Annette Bray


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By Annette Bray March 31, 2025
The belief that all things are connected in the human body seems to be well accepted as a concept. But I'm not sure if it's truly understood in each human's day to day experience. If we are not really living in our senses in the present, it's difficult to know this truth. We must be able to take in what we see, hear, smell, taste and most of all...feel, to take this belief beyond a concept. And i do believe it's where most of us falter. Our very present moment connection to our senses enables us to tune into the interplay in our own bodies. And, as well, to the energetic interchange with other people, critters and the natural environment. I bring this to light because how we feel in certain areas of our body impact the blocks we hold elsewhere. One of the most intriguing connections I've learned is one between the heart and hips. If you follow the fascia of the pericardium (heart) inferiorly it will connect to the posterior diaphragm (back of primary breathing muscle) and this will connect you to the psoas muscle. The psoas muscle is quite active when it comes to alerting the brain to a threat. And when we feel that potential incoming, our heart becomes overactive and tense and our body contracts inward. If you can envision how a pull on the heart changes the tension of the structures it's connected to, you can imagine how it affects the stress responsive muscle of the psoas. The heart and the hips are connected...as is the whole body intertwined. Feeling and behaving as though it is all connected, is doing a great service to ourselves and those around us. And feeling into this truth as we track it within our body, allows us to be our own wise teacher. This is why my focus is the somatic work of feeling to discover and make change. Explore with me...get on my schedule here. Wishing you well :)
By Annette Bray March 25, 2025
The pelvic floor (PF) is a reference to a network of muscles at the bottom of the pelvis and regulates actions of elimination and sexual function. I suspect that most people cannot identify this part of their anatomy and yet it could play a role in hip and back pain. To be quite honest, I didn't learn about these muscles at all as a kinesiology student. How they're behaving is incredibly relevant to the pain you may be experiencing. They must have the dynamic strength to perform their function, yet suppleness to allow the pelvis to expand and adapt to the movement of the hips and back. Generally speaking, there's some degree of tightness coupled with weakness that inhibits necessary muscle tone and healthy relaxation of the PF. Specialists who assess this part of our anatomy and can do work to release and re-educate are invaluable. Even still, if you have no awareness of how to gauge the tightness, weakness and strength there's no way to resolve the problematic pattern for long term change. This is a part of the body that benefits dramatically from being somatically aware. Being able to sense the tension and suppleness of the front, back, right and left sides of the PF enables you to change the stress response pattern that causes dysfunction. If you know the role of the breath and can move in ways that connect you to feeling here, you can restore lost function. How? Being aware, releasing and re-training. This week I will share with you Live, how to access feeling, breath and movement that will put you in felt sense connection with the pelvic floor. You may feel your back and hips gain significant freedom when you do. I'll be here Live on Friday morning ... As always...wishing you well :)
By Annette Bray March 19, 2025
When you understand anatomy, it becomes clear how power is enabled. Our body doesn't act as individual parts. There's no strength in that. There is synergy of the muscle and connective tissue (fascia) that orchestrates a complex system that allows movement and expression. When your body compensates in this disconnected way, you feel the pain of things not working together. Your hamstrings, or your calves, or your gluts acting in isolation are not going to move you forward. Any where in your body where you're activating a muscle on it's own, you will limit your capacity for responsive stability. Using the body as an interconnected whole allows strong movement patterns that prevent pain. There are exercises and moves that require specific muscles to fire so that the pattern can be executed well, but there is still synergy between the individual muscles in a chain. When I play around with understanding this from a somatic perspective, I see the body as the metaphor of interconnectedness that could improve how I approach most problems. Individual muscles are distinct, but not effective without the collaboration of the rest of the body. Taking this into consideration, if one person in a team acted completely independent, the disconnect would cause a failure to find a collaborative solution. It's in the many unique perspectives acting synergistically, that power truly arises. Our body knows this and manifests this. And we are able to embody this in a way that assures the use of our innate power...not power over...but power to. The mind and anatomy ideally work together to affect the change you want to see. Can I help you? Send me a message ... Or schedule a complimentary session with me ... Wishing you well :)
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