Taking Somatic Yoga Therapy to the Mat

If you've read the last couple of blogs on Somatic Yoga Therapy, you may be wondering what the process is in re-educating your mind and muscle connection so habitual movements that create pain can begin to dissolve. One way would be through a workshop.

In a workshop setting, say in a workshop designed to reverse the stiffness, aches and pains we associate with aging (The Myth of Aging) here are some ways in which the student would learn to make the changes to their movement, habitual patterns, etc.

First, each individual would lay on the floor and assess how their body feels to them.  This is the somatic awareness that we need to rekindle.  While this may sound simple, if we are no longer aware of an area of the body, we might just skip over the area, thinking it feels normal.   I would ask the students to compare right and left sides of the body – say how each shoulder blade feels.  How is it touching the floor? Does it feel the same on both sides?  And so on.

When the movement starts, we start from the center of the body. Everything radiates from the center of the body, or the core.  I’m not just talking about the “core” that is so highly focused on in many programs, but the entire core – those large, central muscles.  Everything radiates out from there.

We would address chronic contractions in the extensor muscles – the muscles along the backside of the entire body. Then the flexor muscles, these are the muscles on the front of the body.  We wake up lateral movers (side to side) and rotational muscles.  Yes, I did say “wake up” because many of these muscles we are no longer aware of. We think we rotate, but most people leverage into a twist, or they twist their shoulders, neck and head and the oblique (waist) muscles just passively move along.

Once these muscles are awakened and we become more aware of them, we look to the shoulders and neck and the pelvis area.  Remember, we radiate out from the center.

In a workshop such as Youthful Posture, we would start out in a similar fashion, waking up certain muscles, however the focus would be in gently releasing the front of the body.  Imagine a tight front body – depressed chest, pubic bone pulled up, as I described earlier.

None of this is accomplished through stretching.  In fact, we do a lot of contracting. The contracting brings awareness and then we slowly, slowly release out of the contraction, paying close attention to the feelings/sensations in our body.  We become aware again that we can move these parts. It feels very, very good.

If you are interested in learning more about this form of yoga therapy, or to express your interest in a workshop, please email namaste@focusyogastudio.com. 

This blog series, The Myth of Aging and Somatic Yoga Therapy, is contributed by Nancy Nesyto-Freske, RYT.  Nancy is a Certified Yoga Instructor and Certified Yoga Therapist and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She earned her 200 hour certification with Moksha Yoga in Chicago, and was certified as a Yoga Therapist through Functional Synergy, Calgary, AB, Canada, by Susi Hately, in 2012. She is currently studying with Steven Aronstein at the Somatics Systems Institute in Northampton, MA.
   Nancy became passionate about helping people continue to enjoy the vitality they experienced when they were younger, so they could enjoy their active lifestyle, now and long into their retirement. She feels there is no reason we have to settle for less!

The Myth of Aging and Somatic Yoga Therapy

Part 2: The Mind, Body and Energy Link
contributed by Nancy Nesyto-Freske, RYT

I hope I have you thinking about the possibility of a life of graceful and easeful movement.  A life where not only your Yoga class is way more enjoyable and effortless, but all of your activities are that way as well.  There may even be a shift in your belief in who you are and what you can accomplish!

Take for instance the person with the rounded shoulders and depressed chest.  This is an easily recognizable posture in many older people, but take a look at young people, especially young women.  Office workers, those who are on a computer for many hours per day are developing this posture.  People of all ages who spend a lot of time on their electronic devices, head dropped forward looking at the screen, holding the device in their hands.  There is so much stress put on muscles just to hold that position, and we do it for hours every day. 

Here again, the brain likes efficiency, so now this becomes habitual.  We stay in this “shape” even when we’re doing something else.  This posture causes a contraction in the belly muscle, called the rectus abdominus.  This is a huge muscle that expands from the mid-chest to the pubic bone!  It is powerful as well. This muscle is the one that we notice in people who work that area strongly – 6 pack abs.  Well, consider if this muscle is chronically pulled down. The chest becomes depressed, the pubic bone pulls up and our breathing is affected (among many other things).  So, if our breathing is affected, it affects our brain because our brain relies so heavily on oxygen!  Our brain uses at least 25% of the oxygen intake of our entire body!  How can one not help feeling depressed if they are being pulled forward in a constant state of contraction? 

The next thing that happens is our head gets pulled forward because our eyes must focus on the horizon, not the floor.  So our neck, upper back and upper chest muscles become affected – either chronically tight or continually pulled on.  Now all sorts of compensations happen, our muscles are in a constant state of working, there is no ease. 

We start getting more frequent tension headaches. Our necks and shoulder ache.  The spine becomes mis-aligned.  Our energy is low and so are our spirits.  We may not feel as optimistic as we once did, or we perhaps believe less in our abilities to accomplish something.  It truly is amazing the spiraling effect that happens when our posture has shifted into this depressed posture.

Again, forcing ourselves upright, holding our shoulders back won’t change anything.  In fact, it may even start causing co-contractions and more problems if these become habituated. 

What will make the changes permanent are certain slow, thoughtful movements that allows the brain to start a different means of communication that what is now routine.  The key here is that the cortex, the learning part of the brain, must be involved for change to happen.

Stay posted to learn more about making these changes...

This blog series, The Myth of Aging and Somatic Yoga Therapy, is contributed by Nancy Nesyto-Freske, RYT.  Nancy is a Certified Yoga Instructor and Certified Yoga Therapist and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She earned her 200 hour certification with Moksha Yoga in Chicago, and was certified as a Yoga Therapist through Functional Synergy, Calgary, AB, Canada, by Susi Hately, in 2012. She is currently studying with Steven Aronstein at the Somatics Systems Institute in Northampton, MA.
   Nancy became passionate about helping people continue to enjoy the vitality they experienced when they were younger, so they could enjoy their active lifestyle, now and long into their retirement. She feels there is no reason we have to settle for less!

The Myth of Aging and Somatic Yoga Therapy

Part 1: Our Efficient Brain and Bad Habits
contributed by Nancy Nesyto-Freske, RYT

Have you noticed over the last year or 2 (or more) that you don’t feel as flexible or mobile as you once did?  Or, perhaps your shoulders, back, knee (fill in the blank) have gotten tighter or they are painful more often than not?

Many blame age, they assume that as the years add up, things like that are just bound to happen.

What if that weren’t true?  What if that was a myth?  What if that myth was created because no one bothered to really investigate why many people get stiffer or feel achier than they did when they were younger.  Here is a simple explanation of why people get stiffer or experience chronic pain as they age:

• The muscles are controlled entirely by the brain.
• Our brain is efficient and likes automation – example is why once we learn to walk, unless we have some type of trauma, we always know how to walk without even thinking about it.
• Over time, for various reasons, we develop habitual movements and positions (think office worker) – these are automated by the brain because we do them so often.
• Muscles that are held a certain way for long periods of time become habituated, meaning they just move or hold that way.  Remember, efficiency.
• The brain no longer fully releases many of these muscles, so they remain chronically tight. 
• After a period of time, these habitual contractions start to cause pain, or we notice we’re not as flexible or limber as we used to be.
• Yes, time/age plays a part, only because these habits become stronger the more they are repeated.

And, guess what?  Our brains can learn how to release these habitual patterns so pain, stiffness, aches, etc. diminish and are eliminated.  But, it has to be done in a certain way. It cannot be achieved by stretching  or forcing a tight muscle. That will only make the muscle tighter!  If you’ve been “stretching” for years, you might agree that nothing changes.

In our next article, we will look as some specific examples of conditions created by these habits.

This blog series, The Myth of Aging and Somatic Yoga Therapy, is contributed by Nancy Nesyto-Freske, RYT.  Nancy is a Certified Yoga Instructor and Certified Yoga Therapist and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She earned her 200 hour certification with Moksha Yoga in Chicago, and was certified as a Yoga Therapist through Functional Synergy, Calgary, AB, Canada, by Susi Hately, in 2012. She is currently studying with Steven Aronstein at the Somatics Systems Institute in Northampton, MA.
   Nancy became passionate about helping people continue to enjoy the vitality they experienced when they were younger, so they could enjoy their active lifestyle, now and long into their retirement. She feels there is no reason we have to settle for less!