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Happy 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. Being only ten and in the midwest I did not have any direct experience but bringing love to the forefront is always a good thing. As part of the love, I will be offering brain and neurology based training classes for the visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular/balance systems starting July 24th (see below for details). I am continuing to hone my P-DTR (Proprioceptive Deep Tendon Reflex) skills and am currently repeating all the classes to help with this process. If you have not been in for a while, I have a whole new set of skills to address body issues. Give me a call If you would like to know more and we can talk about how these techniques may be of benefit to your particular issues.
Blessings, Paul
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Summer Classes:
(registration required)
Monday NIght Z-Health Brain and Neurology based Trainings
Z-Health brain and neurologic based training enhances performance by improving the main sources of input to the brain: Proprioception, Vision, and Vestibular/Balance. Since the brain is all about survival, it tries to predict what is going to happen. The better the quality of information the brain receives, the better its ability to predict what will happen, and in return allows for a higher level of performance in power, force, flexibility, and coordination. Poor input leads to poor predictability, a dampening down in performance, and possibly the creation of pain to put the brakes on the body even further. Learn how to improve the skills of Vision, Balance, and Proprioception to change your body's performance.
Three consecutive 30 minute training sessions for the Visual, Proprioceptive/Body Sensor, and Vestibular/Balance Systems respectively. Come for a half hour segment or all three parts, for 1 session or all 4 sessions. Mondays: July 24th, July 31st, August 6th, August 13th from 7:15-7:45 (vision), 7:45-8:15 (proprioception), 8:15-8:45 (vestibular/balance).
CALL 510-832-5725 to register.
SUMMER SPECIAL:
NeuroFlow Assessment for brain activation imbalances, cranial nerves function, sensory imbalances, reflexes, and more. All for $50. Call 510-832-5725 for your appointment.
SAVE THE DATE:
Conscientious Embodiment Workshop. Develop greater capacity to relate to whatever arises, especially when under pressure, from a centered state which accesses “presence, confidence and compassion”.
Saturday September 30th from 9am-12 noon.
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BONUS - Finding your Stance Challenge for Balance
This assessment is drawn from the Z-Health "Balance Gym" product and is used to discover a stance that is challenging for you to maintain your balance under a few different conditions. The stances to try without shoes are: 1) feet shoulder width apart, 2) Feet together, 3) Feet one in front of the other on the same line with space between the two feet front to back (this can be modified by having a little width between the feet instead of on the same line), 4) Feet on the same line with the heel of one foot in contact with the toe of the other foot, 5) Standing on one leg (this can be modified by lightly touching the toes of the opposite leg next to the arch of the standing leg). You can then try these stances under different conditions: a) Eyes open, b) Eyes closed, c) Eyes open and nodding the head 'Yes', d) Eyes open and rotating the head 'No", e) Eyes closed and nodding the head 'Yes', f) Eyes closed and rotating the head 'No". For each of these conditions you are determining which stance is challenging for you to maintain for 30 seconds. You can then use the challenging stance for a given condition as a training tool for improving balance. The eyes closed makes the proprioceptive and vestibular systems work harder. The head motions put more of a challenge on the vestibular system. Using the variety of conditions offered here provides a variation in challenges to these three main systems that gather information for the brain to orchestrate maintaining balance. Happy Balancing!
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GRATITUDE: I am continually grateful to all of my clients that support my work. I am also grateful for your generosity in paying in accordance to the relative value for healing based on your means which allows me to offer my services to a wide range of people with a diverse array of socio-economic status. Thank you!
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In this Newsletter:
Greeting
Summer Classes
Quote
Article: Nervous system basics 2
BONUS: Finding your Stance Challenge for Balance
Gratitude
Call 510-832-5725 for your Body Tune-up
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QUOTE:
BALANCE
is not something you find
it is something you
CREATE
Jana Kingsford
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NERVOUS SYSTEM BASICS 2
In this article I will expand on a previous article addressing the basic functions of the nervous system which were: 1) taking in information from the body and the environment; 2) the integrating, interpreting, decision making, and creating output; and 3) transmitting the output to the muscles and organs to carry out the plan. All this being done under the primary goal of survival.
I would like to introduce another concept here called the "eight levels model" which is used in the Z-Health work. The idea is that there are several levels in the nervous system where the information and execution of the plan can go wrong. The list used in Z-Health are the: 1) Receptors, 2) Peripheral nerves, 3) Spinal cord, 4) Cerebellum, 5) Brainstem, 6) Thalamus, 7) Insula, and 8) Cortex. I will give a very brief and simplified description of each.
The receptors are all the structures in the nervous system that gather information both internally from the body and from the external environment. Dysfunctional receptors results in distorted information being sent to the brain and less than optimal decision making because of the faulty information. The peripheral nerves are the conductors of the information to the central nervous system and also the conductors of the signals to carry out the plans created by the brain. If the signals are not transmitted correctly the brain will be making decisions based on poor information and/or the execution of the brain's plan of action could be less than optimal. The spinal cord continues the conduction of the signals from the body and the problems that can occur in the peripheral nerves can also be an issue in the spinal cord. The cerebellum, sometimes called the "little brain", is a major player in the accuracy, balance, and coordination of all movement. It makes sure the plan executed by the brain is being carried out correctly. The brainstem which consists of the Mesencephalon, Pons, and Medulla, is the area where most of the cranial nerves and the sympathetic nervous system originate, and where the controls are located for the autonomic systems of the body that keep us alive, like breathing and the heart beating. A lot of input from the body is integrated in this area. The thalamus is the gate keeper to the cortex or higher levels of the brain. Its role is to determine which of all the information coming into the brain is of greatest significance. The insula is actually part of the cortex and has many significant roles including perception, motor control, self-awareness, cognitive functioning, and interpersonal experience. The cortex consists of the Parietal (sensory and speech/language processing. spatial and visual perception, non-verbal memory), Temporal (auditory reception, object recognition, language comprehension, long term memory, sense of smell, visual and cognitive processing, learning), Occipital (vision, color recognition, discrimination of movement, visuospatial processing), and Frontal (attention, focus, motivation, moral choices, planning and executing movement; executive function - decision making, problem solving; etc.) lobes.
An issue in the body can result from a dysfunction in any of these 8 levels of the nervous system. Therefore specific assessments are necessary for each level to determine which components of the nervous system are contributing to a given pain or performance problem so they each can be addressed. Luckily, through Z-Health, I have learned ways to assess these areas in order to facilitate the corrections that are needed.
The complexity of the body and nervous system leaves me in awe that it functions as well as it does.
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