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Somatic Education | Intrinsic Action, Extrinsic Action and “The Controlling Moment”

Lawrence Gold, practitioner/trainer | Hanna somatic education

a deeper view
of somatic education

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” So wrote Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac.

Failing that, another saying carries the point:  “The biggest problem could have been solved when it was small.” So wrote Lao Tzu, a Chinese Taoist sage, in The Tao Teh Ching, an ancient text of wisdom.

Changing behaviors and entrenched conditions isn’t as simple as it sounds — a mere decision powered (at best) by enthusiasm — as anyone who has worked to change a habit has found.

People do it by “trying” — working harder to change — rather than by uncovering their/our own remaining impulse to be “the old way” — working smarter.

However, without taking into account the root of action, any change of action remains incomplete and in conflict with old ways of acting.  This understanding applies as much to social politics as it does to individual behavior and experience.  That’s why, “You can’t change minds with guns.”

There’s a way of “working smarter”, rather than harder — and that is part of what I cover in this entry.

There’s a “Root” of Action??

The idea that there is a root of action doesn’t occur to most people. That’s because people generally experience action — theirs and others — only once it is well underway. The root of action, because it is small, subtle, goes unnoticed.

So, I will, in this entry, illuminate the nature of the root of action (and it isn’t psychological, but more primordial/rudimentary than that).

In the process, I will show the relationship between the subjective experience of the root of change and the objective (and outwardly observable) bodily sign of the root of action.

Let’s get started.

The Root of Action

The root of action is so common as to go unnoticed, except in certain specialized situations.  Its word is, “readiness”.

Readiness is not merely an emotional state, a state of anticipation.  (“Yeah, boss!  Yeah, boss!”)  It’s a state of preparation, the first step of shifting from rest (unreadiness) into action.  (“On your mark, get set . . . “)  It’s a “steering” action, the step of organizing oneself for a particular activity, generally based upon the memory of the action we are about to do, but also modulated by the relationships of the moment.    It’s that subtle.

Because it is that subtle, as subtle as memory and the subtle effects of one person or place upon another, it generally goes unnoticed.

Memory and imagination go together, are two sides of the same coin.

The act of getting ready is preparation for a leap into a (however vaguely imagined) future which has some connection with a memory.

I call the moment of getting ready, “The Controlling Moment.”  As we leap (or subtly, imperceptibly drift) into action, we rally  our determination, springing (or gliding) forward from that controlling moment into full action.

As we launch into action, we power up.  The controlling moment points our direction.  Powering up builds upon the controlling moment, and away we go.

Now, here’s the odd thing about human beings:  it’s common for us automatically to redirect our launch, so that what we do after the Controlling Moment misses the mark we (think we have) set in our Controlling Moment.

The act of redirecting ourselves occurs automatically, involuntarily, and is based upon memories of life situations similar to the one into which we are launching.  Fears, conditioning, beliefs all change our trajectory, but “behind the scenes”, without conscious awareness.  That means we get unanticipated results.

Not only do they change our trajectory; they also disguise or obscure the Controlling Moment of that action, so that an observer of our action often can’t tell what our precise intention was at the controlling moment — and we, ourselves, find it difficult to tell why things went awry.  (“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” a pathetic saying based on the presently-described dynamic) What we and others perceive is everything that followed the Controlling Moment of that action, but the Controlling Moment remains obscured and obscure.

Why?  Because the experience of “powering up” is so much “louder” than that of The Controlling Moment.  The root remains buried.

That’s why it’s so difficult to self-correct, to change habits, and to understand the motivations of others whose actions we observe.

Two “Layers” of Action

We may regard The Controlling Moment as the core of an action (steering) and Powering Up as the extension of that core (acceleration).

Another odd thing, however:  the two layers don’t always go together.  Sometimes, we get ready for an action but refrain from carrying it out; sometimes, we do an action for which we are not really ready, and our heart really isn’t in it, but carry it out, anyway.  We counteract our own Controlling Moment or we act without the precise internal guidance of a mature Controlling Moment.

In those cases, we have a condition of self-arrest (Controlling Moment without Powering Up — ineffectuality) or poorly organized action (undeveloped Controlling Moment and lots of Powering Up — stupidity or clumsiness).

In such cases, a residue of the action (or lack of action) remains in memory.  The residue of self-arrest is regret, frustration and/or self-recrimination; the residue of poorly organized action remains in memory as a sense of guilt, shame, and/or lower self-esteem.

Integrity

What’s lacking when we have one but not the other is integrity.

Integrity is intelligent, well-regulated, well-modulated power.

In other words, when we have one but not the other, we fail either to exercise our intelligence adequately or we fail to exercise our power appropriately.

What happens as aftermath when we act without intelligence or without well-regulated power is we experience our lack of integrity as disempowerment.

What to do?  What to do?

Forging Integrity

Congruence between our Controlling Moment and our Powering Up shows up as integrity.  To forge integrity, we must correct one or both of our errors — the error of acting without adequate intelligence or an error of the exercise of power .

However, it’s not sufficient merely to power up; we must power up to a degree of intensity appropriate to our circumstances.  Likewise, it’s not sufficient merely to power up to an appropriate degree of intensity; we must power up intelligently, which means in alignment with the intention present in our Controlling Moment.  The Controlling Moment is the truth of any action.

The kicker is that we can’t have intelligence about a Controlling Moment buried by an unintelligent powering up — and powering up always buries the Controlling Moment simply because it’s louder.

So, we have to uncover the Controlling Moment underlying any action or habit we find problematic.

How do we do that?

The First Moment of Attention

Self-correction requires that we catch the fault when it is small.  Otherwise, we have to deal with both the momentum of an action in progress and the direction of that momentum.  Think of turning a vehicle at slow speed vs. at high speed.

Again, unfortunately, we may (and commonly do) miss the Controlling Moment.

One way to catch the Controlling Moment is to slow down so that we can observe the first moment of action, the Controlling Moment.

Another way to catch the Controlling Moment is to repeat the action with close attention each time, so that we ultimately catch the Controlling Moment.

And yet another way to catch the Controlling Moment is to alternate doing an action with refraining from that action, so that, by virtue of the contrast between doing and not-doing, we get enhanced perception of the action.

And yet another way to catch the Controlling Moment is to take instruction (and example) from someone adept at the intended action, so that, by virtue of the contrast between their competence and our incompetence, we catch our own errant Controlling Moment and correct it, with repetition, by degrees (successively accurate approximations).

But, whatever the approach, we must catch the Controlling Moment, so that we perceive the contrast (or difference) between our Controlling Moment and the subsequent Powering Up (which may be out of close alignment with our Controlling Moment) — so that we can self-correct at the root of action.

A master of anything is one who has done so.

I’ve just outlined the theoretical (not hypothetical) underpinning of action and of change of action, and also of somatic education as a way to upgrade our way of operating in life.  I’m going to leave you with that basic understanding without outlining specific techniques of somatic education so that you can form the intention and your own Controlling Moment to improve your access and control of your own controlling moments.  It’s known as “sharpening the tool”.

What follows is an addendum of interest to practitioners of somatic education and Rolfers.  To continue this consideration, please see this entry on The Big Pandiculation.

We continue.

For Practitioners of Somatic Education

photo of Moshe Feldenkrais
Feldenkrais

Feldenkrais pointed out, in “Body and Mature Behavior”, that laboratory studies showed that we can sense a stimulus about 1/20th of the intensity of another, immediately preceding stimulus.  That means, when a stronger stimulus immediately precedes  another, weaker, stimulus as little 1/20th as intense, we can sense both, but if the weaker stimulus is less than 1/20th as intense, we may not be able to sense it.

photo of Thomas Hanna
Thomas Hanna, developer | Hanna somatic education

Thomas Hanna, developer of Hanna somatic education, pointed out that to effectively alter a pattern of function, we must recover awareness and control of that pattern of function by deliberately cause it at a level of intensity at least equal to that of the same pattern, when caused by involuntary habit.  By matching or exceeding the level of voluntary intensity to the intensity of the involuntary habit, control shifts from involuntary habit to voluntary performance.  At that point, change is possible.

However, to make a change, we must reach, or catch, the Controlling Moment, and that requires two things:  that we:

  1. closely match the voluntary pattern of action to the habitual/involuntary pattern.
  2. maintain continuous sensory awareness from full intensity if the action all the way to zero intensity.

In practice, 1. requires that we compare (by feeling) our voluntary action to the habitual action and self-correct until they closely match.

In practice, 2. requires that we either go slowly enough that neighboring (or successive) “takes” of sensory perception are less than 20:1 (“takes” of sensory perception can’t be continuous due to the way our nervous systems function, in which our brains link successive “snapshots” of perception the way movie films and TV images present successive “shapshots” of movement that our brains link together — via memory — into the impression of continuous action).  Since, by tendency, we lack continuous perception of habitual actions, we may need to make numerous repetitions of the action to develop sufficient perception to apprehend the Controlling Moment and to make the change.

For Rolfers

Rolfing, as commonly practiced, is a soft-tissue manipulation process that, as Ida Rolf put it, is an educational practice intended to evolve more efficiently functioning human beings.  As such, it is a form of somatic education, although indirectly so (except for its more direct, but less potent form, “Rolfing Movement-Integration”.

Ida Rolf made a distinction between “Intrinsic Movement” and “Extrinsic Movement.”  She defined “extrinsic movement” as “immature movement” and “intrinsic movement” as “mature movement.”

Now to clarify those meanings.

Intrinsic Movement is movement we originate with awareness of the Controlling Moment — the root of action — intention.

Extrinsic Movement is movement we originate with more concern for how the movement looks or conforms to the expectations of others (or social standards) than by how it feels — and so is immature movement that we may characterized as “obedience”,  “conformity”, “going through the motions”.

She also distinguished two “layers of depth” of the musculature and myofascial web:  intrinsic musculature and extrinsic musculature, or “core” (intrinsic”) and “sleeve” (extrinsic).

The intrinsic muscles are those most immediately responsive to the shift from rest into full activity, which corresponds to the shift from rest (or unreadiness) into readiness for activity. Examples of intrinsic muscles include the finest, deepest muscles of the spine, the tongue, the muscles of focusing, the psoas muscles.

The extrinsic muscles add power to the pattern of organization set by activation of intrinsic muscles.  So, it may be said that visually seeing organizes the body for motion.  Thus, “Look where you’re going,” has an intuitively understandable meaning.

Another distinction she made was of two variations of poor integration:

  1. soft (open or free) core, hard (restrictive or tight) sleeve — conformity — “going through the motions,” “going along to get along”
  2. hard (restrictive or tight) core, soft (open or free) sleeve — outwardly obedient, but internally resistant behavior

She distinguished another pattern, which she defined as the desirable, mature pattern

  • open core, free sleeve

That pattern corresponds to a kind of rest, rather than activity.

I distinguish yet another pattern:

  • freely responsive core and cooperative sleeve

This pattern is neither defined by a rest condition nor by an active condition, but by free modulation between both states, characterized by freedom from entrapment in either state.  In other words, there’s relatively smooth continuity between an “open core, free sleeve” condition and a freely responsive core empowered by a cooperative sleeve.

Paradoxically, it’s impossible to tell by a moment’s observation whether a person is entrapped, since their state of core and sleeve may be a momentary response (or even a frequent one).  Only over the long term can we tell whether an action pattern is free or compulsorily maintained by habit.  We can’t even tell, about ourselves, unless we are aware of our own Controlling Moments and the continuity of those moments with the movement into full rest.

Again, paradoxically, spontaneity shows up when the person moves easily from state to state.  A true “Controlling Moment” arises from the ‘open core, free sleeve” (undefined) condition — Source.

Again, habitual fixation in a pattern at the Controlling Moment or in Powering Up interferes with this free condition, since a person can neither move freely from action to rest, nor does their action, when carried out, reflect their direction, as determined at their Controlling Moments.

Ultimately, an approach from the outside, in (such as passive bodywork) can lead only to immature patterns of function, since we activate our core from the inside, out (intrinsically), and outside-in approaches, even those that contact the intrinsic muscular or depth, are inherently extrinsic (at least at the beginning).  Hence, the absolute necessity, with all kinds of bodywork, Rolfing included, for training in self-mastery to complement the changes of an outside-in approach. That training may start as movement education using the World Continuing Education Alliance, but should mature toward Transcendental Realization and stages of personal (and cultural) evolution. (See Ken Wilber’s AQAL — “All Quadrant, All Level, All Line” Kosmological (yes, spelled correctly) model.  “Kosmos” means, “all that is, subjective and objective, whereas “cosmos” refers only to “astronomical reality”.  “Kosmos” is to “cosmos” as “soma” is to “body”, objectively seen.)

A final quote from Ida Rolf:

Comprehensive recognition of human structure includes not only the physical body, but also the psychological personality — behavior, attitudes, capacities.

That description places The Rolf Method of Structural Integration squarely in the field of somatic education, even though its primary method harkens back to an earlier approach to human development.

MORE READING
An Advance of Somatic Education Technique — The Diamond Penetration Pandiculation Technique
The Integration Process
The Incarnation Taboo
Psychotherapy and Integral Somatic Education
The Big Pandiculation

VIDEO about SOMATIC EDUCATION

 

[social_essentials]


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“The Controlling Moment”

Growth and Change are a Mystery to Most People.

This piece clarifies. 

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” So wrote Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac.

Failing that, another saying carries the point:  “The biggest problem could have been solved when it was small.” So wrote Lao Tzu, a Chinese Taoist sage, in The Tao Teh Ching, an ancient text of wisdom.

Changing behaviors and entrenched conditions isn’t as simple as it sounds — a mere decision powered (at best) by enthusiasm — as anyone who has worked to change a habit has found.

People do it by “trying” — working harder to change — rather than by uncovering their/our own remaining impulse to be “the old way” — working smarter.

However, without taking into account the root of action, any change of action remains incomplete and in conflict with old ways of acting.  This understanding applies as much to social politics as it does to individual behavior and experience.  That’s why, “You can’t change minds with guns.”

There’s a way of “working smarter”, rather than harder — and that is part of what I cover in this entry.

There’s a “Root” of Action??
The idea that there is a root of action doesn’t occur to most people. That’s because people generally experience action — theirs and others — only once it is well underway. The root of action, because it is small, subtle, goes unnoticed. So, I will, in this entry, illuminate the nature of the root of action (and it isn’t psychological, but more primordial/rudimentary than that). In the process, I will show the relationship between the subjective experience of the root of change and the objective (and outwardly observable) bodily sign of the root of action. Let’s get started.

The Root of Action
The root of action is so common as to go unnoticed, except in certain specialized situations.  Its word is, “readiness”.

Readiness is not merely an emotional state, a state of anticipation.  (“Yeah, boss!  Yeah, boss!”)  It’s a state of preparation, the first step of shifting from rest (unreadiness) into action.  (“On your mark, get set . . . “)  It’s a “steering” action, the step of organizing oneself for a particular activity, generally based upon the memory of the action we are about to do, but also modulated by the relationships of the moment.    It’s that subtle.

Because it is that subtle, as subtle as memory and the subtle effects of a person or place upon us, it generally goes unnoticed.

Memory and imagination go together, are two sides of the same coin. The act of getting ready is preparation for a leap into a (however vaguely imagined) future which has some connection with a memory.

I call the moment of getting ready, “The Controlling Moment.”  As we leap (or subtly drift) into action, we rally  our determination, springing (or gliding) forward from that controlling moment into full action. As we launch into action, we power up.  The controlling moment points our direction.  Powering up builds upon the controlling moment, and away we go.

Now, here’s the odd thing about human beings:  it’s common for us automatically to redirect our launch, so that what we do after the Controlling Moment misses the mark we (think we have) set in our Controlling Moment.  The act of redirecting ourselves occurs automatically, involuntarily, and is based upon memories of life situations similar to the one into which we are launching.  Fears, conditioning, beliefs all change our trajectory, but “behind the scenes”, without conscious awareness.  That means we get unanticipated results.

Not only do fears, beliefs and other conditioning change our trajectory; they also disguise or obscure the Controlling Moment of that action, so that an observer of our action often can’t tell what our precise intention was at the controlling moment — and we, ourselves, find it difficult to tell why things went awry.  (“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions,” a pathetic saying based on the presently-described dynamic).

What we and others perceive is everything that followed the Controlling Moment of that action, but the Controlling Moment remains obscured and obscure. Why?  Because the experience of “powering up” is so much “louder” than that of The Controlling Moment.  The root remains buried. That’s why it’s so difficult to self-correct, to change habits, and to understand the motivations of others whose actions we observe.

 Two “Layers” of Action
We may regard The Controlling Moment as the core of an action (steering) and Powering Up as the extension of that core (acceleration).

Another odd thing, however:  the two layers don’t always go together.  Sometimes, we get ready for an action but refrain from carrying it out; sometimes, we do an action for which we are not really ready, and our heart really isn’t in it, but carry it out, anyway.  We counteract our own Controlling Moment or we act without the precise internal guidance of a mature Controlling Moment.

 In those cases, we have a condition of self-arrest (Controlling Moment without Powering Up — ineffectuality) or poorly organized action (undeveloped Controlling Moment and lots of Powering Up — stupidity or clumsiness). In such cases, a residue of the action (or lack of action) remains in memory.  The residue of self-arrest is regret, frustration and/or self-recrimination; the residue of poorly organized action remains in memory as a sense of guilt, shame, and/or lower self-esteem.  

Integrity
What’s lacking when we have one but not the other is integrity. Integrity is intelligent, well-regulated, well-modulated power. In other words, when we have one but not the other, we fail either to exercise our intelligence adequately or we fail to exercise our power appropriately.

What happens as aftermath when we act without intelligence or without well-regulated power is we experience our lack of integrity as disempowerment. What to do?  What to do?

Forging Integrity
Congruence between our Controlling Moment and our Powering Up shows up as integrity. 

To forge integrity, we must correct one or both of our errors — the error of acting without adequate intelligence or an error in the exercise of power.

However, it’s not sufficient merely to power up; we must power up to a degree of intensity appropriate to our circumstances.  Likewise, it’s not sufficient merely to power up to an appropriate degree of intensity; we must power up intelligently, which means in alignment with the intention present in our Controlling Moment. 

The Controlling Moment is the truth of any action. The kicker is that we can’t have intelligence about a Controlling Moment buried by an unintelligent powering up — and powering up always buries the Controlling Moment simply because it’s louder. So, we have to uncover the Controlling Moment underlying any action or habit we find problematic. How do we do that?

First Attention
Self-correction requires that we catch the fault when it is small.  Otherwise, we have to deal with both the momentum of an action in progress and the direction of that momentum.  Think of turning a vehicle at slow speed vs. at high speed.

Again, unfortunately, we may (and commonly do) miss the Controlling Moment. One way to catch the Controlling Moment is to slow down so that we can observe the first moment of action, the Controlling Moment. Another way to catch the Controlling Moment is to repeat the action with close attention each time, so that we ultimately catch the Controlling Moment. And yet another way to catch the Controlling Moment is to alternate doing an action with refraining from that action, so that, by virtue of the contrast between doing and not-doing, we get enhanced perception of the action. And yet another way to catch the Controlling Moment is to take instruction (and example) from someone adept at the intended action, so that, by virtue of the contrast between their competence and our incompetence, we catch our own errant Controlling Moment and correct it, with repetition, by degrees (successively accurate approximations).

Whatever the approach, we must catch the Controlling Moment, so that we perceive the contrast (or difference) between our Controlling Moment and the subsequent Powering Up (which may be out of close alignment with our Controlling Moment) — so that we can self-correct at the root of action.

A master of anything is one who has done so.

 I’ve just outlined the theoretical (not hypothetical) underpinning of action and of change of action.  I’m going to leave you with that basic understanding without outlining specific techniques so that you can form an intention to form your own Controlling Moment to improve your access and control of your own controlling moments.

What follows is an addendum of interest to somatic educators and Rolfers.  To continue this consideration, please see this entry on The Big Pandiculation. We continue.  

For Somatic Educators
Feldenkrais pointed out, in “Body and Mature Behavior”, that laboratory studies showed that we can sense a stimulus about 1/20th of the intensity of another, immediately preceding stimulus.  That means, when a stronger stimulus immediately precedes  another, weaker, stimulus as little 1/20th as intense, we can sense both, but if the weaker stimulus is less than 1/20th as intense, we may not be able to sense it.

Thomas Hanna pointed out that to alter a pattern of function (or behavior) voluntarily, we must deliberately do the old pattern of function (to be changed) at a level of intensity at least equal to that of the same pattern, when done involuntarily (by habit or “kneejerk reaction”).  By matching or exceeding the level of voluntary intensity to the intensity of the involuntary habit, control shifts from involuntary habit to voluntary performance.  At that point, lasting change is possible.

 However, to make a change, we must reach, or catch, the Controlling Moment, and that requires two things:  that we:

  1. closely match the voluntary pattern of action to the habitual/involuntary pattern.
  2. maintain continuous sensory awareness from full intensity if the action all the way to zero intensity.

In practice, (1.) requires that we compare (by feeling) our voluntary action to the habitual action and self-correct until they closely match. In practice, (2.) requires that we either go slowly enough that the differences of intensity of neighboring (or successive) “takes” of sensory perception are less than 20:1 (“takes” of sensory perception can’t be continuous due to the way our nervous systems function, in which our brains link successive “snapshots” of perception the way movie films and TV images present successive “shapshots” of movement that our brains link together — via memory — into the impression of continuous action). 

Since, by tendency, we lack continuous perception of habitual actions, we may need to make numerous repetitions of the action to develop sufficient perception to apprehend the Controlling Moment and to make the change.  The Diamond Penetration Technique, which uses rhythmic repetitions combined with memory, is helpful to develop sufficient heightened awareness to change our habitual action.

For Rolfers
Ida Rolf made a distinction between “Intrinsic Movement” and “Extrinsic Movement.”  She defined “extrinsic movement” as “immature movement” and “intrinsic movement” as “mature movement.” Now to clarify those meanings.

Intrinsic Movement is movement we originate with awareness of the Controlling Moment — the root of action — intention. Extrinsic Movement is movement we originate with more concern for how the movement looks or conforms to the expectations of others (or social standards) than by how it feels — and so is immature movement that we may characterized as “obedience”,  “conformity”, “going through the motions”.

She also distinguished two “layers of depth” of the musculature and myofascial web:  intrinsic musculature and extrinsic musculature, or “core” (intrinsic”) and “sleeve” (extrinsic).

The intrinsic muscles are those most immediately responsive to the shift from rest into full activity, which corresponds to the shift from rest (or unreadiness) into readiness for activity.

Examples of intrinsic muscles include the finest, deepest muscles of the spine, the tongue, the muscles of focusing, the psoas muscles.

 The extrinsic muscles add power to the pattern of organization set by activation of intrinsic muscles.  So, it may be said that visually seeing organizes the body for motion.  Thus, “Look where you’re going,” has an intuitively understandable meaning. Another distinction she made was of two variations of poor integration:

  1. soft (open or free) core, hard (restrictive or tight) sleeve — conformity — “going through the motions,” “going along to get along”
  2. hard (restrictive or tight) core, soft (open or free) sleeve — outwardly obedient, but internally resistant behavior

She distinguished another pattern, which she defined as the desirable, mature pattern

  • open core, free sleeve

That pattern corresponds to a kind of rest, rather than activity. I distinguish yet another pattern:

  • freely responsive core and cooperative sleeve

This pattern is neither defined by a rest condition nor by an active condition, but by free modulation between both states, characterized by freedom from entrapment in either state.  In other words, there’s relatively smooth continuity between an “open core, free sleeve” condition and a freely responsive core empowered by a cooperative sleeve.

Paradoxically, it’s impossible to tell by a moment’s observation whether a person is entrapped, since their state of core and sleeve may be a momentary response (or even a frequent one).  Only over the long term can we tell whether an action pattern is free or compulsorily maintained by habit.  We can’t even tell, about ourselves, unless we are aware of our own Controlling Moments and the continuity of those moments with the movement into full rest.

Again, paradoxically, spontaneity shows up when the person moves easily from state to state. 

A true “Controlling Moment” arises from the ‘open core, free sleeve” (undefined) condition — Source. Again, habitual fixation in a pattern at the Controlling Moment or in Powering Up interferes with this free condition, since a person can neither move freely from action to rest, nor does their action, when carried out, reflect their direction, as determined at their Controlling Moments.

Ultimately, an approach from the outside, in (such as passive bodywork) can lead only to immature patterns of function, since we activate our core from the inside, out (intrinsically), and outside-in approaches, even those that contact the intrinsic muscular or depth, are inherently extrinsic (at least at the beginning).  Hence, the absolute necessity, with all kinds of bodywork, Rolfing included, for training in self-mastery to complement the changes of an outside-in approach. That training may start as movement education, but should mature toward Transcendental Realization and stages of personal (and cultural) evolution. (See Ken Wilber’s AQAL — “All Quadrant, All Level, All Line” Kosmological (yes, spelled correctly) model)

A final quote from Ida Rolf:

Comprehensive recognition of human structure includes not only the physical body, but also the psychological personality — behavior, attitudes, capacities.

MORE READING
An Advance of Somatic Education Technique — The Diamond Penetration Pandiculation Technique
The Integration Process
The Incarnation Taboo  
Psychotherapy and Integral Somatic Education  
The Big Pandiculation  

VIDEO about SOMATIC EDUCATION

Add your comment — what you would like to ask or tell.
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Back Spasms — The Inside Story | Stress Muscularly Expressed



the moment before a back spasm - daVinci
Outside View of Back

Back spasms catch us “unawares”,

so to speak.

But here’s the odd thing:  when a back spasm happens, it’s most often been coming for a long time.

The Back Story of Most Back Pain

Back during a period of prolonged high stress — maybe during an employment crisis or facing deadline after deadline after deadline — you got yourself used to driving yourself hard or used to being in a state of urgency.  Maybe you listen to too much news or talk radio and get “wound up”.  Maybe you stayed too long in a situation you really wanted to get out of, or maybe you put and kept yourself in uncomfortable positions, by sense of necessity, that you would rather have gotten out of, and got part-way used to that, while keeping going.  Or maybe you just “trained” badly or trained on top of old injuries.  You’re musclebound, whatever the story, and ended up having a back spasm.

It’s been coming for a long time, your back spasm — you’ve been getting closer to the edge of cramp or spasm for a long time.  You got so used to being tense and stiff that, one day, you pulled on that tenseness and stiffness and it pulled you right back, something like an internally generated whiplash action.

What If It Was a Whiplash Incident?

Maybe you were involved in an accident that yanked or jerked or jolted you a bit too much.

Then, you tightened up suddenly, experienced a sudden yank-back, and you knew you were caught.  What started as a protective stiffening became a back spasm.

Back Spasms Come from and Are Maintained by Muscle/Movement Memory

“Caught in your own conditioning”– thinking about that — your back spasms come from your conditioning — how you remember your back muscles’ “normal” (habituated) condition.

We all caught in our conditioning, our memories of how things are, to varying degrees and in different ways.  Had you noticed?

However, sometimes, it’s just too much, and with just one more challenge we suddenly go hard-line, uptight, tense, caught in the grip of our own conditioning, in spasm, body and mind (two aspects of the same thing).  Think about it:  didn’t your back spasm stop you in your tracks? mid-step?  It wasn’t just “a back spasm“; it was a “you spasm“.

The Problem with a “You Spasm”

Not enough capacity, not enough tolerance for additional demand.  On edge, trying to be nice, perhaps.  Not much more capacity for stress, however.  Used up, or close to it, in the grip.

The solution?

Recover much of that reserve capacity by dispeling obsolete tension patterns.  Lose the excess tension.  Get back to normal.  Recover your reserve capacity.  Feel like a human being.  You may have forgotten what that feels like and you may not have known that you can do it, yourself.

Common Back Spasms are Simple

“Simple When You Know How”

Common Back Pain is a fairly simple condition to master.  It’s just a primitive “go” reaction (“Landau Reaction“) turned on too hard and too long.  You’re overheated; you’re idling too high.  You can learn to turn this reflex (Landau Reaction) down and up again, temper it, recover a bunch of reserve capacity, flexibility and freedom of movement.  No more spasm, no more back pain, more reserve capacity, more movability.

Back Spasms from Injury are More Complex, Take More Doing to Clear Up

Back pain from injury may consist of a number of overlying contraction patterns.  However, bending over or twisting and getting a spasm isn’t an injury; it’s a malfunction that falls under “Common Back Pain”.  Recovering from a complicated injury isn’t more difficult, particularly; it just takes more steps, some sorting out, and more doing, of course.

The same principle applies, either way.

Recover voluntary (deliberate) control of the muscular grip and let it relax, then deliberately use it freely and so reclaim it.  Strength, reserve capacity, free control.  Security.

One Right Reason

That’s one very good purpose of somatic education — to get people out of pain.  It’s effective, it’s faster than more well-known or popularized methods, and it brings durable benefits under all life conditions.

Different — and More Like Yourself

A larger effect of somatic education is to train people to free themselves from the excessive grip of their conditioning; to re-acquaint people with what it feels like to feel fine;  so people feel different and more like themselves.

Relief comes primarily from what the person does, secondarily from what someone else did with the person.  If you do sessions of this process, you contribute at least 50% to the change, moving between effort and non-effort (in clinical sessions), or more like 90% if you’re working at a distance from me (Lawrence Gold) following recorded instructional material and taking distance-coaching, as needed.

Because the person is contributing energy, intention, and intelligence to the process, and because they’re changing from within (if guided from out), the change is theirs — theirs to maintain or theirs to re-create, if necessary.  More than that, it’s faster than by externally operating methods, whether scalpel, laser, or stretching device (“spinal decompression”), longer-lasting than manipulations or interventions of many kinds.  It’s longer-lasting because it covers more of the bases and from the internal control center, the self, oneself, and faster because it works from the inside, out.

MORE ON BACK SPASMS, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES

 

 


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TMJ Syndrome-TMD-Bruxism Treatments

This entry is for you if you have bruxism, orofacial pain, earaches, TMJ headaches, or clench your teeth at night.

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TMJ Syndrome | Clinical Somatic Education session
Oscar W. in Session for TMJ Dysfunction

Once again, I am drawn to address common practices used to alleviate common health conditions.  In this case, it’s TMJ Dysfunction (or “TMD” or “TMJ Syndrome”), a condition that people commonly expect to take months or years to clear up, but which can be cleared up in weeks by oneself or faster with clinical somatic education sessions.

The Essence of TMJ Dysfunction

Common dental practices overlook the root of the condition:  neuromuscular conditioning caused by trauma (injury, previous dental work) or long-term emotional stress (particularly, anger).  Even “neuromuscular dentistry” approaches the situation indirectly, by changing such things as a person’s bite pattern; the “neuromuscular” part exists in their minds, but not in their way of approaching the situation.

“Neuromuscular conditioning” means the way the brain has learned to control (or regulate) a certain function — in this case, the tension and movements of the jaws.  It’s a function of what is colloquially called, “muscle memory or movement memory.

An article posted here gives the details.

Here are topics that give reasoning and details.

The common therapeutic means for addressing the condition address symptoms, rather than causes.

As a clinical somatic education practitioner, I’ve developed an effective and reliable self-relief program, which addresses exactly the underlying cause of TMJ Syndrome:  the reflexive muscular action in the muscles of biting a chewing that causes the complex array of symptoms associated with TMJ Syndrome.

INTRODUCTION TO THIS TMJ SELF-TREATMENT PROGRAM

TMJ Dysfunction (TMD) Corrected
with Hanna Somatic Education

MORE:

Common Causes of TMJ Syndrome/TMD/Bruxism

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Common Causes of TMJ Syndrome, Nocturnal Bruxism

TMJ Syndrome (also known as “TMD” and “TMJD”) includes diverse symptoms caused by reflexive actions of the muscles of biting and chewing. It comes from brain-muscle conditioning (“muscle/movement memory”) caused by trauma and/or stress.  The term, “TMJ”, refers to the Temporo-Mandibular Joints — the jaw joints.

photo | Somatic Education for TMJ Dysfunction
Muscle/movement memory retraining technique of the muscles of biting and chewing.

As with all conditioning, proper training techniques can alter the conditioning that controls the muscles of biting and chewing. An accelerated training process, clinical somatic education), dramatically reduces the time needed to correct TMD/TMJ Dysfunction by retraining the muscle/movement memory that controls biting and chewing.

Dentists commonly categorize TMD/TMJ Dysfunction into different types: joint arthritis at the temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ), muscular soreness (myalgia), articular disc displacement, and bite deviation.

All of these conditions reduce down to the same cause: muscle/movement memory that keeps the muscles of biting and chewing tight.  The same approach can resolve them all (except for “disc displacement without reduction”, which is a surgical situation).

Let’s see how.

Degenerative Arthritis
Degenerative arthritis of the TMJ does not just “happen by itself”, nor does it result from outside influences, like an infection.

It results from excessive compression forces upon the TMJ, imposed by chronically tight muscles of biting and chewing. The joint breaks down under pressure.

Treatment must therefore retrain those muscles to a normal, low tension state, to be effective.

Muscular Soreness (Pain)
Chronically tight muscles develop muscle fatigue — the common “burn” that people go for in athletic training.  People with TMJ Dysfunction experience pain in the ear or on one side of the jaw, from this condition.

Symptoms disappear nearly instantly, once muscles relax. For a lasting reduction of muscle tension and burn, a training process is needed. Faster and slower training processes exist. 

Articular Disc Displacement
The articular disc of the TMJ is a pad that rides between the lower jaw (mandible) and the underside of the cheek bone (zygomatic bone), which goes from below the eyes, in front, to just before the ears on both sides. The TMJ, itself, is located just in front of the ears, and although the TMJ is the “home” position for the lower jaw, the TMJ is a very free joint. The cheek bone acts as a kind of rail along which the lower jaw rides forward and back during jaw movements, out of and back into the temporo-mandibular joint. The articular disc pads the contact between the lower and upper contact surfaces, connected to the lower jaw by a ligament with some elasticity.

When jaw muscles are chronically tight, the articular disc gets squeezed between the two surfaces, upper and lower, and may get dragged out of place by jaw movements (displacement) — a very painful condition.

If the displaced position of the disc is within the rebound capacity of the attaching ligament, the disc can return to its home position (“disc displacement with reduction”), once excessive compression forces ease. If the ligament gets stretched past its rebound capacity, the disc stays out of place (“disc displacement without reduction”).

Bite Deviations
Bite deviations do not, in themselves, cause of TMJ Dysfunction, but they are a manifestation of it.  However, when combined with excessive tension in the muscles of biting and chewing, the sensation of bite deviations get magnified, experienced as the sensation of “misfit”; grinding motions (bruxism) are actually a seeking for the comfort of a fit in a rest position, which is unavailable due to the feeling of upper and lower jaw misfit that bite deviations create.

While something radical like surgery may seem to be a necessary option, it is usually sufficient (and necessary) is to bring the jaw muscles to rest. To do so increases the tolerance (i.e., comfort) of the mismatched situation to the point where it is not disturbing.

The means to do this involves retraining muscle/movement memory of the muscles of biting and chewing.

Trauma
The underlying condition for the others, trauma (a blow to the lower jaw or dental work) triggers the muscles of biting to tighten (“trauma reflex”).

Gum chewing is not a cause, in itself, of TMJ Dysfunction.

I say more about trauma, below.

Conditioning Influences
The jaw muscles, like all the the muscles of the body, are subject to control by conditioned postural reflexes (muscle/movement memory), which affect chewing and biting movements. The reason people don’t go around slack-jawed and drooling, for example, is that a conditioned postural reflex causes the muscles of biting and chewing always to remain slightly tensed, keeping jaws closed. People’s jaw muscles are always more or less tense, even when they are asleep — but the norm is very mildly tense — just enough to keep the mouth closed and lips together.

The degree of tension people hold is a matter of conditioning.

For brevity, I’ll discuss only conditions that lead to TMJ/bruxism and not the normal development of muscle tone in the muscles of biting and chewing.
These influences fall into two categories:

  • Emotional Stress
  • Physical Trauma

I don’t know of empirical studies that prove which of these two causes is the more prevalent, but from my clinical experience, I would say that physical trauma (and tooth and jaw pain — which induces people to change their biting and chewing actions, and which becomes habitual) is the more common causes of TMJ Syndrome, and also dental surgery, itself. (Consider the jaw soreness that commonly follows dental fillings, crowns, root canals, etc. — soreness that may last for days.)

Emotional Stress
Ever heard the expressions, “Bite your tongue”? “Grit Your Teeth”? “Bite the Bullet”? “Hold your tongue”? “Bite the Big One”? They all have something in common, don’t they? What is that? To someone who regularly represses emotion or the urge to say something, these expressions have literal meaning.

Such repression, over time, manifests as tension held in the muscles of speech — in the jaws, mouth, neck, face, and back — the same as the muscles of biting and chewing.

Physical Trauma
Although people experience trauma to the jaws through falls, blows, and motor vehicle accidents, the most common form of physical trauma (other than dental disease) is dentistry, itself, and it’s unavoidable. Dental surgery is traumatic. The relevant term is “iatrogenic” — which means “caused as a side-effect of treatment”. Every dental procedure (and every surgical procedure) should be followed by a process for dispeling the reflexive guarding triggered by the procedure. (See the video.)

No doubt, this assertion will cause much distress among dentists, and I regret that, but how can we escape that conclusion?

Consider the experience of dentistry, both during and after dental surgery (fillings, root canal work, implants, cosmetic dentistry, crown installation, injections of anaesthetic, even routine cleanings and examinations). Consider the response we have to that pain or even the expectation of pain: we cringe.

We may think such cringing to be momentary, but consider the intensity of dental surgery; it leaves intense memory impressions on the nervous system evident as patterns of tension. (Who’s relaxed going to the dentist? — or coming out of the dentist’s office?) The physical after-effects show up as tension in the jaws and neck, and often in the spinal musculature, as well — and as a host of other symptoms.

Let’s go back to our fond memories of dentistry.

If you’ve observed your physical reactions in the dentist’s surgery station, you may have noticed that during probing of a tooth for decay (with that sharp, hooked probe they use), you tighten not just your jaw (can you feel it?) and your neck muscles, but also the muscles of breathing, your hands, and even your legs. It’s an effort to remain lying down in the surgery station when, bodily, you want to get up and get away from those instruments and the dentist or hygienist wielding them.

With procedures such as fillings, root canal surgery, implants and crown installations, the muscular responses are more specific and more intense. It’s important to ask your dentist about the best way to whiten teeth has never been more popular, even amongst the 50+. For teeth near the back of the jaws, we tense the muscles nearer the back of our neck; for teeth near the front of the jaws, we tense the muscles closer the front of the throat, floor of the mouth and tongue.

This reflexive response has a name: Trauma Reflex.

Trauma Reflex is the universal, involuntary response to pain and to expectation of pain.

It centers at the location of the pain at the time of trauma and is linked to our position at the time of pain. Muscular tensions form as an action of withdrawing, avoiding, or escaping the source of pain:  tensions of the jaw muscles, neck, and shoulders, with muscular involvement all the way into the legs.

In dentistry, with the head commonly turned to one side, in addition to the simple trauma reflex associated with pain, we have the involvement of our sense of position, and not just the muscles of the jaws are involved, but also those of the neck, shoulders, spine.

All of these conditions combine into an experience that goes into memory with such intensity that it modifies or entirely displaces our sense of normal movement and position. We forget free movement and instead become habituated or adapted to the memory of the trauma (whether of dental work or of some other trauma involving teeth or jaws). Our neuro-muscular system acts as if the trauma is still happening, even though, to our conscious minds, it is long past, and the way it acts as if the trauma is still happening is by tightening the muscles that close the jaws.

Since accidents and surgeries address teeth at one side of the jaws or the other, the tensions occur on one side of the jaws or the other. Thus, the symptoms of such tension — jaw pain, bite deviations, and earaches — tend to be one-sided or to exist on one side more than on the other.

The proof of the role of trauma reflex? — the permanent changes of bite and tension of the muscles of biting that have behind them a history of dental trauma — and the changes you see in the video that occur as this man is relieved of those conditioned postural reflexes.

AN OFFERING:   See how”The Whole-body Yawn” reconditions the muscles of biting and chewing to normal levels — ending all symptoms of TMJ Syndrome / TMD. CLICK HERE

RELATED ARTICLE:  Symptoms of TMJ Syndrome
DIRECTORY OF ARTICLES:  click here.

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More on The Pair of Complementary Walking Patterns

I have written elsewhere about The Magnetic Walk, a rhythmic movement pattern that recycles, gathers, and conserves kinetic energy; and about The Old Scotch Geezer’s Walk (or The Scotsman’s Walk), which sets up a rhythm that oscillates right and left, and thereby dispels and disperses the conserved energy.

By alternating The Magnetic Walk, as a walking regimen, with The Scotsman’s (or Old Scotch Geezer’s) Walk, we set up an oscillation between gathering energy (or momentum) and dispelling and dispersing it.  It’s a pulsation set in motion by alternating between the two patterns of movement.

That pulsation is the pulsation of our organizing ourselves for one walk and then organizing ourselves for the other.  The feeling is of a gathering of everything together around a center, then of letting go of the center and feeling sensation get more and more two-sided, then of gathering everything together again, and letting go, again.  That’s a pulsation.

That pulsation is like a radar wave going through us, that we sense, showing us where we are creased, jammed, or broken.  The movement and breathing that go along with the pulsation seem to fuel a reorganization that solves some chronic problems.

Now, those who know The Magnetic Walk and The Scotsman’s (or Old Scotch Geezer’s) Walk can do as I have described.

And if you don’t,
you gonna have to Get on the Train!

Add your comment — what you would like to ask or tell.
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How to Free Tight Hamstrings

This entry discusses healthy hamstring movement, exercises to free tight hamstrings, and some of the consequences of tight hamstrings. Resources to a hamstring stretch substitute that produces superior results by retraining muscle/movement memory and to programs to improve agility appear at the end.

To free tight hamstrings, it’s important to understand their four movement functions and then to get free control of those movement functions.

  1. leg extension at the hip joint
  2. leg flexion at the knee
  3. rotation of the lower leg at the knee joint
  4. stabilization of the pelvis when bending forward

We must free them (gain control of tension and relaxation) in all four movement functions.

If we do not gain (or improve) control in all four movement functions, one or more of those movement habits will dominate control of the other movement(s).

In addition, the hamstrings of one leg work alternately with those of the other — as in walking; when the hamstrings of one leg are bending or stabilizing the knee, the hamstrings of the other leg are extending or stabilizing the other leg at the hip.   In those movements, the hamstrings coordinate with the hip flexors and psoas muscles.  (Co-contraction of hamstrings and hip flexors/psoas muscles leads to hip joint and ilio-sacral (SI) joint compression.)  So our approach (being movement-based) must take those relationships into account.  Otherwise, we never develop the feeling of free hamstrings in their familiar movements and return habitually to their tight state which, because it feels familiar, feels “normal”.

The Four Movements of Hamstrings

LEG EXTENSION AT THE HIP JOINT
That’s the “leg backward” movement of walking.  The hamstrings are aided by the gluteal (butt) muscles, but only in a stabilizing capacity.  The major work is done by the hamstrings.  In this movement, the hamstrings, inner and outer, work together in tandem.

LEG FLEXION AT THE KNEE JOINT
That’s the “getting ready to kick” movement and also the “pawing the ground” movement.  In these movements, the hamstrings, inner and outer, also work together in tandem (same movement).

To the anatomist and kinesiologist, it may seem incomprehensible (“paradoxical”) that the hamstrings are involved in both movements — leg forward and leg backward — but that’s how it is.   Though the hamstrings are involved in both cases, different movements cause a different feel.

LOWER LEG ROTATION AT THE KNEE
That’s the turning movement used in skating and in turning a corner.  In this movement, the inner hamstrings (semi-membranosis and semi-tendinosis) relax and lengthen as the outer hamstring (biceps femoris) tighten to turn toes-out and the inner hamstrings tighten to turn toes-in as the outer hamstring relaxes and lengthens.

STABILIZATION OF THE PELVIS WHEN BENDING FORWARD
The hamstrings anchor the pelvis at the sitbones (ischial tuberosities) deep to the ‘smile’ creases beneath the buttocks (not the crack), so one can bend forward in a controlled way, instead of flopping forward at the hips like a marionette.  In this movement, the hamstrings coordinate with the front belly muscles (rectus abdominis).

In most people, either the rectus abdominis or hamstrings dominates the other in a chronic state of excessive tension, so freeing and coordinating the hamstrings involves coordinating and matching the efforts of the two muscle groups.  When the hamstrings dominate, we see swayback; when the rectus muscles dominate, we see flat ribs.

Training Control of Tight Hamstrings

the opposite of tight hamstrings | photo
See how easily she bends forward.

When training control of tight hamstrings (to free them), it’s convenient to start with the less complicated movement, first.  That’s the anchoring movement that stabilizes bowing in a standing position.  To see an exercise that cultivates hamstring control this way, click here.

After we cultivate control of “in tandem” hamstring movements (movement in which the hamstrings are doing the same action — lengthening, shortening or turning the lower leg), we cultivate control of “alternating” hamstring movements.  To see an exercise that cultivates hamstring control this way, click here.  (That link opens an email window to request a preview of The Magic of Somatics, an instructional book of somatic exercises.  The preview contains the somatic exercise we are discussing.)

By cultivating control of “in tandem” and “alternating” movements, we fulfill the requirements of functions (1.), (2.), and (4.).  The exercise linked in the paragraph above indirectly addresses function (3.) (lower leg rotation at the knee).

Merely to develop this kind of control is sufficient to free tight hamstrings.  It’s lack of free control of the movements I have described, in which automatic postural reflexes cause tight hamstrings, that lead to many common knee injuries (including meniscal tears and chondromalacia patelli) and common hamstring pulls or tears experienced even by athletes who stretch.

One more thing:  tight hamstrings go with tight back muscles.  They’re reflexively connected.  So if you have tight back muscles, back pain, or even back spasms, you may need to address both your hamstrings and your back muscles.  As a runner, you’ll find that to do so improves your stamina, breathing, and time.

Two programs that provide those benefits appear below.  Free previews are available and you’re invited to take advantage of them.

Programs That Have Somatic Exercises that Free Tight Hamstrings

Other exercises that have this effect exist in the somatic exercise programs, “Disproving the Myth of Aging” and “Free Your Psoas”, for which previews exist through the links, above.

MORE:

 

How Tight Hamstrings
Cause Knee Damage

and a better way to free them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Changing Muscle Memory — Manual Manipulation vs. Neuromuscular Training/Somatic Education

A basic understanding of muscle tone recognizes that the seat of control of muscles and movement is not muscles, but the brain, not “muscle memory” but “movement memory”, not “posture” but habitual or learned movement patterns (of which posture is an expression, a moment of held movement).

Lasting changes in muscle tone require movement training at the neurological (i.e., brain) level, something that manual manipulation of muscles accomplishes, at best, slowly, but which can be achieve quickly by somatic education, a discipline that rapidly alters habitual posture, movement, and muscle tone through an internal learning process that involves the brain function of memory, find more at Nixest.

More at http://somatics.com/movement.htm and http://somatics.com/stretch.htm along with clinical applications.

Image of Thomas Hanna developed a rapid way to alter muscle memor
Thomas Hanna, Ph.D.

See also, Clinical Somatic Education — A New Discipline in the Field of Health Care, by Thomas Hanna, Ph.D. — describing the dynamics of muscle memory and its dysfunction, sensory-motor amnesia (“S-MA”)

in reference to: What is Neuromuscular Therapy? (view on Google Sidewiki)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Stress, Sleep, and Somatics

Get Out of The Big Squeeze of Thinking and Restlessness

Sleep and wakefulness — two contrasting states that exist on a continuum — meaning that we drift between the two depending on our state of arousal.

Sleep and stress (or distress) — two overlapping states — meaning that stress permeates the continuum between sleep and wakefulness.  High levels of stress prevent the “drift” between the two states — or contaminate the sleep state, leading to unsatisfactory, or unrestful, sleep. For the body to rest well, it needs to have regular and normal levels on the body, from the stress levels, to other hormones levels, like testosterone for men, so for keeping a good level of testosterone you should try some testmax nutrition that help regulates and increase those levels.

Hanna somatic education identifies three reflexes of stress

  1. Landau Reaction (“Green Light Reflex”) — the “go” state of involvement, heightened alertness, arousal
  2. Trauma Reflex (“Yellow Light Reflex”) — the “caution” state triggered by pain, injury or emotional trauma
  3. Startle Reflex (“Red Light Reflex”) — the “stop” state of fear, anxiety, withdrawal

Perhaps it’s obvious how these reflexes of stress interfere with sleep.  What may not be so obvious is how to down-regulate these reflexes of stress to allow for restful sleep caused by anxiety, some people will ask me where to buy kratom because it helps with anxiety.  (By “down-regulate”, I mean, “decrease their intensity toward the rest condition”.)

All three of these states have both a subjective (inner or psychic) component and an objective (outer or directly observable, material) component.  To affect one is to affect the other.

In general, the reflexes of stress are triggered by external events, but maintained by internal conditioning.

How to down-regulate them?

… by means of The Whole-Body Yawn (pandiculation)

The Whole-Body Yawn
Yawning involves a movement into muscular contraction, generally of the muscles of the jaws, face, neck, middle ear (that regulate sound transmission), shoulders, and of breathing — followed by a leisurely relaxation of those muscles.

Yawning refreshes the body-image (which is why people commonly yawn and stretch upon arising from sleep) and it refreshes muscular control.  Involuntary yawning, as in sleepiness (makes you want to yawn, doesn’t it?), relaxes accumulated muscular tension.  It quiets the nervous system, preparing us for sleep; insomnia can be relieved with a traditional medicinal herb called kratom.

That’s an important clue.

People who can’t sleep are stuck with a noisy nervous system (chronic thinking, chronic muscular tension) — noise generally caused by the accumulated memory imprints of the day’s experience, or of the week’s experience, or of years of accumulated experience, including that of traumatic events.

The mind never shuts off.  The body never quiets down.  The person never deeply rests.

The patterns of chronic muscular tension and mental activity correspond exactly to those memories.  The memory of kicking a soccer ball involves the movements, muscular actions, and sensations of kicking.  The memory of an unpleasant (or pleasant) event involves the tensions of whatever response the person had.  Sometimes, people can’t sleep because they are too excited by the day they have just had.

These examples set the stage for this:  If you want to sleep, you had better be able to release these states of excitation imprinted on your memory.

In general, the most common state of excitation is that of Landau Reaction (“Green Light Reflex”).  It’s the one associated with tight back muscles, tight shoulders, and tight hamstrings.  The other reflexes of stress have different muscular patterns of involvement.

If you want to recover your ability to drift from wakefulness to sleep, try something extra with something like I did with mine from MyEtizolam.com, you can do so by disarming (or quieting, or down-regulating) your excitation in the three reflexes of stress.  To do so quiets your nervous system, your breathing, your mind and your emotions.

The Whole-Body Yawn can down-regulate (or dispel) all three patterns of stress.  However, as Trauma Reflex involves unique patterns of tension and pain, it requires forms of the Whole-Body Yawn tailored to those stress-and-tension patterns.  The Green Light and Red Light Reflexes, however, can be dealt with by means of standard forms of The Whole-Body Yawn, as found in the somatic education program, Get to Sleep.

Get to Sleep consists of guiding instruction in a somatic exercise that quiets (or down-regulates) Landau (“Green Light”) Reaction, one that frees breathing, and one that quiets Startle (“Red Light”) Reflex.  Two additional tracks consist of sound works that, like lullabies, help you drift into The Deep of Sleep, so that you’re asleep before you know it.

Now, you know the rationale for the program.  What’s left, if you are among the insomniacs of the world, is to test it, and having tested it, to use it.

Here are the tracks on the Get to Sleep CD.

1. Introduction                                 (2:04)
2. Spine Wave(training)                (26:54)
3. The Square Breathing                 (6:56)
4. Freeing Breathing for Sleep        (2:11)
5. Dream Zone with Maui Rain    (12:01)
6. The Mystery of Creation          (20:15)

For the first week or so, you use Track 2. (Spine Waves); after that, you use tracks 3. and 4. (The Square Breathing and Freeing Breathing for Sleep).  Tracks 5. and 6. (“Dream Zone with Maui Rain” and “The Mystery of Creation”) are lullabies.
Click here for access to Get to Sleep.

related entry:  Back Spasms, The Inside Story


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Hanna Somatic Education — a look at the larger picture

The time has again come for us to take a fresh look at the status of Hanna Somatic Education as a world-level teaching.

By that, I mean our role in alleviating the pain of the billions of people who are presently at the mercy of “less effective” clinical modalities and of the “ten thousand natural shocks flesh is heir to”.

We, who number in the small hundreds, represent the seed stock for what may be a body of practitioners adequate to serve those billions.

Puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

Now, to accomplish that end (which is a many-decades long project, even with exponential growth that we have yet to see, in the number of proficient practitioners), two things need to happen.

  1. We need to have a population of highly proficient practitioners.
  2. We need mass-media exposure.

Now, after nearly twenty-one years of practice, I can tell you this, from my experience:  Lessons 1, 2 and 3 are highly potent, virtually “sure-fire” as Tom Hanna said to us, Wave 1, students.  I almost never have to repeat a session with a client; one pass through virtually always gets the job of each lesson done (with rare exception).  I expect that to be true of any proficient practitioner.

A fair number of former clients of mine have gone to the Novato Institute and SSI trainings.  My point is that to receive good work has been their inspiration to become practitioners — and I believe that highly proficient practitioners are, for now, our best source of more practitioners — hence, the further importance of everyone developing and practicing at a high level of proficiency.

As the more highly proficient trainers age and retire, who is going to replace them? and what will be their level of proficiency? — which is all they can transmit to their students.

I’m not talking about a higher standard; I’m talking about the minimum acceptable standard — which is getting the results I get.  Why?  Because the students should exceed the teacher; if they don’t, the teaching is in decline.

For my part, in addition to giving private sessions, I have created and am still adding to my website, which nowadays gets about 30,000+ visitors, monthly and comprises some 245 pages.  That means that, since 1996, some millions of people who were looking for help with chronic pain have at least been exposed to somatics.  Through that website, I do what Tom Hanna did:  I publish information about somatic education and I sell somatic exercise programs to people, worldwide.  (I’m now considering re-doing the look of the site — another large task for which I’m hoping to find a shortcut.)

Let me add another perspective.  We are all aware of the “health care crisis”; we are all aware of the “economic meltdown”.  What do you think is the relationship between the “health care crisis” and the “economic meltdown”?

How about this:  Pain management is a major cost in medical treatment.  Huge amounts of money are spent on pain management, on conventional physical therapy; huge amounts are lost in productivity due to the three reflexes of stress and the inability of the medical system to manage pain and lost mobility effectively.  Do you know how large the Medicare budget is?  how much is spent on medical insurance that covers procedures that get so little done so slowly, compared to what we can do so quickly?  I’m talking about a major proportion of our country’s gross national product, comparable in scale to the military budget.  Kind of awes you, doesn’t it?

We have a role to play in the recovery of the world economy.

Now, how are we going to do it?

One key is “mass production”.  We can’t mass-produce proficient practitioners — not, at least, until we have enough highly-proficient trainers producing highly-proficient students who become trainers, to support exponential growth.  The only way it’s safe to “slack the reins of control” is if exactingly high training-and-certification standards result in top-notch practitioners who become top-notch trainers.

What can be mass-produced are self-relief, somatic exercise programs.  We need to infiltrate social institutions.

Let’s not be lazy; let’s be creative.  Let’s not cop out; let’s develop ourselves and our skills.  Let’s not sit on the sidelines; let’s make the contribution only we can make.  Let’s not “go with the flow”; let’s be the flow.  Let’s not be foggy-minded; let’s be clear about our situation.  Let’s not be old and tired; let’s regenerate and rejuvenate ourselves and this teaching.  The more we do, the more we’ll have the resources to do more, to more effect and with less effort.

I think it’s a little like pulling a cork out of a wine bottle.  It’s “stuck in there good”.  So you pull and twist and wiggle and it comes out a bit.  You pull and twist and wiggle some more and it comes out further.  That makes it easier.  At some point, it starts to come free faster, and then it’s out — with a pop.

We’re the wine — but still new wine.  Standard and most “alternative” practices and the mindset that they embody are the cork.  They should and will stay in place until the wine is ready — and then they should be pulled from their closed position so we can pour out.  Maybe we can do that by positioning ourselves as “helpers” to them, but ultimately “the truth will out”.  We’re the vanguard.

Know that whatever we decide and do (or don’t do) has consequences.  We need everyone’s higher intelligence.

I have set myself to the task creating mass-producible instructional programs that address needs not being well-met by bodywork, therapy, and standard medicine.  My most recent was a program to address TMJ dysfunction.  I’ve also had new success with improving eyesight (mine) and with resolving deep pelvic pain and S-I joint syndrome.  People need a program for resolving neck pain, and I’ve got the essentials for that done in raw video.  I’ve developed a technique for multiplying the effectiveness of somatic exercises (fewer repetitions, less time, more accomplished) and written on somatics from “unusual” perspectives. 

Personally, I am more interested in training practitioners than in doing one-on-one sessions (which are about the closest thing to instant gratification that I know) or in producing publishable programs.  Training others is a way to multiply myself and the benefit I can bring to others.  However, I’ve delayed organizing trainings until I’ve gotten those other tasks done, even though I’ve had quite a few training inquiries in the past few months.

That’s where I stand.

Lawrence Gold


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