There can be a lot to unpack with this one. But, generally, my feet start to get sore when I wear flip-flops too much, exert myself far beyond my strength threshold and lose focus that prevents me from being present to my functional movement. Without the mobility and integrity of the hip and spine, the feet will carry imbalanced and undue pressure. Yet without the intentional connection and activation of the feet; the hips and spine struggle to be strong. They either work well together...or they don't. So when I start to feel my feet get tired and sore, I know they're tight...and likely my disconnect from the present moment is causing me to compensate in my body. My breathing mechanics become faulty, I over tense in my hips and as well...I don't use the hip stabilizers in the way I need, to support my feet. Resolving the soreness in my feet involves spending time releasing the tightness and using that time to reconnect to the sensations in my feet. It's important to know the feeling of your feet being pliable, yet steady and engaged with the earth. It's the base of the kinetic chain, and how it interplays with the ground has a profound effect on how the rest of your body behaves. You've heard of the tennis ball releases for the foot and maybe you have spent some time trying to release them in this way, But, have you spent the time to deeply feel sensations as you stay present through the discomfort? And do you know how to engage your feet so you have the greatest stability and function you can in your body? When I teach this in conjunction with hip mobility and awareness, it has profoundly changed my clients patterns of pain. Would you like to learn more? Please schedule with me here if this feels resonant with you. Wishing you well :)

I've been asked this question along with why it presents in your body. Long story short.... When an offending event enables you to fight or run to get away from real or perceived danger, the likelihood of trauma getting stuck and creating reactive patterns diminishes significantly. When you are defenseless against the potential harm, you freeze and store that energy of trauma within you unknowingly. It creates patterns of reactivity and posture that block you from moving forward until you feel the pain of it and choose to liberate it. Trauma is truly a broad reaching word for an experience of being threatened...with physical safety, unmet needs or rejection of belonging. And the post traumatic pattern develops when there's no awareness that this energy has set up camp in your body. There are absolutely individual variations of the affect on people, but essentially... Trauma event or series of events > successful fight and flee or knowing that one is ok > energy liberated Trauma event or series of events > trapped in physical or lack of knowing that one is ok > energy stuck in the body This is why being threatened as a child can hook us into body and mind patterns that sabotage our life. We don't have the stature or the analytical capacities to empower our circumstances. We can release this energy in several ways. When we completely liberate this energy it's a process called "cycling". Massage, movement and somatic presence can all start to move this, but staying with the feelings and sensations until it is transmuted, changes the patterns. The physical tools are powerful, but the somatic presence along with it gets at the root of the pattern so it can move on. Please join me Live on Friday to see how this works. It still astounds me how powerful it is. Wishing you well :)

As is often the case, my own process of change has lead me to my purposeful pursuit...guiding others in understanding that they can become much more than they have believed up til now. I have certainly resided in a mindset where limitations instruct my actions. I am still breaking through some of those barriers, but can remember clearly how small I have played in my past. It really has done a dis-service to myself and others. Stepping through, not around, the emotions of fear, anger and shame has allowed me to give such value on the other side. And the body is the avenue through which we experience these states of being. While they're emotions, the energy they create within you forms the posture and movement that tells the story. It's why I teach transformation through the connection to the body...the somatic experience. This is my avenue for change and making a difference in my corner of the world. I teach to the expertise I have gained in study and professional experience, but with the personal practice that helps me to know it's depth of value. I am grateful to have reached this point and know that there are lives that I can change. Please reach out to me if you need help in your journey to transform your pain. Here's my schedule if you feel that I can help... Wishing you well :)

So-as (psoas) is one of the challenge structures of the low back and hips. It's stress responsiveness and depth in the abdomen and hips makes it less accessible to people from a feeling standpoint. It's anatomic length and position can cause it to create low back pain and hip tightness. Because of it's tightness, the connection to the diaphragm through fascial linkages can be a cause of faulty breathing patterns. As well, the stress reactivity that creates shallow and rapid inhale and exhale will inhibit the diaphragm from expanding. You will lose both the gentle lengthening that they create together and a calm nervous system when these structures are not free and functional. Without awareness of how this connection is linked in your body, you may be missing a big piece of anatomical health. And the emotional shifts that can come when the tension of a guarded structure is held and processed. You can only truly achieve this by being focused in the moment with these sensations and the feelings that arise. There are many physical tools that can be used, but somatic presence is the lynchpin that allows the pattern to change and transform the way you experience your body and the emotional state that underlies it. I will be showing you later in the week one of the exercises to become aware of this meaningful connection in your body. In the meantime, feel free to message me here if you'd like to understand more. Or schedule a free call with me . Sending love and warm wishes :)

The belief that all things are connected in the human body seems to be well accepted as a concept. But I'm not sure if it's truly understood in each human's day to day experience. If we are not really living in our senses in the present, it's difficult to know this truth. We must be able to take in what we see, hear, smell, taste and most of all...feel, to take this belief beyond a concept. And i do believe it's where most of us falter. Our very present moment connection to our senses enables us to tune into the interplay in our own bodies. And, as well, to the energetic interchange with other people, critters and the natural environment. I bring this to light because how we feel in certain areas of our body impact the blocks we hold elsewhere. One of the most intriguing connections I've learned is one between the heart and hips. If you follow the fascia of the pericardium (heart) inferiorly it will connect to the posterior diaphragm (back of primary breathing muscle) and this will connect you to the psoas muscle. The psoas muscle is quite active when it comes to alerting the brain to a threat. And when we feel that potential incoming, our heart becomes overactive and tense and our body contracts inward. If you can envision how a pull on the heart changes the tension of the structures it's connected to, you can imagine how it affects the stress responsive muscle of the psoas. The heart and the hips are connected...as is the whole body intertwined. Feeling and behaving as though it is all connected, is doing a great service to ourselves and those around us. And feeling into this truth as we track it within our body, allows us to be our own wise teacher. This is why my focus is the somatic work of feeling to discover and make change. Explore with me...get on my schedule here. Wishing you well :)

The pelvic floor (PF) is a reference to a network of muscles at the bottom of the pelvis and regulates actions of elimination and sexual function. I suspect that most people cannot identify this part of their anatomy and yet it could play a role in hip and back pain. To be quite honest, I didn't learn about these muscles at all as a kinesiology student. How they're behaving is incredibly relevant to the pain you may be experiencing. They must have the dynamic strength to perform their function, yet suppleness to allow the pelvis to expand and adapt to the movement of the hips and back. Generally speaking, there's some degree of tightness coupled with weakness that inhibits necessary muscle tone and healthy relaxation of the PF. Specialists who assess this part of our anatomy and can do work to release and re-educate are invaluable. Even still, if you have no awareness of how to gauge the tightness, weakness and strength there's no way to resolve the problematic pattern for long term change. This is a part of the body that benefits dramatically from being somatically aware. Being able to sense the tension and suppleness of the front, back, right and left sides of the PF enables you to change the stress response pattern that causes dysfunction. If you know the role of the breath and can move in ways that connect you to feeling here, you can restore lost function. How? Being aware, releasing and re-training. This week I will share with you Live, how to access feeling, breath and movement that will put you in felt sense connection with the pelvic floor. You may feel your back and hips gain significant freedom when you do. I'll be here Live on Friday morning ... As always...wishing you well :)

When you understand anatomy, it becomes clear how power is enabled. Our body doesn't act as individual parts. There's no strength in that. There is synergy of the muscle and connective tissue (fascia) that orchestrates a complex system that allows movement and expression. When your body compensates in this disconnected way, you feel the pain of things not working together. Your hamstrings, or your calves, or your gluts acting in isolation are not going to move you forward. Any where in your body where you're activating a muscle on it's own, you will limit your capacity for responsive stability. Using the body as an interconnected whole allows strong movement patterns that prevent pain. There are exercises and moves that require specific muscles to fire so that the pattern can be executed well, but there is still synergy between the individual muscles in a chain. When I play around with understanding this from a somatic perspective, I see the body as the metaphor of interconnectedness that could improve how I approach most problems. Individual muscles are distinct, but not effective without the collaboration of the rest of the body. Taking this into consideration, if one person in a team acted completely independent, the disconnect would cause a failure to find a collaborative solution. It's in the many unique perspectives acting synergistically, that power truly arises. Our body knows this and manifests this. And we are able to embody this in a way that assures the use of our innate power...not power over...but power to. The mind and anatomy ideally work together to affect the change you want to see. Can I help you? Send me a message ... Or schedule a complimentary session with me ... Wishing you well :)

A week ago I had this incredible opportunity to see the gray whales in Baja California. For those of you who don't know about these creatures, in the Baja environment they can be very curious and social...with humans. As in, right next to the boat, social. This experience was rather undeniable in it's power, but more subtle connections with nature can evade us...me included. Nature possesses compounds that calm your physiology, shares insight through metaphor and offers wisdom as to how you can feel more present and connected to your environment. It's there if you choose to open and observe what's being presented. The gray whales were hunted relentlessly until the 1970's and they lost big during that time. When a kind and aware fisherman noticed their tender behavior, he shared his knowledge with others. And the alliances to save them were set in motion. Why, when they were hunted by humans for so long, have they chosen to engage so closely? I can't truly know, but it must have something to do with moving through hardship to trust on the other side. As I observed outside, it brought me more awareness inside. I felt my body bob in rhythm with the boat's movement in the gentle waves. My sense of hearing became more attuned to the sound of whales surfacing and blowing out air. My eyes observed all the variations of color in the water and on land, and took in all the detail in this expansive land and sea scape. Nature brings us in...by helping us be so present with what we are surrounded by. It helps us feel more deeply within, offering us the opportunity to know oneself better with each exposure. And it's this feeling experience that gives us the feedback to understand our present moment and how we can continue to align in body and mind...with a stronger and freer version of ourselves. It's what i teach to. Can I support you. Let me know... Schedule a complimentary 30 minute call with me . Wishing you well :)

There are a handful of movement patterns that are truly fundamental for the human body to move freely and have vitality. If you are among those who struggle to be regularly active and don't have periods of stress-reducing downtime, these healthy patterns may not be functioning in your body. The ability to move fluidly and with strength is strongly linked to increased longevity. And it's necessary not only to participate in the activities you love, but to simply engage in daily tasks under your own power. A good squat pattern is one of the most requisite motions you want to master to move without pain. Sitting and lifting are both variations of squatting that can be hampered if you don't have the ability to squat. Anatomically, the spine, hips and ankles need to obtain a functional range of motion. This allows the spine to remain neutral, the hips to sit back, the knees to track in line with the toes and allows the balls of the feet to remain grounded along with the heels. When you gain this range and align the body to use the stabilization and strength of the muscles and connective tissue, you can squat without pain. And teaching the quality of a squat is something i love to do. Not only because of the physical relief it brings when the body is strong, but the somatic and emotional sense of power you can embody with it. There is a more potent connection to grounding as well as freedom of your form when you realize, that a mobile body can move you forward in ways you cannot when you're stuck. Can I help you understand this on a deeper level? Message me ...or reach out to schedule a 1 to 1 consult . I am wishing you well and sending love :)