The Role of Belief in Health and Healing Belief is a powerful thing. In a 2001 study, researchers told a group of Parkinson's patients that they were receiving a highly effective new drug that would improve their motor symptoms. However, the patients only received an injection of saline. Half of the patients experienced improvement [...]
After a Crisis of Pain by Mia Juhn I thought that Sarah Warren's Clinical Somatics Level One & Two Courses would help me overcome pain. I had no idea how profoundly it would go beyond that to change my life's course. I had pain that would mount during the day, incapacitating me by afternoon unless [...]
My Journey to Hell and Back by Greg Steidel In 2003, I was in my early 20's. I weighed 150 pounds and was in phenomenal shape. I had no history of back issues and was leading a normal life. One day I was doing some landscaping at my parents' house and decided to go [...]
Learning to Relax After Four Decades of Chronic Tension by Lena Pollack Every time I get a tensed muscle to relax, it’s like a little miracle. It leaves me awestruck, much like being chosen by a shelter cat, or finding a beautiful field that’s completely empty. Maybe it isn’t anything objectively earth shattering but getting [...]
How To Retrain Your Brain's Pain Processing System I recently read The Brain's Way of Healing by Dr. Norman Doidge and learned about a fascinating way to retrain how chronic pain is processed in the brain. The approach, developed by pain specialist Dr. Michael Moskowitz, is used with people who have been in pain [...]
Recovering From 19 Years of Chronic Pain by Chris Werts I’ve been an athlete all of my life, not at the elite level but perhaps some would say right below that. Growing up, very little emphasis was put on strengthening modalities, and all kids are invincible as you know. Baseball was my jam, but [...]
The Role of Somatic Movement in Breast Cancer Recovery by Kelly Beach I really do not know how to talk about my breast cancer and rather post mucky recovery, except straightforward how it all occurred, and the HUGE role Somatic Movement had in managing and eliminating my symptoms, remaining hands down the most effective tool [...]
Over the next few months I'll be offering a series of guided meditations for beginners on YouTube. Some of them are true somatic meditations—exploring breath sensations, internal bodily sensations, and noticing and releasing tension throughout the body. Others will explore ideas such as attention and awareness, energy, and love. Click the titles or the [...]
How to Make Meditation Part of Your Daily Life Meditation may seem like the latest trend, but it's been around for thousands of years. Wall art in the Indus Valley, dating from approximately 5,000 to 3,500 BCE, depicts people sitting with crossed legs, hands resting on their knees, and eyes narrowed. Meditation techniques are [...]
12 Scientifically Proven Health Benefits of Meditation To say that it's been a stressful year would be an understatement. If you don't meditate, you may have considered starting as a way to calm your mind, stop worrying, and get better sleep. But starting a meditation practice can be daunting. How can you fit it into [...]
How to Allow Change to Happen Instead of Forcing It Have you had the experience of trying really hard to make something happen, over and over, and it just won't happen? Then you finally stop trying to force it – and that's when it happens? People often use the example of romantic relationships: stop [...]
Remembering the Secret Language of My Bodyby Lisa Anita WegnerI am an artist and performer and I have been diligently working on myself for as long as I can remember. The changes I’ll be writing about follow on the heels of ten years of trauma therapy, soul searching, body work, meditation, physiotherapy, chiropractic, shiatsu and [...]
Anaya's Recovery from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome When I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) two and a half years ago, the doctor told me surely the most famous of all CFS one-liners: “95% of people do not recover, so don’t get your hopes up.” My response internally was “Fuck that!” and [...]
Forced Exercise and Stress Reduction Reverse Parkinson's Symptoms If you read last week's post Doctors Call for an End to the Parkinson's Pandemic, you learned that Parkinson's disease is most often the result of a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors, which include exposure to neurotoxic chemicals, head trauma, lack of exercise, diet, [...]
Why Body-Centered Therapies Help Heal Post-Traumatic Stress About one-half of adults in the U.S. experience at least one traumatic event during their lives. It might be a violent attack, accident, military combat, natural or human-caused disaster, or physical, verbal, or sexual abuse. People who have experienced trauma, whether or not they get diagnosed with post-traumatic [...]
5 Incredible Stories of Self-healing and Transformation We have an incredible ability to heal ourselves, beyond what science can currently explain. I am fascinated by stories of people who have found ways to cure themselves of incurable conditions. In this post I'll tell you about five of my favorite books on self-healing from aplastic [...]
