Heart disease being the first, followed by cancer.

Watch what Dr. Aseem Malhotra from the UK has to say about his and his father’s experience with the Covid vaccine. Where at one point he didn’t know any who was vaccine injured.  Nor could he conceive of any harm before the Pandemic.

He asserts that early on, some doctors were seeing people getting Covid after they got the vaccine.

And that people were already taking about side effects and getting injured.

What else is covered:

• The corporate capture of public health and their motive.  And the result of that.

• The exaggerated benefit of prescription medicine.

• The manipulation of the drug industry

• The increase of inflammatory markers

• What the WHO knew about side effects

• What the liability protection means for Big Pharma

• What 80% of the Covid hospitalizations had in common.  And which could have been corrected in weeks.

• Why the public lack of trust in doctors

• What Ozempic does

• What causes heart disease

• The problems of modern medicine.

• What you need to know about statins

• Why informed consent needs to change

• Why and how memory can return

• Bed ridden for years, what you need to know

• The myth of cholesterol

• The best way to manage heart disease

How to make America healthier

Then he goes on about – How we can make the American public healthier.  Where he describes this as the a state of complete mental, physical and social well being.  Not just the absence of disease or infirmity.

How do we get to the best version of ourselves?

You may be surprised what he says about diet.

And where anyone can start to be one’s best self.

Plus, he goes on to say what I’ve been saying to my own mother for decades.

Stop counting calories.  That’s not what is important.

And he gets down to my favorite.

Where I have been saying the following for a quarter of century.  Glad to hear a doctor saying movement trumps exercise.

Ok, he does go on about stretching which you all know.  That’s not necessary since no vertebrate animal on the planet does it.  So I’ll have to get with the doc and coach him up.

Mainly, find /physical activity that you enjoy.  And do that.

And above all – lifestyle choices are key.

+ he goes on that chronic stress is a huge issue.  And his 20 second quick help fix.

https://twitter.com/DrAseemMalhotra

https://www.metabolicreset.co/

We do so with conscious, easy, gentle movements.

For example, if we tend to find our shoulders hunched forwards.

Or we’ve noticed or feel our chest is sinking down or into ourselves.  Where our back has begun to round some.

Say from too much sitting at staring at a screen.

Even to the point of our head repeatedly positioned forwards. Where gravity wins the day.  We keep sinking into ourselves.

Which isn’t a bad thing after work or heavy physical activity.

But if our posture doesn’t straighten up in an easy manner.  

Where we’re still groaning and moaning (when we get up out of the chair).  That can be changed when we dive into our own world of somatics.

When our posture is in good standing.

We do not have to try to stand tall.  There is equal and comfortable tension holding us up.

Where we tend to both vertically and horizontally stand in alignment.

Regain Length in the Spine

So here’s a simple move to regain some length in the spine.  And maintain the ability to turn or twist our spine around.

The first check or marker in the following movement is to feel where you can comfortably move to.

It does not matter if it is only an inch or less.  The main thing is to feel.  To know where your comfortable range of motion is.

When we somatically go about this.  We are NOT striving, pushing or going for range of motion.  If we do.  That can have the potential of turning on the ‘stretch reflex’.

Where our muscles can get reset back to more tightness or stiffness.  And usually nobody wants that.

Set Up

You’ll need some space on a floor.  Where you can place your back on it.  

Use whatever prop, mat, towel, etc.  To help be as comfortable as possible.

Starting Position

Lie on your back.  Knees bent.  Feet flat.

You’ll extend both arms out in front of you to form a steeple.

The idea here is too keep the shape in a comfortable manner.  So that you are not holding your arms stiffly straight.  A loose, easy, relaxed straight pair of arms.  With the palms comfortably together.

Movement Part 1

When you begin.  You are checking or exploring where your easy comfortable range of motion is.

Move both straight arms to one side.  As if both arms could make  it to the floor.

Movement Part 2 – The Key

Slowly move back to where you started.  Feel how your body adjusts itself on the way back.

Movement Part 3 – Pause or Rest

Pretty self explanatory.  Main thing is to rest in the starting position.  That way the movement is turned off while you rest with your arms out in front of you.

Repeat the Movement

Explore again where your comfortable range of motion is.  If you can move a little further towards the floor.  Without any strain or big effort.  Then by all means allow the movement to be easy.

If either arm bends.  Then only go as far as to keep both arms loosely straight.

You don’t have to move this far.  Unless it is super easy.

Remember. Stay well within your personal comfort zone.

When you reverse course.  Slowly move and feel how your body adjusts.  

Then rest.

Now you can rinse and repeat.  Yet be aware of what and where you are feeling.  Or experiencing sense perceptions as they arise.

After you do that say four or five more times.  Let the arms rest back on the floor.

Resting/Sensing Phase

In this resting phase.  Notice whatever you feel as your are lying down.

Questions

Were you able to keep your palms together? If they slipped apart. That is a marker for your comfortable range of motion at this time.

Were you able to keep the arms straight? If they started to bend. That is a marker for your comfortable range of motion at this time.

Were you able to move a little further?  By not trying to force or push the range of motion.

Were you able to keep your knees upright pointing towards the ceiling?  I know I didn’t mention it because I first wanted you to get a sense of the movement first.

So you can either try the move again.  Or wait until you move towards the other side.

By keeping the knees pointing up towards the ceiling. Again, you are feeling your present comfortable range of motion.

Change Sides

Now that you have the idea of the movement.  Begin again with a small, easy, explorative movement.

Then as you begin to move a few more times.

Questions

Does this side feel the same or a little different than the other side?

Can you rotate your upper body to the side while keeping the knees in the middle?

And were you breathing or holding your breath?

Breathing

If you weren’t paying attention to your breath.  You can do the movement exhaling as you turn to the side.  Then inhaling as you return.

Questions

What do feel or experience as you breath in that manner?

As you were moving and returning.   Did you feel or notice how your feet were making contact with the ground?

As you felt the shift onto your shoulder.  What did you feel or sense with your opposite side foot.  Or both feet?

Who Has the Answer

See.  The only one who truly knows the answer to these questions.  Is You!

Final Range of Motion Check

And oh by the way.  Did you feel your back get longer?  Or have the felt sense your spine grew a little?

This type of internal sensory information.  Is a big part of your ability to be both interoceptively and proprioceptively be aware.  Or somatically aware for short.

This is why we somatically dive back into ourselves.  

We do gentle movements to feel the answers to such internal questions.  Or observations by checking in.

Again, it’s NOT about the range of motion. It’s about the quality of your movement where sensations/feelings matter most.

Feel the Change or Difference

With practice over the course of the next few days.  You may begin to feel/sense another level (somatic) awareness.  And have an ability for easier and greater range of motion (without pushing or striving).

Plus, if you are driving.  You may begin to sense you can turn around in the seat a little more.

Conscious, simple movement explorations done with specificity. Unlocks holding tension levels.  Stiffness leaves. We free ourselves from within.

How to Maintain Comfortable Movement

Maintaining easy, comfortable movement happens one way.  Ya gotta consciously move. Preferably in the slow ‘cortical zone’ of the brain.

That way the brain can reset length.

So check in.  Rinse and repeat to your heart’s delight.

Then when you add in other differentiated movement patterns. 

This particular movement can feel or be sensed in a different way.  Or at a different level. Where you’ll have a deeper appreciation for how your body can more easily move.

Easy, comfortable movement happens when you check-in. And remind yourself from the inside out.

Move Well!

Most of us walk in our familiar way. So you can check your ability with the following 4 ways.

But first. Walk forwards in your normal manner.

Take a moment to feel what walking feels like to you. I know that may sound silly since most of us do it on autopilot.

So just get a good feel for you how you do you. Or how you normally walk about.

Now Try This

Walk forwards and let your hips roll in a forwards circle as you walk.

Are you able to comfortably circle both of your hips as you walk?

Does this feel like your normal walking pattern or way? Or does it feel a little different?

Is one or both sides of your hips a little wonky?

Next

Reverse course.

First. Walk backwards in your normal manner.

This may be tricky for some of you. Why? You may not have had to walk backwards for any reason in some time.

So just tune into how your body coordinates (or doesn’t) as you walk backwards.

Try This

Walk backwards and allow the hips to roll in a backwards circle.

Is it easy to coordinate walking backwards this way?

Some of you might have had to really think it over. If so. That’s a good thing.

See, when we have to slow movement down. That gives us an opportunity to feel our way with it.

Next

Walk forwards while circling the hip backwards.

Didja have to stop and think about that for a moment?

Were your arms swinging in a different manner than when you normally walk?

Last Walking Move

Walk backwards while at the same time rolling the hip forwards.

Did that give you a giggle in coordinating all that?

These are examples of differentiated movement patterns. See, when we do or move differently than normal. Our brain appreciates the difference since it thrives on novelty.

Plus. You never know when we get a hitch in our giddy up. That having an other option can help ease our walk.

Level Up

Play with the hip circles as you walk up and down a hill. And even give it a go when on the stairs.

Yes, even walk backwards down and up the stairs since I’ll bet. Most people haven’t done that in some time.

But if you do. Your brain and body will appreciate moving with a little difference.

All the little differences and physical challenges can add up to better mobility. So that you maintain effective, easy movement.

And if any or all that is too difficult. Or you love learning or expanding what your body is truly capable of. That’s why we have Somatics Exercisese.

So that movement in general feels easy and confident to do at any age.

Everyone gets to lie down on their back at some point.  Unless of course. An injury or special circumstance prevents that person in that moment.

How we go about arranging ourself on the floor can tell a trained eye possibilities of how we hold our muscles.  Or how we compensate.

That’s what we as practitioners look at (and make notes).  This helps us understand how or what the body is doing in the absence of gravity.

See, we may do something else while standing (in the field of gravity).

This way we get to see our clients standing on the ground, if you will.  Without all the gravity and anti-gravity muscles which come into play as we stand.  

Thus, there is less resistance. And usually less (neuromuscular) work to lie down straight rather stand up straight.

Lower Body

So for instance, some people will choose to lie with their legs straight.

Others will lie down with their knees bent.

If we have some type of lower back discomfort where our hips or pelvis tilt forwards. Or we have a slight forwards lean…

We’ll tend to lie on our back with knees bent since that rotates the hips backwards.

And generally that will be more comfortable than having the legs extended.

Plus, you might already have figured out to lie on your back with the knees bent in this manner to get some relief.

This passive position can help when it is needed.

Of course, some will have one leg extended. And the other leg bent on account of all of us lying in a preferred manner of comfort or habit.

Upper Body – What Many People Do

Here’s what I generally see for the upper body.

Hands resting on the belly. Or the palms are facing into the surface.

In both cases.  The palms are facing backwards relative to our body position.

Nothing wrong with either position but… if these types of positioning are a habit.  

Then it could be a sign we are compensating or have become used to the habit of having our palms facing backwards.

See when we stand.  We don’t normally stand with our palms facing forwards…

Such as this anatomical chart.  Where you see the palms facing forwards.

That is done so we can see certain muscles.

Compensation/Habit

Go into any grocery store.  See people standing in line.  And no doubt, you’ll see plenty of people with their palms facing backwards as they stand.

Or someone who is exhausted from the work they have been doing.

That’s a compensation.  Or habit of using our lower arms in certain ways such as typing on a keyboard.

If you are typing, then your palms are facing down to the surface. In that moment, we are turning our palms backwards from their neutral position.

But it’s the way to type.  Until someone makes an upside down keyboard ; ).  Then we would be type with palms facing forwards (anatomically).  Even though they’ll appear upwards to the eye.

So anything such as driving a car while holding the hands on top of the steering wheel.  Rather than from the bottom or along both sides.  Is once again having the palms face backwards.

So you can see that the things we do in life. Can cause us to develop a (physical) habit which when seen on the surface appears normal.

This habit can become a go-to (lower) brain program so we go on autopilot.  Where we may continue to hold the wheel the same way day in day out.

So when I ask people to lie down on their backs.  This begins to let me know what habits or compensations present themselves.

Let’s say you’re someone who did that, i.e. having the palms face backwards.  So, I’ll guide people to turn their palms up towards the ceiling (palm up).  Or anatomically speaking, forwards.

And many times I’ll see how people pinch in their arms towards their sides. (Another potential compensation).

This type of compensation happens when people are so used to having the palms face backwards.  That when they open up or move the palms forwards. 

They’ll keep the arms to the sides on account of the shoulder having tension.  Or being held forwards.

So I’ll coach people to let the arms move a little further away from their sides. Where they naturally feel the palms facing up towards the ceiling.

For some people.  This can initially feel odd on account of the compensation.

Most people will say this feels more comfortable.

Unless of course, raising the arms up that high. Causes discomfort due to other compensations or (past) injury.

So you can fiddle with where the palm naturally faces the ceiling by moving it in towards the arms or away.

When you find a comfortable resting place.  There you go.

Neutral

The neutral position happens when the palms face each other.

Or when both palms face one’s thigh. That’s the midway point between the palm facing backwards and forwards.

The Majority

So when I observe standing postures with my clients.  Most no longer have their palms facing each other.  The majority face backwards.  

Everyone once in awhile someone’s palms faces forwards.

Or I’ll see one palm forwards, the other side more or less in neutral.  Or any number of combinations where both palms do not entirely face in the same direction.

So a lot of this depends upon. How much arm/shoulder internal rotation physical activities we are doing.   And how our hips and spine are positioned.

Or injuries (past or present) we are dealing with.

Thus, it is either habit or compensation or both.

Quick Move

Internal Lower Arm Rotation – 1

While lying on your back, have the palms already facing into the surface.  Then move them further into the surface by pressing them lightly into the floor.

Where you do feel the tension building?

If you don’t feel any tension.  Then give it a little oomph to feel as well as you can where tension happens.

So for instance, did you feel tension in the chest?  

If you didn’t.  Place the other hand on the chest of the arm that is pressing into the surface.

Did you feel or notice any tension happening in the belly?

Again, you can use the other hand while pressing into the floor to see/feel if the belly tenses a little. 

Then from the position of the palms into the surface. Allow the palms to roll away from the floor so they end up facing the ceiling.

For some people, this will feel good.  This is where you may feel the chest opening on account of the external rotation.

For others this can feel odd. Especially if we’ve accustomed ourselves to the palms facing backwards.

Internal Arm Rotation – 2

So now place both hands on the belly.  That way the palms are facing backwards (relative to your position).

See, when this is done.  The shoulders tend to hunch slightly forwards.

Now go ahead and move the arms so the palms face up towards the ceiling.  Now the shoulders generally fall back towards the surface.

Normally this will feel good.

If it doesn’t.  Then check to see or feel if the arms are too close to your sides.

The Sweet Spot

You can move them away or near yours sides to feel when tension happens.  And when it gives so you can find the sweet spot.

Then move the lower arms in a way where both palms comfortably face each other.  Now you’re in the neutral position.

If it feels a little strange or weird.  Welcome back to neutral : ).

Subtle clues, feelings and sensations help provide us the ability to self-adjust.  Or become familiar with holding (tension) patterns which can change for the good.

That way we don’t wear out the muscles through compensations or habit.  They are comfortable and ready to Do Life Comfortably.

Go deep into the 17 layers of muscles.  And 17 layers of fascia.  Learn and Feel from the Inside Out.

Arm out away from your sides at shoulder height or lower.

Bend the arm so the palm faces towards the feet.

Shoulder Move 1

Then bring one arm forwards towards the floor.

As if the wrist can touch the floor.

Caution: If discomfort or pain turns up. Then do not move beyond that point. It’s better if you stay under any troubling signal.

Then s-l-o-w-l-y bring it back to where you started.

If you notice or feel any SMA (sensory-motor amnesia). That’s generally a good thing. Since that is what you can use to help reset tension levels back to comfort.

Do that a few times.

Next is to reverse course to check how your shoulder moves and feels in the opposite direction.

Shoulder Move 2

Move the arm back as if the wrist (or back of the hand) can touch the floor.

Remember to stay well within your comfort zone.

Slowly release.

Rinse and repeat a few times.

These type of movements have been considered or are used as rotator cuff exercises.

Here are some of the muscles involved with the Rotator Cuff.

But… We go a little deeper with our Somatics approach of experiencing the body from within.

Checking In at a Deeper Level

As you moved the arm forwards.

Could you feel how the shoulder moved forwards to get the wrist towards the floor (or even touch it)?

Could you feel how a part of the chest contracted to help move the shoulders forwards?

As you s-l-o-w-l-y let go.

Could you feel how the shoulder moved (or chest let go) and felt as you slowly released it back? Was it smooth or a little ratchety?

Did you notice or feel how the collar bone moved? If you didn’t. Place your other hand on the collar bone on the same side of the bent arm.

Then move the arm and feel what happens underneath your fingers. Can you feel the collar bone moving?

And… Could you feel or notice how the belly was involved as you brought the arm forwards?

Did you feel or notice the back moving backwards towards the floor?

Did you feel your head move? Or was it stuck to the surface?

And… did you feel any weight shift in your feet?

See. This is how we go a little deeper in sensing what connections are possible to feel.

Or notice as we do a simple (or hard for some) movement.

The more you know in how or what you feel as you do small movements.
This opens the gate for greater comfort when we go big.

How you are internally connected. Opens the door that you can be aware of.

And use to your advantage to move comfortably for life.

The idea is to keep the arms straight the entire time.

If the arms bend at any time, then that is as far as you need to go. Got it!

And… keep the knees in the middle so they don’t drift to either side. 

Rotation Check Move

Take both arms to the side of your choice. Remember to keep both arms straight. Then slowly move back to where you started. Rest.

Then take both arms to the other side. Slowly come back to where you started. Rest.

Then rinse and repeat a few times alternating side to side with a rest in the middle.

If you are comfortable, then you may be able to touch the floor. But that is not the point.

Doing

So now that you know the doing part.

Q: Were you able to move as far on each side?

Q: Or did you have the same range of motion or a little different with each side?

Q: Were you able to keep your hands together or did the arms bend at a certain point?

Q: Were you able to comfortably get one arm (or both sides) to the floor?

Q: Did your head move?

Q: Were you breathing or holding your breath?

Feeling

What were you noticing in the feeling part?

Q: Did it feel easy or did you feel a lot of effort or strain?

Q: Did it feel easier on one side more than the other?

Q: Did you feel your head move or was it glued in the middle? How did your neck feel as you were moving from side to side?

Q: If you were able to get your arm on the floor. Was that easy or did you “try” to do it?

See, when people first try this. Many are tuned into the doing part and focus just on that.

How do I know? People will tell me that they can’t really feel or tune in as well. Or haven’t done so for awhile.

That is OK and normal even if you haven’t been delving into your proprioceptive sense.

Doing and Feeling

If you focus both on doing and feeling, then you can engage the motor-sensory (doing-feeling) loop.

With practice. You discover how to use this loop or switch to your advantage. 

Thus, the focus is on doing and feeling rather than just range of motion or the ability to do a movement.

Imagine This

You could also have elected to imagine the entire movement as a process of visualization. And the brain and feedback loops/switches awaken!

Either way, you trigger the brain and body to possibilities.

Moving (with awareness) in the slow cortical zone allows us to reset so that we can in fact move with a confident effortless ease… and continue to surprise ourselves even as we age.

Check out this class where you’ll get to do this movement and more.

The following is a protocol from my N.D. (Naturopathic Doctor) to help us during this time.

Some of this can be gotten at your local organic grocery store, drug store, or Amazon. Or check with a Naturopath or Homeopath near you.

Feel free to contact your health care provider if you have any questions.

The list below will give you options.

1. Umkca, Mycoshield, or Immune Support 1/2x per day.

I always have a bottle of Umcka in the cupboard. Since this helps me quickly take care of the first tickle I feel in my throat. Or when I feel a cold or flu like symptom beginning.

The earlier you take it, the better. Then I always take a bottle when traveling cause ya’ never know.

But this is one of those items you can get on Amazon or even at a grocery store like Sprouts, Natural Grocers, Whole Foods, etc.

2. EBV or Flu Nosode 1/2x per day.

3. Cat’s Claw or Biotic Extra (Biotin) 1/2x per day

4. Vitamin C 2000-6000 mg per day or Lypo Spheric Vitamin C 1/2x per day.

5. Multithymus or Allibiotic 1/2x per day.

6. Vitamin D3 10,000 iu.

7 Quercetin – 1/day

8. Zinc – 30 mg per day.

9. Updated September 2021 – Micro Defense w/Oregano

The Normal Stuff We’ve Heard

– Wash hands many times throughout the day

– Wear mask if you travel

– Avoid touching face

– Hydrate

– Reduce (processed) sugar intake (Why? Viruses love sugar)

– Get enough sleep

– Limit distance to other people indoors

– Move (we are creatures of movement). If it hurts or we feel stiff. That can be resolved.

From the CDC

And from the CDC (Center for Disease Control).

Eat Well

Eating well is my favorite way to stay healthy.

A year into the pandemic. Where is the info (from all the governments and medical system) on how we can eat well to shore up our immune system?

Here is some info on the nutrition-covid connection from the good folks at the Food Revolution Network.

And finally. Are you in better shape since all of this began?

The power is in your hands, or fork, or chopsticks.

Revision – January 2022

Take a look at the list below.

So you can see that the list from above is similar to the one at the top of the page. Albeit, my N.D. added other supplements.

But I would encourage you to take a look at the links in their article to dig a little deeper.

1 – Compensations

For example, our shoulders can round forwards.

2 – Stress or Tension

Doing vs. Feeling

R.O.M. vs Q.O.M

8 Somatics Tips for Balance

1. Move with the least effort

2. Breathe with your movement

3. Move as a system not as a muscle

The big muscle–the brain–sends messages to the muscles. Then the muscles sends back a message to the brain. This feedback loop is full of information to be aware of and use.

4. Thoughts can affect movement and impact our body and balance

Sit and think.

5.  Comfort is king

6.  An exercise can’t hurt us

So to repeat, it’s both what you do and how you heed the quality of of the feeling of what you do.

7.  Imagination is the least effort

Imagine This 

Do this slowly using your imagination.

8. Pain is our greatest teacher and gives us back our body and balance

Somatics Body and Balance Movements

* 2017 ACP (American College of Physicians) Guidelines to Relieve Pain

Since no two people have the same structure, let alone movement patterns, history of injuries, etc.  We find ourselves subject to the very movement habits we’ve learned and continue to do.

Without changing those patterns, the brain atrophies where we can unknowingly run ourself into the ground.

While some people do some form of exercise.  Running or lifting more, doesn’t do anything to increase the intelligence of your movement.

Challenging the diversity in your movement changes the nature of how well you can articulate your joints or move your spine.

The form of movement we use is called Somatics Exercises.  Which is a bit of a misnomer.

Since your brain thrives on novelty.  We approach this (somatics) system of movement with differentiation or diversification of your movement portfolio.

If you think of movement as a system.  The brain needs different stimulus until it finally integrates different movement into a more cohesive movement syste.

Good new is that can be changed, updated and improved at any age.  That is what neural plasticity is about.

Somatics (exercises) moves into the specificity of your motor-sensory system so that you’re able to re-program your capacity and potential to move as effectively as you can.

When we were young.  We played with creating and planning movement.  We probed, we tried, we failed.  We succeeded. Then this knowledge base get stored as learned patterns.  That way we no longer have to think about it.  We just move.

Think About This

But If we stop playing in this natural realm of evolving our movement patterns, are we bringing the entropy and decline within ourselves at a greater rate?

As children, no one had to tell us to move.

As adults, we are a nation of overweight, couch potatoes ever limiting our movements to a desk, office, room, automobile, and possibly sitting in front of a television set/phone/tablet for hours at a time.

Our brain is getting wasted in terms of its capacity to grow via movement and the conscious use of the motor-sensory system. We are in a way.  Putting the brakes on our own evolutionary process in terms of the ability of our joints, the movement of our muscles, and the usefulness of our bones.

How to improve our movement portfolio

You can’t get there by sitting there, nor can you improve by repeating the same movement/exercise patterns over and over.

OK, you could visualize movements or do them with incredibly subtlety in the manner of many Somatic traditions which focuses on sensory awareness and different ways to move.

When you have to closely pay attention to your movements with a conscious awareness, then you are engaging in the process of voluntary movement which is rather complex.

Look at how these muscles are grouped as a system.

This system and with its 17 layers need to be used to remain functional.  And obviously or not so.  This system is refreshed through a natural resetting process where tension can easily be relieved.  Thus, giving the movement system a refresh or cortical update.

With injuries (small and large) or the same posturing day in and day out.  This can continue to further our decline and decreases the value of vital functional movement.

Of course, we can keep moving the way we always have.  Or you can shift and pay attention to your movements with a keener awareness.  This can affords us a glimpse into the many different ways we can manipulate ourself.

But who is really going to spend time doing this?

If you don’t, your brain will just check out and leave the possibilities in the dust bin leading to an eroding value in your movement portfolio.

Creating, improving and inciting new neural pathways leads your brain towards health, vibrancy and it’s need to continue to learn.

Not only are creatures of movement.  We are creatures of learning.

You’ve got 600 muscles which require use or some attention among the various levels even if it means simply giving attention to your hamstrings and how they relate to the various layers of your muscles and movement system.

Can this be done on your own?

Yes!  When you’re paying attention as you once did as a child by sensing/feeling movement at a subtle level.  That is what led us to the delightful feeling of comfort and ease.

It’s a shame and a sham that many adults can no longer feel truly comfortable for any length of time.

I often hear of the aches and complaints of why I can’t do this or that.  Or that getting older means pain and stiffness.  The answer is simple.   Wakeup the brain’s sensory-motor cortex.  Engage our mind and body together so we are aware of this cortical relationship which can improve our sensation and feelings of well-being.

So if you go back to the well of where things began, that is on the floor and go back to the natural process of restoration.  Your brain can re-wire, re-adapt itself, and you can continue your evolutionary process of well-being even if things have gone a little south over time.

Who knows?  You may even increase the value of your movement portfolio so you won’t remain sedentary, desk-bound, home bound, injury ridden and add to decay.

Evolve, Evolve, Evolve Otherwise Decay at Your Own Peril

You can utilize the brain in a conscious, differentiated manner so you can move easily and freely with patterns your brain is changing and perfecting to move with greater ease.

Somatics exercises uses a natural movement process (that we’ve known about since the time of Hipocrates).   Where today you play with conscious differentiated movement patterns that we’ve mapped out.

And you all have to do.  Is follow an easy 3 step method which gets the brain to change the body.

Diversify your movement portfolio and find out for yourself what can happen.

When our back is out of whack, we can use the brain and our conscious attention to release held tension to restore comfort.

A simple differentiation of the spine where we pay attention to the feelings or sensations – along with the quality of a simple targeted movement – can set us up to relieve morning stiffness and ready the back for the day.

Plus, it’s a great way to free things up later on if we feel it’s necessary.

The spine is designed to extend and flex so it’s vital to remind the spine of its capacity so the rest of our body can move more easily.

When things are tight, stiff or off kilter in the middle (the spine), then certain muscles get pulled one way or the other — and this lower brain program can hold us in check.

Listen and follow along to this tuning into the spine and simple intentional movement.

Was it easy for you to feel your spine in the manner described?

If we don’t check in every now and then, the brain is very clever and begins to shut down which is why it might have not been easy for some of you to get a clear picture or set of feelings.

That’s ok.  With a few reminders and a little practice, you are waking up the brain’s command center.

If you did feel a little fidget or jerky quality that is very useful in order to regain control.

If you felt a twinge of pain or discomfort, then it’s time for a tuneup so your back can feel good and in control.

We do that using what is called somatics exercises which are generally done in such a lazy, easy and yet focused manner so that brain’s motor cortex is targeted.

When you get it down pat, the upper brain frees up the lower brain program of keeping things held in check so you can feel comfort and natural flexibility restored.

Simple differentiation to wake up both the brain and body

That easy movement (which may not always be easy if the spine isn’t cooperating) is part of a movement pattern to help wake up the brain’s cerebrospinal fluid so that brain bucket gets a little movement hello.

That Sitting Thing

If you’re in the unfortunate position of having to sit all day long, for instance, at work.

No matter if you do regular exercise, that may not be enough to change the known ill counter effects of sitting for too long.

See, certain muscles are getting programmed to be switched off and the brain will go – ok I’ll turn that department off.

Later in the day you might feel that gnawing sensation creeping in.  

We can get so used to those sensations that we can bury them since we gotta do things in life – until they remind us once again.

Standing up is a simple differentiation which can help

Simply standing up every 20 minutes when you sit, will wake up the muscles so they don’t get used to checking out.

If you have a job where you can’t – like being a driver for instance – then you can mindfully do the easy spinal differentiation movement seated to remind the spine that it can extend and flex.

Otherwise, certain back muscles can go to sleep and begin to be trained to be useless and the brain can start to give us the signal of pain

Good news is. 

Just get up and stand or be aware of how you are sitting and adjust your position consciously.

To further vary that – stand on one leg.  Then the other.  Or walk around for a minute or so. Then you can sit back down.

These type of mental-physical breaks can change our usual sitting habit.

Even as I type a blog post such as this, I too am mindful of how sitting for too long in the same way can have the brain and body go to sleep even while I am sedentarily active in this manner.

This is why I will vary the sitting position or move mindfully to keep things fluid.

If you’re gonna keep sitting, then at least sit differently or be mindful of how you can shift your spine around.

Maintaining Comfort

Plus, all the tension we keep taking on in life, can be remedied with simple mindful movements to disperse, renew and refresh both the brain and body.

Yep, it’s really, really that simple to maintain life long comfort.

By refreshing the spine with your awareness, you can reset your muscles throughout the day, especially when they get amped up with too much tension.

At the same time, you improve the function of the brain by taking a full-brainer of a moment where you tune into movement done with awareness.

Simple differentiation movement classes

Life is movement and movement becomes easier when you can do any number of simple conscious differentiations with the central part of yourself, your spine.

And if you can get enough of these on a daily basis, then sleep becomes easier so you wake up feeling refreshed and not wiped out getting back in the grind of life.

We’d love for you to join us to learn as many simple differentiations as you’d like to remain comfortable for life.

It’s as if we no longer remember how a certain area feels or we’ve lost touch with the feel for the length of a muscle since we can get used to the body we are in (for better or worse).

Some muscular connections can seem fuzzy or murky as if it is lost or forgotten when we check-in with the control center in the brain.

You’ll get a chance to find out if this is so for you in the SMA test.

SMA – Stiffness, Pain, Tension

While SMA will not kill you, it is often evident when there is stiffness or pain.

Higher than normal tension or stress in the muscles generally goes along with SMA.

Oddly enough, we can get so used to it, we don’t know the SMA exists since this may lie underneath a certain consciousness that we might not have tapped into for some time.

When SMA happens

Sensory motor amnesia happens when our muscles are activating without conscious control or there is no activation so we’re not clear as to the feel of it anymore.

For instance, our spines can compensate.

We can get so used to it – or if pain or stiffness interferes – where we’ve forgotten what an upright normal comfortable spine feels like.

What that means is that there can be a certain level of tension being held as a program in the lower parts of the brain (sometimes referred to as the brainstem).

Like a car which can idle in neutral, in this case, the car is idling in 1st, 2nd, 3rd or higher gears on account of the program or compensation.

Our muscles can stay stuck and our spine may not get back to neutral as if we’ve forgotten how.

As you can imagine, this can wear out an engine and is not ideal for our spine and muscles since that can impede our ability to move easily.

Plus, the energy drain of continual tension or stress – when it stays on just beneath our level of every day awareness – remains to keep us at bay.

SMA – the Disconnect

SMA is also a reduction of neuro-muscular control and function at the same time.

Our quality of movement and the feeling of freedom in movement is generally hampered.

Neurologically speaking, the flow of information continues without an awareness of what is going on underneath the surface.

Information about the position in space (proprioception) of your muscles, the length of the muscle, and the feelings of resistance or tension are also housed in the lower parts of the brain.

You don’t have to  think about it since certain sensors feedback this information.

Your body is going to adjust for whatever position you move yourself into.  Most of this is on autopilot as the subconscious parts of the brain respond accordingly to the known program.

The upper part of the brain is where we learn and create new programs (for better or worse) where it eventually gets moved down to the lower brain as learned (been there, done that).

Interestingly, these lower brain programs are powerful enough to assume control where we can lose our connection to the control center in the brain’s motor cortex, if we don’t check in.

Sensory-amnesia can happen as we lose control or forget about the control center over time

In a sense, there is a disconnect between the higher part of the brain which can affect the muscles and movement system.

The 1 Thing

See, muscles do one thing.

They receive a command from the brain to contract.

This way you can bend your arm at the elbow and move your wrist towards your shoulder.

The other side of the equation is that in this case of bending the arm, the back side of the upper arm can relax enough to move the wrist closer to the shoulder.

Some people will say that muscle is stretching, when in fact it is simply allowing for its length to the degree it can lengthen under whatever tension levels have been programmed or adapted.

Out of Balance

However, tension levels can be held or fight the other side so — another form of SMA due to an imbalance in tension.

This is a neurological event.

Our feel of balance or its loss along with the ability to know (or feel) which muscles are held in states of tension or are chronically tight can be useful information.

The ability to relax muscles, however, can be lost or temporarily out of control.

The feelings of tension can be hazy when we can’t pinpoint it – even though we know or feel some parts of our self are held stiff.

If this continues long enough, then certain discomforts or pain can become noticeable when the brain has gone haywire with its programs.

Guarding SMA

When we are injured or have some type of bodily trauma, the muscles and movement system tend to recoil away from the area in order to protect us from further injury.

This can then be set as an on going lower brain program since other muscles can take over such when we compensate (for an injury) and then rely on other muscles to do the work.

We can get really good at guarding an area so certain muscles can tend to forgot what their role or job since the recoiling reflex & former guarding mechanism may still be held on at subtle levels.

This is where then the cascade of muscular imbalance can occur and we might increase our risk of injury or seem to have the same types of injury happening all over again.

Muscle Out of Control

Down the road, this can lead to muscles either:

• being or feeling weak,

• having poor coordination,

• or they no longer remember to relax.

The muscles remain stiff or at levels where tension is higher than normal (though we can get used to it and “learn to live with it”).

Pain or discomfort can ensue at some point as the brain is sorting it out or going haywire since the area or areas are now in states of  tension held at higher than normal with ongoing muscular contractions preventing a full relaxation.

Crossed up signals

These crossed up signals keep things held in check without any relief of the holding tension.

So normally we ought to be able to let go and relax.

When the connection to the brain’s control center – through the communication of signals – aren’t being processed or meeting their destination.

Then things like a limited range of motion of happens or begins to set in.  Slowly over time this becomes the program of what we might call aging.
…

Getting to Know SMA

SMA isn’t something we feel when we are simply sitting there.

The sensory-motor system of feeling and moving is what is at stake so…

We can’t feel SMA, unless we begin to tune into our movement at a cortical level – and you’ll get your chance soon to find out.

What SMA Looks Like

Generally there is a noticeable or subtle feeling of your body:

• hesitating
• misfiring,
• jerking,
• glitching,
• stuttering,
• or shuddering as you release tension.

SMA Test

You can try this simple movement – but first – let me warn you that if you bump into pain or have a restricted range of motion – move well within your comfort zone.

Plus, you need to move slowly to stay in the control center of the brain.

If you go too fast, then things shift to the lower part of the brain.  So go s-l-o-w to play along.

First, read this first before you try.

Sit with your arms resting comfortably along your sides.

Turn your head/face to the left.  You will keep looking to the left throughout the entire movement.  Make sure you are in an easy comfortable range.  The point is not to strain at all.

At the same time, you are going to look up towards the ceiling while you bring the right shoulder up towards the back of your head.

Then at the same time, you slowly release back to where you started.

Got it – now go ahead and do the movement slowly and feel as much as you can.  This is more about feeling what is happening rather than going for the range of motion.

OK.  Were you able to release slowly and smoothly?

Try it on the other side and feel if there is any difference.

Did either side feel – a little jerky, glitchy or stuttering?  If so, you’ve been SMA’d.

Welcome to SMA

When this type of loss of motor control happens, this points the way to regain lost control since you are now more clued into where possible areas need a tune up.

It’s also possible that you may not feel certain movement actions taking place or you don’t feel a connection or an area as well as you could.

This is ok and normal with SMA.

Normally when we move, we are moving with our learned programs stored in the lower brain.   It’s when we go back to the control center of the motor cortex to check-in that we can begin discover how much or little SMA we have.

SMA – altering it unconsciously

SMA can happen when we alter things unconsciously, say when we sit slumped over time.

Our muscles will respond to the demand or lack thereof on them.

Our particular position or repetitive motion grooves in as a program so it becomes less conscious.

Which can be good since we don’t always have to think about how to use the remote once we’ve figured it out.

Good Sensory Motor Amnesia

Good news is SMA can be adjusted since the brain can change and the body will follow the commands of the cortex as you use your awareness to what is taking place.

This wake up to the brain’s command center of the (forgotten or amnesiac) link helps to undo compensations and imbalances so certain positive feelings, sensations and control can be restored.

So sensory-motor amnesia is a both a useful tool and marker to discover if muscular control is off a little

With this knowledge, you can feel how to self-adjust and self-correct to improve the vital and necessary function of the muscles for lifelong control and comfort.

So what can us older stiffer duffers do about it?

We go about it by tuning into the brain and body in specific ways.

Today, we know more about the brain. And how it can change.

Tuning into the brain will actually help.

The brain is in your hands to wield it’s incredible power of easing pain and stiffness.

Rigid tension or harmful stress can be melted away.  So we can feel more pliable, flexible and notice a return of pleasurable feelings.

With a little brain-body practice, we can maintain a comfortable state.

Here are 7 tips to help us get the back… back to feeling great.

1. Feel it consciously or lose (feeling) it unconsciously

Many of us take our back for granted. (Until it’s stiff or aching).

Our unconscious behavior happens over time when we aren’t tuning into the spine enough.

See.  Our spine’s ability is enhanced.  When you give it some attention with your conscious awareness.

One way to do that is to lie down on your back.

1. Try this.

Start at the tailbone and feel it.  Then move up to the sacrum and feel that area.

Then move your attention into the lower back.  Feel each spinal segment or vertebrae one by one all the way up into your neck.

Then reverse course and feel each part of your spine.

This type of attention may not at first seem easy.  So practice feeling all the parts of your spine so it becomes easier to lie still and notice.

2. Try this.

Tune into how your spine feels when you move around.

All it takes is just noticing whatever activity you are doing for a few movements and hone in on your spine.

Notice how your spine feels when you move around.

Say from a simple activity such as unloading the dishwasher and putting the dishes back up.

Take the time to feel and notice what your spine feels like.  And how it moves.

This paying attention to your own sensory information will wakeup the brain and body.

2. Move your spine in a variety of directions

Sounds reasonable, but who is actually thinking it through and then doing it afterwards.

If we keep using the spine the same way day in, day out.  Then we set a program in the brain of what muscles are being used and others which are not.

The brain grows when you give it something different such as tuning into your spine when you move.

For example.  The next time you put the dishes away.  Figure out how to do it or move a little differently than you normally do.

Say you walk forwards and reach to put a dish up.  Then the next time.  Walk backwards and put another dish up.

Then twist to one side and put the dish up.  Then the other side.

You up the level of the connection when mindfully bending, flexing, and twisting in a variety of ways.

3. Vary how you sit

Being sedentary or sitting too long in the same position.   Works against us especially when we live with chronic pain or stiffness.

You’ve probably heard that sitting for too long is the new smoking.  Well kinda sorta since you can sit comfortably for long periods – if you are aware.

Go team!

Otherwise, sitting for long periods can undermine our spine. 

See.  We can be unconsciously programming the brain and muscles into certain (tension) patterns.  And before you know it.  We may feel like we are held in check.

Pay close attention to how you sit.  And consciously change or vary your position.  That way you can shift the spine around.

When you do this.  You may find your normal go to pattern.  Then change it so you have other options.

And get up more often than you think, especially if you feel stiff or tension creeping in.  I know that is easier said than done.

I coach my chronic pain/stiff clients to get up every 20 minutes.

Yes!  Set a timer so that even if you are binge watching.  Get up and stand or move.  Or consciously change the way you sit.

This will help break a pattern which gets set in.

With back pain, mindful movement and awareness is paramount.

Since this can free us while you cheer or binge to your heart’s delight.

4. Wake-up your spine with gentle mobilizations

Easy, gentle small movements helps to rebuild and maintain the capacity of the spine.

The more gentle you are.  The better you can tune into both – the how of how you are moving – and what the feelings in your back provide as feedback.

So let your back warm up easily and gently.  And feel as much as you can with how your spine can adjust (or not) before going full bore with the rest of your day.

Take an inside look at how the spine can move well here. 

5. Update the movement software

Our computers and devices can get bogged down if the software isn’t updated.  Or when they need to be restarted or rebooted.

With a little movement software update.  You enhance the memory and information that your muscles, tendons, and joint need.

Plus, the fascia which houses the muscles.  Has more sense receptors.  So you gotta update how you move to keep the lines of communication clear to work for you.

By paying attention to your feelings and awareness. You can change the structure and function of the brain.   

So that a conscious movement update can smooth out the kinks and helps us remain flexible

This will help maintain the spine’s ability to function when you need it most.

6. Floss your back joints

Your spine is a series of joints where you can take the plaque out of it.

Go back to feeing your spine.  Feel both sides of the spine.

Notice if you can feel each segment or notice if there are any blank spots feeling each segment.

Then feel the front and back side of each segment. 

Is it clear or a little fuzzy?

Then start to gently move a few of the joints in any variety of directions.

Gentle movements joint by joint (or in a group) can help take the plaque out.  This way you can maintain comfortable freedom.

7. Breathe as you move

Consciously play with your breath as you move to add in another level of difference or awareness.

See.  The brain enjoys novel ways of moving.  This helps the body get and remain in a fluid state.

So you can add breathing into the mix.

There are many ways to breathe.  So add that into the mix as you move around.

Or don’t breathe and feel what happens to your ability to move your spine.

A Comfortable Back

Paying attention to the little movements you can do.  Helps build and maintain a foundation for overall comfortable, easy, effortless movement.

That way.  When it is time to use the bigger muscles or the entire body.

You’re set up to feel free and in control.

So go ahead and explore small, minute adjustments.

This can make all the difference to keep the back feeling good.

Interested in all sorts of brain-body ways to maneuver the spine?  Check out The Classroom where we got all the moves to keep us comfortable for life!

Small injuries or minor physical setbacks might not seem like a big deal when they happen.

Yet your brain might go haywire and instead of helping, it begins to work against you.

See, your personal history of injuries (big and small), infections, emotional set backs, and traumas of all sorts can lead a brain to over respond even as a small injury heals.

The brain can go hyperactive and keeps sending chemicals of inflammation to the rescue, after the fact.

Cells called microglia acts as the immune system of the central nervous system.

To protect the brain, they swell up to create a buffer while they take care of the bad cells.

The good cells, however, can keep turning “on inflammation”, which is what we see happening in anxiety, chronic pain, headaches, fibromyalgia, etc.

In other words, when we keep getting stressed, tensed out or we repeat certain physical activities with no relief, the microglia show up and create negative inflammation.

Not nice at all.

Minor or major stress can magnify the situation and get activated.

Not a Big Deal

Even what we might think is not a big deal such as “I was standing there, holding a piece of paper, not doing anything and I moved a little – and felt a little pinch”.

Initially, this may not be a big deal, but then throughout the course of day, this little thing starts to get worse, gets tighter and tighter and become more painful.

Even to the point of later preventing us from doing a little movement.

This period of activation can remain “on” for extended periods of time.

Then this can get set as a (brain) program which can lead to medical conditions such as chronic pain becoming the norm.

Press Play, Rewind

It’s no wonder some of us struggle with discomfort, injury or stiffness longer than we think it oughta be around.

Each week I see and hear athletes telling me about how they have to stay in the game, otherwise if they are substituted out and then go back in.  Where they’ve re-tightened up by simply cooling down for a few minutes.

Unfortunately, this has been accepted as normal – when clearly it is not even though many deal with this (brain) program replaying itself over and over.

As the program continues to go haywire–say an accident happens–followed up by surgeries, pain medications and having to cope with the stress of getting it together.  Well, this undermines our ability to completely get over it.

Even though we think we oughta be able to handle it, we aren’t addressing the physiological mechanism to change and reverse the course back to our more comfortable self.

This can further make us feel down and bums us out.

Getting Pushed Past the Tipping Point

One by one.  An slight bump here, a little bruise there, a sprain,  a spasm, groaning to get up out of the chair, feeling old before we’re there, getting old and grumpy, a knee gone bad, stress on the job, tension at home, divorce, and the internet goes down (yeah not a big deal though it could stress us out), and so on.

The sum of our life experiences add up one by one to push us past the tipping point so the brain replays its response.

We get our negative experience yet again to the point of being chronic in many ways.

Can the tipping point be reversed?

Yes!

When we go back to what mother nature affords us to restore and revitalize in our central nervous system, then we have a chance to reverse the tipping point and successfully climb out.

In many cases, you can reprogram both the brain and body so it can create comfort instead of amplifying pain, discomfort or stiffness.

How To Reverse the Tipping Point

This can be done via the sensory-motor system and a conscious reprogramming act called a pandiculation.

This works with the central nervous system to reset tension levels so you can feel more relaxed, comfortable and in control of your well-being.

This is facilitated by simple to do mindful sensory-motor control exercises done where you regain control of the brain and body while at the same time, you get to feel and experience deeper states of relaxation and how your muscles coordinate more easily for freer movement overall.

Recently, the American College of Physicians have come on board and are saying “this is the first to do to relieve pain“.

So when we go about this systematically, then we can re-right the ship and help get back in order and in balance.

Then when life throws us another curve ball, we can rebalance readily.

The reverse on-off switch to turn back the tipping point

You see, you have the inherent ability to decrease stress and lower tension by increasing it consciously using your awareness.

This concept may sound backwards or counter-intuitive, yet in practice – physically speaking – this is how you turn what is negatively “on” positively “off”.

By consciously turning “on” the central nervous system by waking it up.  

You change the painful, stiff or discomforting “on” signal “off’ by detuning or fine tuning it down so you can idle more in neutral and restore tension levels back to the comfort zone.

Similar to how a thermostat works to regulate the air temperature, your nervous system can be programmed to aid you rather than keep the on going program working against you.  

The Shift

While it isn’t easy to live in pain, constant stiffness or with high stress levels and chronic discomforts, there is a way out.

When our normal relaxed attention and focus is taken away, you can feel it shift or you can get used to it over time even though in the long run that is undermining our ability to restore ourself.

So if you can consciously tune into what it is you’ve either become accustomed to – or what is not healing in the way you think it oughta – like taking a little no big deal tumble or not being able to sit comfortably…

That very signal is the clue and target to tune down the brain and body going haywire.

Comfort Zone

Since force won’t help, a more laser focused and mindful use of the power of the brain and body lets us reach a personal comfort zone which can be secured with a little conscious practice to hit the target of feeling better.

By dialing into the haywire signal, you can fine-tune the pain activating signal or mechanism so it can reverse course.

Reset

The resetting and recalibrating begins to happen with what some have called conscious micro-movements or professionally known as motor control exercises where you move with minimal effort while dialing into the subtle tiny adjustments and feelings or sense perceptions so change happens readily. 

There is both an art and practice to get back to your former happy pain-freer self which nature has set up for you to access at any minute.

Through a series of trial and error easy, gentle movements and a systematic approach, the ability to feel relaxation returns.

The fact is you can tune down what is turned negatively “on” because the switch has been activated to inhibit and end the pain, stiffness and discomforts by starting small in order to get back to living more fully.

Afterwards the nervous system acts to continue to decrease the output or charge so relaxing feelings return.  It’s like giving yourself a hot tub treatment using your brain and body.

Nature

In nature, this is how all healthy animals with a spine self-regulate to remain agile, comfortable and nimble. 

Use the brain and body together to move well with daily reprogramming that most of us aren’t aware of, even though it is built into our living system to tap into.

When the human animal gets back to tuning in and restoring this lost art or natural process to calm the system, you get the:

relief,

relaxation,

and the knowledge you can replicate feelings of comfort.

You can do this as often as you need or when necessary to take out stress and tension from everyday life events which accumulate in the course of our busy lives.

While you can’t escape stress, you can take control of your central nervous system as best as you can and further the possibilities of a comfortable felt-sense of living.

When you remember how to do this – you can let things roll off of you like a duck ruffling its feathers.

You’ll have what appears to be an uncanny ability to regenerate.

This is how nature sets it up for us to learn how to wield this ability and not be held outta control by feeling how control needs to be regulated to move well.

Evidence

Since there is evidence that your microglia cells “remember” prior assaults and turn things up painfully when necessary.  They can stay on and fire up more quickly.

Same goes in the opposite direction.

The better you get at using the brain and body, you can bank on turning on those chemicals of relaxation on much faster too.

The American College of Physician have finally recognized that progressive relaxation, mindful-based stress reduction and motor control exercises are the way to go where you can even drop the acetaminophen for back pain.

According to Dr. Gary Kaplan, these 3 things seem certain:

√ The source of inflammation are tiny cells called microglia.

√ Your history of physical & emotional assaults add up and increase inflammation.

√ Chronic pain and depression are neurodegenerative conditions.

How to Reverse the Tipping Point Yourself

Knowledge is power. When you have the self-help tools to learn what to do for yourself.  You can self-regulate the brain and enhance the nervous system to work for and with you.

Fortunately, we’ve systematized an approach to use both brain and body with gentle, small micro-movements (motor control) along with mindfully fine tuning coordination with a certain level of awareness to take you into deeper states of relaxation which restores the nervous system and your body’s basic feeling of comfort and well-being.

Now that you have a better understanding of the tipping point, you can choose to naturally heal, self-protect, self-learn, and have the self know-how to prevent and maintain your healthy state of living.

Can too much sugar wreak havoc on the best of our efforts to remain healthy?

In these days of Covid.

Of course, health information can seem or be conflicting.  From coast to coast.  The New York Times and Seattle Times reported dietary recommendations to guide us. 

So we may have to clear our way through the maze of 30+ years of nutrition misinformation to get back on track.

But those efforts pay the dividends of living an easier, healthier life. 

Our main focus is the application of conscious brain-based movement.  This helps us get a foothold on refining our self-perception.  We pay attention to subtle feelings as a result of a natural resetting process.

This intimate knowledge gives us a leg up on how we feel and how our body responds to life.  Sort of timely right now.

So when we eat.  Our senses can be fooled.  We can overindulge without knowing why since the brain is getting tricked.

Our healthy efforts can be like moving 1 step forwards, 1/2 a step back or more.

It’s no wonder the majority of us are weighing 25 lbs. more than 20 years ago.

The Bitter Truth

Look at this about our fat intake (from the Bitter Truth).

Our brain’s are having to deal with food-beverage trickery and our body, well you know the story.

Heck, when I won a t-shirt for winning intramural sports at the University of Texas in the late 70’s, I was given a large.

A couple of years ago, I was given a Wall of Fame large t-shirt to commemorate the past.

Wouldn’t you know when I compared the present to the past t-shirt.  The large got larger.

Doing the Right Thing

At sporting events for young and older duffers like myself.  I continue to see how athletes (and many people in general) are moving backwards.  Though they “think” they are doing the right thing.

Having kids hydrate with Gatorade is not in their best interests for the long run.

Self-regulation

When it comes to regulating sugar – which can be difficult in these times – watch the Bitter Truth below.

This is heady stuff.  (So you can watch the long version below.)

It’s not nice to have our brain think it is starving.  Then take us on that path.

So all that sugar consumption is helping to continue a downward spiral.  Even if we are relatively healthy.  Bummer!

For another and shorter version, watch this.

So to recap. Sugar. Be careful.

Seen this or done that before?

This is something we do – in this country – if we feel pain, are sore from an injury or we over do it.

If you watch tv sports, been at a local kids soccer game, seen runners, softball players or know people who’ve had injury or experience pain.

Icing seems to be part of the game (of life) in the U.S and has been a big part of sports medicine.

How did this become our way?

Rice stands for:

• Rest

• Ice

• Compression

• Elevation

This has been a mantra on playing fields since Dr. Gabe Mirkin came up with this formula back in 1978.

Since then he has changed his tune for this earlier “misinformation”.

Rest is out.

Now there is evidence ice can even delaying healing.

This might come as a surprise.  It’s more than likely better to avoid icing.

Using ice does not fix the problem other than numbing an issue in our tissues.  It may even do more harm than good.

Since many people use ice to block pain.

It’s likely they don’t know how to effectively relieve or control pain on account of ice being the prevalent cheaper alternative.

The Rest of the World

Interesting to note that most of the rest of the world does not use ice to manage injuries.

When I mention using ice to many of my foreign soccer playing friends, they simply shrug their shoulders and give me that “really” look.

Recovery & Performance

Since ice is still the accepted method and highly popular among recreational athletes to help recover, relying on this method is at best a band-aid approach.

There is usually little benefit derived from post exercise icing as well.

During an event, you may actually numb yourself and then push through pain rather than using this signal to begin to turn things around.  This can increase the risk of injury.

Even performance can be altered since it is likely that icing interferes with the information highway of the nervous system.

The info can get slowed down and can change how our muscles respond.  Not a good thing when you are either trying to do some work around the house or participating in one of your favorite activities.

Inflammation

People might think inflammation is a bad thing, yet is part of the normal restoration process.

While we can have a pain in the knee for instance, have you ever seen someone’s knee swell up or experienced this yourself?

Swelling is a normal part of the body attempting to get back to square one or homeostasis in this case.

We might think the swelling is too much or keeps snowballing, so of course, a lot of people will think ice is the solution.

What’s going on?

The lymphatic system helps reduce swelling.

So when we see or feel what we consider an excess of swelling, the drainage of the lymphatic system is kind of clogged and is in slow-mo mode.

Going backwards

To use ice to speed it up is counter productive.

Thawing out of this mindset may not be easy.

So you can check out the illusion of the ice age.

What Speeds Up Healing?

Since the lymphatic system helps to reduce swelling, it’s when we begin to contract, tense or mobilize the surrounding movement system.

M.I.C.E stands for:

M = Mobility

I = Ice

C = Compression

E = Elevation

M.I.C.E. has replaced R.I.C.E.

Now given what we’re discovering with ice, we can drop our freezing ways.

A conscious use of the muscles helps to push the fluid back into the cardiovascular system.

Movement System

The movement system is not just the muscles, it includes the nervous system or highway of information which can be altered.

It’s also the fascia which surrounds the muscles and is connected in a variety of patterns throughout the body.

The muscles, fascia, tendons, ligaments and bones have sense receptors where we can change the output through mobility and where we can change the offending output to our muscles and movement system.

When we apply mobility in a more conscious manner, then the myth of ice can fade like the ice age.

Is is time to give up the myth of icing?

Targeting the brain’s sensory-motor cortex can help relieve stiffness, stress, ease pain, and improve the body and mind.

The brain’s motor cortex sits atop the brain adjacent to the sensory cortex.

The motor part is where you can “turn on” the motor of movement. The sensory part lets you perceive or feel a variety of sensations or feelings about the quality of movement itself.

This feedback loop of information can help you in effect, move well and be freer to move around.

This little guy is called the homonculus, the little man.

This represents how our body parts are reflected in the brain in terms of how we use them and sense them.

As you can see from this representation:

The hands and mouth have the largest areas in terms of how we sense ourself.

In order to help both the brain and body as you age, you can zero in on your sensory-motor cortex so both a movement in and of itself and the quality of how you move your body is addressed by paying attention to the information you can perceive or feel.

Plus, you can do this in a playful type of manner without a lot of hard work.

You see, the brain functions better with a variety of movements which opens up the possibilities of new neural connections since the brain itself can be changed, formed, and reformed.

Brain Exercises

Normally, we think of brain exercises like doing a crossword puzzle or doing some type of cognitive training. Any number of ways can sharpen us mentally such as learning to play an instrument, trying new recipes and good old fashioned doing math in your head.

Regular exercise itself, is good in general, and can help the brain too.

The brain thrives on novelty and our 600 muscles and 17 layers of muscles and fascia (which surround the muscles) can be used in a unique un-exercise approach by focusing our awareness on the conscious nature of movement itself.

This wakes up the brain and body since we can tap into the flow of information in our nervous system.

This non-traditional approach can augment any traditional type of exercise and can actually let us exercise pain free or be able to do the necessary movements you engage in with less tension and a different felt sense of ability.

Less Tension

The brain can be used to lessen tension through a natural process of updating our movement software.

When we have less tension or when we can sustain more neutral levels of tension, then we can move easily and agilely over the long run.

So when our brain gets challenged with paying attention, our body can actually feel the difference. Even when small, easy, gentle micro-movements are used to help set up or be the foundation for the moveable building blocks of overall coordination of movement.

Slow movements help brain functions

Watching someone do small movements, is similar to watching grass grow.

We might think not a lot can be accomplished by little or slow movement.

When you shift upstairs to target your motor cortex and do conscious specific types of movements slowly, gently and with as much awareness as possible – the brain can help the body make a number of changes.

A slow movement practice is about how you pay attention to a number of areas of the body.

The conscious application of movement done slowly forms the system of somatics exercises which is essentially brain based.

9 Advantages of a Brain Based Practice

1 – Pain Relief Using the Brain

Since the brain thrives on novelty, the brain and body can be used in unique ways to affect the flow of information in the nervous system.

This is set up with simple movements that can be done in a lazy, gentle manner where the mind is highly engaged.

One of the brain functions of the motor cortex is that it can reset the resting levels of the muscles. The muscles are left more relaxed.

As the muscles become more relaxed, the brain creates more feelings of relaxation and pleasure.

2 – Improved Memory

Movement is memory.

The lower part of the brain, the cerebellum remembers much like a programmed computer program which does our quick, fast movements. We don’t have to think about it, we get up and go.

Using the brain’s motor cortex allows us to change the program by noticing what is happening in our overall quality of movement as well as the actual movement.

By improving the quality of how well we can move at any age, the brain functions at a higher level since the brain’s software is getting updated.This helps us remember and experience our former youthful movement.

3 – Gain Strength

Normally we exercise our muscles to get stronger.

Strength is also resiliency and flexibility.

So rather then a brawn approach, you can use the brain to lose excessive or amped up tension and stress.

Our body becomes more balanced. We remain strong like animals in the wild who reset their muscles naturally since the slow movements are done along certain chains of connections which help us move more effectively.

4 – Posture Changes

We can change our shape.

By losing compensations such as a curved spine which has our belly hanging over or the reverse when we’re too slumped.

Our new appearance results from letting go of the tension which held us in place by the lower brain and its programmed ways.

When the brain remembers to reset to neutral, the brain functions much better and now we appear more easily upright and relaxed.

5 – Natural Stress Alleviation

The brain can create powerful chemicals of relaxation.

Healthy animals with a spine tap into this natural source.

They do this through the act of pandiculation as they target the brain and body.

You can zone in on the brain in a similar conscious manner to create natural chemicals of relaxation so you’re left feeling content, relaxed and in control.

6 – Regain Natural Flexibility

Regaining flexibility is not about getting longer or going for range of motion.

Simply being able to squat is one thing, getting up is another.

When we let go of the binds of stress, tension and long held-injuries and compensations, the body knows where to reset to neutral so it can in effect move easy and be in comfortable positions.

You can move more freely and naturally by reprogramming the brain so a natural flexibility can be easily maintained.

7 – Improve the Immune System

When we’re constantly triggering flight or fight response in our busy lives, we’re not giving our self the chance to calm things down.

Resetting our brain and body so we can ramp it up and then back it down, allows us to live more easily with a nervous system which can be reset so our immune system is less burdened as the inflammatory response is cooled down.

This allows more good feelings to flow through us so it can aid in healing, for instance.

8 – Sleep Better

Tuning down tension levels using the brain relaxes our body.

The body and brain functions much better when we can rest easy so our tissues can repair.

Resting easy happens when we feel calmer and can let go of the body and the mind.

9 – Greater Sense of Peace and Tranquility

When you use the brain to reset the entire body system of movement, you can move with greater ease and comfort like any other healthy vertebrate animal.

As our earlier sense of freedom returns, movement can nurture us towards more tranquil states.

This also brings us a vibrant sense of confidence to move, relax and have a calm mind.

As you use the brain and target certain functions, you can return again and again to levels of comfort where you can fully understand or appreciate the mind and body connection.

Better brain functions

When we go back to the well of movement itself and harness the power of the brain to tap into our very awareness.

The brain’s intelligence is aroused (with a little practice) so you end up with a better brain and body.

When you reset yourself with a certain level of conscious awareness, the brain functions at levels which may continue to delightfully surprise you as you age.

Yet as we age our share of aches, bumps, dings, stiff feelings and various types of pain can add up depending upon our circumstances and the activities we choose to do or not.

To reverse the accumulation of life’s hurts and recapture the full pleasure in your body on a daily basis can happen when you remind yourself to…

Move Like an Animal

You see, all the healthy animals on the planet with a spine, tap into the brain to reset tension levels so they can move with comfort, agility and grace.

The human animal can too with a simple conscious 3 step plan to get the brain, body and nervous system revitalized to restore feelings of confident comfort.

So whether we feel stiff from everyday life, work or even the games and activities you enjoy or grind our way through.

There is a natural way for the brain & body to reverse stiffness and pain so we won’t have to beat on our muscles, ice, heat or use any of those balms just in order to be able to move a little easier in the first place.

Given our present understanding of the brain and how it’s like a piece of software we can change and modify.

We’ve been able to systematize what works in nature in order to upgrade both the brain and body so it can be programmed to ease tension, pain and stiffness naturally.

In the book, Move Like an Animal, you will learn:

• The 3 Simple Steps to Reduce Stiffness & Feel Pain Free

• How You Can Restore Your Natural Birthright to Feel Comfortable and in Control

• How Your Brain is Waiting for You to Regain Flexibility & Mobility Quickly and Easily

In what I call, the issues in the tissues, you have the ability to use your brain and body in symphony to restore and recover those lost feelings of–feeling like your self again—even if things presently continue to stay amped up, stiff or painful.

You’ll discover:

• The One Key Movement to Feel Better Now

• How to Relieve Stress & Tension Confidently

• and Overcome Compensations which can be a Factor

In the animal world, healthy animals set themselves up daily for successful movement.

The ability to be agile, flexible and move in balance and grace is set up by the same natural neural mechanisms you too can access.

If you want to:

– Maintain comfortable mobility
– Restore natural flexibility
– and Bring back the feelings of pleasure back in your body,

Then Move Like an Animal is for you.

Feel Free Again

Through a unique, counter-intuitive approach, you can feel how to:

• Loosen Up Tightness

• Release Stiffness

• and Feel the Binds Melt Away.

Since there may be those times when we may be guarding to protect a sore, tight or painful area.

Having the know-how to release it—is of great value when you need to let high tension levels or feelings of stress in the body simmer back down.

The Nature of Movement Itself

This is inherently different since it’s not about the range of motion – its more about the quality vs the quantity.

The quality and nature of movement itself are what is at stake to remain comfortable for life.

See, those wonderful animals have got this part down.

No quality. They’re a goner.

For the human animal, less than optimal quality can bring all sorts of types of pain and the various binds, stiffness and restrictions we can’t seem to shake in the long run.

Using a series of unique, gentle, conscious movement patterns targeting a specific part of the brain can restore childlike feelings of freedom.

All of this set up by the brain so you can remain comfortable as you age.

Even if you over do it, your brain and body can change quickly without even resorting to pills.

Since animals know how to relax and let go of tension on a daily basis…

The good news is. Your brain & body is waiting for you to tap into this same conscious power source to:

– Feel more relaxed,
– Contented,
– and Be able to sleep more easily too.

What Move Like an Animal is About

The book begins with the ‘Animal Secret’ act that even the human animal did as a baby.

Once we remind ourself of this forgotten or lost ability, the brain remembers what to do to reset similar to the way we update our computers.

Down the Rabbit Hole

The brain is described as the one big muscle working with various feedback loops you can use to reset both stiffness and pain.

You’ll learn which ones those are and how to access them to return to the comfort zone.

A shift from the revved up sympathetic state to the more relaxed parasympathetic state of calm happens when you tap into the specific part of the brain

See, from a more relaxed state, the muscles are ready to be used rather than starting from a somewhat or higher rate of tension. This is what fatigues and wears a lot of us down.

We’ve lost that ability to de-rev naturally since the brain will keep certain programs running like a car idling in 2nd or 3rd gear, instead of neutral.

Compensations

In the exercise and therapy world, compensations are readily seen and can throw us off center. Even though we can figure out how to use our body. We may be struggling or use more energy un-necessarily.

Compensations can shift as tension levels abate since the muscles are more relaxed to allow the bones to fall in place so we don’t end up fighting or struggling against gravity.

Then exercise or physical activity actually becomes freer and easier.

Proprioceptive Police

Proprioception is how we feel our movement and the positions we find ourself in.

The proprioceptive police may show up with signs of mis-alignment, pain, discomfort, tightness and on-going stress which further wears us down.

Brain Based Approach

You’ll get a birds-eye view as how this is the complete reverse to most approaches – since it is brain based.

Rather than going for range of motion, which can actually reinforce tension and keep certain brain programs in check.

Even painful events like a muscle spasm can be reverse engineered, released and restored to comfort on account of targeting the brain.

Making the Connection

Sensing, feeling and probing around gently opens insights as to how you are connected among your 17 layers of muscles and fascia.

The fascia which has more sense receptors than the muscles are part of the movement system.

When you delve deeply into the sensory-motor system, lost or forgotten connections begin to wake-up so that even sitting becomes more comfortable.

What to do about Oops, Falls, Strains and Traumas and How A Squirrel Offers a Way Out?

You’ll get to learn how a squirrel opened my eyes to the very method I was learning about and how this act can restore things in ways we may not have thought possible.

R-O-A-R Your Way Back

To recover over any restriction (R-O-A-R).

Free up stiffness, postural or movement difficulties, niggling injuries, high tension levels and the like can be felt when you recognize how the brain is set up to serve you, so you can remain comfortable for life.

Bonus

For those of you who really want to take things another step further.

Check out the back of the book where you can get access to the free audio version of the movements.

By listening, you’ll tap into another part of the brain which will deepen your experience to heal, restore and revitalize like a human animal can.

Ready to Move Like an Animal Again

After having lived a life of chronic pain and earning the label of fibromyalgia, I can say “it feels great to have more good days than bad ones”.

It’s my great pleasure to have Amazon bestseller, Move Like an Animal, out now in paperback and digital so you too can R-O-A-R back into life and feel the full pleasure of your body returning and maintaining even as you age.

Your brain and body can feel free, relaxed and in control.

So are your ready to Move Like an Animal for the rest of your comfortable life?

Simple, easy head movements done with a certain level of awareness can give you a:

• more comfortable neck,
• ease tension in the shoulders,
• and this can shift good feelings to other parts of yourself too.

Hijacked by tension

If your head or shoulders have been hijacked by tension, there is a natural way to release the build up muscular tension.

However, it might have to do with the fact that an important and vital connection may be “off”.

By lying on the floor, you can find out for yourself if:

a) you can do a particular movement comfortably and
b) if you can feel or sense the connection.

Watch the video below and see if you can feel the connection.

Head movement and connection

Have you checked in with your noggin like that lately?

If you haven’t, it’s never too late to dial in.

You see, if we’ve endured enough head and neck pain, that movement among others can prove to be difficult.

When my years of neck pain felt like a hard sore block that wouldn’t budge or let me move freely. Moving my neck seemed like it was one of the hardest things to do.

Yet when you consciously remind your body of the available movements that you can do, your brain can release neurochemicals of relaxation.

Making the connection – even if it isn’t there initially – will come with a little practice.

Not just 1 muscle

Mobility – the ability to move freely and easily – can be restored by regaining necessary function of a number of muscles involved, not just one specific muscle.

So if we are limiting our movement on account of pain or high tension, then this type of splinting or guarding can actually reinforce it since the brain is subject to programs and will begin to feed in information to keep things held in check.

Counter-intuition

Of course, it might seem counterintuitive to move, if it hurts.

So instead, you can imagine the movement taking place since that way you won’t upset the apple cart, yet the brain and nervous system will get the idea that the possibility to move, still exists.

The brain doesn’t know the difference between an imagined movement and an actual movement. The information and nervous system pathways turn “on”.

You can even go so far as imagining the connections too.

This all helps to prime the pump for eventual successful comfortable movement.

Head movements and the connection to the rest of your body is evident when you play with mindful ways to feel or sense your self as to how it relates with the rest of your body.

We are one piece, last I checked. The more you check-in in a different way, the far easier it is to self-adjust and turn down pain, discomfort and tension naturally.

Somatically speaking

When you move somatically, which is where you fully experience your connections and subtle feelings or sense perceptions.

You can experience the freeing up of pain, stiffness and aches as you fine tune further and deeper into your information highway of the nervous system.

This type of internal exploration is what you naturally did as a baby and child.

You were exploring deep into your sensory and motor system of both movement and the subtle feelings of small probing movement.

And if you recall or watch any baby, there’s a heckuva of a lot of exploration with misfiring, falling over and work to do to get a movement down pat.

Remember how long it took us to snap our fingers? What a triumphant moment that was.

Besides, if you’ve lost your snap, you can get it back.

Of course, as we age it can feel like ages to get it back, but it doesn’t have to be that way when you begin to experiment and tinker again.

What’s It Take

So if you go to the well of stored memory and spend some worthy time to reopen some dusty files and connections, then comfortable feelings in movement can be restored as easily and as effortlessly as it used to be.

It just calls for some quiet internal observation of your present ability.

When done in a specific “slow manner”, the part of the brain which can make the necessary changes of tension, will move the body back towards comfort and control.

To be more comfortable, may take a variety of easy, gentle movements so the connection is clear and you regain the ability to maintain comfort for life.

So have fun and keep that head sliding, gliding, turning and twisting comfortably so by feeling and making the connections.

What we might think of as an uninteresting movement where we throw out our back from reaching for something.

Or when we throw out our hip like Devi who experienced agonizing pain from a Bollywood dance class.

Afterwards, she couldn’t walk because of the hip pain and her doctor told her, “Well if you’re like me, you’ll walk through the pain. Assuming the pain would still be there”.

So she got her crutches and decided there might be a better way out of this.

See, I had planned to teach a different somatics exercises class and had to scrap my plans since Devi was in obvious need as I saw her walk from the car to the building with crutches.

While she couldn’t lie on the floor (which is how we normally go about it), she was able to sit on the floor and that too wasn’t easy for her.

Then I found out what she could do and created a set of easy, gentle somatics exercises which are movements which would help release stored trauma in the body.

It was simply modifying a few things and coming up with a couple of patterns where she could initiate the smallest of movements.

As she listened to the guided instructions and followed along, she was able to free herself from her hip pain.

While a number of doctors aren’t aware of this brain processing possibility (some are, of course). Our brains have the ability to reset our nervous system so our body can feel more comfortable.

People who practice conscious Somatics Movements already know how to target the brain or are continuing to refine their ability in a precise way to restore trauma stored in the body so it can let go.

A week later. Devi went dancing again.

When you redevelop your sensory motor system in a unique way which is how somatics exercises are done.

You learn to use the least effort to gain more flexibility.

This shift, of your body experienced form within, is what a practice in Somatics Exercises can lead you towards.

Want to feel, know and experience the moves Devi learned?

These are same of the same types of conscious movements that have helped people who are in bed finding it difficult to move, only to discover that the struggle and holding tension levels and pain ease off.

I’ve always been a mover and a shaker, and lucky to have actively moved through more than six decades without any chronic stiffness or pain.

Well, okay…there is the one little disc that occasionally and gently reminds me of the unintended back flip when I was body-surfing in South Africa twenty-nine years ago. (I found out the Atlantic’s surf was not like the lapping lake waters in my native Minnesota.)

So, anyway, the moving and shaking part…

I’m a retired teacher and principal, and a part-time freelance writer and yoga instructor—plus a globe-trotter over the years.

Always ‘wanted it all’ and have spent most of my life going after just that.

It’s all been mentally, physically, and spiritually challenging and exciting….and I guess I thought I was just blessed by an absence of physical pains and limited mobility, while many friends and relatives of various ages around me weren’t.

Just the way it was… no reason for me to give it much thought.

Lesson #1: No Pain Until

After all, I wasn’t the one in pain.

But then 2 things happened that got my attention.

And suddenly, pain had just gotten personal…

Three women with fibromyalgia found their way to my gentle yoga class, desperate for:

• Relief from Pain,
• Stiffness,
• and, Scariest of all, Hopelessness.

Secondly, I realized that some intermittent pain in my right leg and hip—originally attributed to a minor fall or maybe heavy snow shoveling–was not going away, and was getting worse over the months.

Stepping into a small corner of the lives of the three multi-gifted and dynamic women–whose lives were on hold—was eye-opening and gut-wrenching.

The dilemma was how to help them rather than hurt them more.  So, we talked a lot.

I researched yoga for people with fibromyalgia.

They shared what they’d learned at the Mayo workshops they’d attended.

Alternative Ways to Process Pain

One of the woman, Gayle, mentioned one of the Mayo doctors talking to them about alternative ways to ‘process’ pain—changing the ways the nerves communicate with the muscles.

Suddenly…I remembered something.

A yoga workshop I’d attended a year or so earlier on something called “somatics”.

It was about re-educating the muscles and nervous system to communicate more effectively with each other.

The benefits centered around:

• Maximizing Body Functions,
• Mobility,
• and Reducing Stiffness and Pain.

I’d been impressed with the concept, and a brief internet search led to more information and a couple of especially intriguing videos by Ed Barrera….himself a ‘survivor’ of fibromyalgia turned somatics practitioner.

Ed had also written a book, Move Like an Animal, teaching people the animal concepts of applying conscious pandiculation which had been systematized as somatics exercises

But life was busy, and I’d soon forgotten about somatics….until Gayle’s comment.

The two of us immediately set out on a lively pursuit of current information and materials on somatics, which led us back to Ed Barrera–with lots of questions on how to offer therapeutic movement to three committed fibromyalgia ‘warriors’ in Northern Minnesota.

He quickly, enthusiastically, compassionately, and in detail, responded to emails from both Gayle and myself.

The ’warriors’ and I began some group sessions, but Gayle never does anything half-way….and began an intense daily somatics routine at home.

The result? – Moving Like an Animal

She started seeing and feeling some improvement in movement and mood within a few days.

The progress continued over the weeks, and within a few months, she’d transitioned from some 10 years of dependence on her husband to help her move and do basic activities around the house, to an increasingly active life style…

Plus a a jaw-dropping run up the driveway one day when she got out of a friend’s car.

Gayle was hooked on somatics exercises and what moving like an animal was doing for her.

She and I read, studied, emailed Ed, and then offered a couple of classes introducing somatics to others in pain here in our community.

In the last year, I’ve also have incorporated some somatics movements into both my hatha and gentle yoga classes, and occasionally offer introductory somatics instruction upon request—yes, right up in anything-but-urban Northern Minnesota.

Participants’ comments (20-70 year olds) have been reaffirming of the benefits of somatics…and I celebrated the victories of those who had successfully decided to take charge of their pain and stiffness.

Lesson #2: The Wakeup Call

But all that good news still wasn’t enough to establish and expand my own regular practice of somatics.

Life got busy again.  So then came wake-up call #2.

Yes….my right hip and leg—had me in on-and-off discomfort for more than a year.

When I realized that I needed regular Ibuprofen to get through our community theater rehearsals, I had to admit the deterioration of the situation.

So with the natural misconceptions of most 63-year olds, I started to obsess about what it actually was, and what medical/surgical interventions I probably needed to start thinking about.

Arthritis, Old Age, Hip Replacement, Surgery, Drugs

That’s right, I completely disassociated my hip and leg pain from everything I’d learned and been preaching about somatics, and was instead thinking “arthritis,” “old age,” “hip replacement,” “surgery,” and “drugs.”

I was in the midst of internet searches and yellow pages under “doctors,” when I realized what I was doing….or rather, what I wasn’t doing.

What I wasn’t doing.

Somatics.

However, because of the state I’d worked myself into, I also decided I needed Ed’s reassurance to make sure somatics would take care of this.  After all this was MY pain now…and not ‘just’ somebody else’s.

A short diagnosis and download of a couple of appropriate somatics movement classes later, I was on my way to relief within 48 hours and in a few weeks, I was pain free again. But slow learner that I am…

Lesson #3: Go Back to the Well

I started taking all that freedom from pain for granted, and gradually slacked off of my few minutes of daily somatics…until I fell into another stiff hips and lower back issue….and one that seemed to be exacerbated by my yoga instruction.

What’s more, ironically, the pain peaked just days before leading another 4-week introductory Somatics session.

Fortunately, the panic I’d again worked myself into, quickly reminded me of my panic of two years earlier.   I immediately set into some intense somatics, and got another ‘shot of encouragement,’ from Ed.

So, as it turns out, I’m taking somatics and mobility seriously now—finally.

I don’t want to stop learning or practicing it…for my sake, and for all the people I get to share it with.

More Than Not Having Pain

It’s about a lot more than simply NOT having pain.

It’s the whole feeling of freedom and absolute joy in MOVING and in the awareness of the marvels of human body.

When you feel that way, you get to remember how truly wonderful life can feel, and you almost can’t help but make the world a better place.

Does life get any better than this?