Seattle Soul Music

“I woke up at 2:30 a.m. this morning, and after staring at the ceiling for a few minutes I decided to do somatics rather than just lie there. I went throug the ones I remembered from class Saturday (I’ve been doing them daily) then just started noodling around.

Opening up my throat cleared my ears, and also relaxed my jaw. My back teeth are in a different relationship now. (much better!) The difference in the effort required to breathe is indescribable.

Next I tried my fingers because they are chronically stiff, sore, and the finger joints are getting swollen and knobby. I asked my healthcare practitioner about it, and she said it was just age, the beginnings of arthritis, and it would only get worse. I knew that was baloney, but still hadn’t found something to help.

Well, after moving my fingers for a while and observing all the little muscles moving each joint, I tried pandiculating each one. Bit by bit the soreness just vanished and my fingers warmed up. Well DUH!! All day long I am gripping and squeezing hard, especially with my left hand (the work that I do.) All I have to do is tell the muscles that they can relax again, and the pain is gone.

Woweeeee!!!!

I feel like a kid with a new toy. People don’t believe how simple this is. I was telling a friend yesterday about Saturday’s workshop and explaining how I discovered that my “sore knee” mysteriously vanished after pandiculating my quadriceps. It’s not a knee problem at all. She then told a story about her hip, and how her acupuncturist is “working on it” and finally what released it was a movement he did, that she described to me.

Well, what she described was a pandiculation. The acupuncturist obviously didn’t know what it was, or he would have done that first. End of problem. Even after this, she didn’t get what I was telling her, and that she could just do it for herself. Weird, isn’t it, how you just disregard things that don’t fit with your view of reality.

I kinda feel like I’ve discovered a personal fountain of youth. There’s no excuse any more for getting old, stiff, and cranky!!”.”

-Constance, Whidbey Island WA