Sensory Motor Amnesia

“I very much enjoy the classes. Alana has a very gentle and calming spirit. She is very thorough in teaching and takes time to explain if needed.”  Rosalie

“I love your class, not only are you completely suited to this but, you draw a class of people that are also suited to this.  I not only go to your class because my back feels better, but, the atmosphere is so freeing.
I feel that everyone who attends have an amazing spirit.  I have Never, Ever felt this anywhere else.”  Donna

I am curious.  Have you ever driven somewhere and wondered how you got there?  You’ve travelled the route so frequently that it has made a groove in your brain.  You sit behind the wheel of your car and it’s like being on autopilot.  You arrive at your destination and try to think back to specific parts of the drive and it doesn’t come back easily.

Then, one day there is a detour in the route.  Something has caused the original route to change and you need to learn and adapt to the detour for a period of time.  This detour isn’t as efficient but it gets you where you need to go.

When the detour is finished you may still take the same route that you have adapted to.  You now need to relearn the original, more efficient route.

This is what Sensory Motor Amnesia is like. The brain has lost it’s ability to sense and move the muscles to voluntarily control  them.

We start out with freedom in our movements, however, we may experience an injury, a trauma, a surgery or do a specific movement over and over again.  This is our soma’s detour.  Our brain and muscles learn a maladaptive movement pattern just like the detour in the route.  This allows us to do our daily tasks accommodating this stressor to our soma.  

However, these maladaptive movement patterns may also create to limited mobility, imbalance and pain.

For example, the photos above reflect the Red Light Reflex.  Do you notice the commonality between them all?  In each photo the trunk and head are leaning forward and there is hinging at the hips.  When any of these movements are done repetitively without a mindful lengthening of the muscles when the activity we love doing is complete, then the muscles can become habitually contracted.

This leads to a slouched or collapsed posture – the brain is making us more efficient by keeping us in the movement pattern we have adapted to.  

What may occur as a result of the Red Light Reflex becoming habituated in the soma is:

• hip and knee problems
• shoulder immobility
• tension headaches
• neck pain
• jaw pain
• abdominal discomfort
• dowagers hump
• tinnitus
• thoracic spine pain
• depression and anxiety
• thoracic outlet syndrome
• constipation or frequent urination
• pelvic floor dysfunction
• carpal tunnel syndrome

During Somatic Movements we bring the brain’s awareness to our movement patterns by pandiculating (contracting, slow conscious deliberate lengthening and relaxing) the muscles.  This practice releases the habituated tension from the muscles to reveal a happy neutral.

Images courtesy of Pixabay.