Movement Therapy for Pain Prevention and Treatment

MOTION IS LOTION
TO FEEL BETTER IN YOUR BODY, HELP YOUR BRAIN FEEL YOUR BODY BETTER

MOVE TO IMPROVE

The brain and the rest of the human nervous system is as much a learning system as it is a doing system. There are lots of kinds of exercise out there; the ones listed here fall into the broad category of relaxation exercises. They are designed to:

increase the amount of space you feel in your body slide your physical nerves a little to help them feed help your brain refresh its maps of your body schema get yourself out of (mechanical) pain, or prevent pain in the first place increase your nervous systems adaptive tolerance to your work change the sensory-discriminative input into your own neuromatrix, so that it can change its output, including pain output

FIRST, A WORD ABOUT BREATHING:

1. The exercises are to be done in a leisurely manner, once to three times each, slowly, with long abdominal breaths. Allow each of the exercises to last over the course of several breaths. Theres no hurry. Theres no where else youve got to be.. theres nothing else you have to do. 2. Try to aim for having the outbreath be much longer, up to twice as long as the inbreath. Take rests between breaths. The best place to pause is at the end of a complete outbreath, waiting until you feel an irresistible urge to breathe in again. 3. It doesnt hurt to work on your abdominal muscles a little bit in conjunction with your breath.

As you breathe in, relax your abdominal wall. Let it swell out from your body give your organs space so they are not squeezed together as your diaphragm descends. (Think, balloon belly.) As you breathe out, slowly engage and contract your abdominal wall, helping the breath to be completely expelled, pulling the belly button into your body, toward your spine. (Think, wasp waist.) 4. Keep your pelvic floor relaxed, and let go of any other extraneous tension anywhere else that is not required. All you need to use is your diaphragm, and at the end of the outbreath, your belly button muscles. 5. Deep slow breathing can reset your autonomic nervous system to a certain extent, helping to protect your body against lifes stresses.

EXERCISES
If you practice these daily for just a few weeks, then as desired thereafter, they will help you to reset your nervous system (turn down alarm bells, turn up thresholds). Brains need exposure to new ways of analyzing their own processing capacities. These exercises will help your nervous system relearn to self correct - you likely wont need to intervene so actively, after awhile. Do these exercises well for a little while, and they will do you well for the rest of your life. 1. SENSING THE FLOOR Lie down on the floor on your back with your legs stretched out. Feel the floor against your body and get as comfy as possible. Feel all the parts of your body that are in contact with the floor. Make a mental topographical map of how your body parts are in contact with the floor. Note any regions of high pressure, no pressure, any differences from right side to left side, bottom half of body compared to top half. Make a mental snapshot of this map, because it will

change before long.

2. ARCHING AND CURLING (from Somatics )

TM

2.1.

Draw your knees up, feet standing. Place your feet such that your legs stand up in gravity by themselves.

Breathe in, allowing your abdomen to rise. Breathe out, allowing it to fall, then contract your belly button muscles a little to expel the last bit of air. Do this a few times. Next time you breathe in, and your belly rises, help it rise up even higher by lifting your lower spine off the floor slightly.

2.2.

The pelvis stays down. Nothing else contracts. This is called arching. As the air is breathed out, let your belly hollow out even more by flattening your lower spine down against the floor. This is called curling. Repeat 3 or 4 times, then rest.

2.3.

There are two places in your spine that can do this arching and curling. You already learned one place. The other is your neck.

Let your neck duplicate the movement your low back is doing, at the same time, in the same way. As you arch, let your chin stick up into the air. (Take care to not press your head into the floor, just slide it along without pressure.) As you curl, let the back of your head slide away from your body. As you practice this, youll start to feel as though your spine is contracting, shortening down longitudinally into your pelvis as you arch and breathe in. It will feel like the whole spine lengthens or extends away from your pelvis as you breathe out. The experience will feel as though your trunk has become an accordion, breathing in and out, pleating then unpleating longitudinally.

2.4.

Relax for awhile; let your legs drop down. Check your "map," and see if

it has changed yet.

3. LENGTHENING ARMS AND LEGS 3.1. You are lying on your back with your legs long. Put your arms over your head, then lay them down on the floor above your head.

Mentally map where they are: how close together, if they are parallel, if the arms are in contact with the floor along their entire length. The degree to which they contact the floor isnt really important right now, because it will change: What is important is how well you pay attention to it, and sense the change. 3.2. Pick one arm and one leg. On a long exhale, very gradually lengthen them away from each other; first the hand and foot, then the elbow/knee, finally the shoulder/hip, then right through the trunk, like a bungee cord is gently elongating. Go slowly. Make the elongation last through several breath cycles. Sense every bit of the movement that you possibly can. Hold them elongated away from each other for a few breath cycles (no more moving, just soft holding) When you have experienced this to the fullest you can, slowly allow shortening to occur, until your arm and leg are at rest again. Make the shortening last as long as did the lengthening. The slower you do something, the more information your brain will have time to process and use, to improve its maps of your body. Rest. Bring your knees up again if you like, while you rest. Rests give the brain time to store the new information it has just learned, about moving. Repeat 3.1-3.5 with the other arm and leg. You can do same side arm and leg or opposite arm and leg, or both. As you like. Check your map to see if it has changed.

3.3.

3.4.

3.5.

3.6. 3.7.

3.8.

4. LENGTHENING NEURAL STRUCTURES IN ARMS AND LEGS

4.1. Lie on your back, legs long and down, arms out to the sides somewhere, palms down.

Bend your hands up at the wrists, and your feet up at the ankles. Do this slowly, with a few slow breaths. Stop wherever you feel a nice pleasant stretch feeling, but nothing uncomfortable. 4.2 With the ends of all four limbs turned up, choose one limb to lengthen.

On an outbreath, ooze the limb you have selected a bit further away from your body. Use several breath cycles to get all the way there. Allow other parts of your body to assist the process, and ooze your limb even farther out. See if you can cancel out any awareness of your bones, so that you feel boneless, like an octopus. 4.3. Take note of what in your body is trying to help you. Note how everything feels. Is this a big effort? Or does it flow easily? It doesnt really matter one way or another - what matters is that you learn to track change in your body from one time to the next. Breathe into any areas of yourself that feel tight. Visualize that you can breathe into the space within and between actual cells. Slowly relax and allow your limb to shorten back in until your whole body is relaxed again. Let your hands and feet relax down too, let your legs and arms roll into positions of comfort and ease. Rest. Repeat 4.1-4.4 with each limb. Note any difference in how each limb feels, how differently your brain recruits from the rest of your body to assist. Dont do anything about it, just notice. And breathe. Let things change by themselves. Less work. Let nature take care of it for you. If you like, you can try this with two limbs at once, or three, or four, any combination at all.

4.4.

4.5.

4.6.

5. SIDELYING ARM LENGTHENER 5.1. Turn your body to one side or the other. Let your neck bend enough for your head to lay on the floor, pillowless.

The bottom arm will be straight out from your body.

Your legs will be curled, one on top of the other, completely relaxed. The top arm will be sitting on top of your body at first. Begin with a few deep breaths. Make a brand new map.

5.2.

On an outbreath, extend your top arm so that the elbow is straight and your fingers touch the floor above the other hand. On the next outbreath, begin to slowly slide your fingers on the top arm along the floor, upward toward the space beyond your head.

5.3.

There is no hurry. Go slow and pause for frequent rests, keeping your arm extended and your fingers on the floor. 5.4. Keep going as far as you can. Do not go any further than you can go effortlessly and comfortably. Allow adjustments to occur, such as letting your hand roll over onto its back when it needs to, and letting your torso twist and ribcage torque.

5.5.

As much as you can, allow lengthening and softening in the trunk and ribcage rather than putting stress in the shoulder, to help the arm move along its arc. 5.6. Do NOT produce ANY discomfort doing this.

Let your body figure out how to do it by itself in its own good time. It may take a few weeks of daily practice to be able to get all the way around without discomfort. There is no hurry. The shoulder and spine and ribcage are complex areas, and it will take some time perhaps, for some people, to lengthen sufficiently. But thats all it should take, is time. No effort. 5.7. When your arm is all the way around, you will be in a half twist.

If you are completely comfortable there, relax, then breathe through a few cycles. 5.8. To come out of this position, you can gently bring your top knee up, then the other, so you are on your back again.

Let the legs drop down, and feel your map again. 5.9. Repeat 5.1-5.8 on the other side

6. STANDING SHOULDER LOOSENER This can be done anywhere, anytime, during short breaks at work. 6.1. Stand on both legs, evenly through them, equal amounts of weight on both feet, equal amounts through the fronts of feet and heels. Lengthen spine and neck upward slightly and slowly, as though the head were a helium balloon filling and starting to float up. Begin abdominal breathing; continue throughout. Relax shoulders. Lengthen arms slightly, all the way through fingertips. Stiffen elbows slightly and keep them straight throughout. Turn thumbs in, allow the rest of your arms to slowly turn in the same direction, inward. Try to feel the gentle wringing sensation this brings.

6.2.

6.3. 6.4.

6.5.

Hold the arms twisted in, then begin to lift them up, backwards, behind you. Try to keep them parallel if you can. Lift them as high as they can comfortably go. Breathe smoothly throughout. 6.7. As you hold the arms up behind you and breathe, you may find some space opens up in your body, shoulders and arms, such that you can lift your arms up a little farther.

6.6.

Go ahead and (gently) take up this slack. 6.8. Hold your arms up as long as you can.

When you begin to fatigue, slowly lower the arms. This is important; lower your arms as slowly and carefully as you would land a jet plane, all the while remaining tall and breathing abdominally. 6.9. Rest, repeat steps 6.1-6.8 if you like. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

CORRECTIVE MOVEMENT
Corrective means corrective for the nervous system. This work is a bit different from the exercises, more motion and no concern about breathing. It can be done in any position. It is best done when alone and without interruption. Start from a place of stillness, in any position, but lets say a sitting position. Close your eyes and feel your body. Sink into it, let your eyes roll back a little; let gravity begin to have you. With any luck, you will immediately start to feel your head begin to tilt into some direction, slowly, like a tulip. But you are not a tulip; your stem has muscles in it. In as detached yet interested a manner as possible, follow this movement with the rest of your body. Dont worry; your brain will not let you fall over. Instead it will present you with a new option or direction to move into. Perhaps another part of your body will let you know that it would like to move too. Let it. It might begin to move into a different direction than the one your neck is still moving in. Let them move however they like. As this process continues to unfurl, become fascinated by all the different centers of movement you can sense at once, each doing its own movement into its own vector, but relating to all the other parts at the same time. This activity will help your brains spatial maps to restore themselves. Perceiving it will give your conscious awareness a role to play. These movements may be very small, or surprisingly large. The actual movements themselves are not very important. What IS important is what you allow, what you sense physically, that you pay attention, that you do not interfere, and what you experience. The movements should feel deeply delicious in a brand new way, every single time, and give rise to one or more of the following characteristics of correction: 1. Warming (anywhere in your body) 2. Spontaneity (I havent let myself move this way, or this direction, ever before I never knew I could move like this) 3. Softening (I feel like my bones are melting this is nice) 4. Effortlessness (Wow, this is easy. I feel like I am being moved instead of moving, and I cant feel any resistance from anywhere in my body) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

AFTERWORD
I hope these ideas will help you with your body and with de-stressing, decompressing from your work life. You can make up new exercises/movements if you want babies do this all the time, and they delight in the process. We can recover some of that joy of moving by choosing to let go of our responsible adult brain for a little while each day, by giving ourselves permission to be free to move. We can prevent automaticity from taking over our action programs. Remember, motion is lotion for physical nerves, but furthermore, consciously attentive and creative movement is some of the best brain food you can provide to your conscious awareness, for improving its relationship (your relationship) to the rest of your hardworking brain parts.

Diane Jacobs 2008 Link to Treatment Link to Sensible Solutions Physiotherapy