Sciatica

My approach is multi-pronged.

 

First, I'll want you to have seen an MD or Chiropractor, so we can be sure your problem is within the realm of my practice. There is no sense in your seeing me, if the cause of your pain is a tumor, for instance. It is always a good idea to rule out serious pathology. True, the kind of work I do cannot cause any harm, but if another kind of treatment is indicated and urgently needed quickly - I would be remiss if I gave  you pain relief, and you continued to see me instead of doing the surgery, or whatever. There can be many causes for sciatica. Please don't ignore this. 

When  you come to me,  you come for Feldenkrais and Ortho-Bionomy, the two protocols in which I have been trained. And, that is what I do. However, over the years, I have picked up a lot of information and ideas, ways of working with sciatica that I may choose to share with you, not as a client, but as a friend, and only if you are interested or ask me. Many of these ideas I share with you below - please don't think that is what I do with all my sciatica clients. No, I do Feldenkrais and Ortho-Bionomy - and I do integrate some acupressure, stretching, isometrics etc that are completely in harmony with Ortho-Bionomy and Feldenkrais. In fact, I do not draw a distinction, I use certain massage ideas, acupressure point release, stretching, etc in the context of improving your awareness and enhancing your movement- and that is certainly Feldenkrais. 

Once you have done medical screening, we can be confident that if within a few weeks your pain is gone, as if it never existed (this is the result I expect, and usually get) - we have gotten to the root of your problem and you'll know what to do from then on to stay out of pain.  On the other hand, if all my strategies do nothing, that is a big red flag, and I'll advise you to seek medical help, and soon. 

I'll want to be sure you are sitting, walking, standing, bending down or reaching and sleeping in ways that do not aggravate the condition. We'll cover each of these. Yes, even while sleeping, there are strategies that will minimize your pain, and speed your healing. If you sit down for a living - many hours - I will ask you to read my posts on chairs and sitting, and I will encourage you to buy and use a hard, flat wooden stool both for work and for home use.  Every session I will cover some aspect of one of these; it is important that you learn not to continually create more trouble with the sciatic nerve. 

Eventually we will discuss how to sit using various props to keep the body from sitting too long in one position - this alone can give good relief. This presentation will take about 20 minutes. I'll ask you to tell me when your pain is worse, and when it improves. We'll theorize as to why this may be. 

We will work to put your pelvis and lumbar spine in good alignment, so that there is no leg length difference, or at least a very minimal difference. Often, this too - all by itself - can give good relief. We'll do this using the protocols I have gathered from Feldenkrais, Ortho-Bionomy, and the book (and related DVD's) titled The Malalignment Syndrome by Dr. Wolf Schamberger, a Canadian sports physiologist and University Professor. For more on the topic of alignment (including where to order instructional DVDs), see my post titled Running and Skeletal Alignment. These protocols are simple, safe, easy to do alone at home without assistance, and you can even clearly check yourself, to know whether you are "in" or "out" so you won't be hurting yourself if you do the exercises when you really don't need them. In conjunction with this, of course, I will be looking to see whether your malalignment is being caused by your movement and postural habits, or perhaps whether it is being caused by, say, an old injury to a shoulder, hip, skull or leg - whatever. 

I'll ask you to use castor oil topically and to read my posts about castor oil. This will take the pain down to half, speed the  healing and help you move through your day without difficulty. 

I will use acupressure, reflexology and Ortho-Bionomy osteopathic techniques to calm the pain, release and align the lumbar spine and pelvis, and often in one session this will entirely remove the sciatica pain, and enable you to walk without pain. Whether it holds or not is another story.

Then, we'll move the leg slowly, gently, using Feldenkrais protocols to encourage the leg and the sciatic nerve to "move into length";  in other words, to move the leg without the nerve grabbing painfully. Yes, nerves can "grab"; they are not like muscles, but they do have a cell wall that can expand or contract. Anticipation or fear of incipient pain will definitely cause the nerve to contract, which in itself can be a source of more pain. It can be a cycle. Slow, comfortable, clever and gentle Feldenkrais movement it the key here. All the other work is just a preparation. 

A central issue that is handled by the Feldenkrais work concerns the pelvis. We want to wake up the innate intelligence of the pelvis to help us balance and move, in sitting, standing, walking and at all other times in life. We'll usually start with pelvis rolls.  Waking up the pelvis to organic movement takes time, and may not give instant results for your sciatica. But if your pelvis has been just a "dead weight" while sitting or standing, your poor lumbar spine has had to do double work to compensate. Often the lumbar spine will get kinked and compressed because of that (a prime cause of sciatica) - and while alignment work, osteopathic based work, and acupressure interventions can relive the pain, long term it is the pelvis and tailbone that must eventually come into play, for success to be certain and permanent. That's a job for intensive, regular, and most likely, rather prolonged Feldenkrais work.

I'll remind you, if it seems appropriate, that holding the belly too tight will freeze down the coordination of the belly and low back, and this contributes to compression of the lumbar spine. That alone might be the prime cause of your sciatica. In this vein we might even work with your breathing in a Feldenkrais context, or with ATM moves involving the pelvis and belly, such as the pelvic clock. Practice of abdominal breathing, or other types of breathing may be recommended. We'll probably spend at least one session, eventually, on breathing.

As well, we do whatever comes to mind. I let my natural wandering instincts come into play. Perhaps  you need to learn to sense and release your body weight more easily into your skeleton, while sitting or standing. Or, maybe I'll feel that you need lots of slow, gently mobilization of your arms and legs, to give you a real-time mentoring in what it means to move your body with minimal effort, without compression. Perhaps I see that the carriage of your head is not optimal - so we'll work with that, since, believe it or not- such a thing can definitely be a cause for such things as sciatica. And, very often, I may do intensive and regular Feldenkrais foot and ankle work, since everything begins  there, in a very real sense. Nobody complains about this, because it feels so good! This "wandering instinct" has served me well in the past - great discoveries are made, unsuspected causes of pain are uncovered. This type of work is part of the magic of Feldenkrais - and you can't get it anyplace else, as far as I know. Having a general plan, as I do here, calms my mind and gives some structure to our work, but often the real results come from unexpected angles.  

And definitely, I'll be doing Feldenkrais work to help you learn to globally decompress all your joints, including especially your hip joints and lumbar spine. This perhaps is my central focus, since it is what most reliably gives total relief. 

If your pain continues in spite of all this, I'll ask that you read all my posts, since there might be one piece of information that can make a big difference.  

I'll ask you to take Vitamin B-12 sublingually, and a multi-B complex vitamin once or twice a day. That's because whenever nerves are involved, it is good, and usually helpful to be sure there are enough B vitamins, especially B-12. If nutrition seems to be an issue, I'll recommend you see a nutritionist. 

I'll explain - if the topic comes up and you are interested in my opinions -  my belief/opinion that "we die from the feet up" meaning that problems with  blood circulation, accumulation of heavy metals, etc is likely to show up first in the feet. So the feet and legs can be considered as an "early warning system" of the body. Don't ignore it (you can't ignore sciatica, anyway!) and make changes! The sciatic nerve - very long, heavily used and most subject to being compressed and compromised for other reasons (compared to other nerves in the body) can warn us to make necessary changes, to avoid trouble with the brain, say, many years later. That can mean many things,  but in my experience (I myself have had sciatica), it is primarily about the items in this long list.  All this is mostly about me, even though I do write it down as client recommendations, it is what I do personally. If you do any of these things, it is your choice, and I can take no responsibility for any possible adverse effects

So here are my common sense guidelines to taking care of the feet, legs  and nerves of the lower extremities, in order to prevent further trouble and possibly enhance the healing process for sciatica. It has taken me many years to learn, embody and practice all these thing, so don't think you need to try them all! It can't be done, not unless you take several years to do it:

a) Manage stress

b) Learning to breath more easily, not holding the belly and floor of the pelvis uptight at all since this will crimp blood vessels to the lower extremities as they pass through the diaphragm - which is over-tensed. That means learning to get comfortable letting the belly hang free during the day. This is a large topic, and soon I will have a post that goes into more detail on this subject. 

c) Learning to move into length, not compression, and getting smarter about how you move, and the body positions, chairs, etc and situations that you allow yourself to get into. That means continuing involvement with The Feldenkrais Method. There is a lifetime of pleasant learning,  personal growth and transformation there. It is wonderful to include it in your normal lifestyle, just like a yoga class every week. 

d) Modifying and improving  dietary and supplementation strategies. Eat more greens! Learn about green drinks! Buy the book Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko! Up your percentage of raw food. Eat more organics, buy your produce locally at a farmer's Market. Stop eating fast food, processed food, grains and simple carbos. This is not rocket science. 

  

e) Dr. Jonathan Wright, the well-known alternative medicine pioneer, has written that he routinely cures sciatica by IV or injections of vitamin B12 with Vitamin  B1. That should be a hint for us.  At least supplement with B vitamins and sublingual B12. B12 - the latest research shows we all need to supplement, even beef eaters! B-vitamins are water soluble, so take them twice a day. There are many ways that B12 may become a problem - more than any other vitamin it is subject to stress, pollution, poor diet, low stomach acid -  any of these can cause us to be depleted. Shortage of B12, all by itself, can be the 100% cause of sciatica. It makes sense to deal with this aspect. And, the latest research does show that daily ingestion of one sublingual B12 can do the job. Shots are not really necessary (although I myself give myself  shots) and the past belief, by MDs, that shots etc were not needed, was faulty. The  test they used was not accurate. For more on  this, visit treeoflife.nu, Dr. Gabriel Cousens's website. He is a raw foodist, and has had more clinical experience with vegans, raw foodists, and vegetarians than anybody else  on the planet. He is a voice of common sense and wisdom, backed up by many years experience and a stunningly diverse education (he has many degrees).

 

f) Do detox protocols, especially to remove heavy metals from the lower extremities, where they do seem to accumulate. When clients are doing chemotherapy, I can feel by touching their feet, the hot, itchy, uncomfortable feeling caused by the accumulation of heavy metals and poison-drug residues there. I told one client "I cannot work on your feet while you do chemo, unless you do foot baths three times a week. She did this, and I could then work with her feet without aching hands).

 

g) A foot bath twice a week is a good idea for you, too. The pores at the bottom of the feet are the largest in the body - a hint that large, heavy metals can best be eliminated there through the skin. Maybe that's why  the body allows gravity to send heavy metals down to the feet, instead of just going to the liver (probably both happen, or the liver may be overloaded or the colon congested and elimination is faulty). How to do a foot-bath?  Use a dishwashing plastic tub, big enough for both feet, fill it with hot water (as hot as you can stand) and then add a little soap (to break the surface tension) and some other items to bind to the heavy metals as you sweat them out - such as clay, epsom salts, sea salt, 3T of unscented regular Clorox Bleach, essential oils, Willard Water, etc. You can Google "foot baths" and get much good information. Be sure to leave you feet in the bath until the water turns slightly cool, because some believe that is when the greatest transfer of toxic waste from the feet (now warmer than the water) goes to the water

h) Again, do some kind of detox! Salt baths are a wonderful idea. Clay baths are wonderful. Buy and  read the book Live Longer Better, by Joseph Dispenza for the very best information on taking salt baths, baking soda baths, Clorox bleach baths (1 cup per bathtub of water - it is great, I have actually done this). This book is available at Amazon.com for very little money. Visit a spa where you can do mud baths, clay sun bathing. If you live in Southern California, be sure to visit Glen Ivy Spa, just south of the highway 10 in the 15. Wonderful detox! Even if you do everything else in I recommend, without some kind of detox protocol you may get poor results.

i) See a nutritionist or other experienced professional, who has had many years experience in your locality in detox protocols. It is extremely individual - what is most suitable for you - and it can be actually dangerous if not done sensibly. As well, different  localities have different kinds of pollution, hence it is best to see a local person, experienced in detox methods. This may be an acupuncturist, naturopath, herbalist, MD,  chiropractor, dentist, or a nutritionist.

 

j) Personally, I use salt baths, clay baths (up to 2-3 hours per bath),  a high-end zeolite spray twice a day, castor oil topically now and then, dry skin brushing, Dr. Schulze colon and liver cleansing protocols (I often do liver flushes as he recommends), and periodic juice fasting, using Fasting.com protocols. I have paid Dennis, the director,  many times to guide me through 30-40 and even once an 87 day juice/broth liquid fast. It is safe, the appetite goes away after a few days, and one loses maybe 1/3 pound a day - but energy is good, and I can always keep working. Supervision is necessary for any kind of fasting - there are many hidden pitfalls and dangers if you do it alone, without sufficient knowledge. There is a lot to learn and know about fasting, of any kind.  Often my clients don't know I am fasting until day 30 or so, when they may say - "Steve - are you fasting again? You look so skinny.") 

k) Another detox strategy I use, very powerful, is a 100% raw food diet - with lots of greens and green drinks - combined with aerobic exercise and Bikram Yoga (lots of sweating).  I once went 2 years 100% raw, and now I eat 80% to 90% raw, and often go for weeks mostly raw. Nearly always breakfast and lunch is all raw, but supper may be cooked. Any trouble or pain in my body - I do more raw food, it goes away. What could be more simple? But not easy! And, you have to know how to do it. Read books, take classes. You absolutely must not do too many fruits and protein-anemic salads as most people do when they go vegan and "raw". That will only make you sick. You need green drinks, super-foods in abundance, protein smoothies, you need to soak your nuts and seeds, and sea vegetables. There is lots to learn! I do workshops on raw food. I have a website, RawFoodandMore.Com and I have a book on raw food that you may purchase  (not yet available online - but soon). Ask me about the book.  Perhaps I am too preoccupied with raw food and detox, but I live in LA smog, and that does accumulate in the lungs and colon, don't ask me how I know this, you don't want to hear me tell you! so periodic clean up periods are a must, for me. Also while I was in the US Army, processing to got to Vietnam, I was forcefully (we had little choice but to obey direct orders) given over 30 injections, all of them loaded with mercury (we now know that many years after the fact). My arms still ache!! After nearly 40 years. Were 30 injections necessary? For what? Or was it that the drug companies lobbied the US Government to give that many shots, more money for them, you know? (pardon my rant) 

l) Use a shower filter to minimize your exposure to chlorine. Personally, I no longer take showers since they have recently increased (by 3x, I am told) the fluoride in the LA water supply. I don't drink LA water,  either. I buy my water from stores specializing in water using reverse osmosis, and then I use a gravity drop Nikken  filter as my second line of defense. THEN I use the water. Really, I am pretty extreme, so don't try to imitate me. I clean my body using dry skin brushing, sponge baths using filtered water, sweating. I use PCV plastic pipe to conduit the water from my shower filter into the bathtub (so as not to lose heat) when I want to take a bath. I am currently experimenting as to what I need to add to the bath water to clean up the fluoride. Certain kinds of high-end clays seem promising. 

 

m) Last, but not least - see good dentist (I prefer holistically oriented dentists experienced in removing mercury fillings), get a Panorex X-ray to be sure you don't have "cavitations" (bone infections  of the jaw) or teeth or root canals that have "gone bad". If an infected tooth or root canal is along the same energy/acupuncture meridian as your sciatic nerve, all your pain may be coming from your tooth!  I don't believe in root canals, and had all of mine pulled out. The ancient, proven method? Pull the tooth. I felt SO much better. A root canal is a dead bone rotting  in your jaw - the blunt truth. I don't believe ancient cultures ever did such a thing as root canals - and that's not because they did not have the technology or ability to do it. They were smarter than us - I contend - if for no other reason than that they did  not attempt to destroy the planet, as we seem to be doing. I have lots of other reasons to believe that, as well, too much to discuss here. Ask me sometime. All this is no joke, and it is something to definitely rule out, or deal with, if nothing else works. I myself have experienced this - and I can't tell you how relieved I was, instantly, when the dentist finally extracted the root canal that was giving  me all that trouble! Of course, I now have a little trouble chewing, but sometimes we have to choose which kind of misery we want to endure. And of course, get all your mercury fillings removed - mercury is a very potent nerve toxin - it literally eats away nerve endings. It has been estimated to be 100 times or more, more poisonous than lead, for example. 

As well, I'll ask  you to stop eating gluten for at least two weeks - to see what happens. Please read my post titled Gluten - The Two Week Challenge for a comprehensive explanation of why this may help you - a lot!

Since sciatica can be such a strong motivator - for people to change their ways and launch into an adventuresome exploration of new things - I may recommend a book (if I am impressed by their enthusiasm), or loan a book, on Feldenkrais, that has ATM movements you can do at home. I might recommend you acquire ATM tapes or listen to online sources such as The Open ATM Project. 

This is pretty much what you'll get - but not all of it! Only some of it! Usually only a small percentage of it! -  if you come to see me for sciatica. There are a lot of things to consider, and never do we do all of these things. Usually, a client gets relief with just a selected few  of these items. I let my common sense and experience guide me as to what is most important in each particular case.  

Only if results are poor or too slow, will I start to talk about doing more, with more intensity. I do get good results, and have many success stories, more than I can remember. I want results, I want them quick, and I want them to be permanent, just like you do. In the past, when I worked only with Feldenkrais ideas, my results were good, but too slow. So now I still use Feldenkrais, which is something you can't get anywhere else, but I combine it with these other simple, safe, harmless recommendations and easy protocols and I get much quicker results. However, as you might expect, to cover all these bases, so that you can fully integrate them, may take more than just 5 or 6 sessions. At times, up to 3 or 4 months of work is needed to fully resolve sciatica.  

Gluten - The Two Week Challenge

Routinely, I ask new clients to stop eating gluten for 2 weeks, to see what happens. I do this because I know there will be improvements in the client's condition, whatever that may be. 

It's a long story, but fascinating. It has taken me 15 years to put it together in this way. I wanted the truth about wheat, so I began to explore, to pay attention, ask questions and do research. I'm share my conclusions here. I'm not so interested in the current science, biological or physiological technicalities or popular alternative medicine opinions about gluten, grains and diet. I want to know enough to satisfy my curiosity - what happened? I want enough information - no more please - to make an intelligent decision. There is so much information out there masquerading as science. So, I like to piece together my truth, in my own way - from my own experience, and from very selected sources I know I can trust - what ancient cultures did, for one. Why did they consider bread "the staff of life" when today, obviously, it is not? 

My way of presenting is a little rambling, but blunt. This is how I will talk to a client, if I think gluten, or wheat is causing them trouble. If you still want to eat wheat after reading this post, you have a strong will, is all I can say. So, here goes. 

One of my clients had a mother who was 108 years old. This was 10 years ago. Her mother had good cognition, and good memory, even of Haley's Comet at the turn of the last century, and the sinking of the Lusitania etc. So I asked her if she remembered whether wheat kernels were smaller and harder back then, compared to today. She confirmed my suspicion. Yes, they were smaller and harder. And I believe, because the soil was healthier, and the wheat was not "flash grown - quick and big" with artificial fertilizer - that such wheat had more wheat germ oil, more enzymes, more minerals and fiber - it was not just a wad of sticky gluten as wheat kernels are, today. Bread back then was more like the staff of life; today it is like the staff of death. 

Why is it that in every known case of eating disorders, grains are involved - the gluten containing grains? That means wheat, rye, oats and barley. A couple years ago, there was an article about the Inca's in Central America. Up to then, scientists had thought they had a grain - corn based - culture. New evidence indicated this was not the case - instead, they had a diet heavy in seeds, fruits, roots, vegetables, some meat and herbs. Not grains! 

In the 1950's  and 1960's I can remember newspaper headlines that read "University Professor Awarded Nobel Prize for Developing High Protein Strains of Wheat". I remember feeling glad, proud and happy that my country, the USA, was so magnanimous as to want to feed the world, and develop better strains - high protein, what could be better? - of wheat. And the U.S. Government, Universities and Agribusiness were all cooperating to do this - how wonderful!

What I should have thought was this: Hmmm. I wonder if money and profit have anything to do with this? More protein means less minerals, enzymes, fiber and oil. High gluten wheat is quicker and easier to grow with artificial fertilizer, on bad soil. What a coincidence! More profit for the farmer! For the corporations! And the Universities and the US Government share in that money. What grows fast and is puffy and larger than normal - which is how wheat is today - can it be good for us?  Things grown like that rot quickly in the refrigerator. Why would I want to eat grains grown like that? Especially if it is like sticky glue, and without the enzymes and fiber that should be there!  Gosh, I guess they did not really have our health, or feeding the world, in mind. It was all about money. What grows slowly, also has deeper roots, more minerals, better staying power, more fiber, good oil and enzymes.

Today wheat, rye, oats and barley - the four gluten containing grains - are too high in gluten. It is like eating glue - even when you have a bowl of oatmeal. I remember in the 1950's that oatmeal flakes would fall off the spoon one by one. Oatmeal was not engineered back then to be "high gluten" and hence, be like sticky glue when you eat it. That is how oatmeal is, today. 

Well, what is so bad about gluten in the diet? Now, that question gets to the heart. Some three years ago, there was a Time Magazine article concerning wheat allergies, wheat sensitivity. The main point of the article, as I remember it, was that far more people are affected by wheat allergies than Doctors ever suspected. Many people have a sub-clinical allergy or sensitivity to wheat; they won't be diagnosed, yet they suffer. Wheat or gluten intolerance can mean a whole host of unpleasant symptoms, including irritable bowel, poor assimilation of nutrients, nerve damage, neuropathy, inflammation and much more. 

Dr. William Philpott wrote a book some years ago titled Brain Allergies. He is a board certified psychiatrist and internist. In that book he describes what happens if we don't have the digestive power to completely digest gluten - which is a long, sticky and hard to digest molecule. What happens is that the molecule of gluten breaks in half - at a "breaking point". And, can you believe this? Each half of the gluten molecule, according to Dr. Philpott, is one of the most powerful addictive narcotics known to psychiatric science. It turns out that nearly everyone over age 40  or 50 has diminished digestive power. A young child may do fine eating wheat - but you or I? I am over 60, and I certainly cannot eat wheat, without suffering consequences. 

When I learned this, it really got my attention. Wheat - as addictive as any street drug, as addictive as alcohol, as addictive as cigarettes! Why doesn't the world know this? Why? Why, I asked myself, am I still eating wheat? Do I think just because everybody else is eating it, there will be no consequences for me? I am slow to change my ways, you have to knock me over the head. Well, I got knocked on the head by this information.  

Bernard Jensen, DC, the well-known chiropractor, has said that eating products made with white flour will break off the villi of the small intestines, which absorb fine nutrients. So we will then suffer from a form of malnutrition. When we eat glue, and it is not well digested, there has to be consequences. Just another reason not to eat wheat. 

In recent years I have turned to raw food more; I even went two years 100% raw. In the raw food movement, grains are highly discouraged. Raw food people are sensitive souls, that is why they do raw food, and they can feel right away the negative effects from grains.   I ate very little grains for those two years, and felt better than I had ever felt in my life. I've come to trust that I can be happy, healthy and strong without eating grains. It took me time to come to that understanding, since there is so much cultural propaganda to the contrary.  

If  you are young with healthy strong digestion - as is usually the case - your body can break down the gluten into small easily assimilated amino acids. Still, probably, some poorly digested gluten may slip through.  That's probably not so addictive, if at all. That is what is supposed to happen for us, too. But as we age our digestive fire dwindles. So we end up with only those two pieces for each gluten molecule - the narcotics. If you don't believe gluten is addictive, just walk past a bakery, and smell the bread. Can you resist that? It is no accident that bakeries have the vent directed to the sidewalk just outside their shop. 

How to tell if you are addicted to wheat?  Go two weeks with no gluten and see what happens. Also eliminate rye, oats and barley, not just wheat. If you are addicted, you will go through withdrawal pangs just like any other drug addict.  That means headaches, dizziness, uncontrollable cravings, maybe physical weakness, fever alternating with being too cold, cold sweats, and more. I  went through that, and that is why it took me ten years to go off gluten - I had  to do it gradually. You'll have a persistent driving craving for wheat. You'll feel like life is not worth living if you can't have at least a little bite of... cracker.. graham cracker.. toast.. pizza..... french toast... pasta.... oatmeal... rye crackers... barley in soup... soup thickened with wheat ... cake .. cookies ... chips ... pastry .. pie .. sandwiches... pudding... and the list goes on. 

When I worked as a vegetarian cook for 8 years, many years ago, I ended up with aching feet, hands, insomnia and other nerve symptoms due to wheat and soy allergy. Life became unbearable, and I got very concerned. I was still young - how could I live the rest of my life like that? How? Medical diagnosis came up empty, so how did I know it was because of wheat and soy? After I quit that job, I did not eat bread, wheat or soy for about 6 months, and all my symptoms ended. I did not know why, I just knew I was not hungry for those things anymore. Then, when I had my first wheat and soy, the symptoms returned. I can still remember the red, aching, hot throbbing feeling in the bottom of my feet, the next morning as I woke up. I wondered "what did I DO?" and then remembered eating a tofu salad with french bread at a vegan restaurant in Santa Monica. It was the same torturous feeling I had for all those years. It was real torture. I was not about to continue eating wheat or soy. I know from my own experience, that soy also is problematic. I don't need to read any scientific studies to tell me that. 

When I work with new clients, and they have any kind of nerve involvement, which is often the case, I feel the bottom of their feet. I can sense, in half a second, whether their feet have that same kind of hot, red, achy feeling that I once had (I say "red" because that is the color that flashes in my mind). When I feel that, I give them a talk similar to what you are reading, and without fail, they begin to make remarkable improvements - if they do the two week trial. 

One such lady - Jewish - was eating one bagel for breakfast, and one for lunch, with cream cheese, of course. I told her she had to stop, and NOW. At least for two weeks, no bagels - no wheat, no oats, barley or rye! Well, she did it, and she later told me I was a genius - because all her MDs and neurologists had been working for years to try to help her severe neuropathy (and I do mean very severe, her feet were really hot), to no avail. And here I was, with no medical training,  giving her an instant solution, that actually worked. She was not pleased that her doctors had not told her about wheat allergy, to put it mildly!

About 8 years ago I gave a presentation to an Multiple Sclerosis (MS) group in a hospital classroom. On the blackboard, still remaining from last week's class, was written "No gluten - no wheat, oats, rye or barley".  I asked a class member why that was written there. She told me: "The doctor last week who gave us the lecture told us that gluten eats away nerve endings, and and anyone who has MS should not eat any gluten."

Now, I am not a nutritionist, I am not a doctor, not do I pretend to know anything about what they do. But I do like  simple, safe, maybe not easy, protocols that can only be helpful with no downside. Going two weeks with no gluten is one of those things. You can't lose. Even if you are not allergic/addicted to gluten, it is good to know that, and no harm is done. You might even learn to like rice crackers, millet for breakfast instead of oatmeal, and gluten free bread from the local health food store (but I doubt it). There is nothing wrong in all of that. 

My opinion? The USA and much of the world is addicted to wheat. I myself was addicted to wheat for many years, but did not know it.  Wheat addiction is the trigger for so many other compulsive behaviors around eating and even mental/emotional problems - that has been my experience, and also, so I am told by a member of Overeater's Anonymous who does mentoring for new members of that group - that is their experience as well. She tells me a new member in her group must agree not to eat wheat for two weeks, before being admitted to the group. 

It took me ten years to break my wheat addiction. I could not imagine life without it. I was raised with wheat every day, and I lived for my daily fix - either bread, waffles, pancakes, toast, oatmeal, donuts, pizza, sandwiches, pasta, crackers, cake, pie or at least graham crackers. One of those things was my first thought when I woke up, and it was the motivation for me to live life. Without my gluten fix, what was the purpose of even living? Life was exciting with wheat, without wheat, life was boring and not worth living. I was really addicted, but I did not have a clue. 

I could not quit cold turkey. First, I made a switch to gluten-free bread. That was traumatic. The stuff tasted OK, but it was not anything like REAL bread. It tasted flat and empty. Of course it did, it was not feeding my addiction.  It took a lot of will power. But I stuck with it. Then I made a resolve not to bring gluten, especially bread, into my apartment. Never. Instead, when I was out and about, I could eat wheat - like a sandwich or piece of pizza. I went on like that for years. Still I had trouble with my nerves. So, I was driven to take more steps. I began to eat millet for cereal instead of oatmeal. I stopped eating bread, even outside the home, except for once or twice a month. After ten years of that, more or less, I made the jump to no wheat. I got tremendous relief in my digestion, in my nerve pains, in my general well-being.

Wheat is so pervasive today, anybody who has any trouble with their body, of any kind whatsoever, should try going without wheat and gluten for 2 weeks - just to see if there is any improvement, and to see whether one is addicted. In the sanskrit language, derived from ancient Vedic India, there is one word that means both allergy and addiction. Apparently they believed that allergies and addictions always went together. What we eat too much of, that we become allergic to.  

Today, I have no more such nerve symptoms, my digestion has improved so much that I can again eat wheat. But, I only do so occasionally. I am very cautious. I never seek it out. Yes, I get careless, and I'll have a sandwich now and then - but I will certainly suffer for it!  I'll go to the health food store, and want some chocolate crackers. I'll find the gluten-free brand, and eat them, and enjoy them. I have come to not miss the wheat. It is truly gone as a controlling force in my life. 

Because of my experience, and my distrust of anything I read in the popular press (which trivializes many serious issues, and confuses with "scientific" jargon and studies the clear message that we should understand about many things, wheat included - stop eating it!!) especially from magazines or news outlets that take advertising dollars from agribusiness or others who may profit from people getting addicted to wheat - I am very blunt, like I am here, when I talk to my clients about going two weeks without wheat  or gluten: "see what happens". 

A strange thing. When I was in Italy some years ago, I could eat their white bread with no trouble. And, I did that every day for two weeks. It was wonderful for breakfast, with buffalo mozzarella cheese and olive oil - perhaps with a little garlic rubbed on. When I came back to America, I searched high and low in LA for bread like that, but could not find it. American bread, by comparison, was heavy, oily, over-salted and too tough to chew. 

To this day, I do not know why bread in Italy comes "penalty free" while bread in America comes heavily laden with consequences. One Italian-American told me this is the reason: "In Italy the wheat goes from the farmer to the baker. In America, it goes from the farmer to the wholesaler. Here, you store grains for many months, before it goes to the baker. So, they have to spray anti-fungals, to prevent mold; plus the bread here has preservatives - in Italy bread is purchased from the local bakery every morning. It is a tradition. No preservatives are needed."  I suspect that American bread - laced with unwholesome chemicals - is less digestible, and therefore the gluten becomes a problem for the body. 

Two weeks without bread or gluten - if you try it, you may learn something about yourself. 

 

 

Plantar Fasciitis

This condition can be extremely painful, and prevent one from standing or walking for any length of time with any degree of comfort. It can be discouraging, when you get lots of treatment, PT, chiropractic, home exercises, massage, etc and nothing helps. You might contemplate surgery or injections to deaden the pain. 

Here I will describe one such case I had, and the successful outcome, when nothing else helped. For a serious case like his, it takes private work to resolve; nonetheless on your own there is much you can do for yourself, in a Feldenkrais sense. In fact, this condition, more than almost any other, requires full participation and willingness to learn new things, from the client. If you stay with the old way of thinking, you get the old familiar treatments and diagnostics. 

Here is what my client had to say about my work:

The Elusive Obvious
Awareness through movement…that’s what it’s called.
At first glance, the expression may appear as just another cliché; yet I quickly came to understand that the “awareness” referred to is –self-awareness- and I know the value of such knowledge to each and everyone is nothing less than profound. The Delphic oracle’s invocation to “know yourself” is bought to mind when one seriously considers the work of Moshe Feldenkrais.

The Feldenkrais Method, as it is popularly known, was introduced to me by Steven Hamlin when I was suffering with a condition known as “plantar fasciitis.” Before meeting Steven I had tried, in vain, to find relief for my complaint with various conventional and alternative medicine practitioners. By that time, regrettably, I had spent considerable time and money seeking a remedy.

What was missing from all the sources I had earlier consulted was a clear understanding of the causes of the condition which troubled me. And that is the great strength of Feldenkrais: it has the ability to provide you with a comprehensible appreciation of what it is that is happening in your body when you are suffering from a physical ailment. It allows you to know how certain physical/mechanical adjustments to long conditioned skeletal and muscular habits most likely will take you down a path that leads to abatement and relief for your health condition.

For this to occur, of course, two things are necessary (i) a limited amount of patience and (ii) a knowledgeable and skilled practitioner to introduce you to an understanding of the Feldenkrais Method.

For me Steven Hamlin was that practitioner and I am thankful for his effort.

Daniel Collins
West Hollywood
California


Plantar Fasciitis is almost certainly related to how you stand and walk, and how you breathe and move and the stability of your balance, and most especially your posture. It is not simply that something has gone wrong with your feet, and therefore you need to have injections, or stretches, or special arches or shoes or exercises or massage for your feet! All that may help, but as many discover, they are as likely to aggravate the condition if the underlying cause is elsewhere, as it usually is. Plus, all that can be a distraction from doing the real work that is necessary.

For this condition, private work is needed for sure, for three or more sessions. Involvement in ATM - Awareness Through Movement - is also highly recommended. Daniel Collins, in fact, was doing ATM from the online "Open ATM Project."  He simply choose all the ATM's he could find related to balance and the feet or legs, although other choices would have been good also. Plantar fasciitis is one of the more difficult conditions, and it can take a little time. Most likely you created it over a lifetime of poor movement and postural habits, and that cannot be turned around overnight. All of a sudden it hits you, and you want quick relief. 

What will I do if you come to me for this condition? Whatever intuitively comes to me as the important underlying issue, every session, while fully taking into account your history and traditional methods. I do not work from textbooks, or from any proscribed method, although I have learned and studied (and even use, occasionally) many such methods. I deliberately try to empty myself to stay open to the best avenue, moment by moment. I have learned over many years this is the safest, and best approach – and the quickest. Whenever I have a plan, as opposed to being the appreciative creative wanderer, I am less effective, and might even hurt a client. You'll need to push your "reset" button to get used to this type of "treatment". 

But certain true, general statements that apply to all cases of Plantar Fasciitis can be made. When balance is compromised in standing it is natural - no, inevitable -  for the body to grip the bottom of the feet. No amount of stretching or exercise or cortisone shots or custom arches or relaxation drills will change that dynamic. It’s about physical survival – balance – and the low brain, not the conscious mind, is in charge of that arena. So the issue becomes to improve your balance in standing and walking and running (if you run).

Of course, if you tell me that you are no longer able to stand or walk, we will proceed along a different avenue at first – get the feet better first, well enough so you can walk. That involves many things, too much to describe here.

How to improve balance – stability in standing and walking? This can involve many factors, such as ankle mobility, walking style, missing early developmental movements (if some of these were missing, walking will be balance-compromised, too stiff and tense, for the adult, and the best fix is to go back and actually do the missing movements), a rib cage that is too stiff, and more.

Perhaps you were an only child, and because of that your parents encouraged you to walk too soon, before your balance was stable. You stiffened your whole body in fear, even as your mother or father held your hand to force you to walk. From that moment, you learned to walk stiffly, with tight gripping soles-of-the-feet. It just took you all these years for the feet to finally flare up and complain with pain. Your feet were never the problem – in fact they did a heroic work all those years. Don’t try to fix what is not broken. Go to the underlying cause. When you do a Feldenkrais fix, you fix your whole life, as well as the presenting problem.

Perhaps you were toilet trained too early, before you could discriminate between tensing the whole pelvis, and tensing just the necessary sphincter muscles. So, you learned early on to have an uptight pelvis, all the time, to please mommy or daddy. An uptight pelvis guarantees a belly that is too tight, a jaw that is too tight, and soles of the feet that grip the floor all the time your are standing, and even when you are not! And today you do not know how to release that longstanding tension. It takes time, and mentoring, and good movement, some breathing work, patience and willingness and right understanding. Judging from what I see walking down the street, very few persons have learned not to be uptight there.

Perhaps you have learned to stand and walk with a back that is too tight and chest is lifted too high – almost as if you are falling backwards. Like a “good” military posture. If so, that literally guarantees that your toes will always be gripping the floor and the soles of your feet will be tense.

Perhaps  you learned - too well - to "sit up straight" and you did this  will power, stiffening the back, instead of using intelligence and skill, and deep relaxation and movement strategies. All my articles concerning chairs and sitting cover this aspect in great detail. 

Or perhaps the reverse is true. You are too slumped and balance is compromised the other way. Your ankles are working overtime, and your toes are always gripping the floor. Postural correction, and intelligent ankles are the solution here, not fixing the feet!

Or perhaps your posture is more or less OK, but your eyesight is failing, and therefore your balance is compromised. The solution here lies in ankle work, and learning to balance in standing and walking with less visual dominance and dependence. Relaxed, confident and balanced standing and walking then becomes the immediate goal.  If blind people can do it, at any age, so can you - with great success, safely and fairly quickly. Are you willing to jump into that new world of learning? For instance, you could walk along touching a wall with your eyes closed for a little while. This will help your ankles wake up and teach your other proprioceptive senses to get busy and help you balance, since the eyes are doing nothing! The body is smart that way. You could also stand in front of a wall, close your eyes, and fall into the wall – if you can do this safely and confidently. Gradually introduce degrees of difficulty, turn a little, cross the legs, etc. Balance is quickly improved in this fashion. But proceed slowly and safely, and it’s best done under the guidance of a qualified teacher.

Go for a walk, have someone hold your hand, and keep your eyes closed. How long can you do that? Do this once a week for a month, and see the changes.

Any variety you can introduce into your usual routine of body exercise or movement will be beneficial, since it will make your nervous system more competent. For instance, you can run and walk backwards - some persons even run marathons backwards. This is not going to give immediate relief, but long term, it is a helpful strategy. 

An important exercise for all people with this condition: In bed, after waking up, draw the alphabet with your big toes. Relax the feet as you do this, since the movement must come through the ankles. The feet cannot move the feet! Any tension in your feet will interfere with the movement. This develops ankles mobility, softness of the feet, and intelligent usage of the feet and ankles. It will definitely improve your balance. Please read all my articles on feet and balance for more on this issue. 

Another key exercise – which temporarily may seem to make it worse – is to make it a point to stand up and balance on one foot, whenever you tie your shoe laces (If you can). Not everyone can do this, but if you can, it is a sure way to quickly improve your balance. This is more “hard core” and not for everyone. If  you do yoga, emphasize one-legged postures. You want to improve your balance, you want to improve  the competency of  your ankles. 

Another helpful idea – learn to sense your talus bones as you stand and walk. Here you need a teacher to show you the skeleton, and show you - with hands on your feet, as you stand -  how to to sense this part of the body, as you sway your body back and forth, or in circles. We should balance from the talus bone (working with the lower leg muscles), not from gripping the feet, which immobilizes the ankles!! Roman soldiers were taught to stand, march and fight “from the talus bone”. It seems a strange idea, but when you learn it, walking and standing becomes so much easier!

When a foot takes weight it should lengthen and soften – not grip. What is your habit, as a foot takes weight, when walking? Your cure may be as simple as changing that habit. And that means waking up the ankles, being able to sense the talus, and improving your balance skills.

Another idea – walk with many variations of the ankles. Walk toes in, then toes out. Walk on the inside edges of the feet, then the outside edges. Walk on your heels. Walk on your toes. Walk on uneven surfaces barefoot. Give your feet the blessing of natural, uneven surfaces to walk upon. Walk on sand. Don’t use the same shoes all the time. Vary your shoes. The body thrives on variety and the incentive to adapt. Do even a few minutes of this now and then, and improvements will come. Of course, start easy, stop at any sign of pain, and move slowly at first. The paradox here is that the feet crave stimulation and variety of contact in weight bearing - in fact it is essential to have this for full recovery - yet it is painful, because of the inflammation. That's why a skilled practitioner is a must. 

The most important thing you can do for yourself: Do an online ATM lesson as indicated earlier, one hour per week without fail. And practice and review parts of that lesson during the week. This will improve your balance like nothing else can, expand and refine your body awareness and self-image, and reconfigure your movement patterns so that in time, your condition will naturally, unobtrusively simply vanish. In time it will cover all the bases, what is behind your plantar fasciitis, and your entire outlook on life, your ability to sleep, your mood, everything improves.

What is it like to experience this kind of "healing"? You need patience. Those muscles at the bottom of the feet release layer-by-layer. You can work for weeks, or months, and not get to the end. But then, all of a sudden - no pain, you're back to normal. Over many years, your body (your brain) has added a layer of tension and guarding to the soles of the feet, every time your balance was compromised. As we grow older, that happens more often. To reverse this process is something you won't have patience to endure, unless you are warned up front:  it may seem like the process goes on forever, and it seems like so many things to learn. No, there is a definite end. 

As with any condition involving inflammation, diet and lifestyle are best modified to minimize inflammation. Start now, by eliminating grains from your diet for a month or more (especially wheat, rye, barley and oats, the gluten grains), reducing simple carbohydrates, and taking appropriate supplementation – especially anti-inflammatory type fish oils. Work with a nutritionist. 

I also advocate appropriate usage of castor oil, topically, as it helps greatly to speed healing, reduce inflammation, and reduce pain. Please see my article on castor oil. I also recommend getting educated about MSG – see www.MSGmyth.com or Truthinlabeling.org. Whether you not you believe you are sensitive to MSG, go for one month on an MSG free diet (this is not easy); you have little to lose, lots to gain, more than you may realize. MSG can be in the coffee you drink at a fast food restaurant - MSG stimulates your desire to eat more, especially more junk food. MSG is injected into rats, to insure that they become obese!  Yet, MSG is pervasive in our food supply. Even non-organic lettuce has often been sprayed with MSG. One has to take great precautions.  Just try it for 30 days. 

Here are additional strategies: eat more raw foods; increase your intake of Vitamin D or sunlight is also very important. Take MSM supplements. Think green - green drinks, cooked green vegetables (do a web search for Bhieler Broth), more salads. These dietary strategies can reduce inflammation and quicken your healing. 

Take just one or two of these ideas and work with them for a week or two.

Of course your particular situation may be the result of an injury, or trouble with the foot itself (in rare cases). In addition to proceeding along the above lines, I will also work to align the bones of the feet, do stretching work on the calf muscles (as they are usually extremely tight, especially for former runners, who did not stretch enough during their running career!), and soften the rib cage, since comfortable balance in standing is not possible without a supple rib cage – all this, of course, takes time. Also, I will use osteopathic protocols (from Ortho-Bionomy® or Jones – Strain/Counterstrain) to position-release the many tender points that are found in the foot, ankle and knee area (with the understanding that it is not a cure but a necessary and helpful measure).

Base of Thumb Pain - Right Hand (dominant hand)

If you closely compare the geometry of both hands, when fully relaxed, you'll probably notice that the thumb or the right hand (or dominant  hand)  is bent in towards the center of the palm more than the left hand. No doubt, that is because with our right hand we do more gripping, holding, shaking hands, writing, using tools, etc. However, I must add that often I notice this even in left-handed persons - a bit of a mystery I have yet to solve. 

Pain because of this is very common and should be attended to when it first appears. Otherwise, inflammation and irritation and tension/guarding can lead to more serious troubles, like carpal tunnel syndrome.

When I first started my practice I was very enthusiastic about somatic healing, but I was holding unrealistic ideas. For this type of situation, I would have recommended that a person crawl about on their living room floor for at least five minutes a day. That would automatically stretch the palm back. I would also have recommended that they widen their palm, especially their thumb(s) as that hand was taking weight and the palm was getting stretched backwards by the weight of the body pressing upon it. In addition, using the hand and arm for weight-bearing in crawling on the floor activates a relaxation reflex in the palm and fingers (just as should happen with the feet as they take weight, they should lengthen and widen and soften and the ankle should be active). This would correct the problem in a short few weeks, and it was natural, it was what infants do (or should be allowed to do). The problem: nobody did it. Especially the older folks, the ones who needed it the most, would never do such a thing. So, either I had to give up my bright ideas, or modify them so anybody, of any age, could easily benefit. So here it is... 

The method: 

Part One: Bend the palm of the right hand backwards, as it would be if  you did a push-up on the floor. Keeping the palm like that, bend the thumb backwards into a stretch, and hold the stretch position for about 2 or 3 seconds. Then release, pause a moment, and repeat for 10 repetitions. Please don't hold the stretch for more than 3 seconds; you'll get quicker results if you keep it to a more body-friendly rhythm. Cats, dogs and little kids all stretch for about 2-3 seconds, then it is over. Then the "stretch reflex" kicks in.  If you hold the stretch longer than 3 seconds, you'll feel it is not quite the same nice feeling as it was at first. It is a good idea to also stretch all the fingers in a similar fashion, as well as the thumb and fingers of the other hand. 

As you do this stretch, the "magic" happens if you also imagine your thumb or fingers, as you stretch them, are getting slightly longer, that they are lengthening. This involves more than just your ordinary idea of "relaxing". A definite mental resolve has to be made.  Just imagine as you stretch that that the thumb or finger is actually getting longer, like rubber, even many feet or yards - like the old cartoon character, "Rubber Man". Otherwise, believe it or not, you can continue stretching for many  years, all the while compressing the joints while "stretching" the limb. That's because you have had a habit of "moving and reaching into compression" instead of "moving and reaching into length" and that habit has become very stubborn, and almost totally unconscious. 

Part Two: Place and then push your right hand alongside your right leg, in such a way that you compress the thumb more into the mid-line. It is as if  you are making the problem worse, bringing the thumb more into the "grip hard" position, that was causing you trouble in the first place. Keeping the hand like that, press the thumb against the leg, but don't let it move very much. This is an isometric that will strengthen the muscles needed to bring the thumb back to normal position. Do this as long as you can until you feel fatigue in the thumb.  That won't be long, since these muscles are very weak, and rarely used. Mostly we use their opposing muscles, the gripping muscles. After a few repetitions of doing this, remove the hand and stretch the thumb as before a few times. In time - maybe 6 weeks to 6 months - just like any other muscle strengthening regime, these muscles will get stronger, and your thumb pain should be well gone by that time.

Of course, if you wish, you can create the identical isometric by using one hand to restrain the thumb of the other. Just push the thumb against the resistance. Use whichever is easier for you.

And remember to imagine the thumb getting longer, like Rubber Man could have done, as above. 

   

Do this once or twice a day, and in a week or two your trouble should be gone. I have rarely seen this fail. If then you still have pain in the wrist, or base of the thumb, then please read my article titled Curing and Preventing Carpal Tunnel. 

Reduce Neck Compression - A Quick Method

All day long, unless we lie down, the back of the neck muscles are holding up much of the weight of the head.  Our head would tilt down (like it does if you fall asleep in a chair), if those muscles were not always tensing - they are postural muscles and are designed to do that. Nonetheless we need to check in with the back-of-the-neck-muscles now and then to be sure they are not doing too much tension, continually. There are many ways to do that, and here I will give you my favorite little quick and clever somatic fix.  As years go by, without intervention, these muscles do in fact get stronger, tighter, and less responsive to doing anything but just tense and hold the head.

Have you ever noticed how some people have very graceful, elegant carriage of their head? It is restful just to look at them. Poise and dignity is written into their very bones. If you learn this little method, you will begin to look more like that too.  

For many people, the weight of the head - plus inappropriate tightness of those back-of-neck muscles - is over-compressing the neck vertebrae. The whole spine shortens and compresses, taking the clue from what the head and neck are doing - too much compression and tension.

This little intervention is based on the fact that the center of gravity of the head is forward of the balance point between the ears. In other words, if you relax the back of the neck, your head will drop. Again, we have all done this while falling asleep in a chair.

The Method: Relax the back of the neck just slightly, while letting (not forcing!) the chin to drop. Even just 1/8 inch of chin dropping is great. If you can accomplish that without forcing, by simply letting the back of the neck relax while gravity does the work, you have already greatly decreased compression of the upper spine and neck. You'll begin to get conscious control of those muscles that work so hard, and continuously for you.  You'll feel a little bit taller. All you need is just enough "drop" to get the idea. Nobody else even needs to know what you are doing. They may notice that you look more relaxed and less stressed, by doing this movement. At first the head will drop slowly, since those back-of-the-neck muscles take time to learn how to modulate their tension. For most of us, for many years, it has been "full on" or "Full off" as when sleeping. Although, actually, they never went on "full off" since there was so little awareness and control of those postural muscles. Tension continually built up. That is why the brain that needs a little time to get rewired to conform to your new intentions.

Variations: Every time you practice, do it a little differently. Create variations, to make sure you really learn it well, and that the learning will be serviceable in your daily life. Some examples: practice with your head turned to the left or right (a little or a lot); with your eyes looking up, down, or to one side; in sitting or standing, turn your head very slowly as you do this; turn your head left as the eyes look right; imagine the entire spine lengthening as you drop the neck, not only the neck. All these variations - and much more -  would eventually be explored in Feldenkrais ATM, if you were taking classes. It's particularly helpful to practice turning the head "into length" and not "into compression" as most people in fact do. Just turn the head very slowly, in the beginning just a quarter inch or less, and imagine the head is being "unscrewed from the torso" like removing a screw-on lid from a bottle.  Most people, especially if they have neck pain or pathology, turn the lid (the head) the wrong way (tightening down) as they turn their head. It's a particularly vicious, unconscious bad habit - a source of much pain and trouble - and no amount of stretching, manipulation of vertebrae, exercise, strengthening or traction can change it. To change a habit, you need to replace the habit with a better behavior. None of those other modalities - as valuable as they are in their own realm - can do that. 

The concept is shockingly simple, but not easy. For most people, it is almost like they are startled, or like waking up from a long trance, to even consider doing such a thing. Those muscles have been holding tight, unconsciously, for a long time. To control them with finesse, you need to have patience, be present, and don't worry if you cannot do it right away. It may take some days or weeks - just play with it a few moments now and then. Don't make it a project - then it becomes work, and you'll associate all the tension of "work" with it. 

Eventually, whenever you look down - at a cell phone, a book,  or to eat, you'll do it by relaxing the back of the neck while keeping the chin slightly in, with no effort. It will feel, and look very graceful, it will actually make you taller (by decreasing compressing in your spine) and you'll feel a lot better, once this simple habit is in place. It communicates poise and dignity. 

Don't worry. You do not have to practice this all your life. In just a few weeks your body will love it so much it will become a natural movement habit. It is actually much easier and more natural than what you were doing - which was to tense the front of the neck to look down (tilt the head down), overpowering the still-tense back-of-the-neck muscles. Every time you did that you were winching your neck muscles more tightly into co-contraction (flexors and extensors) - tightening the vise on your neck vertebrae.

To summarize, as you look down at your cell phone, or PDA or to read at your desk, let the back of your neck relax, let the chin slightly drop, keep your chin slightly in, use your eyes to look down instead of jutting head forward and slumping. This can save your back. Neck and shoulder pain in time will go away. You'll be giving a message to your whole spine to lengthen. This is a basic, Natural, human-birthright movement that everyone can and should quickly master and use daily.

Better Balance - How to Prevent Falling

For starters,  where, exactly, is your ankle? The common idea of ankles is that it is a 4-6 inch area in the vicinity of the two ankles bones just above the foot. If you think (and act)  more clearly and precisely about your ankles, and how they work, you can reap many benefits. It can literally change your life. When balance improves, the entire nervous system "settles" and become more calm, the eyes don't "startle" so much, we are less "jumpy" and we can take life in stride, and be much more poised and relaxed during the day. We don't realize how much energy our system expends when balance has become an issue. 

The kind of work you are going to learn here can prevent a serious fall, it can help you stay independent and erect as you grow older. It can help you avoid using a cane when you reach age 85.  And my experience tells me that I probably am not exaggerating.

Do you think your ankle bones are part of your ankles? In common linguistic usage, yes. But to be anatomically precise, the two ankle bones are really leg bones - the lower ends of the tibia and fibula bones of the lower leg. The ankle, functionally speaking, is whatever is between the leg bones and the foot.

What is between the leg bones and the foot? The talus bone. Please look this up in an anatomy text, or look at a picture online. It is very important that you have a clear visual image. Or better yet, get a plastic foot skeleton, and touch it, feel it, play with it. That is what I did, and it tremendously increased my effectiveness when working with people's ankles. 

Learning about the talus bone may seem like a fine distinction, of little use, but it is not so. Otherwise, the Romans would not have taught their soldiers to stand, walk, run and fight "from the talus bones".   That really sounds strange, until you have experienced it. But later you understand. Once you understand this, I am hoping you will be motivated to do a few simple ankle exercises. These can prevent "weak ankle syndrome" as you grow older. Then can help your poor overworked feet to relax, and they will definitely improve your balance. They will enhance your athletic ability. They can even greatly reduce or eliminate chronic pain. Numerous times I have seen whole-body-pain diminish or vanish quickly, by restoring normal ankle usage. It seems that the tense ankles resulted in an over-tense body, and that was causing their pain. 

Consider a few assorted facts:

• Again, the Roman soldiers were trained to walk, run and fight on their talus bones. 
  
• The feet are meant to soften, lengthen and widen as we take weight on a foot - not grip and tense! As most folks do. 
  
• If the feet learn to relax and not grip, this allows the ankles to do the work of balancing, instead of the whole body, starting with tense gripping feet!
  
• The lower leg muscles are long and strong - MUCH stronger than the tiny intrinsic foot muscles. It is obviously better to let balance, in standing and walking, happen through the ankle, connecting to these long and strong muscles, rather than tensing the feet (which immobilizes the ankle - making it rigid, so that the lower leg muscles have diminished ability to accomplish anything) and keeping the whole body vigilant to balance. That vigilance is a source of chronic tension, chronic pain, tight breathing, shortened life span, stress, and psychological disorder. People with that kind of vigilance will startle easily, they have a short temper, a frayed patience. Their eyes will look tired, but jumpy. The eyes of such persons have taken on the job of visually orienting to maintain balance - as the primary balance strategy, instead of letting the ankles and foot-proprioception make their proper contribution.  
  
• A soft foot allows the sub-talar joint (see below) to send messages to the long, strong lower leg muscles as to what to do, and when. 
  
• There are more nerve endings at the sub-talar joint than there are nerve endings at the bottom of the feet. Obviously, evolution is telling us something here. The sub-talar joint is important. Yet for most folks, that joint is locked tightly, never used, for lack of proper understanding and lack of a few simple exercises that should be practiced every day in odd moments. It's easy to feel whether a sub-talar joint is mobile or not; I know this within five seconds of touching a person's foot. Often, I'll know just by looking at them in standing. 
  
• The sub-talar joint is probably the most important joint in the foot, yet most people have never even heard of it. 
  
• In ancient times, there was not such a preponderance of flat surfaces to walk on, nor were there shoes that were so tight, and cushioned and form fitted and with heels. The feet were more supple and adaptable in ancient times - meaning more relaxed and capable. People went barefoot a lot more. 

Most of us have learned to tense the feet to stand and balance; therefore the ankles are not in the easy field of our awareness. When one again becomes aware of the ankles - meaning the talus bones - than the foot begins to relax, and the ancient, primal and wonderfully efficient balance reflexes that work through the ankles - come into play. The eyes relax, the shoulders drop, the breathing opens, we look more relaxed and feel so much better!  Then the sub-talar joint begins to loosen up and articulate in weight bearing, finally (although this may take some months of private work or group ATM classes). Then the lower leg muscles can do their reflexive work of instantly responding to our shifting of weight, our slow or sudden movements, to keep us stable, balanced and ready to move in any direction. When the eyes and the whole body take on that job instead - which they were never intended to do - life becomes a burden. 

So, what can be done? Luckily there are a few simple exercises that anyone can do - at practically any time of the day or night, that will gradually bring us back to natural usage of feet and ankles (to speed up the process, you'd need to get private work or take ATM classes regularly).

Strategies to Restore Normal Usage of the Ankles:

1) Touch or sense without touching (if you can) your two "ankle bones". Say to yourself "these are my lower leg bones". Then touch just below those two bones, but above the foot. Say "this is my talus bone - this is my ankle bone." Then, touch or hold your foot, and say "this is my foot." Repeat this until you can do easily, without touching. Learn to mentally make those distinctions instantly, whether sitting, standing or lying down. While this seems elementarily silly, I have found that most people cannot, unassisted, make these distinctions. That even applies to many dancers, or nurses or athletes, who should know better. Before we can do any exercises, we have to be able to make these distinctions.

 
2) Every morning in bed, make  circles or better yet, write the alphabet with your big toes, but move the toes from the ankles. Your feet, especially your toes should remain completely limp, completely without effort, completely soft. Your intrinsic foot muscles (muscles that begin and end in your foot and do not connect to your lower leg) cannot move your foot in a circle. An outside force has to act on the foot. That outside force is the lower leg muscles, coming down through the ankle. So you need to think and sense your ankles as you move your toes in a circle. If you think of your feet, you will tense the feet. If this sounds confusing, do this: make a fist and see how easy it is to make wrist circles with your tense fist. Not so easy, right? It is easier with a relaxed hand, to make circles in the hand from the wrist, tensing the fist only interferes. It is the same idea with the feet - foot tension only interferes with ankle mobility. If only people  were taught this early in life, so they would not have to figure it out later! If you learn this one thing, your balance will greatly improve. You will have learned how to sense and move your foot without tensing it - as most people do. That will carry over into relaxed, functional - intelligent ankle, better balance - standing. You'll have less likelihood of falling.

3) Stand and walk while trying to sense the talus bones. Once you "get it" you will begin to feel the power, the grace and ease that the Roman soldiers felt. Maybe that is why they were so successful, in their time. At first it will kind of feel like standing and walking on ball bearings. 

 
4) When you wake up, before you get out of bed, first sense your feet, and make any little movements you can, without tensing the feet. You may need to do this before you try to write your name, or the alphabet in the air with your toes. This will encourage soft feet, supple ankles and active lower leg muscles all day long. Set the pattern before you get out of bed.

5) Get foot massage as often as you can. Don't turn down a pedicure if you get a manicure. Don't turn down a chance to get some foot reflexology. Massage your own feet often. They crave the stimulation, they crave the impetus to relax, they crave the attention. Chronically tense feet need much mentoring and outside assistance in order to learn how to relax (in fact, I'd say I have never seen anybody for which this is not true). It's why I spend 5 to 20 minutes with practically every client doing "foot work" of various sorts (Feldenkrais related foot work, not foot reflexology, although I have find that Feldenkrais foot work gives many - if not all - of the same benefits as foot reflexology). It's not just that the feet need massage to relax - that's hopeful, but sadly and realistically overly-simplistic. Foot work needs to be related to balance and "function" meaning standing, walking, etc with intelligent ankles - then the feet will much more willingly relax, and stay that way indefinitely. Feet  will automatically grip when balance is not clear, not good - no matter how many strategies you implement to relax the feet. 

 
6) Stand quietly, holding onto a door frame or bookshelf. Slowly shift your weight from side to side, taking 4-5 seconds to go from one foot to the other. Notice - do not try to change anything - be clear: what are you doing with your feet as you take weight on a foot? What happens as you transfer weight to a foot? Do you tense and grip the foot? Or do you let the foot soften, widen, lengthen while the ankle and lower leg muscles automatically do all the work of keeping you nicely balanced? If you find yourself gripping - I can promise you that if you pursue this line of thinking, you will find amazing benefits, improvements and just plain joy of living. You have no idea of much extra unnecessary work you have been doing. You have no idea how good it will feel to let all of that go. If the work of balancing your body has been done with tense feet, rigid ankles and vigilant eyes and body - you have been living life with the gas pedal to the floor, while keeping your foot on the brake pedal. Your life will become much more graceful, productive, joyful, easy and powerful - with less effort with minimal frustration.

 
7) Start walking slowly. What are you doing now? Gripping the feet every time you take a step and take weight? Don't try to change anything,  just be very clear about what you are doing, when you are doing it, and how. That lays the foundation for change to happen spontaneously, effortlessly. Otherwise, if you jump ahead and command the feet to relax, you'll be trying to change something, or relax something, without even knowing exactly what you are doing or exactly when you should be doing it. 

8) Walk a little blindfolded or with eyes closed every day. Even a minute or so will work wonders in time. It will wake up forgotten powers o balance, of orientation, of proprioceptive memory, of intelligent ankles. Do this safely, slowly in your own home. Keep one hand on a wall. Later, when you know where things are, you can even walk from your bedroom to the bathroom with your eyes closed. That would be a great way to start your day - provided you don't bang your shin on a chair leg!

9) Stand near a wall. Close your eyes, and fall into the wall. Create many variations, slightly turning the hips or the head one way or the other, and positioning yourself at all kinds of weird angles to the wall. You can even cross one leg over the other. Catch yourself with your hands and arms. This might provoke a moment of panic - causing you to tense your feet and ankles, making them less serviceable, just when you need them the most. By practicing this, you can learn to override the panic impulse, and instead stay present with your soft feet and intelligent ankles. You can learn to soften and relax your whole body, in that "panic moment". This can prevent a broken hip bone, should you ever actually fall. Excess tension while falling might be the real cause of the broken  hip, not the fall itself.  This will serve you very well in those unexpected moments in life when we might be prone to falling. One minute a week of this will give a huge pay-off. Like many Feldenkrais-related movements, the "payoff" is far out of proportion to the effort you put into it. 

Chair Sitting 102

Your life will become SO much easier when you learn how to sit in a chair. In my case, for at least 35 years I was sitting to study or meditate by tensing the back and spine, to ENSURE that I never slumped, which I was warned against strongly. My mental dialogue went like this: If I slumped, I would be "like a bum" or "the energy will not flow in the spine" or "slumping posture creates depression and lethargy" or "only irresponsible lazy people, and teenagers, slump - never do it!". I was persuaded by all these arguments. I've now learned that those arguments do not tell the whole story. There is some truth there, but the other side of the coin has merit, as well. So, like most everyone else, I was stiffening to sit. And, that was especially true if I had fear of any kind: such as somebody watching me who had authority over me (like a boss or parent or teacher), or if I was facing a deadline and I had to "concentrate hard".

Over the years, I was told (or I told myself) countless times to sit up straight, and then relax. But, the relax part never really happened (because I had not been mentored in how to stay erect in sitting without tensing certain muscles of the back and chest); somewhere deep inside my spine and chest, I was stiffening.  I have found that this is true for almost every single person I encounter in life, and certainly it has been true for every single client I have ever seen. Very very few people know how to sit in a chair properly! No amount of preaching, or requesting them to sit up straight, "then relax" will accomplish anything. What is needed is practical instruction as to how to sit up straight, with easy balance, fully relaxed. That takes some skill, some real understanding of human movement, anatomy, balance, and posture. Not many people have any education along those lines - although many people pretend they are qualified to teach others about how to sit (parents, for example, when teaching their children not to slump).   

This little-known information will absolutely change your life. At first, though, you may be confused by it, since much of what is here will contradict what you think is true about sitting posture.

In ancient India a sage named Patanjali described the yoga path as consisting of 8 graded steps - each of which needs to be mastered before moving to the next step. His first two steps involve moral living. His third step is called asana which can be interpreted as learning to sit comfortably erect. I've known that for at least 40 years, but it was not until about 15 years ago that it finally dawned on me that perhaps there was something for me to learn there, before trying to move on to the next steps. Perhaps there is more to sitting that stiffening the spine, lifting the chest, pulling the shoulders back, keeping the chin level, and then trying to relax (which I could never do very well). I would always collapse into a slump unless I tensed my back or used a back rest. Most every person who tries to meditate does some variation of that. It took a Feldenkrais Training to rescue me from this dilemma.

During my years of attending a Feldenkrais training (1990-1994), and subsequent years working with various mentors, and later my own clients (who actually mentor me more ways than I know) - I learned that my habitual way of sitting was one of the most damaging habits I had created in this life. I would never have believed it, if I had not experienced it in my own body. I gradually learned how to sit - in a chair particularly - with minimal or zero chronic tension in the back and along the spine. And, what I learned allows me to find long-term comfort even if the chair is poorly designed. It is not something a person can learn from one day to the next. I have never witnessed this. However, in the course of an hour, I can often create a situation where a person is sitting in a chair without back tension - fully erect and without a back rest. But the client cannot reproduce this on their own. Old habits are stronger.

Test yourself: Sit as you normally do long periods of time - to study or meditate or whatever. Place your hand along your low back. Press or poke hard there - how soft are those muscles? Is it painful? Do that all up and down the spine - you'll need a back-scratcher or some other tool to do this. Or ask a friend to help you. If those muscles are painful to touch, rock hard, or like hard rubber or wood, then you know you have many things to learn. When I do that now to myself, the muscles are buttery soft, and there is no pain with hard poking. If you were my client I would tell you - "your life has been too much of a struggle up to this point, in my opinion. Life can be much more pleasant than you know. Do you work like this? Do you meditate like this? To meditate that way is like spending years telling yourself to relax your hands, while strongly clenching your fists. It is crazy making. It tends to create depression, rebellion, fatigue, and progress in meditation is likely to be very minimal.

Then I'll ask a question: "Patanjali's idea of asana, which he says must be mastered, what is your understanding of it?" Most clients say either Hatha Yoga, or learning to sit to meditate in a comfortable posture. Then I ask - have you ever spent any time scientifically studying, or taking classes, or even seriously thinking about chair sitting - what is involved and how to do it? The answer is almost always "No." Would you be willing to learn how to sit comfortably erect without back tension? Of course they all say "yes". I point out that it is highly unlikely that Patanjali would have included asana as one of his 8 steps if there was nothing to learn there except "stiffen the spine and sit up straight. Or if it only involved "find the right chair."

Chair sitting takes times to learn. It needs to be understood and approached scientifically. It boils down to some very simple things, but that does not mean easy or quick. A crucial thing is where is your starting point? If you approach sitting with the idea that there is some fixed, ideal posture, or there exists an ideal chair that will solve all problems - you'll hit a dead end, sooner or later. The truth is, as any neurologist will confirm (and any healthy child will demonstrate) - the brain and the body is built for learning, and human movement (not human posture or cognition) is what occupies at least 95% or more of the brain's activity. Human movement involves balance, support, environmental mapping, counter-balance, keeping movement options open enough so security is not compromised, coordination, reciprocal inhibition of opposing muscle groups, vision, and much more. It is vastly complex if you study it, as movement scientists do.

Sitting in a chair or on the floor is a movement activity. The body is always engaged, as long as it is upright and awake, in weight bearing, balance and counter-balance, proprioception, etc. You may think you can so stabilize or fix your sitting posture that no work is required to stay there, but you are wrong. We are not made of concrete - we are made of many cells, filled with fluid - and there are no joints in the body that fit together like stacked bricks - not one joint. Do you think no intelligent, ongoing work is required to balance an unstable collection of little water balloons called cells? The human body is an unstable machine, built for movement, not static posture. All this is not to say that you cannot sit quietly, apparently perfectly motionless, fully erect without a backrest, almost fully relaxed, while concentrating or meditating. But the angle of approach to achieve this very desired state is through movement education, not brute-force stiffening, or often-repeated commands to sit up straight, then relax! 

Scientists who study movement have very sensitive machines that can detect nerve impulses to muscles, and even the slightest muscle activity. In the early part of the 20th century, they believed that the human body had "static" since there was always a little "buzz" or "noise" in the nervous system, which had apparently no functional purpose. Later, as their listening devices became more sensitive, it became obvious that this "buzz" was actually intelligent ongoing activity: The brain was sending messages to every joint, every proprioceptor, asking "where are you" and "in what direction are you moving" and "where is the support". Calculations were then made as to what movements were needed to remain erect in weight bearing. All this is so automatic we are rarely aware it is happening.

You can actually demonstrate this for yourself. Sit in a chair. Reach one arm directly out to your side. Notice, you did not fall over even though your arm was held out to your side. Why not? Because your body automatically did some counter-balancing activity, shifting some weight in the opposite direction. Try it again, but this time freeze your body so that no counter-balancing can happen, as you were a bronze statue, frozen in good posture. As you extend your arm out to the side, you'll tend to fall over to the side. Your body has a vast collection of such balance-counterbalance behaviors; it is like a very elegant and intricate software program in our brains.  This program is going to be running whether you want it to or not - for billions of years, our nervous system has evolved in gravity, in weight bearing, to be functional and cope (meaning: to fall over is not allowed, you'll soon die) so it is best to cooperate with it and learn and refine our ability to speak that language: the language of movement and balance. Then, and only then, does sitting in a chair make sense, and eventually become easy and elegant. Paradoxically, by working with movement, we more quickly and effectively learn to sit motionless, relaxed and erect - apparently in "static" posture.

By now it should be obvious: we need to learn something about movement, and how it relates to sitting. When you start on that path, you get permanent, and magical results. The results probably won't be as quick as you like, but they are permanent and entirely beneficial. Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM), particularly chair sitting lessons, is the preferred method. But failing that, I am going to give you here some important points, and hints and movements that you can quickly learn and from which you can derive many benefits. 

So again, in the long term, you cannot sit comfortably erect if you do it by stiffening the spine and tightening the belly. For starters that creates compression of the spine, restricted breathing, and compromised balance - to say nothing about the constantly tight muscles that are sooner or later going to get fatigued or sore. Neither can you be comfortable, long term, by depending on a special kind of chair or back rest. The body and the brain are not build to depend on things; we thrive on challenge, acquiring independence, learning to adapt, variety, diversity - rigid fixity in sitting is like a form of death, there is no life there. There has to be a way to sit comfortably, calmly, motionless in a chair with a relaxed body and without depending on a back rest, a lumbar support or some special kind of chair. Certainly, the answers has to be within us, not outside of us. .

Of course it is much better to sit on the floor in loose clothing, in whatever style fits you at the moment: cross legged, Japanese style, legs flopped to the sides, legs in front, using pillows creatively, etc. This ensures open hip joints, good skeletal support and even better blood supply to the brain. As well, there is probably less anxiety, since in standing and sitting, for many of us, fear of falling is never too far away, and that is a very primal, inborn fear. You may think that would not affect you, but you might be surprised. I think, once you get more or less comfortable on the floor, you'll do better work, you think more clearly, you'll digest your food better. To encourage this, buy some low tables that can be used for eating or reading while sitting on the floor. Have softer and thicker rugs to sit on, and have plenty of pillow available, different sizes and densities. These strategies will encourage constant variety - a healthy thing, since our brains and bodies are basically learning and adapting machines. We're not meant to stagnate.

For more on this line of thinking, and for the specific details about what need to happen in functional chair sitting, please see my post titled "A better way to sit up straight in a chair."

About Chairs

Of course, it would be better to sit on the floor, as they do in other cultures, and make that a regular habit, to eat, or meditate, watch TV etc. Prolonged chair sitting, as practiced today, can lead to many troubles. We'll benefit by learning more about how to optimally use chairs. 

In The Feldenkrais Work we believe - and experience confirms - that the central issue is not that chairs are a problem, but that we have not learned how to sit! The problem is our lack of learning, not chairs.  A sage in ancient India named Patanjali has written about the 8 steps to follow on the upward spiritual path. Each of these steps requires dedication, understanding and long practice. The third step is called asana - and it means learning to sit comfortably in meditation posture for a long time. Does that mean just stiffening to be erect, doing yoga stretches, or using a back rest and lumbar support?  Those "short-cuts" are actually dead ends. Would Patanjali have listed it as the third step if it were so simple? It can take years of learning and exploring, to arrive at comfortable - no stiffening or tight back muscles - erect sitting in a chair. There is a lot to learn. 

In standing our feet are the contact points between us and the earth. In chair sitting, that job is given over to the sitting bones. When we can clearly feel the sitting bones, and they are free to move (meaning, the chair has a hard, flat surface with not too much cushioning, it is not too soft or like a bucket seat, which immobilizes the pelvis) we have a chance to learn how to sit erect without tensing the back muscles.

Any physical therapist, MD or chiropractor can tell you that when you keep your arm in a sling too long, you are prone to get "frozen shoulder" meaning the immobile shoulder muscles will tend to tighten up. Later, it can take a lot of work to rehabilitate the shoulder. The arms and shoulders are built for movement; when held immobile the body automatically tenses everything related to that, because to the body, artificial immobility means muscle-lock-down.

What we fail to realize is that chairs with bucket seats create a sling for the pelvis. Car bucket seats create a hammock for the pelvis - more fixity. Soft sofas create compression and immobility of the pelvis - how can the pelvis move when there is not any solid support from which to create movement? Too soft bed mattresses likewise create fixity. We take this fixity into our daily lives - everybody does this. It has reached epidemic levels. If I see a person with a mobile, intelligent, responsive pelvis, I am shocked. It is almost not permitted nowadays. It has nothing to do with sexuality or being attractive or anything like that. It has to do with good movement, it has to do with being able to initiate movement from the pelvis, not always consigning the pelvis to being the "slow responder" or the "disabled child" or the "retarded child" of the body. That is the way the pelvis is, for most adults today.

Yoga, stretching, exercise, sports, working out at the gym - none of these will address the problem. What is needed is somatic movement work - slow, conscious exploratory movement lessons relating to sitting particularly. Also, mentoring is definitely needed to take that learning  into standing and walking.  Most people walk with the legs swinging from the pelvis, and the pelvis is like a stiff board, and the hip joints are like fixed hinges. It should not be this way. The pelvic bones, internal bones of the pelvis, can  articulate to assist walking and standing. 

When your pelvis has been held in a sling for your whole life, imagine the tension! Imagine the compression of the hip joint! And then people wonder why God created the body so that the hip joints wear out, and we need to get hip replacements!   

Because we have spent so long sitting with an immobile pelvis, sitting up straight and stiff,  or collapsing into a backrest, it can be a difficult learning curve to even come to accept the premise that our pelvis is "dead to movement, to balance and dynamic support" and that to rehabilitate it, can take a lot of work. Again, it is called The Feldenkrais Method. If it were as simple as telling people to

 

a) Take a belly-dancing class

b) Start doing Tai Chi

c) Learn martial arts

d) Do Qi Gung or Yoga

then I would be telling people those things. I've tried telling clients those things, it never works. One issue is, somatic learning is context specific. To learn to sit easily erect on a hard, flat wooden stool or bench with no backrest, comfortably (as I encourage all my clients to do - starting small, just do it 20 minutes a day at first) takes hours or practicing and learning about how to do that while sitting in a chair. 

Even before that, lots of work is needed to sense and move "more or less independently" the pelvis. Independent, intelligent pelvis movement must first be learned "out of gravity" on the back or face down, doing movements any healthy baby is doing much of the time. The Feldenkrais Work is very clear on this point - which is a missing piece in many other kinds of healing or rehabilitation work: filling in missing developmental pieces. 

Because most of us think of posture as some fixed position, we cannot think clearly about chair sitting. To sit without a backrest, comfortably erect, there obviously must be dynamic, independent, automatic (not consciously controlled) continual minor adjustments and movements of the pelvis relative to the chair. It is a dynamic process, not static, even in immobile sitting (of course cross legged or lotus pose is a great advantage since stability and lumbar support is provided automatically). If we have spent years teaching our pelvis lazy immobility in chair sitting, we can almost certainly expect to encounter lots of internal resistance when we start to do the important work. It will seems like we are just not built to sit in a chair. 

Sitting in a chair, motionless for hours during meditation - we want finely attuned balance with minimal muscular effort. Rigid holding will not work, long term. 

Also, without clear connection to the tailbone, the pelvis is unwieldily, unresponsive, and a source of hip pain, back pain and other troubles. We can immediately sense our right thumb. Just a thought, instantly there is full awareness of that thumb. We should be able to do the same with the tailbone - at any moment of the day or night that we think of it, there ought to be full awareness. The problem is, of course, that many of us have unfortunately associated our pelvis with negative thoughts, emotions or ideas of uncleanness.  

What is your predominant thought or emotion when you think of your own pelvis? I would suggest you start to move in the direction of more tailbone awareness. This definitely takes practice and mentoring, long term, since most of us have injured our tailbones at some time, and soft chairs - for too many years - have compressed and deadened our tailbones, freezing it into immobility. If you've trained your pelvis and tailbone to be like that for 30 years or more, it might take some patience, and the learning curve may be a little steep at first. When you sit on a hard, flat wooden stool, the sitting bones lift the tailbone above the level of the chair, so it is free to move. When I sit in a soft chair, nowadays, at first I relish the comfortable feeling. But within a few minutes I get restless, like a caged animal. It is not natural to immobilize the pelvis. 

Also needed is an ability to roll the pelvis forward in sitting with a somewhat relaxed belly - creating a lumbar arch - without also tensing the back and stiffening the chest. Almost everyone does this. 

Also needed is an understanding that the brain, the body and nervous system is build for adaptation and challenge - not for unrelenting immobility, comfort and security. There has to be a balance. Any chair that is perfectly molded to your body - like an expensive, custom made "Orthopedic Surgeon Designed Chair" - is actually like prison to the body. Such a chair will feel good in the beginning, but later old troubles will re-emerge, with a vengeance. I often tell my clients "a swivel office chair is a total disaster, somatically speaking. Just look! You plant your feet on the floor, you go spinning. You can't get grounded and stable. There is no incentive to turn the head, turn the eyes, or do anything with the pelvis. You are like a blob sitting there. Any kind of work you do sitting like that, will be of poor quality, compared to what you could do if most of your nervous system was not preoccupied with "surrender to immobility and comfort, do as little as possible, don't worry about being adaptable, just be lazy, sit here and do nothing. Let the chair do all the work.  That is the message a swivel chair gives to your body".  "The Body is the Brain" is a popular Feldenkrais saying, which seems pertinent here. 

While using a hard, flat wooden stool may seem a bit primitive or not civilized, It's not. It is extremely intelligent,  it makes good sense.  One of my clients, about 2 years ago, came for a session carrying her wooden stool - so enthusiastic! Telling me: 'Steve, I can do it! It feels SO GOOD. I can sit on this and - like you promised me - it feels MUCH BETTER than any other kind of chair I have ever used." She had been working at it for about 3 years. 

With mentoring, with a little time each day sitting on a hard flat chair-no backrest (with perhaps an inch of foam), and regular Feldenkrais sitting Awareness Through Movement lessons (or private sessions), within a year or two - such is my experience - your sitting will be totally transformed. Back and neck pain due to sitting will be just a bad memory. You'll even be able to create comfort in a chair that is poorly designed or too soft. You'll know how to create support using cushions, wedges, and rolled towels. Of course, the first few weeks, that stool will feel pokey and painful and your body will balk. 

I tell my clients who drive a lot, "get a car board - plywood to fit in your car seat. That way, your sitting bones have a 'hard landing" and while it may seem pokey/uncomfortable, you'll drive for many more hours without your usual fatigue or back pain. Fatigue in driving is mostly due to the bucket seat, that compresses the tailbone  and immobilizes the pelvis. Then sitting erect and steering is a muscular act without clearly perceived skeletal support. That is guaranteed to create undue fatigue."