This entry is about a simple technique for potentizing somatic exercises (and clinical pandiculation maneuvers).
In the recorded instructional programs I offer, I've put an instruction to "hold the moment of contraction long enough for the sensation of it to surface." The purpose of this instruction is to get people to put attention in what they're doing -- the basis of all learning -- somatics being a learning practice for modifying dysfunctional patterns in the direction of health or soundness.
More recently, I remembered an instruction I gave to people I was teaching, years ago, that produces more profound results than merely waiting for sensation to surface. The instruction is, "hold the contraction until attention steadies."
I forgot this instruction because, in my own practice, for myself, this is how I naturally operated. It never occurred to me that people need explicit instruction to steady their attention.
But it makes sense, doesn't it?
To steady attention is a major missing link in all public education. It's sort of "hoped for", but never explicitly taught.
So now, I am explicitly teaching it.
Any time you are practicing an exercise from a program of mine, hold the contraction phases of exercises until your attention steadies appreciably -- meaning you can detect the steadying.
This action of steadying attention potentizies any somatic exercise and complements the variation of The Diamond Penetration Pandiculation Technique. (That technique, itself, potentizes somatic exercises by focusing memory, making it possible to change deeply habituated patterns of tension and movement that have been unaffected or minimally affected by standard practice of somatic exercises.)
The Diamond Penetration Pandiculation Technique (so-named because it's like a diamond-bit used to drill into rock) potentizes somatic exercises. Getting attention to steady potentizes The Diamond Penetration Technique.
Test it with any somatic exercise you do. Hold contractions until attention steadies, then slowly relax to complete relaxation.
The 'proof' of the 'pudding' is in the 'eating'.
SOMATIC EXERCISE PROGRAMS
Back Pain
Psoas Muscle Pain
Walking
General, Pain-Free Movement Health
Higher Integration to Enhance All Other Programs
Somatic Education Exercises | potent combinations
In this entry, I present some combinations of somatic exercises that have special potency in changing tension-and-movement patterns -- preceded by a bit of explanation.
EXPLANATION
Anyone practicing somatic education should be familiar with -- and use -- the power of synergy.
"Synergy" isn't some New Age froo-froo concept; it's the way "a whole is more than the sum of its parts" -- it's organization. It's what makes a system a 'system' and not just a collection of unassembled parts. It's coordination. It's integration. For more on Thomas Hanna's take on coordination, read his book, The Body of Life. He also referred to synergy in his published Wave 1 lectures; whether you are a student-in-training or a certified practitioner, if you don't have those lectures or haven't listened to them, get them and listen to them. They are a major part of his functional legacy and will boost your effectiveness.
Synergy is part of what makes the standard lessons of Hanna somatic education so powerful. In those lessons, multiple movement elements, e.g., the steps of Lesson 1 / the Green Light Reflex lesson, combine into an overall action pattern. Those movement elements are "the parts"; the action pattern you are addressing -- Landau Reaction, Startle Reflex, or Trauma Reflex in its multifarious forms (see The Handbook of Assisted Pandiculation) -- is the 'whole'.
Piecework -- going straight for the painful location to "get at the problem" right away, is never as effective as dealing with whole patterns, in the long run and often in the short run. Sometimes, when a client is insistent that we work in the painful region immediately, I'll do it. I call this form of client placation, "Kiss boo-boo." But then I get straight away to the overall pattern and I explain to the client, why, if necessary to his or her wholehearted participation in the way I want to proceed with sessions.
By the same token, combining somatic exercises to address a single location is more potent than addressing it with one somatic exercise, only. Thomas Hanna's comment on afternoon, leading us in somatic kinesiology -- that using more than one somatic exercise to reach a problem region is more potent than using only one exercise (because learning the same thing multiple ways is more potent) -- may have slipped by unnoticed by many, but it's worth noting -- and acting upon.
So here are some collections of somatic exercises that are synergistic in this way. You'll notice two things. That I:
A certain class of somatic educators continually explores for ways to improve his/her own functioning and well-being. Such people have an advantage over those who go only with the basic material conveyed during training: they can understand more forms of Sensory-Motor Amnesia (from the inside) and deal effectively with them, unlike those with less-developed somatic competency.
If, in yourself, you can find new and effective somatic exercise patterns, that's best; if not so much, various programs exist that can give you a leg-up.
FREEING SIDEBENDING
EXPLANATION
Anyone practicing somatic education should be familiar with -- and use -- the power of synergy.
"Synergy" isn't some New Age froo-froo concept; it's the way "a whole is more than the sum of its parts" -- it's organization. It's what makes a system a 'system' and not just a collection of unassembled parts. It's coordination. It's integration. For more on Thomas Hanna's take on coordination, read his book, The Body of Life. He also referred to synergy in his published Wave 1 lectures; whether you are a student-in-training or a certified practitioner, if you don't have those lectures or haven't listened to them, get them and listen to them. They are a major part of his functional legacy and will boost your effectiveness.
Synergy is part of what makes the standard lessons of Hanna somatic education so powerful. In those lessons, multiple movement elements, e.g., the steps of Lesson 1 / the Green Light Reflex lesson, combine into an overall action pattern. Those movement elements are "the parts"; the action pattern you are addressing -- Landau Reaction, Startle Reflex, or Trauma Reflex in its multifarious forms (see The Handbook of Assisted Pandiculation) -- is the 'whole'.
Piecework -- going straight for the painful location to "get at the problem" right away, is never as effective as dealing with whole patterns, in the long run and often in the short run. Sometimes, when a client is insistent that we work in the painful region immediately, I'll do it. I call this form of client placation, "Kiss boo-boo." But then I get straight away to the overall pattern and I explain to the client, why, if necessary to his or her wholehearted participation in the way I want to proceed with sessions.
By the same token, combining somatic exercises to address a single location is more potent than addressing it with one somatic exercise, only. Thomas Hanna's comment on afternoon, leading us in somatic kinesiology -- that using more than one somatic exercise to reach a problem region is more potent than using only one exercise (because learning the same thing multiple ways is more potent) -- may have slipped by unnoticed by many, but it's worth noting -- and acting upon.
So here are some collections of somatic exercises that are synergistic in this way. You'll notice two things. That I:
- start with gentler somatic exercise and progress to more demanding ones
- combine somatic exercises published in different sources
A certain class of somatic educators continually explores for ways to improve his/her own functioning and well-being. Such people have an advantage over those who go only with the basic material conveyed during training: they can understand more forms of Sensory-Motor Amnesia (from the inside) and deal effectively with them, unlike those with less-developed somatic competency.
If, in yourself, you can find new and effective somatic exercise patterns, that's best; if not so much, various programs exist that can give you a leg-up.
SOMATIC EXERCISE COMBINATIONS
FREEING SIDEBENDING
- Myth of Aging Lesson 3
- Quadratus Lumborum pandiculation (YouTube video / End Your Own Sacro-iliac Pain)
- Yoga of the Reclining Buddha (Free Yourself from Back Pain)
FREEING UPPER ARM ROTATION with SHOULDER MOVEMENTS
- "Dishrag" / 4-Way Twist (Myth of Aging Lesson 4)
- Startle Reflex somatic exercise (YouTube video)
- Hokey-Pokey Hidey Ho (YouTube Video)
WALKING
- Myth of Aging Lesson 8
- The Gyroscopic Walk (YouTube video)
- The Scottish Geezer's Walk (YouTube video)
POSTERIOR TENSION / PAIN / RESTRICTION | FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT/COORDINATION
- Hamstrings somatic exercise (video)
- The Athletes' Prayer for Loose Calves (YouTube video / Free Your Psoas, lesson 9)
- Spine Waves (The Five-Pointed Star / Quick Help for Back Pain) | arm reach addition
- The Dolphin
- Freeing the Neck and Shoulders (from The Magic of Somatics, section 2)
SACRAL PAIN
- Myth of Aging lesson 1
- Myth of Aging lesson 2
- Lazy 8s (Free Yourself from Back Pain, module 1B)
- Centering the Sacrum (End Your Own Sacro-iliac Pain)
This is a fairly "minimum" collection of exercises -- enough for you to test to feel their synergy. People with sacro-iliac pain almost certainly need more -- and I've published an entry that explains why and gives access to a complete regimen here.
NECK ISSUES
- Myth of Aging, lesson 6
- Freeing Tight Neck and Shoulders (The Magic of Somatics)
- Getting Kinks out of Your Neck (The Magic of Somatics)
- The Yoga of the Reclining Buddha (Free Yourself from Back Pain, module 2B)
- Spine Waves with Arm Reach (The Five-Pointed Star plus YouTube video)
- The Folding See-saw with Head-turn (Free Yourself from Back Pain, module 1C)
- Myth of Aging, lesson 4 with modification for neck (YouTube video)
- Myth of Aging, Lesson 2
- The Dolphin
- Spine Waves
You notice that this collection of movements is fairly large. That's because our necks are mobile (and can become restricted) in so many directions. Gotta do it. Neck issues are a big deal (and often involve TMJ issues); a person with pain in the spine, low back or pelvis that doesn't resolve as expected is likely to be tight in the neck, with the distant pains reflexively caused.That's quite enough to get you started. If you have the ambition, it's an eye-opener.
The "Can" or "May", "Won't" or "Can't" Rant
The word, "can" has virtually entirely supplanted the word, "may", in English Language usage in the United States of America. People (and scriptwriters) use "can" when they should use "may". This is significant.
"Can" refers to ability.
"May" refers to possibility and also permission.
By failing to make the distinction, linguistically, people subliminally confuse ability with permission. The general trend is to shift responsibility away.
"Can I go to the bathroom?" is a common confusion. Hopefully, the answer is, "yes,". Even people with prostate problems or constipation rarely raise the question, "Can I go to the bathroom?". They just go and hope for the best.
What's really meant, however, is, "May I go to the bathroom?" This is a different question than, "Can I go to the bathroom?". It asks permission of someone else. It's a totally different communication.
Another confusion of "could" is with "would" ,
As in, "Could you come here?" The word, "could", leads to a similar confusion, to which an understandable answer might be, "Wha'?" But people actually say that. "Could you come here?"
Of course, in the situation in which someone might say that, the answer would generally be, "Yes," with a momentary flicker of doubt as to the competence of the person.
What they mean is, "Would you come here?". That shifts the meaning from ability to willingness. Because -- you never know.
But they say, "Could you come here?" instead. Why?
Ability vs. willingness
Can't vs. won't
Could vs. would
big difference
It has to do with where responsibility lies. "Can't" may be excused. "Won't" assumes responsibility for the consequences.
But some people say, "Can't", when what is true is, "Won't". They won't. But they say that they can't, as in, "I'm sorry, I can't do that."
It follows that such people are avoiding responsibility for the consequences of, "Won't". They are assuming a childlike non-responsibility ("can't"). When a child "won't", you know it; and you know when a child "can't". Same is true of adults.
AND we're back to
"Can I go to the bathroom?"
THE ANSWER:
"I'm SO glad you asked. How is your health?"
vs.
"May I go to the bathroom?"
(an intelligent question, especially under the circumstances)
THE ANSWER:
You may . . . . .
or
You may not.
can and may
could and would
can't and won't
Catch my drift???
"Can" refers to ability.
"May" refers to possibility and also permission.
By failing to make the distinction, linguistically, people subliminally confuse ability with permission. The general trend is to shift responsibility away.
"Can I go to the bathroom?" is a common confusion. Hopefully, the answer is, "yes,". Even people with prostate problems or constipation rarely raise the question, "Can I go to the bathroom?". They just go and hope for the best.
What's really meant, however, is, "May I go to the bathroom?" This is a different question than, "Can I go to the bathroom?". It asks permission of someone else. It's a totally different communication.
Another confusion of "could" is with "would" ,
As in, "Could you come here?" The word, "could", leads to a similar confusion, to which an understandable answer might be, "Wha'?" But people actually say that. "Could you come here?"
Of course, in the situation in which someone might say that, the answer would generally be, "Yes," with a momentary flicker of doubt as to the competence of the person.
What they mean is, "Would you come here?". That shifts the meaning from ability to willingness. Because -- you never know.
But they say, "Could you come here?" instead. Why?
Ability vs. willingness
Can't vs. won't
Could vs. would
big difference
It has to do with where responsibility lies. "Can't" may be excused. "Won't" assumes responsibility for the consequences.
But some people say, "Can't", when what is true is, "Won't". They won't. But they say that they can't, as in, "I'm sorry, I can't do that."
It follows that such people are avoiding responsibility for the consequences of, "Won't". They are assuming a childlike non-responsibility ("can't"). When a child "won't", you know it; and you know when a child "can't". Same is true of adults.
AND we're back to
"Can I go to the bathroom?"
THE ANSWER:
"I'm SO glad you asked. How is your health?"
vs.
"May I go to the bathroom?"
(an intelligent question, especially under the circumstances)
THE ANSWER:
You may . . . . .
or
You may not.
can and may
could and would
can't and won't
Catch my drift???
Tight Psoas Muscles? Sit too much?
To that, I add, "sitting at a high level of concentration with minimal movement." The combination sets up a pattern of tension involving the psoas muscles, hip joint flexors (near the front pockets of your trousers), and the low back muscles.
This entry clarifies the "why" of such sitting injuries and how to avoid them.
It consisted of two loops, about thigh length, attached at opposite sides of a back-pad. The loops went about ones knees, the back-pad behind your sacrum/low back. The pull on the loops by your knees pulled the back-pad against you, creating a secure support for your back. All you needed to do was stay balanced.
get started for Free with the self-renovation program,
Free Your Psoas
The ilio-psoas muscles perform a similar function, although attached at your groins, not at your knees. The part that pulls on your back like the back-pad (but on the inside), we call the psoas muscles; the part that pulls on your pelvis from the inside, we call the iliacus muscles. Together, they share a tendon at your groin, and so we call them the iliopsoas muscles. They span the distances between your groin on each side and your low back and between your groin and your inner pelvis on both sides. Their pull on your low back is like the pull on the back-pad, only along more of your back as high as your diaphragm; their pull on your pelvis on both inside surfaces pulls the pelvis top-forward, adding to the support of your back.
In that way, your iliopsoas muscles are like the Nada-chair. When you are sitting in a chair, your iliopsoas muscles shorten to hold you up, especially if you are sit perched on the edge of your chair (as so many do), but those muscles shorten also in those who slouch back in their chairs and hunch forward.
Tight Hamstrings: a Big Deal
When your hamstrings get tight, as happens when you get into -- and work in -- a high-stress-state too often and for too long, your hamstrings pull on your sitbones (deep to the creases of the buttocks). In the sitting position, tight hamstrings pull your bottom out from under you, forward; they cause you to sit too much on your "pockets" (tailbone). Tight hamstrings are one reason people slouch back in their chairs.
To sit erect, under that condition, people with tight hamstrings must tighten their hip joint flexors and psoas muscles to counteract the pull, to bring themselves forward and lift themselves up.
Then, the same high stress state tightens the back muscles, as part of a pattern of nervous tension. Eventually, the back muscles tire and the person slumps.
When your hamstrings get tight, as happens when you get into -- and work in -- a high-stress-state too often and for too long, your hamstrings pull on your sitbones (deep to the creases of the buttocks). In the sitting position, tight hamstrings pull your bottom out from under you, forward; they cause you to sit too much on your "pockets" (tailbone). Tight hamstrings are one reason people slouch back in their chairs.
To sit erect, under that condition, people with tight hamstrings must tighten their hip joint flexors and psoas muscles to counteract the pull, to bring themselves forward and lift themselves up.
Then, the same high stress state tightens the back muscles, as part of a pattern of nervous tension. Eventually, the back muscles tire and the person slumps.
So, in closing
If you spend too much time in your chair, particularly at attention at a high level of stress, with minimal movement, in either position, you have successfully followed the formula for creating tight, short iliopsoas muscles. Congratulations.
Not only that, but muscles under tension formed this way and maintained by habit are the first to tighten under stress and the last to let go when the stress is over. That's one explanation for why people mysteriously tighten up into pain some time after an injury. We become how we live. We get more and more familiar with being certain ways, more and more ready to be those ways, more and more set in the muscular tension set of those ways, our attitudes and our remembered reactions to everything that's happened to us in our lives. It all builds up as our "set" -- as in "set in our ways" -- a pattern of muscular tension as well as a psychological state.
Sit for too many hours all the time, your Nada-chair muscles get set at a shortened length. You can never really stand up all the way. If tension accumulates, those muscles may become too tight even when lying down and you won't be able to sleep on your stomach. The same thing happens with your hamstrings and your back, only it's your knees and back that get affected, until you develop groin pain, deep pelvic pain, a deep belly-ache, and possibly sacro-iliac pain.
Then, your massage therapist gets his or her elbow ready. Are you ready?
There is an alternative.
You can do something to change your postural set (which comes from muscle/movement memory) -- besides "trying to have good posture", which doesn't work very well, you may have noticed.
If you take these steps, you'll end the pain, be able to stand up and walk comfortably, at last.
If you don't, you may just stay in the condition you're in, which brought you to this page.
PRACTICAL
from Free Your Psoas
all most people need
all most people need
_____________________________________________________________
Lawrence Gold is a clinical somatic educator with clients from around the world, in practice since 1990 and with two years' on-staff at a hospital rehabilitation center. His specialty is restoring comfort to people with chronic injuries. Learn more about Lawrence and his practice, here.
#psoas_muscle_release
#iliopsoas_bursitis
#groin_pull_pain
#somatics
#somatic_education
#tight_psoas_muscles
#psoas_groin_pain
#psoas_muscle_pain
#iliopsoas_bursitis
#How_to_release_the_psoas_muscles
#psoas_muscle_symptoms
#psoas_muscle_syndrome
https://somatics.convertri.com/psoas-2017-6-13
Definition of Forgiveness
Look "at". Feel what that feels like.
Look "past". Feel what that feels like.
Alternate until you can look "past" without being entangled in looking "at".
Then, look both "at" and "past" (combine the two feelings).
Get back to me on your results.
Look "past". Feel what that feels like.
Alternate until you can look "past" without being entangled in looking "at".
Then, look both "at" and "past" (combine the two feelings).
Get back to me on your results.
Kosmic Alka-Seltzer
Here's anudder one:
The Evolving Self (Sambhogakaya) sacrifices itself
by combining with the Egoic Self (Nirmanakaya)
but the two can merge/integrate only by virtue of
the non-attachment communicated by no-self (Dharmakaya)
and be redeemed by dissolution into the Dharmakaya - no-form.
-- or --
The Ancient of Days
Swallowed a cloud
and cured a bad case
of existential heartburn.
How much do I operate from the egoic point of view? -- memory reinforcement --
Constantly.
How much do I operate as the Evolutionary Imperative? -- imaginational/creative emergence --
Occasionally throughout the day -- generally, when I'm not in the midst of DOING SOMETHING. I prefer to pay attention to what I am doing.
You know?
What happens when you combine the two by putting your attention into them?
What happens?
My egotism (a quality, not an object) softens into ego-ism and mutates, then and there, and I take a new form with a breath and a kind of squirming self-adjustment.
I mutate.
Does that make you uncomfortable?
We're living in The Future, now.
You'll have to get used to the idea of mutants being a-l-l-l around.
Just kidding.
Don't worry. Really.
MORE in the same vein:
http://lawrencegoldsomatics.blogspot.com/2011/12/nirmanakaya-sambhogakaya-and-dharmakaya.html
"Kosmic Alka-Seltzer"
- Egoic self | Nirmanakaya - memory body
- Evolving Self | Sambhogakaya - dreaming/imagining body
- Ground of Being | Dharmakaya - no body
The Evolving Self (Sambhogakaya) sacrifices itself
by combining with the Egoic Self (Nirmanakaya)
but the two can merge/integrate only by virtue of
the non-attachment communicated by no-self (Dharmakaya)
and be redeemed by dissolution into the Dharmakaya - no-form.
-- or --
The Ancient of Days
Swallowed a cloud
and cured a bad case
of existential heartburn.
How much do I operate from the egoic point of view? -- memory reinforcement --
Constantly.
How much do I operate as the Evolutionary Imperative? -- imaginational/creative emergence --
Occasionally throughout the day -- generally, when I'm not in the midst of DOING SOMETHING. I prefer to pay attention to what I am doing.
You know?
What happens when you combine the two by putting your attention into them?
What happens?
My egotism (a quality, not an object) softens into ego-ism and mutates, then and there, and I take a new form with a breath and a kind of squirming self-adjustment.
I mutate.
Does that make you uncomfortable?
We're living in The Future, now.
You'll have to get used to the idea of mutants being a-l-l-l around.
Just kidding.
Don't worry. Really.
MORE in the same vein:
http://lawrencegoldsomatics.blogspot.com/2011/12/nirmanakaya-sambhogakaya-and-dharmakaya.html
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