ARE WE DEVOLVING?
From a scientific point of view, devolution does not exist.
"Devolution"; is the notion that a species may evolve into more primitive forms. In this blog post, I am not discussing a return to a primitive state but rather our evolution into forms that are far less capable of functioning as human beings have evolved prior to all the comforts that came into our lifes.
Kids, better than anyone else, know what it means to be human. Ask any parent who pays close attention to their child's movements without them experiencing any discomfort and most parents would only dream of replicating such flawless and tension-free motion.
When we were born, we were spongy and fluid. As we grew, we climbed trees, rolled on the grass, and engaged in all sorts of activities that kids do. However, as adults, few of us think of participating in those activities anymore.
What happened?
The technological age has brought us the comfort of not having to perform many household activities, allowing us to spend more quality time doing the things we want.
We no longer must hunt or grow food, build homes, fetch water from streams, or travel to another part of the village on foot. Everything is just a hand's reach away. As comfortable as the 21st century is, the symptoms that our bodies are experiencing may be a sign that we are turning away from our bodies' natural purpose of experiencing the positive stress of movement. Instead, we are now bound to technological devices to make a living, communicate with the outside world and spend our leisure time, and the quality time became of a very low quality for most of us. As a result, our bodies adapted to the stressors we intruduce them to. In other words - we adapted to do as little as possible.
We spent hours sitting at desks from a very early age, often continuing this practice for at least 12 years for several hours daily. Not to mention those who spend additional time studying at college.
Are you one of those people who work at a desk?
Depending on your age, you may now calculate the years and hours you have spent just sitting down alone.
Sitting may be acceptable as an average villager in a remote part of the world sits approximately 10 hours a day, but like our ancestors, they tend to get in about five miles of walking. Do we, tho?
The answer may lie in that most of us would spend our free time sitting for our
leisure on our cosy sofas and wouldn't move enough when we could really use the time to do so.
And now loads of people are complaining about knots in their necks, sore backs, SI joint pain, pain in the knees, feelings of anxiety, migraines, and a long list of other symptoms that nothing seems to help.
How to help to fix that?
1. Amatsu therapy can help.
First, the body needs help to release tension that is keeping it in shape created throughout the time it was misused. Have you heard the expression "the body keeps the score"? Well, it does. It remembers the tension created by whatever trauma if the memory of the trauma wasn't released, including the chronic one caused by prolonged sitting. Release of that memory of the trauma is what you can achieve through receiving Amatsu therapy.
2. When the tensional patterns causing discomfort are released, the range of motion in the joints improves, and pain can no longer exist.
Happy days.
3. However, there is one more important thing to consider.
Suppose we are still facilitating the body shape in which the uncomfortable symptoms were evident. In such case we are still creating a similar environment where pain and discomfort existed before Amatsu treatments, and this can bring back the discomfort (not necessarily the same discomfort, it may be a different one).
Re-learning how to move and creating new neural pathways of movement can significantly aid the healing process and move the body closer to structural neutrality and further away from dysfunction. Awareness of the way the body is being used is the key. Consciously choosing different movements rather than being robotic.
4. Why not make ourselves move around intermittently when we know we have been sitting for a long time? Folding the laundry, getting on the ground to pandiculate, taking the socks off and just walking around the garden, the choices are endless.
5. Maybe choosing a different chair, like a kneeling one, be beneficial.
Maybe choosing a standing desk be useful. Perhaps using a Swiss ball to sit on and throwing in some figure of 8 movements with the pelvis may be your thing.
6. At the end of the day - walking is one of the best forms of exercises we can do. Not only to keep our bodies fit, but when done right, walking also works as probably the best form of massage to the body. Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi says - everything is in your walk. And he is right - I did walk myself out of disfunction just last week. After having pain at the front and back side of my 4th rib for a couple of days, it clicked back into it's place with a such a strong shabang that I felt it in my cranium, just through me walking.
To finish up - these days, I keep asking myself, "Where are we moving to with AI becoming more and more advanced?" Where will the fourth technological revolution bring us in terms of our lifestyle and
health?
Are we going to evolve into something like Emma and spend our life
on Virtual Reality, or are we going to finally listen to our bodies and provide them with what do they need?
What are your thoughts on that? I would love to hear from you!
P.S. if you are feeling out of balance lately, please remember that bringing your pelvis back into tensional balance can bring you a huge relief and sense of being grounded as your body can become much freer to do whatever it needs to do. If you have gone through the course of sessions in the past and now noticing that your body is starting to get tension here and there - please remember that maintenance is something that is highly recommended.
If you have not gone through the course of treatments yet - well, you may be just a few treatments away from feeling great again.
To book a session, please go here.