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 :)

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 :)

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 :)

A week ago I had this incredible opportunity to see the gray whales in Baja California. For those of you who don't know about these creatures, in the Baja environment they can be very curious and social...with humans. As in, right next to the boat, social. This experience was rather undeniable in it's power, but more subtle connections with nature can evade us...me included. Nature possesses compounds that calm your physiology, shares insight through metaphor and offers wisdom as to how you can feel more present and connected to your environment. It's there if you choose to open and observe what's being presented. The gray whales were hunted relentlessly until the 1970's and they lost big during that time. When a kind and aware fisherman noticed their tender behavior, he shared his knowledge with others. And the alliances to save them were set in motion. Why, when they were hunted by humans for so long, have they chosen to engage so closely? I can't truly know, but it must have something to do with moving through hardship to trust on the other side. As I observed outside, it brought me more awareness inside. I felt my body bob in rhythm with the boat's movement in the gentle waves. My sense of hearing became more attuned to the sound of whales surfacing and blowing out air. My eyes observed all the variations of color in the water and on land, and took in all the detail in this expansive land and sea scape. Nature brings us in...by helping us be so present with what we are surrounded by. It helps us feel more deeply within, offering us the opportunity to know oneself better with each exposure. And it's this feeling experience that gives us the feedback to understand our present moment and how we can continue to align in body and mind...with a stronger and freer version of ourselves. It's what i teach to. Can I support you. Let me know... Schedule a complimentary 30 minute call with me . Wishing you well :)

There are a handful of movement patterns that are truly fundamental for the human body to move freely and have vitality. If you are among those who struggle to be regularly active and don't have periods of stress-reducing downtime, these healthy patterns may not be functioning in your body. The ability to move fluidly and with strength is strongly linked to increased longevity. And it's necessary not only to participate in the activities you love, but to simply engage in daily tasks under your own power. A good squat pattern is one of the most requisite motions you want to master to move without pain. Sitting and lifting are both variations of squatting that can be hampered if you don't have the ability to squat. Anatomically, the spine, hips and ankles need to obtain a functional range of motion. This allows the spine to remain neutral, the hips to sit back, the knees to track in line with the toes and allows the balls of the feet to remain grounded along with the heels. When you gain this range and align the body to use the stabilization and strength of the muscles and connective tissue, you can squat without pain. And teaching the quality of a squat is something i love to do. Not only because of the physical relief it brings when the body is strong, but the somatic and emotional sense of power you can embody with it. There is a more potent connection to grounding as well as freedom of your form when you realize, that a mobile body can move you forward in ways you cannot when you're stuck. Can I help you understand this on a deeper level? Message me ...or reach out to schedule a 1 to 1 consult . I am wishing you well and sending love :)

I would imagine most of us chide the pain in our bodies as well as the frustrating emotion we feel when life is not working out the way we expect. We push into and against the discomfort we feel. Rather than being in the present to understand the wise information contained within it, the tendency is to resist the feeling by pushing away or bypassing around it. Both approaches allow the pain to remain as the pattern it has always been, resistance within the body. When resistance develops, it doesn't exist in isolation. It impacts the whole of the body system. One of the most common malfunctions of the form, is the tug-of-war that opposing tensions create. For example, it is likely that if the hamstrings are tight, that some level of the quads will also be tight. Tension like this virtually always creates a misalignment that throws your center (COG) off from being balanced over your base (feet). Finding your way back to your physical and emotional center requires softening the forces of resistance that the imbalance is rooted in. This tension in your body, born out of some level of sensorial and emotional disconnect, needs a degree of yielding from you. Finding your tool to soften opposing forces, can help you feel at home again in your skin. I use both physical and somatic awareness tools in tandem to invite the mind and body back into equilibrium. I love bringing the anatomy and psyche together to affect change. If I can help you come back to this authentic center in your mind and body, reach out. Message me on my FB page ... Or schedule a 30 minute complimentary call with me ... Wishing you well...

Making the change necessary to break out of a pain pattern, takes a high level of awareness. And when we are in our day to day, we come up against triggers that we react to automatically if we haven't taken the time away to understand them. And that's generally how so many move through their world. When you get triggered, it can be reflected in your mood and how you feel in your physical form. And it's near impossible to find the awareness of and solution to it when you're in the middle of the scenario that causes it to activate. But, when you retreat from daily patterns with the purpose of sinking into the messages presented by the body and emotions, you can recognize what causes automatic reactions. The physical and emotional do a dance that when held with presence can be cycled through to release resistance and pave the way for making different choices. It's one of the many reasons I love being a participant AND a teacher of retreats. The wisdom that comes through in somatic presence....especially in nature, is so self-informing. And begins to break the cycle so you can change, in body and mind. This weekend, on 40 acres in the mountains, I will be holding space and guidance for participants for a full day respite to do just this. Will you join me? For more information, follow me here . Wishing you well :)

A few months ago I highlighted the importance of focusing on the exhale to activate the para-sympathetic (calming) of your nervous system. One of the reasons why this activation is so important, is that it allows the innately expansive quality of the inhale to engage in response. But, it's not generally the pattern that most people are used to. The full diaphragmatic breath, which is one of the healthiest behaviors we can adopt, is not accessible to most. Unresolved trauma and other sources of stress, block the natural flow of the muscles and fascia that draw life giving energy into and through us. This hypoxic (low oxygen) state starves all your tissues of sustenance. And you were created for so much more than this. In addition to creating calm, when you lengthen the exhale, it creates a decrease of pressure internally and enables the air outside to fully fill the chest and abdomen. If you then focus your attention on relaxing the physical space of your heart, it triggers the nervous system to release it's muscle guarding on the structures of inspiration. It's truly about observing sensations and feelings where the heart resides...without judgement or attachment. In this presence, you'll start to feel how the chest subtly rises a bit more with each breath. Coupled with exercises that release the structures of the chest and ribcage, you will feel the breath and nervous system slowly transform to greater fullness and ease. Friday, I will demonstrate Live how you can use a release tool and presence to change your breathing pattern. If you want to learn more about how these tools can help you, schedule a 30 minute complimentary session with me. Please take good care. I look forward to engaging with you soon :)

The capacity to move with great freedom and integrity is so profound in the human body. And it begins with the impressive structure of our spine. But, I would guess that most human's spine are restricted when compared to the immense movement capacity we were all born with. Between too many hours sitting and a constantly hurried pace, the fascial and muscle structures don't get enough blood flow, lymphatic flow and movement. This stagnation causes tissue that is less elastic, more tight and fibrous and ultimately creates the pain which is caused by this misaligned tug of war. And the more we practice the thought process born out of fear, shame and the emotions that stem from these, the more the nervous system directs these guarding patterns. Mobility can take a hit all over the body when we are in a vigilant state, but consider that the spine has 26 joints along each side. And there is subtle movement capacity even in the sacrum and tailbone. A loss of movement can mean a loss of healing energy and inhibition of functional nervous system activation through this column. It impairs the entire body's healthy patterns. But truly, you were designed to live in a body that moves freely and a mind that understands that limitations are momentary. As you use tools to alleviate binding in the body, coupled with the somatic process that works compassionately through your nervous system, you can begin to reconnect to a fluid body. Nowhere is this more evident, than when you focus your efforts on releasing and re-aligning the spinal column. My clients experience how transformative this can be and I love guiding them with the tools that make the difference. I use releases, somatic experiencing and strengthening to create the change in the body and the emotions that reflect one another and create long term change. If this speaks to you and your aspirations in moving forward, please message me. Or schedule a 30 minute complimentary session . As always, wishing you well :)