a signal so that with a little practice, we begin to notch down the negative experience towards more comfort and pleasure.

Somatics Body and Balance Class

Would you like to feel how you can release the upper body and play with some lower body balancing?

You can join me online as we get ready for the Olympics in our Upper Body and Balance online class. You can join us live or get the replay.

You can do this as all you have to do is listen, follow along and feel how your body and balance will return comfortably with easy somatics exercises. The simple movement patterns we’ll play with may boggle the mind, but not the body.

We can restore our body and balance when we use the brain’s motor cortex and sensory-motor feedback loop in delightful, novel ways so please join us live or sign up to get the replay now.

Watch this video on bare foot running

Can you imagine what it is like to put your hands in glove liners and then wear gloves all day… and then use them?

This is what we are doing to our feet by wearing sock and shoes and not using them in the same way we use our hands and fingers. The ramifications of course move upwards into our knees, hips and spine and even our neck.

Aspire to bare foot running

Now to take our modern body which has become accustomed to socks and shoes and then radically make this shift will be like most things. We’ll have to learn to adapt or in this case, re-adapt to a more natural use of ourself.

Given that many people in modern day society live with any number of postural compensations, like an elevated hip, flexed or extended spine, etc. These type of compensations can continue even if we shift to bare foot running. We might still live with our discomforts yet we can change towards a comfortable use of ourself.

This is why shoe makers such as Vibram Five Fingers have a warning label on the time it may take to adapt to a different way of walking or running about.

Awhile back I made a video on somatics shoes. The first experience I had using a so-called bare foot running shoe. Well I wanted to do was jump up and down and relish in the delight in the lightness of the feet and the ability to sense the ground more acutely.

Bare foot running a proprioceptive experience

When we sense ourself with our proprioceptive ability. We can sense and feel the position of our joints with more awareness. This is what we’ve lost with our sock and shoe modern way.

By playing in the field of gravity, for instance with bare foot running, we can recover our lost healthy ways.

For some us though, we may need to de-compensate our postures and regain our natural ability of comfortable movement. Naturally, somatics exercises are here to remind us of how we can use our brain’s ability to reset muscle tension. We remember how to feel and adjust ourself back to comfortable levels so that if we decide bare foot running is something we want to try.

The transition becomes easy since we’re already playing with gravity and reacquainting ourself of our inherent proprioceptive abilities which have gone dormant.

Why not give bare foot running a try and feel if there is any difference in how you run or even walk.

Pandiculation is kids stuff

Most of us began to pandiculate in the 7th week of our life. If we’re a healthy adult, we continue this very natural act to reset our muscles and movement system. This gives us comfortable movement.

If not, we can remind our nervous system of its former ability and bring it back to consciousness. This ability reminds us of our feelings of well-being.

The kids stuff we used to do fortunately has been systematized as somatics exercises which are gentle, easy reminders to self-adjust our muscles back to the comfort zone.

Kids stuff reboots our movement software

The systematic somatics exercises allows us to explore our internal terrain in novel ways which fosters the development of our brain’s motor cortex as well as re-eliciting our capacity in our sensory cortex to sense ourself at finer levels.

For instance, the simple act of breathing can be opened up merely by pandiculating ourself to improved health.

This type of kids stuff is relevant at all ages… and this type of kids stuff reboots our movement software towards better breathing and more comfort in our movement system.

Stiffness or stiff movements are learned over a lifetime and are replicated as a habit. Can we dissolve what seems like chronic or acute stiffness… you betcha we can. Remind ourself of the former kids stuff we used to do and we can feel the stiffness let go in our back, shoulders, and neck for example.

A healthy vertebrate animal moves with ease, grace, suppleness and in harmony since its movement system is coordinated and not bound up, down, sideways or held twisted.

Can we free ourself back to more harmonious states? Could some simple easy kids stuff be the ticket?

Paying attention to our internal state while we are moving allows us to recalibrate. Our body knows the way back to reset ourself to comfortable states. It’s simply a matter of kids stuff when you get right down to it.

In our earlier kids stuff moments we were highly engaged in a learning matter. Now, we can rekindle this relationship of movement, let go of it artfully, then we remember how we re-navigate our internal terrain towards ease in moving around.

Sometimes we can experience a flash from the past, we can bump into past difficulties and yet smooth things out. In any case, we are re-establishing a finer way to move and self-adjust our entire movement system.

The quality of a movement rather than the strength or force of a movement is what sets us free. The precision in which we can be aware of our internal arrangements is a path to greater ease and freeing up our muscles to regain mobility while restoring natural flexibility.

When we reacquaint ourself with the method or process of natural reorganization, we might keep doing this kids stuff for the rest of our comfortable life.

Kids Stuff Class for Adults

When we’re injured it might feel as if we’re beginning from scratch to move around. All the bracing, holding on and tensing may seem normal yet when we let go of our holding patterns more quickly, we reboot as we did as children.

You can join me for an online kids stuff somatics exercise class. All you have to do is listen and follow along to remind yourself of how easy, simple movements can unlock tight, stiff, holding patterns. The brain will take care of it in seconds.

You’ll get to free up the back, shoulders, neck and hips in our one hour+ kids stuff class where you can join us live or get the replay.

Can you release physical trauma?

What if we could use what nature has given us to release the protective holding of a physical trauma more quickly and confidently.

Releasing held trauma is something I know about since I realized I had been holding onto an incident which occurred while I was a young boy. Some 30 years of holding a pattern unconsciously kept me at bay – and I didn’t even know it. Until one day, I did a very specific maneuver and I was reminded of the event that I had long since forgotten yet recalled more from a conceptual level.

So here I was reliving it and at the same time “finally” letting go of it. The trauma which was held, let go. Sometimes we hold onto things more than necessary. Yikes.

Compensations such as legs which are internally rotated can be a bear to live with, though in time we can get used to moving ourself around even if we’re hung up a bit, too stiff or get used to living with too much tension.

Heck we might have even created such a held trauma pattern by having read mystery or suspense books for too long with our knees knocking. Maybe those scary mystery books led us into another type of mystery such as scoliosis, which we can’t resolve.

Scoliosis and Trauma

Many people who have been diagnosed with scoliosis or suspect they have, often compensate with a fairly typical trauma response. While each of us displays this uniquely with certain vertebrate being pulled in one direction, another or in multiple distortions away from a neutral posture.

We can safely release held trauma tension patterns. After all, it has been happening to us on an ongoing basis. Our bones are not fixed as some would have you believe. If that were true, how come your still walking? Well maybe you’re still expertly limping around.

Held trauma patterns can cause us to limp too long so we favor another body part and compensate that around the trauma. We can get very good at navigating around, get used to it… until the pains of a lifetime keep knocking on the door again and again.

Trauma Release Class

Each week I teach people how the brain can let go of tension patterns, even if we’ve lived unconsciously with them like many of us have.

This week I’m offering an online class on a trauma release for the legs & hips which are more internally rotated. You can see that by looking at knees which roll inwards or a hip which is higher than the other one… or when we feel short waisted these types of compensations can let go when our brain’s motor cortex releases chemicals of relaxation so we regain both function and are more relaxed to move comfortably about.

You can get the class live or purchase a replay and enjoy it many times over. All you have to do is listen and follow along. No worries, you’ll be able to talk with me either live or in the replay portal where I’ll help you out.

Please don’t hold onto that physical trauma anymore, we can simply let it go and your brain is just sitting there waiting to make it happen now.

When our back is a little out of whack, one of the keys to restoring comfortable movement lies in the simple differentiation of a very simple movement pattern.

Listen and follow along to this simple movement.

Somatics exercises are generally done in such a lazy, easy manner and surprisingly the rewards are better mobility, a return to natural flexibility and we feel renewed and more comfortable.

Simple differentiation to wake up both the brain and body

An easy movement such as the one in the audio recording is enough of a simple differentiation to wake-up the brain’s cerebrospinal fluid as we arise in the morning.

Healthy vertebrate animals wake-up their body and brain with simple movements which serves as their warm-up. Before we begin to exercise, we can do an easy simple differentiation or number of them varying the same theme, then we’re good to go like Fido.

If you’re in the unfortunate position of having to sit all day long for instance in the car, working and then sitting down to eat (unless of course you dare to stand up and eat for a change). No matter if you exercise, that may not be enough to change the known ill counter effects of sitting for too long.

Standing up is a simple differentiation which can help

You may have to plan on standing up every 20 minutes or so. You see, when you sit for too long, those muscles below the belt go to sleep and begin to be trained to be useless. No wonder we don’t walk as well or as much as we need since we’re basically training ourself to have muscles which no longer respond in a healthy manner.

Good news… just get up and stand, stand on one leg or walk around for a minute or so. Then you can sit back down. Even as I type a blog post such as this, I too am mindful of how sitting undermines us. This is why I often stand or kneel or sit in a different position, then change it and vary it afterwards.

If you’re gonna keep sitting, then at least fidget around or be mindful of how you can shift your spine around. All that tension we keep taking on, can be remedied with simple mindful movements to disperse, renew and refresh us.

By refreshing the spine, we can continually renew our muscles throughout the day, especially when they get amped up with too much tension. At the same time, we improve the function of the brain by taking a mind-body break or giving ourself a full-brainer of movement done with awareness.

A class on simple differentiation

After all life is movement and movement becomes easier when we can do a simple differentiation with the central part of ourself, our spine.

Renewing a simple way to move our spine, refreshes our movement system from the inside out. Practicing this periodically throughout the course of the day will let us rest easier at night so we can get a good night’s sleep and not wake up stiff or aching.

Please join me this week for a simple differentiation class which can make all the difference to having a comfortable spine for life. Refresh that spine so it can be renewed and you’ll feel regenerated. All it takes is a simple differentiation.

Do you have sensitive feet, the ones which don’t like to walk over stones or rocks. Ouch! I remember those days as a kid. Now past the half-century mark, I relish how supple good foot work feels.

Foot Work for All Ages

As children we did some very interesting foot work. We loved to pull on our toes. Little did we know we were in a very receptive state of learning and coordinating the little piggies so we could get to a market with our own feet.

These days many of us simply drive to the market and keep our poor painful feet wedged in shoes all day long. Can’t imagine how life would be if we were all to wear glove liners and mittens all day. What would happen to the function of our hands if we did the same?

What are we doing to our feet? That fleet foot work we used to have is a long distance memory as we have aged and bottled up those poor lowly feet.

Now we’re left with mangled toes, foot pain, orthotics, and the search for the right kind of shoe. While shoes have certainly advanced, did our foot work remain in the dust.

Do we really need an orthotic? Maybe we could do some foot work and remember to move well once again.

Foot Work, Handiwork is it the same?

Most likely you can still fold your hands. So try this. Lie on your back, and take your hands behind your head and interlace your fingers. Then once you’ve settled in, switch the position of your fingers and hold your hands the other way.

For some of you, that’ll be no problem and then for some us that could feel strange, awkward as if someone else is holding our hands.

Our habits which we groove in over time are necessary. We may forget small differences help us use our self a little bit differently so we don’t wear our self out as fast. Slight adjustments and little differences lets the brain thrive. It thrives on subtle differences to renew us.

As we readjust to a newness, we change both our body and brain. Now try doing the same with your toes. Yes, try and fold those toes together. Whadya mean you can’t reach down there anymore?

Maybe this is where some of you are now at. Others of you really had to work it to even get the toes to wedge together.

Awhile back I made a video on some foot work. Try this move if you haven’t given it a try. For those of you who did, did you keep working it so this type of foot work is now improved and easy.

That type of footwork can come in handy to change the function of the feet and even the knees so you can walk more comfortably.

Another Foot Work Class

Many times I’ve taught foot work movements to soccer players which had them laughing about how what appears simple isn’t as easy as thought. Though with a little practice, our movement system remembers to move and improve.

We can rekindle the feelings of childlike movement which felt good and free since we have a sensory-motor feedback loop which allows us to reset and readjust tension levels.

We can get back in this loop so our balance improves, our feet feel lighter and our knees can lose their aches simply through subtle readjustments to move us to higher levels of coordination and integration so we manage those formerly painful stones and rocks.

You can join me for an hour’s worth of foot work online, by phone, or even get the replay this Friday where you’ll learn to free up the feet, lower legs and knees so you can dance and move easily again.

In the meantime, just go ahead and pull those toes so your foot work doesn’t get left behind.

The rotator cuff area allows us to both internally and externally rotate our shoulders while also letting us move the shoulder away, out and up to the side.

A Different Set of Exercises for Rotator Cuff

Normally both stretching and strengthening exercises are recommended by doctors, and orthopedists. Physical therapists will have you follow this protocol.

They may want you stretch after doing a reach up the wall or have you strengthen in between the shoulders. While the idea is good, we can go about it in a more intelligent fashion and manner so that the muscles lose their restriction and regain their function.

Instead of the heresy of stretching, we can pandiculate the tight, restrictive areas so those areas regain both both function and remain limber.

Somatics exercises for rotator cuff, on the other hand, use the process of pandiculation to regain mobility and give us back our function so that we can comfortably move the shoulder area back and forth and up and out to the side in this case.

A Diversity of Exercises for Rotator Cuff

With a number of stretches and strengthening exercises for rotator cuff, you learn to hold things for a period of time or do numbers of repetitions.

With somatics, we target the brain’s motor cortex. It can reset the muscles so they “remember” their function. This higher level of intelligence doesn’t require the physical strain that most people endure, instead we use our awareness of the quality of the movement. We can sense the connections we use when we move our shoulders about. This gives us a better range.

Exercises target muscles where intelligent movement takes care of the movement system which includes more muscles since we are of one piece. One integrated movement system, rather than the parts, which allows for greater cohesion and more effortless movement in general.

This gentler yet highly intelligent approach, gives us the ability to create more options to move despite the very ones we’ve guarded against or haven’t done on account of the binds holding things together.

Exercises for Rotator Cuff Class

A diversity of movement lets the brain thrive too. By going cortical, the brain creates more cells, it releases chemicals of relaxation, and we restore and recover naturally rather than forcing, straining or pushing our way through it.

“Being” with our movement system is another tack or way to move more comfortably about. To be free and regain our strength is simple.

You can join us in this week’s somatics class: Diversify Your Movement Portfolio – Exercises for Rotator Cuff. You may join us either online, by phone or get the replay.

In the little over an hour class, you’ll learn a number of different ways and movement patterns to experience how simple somatics is and yet how much power you can have.

The diversity found in the exercises for rotator cuff class will give you plenty of intelligent ammo to keep the shoulders and more, happy for life.