Thursday, July 10, 2014

Efficient Movement

The Body is a Collective Entity, Every Part Needs to Do Its Part


A recent participant in a Feldenkrais class came in with a very painful knee and a bursitis diagnosis, but as soon as she finished the exercises she felt nothing in her knee and her whole body was looser and more relaxed. She was thrilled and began to take several classes a week and continues to see improvement.

Similarly, a man entered class with lower back pain and a feeling of extreme tightness there.  He said he was considering a chiropractic analysis and adjustment, but during the course of the lesson felt some major ‘clicks’ in his back – he had self-adjusted his spine. It happened inadvertently, and he went from feeling tight, stuck, and restricted in that area to loose and relaxed.

Pain in specific areas can be likened to a tightly clenched fist. Everything around it clenches up to compensate. As all those other areas let go, his lower back let go.

Feldenkrais is about generalizing movement throughout the body so that no part is doing too much, and no part is doing too little.  As other parts of the body relax, participants feel less pain and more movement and ease.  As other parts of the body become more movable, the injured, painful parts of the body relax and heal.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Winter Immune Challenges



Although winter is known as a time we are most susceptible to getting sick and we often blame the cold weather for this, we may be more to blame than we thought. As the temperature drops, it becomes more and more tempting to curl up on the couch and eat comfort food all day. The problem with this is that it renders us more sedentary and what we consider “comfort” foods are not always the most nutritious choices. In addition, the holidays often become excuses to make unhealthy choices as we consume more refined sugars and alcohol.

If you’re one of the many people who seem to be prone to getting sick, particularly during the cold season, you may want to reconsider your winter habits. According to nutrition response testing, your body knows what it needs and when it is deprived of these necessities, it acts out. This will put your body in a state of acute stress, which will leave certain systems of the body, such as the immune system, weaker.

Now that the holiday season is over, it’s time to own your health and stop making up excuses. Nowadays, we’re so accustomed to seeking quick fixes that fit into our hectic daily lives. However, when it comes to your health, making a quick and easy isn’t always the path to take, especially if you’re looking for long-term results.

There has been some controversy over whether or not the flu vaccination is a beneficial option and while some believe it’s the only way to avoid the flu, others believe that the risk of flu vaccines are not worth it and seek to find other alternatives. The best way to prevent the flu, as well as any virus, is to nourish the body with whole foods. Some of the best preventative foods include healthy fats, such as omega-3s and monounsaturated, and lacto-fermented food, such as all-natural yogurts. More importantly, it is crucial to avoid any sugars or refines carbohydrates as they blunt the immune response. Foods rich in fat-soluble vitamins work wonders for the immune system. For example, cod liver oil, if taken every day, is a highly recommended preventative whole food. It can also be used during time of illness, in which case you would have to increase the serving size from about half a teaspoon per day to 3 teaspoons per day.

Medical science has proven that good nutrition is the most important factor in supporting the immune system. In fact, there are many recent discoveries in the healing power of some whole foods and herbs. For example, it has been established that protein malnutrition is related to many immune diseases. Deficiency of high-quality protein, such as eggs and fish, may lead to depletion of immune cells and inability of the body to make antibodies against foreign invaders. In addition, the recommended amount of all vitamins and minerals is necessary for your immune system to perform at its optimal. This doesn’t mean you have to spend time calculating the amounts of each vitamin in each of your meals. A diet rich in whole foods and very low in processed foods should ensure that you’re getting what you need.

A telltale sign of malnutrition is frequent colds and other immune-related ailments. In a way, getting sick is your body’s way of telling you that all is not well and that you need to make some adjustments to your diet. If you want to avoid the unpleasant virus or infection in the first place, Nutrition Response Testing ™ (NRT), a study of how the different points on the surface of the body relate to the state of health and to the flow of energy in each and every organ and function of the body, uses your own body’s signals to determine what you need. You can read more about NRT on our website.

For more detailed information about the connection between the immune system and nutrition, read the following article from the Journal of Clinical Nutrition: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/66/2/460S.long

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The Social Nervous System, a New Addition to the ANS

Three Parts of the Autonomic Nervous System based on the work of Stephen Porges, PhD.-A PolyVagal Perspective
This article is based on a 4 day Advanced Cranial Workshop I attended October 24-27th 2013 in NYC with Katherine Ukleja DO, BCST
, The Vagus and Emotional Expression.
Many of you have heard of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), the part of the peripheral nervous system that acts as the control center of the body. This system is largely involuntary and controls functions like heart rate, digestion, respiratory rate, and urination. Well, it has recently been discovered that the ANS contains an additional component, the Social Nervous System. This new addition to our body’s control center allows us to read the environment and respond to threats appropriately.

There are two branches of the ANS, the parasympathetic and the sympathetic. These two divisions typically work in opposition to each other. The parasympathetic branch is known to promote a “rest and digest” response and is responsible for slowing down our bodily functions, such as heart rate, with the exception of digestion, which is enhanced by increased peristalsis, or muscular contractions, in the gut. On the other side, there is the sympathetic nervous system, which plays the role of the “fight or flight” response. This division increases the body’s energy output, through increased heart rate and respiratory rate, and inhibits peristalsis, thereby inhibiting digestion.

The newest addition to the ANS, the Social Nervous System introduced above, is a new branch of the vagus nerve and is technically called the Ventral Vagal Complex (VVC). This division operates in response to safety and is responsible for self-expression, orientation (turning our neck and head), listening, speaking, calling/asking for help, and communicating in general.

The vagus, the nerve that travels from our brain to our gut, allows us to be in touch with what’s happening inside our bodies. This communication between the brain an the gut is called interoception, or as Stephen Porges puts it, our “6th sense, what we call ‘gut feelings’ or instincts.” Not only do the nerves in our gut communicate with processing centers in the brain, they also communicate with the heart (our emotions) and the motor branches of the face and throat to regulate self-expression. This is why your heart aches when you’re emotionally hurt and why your facial expressions display what you’re emotionally feeling.

These nerves play more of a role in psychological feelings than was previously acknowledged. The gut is stimulated by external stimuli, which it then relays to the brain to be integrated. This area in the brain is the key brain area for empathy and is responsible for awareness of feelings and emotions from the body. The information it receives either stimulates or inhibits the release of certain hormones and neurotransmitters; this regulation is called negative feedback.

Have you ever wondered how instincts work? These reflexes stem from neuroception, the sensory arm of the social nervous system. This is how we are able to detect safety or threat. For instance, our ability to read faces is a survival function that allows us to differentiate between friend or foe. Since the VVC communicates via nerves to the face, throat, and heart, it is adaptive in that it permits us to listen, signal for help, get more oxygen to the brain, and modulate heart rate. In addition to survival adaptations, this part of our nervous system plays a role in our ability to feel empathy and happiness by allowing us to assess another’s emotional state and connect with others.

Your facial expressions are of extreme significance; they are the link between exteroception and interoception. As a baby, this and crying was your only form of communicating with your parents in order to convey your needs. Since babies solely rely on their caregivers for survival, the acts of crying, fussing, smiling, etc. are extremely essential for their needs to be adequately met. The less these needs are met by caregivers, the slower the child is to fully develop and self-regulate. When the baby’s needs are not attended to, she will experience stress, which will eventually stimulate cortisol, a stress hormone, release from the adrenals. A build up of this stress hormone is not only detrimental to the child’s health, it can psychologically blunt their emotional development and cause them to be avoidant, making no eye contact and being withdrawn from human contact. This inability to show emotion will persist well into the child’s life and cause social anxiety, as well as health issues, such as an increased risk for heart disease.

Another important part of proper development of the social nervous system is the ability to feel empathy, which gives us a sense of connection and belonging, and is the basis of human bonds.  A child with an underdeveloped social nervous system may grow up to be isolated and depressed, or even become aggressive. An impaired social nervous system results in misinterpretation of safety or threat. It also results in a weakened interoceptive “6th sense,” which will damage the ability to tune into our inside feelings, inhibiting us from feeling pleasure or pain.


The work of Biodynamic CranioSacral therapy is interactive; it permits you to get to know your own material through your own body, or your sensations and feelings. This will allow you to meet the history of another human being from a neutral place, holding them with presence and lightness. It will allow your inherent treatment plan to emerge, primary respiration to ensue, and their nervous system to come into balance.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Lyme Disease

As many of you know Lyme disease has become very prevalent in our area. It is a very insidious spirochete that buries itself deep into the tissue and frequently mutates, so you never know if you ever have gotten rid of it. It has become more widespread , with the onset of the much hotter temperatures.

I myself recently came down with a case of it. My symptoms were headaches and a persistent tight band that started underneath the base of my skull and went down the left side of my neck into my left shoulder. Almost felt like a band within the connective tissue that wouldn't let go. Others may experience flu like symptoms, brain fog and joint pain. Left untreated it can enter into the Central Nervous System and wreak havoc.

Weeks of this (atypical for me) neck pain propelled me into the doctor's office where a blood test revealed a much higher titre level for Lyme disease. I did a course of antibiotics, but still felt pain and tightness in my neck and couldn't turn my head to the left. A friend told me about his success with high frequency radio waves that penetrate the body and break apart the cell wall of the pathogen. Remember the opera singer shattering a wine glass with her voice? I have been experimenting with the frequencies and have seen great healing results. It felt like my body was being cleansed at a very deep level. Think of this as deep detoxification, cleansing the body of the Lyme disease spirochete and other coinfections.

Nutrition Response Testing has been invaluable in knowing what my body needs. I truly feel having been feeding my body high quality organic food for the past 2 years, as well as taking whole food supplements and powerful herbs, has strengthened my Immune System. All have been important in healing Lymes.


Tips

Avoid deep wooded areas.
Do not lie down in the grass.
Be protected-cover yourself completely if you decide to go into a wooded area.
Get checked by a friend after being outside.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Keeping Ourselves Company

Embodiment in the Present-Compassion for Ourselves

As far as pacing we need to put some red flags in our awareness so when a certain behavior starts happening we can know oh, I'm going too fast. I need to slow down and catch back up with myself. The red flag could be oh I'm starting to get irritable or I'm beginning to feel afraid or lost. Or I'm losing touch with what is happening around me. If any of those things start flaring up we can say oh I'm moving too fast and take steps to slow ourselves back down.

Mindfulness, slowing our breath, grounding physically, checking in with our young self from adult awareness all bring us back to present time which is where it is most comfortable to hang out! Also using adult eyes to look around us and actually see where we are is a very powerful tool.

Beth W. write "Over the last six months doing Feldenkrais and receiving CranioSacral Therapy, I've seen how it's impacted different parts of my life. I'm in a weight lifting program, and I feel that I'm able to do it safely and with more ease because of the way my body is moving. I'm sitting up straighter in chairs and standing taller without realizing it; it's just happening! It feels great. What has surprised me the most is to see that I also feel better emotionally. I feel more "with" myself without effort. I am deeply grateful to have met Ed, because I'm accustomed to traveling to New York to find a practitioner with his range of skills. I can't say enough about his work and the power it has to change lifelong patterns of poor habits and emotional and physical stuckness."

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Awareness thru Movement

Awareness thru Movement translates into Awareness Inside Movement-
feeling where you effort, feeling the absence of effort.
You have choice, you understand the difference.

Allowing your skeleton to support you so that you come into alignment.
Your muscles become less contracted; movement becomes easier.
You become taller, stand more erect, feel lighter.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Healing the Heart

Opening the constricted heart.
Feeling what's underneath the tight, constricted chest.
Feeling the sensations moment to moment.
Making space/taking space for me and the other.
Re-educating the little one.

(Notes from my last Biodynamic CranioSacral Therapy session)