The first class of the navel radiation series.

In today’s session, we learn about the core of our body. In the fitness realm, there’s so much emphasis on the core. Most of the time, the core was associated with the much desired AB(S)dominal muscles. Many modalities also explore pelvic lumbar stability, and the iliopsoas complex.

Through the years of teaching and exploration into Body Mind Centering (BMC), I’ve began to explore the concept of the core as the centre of our “being-ness”, located behind the navel space. It is the space in which the umbilical chord connects each of us to our mother during in-utero fetus days. From a developmental perspective, this very core is also the seed in which all the other limbs of our body (arms, legs, head and tail) develops from. It is the centre between the front and back, the top and bottom half, and the 2 sides of our body. It is the centre in our 3-dimensional body moving through 3-dimensional space.

We start off the session with a navel radiation meditation, followed by sensing how the quality of conventional vinyasa movement changes when we initiate such movement from the core, and end off the session with exploratory movement with the weighted ball.

Props required:

• 1 pair of socks
• 1 weighted ball (or water bottle)

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on December 11th 2021.

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The relative distance of our feet from our brain often causes us to disregard the health and care of our feet. We tend to ignore the messages coming from this very distal part of the body. We wear shoes that are too tight, too loose, too flat, too high… For some culture, there’s even a certain element of shame attached to the feet. Some people might go through years of suffering from sore feet before paying any attention to this part of the body.

The health of our feet is instrumental in our overall health.

Our two feet are made up of 52 bones, accounting for about a quarter of all the bones in our body. They contain 60 joints and 200 muscles, tendons and ligaments that hold them together for mobility and stability. Most of the myofascial matrix crosses through the feet as they are fundamental to our evolution into bipeds. Our feet establish the foundation of our vertical relationship to navigate through gravity and 3 dimensional space and create movement continuity through all our body’s systems.
Embryologically, our feet and toes grow out of the limb buds before the legs are fully formed, essentially making our feet an extension of the pelvis, and hence its close association to our pelvic health.

Keeping our feet strong and nimble means stronger grounding and stability, more movement choices and increased neural pathways and plasticity! Training our feet to be able to articulate through different loads and tracking its relationship to different parts of the body will not only alleviate conditions like plantar fasciitis, heel pain, achilles tendinitis, it can also prevent knee injury, relieves lower back pain, soothe neck and shoulder tension and even migraine. Its close relationship with our pelvic diaphragm also means that strong and flexible feet will bring awareness to our core being as we find support through gravity and levity. When we establish better proprioception and interoception we can also help to regulate our nervous system so we are less anxious and stressed!

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on May 28th 2020

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STRETCHING VS PANDICULATION
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The fascination and obsession with “stretching” is pretty much why most people came into the practice of yoga. Ever since we can remember we’ve been told to stretch for our aches and pains. What most people don’t know is that most of the time, we are doing “passive or static stretching when we just hold a stretch and pull with our hands, or submit into gravity, or sometimes we use a prop to help us get “deeper”, with the intent of releasing tight muscles.

Our volitional motor control comes from our central nervous system. Muscles respond to signals from the brain to contract and move. Moreover, the brain can also signal our muscles to involuntarily contract from physical and emotional trauma and repetitive stress. Extended tension can create an almost perpetual contraction of muscles, till they “forget” how to completely relax. The impairment of volitional control of a muscle group and its synergists is called Sensory Motor Amnesia. A sedentary or stressful lifestyle can contribute to this form of musculature contraction.

Passive stretching is done with the intent to pull a muscle into a specific length or state of relaxation. Extended passive stretching can sometimes result in injuries such as tendonitis or even trauma to the joints even though it might “feel good” in the beginning. This is central nervous system not being fully online during passive stretching, thus a feedback loop to the sensory-motor cortex cannot be established.

Pandiculation (like yawning) is an instinctual “re-set” button for our nervous system. It is also an effective way of restoring full muscle function and Range Of Motion (ROM) through concentric, eccentric and isometric contraction of different muscle groups. The sensory motor cortex becomes fully online during this process.

“If you want to untie a knot, you must look at the cord carefully then gently undo the tangle. Yanking on the cord will only make the knot tighter.”
— Thomas Hanna

If you have ever watched an animal arise from a slumber, you’d observe how they might arch their back, drop their belly and lengthen their spine and limbs into a full body “yawn”. We also do the same when we awake, we gently tighten trunk and limbs our arms and legs inward, feel a yawn coming on, and then reach arms over head, then extend our legs long. This process involves a concentric contraction of our muscles, then an eccentric lengthening, and an isometric holding in the “yawn” before coming into full relaxation as the brain integrates into this feedback loop to remind our muscle that they don’t have to stay stuck in contracted, protective state. The result is relaxation and restoration of voluntary motor control and coordination.

So next time you want to stretch, try first contracting the muscle that’s tight (less ROM) and then slowly lengthening it (more ROM). Then completely relax. Note the difference not only in sensation and control of the muscle, but also in your range of motion and sense of ease in your body. You may even feel more “connected,” less tense. Instead of classic stretching, try pandiculating instead and notice if there’s a shift in your ROM (“muscle length”) and sense of ease in the body-mind.

Video by Lucie Krobová
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#somatics#embodiment#embodiedpractice#yogatherapy#soma#somaticmovement#somaticyoga#livingbody#bodyintelligence#innerknowledge#somaticeducation#yogaeducation#yogawithdaphne#exploredancemovement#movingfromwithin20#yawning#pandiculation#catstreach#myofascialunwinding#fascia#fascialunwinding#yawningbody#listentoyourbody

This post was originally posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on April 28th 2020

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As part of a training course work in which students will apply movement principles into their practice. Lana worked with the single principle Navel Radiation through the different relationships with gravity. Using her navel centre as the anchor from stillness in supine, morphing into dynamic balancing poses into creating the balance of both stability and mobility.

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on October 10th 2019

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Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk Psoas with an orthopedic surgeon in Europe who reached out to me about this mysterious tissue. When I told him I thought psoas was a messenger he said “of course psoas is a messenger from guts… ovaries.. kidney… brain circulation.. because of connections with the parasympathetic.. it also receives messages..when its degenerative or atrophied it consequently distends nerves that pass through the psoas… n. iliohipogastricus.. ilioinguinalis… genitofemoralic.. cutaneus fem lat.. n.femoralis..n.obduratorius
.. it has an influence on the circulation of gut and enlargement of its wall – what directly involves neuroendocrine cells for the production serotonin in the gut…”
This surgeon confirms what I have spoken about for 43 years…that psoas can become “dry” (exhausted) and shrink (atrophy) when it has substituted or been used to over-stabilize the core. Stretching does not create healthy psoas whereas hydrating through micro-movements and increasing the bio-intelligence of the proprioceptive system, especially found within the bones…does allow psoas to flourish. He sent me…a little gift in appreciation…not what I find exciting but thought you might…

Some of my additional notes for anatomy nerds on hydrating the psoas
Gentle rocking and rolling through spiralling movements across the 3 planes of the body embodying the psoas as a core initiator, organised around the midline or notochord from an embryological perspective, in which the psoas is a bio-morphical development from the midline, out of the mesochyme material from the mesodermal (middle) layer of the embryonic tri-laminar disc.
Movements include those that involve –

• the saggital plane integrating the axial to appendicular, i.e L & R sides of body in which each psoas is an extension out of the midline rather than just attachments to the spine and femur;
• the coronal plane integrating the front and back (spine on the back body to front of groin – lesser trochanter); and 
• the transverse plane – trunk and lower limbs) in which full body locomotion is driven through the spinal engine

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on July 1st 2019

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A little rolly polly floor time playing with initiating from the soft midline, from navel to limbs. Playing with low falling and reversible spiralling movements, fascia continuity and biotensegrity in finding tension and rebound 🙂

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on March 27th 2019

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​Everything around me crumbled in that instance. I felt my limbs went numb, and I stood frozen looking at the phone in disbelief…

In the last few years several major events happened in my life, including falling severely ill over a period of time. My approach to yoga, especially the physical aspect of the practice, has to evolve with my changing body. I used to live my life so I can thrive on the yoga mat – twisting and contorting my body out of any pain or lack I might be experiencing from the inside out. But now, I work with an exploratory, somatic approach to yoga, one that can teach me how to listen deeply – as relational inquiries into our body and mind, into self and other, into how we live our lives.

One of the many healings I gained from this embodied shift in perspective is the courage and humility to reconnect and forge new bonds with my family in Singapore, after living (and running) away for so many years. Consequently, the seemingly abrupt departure of my Dad left me devastated. It was difficult for me to try and come to terms with all that’s left unspoken and undone, and what I would give to have him back again…

A couple of months have now gone by and the world beckons me to resume back into “normalcy”. It is “business as usual” … because the system that we live in expects us to “buckle up and move on”.  
In a cognitive universe in which we need everything to make sense, we can even atttempt to contextualise sufferings – put a label on grief with an expiry date, and set it aside.

But sometimes sorrow has no resolution.
Sometimes tragedies aren’t accompanied with answers.
Are we able to lean into our broken-heart when it asked to be witnessed? Can we deepen our relationship with ourselves instead of running away from the pain? Are we brave enough to surrender to the imprint that an untenable loss has left upon us? Can we find the gateway to grace that grief has inevitably opened up for us to walk through? 

In every mourning moment that my heart closes in and the walls around me erect, I pray that I will keep expanding, in his legacy of love … ​

Musings on grief ~
I stood watching you
Sitting with grief

This post was previously posted on Yogawithdaphne.com on March 9th 2019

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