I had an eager group of people at Pilates for Sport in Furlong, PA la
st weekend. Participants came from Baltimore, Delaware, New Jersey to attend the workshops on How to Relieve Back and Hip Pain, and Relieving Painful Necks and Shoulders.
One participant drove 3 hours from Delaware. She said she’d spent years looking for something that how to eliminate her neck pain. After 2 hours of gentle, easy Somatic Exercises, she told the group, “I can move my neck without pain. Nothing has ever been able to do that for me.”
Afterwards she wanted to know how to keep the pain from coming back. This blog post addresses her question in detail.
Because she’d experienced such a rapid change in her mobility and pain level, she also wanted another reminder as to what exactly we’d done that had helped her affect such a positive change in her neck pain and mobility. This blogpost is for her – and for those who’ve bought my DVD , ever taken a workshop, or for those looking for a long term solution to muscle pain. They’re “basics” worth repeating, and simplfying. Hanna Somatic Education teaches you to reverse muscle pain and dysfunction by focusing on three basic concepts:
1. SENSORY MOTOR AMNESIA causes most chronic muscle pain.
Let’s break it down:
SENSORY + MOTOR = the system in the body (your brain and nervou
s system) that teaches your muscles how to do things. The sensory motor system teaches you, for example, how to swing a tennis racket, run, ride a bicycle, dance, and catch yourself when you’re about to fall. Your brain receives information (sensory) from your environment, and sends out information to the muscles to move (motor).
AMNESIA = when the brain, which controls the muscles, FORGETS how to relax your tight muscles. When the brain forgets how to move the muscles, it also forgets which muscles are even involved in the pain! The muscles stay contracted and we feel muscular pain.
Sensory Motor Amnesia is when the brain forgets how to relax tight, contracted muscles that are, in effect, on “cruise control.”
Teach the brain to notice (sensory) how you move (or don’t move!), and when you’re stuck with tight, frozen muscles, and then how to relax them (motor) through movement, and your pain will be relieved. This will reverse your amnesia.
2. Most muscle pain occurs within THREE SOMATIC REFLEX PATTERNS OF STRESS.
These are involuntary physical responses (brain reflexes) to good and 
bad stress that occurs in every human being. They are useful muscular reflex patterns that involve the back, front and side muscles of the whole body; you just don’t want to get stuck in any one of them…because this is what creates pain.
When you learn to relax the pattern of muscle tension, and not just the area that’s hurting (like a neck or foot), and your pain will be relieved more rapidly. Focusing your attention on releasing just one muscle only yields short term relief, because muscles coordinate together as a whole.
3. PANDICULATION releases and relaxes tight muscles.
A pandiculation is the most rapid and efficient way to “re-set” your brain’s 
control of tight, “frozen” muscles. It stimulates the brain to notice the muscles that is had forgotten to relax, so it can release and lengthen them anew. People think that animals are stretching…but they’re not. They’re lengthening! And it’s automatic for them. Animals pandiculate up to 40 times a day; this yawn-like movement keeps muscles lengthened, relaxed and ready for action. Humans forget to do this often enough – maybe this is why we frequently feel so tight.
Pain relief and improved muscle function are two of the greatest benefits of Hanna Somatic Education.
But there are more: improved awareness and control of your movement, your body, and your own understanding of how you respond to stress. If you don’t even notice how what you do with your body can create muscle tension…or relaxation…you will probably think that someone else knows you and your body better than you know yourself.
Hanna Somatic Education offers you the opportunity and the tools to change that.
There are lots of options for learning more about Somatics:
Buy my DVD here, contact me about teaching in your area, book an online Skype session, or contact me to book a private clinical session, You can also bring me to your area to conduct comprehensive workshops and private clinical sessions.
