2 weeks of Back Hope
Discover all the many ways we can free ourself from chronic back pain.
Over 20+ experts will offer a number of alternatives to relieve and reduce back pain and discomforts.
For 10 consecutive days you can listen and learn about:
The Active Release Technique, the Alexander Technique, Bowen Therapy, CranioSacral Therapy, Emotional Freedom Technique, the Krane Training Method, Longevity, Nutrition, Osteopathy, Orthapedic Sports Medicine, Polarity, QiGong, the Satori Method, Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises, Transformational Energy Therapy Techniques, Theta Healing, Trigger Point Therapy, Yoga and more.
The list of doctors, therapists, authors, healers and experts can be found here.
You’ll be able to use their practical information right away as you listen in on up to 2 calls per day. Each of the calls will be available for a 24 hour period.
Back Hope Telesummit Starts Soon
The Back Hope Telesummit begins on Monday April 29th. See you there.
Related Blogs
Somatics can free up those muscles unlike other approaches out there
Somatics exericses are simple movement patterns where we use the brain’s cortex to reset our muscles back to comfort. Instead of hard work, we use our body with ease in a very intelligent manner. All you need is gravity and yourself.
Check out our 3 New Training Videos
We’re changing our former free mini-course and now have expanded it with 3 comprehensive somatics training videos where you’ll also get to download and keep several audio mp3 trainings so you can:
• Regain Mobility
• Restore Natural Flexibility
• and Recover Quickly From Injury
Simply by using 3 Steps.
What you’ll learn in our new training videos
How you can get out of back spasms by yourself…
The key somatics exercise which is a bridge to the entire system of somatics…
How to end stiffness.
How to conquer tension.
How to take on stress and beat it.
How to remain comfortable for life and more…
New free somatics video trainings available now.
Related Blogs
The Cat Stretch is what Thomas Hanna called the daily maintenance somatics exercise program in his book, Somatics.
The cat stretch is a misnomer even though we often see our furry felines appearing to stretch.
Cat Stretch is not Stretching
The result of a cat stretch could make one more restful.
When a cat stretches, it is actually tightening or contracting a series of muscles. We’ve come to find out this is called a pandiculation. When we do this entire act, our muscles lengthen and become more relaxed.
Our clever cat uses its brain’s motor cortex to initiate a movement, which at first glance looks like a stretch. You’ve seen a cat round its back. It’s not stretching the back, it’s pulling the belly in and using the abdominal muscles to pull back.
Then… it’ll release itself. The abs are reset and ready to be used. Healthy vertebrate animals naturally reset their muscles and movement system periodically throughout the day. No wonder they rest so well. If only we could do the same.
Cat Stretch – 7 Simple Movements
Fortunately, some 300 years after we learned about pandiculations. This very act brings muscles to rest. The system of somatics exercises teaches us how to go cortical and re-establish length and comfort in our movement system. Watch the fast version of the cat stretch below.
Here is what the 7 simple movements of the cat stretch address.
1. The first movement wakes up the brain, spine and hips.
2. The second movement helps to release tightness in our front side, such as the abdomen. This will allow the back to further lengthen.
3. This movement relaxes the muscles of the back, from the neck all the way down to the foot.
4. The fourth move releases held tension levels in the hips and chest. If we’re locked-in from too much sitting or hard work, this is a go to release.
5. Most everyone’s favorite movement, this delicious move lengthens the spine, frees up the hips and shoulders… and is enough to purr along.
6. A 3 part lower body sequence to free up the feet and ankles and connect up to the hips, back and head. This helps to straighten out the legs for better walking and balance in running.
7. The final movement of the cat stretch addresses the neck, back rotation and hip mobility in a delightful seated manner. You may not need the car mirrors anymore after this.
Cat Stretch Audio Recording
Healthy animals do a number of morning resets. We can simply follow along with a morning routine of the cat stretch somatics exercises designed for the human animal. Once you learn the routine, it only takes minutes to remind the muscles of their natural length, while at the same improving the mobility we need for the day.
Just like a good cat stretch at night, we can drift off and sleep more easily too.
The Cat Stretch daily maintenance somatics exercises program is now available to download and enjoy in the comfort of your home – meow.
The holiday period can be a source of increased stress when there is little time to do all the things we want. The “to do” list may be a little longer than usual and increase any neck and shoulder pain.
As the pressures, tension and stresses keep adding up, what do we do to safely and effectively release the valve of pent-up demands on us?
The Stress of Neck and Shoulder Pain
All stress isn’t bad. There is both positive and negative stress. The good stress comes in thinking about all the wonderful gifts or things we’d like to do for our loved ones this season.
The negative stress may happen as we get ‘er done filling in the list with little time to do so. So how can we handle the negative stress so it doesn’t adversely affect us?
Pandiculate Neck and Shoulder Pain
One simple way is to pandiculate out the building negative tension. This way we keep it bay and can continue to take on stress as it comes.
Fortunately, we’ve systematized pandiculations as somatics exercises where we do very simple movements to get the brain to release chemicals of relaxation and this lowers tension levels.
In this giving season, you can give yourself a much needed break from rising tension which may add to any neck and shoulder pain.
Holiday Stress Buster – Neck and Shoulder Pain Audio Recording
If you haven’t accessed the free 15 minute audio routine to release the neck and shoulders. Try this for neck and shoulder pain.
You’ll be able to do these easy moves while your standing in line waiting or sitting in the car when traffic isn’t moving.
Have all the stress you want… and let it go as easily as a duck ruffles its feathers. Don’t let neck and shoulder pain slow you down for the holidays.
Being able to twist the spine around is enough to make some of us shout – some in the agony of pain and the rest of us with joy.
Certainly there are yoga poses where you turn the spine and pull back counter to the twist.
As one contemplates our breath and associated feelings, some people attempt to achieve greater length by trying to get more.
Twist and Shout Another Way and Lose the SMA
In Hanna Somatic Education, we use somatics exercises to engage the brain in order to affect a change of information the muscles receive.
Somatics exercises are unlike most approaches since we go at things from a brain based perspective where we use mindful movement rather than any static holding positions.
The brain, the one big muscle, can effectively reset the resting tension levels using a more delicate approach. Much like untying a knot, gently moving our tissues unlocks held tension and stiffness.
When we push a contracted area, the targeted muscles become shorter. They pull back to the known set levels. They have lost their way to neutral or rest with high tension levels. The term we use is sensory-motor amnesia (sma).
SMA, muscular stiffness, stress and high tension patterns are temporary yet ongoing phenomenons until we change things with a simple movement update using the brain’s cortex.
You are a self adjusting living organism and you can adjust the feel and sensitivity levels of your muscles so they remember their way back to neutral when you twist yourself about.
Birthright to Move Well – Twist and Shout
When I lived in the near 2 decades of chronic pain, I knew there was a way out. What I didn’t know was how to simply update the body’s movement software.
Using the brain and adjusting with what appears to be deceptively simple movement, I could live a comfortable life and take out any kinks, stiffness, stress, tension and recover from injury quickly.
Our birthright is to move well. When we get off track, we can use that space between our ears to get things back online, running smoothly once again. We can twist and shout for joy as often as we want.
Twist and Shout Class
The ability to twist our self in one direction and then another can be enhanced through conscious movement rather than arduous exercise or holding our self in position for any length of time.
If we find ourself sitting too much in a day, we can grow our spine to greater length by doing a few simple easy movements which may seem initially challenging until our brain remembers to inform the muscles to let go.
Surely they will… and you can twist and shout about it.
This week, I’ll be offering an online somatics exercise class where all you have to do is listen and follow along. You can join me live or get the replay.
You’ll learn one amazing somatics exercise pattern to counter what our back keeps encountering… its gradual decline and shortening.
In a few minutes, you can:
• feel taller, straighter and longer
• feel the back relaxing
• and have greater mobility so movement itself is freer
C’mon and twist and shout with us.
Have you seen the movie Hungry for Change?
If you haven’t, you can order the book Hungry for Change and then you can get access to the movie and watch it on your computer or ipad.
Check out this trailer for the movie Hungry for Change.
The Hungry for Change people will not only give you online access to watch the movie.
You’ll get these goodies after you get the book, Hungry for Change:
• the audio version of the movie
• Food Matters Recipe ebook
• a Visualization mp3
• and the soundtrack from the movie
+ more.
If you’re not into dieting or you’ve tried any number of them, you might found out there’s another way to feeling good which can be way easier and tastier too!
After you order the book, to get all the goodies… which by the way, you’ve got until Saturday afternoon to do so. Then go here and get all the freebies listed above.
Get on Board with Hungry for Change
When Mom said to “eat your vegetables”. She knew what she was talking about. Thanks Mom.
Watch the movie, Hungry for Change, with your kids and lets end all the silliness about why kids are bigger and can’t move as well as we did when we were their age.
The next time you think about grabbing a Power-Gator-Ade sports drink, think again!
These so-called “sports drinks” are little more than water and sugary-tasting poison mixed together. Don’t believe me? Below is a list of the ingredients in a typical sports drink.
Typical Sports Drinks Ingredients List
Ingredients: Water, Brominated Vegetable Oil, Sucralose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Natural and artificial flavors, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Monopotassium Phosphate, Glycerol Ester of Wood Rosin, Artificial Colors.
Let’s see, first we’ve got brominated vegetable oil which is made from genetically modified soy, not to mention processed with all kinds of toxic chemicals. Then we’ve got high fructose corn syrup which is highly linked to the obesity epidemic and is probably one of the worst sugars you can consume. Then there are “natural and artificial flavors” which generally aren’t made in a very natural way and many of the substances that fall in that category are carcinogens.
Continuing on in the list of wonderful ingredients, we have artificial colors – many of which are not only linked to ADD and ADHD but are also carcinogens and teratogens (meaning they can cause birth defects).
So are sports drinks a health drink? Clearly not!
But what can you drink to make sure you get enough hydration when you’re exerting yourself so much as an athlete or working out in the gym or doing some other intense physical activity? Well, a little research into some old traditions show an amazingly ancient way of getting hydrated and keeping your energy levels high. In fact, it’s probably one of the oldest “sports drinks” out there.
One of the Oldest Sports Drinks
It’s called chia seeds and water.
You see, about 3,500 years ago, the Aztec people were known for having the fiercest warriors in the world. And they grew chia seeds for a very specific purpose – they were grown only to be consumed by the fiercest of the Aztec warriors in battle.
Why? Because chia seeds are loaded with healthy Omega-3 fats, protein and tens of thousands of phytonutrients and antioxidants. Chia seeds are also extremely light, meaning that a warrior could carry enough chia seeds to sustain them for a month or more out in battle if things got rough. And he could mix the chia seeds in water to make it easier to consume them while he hydrated.
You too can give your body the gift of hydration like an Aztec warrior by avoiding typical sports drinks and making your own at home (it’s a lot cheaper too!). Here’s one of my favorite chia water recipes for staying hydrated when I’m working out. I hope you enjoy it!
Chia Sports Drinks Recipe
Ingredients:
16 oz water
1-4 Tablespoons chia seeds (depending on how thick you want it)
Fresh squeezed lemon, orange or lime juice
Directions: Just stir the chia seeds into the water and add some fresh juice for flavor. Let the chia seeds soak up the water for at least 20-30 minutes, mix it again and enjoy! You can carry it with you in a water bottle and drink it during intense physical activity to stay hydrated and energized all day long like an Aztec warrior.
Tom Corson-Knowles is the founder of the Authentic Health Coaching show, the #1 Podcast show on Podomatic. Tom is the co-author of the revolutionary book Dr. Corson’s Top 5 Nutrition Tips. Tom also blogs regularly about nutrition, healthy recipes and growing your own food.
I’m hanging out with some authors in a book club and they are letting me know when they release books on health matters.
Free Books on Health LTO
If you go to this facebook page I’ll update the books on health after I review them. You have to act quickly as the free offers are time limited.
If you don’t have a kindle, no worries, you can download a free kindle reader for just about any computer.
Today’s books on health is on affirmations & guided imagery.
As I began my journey out of fibromyalgia, which was solved primarily through movement, an interesting set of words began to pour out.
When I arose in the morning… the sounds of “wach-tele” spewed forth from my lips.
I had no idea why these strange sounding words kept coming up for the following months.
Each time I would say them, my body felt energized. A new sense of aliveness grew. Finally, I accepted this as my body’s mantra. It was only until later that I thought about the word “wach” a form of wachen, in German to get up or awake and tele – in Greek, to transmit from a long distance.
Was it possible that my brain/body was talking to me? Was it telling me that an awakening was taking place in my still ongoing brain fog filled days?
Did it already know I was going to come out of this miserable state of ongoing chronic pain?
Our body is incredibly wise. Even if it is wracked with the difficult wiring we are dealing with for the moment – which can be too many moments like the ones I endured for nearly 20 years.
At the time, I was still living in too much brain fog to see and understand that in fact the clouds, veils and misty brain was clearing and a healthy vibrant body was in the midst of an enduring transformation.
Books on Health – Your Own Journal
Naturally, my journal was more filled with all the bad feelings I was living with, the ones which kept coming up – but upon review later on – I was surprised at how the dialogue changed in the journey out of the fog.
While I did get to experience a good day more often than I had in the past, I didn’t know many, many more were to come. The fog was lifting and as if veils were revealing themselves, I began to notice this after the fact.
Then as another veil lifted, transformed and vanished, I would relish this new found state of clarity or was it merely the return to normal senses and feelings of wellness which I could trust would continue.
“Would it hold?” Ever the question with the countless therapies – well I did count the 66 various health care practitioners up one day – and how simple that a belief to being well with movement paved the way.
As I continued to learn how to move well, meditate, use affirmations and allow my body to have its own. “Wach-tele” was well underway before I knew it.
This past summer I won medals at the state & national level. I earned another trophy with my mates as well as the first place plaque in our competitive local summer league.
Books on Health to Check Out
And how did this happen? Well I continue to use affirmations and guided imagery to set the course. I use the belief I create. Follow that up with some mental practice and obviously have to train my muscles so they can compete. Of course, I never exercise in the normal way and this continues to amaze those around me… but that’s another story.
Please hurry and go check out today’s books on health offer.
Are you a back whisperer? Can you take yourself or someone you know out of a back spasm fairly quickly?
Today some 10% of us live in chronic back pain. Ouch! It’s probably not news that the number 2 reason we see a doctor is – for back pain.
Unless of course you’re a back whisperer.
While most adults have experienced back pain, some 14% of us will live with it for several days. 26% of us live with back pain for the entire day. That’s just wrong or so I say having had to endure back pains in my 20′s & 30′s.
The Back Whisperer and Back Spasms
Recently a client explained how he had helped a boy recover within 10 minutes from some back spasms.
“I was just at leadership camp and a kid went down with severe spinal spasms. I took a nod from you and moved him from completely rigid and incapacitated to walking around normally in under 10 minutes. Very cool.”
The kids who witnessed this now call him the back whisperer.
That is pretty cool since 39% of us live with back pain for a few hours. Are these people their own back whisperer or what is it that most of us do to overcome back pain?
Half, that’s 50% of the people pop pills. A good 1/4 use over the counter measures while 1/5 use prescriptions.
For the rest of us that are trying to do something about it, 34% do stretches some other type of exercises. Men outnumber women in terms of the percentages who are doing something.
Back Whisperer – Men or More Women
Does this mean women already do something right? Do they have less back pain? Do they know the way of the back whisperer?
In any case, the back whisperer secret is free for all of us to try. You can join our free mini-course and learn how to do the very maneuvers the back whisperer used on his young charge.
Hanna Somatic Educators know how fast back spams can resolve by carefully moving in simple, easy movement patterns when coupled with our awareness. By being aware of our movements, we resolve many holding tension patters and as a result, your body may say thank you.
Be Your Own Back Whisperer
No need for pain meds, no special equipment, and no arduous exercise involved. The secret of the back whisperer is awareness.
Instead of being yet another statistic, why not find out for yourself if you can be a back whisperer too.
Sugar Baby
ByAre you a sugar baby?
A stealthy public health crisis is happening according to Dr. Lusting.
Is being a sugar baby leading us to obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and heart disease?
Watch this 60 minutes interview by CNN’s Sanjay Gupta.
The next time you try some sweets. Take a moment and feel what’s going on inside.
How does your body respond?
What do you do after dessert or drinking some pop?
How does it feel to be a sugar baby?
