Feldenkrais, Health and Wellness
Lorraine Davis
Mindful Movement at The Wellness Station

Find out more about how you can participate in the mindful movement classes offered at The Wellness Station, including Breakout Yoga and Awareness Through Movement.

Mindful Movement at The Wellness Station
Feldenkrais, Balance
Lorraine Davis
Balance For Life

Balance tends to decline with age and inactivity. Do not let these difficult circumstances affect your balance and increase your risk of falling. Follow this blog to gather insight in the mysterious systems that allow us to maintain our balance, and learn more about the services The Wellness Station offers that can help enhance these systems.

Balance For Life
Lorraine Davis
My Journey to Embodiment With Feldenkrais 
My Journey to Embodiment With Feldenkrais 

Mindfulness

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Back Away From Knee Pain and Balance Issues: Walk Backwards!

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Most of us are aware of the benefits of walking for a plethora of physical and mental health conditions. Walking is a necessary part of life for most people, and is what allows us to engage with the world around us. Walking allows us to explore our environment, is an excellent opportunity to spend time outdoors with our loved ones, and allows us to maintain healthy bones, muscles, hearts, lungs, and brains. 

When we think about walking, we are unlikely to consider walking backwards. However, walking backwards comes with a host of additional benefits, as it allows us to use our bodies and minds in a different way.

Here are some ways that backwards walking might help you:

 

May Help with Knee Pain

When you move backwards, whether it is walking, running, or going down the stairs, it reduces the compressive stress at the patella-femoral joint (the knee cap) as compared with moving forwards. This is based on the biomechanics of the movement . You might notice that when you go down stairs forwards, especially if you have a sore knee, that the increased bending of the knee required to go down the stairs forwards could further aggravate an irritated knee. Go down the stairs backwards, and this completely changes the forces on the knee!

Be sure to do this only after practicing on the first 2 lowest stairs, becoming very confident and comfortable with what can be quite disorienting at first.

Many clientele might enjoy going on walks, but notice that the further they walk, the more it bothers their knees. Especially when walking down hills. For these individuals, walking backwards might allow them to walk further and more comfortably!

Be absolutely sure of the terrain as you walk backwards, appreciate that this is challenging to your neuromuscular system at first)

A six-week study comparing a forwards and backwards walking program for individuals with knee osteoarthritis demonstrated that the backwards walking group had significantly reduced knee pain, increased quadriceps (front of thigh muscle) strength, and physical performance compared to the forwards walking group.

Improved Balance

Walking backwards has been shown to improve stability and improve balance performance for those at increased risk of falling. Why might this be? Practicing backwards walking may help to improve posture for those that have difficulties standing more upright. 

Additionally, our balance is controlled by many systems of the body, including vision, the vestibular system (inner ear), and the somatosensory system (sensory nerves). When we are walking backwards, we rely less on our vision (unless we have eyes in the back of our head!), and more on the other senses.

We must pay closer attention to the sensations from our feet on up in order to walk backwards, rather than relying on looking with our eyes at the ground with each step. If you alternate taking a step forward, and then backwards, compare the sensations in your feet – quite intriguing!

This can improve our spatial awareness and coordination, which enhances our balance and reduces our risk of falling.

Mindfulness and Awareness

Walking backwards is a practice in mindfulness and self-awareness. When we walk forwards, we are much more likely to go into auto-pilot, which in neuroscience is referred to as the default mode network. The little person in the control room (our brains) could be” reading a magazine” while we walk forwards, as we have been doing this our whole lives and it has become very automatic.

Walking backwards allows you to become more present with every step, rooting your attention in the here and now. This can be helpful for anxiety, as it produces a state of calm and presence. By shifting out of auto-pilot, we create new neural pathways and are more likely to experience learning and cognitive enhancements.

It is a neurophysiological fact that when we reverse a common function, we improve the skill level of that particular activity!

How To Implement Safely

When beginning to walk backwards, the most important thing is safety. Start at the kitchen counter: keep a soft hold on the counter, and practice switching between walking forwards and backwards.

Next, one could try walking throughout a room in the house, free of clutter.

Walking backwards on a treadmill is also an often. It is important to turn the speed down to the minimum, and hold on to the handrails to ensure safety. Try alternating between a minute of forward and a minute of backward walking, repeated in sets for as long as desired.

Walking backwards outside is also an option, but caution must be taken. One might start by only trying this when walking with someone else, who can serve as your eyes. Make sure you are in a clear path, free of oncoming traffic and obstacles!

The whole walk need not be backwards. One could mainly walk normally, but could try intervals of backwards walking (e.g. a minute at a time, 40 steps at a time, etc.) There is one area of my neighborhood walk that is about two blocks long, rarely has any cars, and has ample sidewalk and grassy areas. Whenever I get to this, I switch to walking backwards, which has become quite an enjoyable experience.

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Befriending Your Unwanted Habits

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If we didn’t have habits, life would be really difficult. All of us have developed patterns of moving, thinking, and behaving that become deeply ingrained in our nervous systems, like well-carved out ski slopes during peak season. These patterns are represented in our brains as neural networks, or interconnected brain cells that fire together to create our ways of being. The brain creates these networks to ensure efficiency. Without these networks, we would have to start from scratch every single day with clean slates, no skills, and no purposeful movements available to us, like a newborn baby.

As we go through our development, we learn a heck of a lot. In fact, by the time we are adults, our 100 billion neurons can form over 100 trillion synaptic connections! We continue to learn as we grow older, although our brain does go through certain critical periods, making it more or less responsive to learning certain types of information throughout various parts of our lives. This is why it is so much easier to learn a new language as a child, as early childhood is the critical period for language development. Our youth is also a time where we develop many of the neurological patterns that define who we are, what we do, and how we think.

When it comes to movement, our repertoire tends to shrink as we grow older, and we are more likely to move in a less variable, more confined way, which gives rise to challenges with mobility in our later years. We are more likely to fall back on the same patterns again and again, and less likely to expand our horizons.

While the learning process is extremely adaptive and helpful for our ability to engage in life, our learning can also lead to undesirable habits and patterns. For example, imagine that you grew up in the north with a very questionable heating system. Whenever winter would come along, you might bundle up in a few coats, and find yourself shivering and hiking your shoulders up towards your ears more often than you might like.

The more time you spend generating tension in your shoulders, the more of a habit it might become. So later on, even if you move down south, you might have the learned habit of tensing up the shoulders, particularly during times of increased stress. This can impede the natural movement and flow of your body, and might contribute to strain on the tissues and chronic discomfort.

We all have our bodily habits. Whether it’s hiking up the shoulders, clenching the jaw, craning our necks forward during computer work, tensing the pelvic floor, holding our breath during exercise, only crossing the same leg on top while sitting, or countless others. What these habits have in common are that they are learned, persistent, and undesirable- and, they may have served us some helpful purpose in the past. That’s why they exist.

Sometimes we don’t even notice these habits until someone else points them out- a family member, a friend, a physical therapist. Sometimes the habit is completely innocuous and may or may not be associated with something undesirable. If in fact the habit is truly undesirable, e.g. it relates to unwanted strain on a tissue, is associated with discomfort, etc., then we are likely trying to change the habit. How do we do this?

Building Awareness

The first step of creating change is awareness. If you do the habitual behavior 100 times per day, and only notice it one time, this is not enough. Performing mind-body practices regularly such as Feldenkrais lessons, yoga, tai-chi, mindfulness meditation, etc. will help to develop the ability to become more aware.

In everyday life, a reminder system must be developed. One must become aware of the situations and environments in which the undesired habit is most likely. Does the habit show up the most frequently at the computer? While driving? In the kitchen? Wherever the habit is likely to show up, consider bringing a visual cue into the area, such as a brightly colored sticky note. The sticky note could be blank, have a small symbol to remind you to cease the habit, or a few words or short phrase, such as “exhale”, “relax your shoulders”, “smile”, etc.

During the activities that are most likely to trigger the habit, consider a very short body scan, perhaps right before starting the activity, sometime during, and immediately after. Say that you are going to do desk work for one hour. Right before you begin, sit down, get comfortable. Close your eyes. Ask yourself if you are comfortable. Ensure that your breathing is nice and relaxed. Scan your attention throughout your whole body, particularly the area where the habit might show up. Maybe this takes 15-30 seconds. Continue on with your task, but do the same thing half way through, and again after finishing the task.

Respond with Kindness

When you inevitably notice that the habit is happening, change how you respond to it. It is very easy to become frustrated with yourself- “What’s wrong with you, why can’t you stop doing that!”. This is an unhelpful strategy, as it creates unnecessary frustration and suffering around the habit. Instead, have a chuckle. “There you go, tensing your shoulders again like it’s freezing! No need- you are safe and comfortable.” This is making friends with your habit. Your habit is there for a reason, and by being kind to yourself, you are more likely to develop a better relationship with it.

Purposefully Move the Involved Tissues

And finally, when you notice the habit arising, perform some movement that helps to relax and change the tension in the area. For example, if the habit is hiking your shoulders up, here is a movement sequence you can try. Start by raising and lowering both shoulders, towards and away from your ears, as if your shoulders are two rising elevators. Then, let one shoulder shrug up as the other goes down, like two elevators going in opposite directions. Finally, begin to circle both shoulders up, back, down and around. This can become both shoulders making circles, but at opposite phases of the circle, so as one shoulder is up the other is down (like two ferris wheels going side by side). Perhaps you spend no more than a minute on these movements, and then return to whatever task you were engaging in.

By implementing these you will begin to create more instances of noticing the habit, and changing how you respond to it to be that of kindness, as well as an active movement-based strategy to change how your nervous system communicates with the involved muscles.

These strategies can greatly decrease the frequency and impact of the habit, and can facilitate the creation of new habits! The nervous system will begin to choose less stressful and more efficient movement patterns, which can eventually replace or minimize the influence of long-term, inefficient movement patterns. Over time, the new patterns can become automatic. While the old habits may never disappear completely, you will find it comes up less often, you will notice when it happens more often, and it will lead to overall less distress and discomfort.

Written by Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist, Yoga Instructor and The Wellness Station Team

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Embracing the Gray Area

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Many of us want a definitive answer. We feel there is some “correct” answer to every question. We are either doing things right, or wrong. Considering the gray area can help us change our thinking into more of a spectrum, recognizing there is rarely a right and a wrong, but rather a multitude of options. Some of these options may be better for us at that moment, and some not so much.

This way of thinking might stem from our educational system. We all might remember a time where we raised our hand in class, and were embarrassed that we gave the “wrong” answer. Perhaps we stopped raising our hands so much after this. Or, perhaps we still remember the sinking feeling in our stomach when getting a test back and seeing the red X’s by some of our answers.

Binary thinking gets buried deep into us. And it shows up in how we move, exercise, care for our bodies, and respond to pain and injuries. If we are more concerned about whether we are doing something right or wrong, it blocks our ability to explore, experience, and learn.

Think about a well-known exercise, like a squat. Is there a part of you that feels like there is a “correct” and an “incorrect” way to do a squat? Say someone was taught that the correct way to do a squat was to have the heels 12 inches apart, toes turned out to 30 degrees, to sit down until the bottom is the same height as the knees while keeping the chest pointing forward, and then stand back up. If this person internalizes these instructions as the correct way, any variation from this will be perceived as “wrong”.

What about the variability in anatomy? Everyone has different angles at which their hips naturally turn out or in, which will certainly impact how one might place their feet on the ground while squatting. There are also countless variations in types of squats, and none of them are correct or incorrect! Narrow squats, wide legged squats, single leg squats, sissy squats, goblet squats, front squats, back squats, plié squats, kitchen sink squats… to name a few! There is no right or wrong, only options.

If someone is dealing with pain or an injury, it is far more important for them to listen to their own sensations than someone else telling them how they are supposed to do something. Many people with knee pain say “they cannot squat”, and therefore avoid any type of squatting. This can weaken the body and greatly impact mobility. If instead this person were able to modify the squatting pattern in a way that worked for them, they could gradually improve their squatting and end the cycle of avoidance.

By limiting our construct to a correct and incorrect way to squat, we are denying ourselves the ability to explore variations, as well as to respect that our bodies are all different. What is an efficient squat for one person may be an inefficient pattern for someone else, which could set them up for injury or impair their performance.

A great first step to comfortable squatting is the kitchen sink squat: hold on to the kitchen sink or a counter, and slowly sit the bottom back, as if sitting into a chair. Allow chest to lean forward a bit. Choose how low to go down based on your own ability and comfort. Stand back up by driving hips forward and up towards the counter. Repeat as desired.

At the Wellness Station, we are sure to stay far away from using words like right, wrong, correct, and incorrect. Instead, we teach people to match the intention with the action. In other words, we provide an intention (such as the instructions above), and teach people tools to monitor their own actions while moving. That way, the individual can observe whether their action matches their intention, and make adjustments as necessary.

We aim to empower our clientele by providing movement options, which help people become aware of variables that are in the individual’s control. The variables for a squat might include the following: distance between feet, turn out angle of the toes on each foot, depth of the squat, time taken to go down and to come back up, pauses and rests in between repetitions or sets, pauses within a repetition, reversals (changing direction of the movement), alignment/angles of ankles, knees, hips, and trunk, and much more.

Stay posted for our next blog, in which we will provide video examples exploring three-dimensional variations of squats.

It can feel easy and simple to learn a correct and incorrect way to do something. However, thinking in this way is extremely biased, and takes away one’s agency and ability to trust in one’s own experience. By embracing the gray area, we can open our minds and our bodies to a depth of possibilities.

Written by Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist, Yoga Instructor and The Wellness Station Team

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Overdoing: To Do or Not To Do?

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We live in a culture that is “go go go”, where we prioritize doing far more than not doing. Many of us juggle excessive work hours, family and household responsibilities, hobbies, fitness and wellness practice, social lives, errands, appointments, and more. We are often left with little to no down time, and when we do have this down time, we may spend it in ways that are less than ideal for restoring balance and peace back into our lives. This constant rush can be stressful and taxing on our bodies and minds, and due to time constraints we begin to have to pick and choose what we do. Self-care and sleep may be underprioritized, setting us up for burnout.

Think about yourself as a tea kettle: a 100% full tea kettle means you are in a state of optimal health, energy, comfort, peace, happiness, and overall well-being. The less tea you have in the kettle, the less bandwidth you have, which can manifest in irritability, exhaustion, reduced performance, as well as mental and physical health challenges if this continues over time.

If our goal with the “go go go” mentality is to achieve and succeed, but this mentality actually can set us up for failure over the long term, isn’t this entirely counter productive?

Think about what sources in your life are draining your tea kettle, and what sources are helping to fill up your kettle. Consider both external and internal factors. External may be people, situations, and activities, whereas internal may be thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, emotional reactivity, and movement patterns. What changes can you make in your life to ensure you have a full kettle? After all, an empty kettle serves no one!

Written by Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist, Yoga Instructor and The Wellness Station Team

Reflections on Giving and Receiving

When Giving is Receiving

In giving what may be required is to contemplate a  cause, a group or a person -finding the essence of a need or desire. 

 Through attentiveness and deep caring the giver may surprise the recipient(s) by showing that someone else understands them and through a display of giving virtuosity, can even identify needs they may not have been aware of or could not admit to themselves. 

Benefits  of Being a Giver

The recipient has the astonishing ability to acknowledge both the somebody who has given and the something that is given to them.

As far as we know, no other corner of creation but a human being has the ability to fully acknowledge the spirit of another in this way. 

To give is to take an imaginative journey and put oneself in the body, the mind and the anticipation of another. 

To give is to make our own identities more real in the world by committing to something specific in the other person and something tangible that could represent that quality. 

To give is also to carry out the difficult task of putting something of our own essence in what we have given. 

 Giving is a form of attention itself, a way of acknowledging and giving thanks for lives other than our own.

Giving is a“ mutually blessed“ experience.

Inspired By: “Consolations”by David Whyte