Author: lebureauetc

How are you breathing?

by lebureauetc, posted in Uncategorized

“How we do one things is how we do everything”

-Annie Carpenter

For this particular post, I would like to bring awareness to the breath. 

Before I go there, I would like to share a little about my current training with Annie Carpenter and her smart flow yoga program.  If you are unfamiliar, Annie Carpenter is a internationally known Yoga teacher with 40 years of experience.   She has been practicing yoga since the 70’s, performed and taught for the Martha Graham company in the 80s, and continued to learn more from the 3 modern fathers of yoga -Sri K. Pattabhi Jois – father of Ashtanga (known for repetition, flow with breath, and no props; BKS Iyengar – founder of Iyengar Yoga (known for alignment and many props), and TKV Desikachar – established the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (known for yoga therapeutics).  Annie has always been driven to learn more and be curious by asking why?  She is a life long student of anatomy, evolutionary movement, meditation, and classical philosophy.  

I’ve “known of her” for at least 10 years and have taken her classes -on and off- she offers some of her classes on an online yoga site, GLO.  I had always enjoyed her classes that I took from her.  They are always gentle, challenging, playful, insightful, and taught in a very well thought out fashion.  Her classes mostly always have a ‘theme’ and she sticks to that theme so you leave with more knowledge on that particular part of the body or movement and how it affects the whole.  It is very smart:). 

I gravitate to Annie’s teaching because not only are her sequences smart, but she encourages self inquiry rather than teaching simply the physical shape.  She states “our role as a teacher is to guide and literally point the way, providing sign posts and directions based on our own journey.  We bring awareness to tension and the release of tension, and also balancing sensations of stretch and strength. Overtime, more evolved levels of paying attention and states of consciousness may be evoked.  As a practitioner matures, she begins to understand that her physical habits are mirror images of her life habits.”  

 Annie’s ability to teach with inquiry is based on a continuum…there is never a destination, a right or a wrong,.  Instead in the present moment, there is an effort and a return to center.  Meaning, as we are all different, some of us on the same continuum will need more effort and some of us will need more return, to find our own equilibrium and balance for that particular moment (before it changes again:)) none of us, nor one moment in time is ever the same!!  I believe teaching with self inquiry is inspiring as it empowers the practitioner to feel in the present and ask themselves if what they are doing is right for them.  I hope to encourage this more and more.

That said – how are you breathing??

Fast? Slow?  Too much inhale?  Holding your breath?  Forgetting to exhale? Is it calm, loud, choppy, barely there?  How about when you are exercising, do you remember to breath or do you catch yourself gasping for air?

If we listen carefully to our breath, it can give us so much information and insight.  I find that when I am in a state of stress or feeling inner turmoil, I barely breathe.  How about you?  I also find when I am angry and upset, my breath is barely there or it is raging and emotional and its hard for me to connect to an exhale; almost as if I am holding it all inside and not able to let it go.  When I am finally able to let it go, tears flooding my eyes, I am finally able to exhale.  How about you?  Is this true for you?  On the other hand, when I’m at ease and content my breathing is also calm and easy. 

What happens then to our breathing if we are in a constant state of stress and do not know it for many years?  It could be several kinds of stress.  Maybe you are in some kind of pain, maybe you are angry, resentful?  Or maybe you had an argument, maybe you are feeling unworthy, maybe you are just doing too much and never allow you self to put your feet up and observe and be your own witness? What if this ‘state’ goes on and on and on?  Your conscious mind may not be able to feel the stress as it is subtle enough to ignore, but it is truly brewing underneath your skin and affecting how you are breathing! 

From my own experience shit hits the fan!  Yes, I just said that!  For me my ‘stress’ was a dynamic of sorts and unfortunately, during this period of my life I did not pay good attention to my breathing to help calm down my nervous system enough to allow myself to come back to a balanced state. In terms of “Annie’s continuum” I had too much effort and not enough return.”  

Even, Joseph Pilates says, “above all, learn how to breathe correctly.”  Joe knew how important breathing was “breathing is the first act in life and the last.  Our very life depends on it.”    I believe his intention with these statements is that if you are able to control your breathing correctly you are able to exercise in the right way.  For our breath nourishes all our bodily functions and cells, even when we are sleeping.  If we are not breathing we are dead.  Like everything though, it’s not what we do, it’s how we do it!  It’s easy to neglect our breath because it happens without us having to think about it.  Just like it is easy to take the people in our lives for granted! Its challenging to bring awareness to something that is a constant in our lives, like the breath and our family.

Below are some insights to consider to possibly enhance your awareness of the breath and therefore improve your breathing, your life, and all your practices including Pilates:).

Breathing is a gaseous exchange that involves many systems in the body. It’s not just the lungs affecting the respiratory system.  Like everything, we are whole person, not pieces working in isolation of one another.

For instance, our pelvic floor and our diaphragm are interconnected and work as a unique system involving many other systems in our body such as our digestive system that deals with assimilation and elimination.  If you are not breathing well, most likely your pelvic floor is not functioning optimally and you may also have issues with your digestion.  For your inhales open your lungs, contracting your diaphragm and relaxes your pelvic floor and your exhales close your lungs, relax your diaphragm, and engage your pelvic floor.  Our body depends on this dynamic between our in and out breath to create a trampoline movement in our torso between our diaphragm and our pelvic floor to function properly.  For example, if you cannot fully exhale you are not going to be able to fully release your diaphragm that is necessary to create inner space for you to lift and engage your pelvic floor muscles.   Joseph Pilates said, “ ”You must squeeze every atom of impure air from lungs until they are almost as free of air as a vacuum”.  That said, taking a full inhale is equally important as a complete exhale!  We need to soften and relax our pelvic floor muscles as much as we engage them. Effort in the inhale and the return to center is the exhale.  Is your breathing effort and return balanced?

Therefore, a balanced inhale to exhale ratio will help keep your diaphragm, pelvic floor, and even your digestive system working well.  Another benefit from breathing balanced breaths is that the nervous system will also stay more balanced.  Every inhale you take stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and every exhale you take can take you back to the parasympathetic nervous system.  When you have a balanced inhale with an exhale our nervous system resets and balances.  If your inhale/exhale ratio is imbalanced you are either in your sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system.

Even now, having better awareness of my tendencies and breathing, and knowing the importance of returning to a ‘center place,’ I still struggle at times to take full cycles of breath.  I love a thrill and it is easy for me to get ‘jacked up.’  Its a journey. In the moments when my body is challenged and I notice that my breathing does not feel easy I try to take a break!  It’s great if I can give myself 10 minutes and just lye down in a constructive rest position with my knees bent and feet flat on the floor.  I close my eyes, turn inward and visualize my breathing inside.  I benefit from placing my own hands or pillow/bolster on the particular part of my body thats bothering me and consciously breath into that place in my body.  I also have a regular practice everyday to consciously breath a minimum of 10 minutes.  I love to do it first thing in the morning when it is a new day and the atmosphere is quiet.  Deep diaphramic breathing is so healing and insightful.  It’s truly amazing how effective a simple practice of breathing with awareness for 10 minutes a day can bring me down and put me back into my parasympathetic nervous system.   I also love to practice alternate nostril breathing.

I hope you read this with inquiry and it will remind you to observe how you are breathing and how this is affecting you as a whole.

If you know me and have read my posts you know how strongly I feel about asking your own questions and feeling your own feeling. No-one else knows your body more than you do.  I strongly believe that one of my most important and biggest jobs as a teacher is to be your cheerleader and to believe in you, so you believe in yourself and be your own self advocate in whatever you dealing with.  That said,  there is always work we can do and I hope to shine a warm supportive light on those physical tendencies and areas I witness.

Check in and observe your breath.  Better yet, take some time everyday to notice and consciously breath even inhales and exhales.  You will be doing your body good and helping it in many ways.

Love,

Brooke 

“Mother tucker”

by lebureauetc, posted in Pilates, sacrum, tucking, Uncategorized, vagus nerve

A ‘mother tucker’ is someone who is stuck in a ‘tucked’ position.

-Brooke Oberg

Yes!  I was a “mother tucker” for many years and still do catch myself tucking when it is not appropriate!  If you have read any of my previous posts you already know this and probably have a good idea why too.:)

Not to say that ALL tucking is bad.  In fact, some exercises you need to tuck to support the round back position.  However, its important that when you do ‘tuck’ you are aware of how it is affecting your sacrum. 

Our sacrum is a vulnerable area in our body and it’s worth our efforts to pay attention to how we integrate this area  in our movements  so that we can find more optimal alignment patterns and feel more freedom and move with more ease in our whole body.  Remember its not all about what we do, instead its important HOW we do it and how we are incorporating our ‘whole body’ in our actions!

I hope the following will bring more awareness to your sacrum.  I hope this awareness will convey how sacred our sacrum is and helps us consider how we manipulate this area in our body.

The sacrum in human anatomy is a large triangular  bone at the base of the spine.  It is situated at the upper back part of the pelvis, and connects our 2 pelvic halves(hips).  The upper part of our sacrum connects to our lumbar spine and the base of our sacrum connects to the tailbone/(coccyx).  Thus the sacrum connects the upper and lower body(heaven and earth); all our bodies weight pass through this location.  Lastly, it is a concave shape as it is curved upon itself and the base of the sacrum, the broadest and uppermost part, is tilted forward.  Meaning for optimal standing and seated posture, the low back/sacrum should be in extension – ‘in and up’ as opposed to being stuck in a tucked position.  

Some other interesting things about the sacrum…

-The Romans said this part of the body was “sacred” or “holy” as it was used in sacrificial rites in protecting the genitalia (which in ancient times were considered sacred).  In yogic spiritual anatomy, the sacrum is the home of Kundalini, a feminine – serphant like energy that sits coiled at the base of the spine.

-The sacrum is known to be the keystone of our pelvic bowl!  It is in the sacrum, where life is created, just think about that!!  Also, many of our vital spinal nerves start  in the sacrum and the sacrum is one end of our nervous system that connects all the way up to our brain via the Vagus Nerve.

-Too add to this complex area, the sacrum is the location of 1 of our 7 energy centers of our body (svadhisthana chakra).   This location of our sacrum governs our sensuality, sexual intimacy, our ability to give and receive pleasure, and simply be creative  and in the ‘flow’ of our own life.  When this area of our body is blocked or stuck for any reason, perhaps being to sedentary, injured, feeling not safe, etc, or in perhaps tucking too much….it can create many imbalances, upset our ability to connect to our parasympathetic nervous system, and create feelings of isolation, low libido, and detachment.

Now that we have more knowledge of the sacrum:

When do we tuck?

As I mentioned earlier, tucking is inappropriate and unnecessary most of the time unless you are integrating your whole spine and posture into the tuck; aka, round position ….think rollup, rolling like a ball, etc.  Or perhaps you are mobilizing, creating length and space for your lower back with cat/cows or rolling bridges.  With more fluid mobilizing movements such as cat/cow, remember that you are not holding the tuck for very long.

How to integrate the sacrum so it stays open and spacious in the tuck?

Tucking is useful to do in an effort to stretch and open our low back.  However, with everything, it is easy to overdo the tuck and  instead of creating more width and space, its easy to clench our low back/buttocks instead.  In order to keep the sacrum spacious it is necessary to check in with your low back and notice your sensations.  Here are some tips to help you with your tuck:

1 – when you are tucking and your low back in rounding, your whole spine needs to be in the round back position!!  That means you are looking at your abdominals with your eyes and your scapula is brooding wide across your back and the back ribs are also fanning open to create space for your front spine and abdominals to deepen into.

2 – root your femur bones (thigh bones).  

If our thigh bones are stuck forward this can pull on our low back muscles making it easier to collapse and yes – tuck!  How to check if your things bones are forward – feel your groins if they are hard, usually your femurs are too far forward and you need to integrate some hip stretches that open up the back of your hip capsule so your femurs can glide back in the socket.  Other times, you just need to check in with your lower body – if your knees hyperextend when you are standing, you are most likely a tucker.  My advice for you is to soften your knees, ground and spread your feet wide in an even portion and stack your posture more appropriately.  Think – center of ankle below center of knees, below center of pelvic bowl, keeping your knees soft of course!!

3 – energize your lower body.  Remember your legs/feet are an extension of your powerhouse core, hip/pelvis/sacrum center.  So its valuable to integrate these parts with full awareness in your movements.  Careful not to let your limbs just hang and be an ornament…you want your limbs participating as much as your core.   To do this, you need to hug your midline or energetically draw your shin bones in and your thigh bones apart to energetically open up your sacrum low back.. think of a see saw, lower limbs hug in to your middle to simultaneously broaden and open your upper thighs hips/low back.

The bottom line is that it is a good idea to pay attention to your posture and how it is affecting your sacrum and vice versa.  When standing, sitting, and exercising etc, check in with yourself.  Most of the time, you will want to keep your low back long, lifted and spacious in its’ lumbar/natural lordotic curve, which is essential to balance your spine and posture.  When you need to tuck, remember that 1 – the whole body needs to be participating from your feet to your skull in your round, 2 – Energize your lower body by hugging your midline, and 3 – root your femurs bones!   When in doubt, know that you never want the low back bones to push out and back in collapse!  This happens all too easily in a tucked position. This congestion in our low back hips creates pressure and feelings of stickiness in our pelvis/hips/low back.

I hope reading this helped bring more awareness to your sacred bone, sacrum.  Its a vulnerable area in our body that is easily neglected.  Try to recognize this sacred bone, the sacrum.  Maybe, also take a moment to reflect on the people and things in your life that are sacred to you.  The things and people that usually matter most to us can also be neglected and taken forgranted.  Bringing our attention to the sacred within and around us will hopefully uplift us and help create more inner lift and peace.

I have posted some recent videos on my you tube channel that are a good complement to this idea.

I hope you check them out! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClUKWMPAcZ-4jOcPYY_F8NQ  

Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka

COMPROMISE

by lebureauetc, posted in breathing, hypopressives

“Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”

–by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

… Things have come to a pretty pass

Our romance is growing flat

For you like this and the other

While I go for this and that

Goodness knows what the end will be

Oh, I don’t know where I’m at

It looks as if we two will never be one

Something must be done

… You say either, I say either

You say neither and I say neither

Either, either, neither, neither

Let’s call the whole thing off, yes

… You like potato and I like potato

You like tomato and I like tomato

Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto

Let’s call the whole thing off

… But oh, if we call the whole thing off

Then we must part

And oh, if we ever part

Then that might break my heart

… So if you like pyjamas and I like pyjahmas

I’ll wear pyjamas and give up pyajahmas

For we know, we need each other

So we better call the calling off, off

Oh, let’s call the whole thing off, yes

… You say laughter and I say larfter

You say after and I say arfter

Laughter, larfter, after, arfter

Let’s call the whole thing off

You like vanilla and I like vanella

You saspiralla and I saspirella

Vanilla, vanella, chocolate, strawberry

Let’s call the whole thing off

… But oh, if we call the whole thing off

Then we must part

And, oh, if we ever part

Then that might break my heart

… So if you go for oysters and I go for ersters

I’ll order oysters and cancel the ersters

For we know, we need each other

So we better call the calling off, off

Let’s call the whole thing off

… Yes, you say either and you say either

You say neither and you say neither

Either, either, a-neither, a-neither

Let’s call the whole thing off, oh, yes

You like potato and you like potahto

You like tomato and you like tomahto

Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto

Let’s call the whole thing off

… But oh, if we call the whole thing off

Then we must part

And oh, if we ever part

Then that might break my heart

… So if you like pyjamas (I like pyjahmas)

I’ll wear pyjamas (you got pyjamas)

For we know, we need each other

So we better call the calling off, off

Let’s call the whole thing off

Let’s call the whole thing off (yes)

 The song is one of my favorites!!  It’s about being in LOVE, which is a constant compromise of BOTH standing your ground, and finding common ground.  

Compromise is what I hope to inspire in my teaching and practice of both Yoga and Pilates…  It’s important to “stand in our own body” and respect our own unique boundaries in our physical practice.  It’s also valuable to remember that our bodies are ever changing and what may have been possible yesterday may or may not be not possible today.   Having a flexible mindset,  by listening to All of our bodies whispers is essential as we navigate through our lives and in our workouts.  Maybe we could challenge ourselves more than we thought, or maybe our challenge is simply to negotiate different patterns of movement and be open and not be so rigid in our practice.  There is always another way, idea, solution, point of view, side  etc …to our stories and our body:)  we are ever changing dynamic beautiful beings.  

Recently I’ve stumbled upon a new practice that helps me navigate much more freely in my body and my life.  It’s a breathing postural technique called ‘hypopressives.’  Although I am not an expert I have been practicing this technique for about 3 months now and I am a true devotee.   It is a practice that serves my whole body.  It does not take much time and is well worth my effort.

Those of you who read my blog, know my struggles and the pain I’ve endured in my right side body these past several years.  My pain was very intense for a year after Pepper was born (almost 3 now).  Although, I’m doing better, I still have work to do:).  I have had an imbalance and injury in my right pelvis/hip/low back for years and chose to ignore this imbalance  for several years as I was not experiencing pain.  BIG MISTAKE.    The past 3 years I have been doing more to help this imbalance and hopefully reduce my pain.  Its a work in progress and I have found the postural breathing practice of  hypopressives to compliment my practices of Yoga and Pilates to help me on my journey back to feeling at ease. 

I learned about hypopressives after listening to a podcast, ‘The Vagina Coach’ that discusses all things women’s pelvic health.  This podcast is a wealth of information and I would recommend that anyone who has a pelvis and especially to those of you who have had a vaginal delivery to have a listen!   Hypopressives is a breathing practice performed using various simple postures. The practice creates a negative pressure in the pelvic cavity which helps the inner organs rise and return to a normal functioning position. 

Here are several benefits I have experienced so far from hypopressives – 

  • The breathing integrates postures and some gentle movement that has    increased my ability to stay present with my breathwork.  The outcomes i have desired from my breathing practice such as; connecting more to my parasympathetic nervous system, creating more inner space, helping my become more present  etc etc has expanded and I feel the result! This practice is truly helping me SLOW down and reset my nervous system.  This is huge as I have been stuck in my sympathetic nervous system for far too many years which I believe is the main source to why I have experienced so many challenges in my body.
  • The technique of hypopressives has also fine tuned my posture and helped me become more aware of ALL my sides and how they connect to my center.  I believe my inner tissues (fascia) that connects all my internal organs had been stuck in a big tangled knot for years and this technique is helping me untangle and reorganize my inner body so I can feel at ease and stand tall without feeling as if I am being pulled down.  
  • I have also experienced a  deeper awareness of what it takes and what it should feel like when you “pull in and up”…which we do a lot of in Pilates.  
  • Another great benefit is that its helping my internal abdomen release areas that have been stuck for a long time which has greatly helped my assimilation of food and my intra-abdominal pressure as a whole.  

Most importantly this practice has helped me be my own observer.  It’s not always pretty, but this self -awareness can shine a bright light on what we need to work on.

I hope reading this will ignite your curiosity to learn more and maybe practice hypopressives!  It has been such a wonderful find in a dark time for me…maybe it could be wonderful for you too?

In summary, regardless if you choose to look up and learn more about hypopressives.   I hope you can be grateful  to all your unique problems and use them to be more curious to the ‘why’ and unlock and learn more about yourself.  I have learned countless lessons that I wouldn’t have otherwise learned to the depths I understand them now if I have not gone through my challenges.  I understand this attitude on life is not for everyone and I have often resisted this attitude initially too.   When I do choose to be curious and look at the bigger picture of ‘why’ I learn so much and I am always grateful I dug a little deeper.  It takes a lot of work to live out our best lives!  

For me, teaching, practicing, and surrounding myself with like minded people who also understand that this lifestyle is a never ending compromise helps me stay on track.

Bisoux,

Brooke

“The Goldilocks Principle”

by lebureauetc, posted in grow

Committing myself more to the ideas that everything is okay in moderation, a little bit goes a long way, “over doing” is just as toxic as “under-doing,” and lastly, there is never one right or one wrong way of doing anything! I call this my “goldilocks principle of Pilates and bread making, but it can be applied to all aspects of my life!

After depriving myself for years, I have been eating and baking sourdough bread for over a year (almost everyday and sometimes 2X/day)!   

I do fondly remember loving bread and butter when I was young! However, I stayed away from eating ALL types of bread for several years for health concerns as I knew that gluten interfered with my body’s ability to optimally digest my food.   Being hypo-thyroid, I have been coping with a sluggish digestion for most of my life after depleting my thyroid when I was a teenager.  

As most of you may remember, during Covid, making sourdough bread was ‘on fire.’  Many people were proclaiming its benefits, one being better and improved digestion!  I read that sourdough bread was easier to digest for many people as the acid in the bread from the active starter degrades the gluten.  Furthermore, I learned that sourdough bread acts as a prebiotic fiber which means that the yeast in the bread help balance our bacteria in our guts!  That is when my interest and ideas around eating bread (specifically sourdough) started to shift. 

After learning about the health benefits I was curious if I could be okay eating sourdough bread?  I was further inspired from a friend, Giovanni, who my family sees every year in Kona.  When we are on the island, Giovanni makes us a fresh sourdough loaf every week we are there.  I would eat his bread  when we were on vacation and it was so good…I never felt that my digestion was an issue.  I asked

him for a book I could use as a reference, (Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, Ken Forkish) and I have been at “work” making bread since.  Learning to bake my own sourdough bread has been challenging(especially in the beginning) , fun, and an ever evolving process!  I have drawn many metaphors from my experience in baking sourdough to my Pilates practice. 

Baking my bread I’ve learned that there is a distinction between under and over proofed bread.  In other words, if I wait too long to bake my bread after the bulk fermentation stage my dough loses all structure, so it’s stretchy and slack when turned onto a work surface. The dough is also stickier than usual due to the lack of remaining gluten structure.   Essentially, over-proofed means that the dough has run out of food. It’s exhausted. It’s been pushed past its limit and has no strength left. In really over-proofed dough the gluten strands will eventually break down, and the dough will collapse. This can happen before I put the loaf in the oven or it can collapse while its baking in the oven.  There’s no strength left in the dough for it to maintain its shape anymore.   I have felt this way in my body at times in the past after practicing Pilates and working too hard and/or for too long.

For instance, in Pilates, over working your body in any position for too long will fatigue and weaken your muscles and tissues, so it is necessary to keep moving!  Remembering to move is nourishing and ‘feeds’ our bodies so we do not over work one position and break down our structures.   Furthermore, continuous not rushed movement will help you stay light and bouyant on the inside, just how we want our sourdough baked bread!  That said, continuing to move is easy to forget especially when you are trying to get it right! Maybe you are trying too hard? 

In Pilates specifically, over tucking (tailbones) in all the exercises, even when that exercise/position would benefit more from a natural lumbar curve position of the spine is a very common position that is overdone and is held for too long.  It can be challenging to know and feel if you are holding your tuck position and when to incorporate more of a neutral or ached position.   Although there is a place for the “tuck,” it depends on many factors.  For example, in what position is your body in? Are you moving? Where is your center of gravity? What is the rest of your body doing in that moment?  As you see, there is much to consider, before you choose to tuck!  Tucking our low spines needs more thoughtful attention, so there is balance between the front and back of our pelvis.   Most importantly, please remember to keep moving and not stay in any one position for too long:).

A repetitive steady tendency to ‘tuck’  even when the exercise or position you are in (standing for instance), does not benefit from tucking will have consequences that will manifest in the rest of our body that are not necessarily the most healthy outcomes.  Tucking promotes the upper spine to round and the front body/chest area to collapse.  Furthermore, excessive  tucking can tighten the front of our hips and groins causing imbalance in our muscles front to back.  Our quads will turn on whereas our glutes and hamstrings will have trouble turning on which can result in the muscles in our glutes/hamstrings and low backs to tighten, weaken and shorten.  

On the contrary, If you are in a round ‘C curve’ position, you must tuck to follow the natural movement of the spine and therefore,  you must also ‘lift up’ in a round ‘C’ curve that continues out the crown of your head! 

In most cases, I believe we over do the ‘tuck’ position unknowingly.  For instance my teachers used to tell me to stop tucking and I had no idea I was doing it in the first place.  Maybe this has happened to you too?  Paying attention and checking in with ourselves and taking time to notice our inner sensations will teach us and give us more and more awareness to how our bodies should be feeling. Changing a habit is hard work, especially for us to change a habit we have been unaware of for maybe years!!!   At  first it may seem odd and not feel right, but remembering that everything, even this is a process, and finding balance and ease in our minds and bodies is always the goal! 

In addition to not having the awareness of whether our tail is tucked or not, tucking our tail bones, could also symbolize our need to ‘protect ourselves.’   When we are insecure, and not living to our full potential of you we are inside, its easy to collapse into ourselves and feel lesser than.  It can be challenging to stand tall when we do not even love and believe in ourselves.  Just look at animals in nature, when they feel danger they curl up and ’protect’ themselves…

Getting back to my bread metaphor, dough that is under-proofed means that the yeast hasn’t produced enough carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide gasses is what gives the dough its volume and openness.  Therefore, for a beginner bread maker and Pilates practitioner who want to see results,  it is necessary to have patience and trust in the process.  With a regular consistent practice you should see results, but it does take time and  practice.  

You may be curious, how to know when the dough is over-proofed or under-proofed?  This is similar to how to know if one is over or underworking some aspect in their Pilates practice!  My answer to this is that you need to be flexible and consider many factors as you bake and or as you practice Pilates!   

Specifically for Pilates, reminding ourselves to continue to MOVE the whole body is essential!  In fact, Pilates could be described as one BIG exercise, or one movement that is constantly in transit.  Furthermore, understanding that there is time for both, tucking and arching.  Allowing ourselves to un-tuck and stand, sit, or lye in a ‘tall posture’ maintaining a healthy lumbar spine is as just as beneficial if not more than tucking our tails time to time to round our backs to enhance our powerhouse. Lastly, learning the Pilates method is individual and no set of exercises and or body positions will be ‘right’ for every body.  At times depending on the body and the transition at hand, we may need to enhance more round or extension, but never will we stay too long, as this is what creates tension!  Life is always in transition as our bodies must be as well.

For sourdough bread baking…Its not as simple as just following a recipe and going off the recipe baking times and various steps. Fortunately, a seasoned baker has baked enough bread that they know what to look for and waits just enough for the bread/dough to tell them when it’s ready!  Its worth the effort to pay attention and listen to your body and watch your bread!  As you bake bread, and train your body remember that under and over-proofing dough and under or over working your body just happens, even to the best bakers and best practitioners.:)

I truly believe we all are looking for things, people and situations that bring a sense of balance and/or middle ground to our lives.  The same is true in our Pilates practice!  Through my personal experience with baking bread and practicing  Pilates I have had several occurrences when some incident/challenge positioned me to “act”  in extremes….maybe starting at one end of a spectrum and then to the other side, and them back again and so forth!  Finding middle ground and balance is work in progress and something I strive for more and more in all aspects of my life.

With everything, the more you practice the “goldilocks principle” in your body you will become more curious, sensitive, and open to changing any habits are not serving you. This practice to keep moving while staying present to myself, and live by the “goldilocks” principle is well worth the work!

Here are some things to consider next time you go on your mat:

*It’s important to have reverence for your lumbar spine and remember the goldilocks principle! 

Consider finding more balance between the front and back of your spine!  The front and back of your spine both need to be engaged and turned on to a degree as well.  I find that sometimes there tends to be a misconception, that to achieve a strong core you should feel the burn on the abdominals and sometimes in this process of only paying attention to the “burn” sensation, one may forget and neglect other aspects of their body, in particular, their back body!  In fact the low back should stay long, spacious and also participating along with the abdominals.   This is difficult to understand as we do not see our and or notice our backs when we are focused on strengthening our abdominals on your font body.  Therefore, as we engage our stomach muscles to our backs we need to remember to engage and strengthen our backs too!    An example of this would be executing a plank, as the front and back bodies are working together to achieve a strong plank position!

When lying supine and you’re especially not “rolling/rounding” in an exercise, such as the hundred, leg circles, series of 5, etc etc…remember to root your tail bone. Not only will rooting our tail bone help us un-tuck and stay long and lifted in our low backs we will also establish a clear focal point to lengthen and grow out of, achieving a delicious counter stretch we all crave.  From our pelvic center we will stretch our lower body in optosition to our spines growing and lengthening  out the roof of our mouths!  This action is easy to forget.  I see it in myself, and others more than I want to admit. 

Rooting our tail bones is essential even if your upper spines are lifted and curling off the mat, your tail should stay anchored to facilitate more of a two way stretch.   Note that in even this position with your upper body lifting off the mat, you should not be tucking!!  Instead you should be working hard to deepen your low abdominals in and up to support your low spines.  Depending on the body, some spines will be on the mat and some may be imprinted…everyone is different.  I find that when people finally understand and commit to rooting their tail bones, they notice that their low backs are no longer imprinted in the mat.  They think however that they have to have their low backs on the mat to strengthen and work their low abdominals, so they will unroot their tail bones, “tuck,” just so they can feel their low backs imprinted!   This is not healthy for your low backs and will cause more damage down the road if this pattern is repeated over and over as you are neglecting your back bodies and over working the front of your body in a shortened and more compressed state.   

If you feel that you are somebody who easily uproots their tail bone, my advice would be to focus on keeping and creating  more space in the front of your hips and more space in your front spine in-between your pelvis and your ribs!  This is something we want.  The challenging part is keeping this space and length in our bones as we execute exercises.  Its definitely not easy, but this is where the work comes in.  For example , we need to ‘scoop’ with out shortening and we need to deepen our low abdominals to our spines without dumping and compressing.  Again, have reverence for your low spine and sense the “goldilocks principle” in your whole body where your front and back bodies equally participating in the workout.

When you are seated and moving in an exercise you may move in between your sit bones and tailbone depending what shape of the spine you are trying to achieve…  if you are tall you should sit on or slightly in front of your sit bones and most definitely in front of your tail bone.  If you are rounding your spine you should pay attention to sitting slightly behind your sit bones  and in some positions, behind your tail bone, but be careful not to collapse in your upper spine, remembering to  find length and space in the round!

BONNE CHANCE TOUS LE MONDE!

TOUCH

by lebureauetc, posted in grow, Pilates, touch, trust in self, Uncategorized

“She asks him to touch her, to feel her with his hands, because bodies always understand each other, even when souls do not.”

-Paulo Coelho

Lately I have been reflecting on the loss of “touch” – relying too much on devices, interactions with automated messages, exercise apps, using kiosks to check in at airports, online zoom exercise classes etc etc…as well as the loss of personal & physical touch when it comes to almost everything!     Since Covid, especially, we have adapted to more of a ‘touch-less’  way of life and although sometimes it has been out of necessity for safety reasons, and does have some benefit,  in excess, like everything else, this, “lack of touch” can have negative repercussions.  Human touch in particular is so unique because the physical contact alone allows both bodies to ‘feel’ and experience more than just being told something in words.  Words and devices alone can create unnecessary miscommunications and guide us to do something that is not right for us.  Whereas, the addition of purposeful  and communicative touch,  could better support what is said and explained through the words etc.  Furthermore touch can shine a light on places of tension we didn’t even know existed until we become aware of what we are doing from someone elses touch.  Investing in more experiences that encourage us to physically connect and listen to our body is priceless because the experience alone communicates and sheds light on so much more than just words could say.

The body is always talking to us and is constantly giving us signals to what is happening inside of us.  When we take time to feel and process what ‘that’ is through human experiences/touch we are able to make sense and understand more of what we may need on a greater level than just words and/or devices would be able to communicate.  Children can sometimes be great teachers for us adults as they do not have the words yet and rely on touching and listening to their own inner knowing to make sense of what they need or do not need.  They feel a lot and listen to what these feelings are telling them:).  Although sometimes their actions may be a bit overly dramatic, at least they are using their intuition, being instinctual, and releasing any stress that they may have in that moment instead of just doing something because something or someone tells them to act a certain way.

As adults, creating better habits while exercising or simply moving out of stress and into a state of calm takes work, and unfortunately throwing a tantrum isn’t the best way for us to achieve a better awareness and/or release an unwanted state.  However, with more human touch and human heartbeats to help us along the way, I believe we would drop inside ourselves quicker to both feel our inner body and then to consciously change our habits and release certain stress.  With all practice… the more you do it the easier it gets!

I, personally, was not raised to value ‘touch’ and my own inner feelings.  (I am not blaming ANYONE for this as there is always a unique dynamic situation at had and we do the best we can do…i strongly believe this).    In fact, I learned quickly that one’s feelings did not “really” matter.  This is one of the many paradoxes of being raised Catholic:)> .  My upbringing and catholic school environment, for example, did not allow excuses nor make exceptions for people when they did not do what they were supposed to do and ‘be.’ This narrow-minded, sometimes unforgiving attitude influenced me for several of my earlier years.  As a teen I could be pretty stubborn and proud and would hold my emotions inside.  Instead of seeking help I would isolate myself as I did not want to appear lesser than, not be accepted, or ‘weak. ’  I turned to drugs and alcohol at an early age I believe to numb these inner feelings.  I expected the same ‘unfortunate’ behavior of my peers.  For example, when I would witness someone else not responding to the disposition of my upbringing, I would often look down on them and think to myself, “Get a grip people!.”  Although, I can still be pretty stubborn and still catch myself saying this time to time in the back of my mind, I have definitely had many experiences and life lessons that thankfully have changed my view and have infused me with more compassion and empathy for not only myself but also people that are struggling and or going through challenges in their own lives.   

I believe the consequence of holding emotions inside, is unnecessary suffering/emotional tension in your body.   In fact there is more and more evidence that says our fascia or the webbing that holds everything together under our skin, is in fact a sensory organ and this intellectual organ can in fact hold emotion inside its structure.  Our emotions therefore can be stuck in your bodies tissues and create unnecessary blockages unless we are able to actively and consciously allow this held emotion to flow through us in a healthy way.  This is the very reason why I believe it is so important to forgive ourselves and others and to be compassionate and loving.  We simply cannot have a healthy free body if we are holding our emotional trauma and inner drama!  I feel that my own inability to forgive myself and others fully continuously have most definitely contributed to my own painful sensations I have been dealing with over the past 2 years.  Although I am doing so much better and I do have some physical issues which I have talked about in my previous posts, my healing is as much linked to my emotions as it is linked to my own physical state.   Paradoxically, touch plain and simple, I believe can help unlock tension and emotions in my body and support ones own connections and inner healing.

In fact, when I was just learning the practice of Yoga and Pilates, I was so drawn to both practices because of the sensations I would feel in my body.  I felt so alive and free practicing both disciplines, and especially when I had the support of touch cues from my teachers.  It was essential for me to not only visibly ‘see’ how a certain posture was carried out, but also, to be guided through the exercise usually with supportive touch cues from an experienced, knowledgeable instructor.   Even now, after practicing Yoga and Pilates for 20 years I have much benefit from not only seeing others practice, but having supportive touch cues to help me go deeper and experience more openings and spaciousness in my body.    In fact I love getting hands on assist from instructors! 

On the flip side, when I was enrolled in “the Work”,  a Pilates graduate program  in 2017, under the tutelage of Jay Grimes, we were instructed, NOT  TO TOUCH, (except for some very specific exercises, as the method is exercise!! Not therapy or massage!).  Some reasons why I believe touch cues were not encouraged, 1) – touch cues done several times a day is hard on the teachers bodies, 2) –  it can make the student too dependent on the teacher, etc etc, and 3) – sometimes when the intention behind the touch is not thoughtful and purposeful it can be too much and even confuse the client.   “The Work” was all about feeling and trusting.  We had to do the work, feel the work, and decide whether or not it was right for us.  Although a great program in theory, the instructors of the work, still did have and voice their own opinions and as a student of the Work , although you were instructed to listen to your own intuition, we were also fed the teachers insight, usually without the support of their touch which was confusing at times.  Reflecting back, I wish they also supported us with more hands-on assists so we could have better understood how to relate their verbal feedback to our own inner experience and contemplate for ourselves if their opinions carried much weight for us or not. 

Considering the negatives with touch cues, I still believe that actions ‘speak ‘ and resonate louder than words.   Furthermore, purposeful touch from someone or even ourselves can help bring more awareness and possibly unlock held unconscious tension that may be causing blockages.  As a teacher myself, I still benefit immensely from touch  cues as I am still exploring, learning and desire more continued growth, expansion, and inner awareness in my own body.  I am constantly growing and changing in my own body, so there is always something more to explore, and learn from:).

I would like to encourage us all to recognize and understand that our bodies are constantly transforming and communicating to us!  Our bodies are also directly connected to our emotional well being and vice-versa.  Lastly, the right touch, in my experience, can resonate deeper and give one much clarity and freedom.   “What are some practices we could both add and let go of to make our emotional and physical bodies live more harmoniously?”   Perhaps we will all be our own best observer, listener, and do things with more kind gentle awareness. 

Thank you to all who continue to take agency and ownership of your own life and body. 

What does your Psoas say?

by lebureauetc, posted in psoas, trust in self

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” right? Does something or one have to be broken to be fixed?   On the same note, does one have to “hit rock bottom,” to change their practices and/or begin believing and trusting in themself?  I wrote this post to encourage you to not only slow down, and listen, but to also believe in yourself enough to take action if you are feeling that something is not quite “right”. 

I am guilty of not believing in myself, and placing more value on other peoples’ opinions instead of listening to my own intuition.  My ‘problem’ had to get really loud for me to finally listen to it and take action.  Consequences will accumulate and the problem/symptoms can become more intense and confusing if the root cause to what you did and/or what happened to you is never addressed.  My unique and extraordinary story I have lived the past 17 years, has taught me a lot!  A lot about the physical body, in particular my body, and the deep connections between the body/mind/spirit.  Although, I am grateful for my experience and all of my lessons along the way, its been very challenging that I would not wish my experience on anyone.

I hope this post inspires you to dive deeper within your physical, mental, and emotional body and pay more attention.  There is so much at play in our lives and our body will talk to us if something is not quite right.

 

The following is a glimpse inside part of my ‘problem’…

If you have read any of my previous posts, especially my last one, you already know that I have been experiencing pain this past year.  It’s quite a dynamic and it has been hard to pin point a root cause and in my case possibly several root causes to explain my sensations.  The one thing that has been clear, is that my pain lives only on my right side body.  

My last post mentioned that I have integrated many practices to help relieve my upper body right side pain.  Pontus, my husband, a physiatrist and an osteopath was able to also help derotate my neck that he believes to have been stuck rotated to one direction since I had a neck replacement back in April 2017 between C6/C7.  Although this has noticeably helped my neck and shoulders to some incredible degree, except for when I am playing ‘Martha’ in the kitchen(as Pontus likes to say) and my right shoulder area can get agitated, the upper body practices and adjustment to my cervical spine has not been as useful, as I had hoped, in alleviating my pain sensations I have also been experiencing in my lower half.  

I do have a 19 month old baby, and although I know all the caring for her has not made the pain better, and probably has aggravated the sensations I feel, I do not believe this explains everything.  This past year I have woken up several times a week to intense throbbing pain in my right low back hip/pelvis.  I’m afraid most nights I wake Pontus up and beg and plead for him to massage my right low back in hopes that I can be soothed back to dream land…How I wish I could sleep like Pepper!!

These past several months, I have known, deep down that something is still not quite right, I should not be in this much pain!  My ‘pain’ has been intense this past year in my right hip/low back and pelvis.  As you may already know, this past year, I have gotten MRI imaging of my lumbar, thoracic, and cervical spine.  I also got a bone scan.  The imaging showed no new areas of concern(does show my old compression fracture in my back between L1 and T12).  As I contemplate what I did and why I am experiencing so much discomfort I remember an old yoga injury I suffered in my right hip.  In fact, I have felt tightness and that ‘something is not quite right’ in my right hip low back, specifically dating since 2005, from this specific yoga injury.  Fast forward to 2021, I feel as if this injury has increasingly spread to the whole right side of my body.  Deep down, I always knew something was ‘off’ in my right hip, but ‘it’ wasn’t speaking loud enough to get my attention to take action.   I recently got an MRI of my right hip.  Although, I was not thinking the MRI would show much, I WAS WRONG!

My MRI of my right hip shows a severe anterior and posterior(rare) labral tear and extreme tendinosis of all my muscles within and surrounding my right hip.  I have been feeling mixed emotions, but most of all, relief.  Relief, that my sensations I have been feeling in my right hip/pelvis/low back is most possibly a result from not addressing my old yoga injury.

I remember the incident as if it was yesterday.  I was pushed forward in low lunge.  The teacher knew I was flexible and came from behind me in my lunge pose and said, “oh Brooke, you can go deeper,” and she pushed my hips down and forward from behind.  That moment something popped in my rt hip and I had trouble walking after for a couple of weeks.  After this injury, I was aware that I was walking with a dramatic shift and had a pronounced anterior tilt only on my right pelvis.  At the time of my injury however, I was not worried, nor did I seek out treatment because the rest of my body functioned just fine and I was not experiencing pain. I was 25. 

Now, age 43, and 3 kids later…I am experiencing ‘pain.’  I do not believe my pain is simply from the tear in my hip, but instead, all the muscle compensation!  I believe the muscles that surround my right hip have been working overtime all these years to protect my hip!  Muscles are there to protect our joints. Furthermore, I cannot believe ALL my ‘pain’ is from my old compression fracture I have between L1/T12, at my thoracolumbar junction.   Although I know that this vulnerable and unstable part of my spine must be contributing to the problem, its not the main source (like I have thought to myself all these years).  I also understand, perhaps, why I have not gotten better, in my right side imbalance, as I do believe that I’ve changed my ways and attitude especially in the past several years to heal myself and my body since this experience.  My body has been stubborn to adjust and transform with all the practices I have integrated.

One of the muscles I know to be wound up and tight from all my compensation is my Psoas muscle (on my right)!  

 If you are unfamiliar with the Psoas muscle here is a little info:

Our psoas is the deepest and one of the largest and dynamic muscles in our body. It’s referred to being the muscle of our soul as it is deeply enfolded into our core, internal organs, and central nervous system.  The psoas is located underneath our superficial abdominals and lies deeply connected to the center of our body and spine, it has a direct rapport with our superficial core muscles and internal organs.  The psoas connects to our diaphram/T12, and extends along our spine through our SI joint down into our pelvic bowl.  It then wraps around our pelvis via the illiacus and then down on on our femur bone deep in our hip(inner upper thigh).  There are 2 muscles, one on each side of our left and right pelvis and spine.  If our psoas muscle is over worked/tight/or weak it can unintentionally cause a slew of physical imbalances, internal turmoil with our organs and, even cause us to enter our empathetic nervous system with its connection to our diaphragm.  

The unfortunate truth is that, even if you do not have an injury to your hip/pelvis/spine etc etc, if you are an active person and not aware of this deep postural muscle, you may not be doing enough to help it relax, release and restore!  For the psoas does more than just flex at our hips and is said to have a more orbital quality of movement so it is integrated in all that we do!  It can also get extremely tight from sitting all day. Furthermore, being integrated with our diaphragm and our central nervous system, it is also known to be the ‘waste basket’ for our held feelings of emotional trama.  Sometimes when you release the hips, you are simultaneously releasing ‘old stories’ that have been locked up inside.  It’s important to value rest and restorative actions to keep the psoas supple, so we also feel vital and free in our body, mind and heart.

Its quite the paradox!   For as much as we participate in actively strengthening our core muscles, we need to equally learn how to and allow ourselves to relax and release this deep core muscle called the psoas.  A fluid, elastic, released psoas, will help us sustain a healthy posture/spine, healthy functioning internal organs(gut balance), positive outlook on life, a healthy lower to upper body connection, and beautifully long lean midsection.

If you are practicing Pilates you are already a step ahead of most people.  You already are aware of the importance of paying attention to the whole body and not just your abdominals.  You also value spinal health.  You diversify your spinal movements keeping the joints and ligaments and tendons healthy and well lubed with flexing, extending, rotating, and side bending without overdoing.  You are aware that every part of you (body/mind/spirit) is participating in some way or fashion in your Pilates practice…

QUICK UPDATE – 

I recently had a cortisone shot in my rt hip and botox in my piriformis and quadradus lumborum (psoas muscle lies too deep to inject).  The cortisone shot helped initially but dampened quickly after the local anesthetic wore off.  The botox has maybe helped a little too as the waking up in the middle of the night to throbbing pain in my right low back/right hip/pelvis has dampened.  That said, I am still suffering with persisting tightness and pain to my right side pelvis/hip and low back.  The pain travels sometimes up my right side spine and also sometimes down my leg into the arch/sole of my right foot.  Some days are better than others!  I am trying to keep a positive outlook and remind myself that this is just a ‘wave’ in my ocean, and that ‘nothing lasts forever.’  

Pilates, swimmimg, gentle stretches, whiskey, infrared sauna, dry brushing, breathing meditation practices, and looking at all the positives in my life, helps me keep my life in perspective to the greater picture and hopeful that things will begin to get better.  I have so much to be grateful for; not only do I have the most amazing, loving, and supportive husband and family, I have more knowledge and more insight to choose better and do what’s right for me moving forward.  

My next step is to try PRP for my hip and also my irritated facet joints near my thoracolumbar  junction in an effort to reduce inflammation in those areas and hopefully nourish the surrounding muscles and the surrounding tissues in May.  If this helps, I plan to do it again. In the meantime, I will try to continue to remind myself to – love, listen, forgive, and honor the beauty that lives inside of me.  I hope to heal with time.   I will keep you posted.  Until then, I hope you take time to actively listen and believe in yourself enough to take action!

The below are a few simple insights/practices to help you sustain a healthy balance between your deep psoas and core surrounding muscles…

-“F*** the tuck” – excuse my language on this one, but I still see many people that are still over tucking and hardening their groins beyond what is necessary in an effort to strengthen their core muscles and feel “tight”.  Like everything, there is a place for the tuck (‘rolling like a ball’ ‘open leg rocker’ for example), but is has to be in relation to what the rest of your spine is doing and also if you are weight bearing or not.   I feel that all this tucking and groin hardening in the Pilates method or any exercise practice can have the reverse affect of what one is trying to achieve.  Instead, soften your groins, scoop your abdominals in and up, lift your hip points, and lengthen your spine!

-Sit and stand TALL.  When sitting feel your 2 sit bones rooting down and when standing(soften your knees) ground as evenly as you can through your 4 corners putting a little more weight over your inner and outer heel opposed to your toes.  In opposition to rooting/grounding through your sit bones or feet, lift and lengthen your spine.  As always wear the center of your head over your heart and the center of your heart over the center of your pelvic bowl. 

-Take some time each day and do CRP, Constructive rest position.  Rest lying on the floor in a neutral spine position(allowing natural curves of spine) with knees bent and feet flat on floor hip distance width apart.  Breathe deeply and slowly for 5-15 minutes/day.  “I visualize inhaling down into my pelvic bowl and exhale gently zippering up through my front spine out the crown of my head.  Grab a pillow for your head if you are over arching your head and your base of chin is not vertical to the floor.”

-Pressure point release balls!  Lie down and breathe big for at last 30 seconds on any spot on your abdomen/hips/gluteus muscles to release any tight knots.  I love using these balls right below my rib cage, slightly above my hip bones closer to my spine, and on my glute medius muscles.  Be sure to release both sides:)

-Educate yourself!  My favorite books on the Psoas

The Psoas Book

-by Liz Koch

The Vital Psoas

-by Jo Ann Staugaard-Jones

 

“it is not about being fully healed and then starting your life, it is about embracing healing as a life long journey while allowing genuine connections to organically emerge along the way.” 

-Yung Pueblo

 

Love,

Brooke

where’s your head at?

by lebureauetc, posted in inspirations, Pilates, Uncategorized

If you have read my blog you may have figured out by now that I have struggled to surrender and soften my efforts.  I have had a tendency to be too disciplined and sometimes ‘overdo’ it.  I have started this blog in part to help myself take my own advise to be more self-compassionate, truly listen, and believe in my own intuition.  This takes incredible trust and love of self!

I believe that by writing this blog, I have become a better listener, but still, it is an evolving and imperfect journey along with everything else. 

More recently, approximately March 2021, I over stretched, strained something in my neck.  Fast forward to now, November 18, 2021, I am doing much better!  I do still struggle with muscle tightness depending on what I am doing but do feel equipped to navigate my discomfort with the many lessons I have learned from being in relentless pain these past several months.  

My husband, Pontus, who is an osteopath, was able to work on me which no doubt is, pretty special, but with everything else, it also has its’ challenges!  I know it was hard for him to deal with me especially after having to care for his patients all day long.  He was tired and impatient and I was also impatient, in pain, and wanting clear answers to explain my uncertain state.  Regardless, I am very lucky to have my husband.  He knows my story, my body, and my tendencies and was undeniably helpful in my healing & recovery.

Pontus believed ‘some’ of my incredible discomfort was most likely caused by a rotation at the base of my cervical spine where I had my disk replacement b/t C6 and C7 in 2017.  I must have exasperated this rotation.  I could speculate forever on why?…but understand that it is simply a consequence to my tendencies to ‘do.’  At times, my pain sometimes was so bad that it encompassed my whole right side body, from my right side occiput to my right low back, but sometimes I was such in a flare state that I had irritation that continued down all the way to my right foot!  Continuing to breastfeed through my pain was a blessing and a curse.  Pontus was and still helps me de-rotate my upper thoracic/cervical spine with muscle energy technique, where I get stuck rotated to the left.  He also advised that I practice some daily muscle energy work in my upper spine to help strengthen and stabilize this very unstable area of my body.  I still perform muscle energy in my neck daily!!  In addition to Pontus manually working on me, I did accupuncture and/or massage weekly at times.  Although these modalities helped short-term, they were not able to stick and help long term. 

Due to my pre-existing conditions in both my neck and my old compression fracture in my low back I had MRIs of my lumbar and cervical spine, a bone scan, and blood work done to make sure the pain I was experiencing wasn’t more serious.  Luckily, the tests showed no significant information to explain my discomfort.  This was also  a blessing and a curse!  Sometimes I thought, is it all in my head!?  Quite possibly!  I do know that my head played a significant role, both in how I positioned it physically and also metaphorically speaking.

Are you wearing your head in front of your heart? Or are you holding your head with your heart?

From as early as grade school I can remember being taller than most everyone in my class including all the boys, I was very insecure about this, this continued all the way into high school, where I would purposefully slouch and hang my head to one side so I would be a level to my other peers. I look back at this and wonder why I didn’t stand tall and be proud of my height?  As you already know, I know the answer to my own question!  I was not secure in who I was, felt powerless and unworthy to be me.  Fortunately, after experiencing a tumultuous couple of years in all facets of my life, I hit rock bottom my freshman year in college, but in the end, I was able to choose me!  I truly did a full circle, my self image changed drastically for the better and I started to love myself more and more.  Interestingly, not only did my self image transform, but also how I held myself changed, including how I positioned my head.  My posture wasn’t perfect however, and its been evolving (I believe) for the better ever since, of course along with my own self image.:)

Currently, my posture has suffered with the demands of caring for a new baby and also my tendencies to “do” and neglect what my body is telling me.  Pepper is now 14 months, and although she is still quite petite …23 Ibs, its been a lot of holding, breast feeding, bathing, feeding, twisting turning etc etc.  The steady demands of caring for  Pepper and the stress I put a on myself has definitely taken a toll on my posture!  This coupled with loose ligaments and general instability especially at L1/T12 from my old compression fracture and disk replacement between C6/C7 has been difficult for me to sustain freedom and ease in my spine!

I am writing this post to reflect on my experience these past several months in hopes that what I say may help you, if you find that you are struggling with neck, shoulder, back, body pain.   I hope that you will read this feeling some hope that your pain will go away and that there are simple things you can do to help yourself.  

I learned somewhat quickly that alleviating my pain temporarily was as simple as taking the time to align where my head was at, both from a metaphorical and physiological standpoint. It’s interesting how the 2 affect one another.  Furthermore, My pain significantly lessened when I physically reminded myself to hold my head with my heart, instead of forward of my heart which is where it wants to go.   My head also, naturally aligned more with my heart when I committed more time for self care.  This is not a simple action to take when you have a newborn!!  I found it to be very beneficial to work from my “head” first, not only physically with my posture, starting at my head and allowing the alignment benefits to cascade down, but also in my own thoughts!  I definitely had my moments of playing a victim to my pain…especially in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep!  However, this attention I would give to my pain lessened the attention I would give to taking the steps to feeling better and seeing the joy and beauty that was in me and that also surrounding me. 

Below is a brief summary of some ideas/practices that helped me feel better!  Remember the following are practices and ideas, and most if not all of the below are things I still work on and practice daily to keep me feeling better…

PHYSICAL PRACTICES – First you need to align and “wear your head over your heart!”  Then do the following…

-practice muscle energy from all sides of your skull with the heel of your hand to strengthen & stabilize…isometric exercises.

-“wear your smile from ear to ear” practice keeping the base of your chin in and down towards your throat.  Slight chin tuck.

-extend the roof of your mouth to the crown of your head

-“Stand your ground,”  Stand tall and be proud of who you are.

-in general, make smaller more precise movements.  Progress takes time and steady practice – little by little, bit by bit…!

MENTAL PRACTICES – 

-“What is the lesson?” What if I am experiencing this pain to help someone else not have to experience pain?  How can I use this experience to help and serve others?

-“Less ego and control, more universal and flow.”  Soften, relax, breathe and let be

-“Forgive, no self judgement”

-“Do less and Be more”

Lastly, if you’re hyper mobile, unstable, have pre-existing conditions, and a mover like me, you may want to consider doing prolo-therapy or PRP(platelet rich plasma) for your vulnerable areas, especially if you have good, healthy blood.  I did undergo PRP in both my low back around my old compression fracture and also more recently around my disk replacement in my cervical spine.  I know it has made a positive impact.  I am noticeable more stable in my ligaments and joints and therefore, experiencing less pain and persistent irritation caused from the instability.

I have a class on my Vimeo account – “upper body tune up” I recently made that shows some of the physical practices I would do to help me with my pain.

I hope this helps and please reach out with feedback or questions.

Aloha,

Brooke

Vagus Baby!

by lebureauetc, posted in gut instinct, inspirations, Uncategorized, vagus nerve

Aside from reading all of Paulo Cohleo’s books (I find his perspectives and stories to be so heartfelt.)  I do not do much reading these days, nor did I EVER before I had a newborn.  If I’m lucky, I’ll read 1-3 books a year, usually when we vacation in Hawaii. My latest book that I read, although not a Paulo Cohleo story, is called Cured, by Jeffery Rediger MD.  Jeffery Rediger researched why people have remissions from terminal illnesses.  He explains the science behind these miracles, instead of just calling them flukes of nature.  There has to be an explanation, right?  He reveals 4 pillars that played a significant role in helping one heal.  

1 – healing your nutrition; 2 – healing your immunity; 3 – healing your identity; and 4 – healing your stress response.

In todays post I will talk more to the 4th pillar of healing our stress response and how I believe this work to heal how we respond to stress could also significantly help us find and sustain more physical integrity and a sense of well-being within.

Dr Rediger discusses how stress is inevitable as we deal with stress everyday.  It’s how we respond to the stressors in our life that is important.  If we can somehow learn to be more conscious of what we do when we are stressed, maybe we can make little changes to alter our tendencies, and instead, unstick ourselves from our unconscious patterns.    These unconscious patterns, I believe, affect not only our mental and emotional state of well-being, but also our physical body.  I believe our body can suffer and can continue to suffer from the simple memory of “what happened to us” and be in pain until we can change how we respond to our stressors differently.

So how can we change our stress response?

I will start by giving you these 2 following excerpts – 

(pg. 183) Think of how Often you’ve used the phrase gut feeling for a broken heart; you had butterflies in your stomach.  You feel different emotions in different parts of your body for good reason: areas are hot beds for neural receptors. Recent research is showing that we actually have three brains: the head brain, the heart brain and they gut brain and their health and development depend on keeping them in balance and alignment. With the vagus nerve as a connecting cord, emotions flood through our system in the form of neural messages and hormones. Some signals begin in the gut or the heart and flow upstream to the head brain, while others cascade from above. In this way, our thoughts and emotions have both instant and long lasting effects on our biological systems: nervous, endocrine, immune.

(pg. 182) The vagus nerve exits the brain stem at the base of your skull deep in your neck. Press your fingers to the pulse points on your neck and you are close as you can get to your vagus nerve. From that spot under your fingers it shoots down to your heart and beyond, where it regulates heartbeat and dozen of other vital functions. If you have doubts about how deep and rapid the connection is between the mind and the body, the vagus is that literal link between the two – a thick humming power line that runs from your brain to your gut.

This idea that we have 3 brains is fascinating and even more intriguing to me is that they are all connected to our vagus nerve that regulates how we respond to what is happening.  Stress affects me in curious ways, physically I experience many things depending on my current state, but recently more irritation in my neck and right side body(probably due to all the holding and breast feeding I’ve been doing).  I also generally experience a lack of inner flow and circulation.  It is a horrible feeling to feel so stuck inside.  I can feel frozen regardless of how much physical movement I do, foods I eat, etc, etc…So to learn that the vagus nerve controls most of our body functions and our ability to rest/digest and connect to our parasympathetic nervous system was huge insight for me.  How then can I tone my vagus nerve so it’s able to help me relax and help me better respond to simple stressors?  I learned that, toning my vagus nerve to help me relax is relatively simple. However, just because it’s simple, doesn’t mean it is easy!!! So I am writing this post, to reflect on what I could do better in my efforts to fine tune the way I respond to stressors in my day to day to create more feelings of ease. 

As I mentioned above, the “gut” is a brain and integrated with both our heart and our mind with our vagus nerve.  This idea made me contemplate the connection between listening to my gut instinct and how that generally has helped me make “better decisions” – of corse when I chose to listen to it!   Studying in France, marrying my husband, Pontus, and switching careers to focus on teaching Pilates and Yoga are 3 decisions I have made that reflect my choice to listen to my GUT.  All those decisions felt really good in my whole body and I cannot always say that has been true for other experiences and decisions. As a human being, I believe we have been more programmed to listen to our mind and heart.  It’s easier to give priority to these 2 brains, especially the mind, as most times this is the logical thing to do!  The whole idea of listening with my gut requires me to trust in myself and in order to trust myself, I need to have at least a general understanding of who I am at my core.

In my youth, (no offense Mom and Dad, I love you and so grateful for you) I often felt as if I had no value.  I didn’t feel like I mattered, as I was not encouraged to have a voice and did not feel listened to.  I was never included in my parents decision process from the schools I went to, to the activities I participated in… I was the child and they were the parent and I did things because “they said so.”  Oh, how I hate that saying!  I believed my role was to be quiet, respectful, grateful, do good in school and do what my parents told me to do, including the Catholic schools I attended.  I should be grateful, no doubt, as I had a lot of opportunities other kids did not. I know my parents were doing the best they knew how, and wanted to give me the best!  However, life is life, and most of us know by now that things are not as always as they seem!  From this memory, I believe it is important to feel like you have a voice in order to feel love and have trust in yourself. 

If you think about it, “listing to our gut” requires us to trust in ourselves.   Listening more to our inner voice is just a way to be true ourselves and love our actions/decisions.   This love for self and what we do tones our vagus nerve keeping us out of our sympathetic nervous system and therefore, more easily able to deal with STRESS.  Our gut instinct should never be ignored!  It’s definitely an up and down and circular journey for me, but as always, I believe, it’s worth the effort!  For me, listening to my gut brings me back to me!  Knowing this helps me to remind myself (over and over again) to not look past my own inner knowing and self worth.  Maybe you would you would benefit from this reminder about yourself?

Along with the idea of listening to my gut instinct, I feel it’s easier for me to listen well when my gut is physically aligned more with my heart and mind.  Grounding, in general, has always been a challenge for me and something I have been trying to cultivate my whole life.  Since a very young age, I have been told several different times that I lead more with my ‘upper body.’  Growing up playing various sports, my coaches all tried to get me to run with my feet under me instead of behind me.  they would say,  “Brooke, you run with your heart.”  It is true, I did!   My lower body followed and tried to keep up!  I look back now and feel maybe I was just ‘running to please’ without ever stopping to ask if I was pleasing myself in what I was doing?  I wonder if this lack of connection between my physical upper and lower bodies translated to my lack of ability to be able to align my gut with my other 2 brains and therefore my vagus nerve?    Maybe that’s why I love how I feel now after practicing Pilates and Yoga; where these 2 disciplines encourage me to find and connect to a plumb line and work from a place of whole body integrity?   Hmm?

A strong part of me has always believed that you can change your own destiny. Believing my thoughts reflect my current state.  This belief structure works great when things are “good” In my life. The events, stuff, experiences that I believe (especially in the moment) are not “good” I have to wonder… Did I subconsciously ask for this to happen to me, what lesson is the universe trying to teach me now?

Regardless of what your beliefs are it is quite interesting to look at your life from this perspective.  Although, it’s sometimes easier to put the blame on something or someone else for things that happen that are not what you “think you desire” it can be illuminating to play with your own life pieces in an effort to make sense of what makes you YOU! 

I hope you remember to align your gut, heart, and mind, in and out of your workouts, and truly listen to what your GUT is saying.

Here are some other fun excerpt regarding the vagus nerve from Cured

(pg. 184)The vagus nerve is like a muscle the more you use it the stronger it becomes. using the vagus-stimulating it through everything from deep breathing to connecting with a friend or partner is like flexing your biceps as you lift weights, it increases its strength, flexibility, and elasticity. And just like with physical exercise, the more you use it, the better you get at using it, and the more health benefits you reap.

(pg.185)What truly tones your vagus nerve are small moments of connection –  a sort of falling in love, if you will, with the people who surround you on a day-to-day basis, everyone from your husband or wife to children to the barista you’re getting to know that your corner coffee shop.  It could even be a total stranger you meet on the street.

(pg. 189) When the parasympathetic is engaged the vagus activates face-heart connection. At the metaphorical level, it opens your heart to others, and on a literal level, both relaxes and constricts different facial muscles that help you to smile, focus, and express warmth and interest so that you can connect with the people you’re speaking with. When you’re in chronic fighter flight mode, you without even realizing it –  a flatter or forced affect. Fight or flight stiffens your body, inhibits the warmth of your gaze, limits the genuineness of your smile, and overall inhibits your ability to make connections, leading those opportunities for micro moments of love to slip by…..

Therefore a person and fight or flight will have more difficulty, therefore connecting with others, and essentially healing their own selves.

On Demand Pilates Mat classes

by lebureauetc, posted in Uncategorized

Check out some of my latest on demand Pilates Mat classes offered on Community Fitness online membership

1/18 – ‘Intermediate Classical Mat Pilates Flow’

1/25 – ‘Invigorating Pilates Flow’ including several backbends

2/01 – ‘Easygoing Pilates Flow’ to simply move your energy

2/08 – ‘Intermediate Reformer on the Mat Pilates Flow’ *optional light weights

2/15 – ‘Thighs back Pilates Flow’ including STAR & a posture in Yoga called Fish 

2/22 – ‘Abdominal bracing, hip opening, & arm strengthening Pilates Flow’ *optional weights

3/1 – ‘Opening Back Body Pilates Flow’ featuring balance control – more advanced!

Join me for live classes every Monday from 11-11:50am! Contact me or check out Community Fitness for more information!