Annette Bray


Free Your Body

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What About the Nervous System?

When we think of a strong body, we think of one that shows shape and can move mountains. We associate our muscles with this and we tend to think in terms of the content of these structures in the pursuit of this coveted strength. But muscle and its encasing fascia is one (even if vital) component of the whole picture of how a body develops its power. There has to be a driver of this, which also holds the capacity to regulate how efficiently our muscles are engaged for the present demand. Ideally, this means using what is needed, but sparring excess energy usage so the body, mind and emotions can come back to balance and allow healing to occur.

Our nervous system is the driver that orchestrates this complex series of actions that either create a well-tuned body in movement…or not. If we hold too much tension at rest or overexert in movement, we hold energy in the form of stiffness which puts that part of the muscle structure out of commission. If we don’t move regularly with intention and awareness we lack the physiology that enables a muscle structure to respond and produce strength. The nervous system is the sensor of input and the regulator of activation, tension and load. The muscles would literally do nothing without it.

So whether the issue is too much activation or not enough of it, we have to communicate with our nervous system to create the change we want. And one of the most profound ways to achieve this is through our felt sense awareness! If we’re performing a squat and we lack awareness of whether our glut muscles are engaging, it’s potentially a missed opportunity to functionally use these hip stabilizers. And when we hold chronic postural tightness and can’t feel that holding, we miss each moment of presence in which we can change this over activation wherever it lies. This subconscious behavior can be altered if we slow down to become aware and then provide new sensory input for the body to respond to.

Take one of the many self-release exercises we do…foam rolling our quads or IT bands, tennis ball in the gluts, etc. They’re oft performed with little awareness, except for the significant pain they cause when we’re very tight. We then tend to react with more resistance. What if, as we explore slowly, we discovered the true feeling we are experiencing in each moment and pause in stillness to feel the sensations that are being relayed? Then choosing not to force into areas that seem excruciating, but go to the edges of discomfort and intentionally feel. As a result we have a gauge of our body’s present state and we can then choose to change the story of how we engage. We have dozens of resources to use to feel goodness in our bodies that communicates to our nervous system that all is well…even as pain exists. But we will continue to select the pain pattern until we kindly ask the body to choose differently. 

By Annette Bray 25 Mar, 2024
As many of you may be aware of, I began treatment for breast cancer in April of 2021. I had already been heading down the path of learning and sharing somatic work for about 5 years prior. I did my level best to stay in my body through the process, but inevitably disconnected when the pain and discomfort became too great. And in the instance of several surgeries, my body and nervous system where having an experience that my conscious awareness wasn't having. And thank goodness... the anesthesia works to prevent an overwhelming quantity of pain that I certainly didn't want to feel. But, that doesn't prevent the nervous and other systems of the body from having their "memory" of the trauma. That truth, is something I've necessarily faced as I heal from the effects of cancer treatment, albeit imperfectly. The language of this trauma is feeling. I know I must be present with and process through feeling in order to thrive on the other side. As I'm present to unwind the physical sensation and emotion I am tracking within me, there's an avenue to release and find the re-alignment I was born for...in my body and mind. This upcoming Wednesday I have my final surgery. And, all is and will be well. I wouldn't have asked that 3 years of my life be occupied by the major hiccup of cancer, but here I am. I am lucky to be living after the journey. Even though I am closing this chapter, It is my earnest intention that the wisdom of it will forever flow through me. I look forward to connecting with you soon to share it :)
By Annette Bray 19 Mar, 2024
In my 25 years in the wellness field, I have engaged with many individuals who don't know the answer to this question. Why? Because at the pace we live in the western world, few of us have been taught to be still long enough to actually feel much of anything. The only thing that is felt are the limited and extreme emotions of anger, despair, melancholy or overwhelming happiness. There's nothing wrong with feeling these, it's just a restricted representation of what's going on within each human. The cost of this, is a lack of subtle awareness of the misalignments of the physical body and off kilter emotions that precede pain in the mind and body. Developing the skill of feeling slight downshifts in mood and the way the body responds to this, is invaluable to preventing big pains. If we can habitually tune into the way we feel, we can process challenging emotion ongoing. The result is the disruption of negative patterns in favor of feeling each moment in an authentic way. When we do this well we can cycle through the rhythm of ups and downs of the human experience without getting perpetually blocked from growth. Our ability to move through physical pain often mirrors the same logjam of our mind. We tend to only notice pain when it's big. We get stuck in the frustration of it until we solve the pain...at least temporarily, only to get frustrated again when the pendulum swings back. I've worked diligently in my own life to create a better way of resolving pain in both my body and mind. It's why I have been on a never ending quest to understand it and help others. If it resonates with you, ask me how I can help you...
By Annette Bray 12 Mar, 2024
When it comes to awareness, many of us are walking heads. As I share what I mean by this you can check in to the truth of this for yourself. You may be aware of emotions as you move about your environment and possibly even some thoughts as they arise. But likely, many of the thoughts and their corresponding emotions are drawn up as you react to the world surrounding you. What occurs is knee jerk behavior rather than authentic awareness of what's challenging you and intentional choice to see beyond it to expanding possibilities beyond the pain. These unconscious reactions are neural patterns yet to arise in your conscious awareness. But while you haven't been paying attention, your body has been tracking it the whole time. And these physical and emotional guarding responses will pull you out of alignment and into eventual pain...every time. I do believe there are many body oriented ways to help disrupt these dysfunctional patterns. And one of them I use in both the release and re-building process is called orienting. When we were subjected to potential dangers in nature, this was an innate tool we employed to know we were safe in our environment. It's so simple, yet can be productively used to cut through old patterns and help us adopt new ones. If you're curious about it and want to understand how I use it, please send me a message . I'm happy to share it's magic...
By Annette Bray 05 Mar, 2024
Closing off our body and emotions is a function of the nervous system's quest to find safety. When we're facing a threat of harm to our body, it makes sense to get small and protect the precious physical resources at our center. It's something that most of us learn in our early years before our mind has the skills to analyze the physical safety of our environment. We can feel threatened by physical or verbal advances. Because we don't have the faculties early on to sort through what happened, why it happened and have the realization that it doesn't have to continue, we develop a patterned response in thought, feeling and in body. It's a circuit in the nervous system whose wire gets tripped when a trigger is presented. And...our physical form manifests this presentation which, ultimately, causes a misaligned posture and all the discomfort that can bring. You know the experience...when you're in the presence of someone you care for and trust, vs someone who's constantly critical, you're body looks totally different. If you haven't noticed yet, pay attention. If this is a commonly embodied state for you or someone you know, it's also creating a negative feedback loop that compels the fear emotion to persist. One of the greatest realizations about this, is that as you develop awareness of closed posture, you can help it at both ends. You can be present with the patterned emotion as you become aware and when you notice a closed posture, it can queue you that you're playing out a fear program. It takes very committed intention to release and select a new way of being, but it's the way to transform it and go beyond coping with the pain. Please ask me if you'd like to learn how this can impact your pain . Wishing you well :)
By Annette Bray 27 Feb, 2024
I've worked in health and fitness for 25 years and there's one approach to wellness that I've seen fail over and over again...using self criticism as a motivator. Fail is a super strong word for me to use, and ultimately, if you don't quit you can't actually fail. But nothing will cause a person to fall short of their goal more consistently than criticizing themself for what they didn't do or do as they thought they should. And then there's those who don't know they're in self judgement. So they don't have the opportunity to evaluate that self defeat is holding them apart from getting out of pain in their body and mind. As I referred to hip tightness last week, specific physical tools are really important to alleviate pain. But, as important, is the presence with which you engage the action in non-judgement so the nervous system responds well. Whether it's the imperfect way you do your stretches or missing them for a day or two, being self critical of this is a temporary tactic, at best, to get you to do the thing you want. That's why somatic (body awareness) is so helpful in transforming the pain you have in body and mind. It can help you work kindly and effectively with your body when you perform the exercise(s) that helps...and gives you reason to keep going when you aren't as consistent as you'd planned. Why? Because self-criticism is the very energy of resistance that gets in the way of you seeing and acting clearly. Have you ever experienced how this works? I love to help...
By Annette Bray 21 Feb, 2024
If you're lucky, you feel the discomfort in your hips before it results in back or knee pain. You've probably heard many stories, or even experienced it yourself, back pain coming out of nowhere. Or go on a long walk and all the sudden you get a sharp pain in the knee. We're meant to walk and move our entire body, so pain of insidious origin isn't as insidious as you may think. The way we hold our bodies can tell quite a story of how we live our lives. We carry thought and emotional patterns in our connective tissue guided by the patterns of our nervous system. We feel scared, despairing or are self-critical and it takes form within us and is expressed as an outward manifestation. The posture or carriage we hold can result from many areas of the body being tight. One of the oft felt areas of this restriction are the hips...and all too many people can relate. I believe that this area can be so problematic because of it's proximity to a multitude of sensitive structures and organs as well as being the connector of the upper and lower body. It must navigate a lot of force transmission and can get stuck in so many ways given the mobility from the spine coming in and the hip itself being a ball and socket joint. Given all this, the possible emotional signaling to the brain that encourages a feedback loop of muscle and fascial guarding is immense. If we're unconscious of that emotional/physical connection, we will miss the progressive tightening over time that causes the pain of misalignment and poor form. But there is a way to unravel the tightness by using effective physical tools combined with the awareness of sensation and emotion, without judgement, to release this dysfunction. It's something I do everyday with those that I serve. Please start with a question here and see why this work is so effective in changing patterns.
By Annette Bray 13 Feb, 2024
So far as I have seen, some level of pain in the body and mind goes along with being human. But I have also seen a somewhat apathetic approach to the experience of pain as demonstrated through people's words and actions. Being in the health field for 25 years, I'll hear an individual express a forgone conclusion of limitation or a ceiling on their ability to heal pain. But as the cliche goes..."you don't know what you don't know". The irony of shifting out of pain is to be with it in the moment of occurrence with a receptivity to seeing other options. So many hang out endlessly in a loop of pain, either because they think they have to or that the way out is more pain. The body (through the nervous system) doesn't change a pain pattern when all it experiences is that very habit. The biggest culprit in staying stuck in this is resistance. And here's a an odd thought to chew on...people resist feeling ease almost as much as they resist feeling pain. So...the solution is to become familiar with and engaged in the pattern of feeling...to NOT resist feeling. I'm not suggesting you try to feel when in a traumatic moment such as a car accident. Our nervous system takes us into freeze states to not overwhelm our own being in these extreme circumstances. (we just have to find a way out of the freeze which is what we're exploring) What I am talking about is shifting out of a habitual pattern of shutting down feeling. Take for example, chronic hip pain, if you open yourself up to the range of physical and emotional feeling as you explore resolution you may... 1. begin to ease tensions that cause the misalignments of dysfunction and pain 2. start to see treatment options that you had not been aware of due to tunnel vision While this is all about feeling, there is process and tools to become skilled so that you open yourself to the ease that is so accessible when you stay present through pain. Please ask me how I can help...
By Annette Bray 05 Feb, 2024
In my opinion, absolutely! As a yoga teacher, I've learned several of these techniques, called pranayama. And they can positively impact nervous system balance, immunity, hearth function, etc. But what I see, is that people jump to complex techniques without mastering basics. Somatic (physical feeling) breath awareness is very foundational to the end of creating a healthy pattern of inhale and exhale. If you work on intricate techniques and don't effect the moment to moment activation of diaphragmatic breathing, it doesn't allow the summation of healing effects over time. Unpracticed, you likely inhale with some unnecessary resistance and don't expand the thoracic and abdominal space as can benefit. As well, you may not exhale slowly in a way that triggers the calming of the nervous system into rest and digest. And yes, you can even reach these states (to an extent), in wakeful moments. Healing happens because the nervous, immune, cardiovascular and other systems of the body have time and resources dedicated to repairing. So even when your alert and awake, you can enable these mechanisms that stave off inflammatory damage, immune dysregulation, etc. And it can happen because a healthy breathing pattern shifts you out of a heightened stress response. Over time, this is dramatically positive. So, why not practice them to set the experience of healing? When practiced in dedicated moments of awareness for a few minutes a day you become familiar with the simplicity of somatic breath awareness. It's first about becoming aware of it, that's it. But I have seen how when we are not practiced at feeling this isn't so easy to do. I teach it and I love the revelation that I see when someone gets it! It's so profound. Please message me if you feel it's something I can help you with.
By Annette Bray 20 Jan, 2024
I'm sure you realize that there are hundreds of things that can bring us potential harm in the hours of the day. Other cars on the road, falling on the ice, unpaid bills, heavy workloads and on and on. And then there's phone solicitations, Facebook, Instagram and so on. It's not surprising that most humans, in the developed world, struggle to be present. We're regularly practicing something totally different. When times are happy, you know how good it feels to be present with your current circumstances. When times are not, you know how difficult it is to feel all the feels of the present. The problem is, the less present you are in either case, the less skilled you become at being really aware in the moment. This means that in challenging circumstances you have not trained yourself to be responsive, but rather thoughtlessly reactive. And on the flip, you haven't practiced completely taking in the joys and beauty that are available. Being reactive is absolutely necessary when another car is veering into your lane, etc. But, what if most of the time, you drove down the road and were very present, head up and seeing your environment more fully so that you rarely, or never got to this point? You would replace vigilance with awareness and perhaps not miss the beautiful clouds that are putting on a show on for you? And then, you would notice and possibly relax the guarded muscle response that I referred to last week. When we're vigilant, we have tunnel vision and miss the beauty that's surrounding us. We favor being aware of limited options and our body responds in becoming the contracted physical form that brings us pain. Being present is simple, but hard in a world that continually focuses our attention on the problems we need to be vigilant about. What does it take to shift to being more aware, in the moment and engaged in our world without fear? Ask me here...
By Annette Bray 20 Jan, 2024
Pain in the body and emotional pain are interrelated! Can a physical solution solve a physical challenge, yes. And can an emotional solution solve an emotional challenge, yes. Yet, often a combination of the 2 is necessary. Unfortunately, I see people staying in the same recycled discomfort because they're stuck in the energy that's wrapped up within it. Physical sensation, emotion and thought processes are intertwined. For example, back pain of an unknown origin can arise. The source could be tension you were unaware of developing in response to an emotionally stressful scenario (loss of a pet, etc). Without presence to the originating feeling, the body tries to manage the experience in the form of guarding or tension. The bodies mechanics respond poorly due to this restriction and pain develops. Physical solutions can correct it and alleviate pain. If however, the originating emotion and corresponding thoughts that accompany it are not felt and processed, the pattern that caused it remains. And the pain comes back. Avoidance of painful feelings is protective and beneficial in certain circumstances. But it won't liberate stuck energy in the form of pain and allow you to return to health. This is why I'm a huge proponent of somatic processing and using nature's resources to help. And utilizing physical tools with this allows you to nudge the problems in the body while tending to the emotion and thought patterns that are the misaligned energy sources connected to them. Reach out if you want to learn more...
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