What can we do to improve eyesight, lessen jaw pain, and improve the neck’s ability to move comfortably even though we may be sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Improve eyesight… free up the neck.
There are any number of eye exercises, diet considerations and things you can do for the eyes. Sometimes getting up and drinking some water is enough to take out the strain.
Sitting at a computer for longer periods of time is not a way to improve eyesight since our range of vision and motion is compromised into a smaller space. Unless of course, you are working on building shorter, more contracted eye muscles.
Simple neck mobilizations and moving the eyes just a little differently are enough to ward off hours of limited motion.
Improve eyesight in just a few minutes
Relaxing the tension from hours of using our eyes in a small space or holding our neck a certain way, takes just a few minutes. Yet how many of us are really going to spend the necessary few minutes to take care of it.
Don’t we usually wait until the jaw pain or neck immobility becomes too great before we act. Pain is a great teacher, but why wait for our body to get locked up and not be able to lessen the accumulated tension and muscular stress.
Just a few minutes of careful self awareness combined with releasing the tension as naturally as any animal will do, allows us to keep on doing the things we human animals think we need or want to do.
Healthy animals do things like yawn. Well they contract their jaw muscles so it looks like a yawn. Go ahead, give yourself a big yawn and pay attention to all the muscles in your neck your tightening up.
Somatics exercises improve eyesight
The way to let go of tension and improve eyesight is to do what animals do. Thank goodness we’ve systematized what animals do as somatics exercises.
We’ve borrowed the very same process which is done in movement, not a static hold and release for a certain period of time.
With periodic self-adjustments and self-corrections, our neck will be freer, our jaw will be looser and we can improve eyesight simply.
Why hold all the tension in place when we can consciously learn to let it go with a little simple practice of awareness and easy movement patterns.
If you want to learn more, please join me in this Friday’s somatics exercise class to improve eyesight, free the neck and ease a tight jaw.
Awhile back I had the pleasure of meeting Barefoot Ted and some of the tribe from the Exuberant Animals. A great group of physical educators who turned me onto a pair of great shoes that feel as if someone just put a warm glove on my feet.
Somatics Shoes… The no shoe shoe if you will.
It’s my understanding that the best shoe is one that has the flattest sole and gives us some protection from the elements. Shoes like the old PF flyers and Converse flat sole shoes are excellent examples.
The moccasin has been a favorite of many people. Another group of people, runners, are going at it in their bare feet.
Many people have told me that while at home, they enjoy the feelings they have being in their bare feet.
Vibram Five Fingers are definitely somatics shoes
Somatics which is defined as the body experience from within has met its match with the Vibram Five Finger Shoes that I call somatics shoes.
Imagine if you will putting glove liners and mittens on your hands all day. What do you think will happen to the function of your hands and arms? Wonder what is happening to our feet?
Somatics shoes fits like a glove, moves like an animal
If you want to move like an animal…try a pair and let me know if you can ever stand to wear another shoe again. Vibram has hit a home run with these somatics shoes.
Better walking by not walking?
I remember when I could barely walk 50 feet and my shoulders would sear in pain and my ongoing tight back… well it would simply stiffen more as I trudged my way through it like a trooper. Why oh why?
Good news is, I was moving. The bad news, it wasn’t getting better and so after some time I just learned to continue to move painfully and suck it up.
So what can we do about better walking?
To be able to facilitate better walking, just imagine those lost feelings we had of childlike, easy movement.
We all know how well a panther can move.
Setting up movement is what all healthy vertebrate animals do before they have to run away or go after the prey.
Walking with stiffness like a zombie scared a lot of us as kids. Why did we lose our childlike feelings of easy, effortless movement? Is this the reward of aging or forgetting to move like an animal.
Better Walking by Not Exercising
The other side of the coin is using our brain, the one big muscle, to facilitate better mobility, agility and flexibility naturally as all healthy vertebrate animals do.
Simply through the conscious act of a pandiculation which has been systematized as somatics exercises can we move more effectively.
Somatics is not exercise in the traditional manner since all we are doing is using the brain to decrease excessive muscular contraction levels.
By decreasing those levels, we can move more easily so better walking is accomplished through the release of held muscular positions that we consciously can’t let go off or those that we aren’t aware of in the moment.
So please join me this week, Friday, September 16th as I’ll be offering some ways to move which will afford you better walking in the days to come.
Ever bump into that unkindly way our body responds when a muscle spasms?
Those muscle spasms can feel hard as a rock and at times painful and annoying when it just stops us in our tracks or leaves us writhing on the floor trying to get to a phone to call someone to help us.
When muscle spasms happen we generally react by pulling away and trying to lengthen the offending signal of the stiff, cramping muscle.
Muscle Spasms at night
Have you ever woken up at night with a painful leg cramp or muscle spasms which get your immediate attention?
Whadya do? Stand on it, eat a banana, use heat, use ice, or take some muscle relaxants. People have even had the pleasure of drinking pickle juice when dealing with muscle spasms.
We have all sorts of remedies yet we are most likely dealing with a brain signal that is easily changed once we know how to easily un-lock the code and reorganize the muscles.
Quiet down the zoo of muscle spasms
What’s a charley horse? Who is your animal?
While the term usually is used for a cramp, muscle spasms happening in the leg have fun names from other cultures.
In Norway, it’s called a thigh hen and in Germany it’s a horse’s kiss. While in southern Italy, a donkey bite and in Guam, a rat of all things.
Makes you wonder what to call a butt cramp, a charlie donkey or just a pain in the a!*?
In other countries, it’s called ice leg, paralyzer, wooden leg, hard one, crutch and wouldn’t you know… cramp in the leg.
When we’ve experienced this varied and colorful sensation, we can feel the alarm bell go off and our muscles seem to be held in the “on” position.
Sometimes the signal can last for a moment, hours or beat intermittently for some time.
In many cases, our muscles have appropriately reacted with was is known as the stretch reflex.
When we pull our hands away from a hot stove, it’s a good thing to have a quick reaction which saves us from a burn.
On the other hand, the switch can be set “on” from a previously contracted muscle which most likely was already being contracted at a rate higher than the resting or neutral rate it can lie in to be used.
Many of us live with high tension levels or compensations of an elevated hip, over arched spine, or the countless others ways we can hold ourself together more than necessary. Our muscles will keep on going to a certain point.
When they are exhausted from our activity or stress thresholds and we push pass the tipping point, we can set off any number of muscle spasms.
When we push on a contracted muscle, the good news is that the stretch reflex reflexively pulls away. You ain’t gotta do a thing about it. The reflex happens.
Your spinal cord will pull the hand away from the hot stove just as you jerk in reaction to being hit with a hammer from the doctor.
When we get a muscle spasm at night from turning over, we’ve bumped into a reflex which comes “on” even though we were in our off mode.
Interesting how a movement, such as when someone merely bends over and reaches, yet throws their back into a full blown grabbing set of muscle spasms.
Or how about someone doing some exercise like abdominal crunches and “poof” there goes the belly into yet another specific train of muscle spasms.
Lock jaw, groin pulls, and runners who pull their hamstring muscles… ‘course some people do that merely from walking a little too fast too… are again signals generated from the spinal cord to protect us.
But what if we over-ride and self-correct the offending signal with our brain’s capacity to change how much muscles can actually output.
To quite down the zoo and terms for muscle spasms, we can use a little animal know to take care of it.
When is the last time you saw a cheetah running 60 mph and set itself off in muscle spasms?
Maybe they have four legs and can balance more evenly. Why wouldn’t they then have twice as many muscle spasms?
While we believe the right amount of electrolytes and a balanced diet helps the nervous system thrive instead of “pull” one for the team of our muscles. De-hydration too hasn’t shown itself to be too convincing either as the cause of muscle spasms even though we suspect it so.
Healthy vertebrate animals remain limber, agile and flexible on account of the little pandicular maneuvers they do each morning and throughout the day.
The good news is that the process they use has been systematized as somatics exercises which treat muscle spasms and other painful muscular conditions.
To deal with muscle spasms is to use the brain, the one big muscle, to re-set the offending signals.
It’s really quite easy to re-set an over contracting signal unless you have no experience at it… but we all do since most of us pandiculated in our mother’s womb.
It’s like a dusty software file in our brain. All we have to do is re-access it with a little know-how and “poof” the signal of the muscle spasms tunes down.
When we get good at reminding the nervous system how easy it is to reset it, then you can drop all the ice, balms, muscle relaxants and take care of it on the spot.
The brain can reset the resting rates of overly contracted muscles through a simple process which you yourself can replicate in case muscle spasms happens to you.
“Please bring me your muscle spasms.”
You can now access this online class. You’ll learn how to get out of muscle spasms using a little animal know how.
You’ll learn how to apply a simple 3 step method which is a piece of cake to get since we already have the movement software built in. Again, it’s just a matter a accessing it in the brain and getting the brain to release certain chemicals of relaxation.
By using the brain in a precise way, we can relax muscle spasms and calm the muscles down naturally and effectively.
OK, there may be a pucker factor or two to go through but the end will be a painless result, easier movement and the self-knowledge that muscle spasms ain’t no big thing.
Recuperation
ByWhen you go out to do whatever physical activity you engage in and over exert yourself, what form of recuperation do you use?
Do you use a hot tub? Do you use ice or ibuprofen to soothe your muscles?
Laurie and myself thought we were going to play in an over 45 co-ed soccer tournament last past weekend and found out it was over 40 instead. What are you going to do at our age?
Preparation & Recuperation
Good thing we both practiced our somatics exercises in preparation. We also did them in between and after the games all weekend.
This method of preparation and recuperation allows us to move more freely after engaging our bodies in an activity that is not normal in terms of our human development. All the cutting back and forth while wearing cleats is not what the natural design of the body has been used for over time.
Wearing our joints down with this un-natural and at times risky movement activity can exact a price. We’ve watched over time how many people struggle.
Even this weekend, we are watching how teenagers are barely making it through one game of soccer, in spite of all the training they are receiving.
Makes you wonder how much knowledge is applied when it comes to recuperation even at this young age.
In our age group, while others were doing some stretching, using tiger balm and downing ibuprofens… I kept a keen eye on who would make it through all the games without hearing the usual complaints of stiffness, soreness, aches, and over exertion that is very common not only in playing in adult leagues but the extra level it sometimes takes to make it through an entire weekend-warrior competition.
With our gray hairs, we both comfortably walked away with a 3rd place trophy. We were both happy how our bodies held up in the 90°+ heat in Yakima, WA at the aptly named Sunburn Tournament.
Our Preferred Method of Recuperation
Our preferred method of recuperation, using somatics exercises, allows us to be able to successfully compete and not have any of the usual stiffness afterwards. We had other weekend plans in store for the drive back.
On our way back, we drive through Mt. Rainer National Park.
The fresh air felt incredibly well to breathe. It was odd that only a couple of hours before we played in the heat of eastern Washington.
We didn’t have to traipse around at some 5400 feet, instead we comfortably ambled about enjoying the 5th National Park in the U.S.
Nature has a way of restoring one’s health even after grinding it out on the playing field. It’s as if our recuperation was fostered by hiking in the clean mountain air full of alpine flowers and snow in August.
The following night we headed over to our usual over 50 fun league to play a more recreational level of soccer and once again our bodies were well recuperated so that we could enjoy playing at the indoor arena.
The indoor game is a different type of game than the outdoor version. The movements are shorter and sometime quicker on account of the ball bouncing quickly off the boards and glass. Our quick reactions and the ability to respond without being hung-up is vital.
Laurie’s son accompanied us. He also got to play in a game. As we were leaving, all 3 of us were asked to just stay one more game, so we played with the younger 20’s somethings.
Now in between games, I thought I was done for the evening and would enjoy one of those malt filled beverages that many people use as a form of recuperation. Little did I know that I was about to play once again.
On our ride back, our teenager complained of being tired. Both Laurie and I heartily laughed as we compared the number of games we all had played. The old folks had him 5 to 2 (and 98 years to 15) and neither of one of us were sore, stiff, or aching as a result.
Even Grandma knows how to wield recuperation
I cannot rave enough about how amazing our recuperation powers are when we use the brain using the simple somatic movements.
While it’s of great help to have a positive mind-set, it’s fun to see how the body just keeps moving well along for the ride.
Even grandma, who missed the last step of getting off of the boat on their boating excursion to Canada, twisted her knee and asked Grandpa to show her some of those somatics exercises he diligently practices.
Grandma, like the rest of us, found how quickly her own powers of recuperation came to the fore when she used the somatics exercises which gets the brain to release held states of contraction while improving muscular function.
Brain based exercises like somatics take the edge off of the muscular tension, stiffness, and the stress we accumulate. Now had I only known this when I was living with fibromyalgia, I might have spared myself the many years of chronic pain.
No matter, to move well… can happen at least at age 50 and beyond for others. I’ll let you how it goes when I get to 60.
My hunch is… in the next decade I’ll probably learn a little more on re-balancing the nervous system and refreshing the body with somatics exercises.
All it takes is simple, easy movements which remind the nervous system to calm things down a notch. The powers of recuperation and moving comfortably lie well within us.
Do we get enough exercise? Do we have simple ways to decrease the stress we feel in our muscles? Can we reduce joint pain?
Somatics exercises is one avenue we can all use to keep our living movement system free from a lot of the aches and pains that many people endure. We can also enhance and complement our life with a diet richer in omega 3 fatty acids.
Where do I find Omega 3 Fatty Acids?
If you’re into keeping your brain healthy, your mind sharp, and moving well, then a diet rich in omega 3 fatty acids will also calm your mood too.
When we eat certain nuts, seeds and wild fish like salmon, tuna & sardines our body tends to build up resiliency instead of breaking down when we eat processed foods.
Did you know that 90% of Americans are low on the intake of omega 3 fatty acids?
Since our bodies can’t produce it, we’ve got to include a rich source of it through what we eat.
Increasing the amount of omega 3 fatty acids can help with lowering the risk of heart disease, reducing the risk of cancer and increasing our low levels of energy.
Our heart, eyes and even the immune system can be optimized by a proper intake of omega 3 fatty acids.
What is the right level of omega 3 fatty acids?
Well I don’t know but the people looking into this like Dr. Mark Hyman who will appear on the Dr. Oz show this week will talk about a test created by Dr. William Harris who is an expert on omega 3 fatty acids on human health.
Dr. Harris has created an at home test called the Omega Quant HS-Omega-3 Index.
Now there’s a mouthful but I hear the health problems we encounter are sometime easier to fix and reverse than we think.
Often times people are very surprised with the simple somatics exercises. Their minds are literally boggled at how such simple movements can be so profound. Could the fork we use be another tool?
Simple Diet Change with Omega 3 Fatty Acids
Same thing goes with our diet. OK, I know some of us love to eat the stuff we think is food and it can be daunting to give it up.
But what if you could help prevent asthma, improve blood sugar levels to protect you from diabetes and slow down the decline associated with Alzheimer’s just by changing your diet a little.
You can take the test and find out for yourself if Doctor’s Harris, Hyman and Oz are onto something beneficial for you.
Somatics which is defined as the body experienced from within not only relates to how well or not well we feel when we move or not move, it also has to do with paying attention to the signals our bodies generate from what we put into it too.
Dr. Mark Hyman may tell you that your fork can be your friend or enemy and one of the important tools when it comes to your health and well-being.
Check out your omega 3 fatty acids profile.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could be your own bodyworker and release tight, stiff, sore muscles yourself?
Somatics exercises uses the field of gravity so you can use the brain to get muscles to lose tension and relax more quickly. This is one way to act as your own bodyworker.
Doing a pandiculation, which is at the heart of somatics, is what we do when we do somatics exercises. When a trained somatic bodyworker works with your muscles this is called an assisted pandiculation.
Bodyworker and assisted pandiculations.
Hanna Somatic Educators are trained bodyworkers and movement experts who help people restore the function of muscles with either bodywork or specific exercises or a combination of both.
This training takes place over the course of three years since even for the so-called experts, there is a shift in learning how the body responds neurologically and well let’s face, the practitioner needs a lot of practice to fully understand the thousands of combinations we all move in and how we articulate ourselves.
In the last decade, I’ve noticed many shifts of internal organization as I too have learned my way out of compensatory habits and established newer, easier movement patterns which evolve and continue to surprise and delight me as I age.
A hands-on bodyworker in cooperation with a person has to figure out what needs to be released. By assisting a person with a pandiculation, both parties can sense a result taking place.
These assisted pandiculation often turn into the self-pandiculations that a person will do as the somatics exercises or homework to keep improving mobility, flexibility and the diminishment of panful signals.
Become your own bodyworker
As you become familiar with the somatics exercises, you can learn how to become your own bodyworker using gravity as the load or weight of resistance when you move yourself in the variety of movement patterns to restore function and improve coordination.
You can also use your own hands to provide the resistance with some of the somatics exercises. It’s best to be led by a Hanna Somatics Practitioner who can give you the idea or guide you along this path to help restore balance in the muscles.
When we use our own hands as a bodyworker on our self, we may be able to learn how to modulate our efforts with a little bit of practice.
Be your own Bodyworker Class
Reminding the movement system as to how it moves is what all healthy vertebrate animals do to keep themselves moving well. After all, what kind of bodyworker can they go to themselves?
For the most part, nature has set it up so all vertebrates can move well merely be reminding the nervous system to reset, or reboot if you will.
Fortunately, we can apply a systematic approach through the somatics exercises and use these tools to be our own bodyworker when needed.
This Friday, August 19th, I’ll be offering an online class in somatics exercises so you can do your own pandiculations in the field of gravity.
You’ll also learn how to use your own hands and be a bodyworker so you can do things like sit more comfortably crossed legged and free up your hips and hip flexors.
When we use our brain and neurology in novel ways, we can foster growth and education in the ways in which we move. We can actually move better as we age.
Now I’m only saying that when I compared myself to a group of 55 high school athletes and few if any had the hamstring flexibility of someone 3x their age.
Register for this Friday’s class. Find out for yourself how free you can be. Sign up and be your own bodyworker.
Do you have a story about being dairy free?
Pamela Ziemann, the author of Giving Voice to Your Cause, is having a video contest.
Just tell your story on giving up milk or dairy and you’ll have a chance to win some prizes.
Dairy Free Video Contest
How has being dairy free impacted your life?
Get out the your video cam and just tell your story.
Pamela grew up in dairy country and even had to be a real live dairy princess and she didn’t even like milk.
It took me years, well decades to make the change and all I can say is that I breathe easier and feel incredibly less congested than I did growing up.
Dairy Free Prizes
Pamela is giving away some cool prizes.
The video contest doesn’t begin until August 17th, so you can get the jump on everybody else.
She has a video on how to do a video… and being yourself on video if you haven’t ever made a video.
Dairy Free Stories
Go ahead tell the world what you’ve discovered about living without dairy.
How has your life changed and what did you have to go through to be dairy free?
Don’t wait too long, the dairy free video contest ends on September 21st.
We often find less pain, no pain, improved mobility, better balance, better focus and concentration as a result of doing exercises for the lower body in a differentiated manner.
Somatics exercises for the lower body can be thought of as engaging our self with the sub-programs of movement through an act of differentiation.
Movement software update – Exercises for the lower body
We’re not only re-programming how we move via our brain’s cortex, we can notice the distinct and different quality of the movement or of the resulting relaxation which occurs with somatics exercises for the lower body.
When we were younger, smaller and much lighter, we spent hours and hours of programming and re-reprogramming our movement patterns through many patterns of differentiation.
As we’ve aged and used those earlier programs, maybe we figured we have all the programs and don’t need to update the movement software anymore. We might have forgotten about the quality of differentiation when it comes to exercises for the lower body.
For ourself and our physical development, when did we end tweaking our movement software?
What is the proper amount?
Healthy animal exercises for the lower body
Healthy vertebrate animals naturally do 7-10 movement updates in the morning and 40-50 periodically throughout the day.
While this may sound like a lot of movements to do to remain healthy. Read this article on a motion tracking study.
Many of us have done 3 sets of 20 or lots of aerobics when it comes to exercises for the lower body. This shifts us into the brain’s cerebellum, which does learned movement.
The somatics approach to exercise differs by having the focus not be on the higher number of repetitions but on the quality of movement itself.
Somatics exercises for the lower body is about the act of movement itself along with the intention and precise angle of articulation so our motor cortex becomes highly involved and can change how the muscles function and come to rest.
These types of exercises for the lower body advances a cumulative approach to improving coordination, awareness, heightened balanced, and sharper sense of ourself.
Exercises for the lower body with a twist.
By changing our relationship with gravity, this small twist on doing exercises for the lower body is enough of a difference for our muscular tissues to evolve towards higher function.
When we change our effort, or even interrupt a pattern with our intention, this furthers along our brain to help the sub-program of movement to improve.
In this week’s Friday’s online class, we’re going to play with more exercises for the lower body doing the unusual somatics exercises in the normal way as well as in other differentiated and interesting ways.
You’ll consciously interrupt the simple 3 step method and learn a few newer ways to enhance the practice of somatics exercises in this class for exercises for the lower body.
