Cheer Up…It’s January! --Somatic Remedies for S.A.D.

24!

No, it’s not a reference to the TV show about Jack Bauer.  I’m talking about the snowstorm of Dec. 27, 2012 where, at our home anyway, we received about 24 inches of mostly powdery snow.

It’s that time of year where the sun is at the lowest angle to the horizon, and the days are still short (but getting longer!).  With the diminished sunlight, many folks experience Seasonal Affective Disorder.  We’ve all heard about it—when you become depressed because there is less sunlight during the winter months.

Natural Cures for Depression

There are some very effective remedies for seasonal depression.  Here are a few of our favorites:

• The Mayo Clinic suggests these easy and natural remedies for S.A.D.:

·         Make your environment sunnier and brighter. Open blinds, trim tree branches that block sunlight or add skylights to your home. Sit closer to bright windows while at home or in the office.

·         Get outside. Take a long walk, eat lunch at a nearby park, or simply sit on a bench and soak up the sun. Even on cold or cloudy days, outdoor light can help — especially if you spend some time outside within two hours of getting up in the morning.

·         Exercise regularly. Physical exercise helps relieve stress and anxiety, both of which can increase seasonal affective disorder symptoms. Being more fit can make you feel better about yourself, too, which can lift your mood.

·         Vitamin D3 can also help with S.A.D. symptoms.  Up here in the northern latitudes, short days, and cold weather make it nearly impossible to get adequate levels of Vitamin D from sunshine alone.  What many reports don’t mention is that adding Vitamin D3 to your daily regimen should really start in September, before your levels (and the sunshine) really start to decline.

• Bodywork for Depression?

“It is well known that chronic pain induces depression, anxiety, and a reduced quality of life.”*  In addition to our common sense notion that pain and emotion are related, there have also been quite a few studies showing specific brain chemistry and nervous system changes as a result of chronic pain. 

Depression and anxiety are frequently more amenable to physical touch than verbal therapies.  It has been shown that a multitude of hands-on techniques can help release deeply held or repressed emotions.

Bodywork can also help release some of the toxins that have built up during the short winter days.  (Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FtSP-tkSug for one possible explanation how toxins make our fascia sticky/fuzzy and how movement helps to lubricate the fascia and purge those toxins.)

One of the basic tenets of Rolfing^® Structural Integration is working with the fascia (connective tissue) of your body. Rolfers encourage you to meet your Rolfer’s contact from your inside (core, emotions, movement patterns) to your outside (skin).  This allows you to become more aware of your body, while less focussed on your mind, anxieties, and emotional upsets.  Rolfing Structural Integration is a specific kind of contact (with varying degrees of pressure) that enlivens your tissue, and results in freedom from chronic or acute pain, standing taller, moving with more ease.

Physiologically, there are other explanations for bodywork’s positive impact on depression.  A good discussion of these effects can be found at http://www.integrative-healthcare.org/mt/archives/2007/09/bodyworks_thera.html.)

So if the short days, lack of physical exercise, or the 24 inches of snow have got you feeling a little blue, give Rolfing a try.  (And if the 24 inches of snow has got you excited about hitting the slopes, check out our recent article: Ski Better, SkiStronger.)

Join Robert January 9^th, 2013 at 5:30pm at Healthy Living Market Learning Center for a class designed to help you re-connect with your body, while allowing your mind to catch up to the vitality in your body.  In addition to exercises & explorations, you will also get to experience how Rolfing^® bodywork can improve your mood, energy, and sense of well-being.

*Reference:  Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology re: study at University of Toyama, Japan and http://structuralintegration.info/2008/08/25/what-does-structural-integration-have-to-do-with-emotions-this-time-with-detail/

Ski Better, Ski Stronger!

Stand up.  Sit down.  With ski/snowboard season upon us, that remains a powerful mantra that can help you return to the most simple joys of moving your body.

Skiing/snowboarding is both simple and complex.  It's simple because it can be as easy as  "stand up, sit down."  It's complex because it requires a very active and aware presence of your core, as well as your continuous orientation to where you are on the mountain.

The "stand up, sit down" mantra (thanks to my friend, Tyler Gould for this) works like this: the muscles you engage when you move to "stand up" will force you to push into the mountain, and thus, you'll turn. The movements required to "sit down" will allow you to rest into a more aerodynamic position so that your body can enjoy your speed and fluidly absorb the shocks from moguls--until the next turn.

You can learn to turn more efficiently by practicing this simple exercise: From a bent knee position, try standing up by pushing into the balls of your feet.  Where do you feel tightness?  If you're like me, you'll feel it in your quadricep muscles and your low back.

Now try standing up by pushing into your heels (if you can do it without falling backwards).  Do you feel tightness in your hamstrings and low back?

Now try standing up from the center of your feet--what is sometimes called "the eye of the foot," or in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Bubbling Spring.  Do you still feel tightness in your quads or  hamstrings?  Or do you feel a lengthening of your quads, hamstrings, and low back simultaneously?  Pushing up from this strong diaphragm of the foot reduces strain on your leg and low back muscles, which in turn gives you more strength, stability, and flexibility.

Rolfers refer to this as a "palintonic" stretch: while your feet are pressing into the mountain, your head is being lifted against gravity. This lengthening is the sensation you feel as your body's  fascial network re-maps itself--awakening and strengthening your core, improving your stability and flexibility.

In a previous blog post, I talked about stretching the postural (or tonic) fibers of your hamstring muscles. This is also a good pre-skiing (and post-skiing) stretch that will assist your body/mind to feel your core, and help orient you to the space around you (on the mountain).

Another great series of exercises for both before and after skiing/snowboarding are the spinal flexes (video at link).  I don't agree with the video's suggestion to do the first part of the exercise faster:  Instead, I would recommend that you keep a speed that is comfortable to your body for all 3 parts.  You can either time yourself and do each exercises for 30 seconds to 3 minutes, or exercise for a count of 25, 54, or 108 inhalations--whatever is most comfortable for your body.

A daily regimen of these stretches, as well as other yoga exercises can keep your fascial network free and lubricated.  A Rolfing tune-up can also assist you with feeling that palintonic sense of lengthening throughout your body.  

Join Robert this Sunday, December 9th at 11am at the Healthy Living Market Learning Center in South Burlington, Vermont to explore these and more exercises...or you can make an appointment for a Rolfing session.