Morning Mentastics
A Mentastic is a "mental gymnastic" according to Milton Trager MD, who developed this approach. He and his wife Emily made up the word to describe what he was after with the idea of movement re-education. Combining these words gave the best explanation of using the mind to move the body. I want to be totally conscious while I move, and then totally conscious of letting go of the movement. This is a totally new concept of moving for many of us. If you have chronic pain anywhere in your body, you are moving without thinking. If you learned to move in a way that was easy and free, you would not have the pain. It is true that the pain may have originated from an accident or injury. After the healing happened, why is the pain still there?
This morning when I woke up, I became conscious of what it would be like to get out of bed. This happened before I started moving. Then I rolled my head around on the pillow, moved my shoulders, and lengthened my legs. While stretching feels good, when I stretch to the point of non movement...I feel my limit. When I stop right before that end point, I feel my potential. The Trager Approach is about potentiality.
Knowing that I have at times some tenderness in my arches when I first stand up in the morning, I eased into a standing position and today just barely felt my arches this morning. What a concept! Being gentle with myself really works!
On to a little time on the floor, for about 15-20 minutes, I rolled, moved in any way my body wanted...I played with beginning to move and letting the effort go, moving and letting the effort go. Wide awake and energized, with very little effort.
Start your day with Mentastics...in fact any time during the day you want to take the pause that refreshes, take a 5 minute mentastics break. Ask me or your practitioner for some ideas to get started. Enjoy! Judy
