Neck Pain / Can’t Turn Head | Startle Reflex Somatic Education Exercise by Lawrence Gold

From The Magic of Somatics, this maneuver quiets pain at the front of the shoulder and side of the neck: pectoralis muscles and sterno-cleido-mastoid (SCM) muscles. It takes you progressively out of the tension pattern of Startle Reflex. (See http://ift.tt/1lAybps.

The key to this movement is to synchronize the movement elements. That means the lifting movements of the head and shoulder, and breathing.

You use your breathing to pace, that is, start and end, the other movements. Your breath is also what helps you to let go of your pectoral (chest) muscles, so your shoulder can move back (posteriorly).

Be careful to lift only one shoulder at a time; whichever shoulder you lift, you rest and brace yourself upon the other shoulder.

Startle Reflex is a protective action pattern triggered by fear — closing up the soft front of the body. Habituation in this reflex restricts breathing, causes elevated heart rate, and forward head position.

The Magic of Somatics, page 37 | http://ift.tt/1lAybFG

Neck Pain / Can’t Turn Head | Startle Reflex Somatic Education Exercise by Lawrence Gold
http://ift.tt/1pKmAMN
Clinical Somatic Education: A New Discipline in the Field of Health Care
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Startle Reflex Somatic Education Exercise by Lawrence Gold



For clients of Hanna somatic educators.

Follow-up to Session 3, Startle Reflex lesson (clinical session). Integrates breathing with movements of neck, shoulders, trunk

The key this exercise is to synchronize the movements of breathing with the molling movements of the shoulders and the arching and flattening of your back.

As you roll your arms, your shoulders move with them. Explore for the limit of turning of your arms, both directions.

In the “back arched, chin tucked position”, press the back of your head down equally with the pressure of your tailbone/sacrum.

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