Moving Into Harmony

MOVEMENT & BREATHING: HEALTH / PERFORMANCE PROGRAMS

Medicine of Movement - Harness Your Health through Movement

Why relaxing down enhances your flexibility

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If the well is distant, its water does not quench the thirst of the pilgrim – Chinese Proverb

Your health is being flexible, and your flexibility is not about how your stretch……it’s about how you descend to harness fluidity in your tissues and your mind. Just like in the desert, or in the mountains, the well-spring of nourishment is always found in the hollows of the earth – the canyon, the mountain, the well.

How do you harness your fluidity? You learn to descend within the body. My teacher, Shandor Remete, from the beginning, guided us to cultivate the ability to descend our energy by the proper use of how you move your body. So much of life triggers us to ascend upward – for example:

  • The overuse of the eyes and the brain.
  • A surprising and often frightening sensation of pain
  • Being “ready” for what’s expected or ahead of you
  • Holding yourself upright to maintain a “good” posture
  • elevate your mind for clear thoughts.

This is in contrast to the actual nourishing element of water that keeps us flexible, mobile, and agile. The higher you live, the more distant the access to the balancing mechanism that promotes dynamic fluidity. Water travels down the mountain, down the canyon, and eventually to the ocean. The physiological processes are related to natural phenomena – as in the natural wild world, so inside the wilderness of your body.

Dripping water can eat through a stone – Chinese Proverb

The “region” of the body that relates to the downward force to access the elemental nature of water, consists of approximately 70% of your total body. It represents – the back body – from the tuft of the skull to the heels; and the front body – from the navel to the front of the ankle. The gross body part, anatomical, that relates to the water element is the feet. The ankles are referred to as “the regulators of all fluids in the body” (wisdom given to me by both my Hatha Yoga teacher, Shandor Remete; and my Manual Therapy teacher, Frank Lowen).

What practices can you “exercise” to harness your fluidity? Good question.

Avoid Stretching what you think is tight.

Shocked? Consider how long you have been stretching to feel flexible? Now consider how much strain and stress you are putting on those pinpoint focused areas you feel are tight, without the aide of harnessing your fluidity. Your:

  • bottoms of your feet (plantar fascia)
  • calves (gastrocs, soleus)
  • thighs – front (quadriceps); back (hamstrings)
  • low back (quadratus lumborum, back extensors, spine)
  • hips – front (iliopsoas); back (glutes, piriformis)
  • shoulders (rotator cuff)
  • chest (pectoralis group)
  • neck and skull (trapezius, suboccipitals)

Some of you even contract one muscle group to stretch the apposing. Or you contract the muscle group you want to stretch, then relax to stretch it (cuz you think it fatigues that you can pull it apart more). Well, I am here to say…….

That is a lot of energy consumed to get a short term result. Doesn’t last. In fact the moment you return to your life that engages your up-ness. POOF! gone….you are back to being tight and probably feel more stiff than before you stretched.

Stretching, in my clinical experience is unnecessary stress and strain without the essential ingredient of dynamic fluidity. It is like a rubber band that snaps back. Consider the material – a rubber band, a piece of taffy – what happens when it is dry, frayed, or cold? It usually doesn’t have the same pliability, and if you are using a rubber band, I am certain you ignored that one or threw it away; or if it was the only one you had to use (you don’t have another hamstring) you were cautious to not overstretch because it break, and snap. Ouch, that end that snapped to my finger was painful. Ouch, I just “tore” my hamstring stretching in yoga class. And more subtly, your body is sensing undo stress and strain with it’s signals of ouch, protects by tightening (kinda like how your protecting brace when you know something potentially harmful is coming, or experienced) and tries to brunt the brute force attack by trying to stretch.

Learn how to use your feet and your ankles. And learn how to descend through squatting.

Yes squatting. It’s not what you think. Did you mind go to the power lifter in the gym squatting 300 lbs.? Admit it, you hesitated if you have read this far. You squat every day, many times a day. How many times do you sit down, and get up from a chair? How many times do you sit down to toilet? How many times do you lower yourself to get something? My suggestion is to use your every day activities to give yourself the opportunity to feel, discover, learn and integrate what you feel, or how you are guided to descend, that delivers a life benefit of the skill of descending to find your flexibility.

I will be discussing more details on this important topic in the weeks and months to come. Stay tuned.

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How to enhance your Balance & Coordination

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YES!!!  Our feet and our hands have vital importance for integrative vital movement.

From a neuroscience perspective, the homunculus of the somatosensory cortex, the map of the motor and sensory fields in our brains, illustrate this occupancy of high functional capacities for the feet and hands. The only other areas that get this much “attention” are the lips, tongue, eyes, ears. With this representation, you can see the capacity we have to use our feet for sensation and developing attributes for the full-body movement that the body understands – the integration of the limbs. Most important is the capacity to feel, to sense your internal and external environments.

The tantric yogis, from which hatha yoga is a part of, state consciousness comes through or senses, and the “central nerve channel” derives the sensory system. Thus the importance for everyone to find their feet and develop a connection to the most important part of our foundation. And to sense and understand how the utilization of the hands is intimately connected to the spine and the legs.

What is not seen or measured is the ability to sense the bones, their alignment, and an integral part in our “core” stability. There is no need to bind the belly for stabilization. One only needs to feel how the spine responds to the balancing arrangement and integrative use of the limbs (including the head) for static and dynamic activity. It is this sensibility with the bones, all the way to the tips of the fingers and toes, that allows all the other tissues including tendons and muscle to respond together. The body knows how to respond with an integrative balance in the limbs. It is inherent. And to override the body’s intelligence and nature of functional core engagement is acting violently to the nature of the body’s resources. Developing a sensitivity to the bones requires advanced attention because the bones whisper and often their message gets drowned out by the message from the muscle.

I often associate the muscle with the mini-me, and the bones with the deep inner wisdom, or sage, that carries the innate intelligence of harmony in the body.

How to cultivate access to the Power in the Bones!

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How do you consistently remain alive during life’s demands? How do you adapt? Are the adaptations you currently incorporate helping you live in harmony? Being alive is being fluid in response. Being alive is being in balance from the foundational support that your bones give.  Establish balance from a sustainable resource, the bones, and discover your potential.

Learning new patterns to replace habits that limit freedom of well-being can be challenging. Habitual patterns of posture for sitting and standing which unknowingly limit the flow of your circulation of life force energy, Prana, are perhaps the toughest to change. Typically, when there are changes required, we don’t realize how the bones can be that foundational support.

Life is challenging, sometimes overwhelming, sometimes eliciting means to survive. The body and mind do the best they can in the attempt to meet the demands from you and your environment. The stress response of the body, if elicited during these demands can diminish any biological and physiological healthy rhythms leading to symptomatic signals of unease. It is a resonance in the nervous system that registers dis-ease from unsupported activity. Symptoms such as difficulty sleeping, cold hands and feet, decreased appetite and difficulty digesting food all relate to an overwhelmed system.

A standing posture can be helpful in cultivating the supportive essential qualities for a path toward balance. Stances can also simultaneously aide in cutting and removing habitual “holding” patterns limiting your current state of being. Patterns developed from adaptations you needed and that may have been necessary during a certain time of your life. How you dealt with a demanding or stressful experience – survived, managed, or thrived. With a relaxed focus on the dynamisms of a stance, you begin the process of feeling the body’s innate wisdom for balance – harmony.

The Bones

The bones are that balance point. Balance point where there is no binding stress on the system. Rather an acceptable demand that facilitates circulation and change. How you move from balance, through balance, to balance is one of the key elements of how the bones support optimal function. Bones represent quality of concentration, physically as the most solid and physiologically as the most vascular.

The bones are most associated with the earth element because of the mineralization and density. The bones are “well-baked,” holding the qualities of the fire, AND are the most metabolic tissue. They are built to support you! When the practice utilizes the bones for support, it:

  • Reduces the muscular effort for support,
  • Decreases stress responses to daily demands,
  • Creates the quality of Dharana, which is essential for Dhyana (meditation),
  • Generates a gentle internal heat for metabolism, and
  • Improves circulation for all of the body’s functions.

Stability from the bone brings lightness and relaxation. Optimal load bearing and “alignment” brings optimal fluid dynamics to all tissues. By being in a stationary position such as goat or horse stance, your entire body’s ability to facilitate and integrate change is supported by the work-horses of your legs – the bones.

Practicing in the Bones

With a standing practice, the body must have the capacity to remain in a stationary position and maintain circulation, without binding or holding. This is part of the body’s natural ability to support you, just as a horse knows how to sleep standing up. One of the keys is the feeling of lightness, fluidity and ease during and after the stance. This is a measure of how long one is sustainable in stationary work.

A standing practice can help you realize what supports you. The practice can also provide a glimpse into the understanding of non-violence, because the demand on the structure asks us to release our old ways, and surrender to something stronger and more powerful than our means to survive. You may be amazed at how much energy you have been using to hold yourself up. What is the sustainable enduring essence within you?

Solution – Develop balanced foundations with the 4POINTS and Yin Horse





Here is some guidance for the Yin Horse:

  • Stand with shoulders over outer edge of ankle joints, and then move your heels out so the toes are in more than the heels.
  • Feel the 4POINTS on your feet (see animation above), to establish balance in your foundation; as you notice the settling onto the four points, if one or more points are not as engaged with the earth, try not to mechanically roll the feet or ankles to adjust, rather soften the feet and extend your awareness to the edges of your feet – nail bed or first toe, space between the 4th and 5th mound, backs of heels leading back and down into the earth. Keep allowing the feet to soften and feel more fluid like.
  • With the hands soft, place them on your low belly below the navel in a way that the elbows and shoulders are relaxed and there is no tension in the chest or neck.
  • Entering the stance, lower yourself down 1-2 inches onto the balanced 4POINTS from your ankles, with the top front of your shins weighting the heels, and avoid pushing yourself down into the stance which will produce increase weight onto the balls of the feet and lightness in the heels. Feel the difference if you are not understanding – push yourself down, and notice your ankle, knee, hip joints and the spine. Do they feel compressed? Try lowering yourself from the feet and notice the difference. Optimal outcomes will be realized over time as you develop vertical support through the bones and spaciousness in the joints.
  • Depth of stance remains at 1-2 inches, no deeper. As you begin to allow the body to be supported by the bones, especially the shin bone, you will want to go deeper. Can you stay at 1-2 inch depth and allow the internal release that feels like you are going deeper, when in fact it is the release of what you habitually hold up that is releasing down.
  • Avoid stress by overdoing, pushing down into the legs, holding in the knees, hips, buttocks, and/or spine. These holdings are very common when the cultivation and development in the bones to support you is young.  “Young?” you say, “I am 45 yrs old.” Rather than age, I am referring to a development of circulation and neuromuscular (or neuromotor) patterns of support that is usually associated with muscles, rather than the bones supporting you. Holding in the muscles or resting on the joints, which is a more common habit, can be your default and, therefore, “stronger” than this new way of being in your legs.
  • Be patient, accept your capacity and persevere with trust your body can do this. Your development is dependent on practicing with awareness, and then integrating that awareness through your day by feeling the support of your legs.
  • Recommend doing this in the morning, mid-day and in the evening before bed 2-3 minutes at a time. Build to  -> 5 minutes, -> 8 minutes, -> 10 minutes, -> 15 minutes over a 6-9 month period. Give it time and have no expectation of it coming sooner. Once developed, your body will hold a wonderful support level that will serve you for a long time.
  • The above guidance in the video is a great resource. Be patient with feeling the more subtle aspects of the stance that are mentioned about the pelvis, the breath and the spine. Be comfortable being in the stance first noticing support and then releasing onto the bones; then your awareness will have more capacity to observe the other things that happen. It took me 3-4 years to feel the things I am sharing.
  • Keep practicing with this or other stances to further your development, depending on your desires and your needs.
  • Join me for a class!
  • Schedule a session!

This can be transformative by transcending some of the barriers to your healing potential!