Articles

May 2024

The Practices Used in Hanna Somatic Education

Kinetic Mirroring is the opposite of trying to force a contracted muscle by stretching. It is when the practitioner moves the client very gently into their movement pattern, into the direction of movement of the contraction, a little bit more. This encourages the muscle or muscle group to stop contracting, temporarily shutting off the firing of the muscle fibres. At this point the practitioner asks the client holds that position, then the practitioner very slowly releases out of the contraction after the hold. Thomas Hanna was personally trained by Moshe Feldenkrais in this technique which was originally termed "Functional Integration". Kinetic Mirroring is a spinal chord response and does not go as far as reprogramming the resting level of the muscle fibres in the way pandiculation does; the client remains passive.

Means Whereby assists the client become consciously aware of a particular movement as they receive sensory feedback from the movement to the voluntary motor cortex of the brain. Previously this movement would have been an unconsciously habituated movement pattern. This practice enables the practitioner and client discover more about the client's particular movement pattern, to feel the quality and range of motion about the movement rather than solely being concerned with the 'end goal'. It was first discovered by F. Matthias Alexander, founder of the Alexander Technique and was embraced by Thomas Hanna. Although Means Whereby engages the voluntary cortex, it is engaged for the person by the practitioner, thus the learning cannot be initiated from the first person perspective.

Pandiculation actively engages the client by inviting them to voluntarily go into a particular movement very slowly contracting a muscle or muscle group against gravity. Most importantly they make a slow release of that contraction to rest. Pandiculation is both initiated and adapted by the person doing the pandiculation. This provides new sensory feedback to the voluntary motor cortex which gets 'excited' and creates new possibilities of movement.
The voluntary motor cortex is the only part of the motor system that can inhibit the firing rate of the alpha motor neuron and all the muscle fibres it synapses with thereby inhibiting hypertonic muscles. Thus the client is learning the refinement of a movement which is synonymous with the process of differentiation in the brain. Brain cells (neurons) reorganise and reform and new connections between brain cells (synapses) are made creating new neuronal pathways and the development of new functions.

Facilitated Pandiculation refers to the practitioner getting used to the timing of responses for a particular client when they voluntarily go into a contraction using the practitionern's hand to make the movement against rather than gravity. It takes very fine sensitivity of the practitioner to feel the very subtle and tiny movements as they wait for the client to respond and provide very gentle resistance. This helps the client to feel the movement however it does not need the client to "feel' the differences for the change to take place.

June 2024

Taking a Step Forward

In walking as we are taking each step forwards our feet are constantly adjusting to the surfaces and the ground we are walking on giving us the perfect knowledge of balance. You may like to take a moment to imagine ... Read more

in slow motion taking a step forward rather like slowing down a film frame by frame. You will be able to gain an internal sense of your whole global movement: as your foot turns in, your knee also turns and your hip is turning as your trunk is twisting subtly and your brain is the great organiser of the co-ordination of that movement.

Research shows us that the moment we bring our attention and awareness to our movement we change the quality of information we provide our brains and because the brain loves new information and resumes growing new connections and creating new possibilities for us you can change the quality of how you move; how you take each step forwards.

This is when we feel most alive. If you think that you are stuck in your thinking and doing the same old thing operating on automatic pilot then think again. No matter your age, stage and circumstances in life you can change, you can learn something new and know is meaningful because it brings about personal change and you remember it and do not lose it.

The good news is we do not need to be trapped by habits and routine and painful limitations of injury and trauma. Our brains are able to use new information we can provide it with to introduce better-organised movements so that discomfort diminishes and disappears.

July 2024

Knowing yourself by how you move

If you want to learn something new about yourself when you make a particular movement you can do so any time you choose to bring your attention and awareness to your internal sensations of that movement.

Only you can feel your internal sensations from doing the movement. Going into and most importantly coming out of the movement, slowly and gradually, gives you valuable information ... Read more

and you can learn to sense into the movement from your own internal perspective. You come to know what it is you know and know that you know it and feel it. Additionally, you can know what you don't feel and don't know yet.

You don't need to be limited by what you already think you know; instead you can move more powerfully into the unknown because you are learning to slow down the speed with which you move which frees your potential to discover new and interesting possibilities and experience subtle differences.

You may notice perhaps that one side of your lower back area feels tighter than the other and curiously one arm feels heavier than the other but your fingers are clenched. As you provide your brain with more new information by continuing the slow practice of your movement, later, when you least expect it and you are carrying on your daily life, you begin to feel change and you realise you are acting with increasing precision and greater freedom.

Change is a natural process when you give yourself time to feel the internal sensations from your movement and know that you know how you are moving. This process is known as differentiation where more brain cells and connections between brain cells get involved in reorganising your movement making the impossible possible, the possible comfortable and the comfortable elegant.