Do you find that you are suffering with discomfort on one side of your body?  Maybe it is your hip?  Is it your knee?  Do you find one side of your back appears to ‘flare up’ and create pain on a regular basis?  In today’s blog we are going to consider how the way we stand and walk can have a huge impact on our overall health and well being.  At the end of this article, I have included an audio to guide you through a standing and walking assessment.  This will help you deepen your knowledge and awareness of how you stand and walk.  After this article and audio, you will begin to notice in greater detail how you move and also start watching how other people stand and walk!  This is a clear sign that you are starting to see life with a somatic, holistic mindset, increasing your awareness to how you move, operate and function on a daily basis.

Consider this short clip as I introduce you further into the subject.

So let us consider the subject of walking.  From the moment we as infants take our first step, we are constantly exploring and investigating the world around us.  Granted, a daily commute to work and sitting for hours at a desk, doesn’t feel as if we are exploring or investigating.  But if we were unable to walk, we would find we are restricted with opportunities and pursuits which we would love to be involved with.

When we develop a somatic mindset and approach to how we stand and walk, we heighten our awareness to a greater degree.  For instance think about this, as humans we are constantly subjected to the universal force of gravity which then impacts other forces from within and surrounding our body.  It is pretty amazing how we learn to walk so quickly.  Our brain is an amazing piece of engineering and very quickly fires areas of our brain to coordinate with our body to enable walking to occur.  When we increase our somatic awareness with the skills I will teach you on The Total Somatics Approach to Health & Wellness online program (www.TotalSomatics.com), you feel empowered to notice, identify and then use somatic movement to reverse or reduce the symptoms you are suffering with.

So why do we suffer with pain and limited mobility?  Why do we get stiff and tight?  According to the American Chiropractic Association, 80% of the population will experience a back problem at some time in their lives.  According to the research, the majority of back pain is due to mechanical issues or how we move, as opposed to inflammatory arthritis, infection, fracture or cancer.  That’s just Americans!  What about the rest of the world?

If we perform the same actions day in and day out, we develop a habit.  This habit could develop in a certain way we walk, stand or sit.  Your brain controls all muscle movement and coordination.  Your brain tells your muscles when to relax and contract.  If you have spent years carrying children on one hip, your brain has been conditioned to holding muscles of the waist short and tight on one side.  Why?  To create a hip hitch to perch your child on.   You may find that many years have passed and you still have a little limp as you walk.  You may struggle with low back pain on the side you carried your children.  You may feel stiffness in that hip as you walk.  Maybe you find yourself loading all your body weight on to one leg.  This is because the habituation you created years ago is still there.  Unless you change the way your brain communicates to that set of muscles, you will continue to hold a subtle hip hitch for many years.

You could be a sporty person who has had an injury.  You may have been given a plaster cast or moon boot for your foot,to allow your injury to recover. As a result of this, your brain has adapted to this situation.  It has shortened the waist muscles on one side, instructing the transfer of your body weight on to the ‘good leg.’  Long after your injury healed, you find that you still have a limp or discomfort to what at once was ‘the good side.’  Once again the habituation is still evident in the muscles because you haven’t changed the way the brain communicates to your muscles.

There are many reasons and triggers for an altered gait or way we walk.  But if we recall the statistic from the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), 80% of the population in American alone will suffer with back pain, caused predominantly by biomechanics or how we move.  So from the example I have mentioned and the statistics from the ACA, we know that this is due to habituation.  Your brain has taken on a habit as a new way to move.  But over time a poor habit of movement will cause functional and structural issues to a person.  Thus leading to pain, poor mobility, stiffness and a deterioration in our posture.

The fantastic fact about Somatics is that we understand from the process of Neuroplasticity, that we are able to reverse poor habits for new healthy habits.  If we practise an action on a regular basis, our brain will change its ‘wiring.’  The ability for your brain to change and adapt is known as Neuroplasticity.  This new habit will over ride the poor habits.  As a result, we learn to move with greater freedom, reduced pain and return to activities we love to do.  Surely you would like to know how you too can join the many thousands around the world who have learnt these skills from The Total Somatics Approach to Health & Wellness online program?

The standing and walking assessment I have created for you below will help you start your journey towards adopting a healthier more somatic mindset and approach to how you move.  The online program creates a ‘layered learning’ approach.  You will learn how to sense, feel and identify areas which are tight, limited with movement plus so much more.  From gathering this information, I will guide you through movements in the form of videos and audios.  The aim of the downloadable support material I have created is to help you release long standing muscle tightness, limited movement and reduce pain.

Personally, once I learnt somatics for my own injuries years ago, I just had to know more.  After learning how powerful these movements were for reversing pain and reducing stiffness, I just had to let others know.  That is why I created the online program.  You will have all the videos, audios, podcasts, support material and mindset videos to transform your health and well being.  My aim is to empower and educate you in the area of your own health, so you can take back control of your well being.  The online program lasts 6 months.  It is self paced in the comfort of your own home with the knowledge that you can contact me at support@totalsomatics.com anytime for advice.  Once you feel the benefits, like me, you will want others to know.  If you create a daily practise, you will notice how quickly your stiffness will subside, you will notice you can reduce the amount of pain killers you take and you feel you are getting your life back.

Start your journey today by listening to this audio and then learn how you can adjust and improve the way you stand and walk.  As a result of this, you can prevent recurring injuries or symptoms with The Total Somatics Approach to Health & Wellness online program (www.TotalSomatics.com).

Take care,

Heidi Hadley xx

www.TotalSomatics.com