Healthy animals use pandiculation to be healthy.

The human animal for many reasons has forgotten to follow this simple script of hygiene for the muscles, joints and brain.

While the term is little known.

The definitions vary: An instinctive movement, consisting in the extension of the legs, the raising and stretching of the arms and the throwing back of the head and trunk, accompanied by yawning.

Yow.. that’s enough to make you pandiculate your own jaw.

What I’m talking about is the entire act and process of the pandiculation itself.

The pandicular response was identified by Thomas Hanna, the author of Somatics and the originator of Hanna Somatic Education®. He’s the one who came up with the term Somatics.

Somatics, not semantics, is defined as the body experienced from within. Pandiculation is one of those acts we experience.

The act of pandiculation is simple yet the goods are in the entire act.

While animals know not to answer the emails and pour the cup of coffee the first thing in the morning… the ability to move comfortably is what is at stake… and this may explain the imperativeness of this simple act of pandiculation.

Healthy animals engage their bodies in this pandiculation act through a series of maneuvers which look like stretching.

IT ISN’T.

That’s right, we pandiculated in our mother’s belly and we kept engaging in the act of a pandiculation until we got old enough to forget about our fountain of youth.

Let’s say we count the number of babies and add in all the animals with spines, then we’d find out that pandiculation rules… and it’s the most natural thing to do to take care of your self.

Pandiculation has been with us for a very long time.

Pandiculation is very natural and easy.

A mindful pandiculation is done quickly. It takes a simple move to reset.

You won’t ever have to hold yourself for any length of time… unless you like holding on for a minute or two or three or four. There’s a faster, smarter and more natural way to go about it doing a pandiculation instead.

Our pets have been showing us how to be happy movers every day. Too easy and too simple to believe.

Try it out for yourself and remind the brain, muscles and joints of their ability to move effortlessly and easily not by doing, rather by following along with the pandiculation act of doing, undoing and pausing… not hold it for for 30 seconds, a minute or 5 as we all once did or were trained to do.

If animals can move so readily, flee from danger and swoop in quickly, then how ready are we to move – without hurting ourself over and over.

To have to have the ability to move easily and comfortably is simple. This ability stems from reminding our self how to self-correct through the very nature of this act of pandiculation..

If you’ve been pandiculating, then you “get how” being aware of your body gives you solutions to your physical issues and how it can also offer insight into other areas of your life.

This may sound strange or weird, yet as you up the level of your internal awareness, your brain readily adjusts and improves our abilities to decreases our stress and tension levels.

Since pandiculation offers us an avenue into motor memory, our memory itself becomes clearer and our focus is much sharper.

Pandiculation is just another aspect of hygiene.

We can pandiculate to re-organize our movement software. Sort of like updating our computers.

If we sit a certain way, or walk in just two of the 17 different ways to walk or whatever activity we keep doing the same way day in, day out, then we’re setting our self up for proprioceptive disaster.

When our movement software doesn’t get updated… it’s just keeps falling behind. All it takes is a simple pandiculation to reset.

Pandiculating is a sign of health.

So why not maintain our own well being with the simple act of pandiculation. Simply feel and update. Who knows how well you’ll be able to move as you age?

That’s entirely up to you and how well you use your nervous system for your benefit. Or we can remain forever in movement 1.0, tread water and remain bound feeling there’s no way out.

Isn’t time for an update? Pandiculation gets the job done.

Really, this is kids stuff that old duffers, like myself, can use to revitalize the brain and the body.

Give it a try, the only thing we have to lose is our pain, stiffness, soreness, aches and ungainly and uncomfortable ways we keep moving about. Do you remember being free?

Yes, we can pandiculate our way to health and move as easy as we used to.

Is it a secret? No, it just is.

Nature’s way to move well happens through pandiculation.

Ed Barrera is a Hanna Somatic Educator® with over 10 years of experience, helping people find natural pain relief through somatics exercises which are the reverse to most approaches since it is brain exercise and muscle lengthening that targets the brain’s motor cortex which leads to a healthy, fully-functional body. It’s not just “alternative medicines” or “an alternative to exercise”; it’s natural pain relief that actually works!

To understand the somatic definition, visit our What is Somatics? page, where we define somatic and explain more about somatics and how the proper somatics information will help you direct your “being” toward natural healing and pain relief.