Somatics is defined as the body experienced from within. Thomas Hanna coined this term which not only relates to movement as is taught in Hanna Somatic Education®, it also relates to our entire being.
While I normally comment on movement as a key to well-being. Moving to the refrigerator and in the grocery store or sitting down for a prepared meal in a restaurant is another part of a strategy to well-being.
If you’re loading yourself up on packaged foods and expect your body to move well… please try it again and see if you get the same result. I applaud the efforts of Jamie Oliver’s television show and his intent to plant seeds to improve not only how school children eat… it’s a lesson for us big kids too.
Moving well also requires you to nourish your being with food that gives you positive energy and one of the simplest of foods is merely drinking clean and healthy water.
Lack of hydration, ill nourishment and medication, both legal and illegal will take you away from moving well as nature intends, otherwise, all the pandiculators, the healthy vertebrate animals would be in a mess too. Some of them are on account of what they have access to as well as your children and the community you live in.
I know when I travel and can’t get organic food, I’m in a literal bind, which thankfully only lasts for a small duration and when I discover areas which have co-ops and healthy restaurants which I even discovered in Sin City, Las Vegas in a soccer tournament I was competing in…
My hope is that Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution will re-spark what so many have come to understand how food is delivered to children at school, what is available at the grocery store, and what we ingest as fast food.
Healthy minds thrive on good food, physical activity, great relationships and the inner feeling of connectedness. This is somatics. To move with intelligence is our birthright as is evidenced by how we pandiculated in our mother’s womb. To continue to move well is fostered by this intelligent act of pandiculation.
To eat well is a choice to wield another and further intelligence to allow us to move, think and act freely with a consciousness promoting well-being for all of us. Our health care reform moves onward when we all participate in promoting well-being and practicing it… and modeling it for all children.
It’s not always easy to take the time to prepare a good meal, move with intelligence, think clearly and act in a positive manner… but when the seed is planted and we repeat the simple practice of hygiene in all it’s varied forms, then we truly progress to living life as easy and as well as it can be.
It’s an effort that is well rewarded with feelings of pleasure, confidence, and self-actualization. Life is simple… eat well, move well, think well, be well. The paths can be varied, overlap and your somatics sense of yourself will feel and know it. It’s just practice and revolutions such as Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution remind us of our greatness, our capacity to feel it, and that desire which calls us to move forward.
Related Blogs
Did you get a glimpse of Apolo Ohno right before he races?
Check him out on Live with Regis and Kelly.
Did you also notice that after what appears to be a yawn… how relaxed he became? Of course you had to watch it in progress to see him show the response of relaxation.
When you’re at the top of your game or wanting to keep pace with younger talent, you’ll use any edge necessary, though in this case, Apolo is using nature’s process of a pandiculation…
And he may not even know about it, as most people don’t… but it doesn’t matter what it’s called since this is just like many natural processes we use without knowing why.
Healthy animals with spines use this little known process to remain agile, quick and strong.
They’ll practice a series of pandiculations first thing in the morning and periodically self-adjust throughout the day. This explains how well they can move and it serves notice to us what we may need to remind ourselves on a daily basis…
How well you move is up to you? 
Can you improve with age? I think so and though I was living in chronic pain for the better part of two decades… years later I earned only a couple of medals in my 40’s.
My secret training method… pandiculate of course. Now I’ve got some work to do to catch up with Apolo and the rest of the healthy animals.
Whidbey Island is a great place to visit and heal your self.
Who knows when you’ll come across one of the locals…
Join us on Saturday afternoon for three hours of feeling the bliss that you can create by using your wonderful brain to move you in easy, gentle and novel ways.
Pandiculate your way to health and soar like an eagle again.
Moving simply and easily is a gateway to the pandicular response, as identified by Thomas Hanna.
When you cross into the realm of using your cortical pathways to release brain chemicals …you produce relaxation and diminished physical pains and stress.
Instead of using techniques and methods, you can learn how to harness your awareness through a process most people have never heard of, namely the process of pandiculation via Somatics Exercises.
Can moving your self so simply and gently that it could boggle your mind be a way of out the misery? … the way out of the aches, the ongoing strains…
Your mind is very powerful and all you have to do is tap into this natural resource.
Come roll with us … Learn more here.
Somatic Tips
ByHow well you move, plays a roll in how well you feel. Learning to move with greater ease isn’t always easy. If you’re used to giving it your all or moving with more force than is necessary, chances are your over doing it unconsciously… and this could be the cause of your discomforts.
*Move with Less Effort*
A practice in moving easily is simply accomplished by dialing down your effort in moving. Being more precise with your movements involves lessening your effort so your muscles work efficiently instead of shuddering with extra effort.
Noticing where you contract from or the area you are using during a movement may not initially be clear. When you contract and shorten your muscles, take notice to the areas where your contract, the level of effort, the feeling, the sensations aroused or lack thereof.
As you contract your muscles, others are normally and naturally lengthening in response. It’s not necessary to force the length, rather your observation of it happening, deepens your awareness and your coordination in what moves what and where and how it moves.
*Be Aware of your release*
If you can merely observe the release of your contraction, you’ll notice the resulting length is accomplished without force.
If you force the length, a signal is generated by your brain to re-contract the tissues afterwards. Traditional forms of stretching actually produce tighter muscles according to the latest research.
To have the flexibility of a cat, the agility of a panther, and the ability to jump like a gazelle requires you to follow their lead. Animals engage their motor cortex through the process of a series of pandiculations.
*First thing in the morning*
Since animals self-correct throughout their day, it would be wise once again to follow their lead. When healthy, they engage the process first thing in the morning, every day. There’s their key.
Who else is going to ready your muscles for you each new day? Animals are wise enough to do it first. They are not checking the emails nor will you find a way to ready to yourself in your emails, unless of course, you happen to be receiving the Somatic Classes via email.
The natural process of engaging your motor cortex is always available to you… I know you have other things to attend to.
It’s just a process and as far as I know most of us have the ability to engage in the process since it primarily activates your motor cortex, which has been called your highest learning center.
You can continue to learn and generate new brain cells. Neurogenesis and neural plasticity perhaps becomes of interest as you age, unless you already engage the process everyday. If you are, yoohoo, you’re way ahead of most people as the mass understanding of this process hasn’t reached them, yet!
Somatics is merely applied neurogenesis.
*Pay attention to how you move*
Practicing Somatics is a matter of paying attention to how you manipulate yourself in the field of gravity. How you contend or float in the field of gravity is known to you by the signals your body generates. You can become more One with the field of gravity. No this isn’t airy fairy stuff, I mean you can continually fight gravity and keep kicking yourself in the pants, which would naturally lead to tighter hamstrings and a sore back.
*Use your self-correcting brain and mind*
The power lies in your brain to self-correct, adapt accordingly, merely by spending some time in your self. When you practice the variety of movements which are offered in the Somatics classes or through your understanding and application of Somatics, your brain feeds off of these differentiated patterns to present you with possibilities of change in your habit of movement.
Your habitual and repetitive patterns lead to some of the negative results you encounter over and over.
*Differentiate your movements*
Differentiation provides an avenue to more integrated, more coordinated, more balanced and efficient movement itself. You’ll know how, when, and at what speed, in order to move more cohesively.
So as I said, learning to move with greater ease isn’t easy, but it’s very simple once you get the hang of the process.
The antidote for discomfort, pain, aches, soreness, etc, lies between your ears.
Engaging the process is not under your nose, it’s in it.
