Stress Reduction

How Stress Makes Us Ill

Published: 19 July 2023
Written by Jocelyn Olivier
1 Comment
Categories: Brain Function, Hacking Your Nervous System, Handling Stress, Sympathetic vs Parasympathetic

Sympathetic vs Parasympathetic Functions of the Nervous System:

Our nervous system has 2 interweaving sides: excitatory and vegetative. The excitatory side takes care of emergencies and the vegetative rest and regeneration. When we are stuck in a chronic tension pattern from a past accident or incident or a prolonged period of unremitting stress our ability to heal ourselves is seriously impaired. A new client came in for a free neuromuscular assessment/consultation. She’d been such a hard driving producer that her whole nervous system collapsed into chronic fatigue and inability to heal. The result was systemic infections that wouldn’t heal. The antibiotics further destroyed her gut biome and compromised her ability to take nutrition out of her food. She put on weight and had no energy for exercise. The end point was extreme: bed ridden for 2 years, too weak to walk, with PTSD from all the attempted interventions. This sketch of her situation (many details have been left out) is a perfect description of the failure to thrive that is marked by a fixation in the sympathetic side of the nervous system.

What the Parasympathetic side of the Autonomic Nervous System does:

  • Meditation; enables you to reach states of at oneness.
  • Relaxation; the ability to calm the mind.
  • Digestion; secretion of enzymes and moving of the bowel
  • Restoration; the efficiency and priorities of our body’s cellular metabolism are directly affected by whether we are at ease or anxious
  • Sleep; the ability to access the deep sleep states of youth.
  • Cell regeneration; all the metabolic chemistry that is used in healing and making new tissue.

What the Sympathetic Nervous System does:

  • Constricts blood vessels; raises blood pressure
  • Shortens breath and limits it to the chest muscles
  • Contracts pupils and produces focused “tunnel vision”
  • Reverts to reactive responses based on past experience
  • Inhibits higher brain functions (conceptual, integrative, problem solving and creativity)
  • Suppresses immune response
  • Disintegrates learned, refined movements and smooth muscle tone (colon)
  • Produces physical awkwardness resulting in loss of self esteem
  • Difficulty focusing and concentrating
  • Difficulty falling or staying asleep or waking up still tired

image

Chronic Stress creates Sympathetic Hyper-arousal or Hyper-vigilance.  Muscles are tight constantly in an overall hypertension ready for the need to fight, flight or freeze; always “at the ready.”
Areas expressive of the “the startle reflex” such as the back of the neck and elevation of the shoulders, sub-occipitals, eyes, low back, calf muscles, psoas and iliacus maintain the most tension.
The end result:
  • Chronic tension and pain in muscles, especially those expressive of the startle reflex
  • High levels of stress hormones and tension over time create high fluid levels in the tissue.
  • Stiff, sore muscles, poor circulation, taut, pale and thick skin
  • High fluid levels produce poor cellular nutrition, sluggish energy metabolism, poor recovery time from activity, and cell wall fragility.

We teach you how to shift your clients from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic in NeuroMuscular Reprogramming. NMR is a practical tool to include in your practice including and not limited to: physical therapists, massage therapists, physical trainers or movement educators. A new 4-part series to becoming a certified NMR therapist starts September 29th. Get 16.5% off when you sign up for all 4 classes! Sign up here.

Looking for more new NMR content? Come connect with us on Facebook or Instagram!

3 is The Key to Learning

Published: 28 November 2022
Written by Jocelyn Olivier
No comments
Categories: Brain Function, Handling Stress, NMR Efficacy, Self Help Techniques

3 is the Key to New Learning.

The Body Learns Through Repetition.

The first level of learning is getting the message through to the muscles. This involves neurological learning. Neurological learning boosts the brain’s learning facility which is usually knocked out by stressful experience, accident or trauma. When you try something new for the first time, your coordination system doesn’t know how to do it. When you try it again immediately there may be a glimmer of ‘almost’ understanding. It is only on the 3rd try that your coordination system begins to really ‘get it’; and OWN the new movement possibility. Sometimes it takes even longer than 3 repetitions to get it, but 3 is the maximum number of ‘trys’ that should be engaged on the first time around.

Repetition Exhausts the Nervous System.

Unlike the muscles, the nervous system becomes quickly exhausted when pushed too hard to do new activities. It is important to understand and expect that anything you just tried, your body intelligence will continue to integrate even as you sleep. (This has been validated in movement physiology research). When you perform the same activity the next day you may find it much easier.

First you have to prepare the body for new learning.

This is where NMR starts.  

The 1st Important Consideration in Corrective Bodywork: https://vimeo.com/395854829:

New NMR Trainings begin January 13 – 15th 2023 in-person or Live Streaming via Zoom. 

Find them at NeuroMuscular-Reprogramming.com/events.

For more information on our upcoming trainings, you can visit our Facebook Event Page, and remember: 

3 is the Key to Learning. 

Brain Buttons for Improved Muscle Function and Mental Clarity

Published: 6 April 2014
Written by Jocelyn Olivier
No comments
Categories: Brain Function, Community Classes

Brain Buttons are a tool that we use every day here at the Healus Neuro Rehab Center. Using Brain Buttons regularly will improve your ability to pay attention, increase your coordination, reduce your risk of physical injury, and mediate the impact of stress in your life. It is the single most effective tool we can recommend to clients with occasional but recurring pain patterns.

First, Jocelyn shares how we test Contralateral Coordination. Contralateral Coordination is the brain’s ability to coordinate motion across the midline of the body. When this ability is impaired by stress or trauma, we are unable to rotate the segments of our body (our low back, upper back, neck, and eyes) in both directions. She then demonstrates how to use Brain Buttons to restore communication between the two halves of the brain. This turns on bilateral (both sided) brain function and restores contralateral coordination.

You can do Brain Buttons at home! They are a great way to optimize your brain function in the morning, before a workout, before a test, or before speaking in public. Try for yourself to see how effective this simple tool really is!

Sleeping Well Through Midlife – Is it possible?

Published: 28 March 2013
Written by Jocelyn Olivier
No comments
Categories: Brain Function, On The Path, Techniques

photo16Getting a good night’s sleep is crucial to our attitude and energy level. Yet sleep in our older years tends to become elusive as our stress hormones are no longer mediated by the abundance of estrogen we had in younger years. When hormone levels fall, muscles harden, exacerbating migraines and tension.

 

Here are some natural ways to help you relax for deep sleep:

Hot baths before bed are notoriously effective in relaxing hypertension and regulating deep relaxation. Taken before bed, a bath can produce a relaxation effect within 20 minutes by dilating blood vessels and reducing blood pressure when cortisol levels wake you with worrisome or anxious thoughts.

Hold points on your governing meridian. Before going to sleep at night lie on your side and touch the spot at the very top of your head with one hand, and your tailbone with the other hand. Take slow, deep breaths, counting to four on the inhale, and four on the exhale. Imagine your breath filling your torso, and then sinking behind you, through your back and into the space behind you. You can also trace your mind up and down your spine, slowly, from top to bottom. This exercise helps to unwind tension, stress, and spinal trauma. With regular practice, you will definitely see the quality and quantity of your sleep improve.

Have a family member or friend hold your adrenal points. Two reflex points will release your adrenal stress before you go to sleep, enabling you to sleep more readily and more deeply. Once your partner finds the points, no pressure is needed. Just touching and holding those points will bring the system to equilibrium and put you to sleep.

The Adrenal Stress Points:treatment
The location of the first point is on our shoulder blade 1″ from the medial border nearest the spine, and 1″ down from the top edge of the bone. If you touch the blade with 2 to 3 fingers, you can’t miss it, as it will be tender to the touch upon pressure. The second point is halfway down the back of the hand, between the 3rd and 4th hand bones (ring and little finger). Hold the points for 1-3 minutes on each side of the body or until you feel pulsation under your fingertips.

With a little attention and regularity, these simple steps will have you sleeping through the night and awakening fully restored and rejuvenated!