Issue 9: The Lost, Forgotten, and Denied... Pandicular Response

The Beautiful, Innate Responsiveness Of A Regulated Nervous System... The Pandicular Response

Are there aspects of yourself that you feel you've lost?

Forgetting emotional hurt, traumatic life events, deep seated fears, and of course the list goes on... somehow tricks us into denying the protective shield that time has built, layer by layer, around our hearts, minds, and nervous systems. Sometimes losing a part of a story once etched into the web of our personal history means familiar coping mechanism were shed enabling us to instead create patterns to thrive. But often, the lost, forgotten, and denied parts of ourselves that I'm referring to are habituated survival reflexes. Being stuck in fight-flight-freeze reflexes means that unconscious, involuntary movement patterns develop from how experience, and our reaction to experience, imprints our nervous system determining personality and literally, shaping our posture. You inhabit the shape of your survival responses. This shaping happens quite unconsciously until one day it may scream at you. But the good news is, you can start the process of unravelling your nervous system automatic responses.

The Unravelling

For years now, I've been using the word, unravelling, a lot when I teach yoga and somatic movement practice.

"..unravel knots of muscle tension."

"...unravel knit-up fascia along the meridians."

"...unravel your survival story."

"...unravel fear-based mental blocks."

"...unravel the idea of who you think you should be."

Unravelling conveys that a path may not be so straightforward and where unwinding the knots are part of the main plot twist. Unravelling allows for things to get messy. In order to unravel a knot in a gold necklace and free the chain, patience, gentleness, and the ability to clearly see the origin of the knot amidst the mess is required.

I think we humans have forgotten how to inhabit the living organism that is our body-mind. When we have tools to unravel stress knots we can once again land, get present, allow gravity to support us, and use Ground Reaction Force to fiercely move from within, and then through the world.

Newton's Third Law Of Physics states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Ground Reaction Force is the force that the earth exerts on a body when the body comes in contact with it. The stronger the force exerted into the earth the stronger the push-back allowing for movement, propulsion, and impact absorption. It may seem like I'm digressing here, but my point is that movement creates change.

As we get more tangled and lost in muscle-mind blindspots we forget how to rid pent up energy in our body-mind out into the environment around us. Then, denying that we're stuck, we stay stuck in a haze of muck for too many years unable to exert the force we need to move forward optimally-- physically, emotionally, and mentally.

Before We Can Be The Change We Want To See In The World, We Must Unravel

Sadly, we've forgotten the instinctual behaviours that help to keep us flowing like water when we're caught between a rock and a hard. A way to unravel the body-mind from stress, anxiety, depression, and brittle, tight-weak, atrophying tissues is to remember how to Pandiculate.

The Pandicular Response acts as a superhighway re-educating your nervous system about all the in's and out's to unravelling stubborn, unconscious tension knots. Pandiculation, especially the Dynamic Pandiculations that I teach, incite feelings of safety within your nervous system allowing the brain to retrain muscle bracing patterns that no longer serve your wellbeing.

The Definition Of Pandiculation In Somatic Exercise

Pandiculation Involves A Voluntary Contraction Followed By A Voluntary Release Of Muscle Groups

Somatic Exercises Restore Your Body’s Capacity To Naturally Pandiculate. It is possible for You and your Body to remember how to release chronic muscle tension and get to the root cause of muscle and joint pain. Pandiculation involves a voluntary contraction and then voluntary release of target muscle groups. It involves active exercises imitating the involuntary stretch response and making it a voluntary movement.

"Active Movement" demands mental focus in order to control the movement. Active Movement is essential to regaining control of chronically tight muscles you’ve lost motor control over. When you voluntarily contract a muscle, then mindfully– voluntarily release that muscle, your brain receives the message that the muscle is tight, and allows you to release it. That's Somatic Muscle Science for you!

Conversely, involuntary, "Passive Movement" signals the spinal cord only and the message never reaches the brain. If signals of contraction do not reach the brain, then sensation remains unconscious and muscles stay tight. The only way to restore a resting base level of tension and begin the process of relieving pain and increasing flexibility and mobility is to Put Your Mind Into Your Muscle with active movement.

Pandiculation is a Game-Changer because it's Active and Voluntary

In the context of movement education, the terms"Somatic" and the specific technique of "Pandiculation" were coined and developed by American philosopher, movement theorist, and creator and founder of Hanna Somatics® and Clinical Somatic Education® (CSE), Thomas Hanna.

I can attest, as a Level 3 Certified Clinical Somatic Movement Coach, to the efficacy of the method. Hanna’s voluntary pandiculations were, and continue to be, groundbreaking. Through research and practice with clients he discovered that voluntary movement was the most effective means of unlearning habitual movement patterns and unravelling chronic, involuntary muscle contraction in order to retrain the brain to retrain posture.

Between the natural Pandicular Response that is automatic and a Voluntary Somatic Pandiculation Exercise, a message is sent to the brain about the level of existing muscle contraction and then the nervous system is able to process this information. When an impulse reaches the brain, it reduces the firing of neurons that prompt muscles to stay tight. This conscious impulse gradually restores the Gamma Loop to a normal, released, base level of tension. And boom, you've regained Voluntary Control of your muscles and restored the natural Pandicular Response.

Your regulated nervous system possesses this beautiful, innate responsiveness called The Pandicular Response. An overworked and misused musculoskeletal system leads to a dysregulated nervous system-- inhibiting intrinsic ease of movement.

Women thirty-five years and up– Listen up!

Dr. Vonda Wright highlights the debilitating impact the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause has on the quality of women's lives, which includes arthralgia (widespread muscle and joint pain), loss of muscle mass, and bone density changes. It is a far too common symptom associated with menopause that is often overlooked and dismissed by the medical system. If you are starting, or have been quietly suffering for years with chronic aches and pains that you’ve been dismissing as “Oh, I’m not getting any younger”, or “Well, my lifestyle is very active so its normal to have daily muscle and joint pain”, or “I’ve had so many injuries that this is the way I am now”, or “My yoga and stretch classes are enough”. Nope, nope and nope. If you’d read any of these blogs you’ll know by now that traditional stretching does not cut it, chronic pain is not normal, and what your body needs to deal with and overcome stiffening tissues is-- pandiculation.

Clinical Somatic Exercise

Once you know the difference between passive vs active, conscious vs unconscious, and voluntary vs involuntary movement, I have a hunch you’ll become curious about how you can incorporate self-care somatic exercises into your fitness routine for lasting pain relief, mobility, flexibility, and lean muscle mass maintenance.

1:1 Coaching

Together, we cultivate a deep brain-body connection, within a safe and supportive environment for you to explore, thrive— and move with more freedom. My specialized Somatic Exercise Coaching integrates:

EMBODIED MOVEMENT emphasizes conscious movement, bodily sensations, and physical experiences. Holistic approaches foster self-awareness, emotional processing, stress management, posture refinement, improved joint range of motion, flexibility and musculoskeletal functioning, muscle tone and tension release, and pain relief.

BODY-BASED TECHNIQUES focus on ameliorating current physical and mental well-being. These modalities RETRAIN THE BRAIN to heal from socially conditioned habitual movement patterns, physical injury and emotional trauma. While Somatic Exercise Coaching supports you through the process, this is not counselling or psychotherapy.

Book a free 10-MINS Consultation Learn how this method can meet your needs.

Leave me a message with your request HERE​

Stay tuned for Issue 10: Somatic Muscle Science Unveiled – We All Love a Visit To Our Bodyworker BUT...