Heidi Hadley - Somatics - What Is It? How Can It Help Me?

Somatics

What is it?

How can it help me?

by

Heidi Hadley

Copyright 2018

Total Somatics is a Registered Trademark of Hadley Holistic Health Pty Ltd.

This book is dedicated and in Loving memory to my dearest Thelma. You were a true inspiration and a dynamic woman. I miss you dearly.

First and foremost a huge thank to my darling husband Matt for your unwavering support, devotion and inspiration. You are absolutely brilliant and I love you very much. I look forward to what our future and adventures will bring.

A massive thank you to my mentor Peter. You have been such a huge support to us both. Thank you for all your help, guidance and input into this ebook, as well as all other areas of our business and life. You know how important it is for me to educate and empower people in the area of Somatics, personal growth and development, so thank you for all your time and effort. By extension, thank you to Stephanie for your patience, input and kindness.

A huge shout out and thank you for the ongoing support from my Somatics mentors Martha, Theresa and Laura. It is so exciting to be able to share the knowledge of Thomas Hanna to the world.

Thank you to my dearest mum and dad for all your support and guidance over the years. Having a voice and passion to educate and empower people is something you have always encouraged. Thank you for all your unwavering support over the years, through the good, the bad and the ugly! We have all come out shining and stronger for the trials and curve balls thrown at us. Thank you x

Also I would like to thank Sarah for the light bulb moment on a very cold Canadian Winters day in 2017! Youve been a great asset to The Total Somatics Approach to Health & Wellness online program, thank you.

Thank you to my brother Nick for supporting me with my book. I have appreciated your advice and input.

Thank you to all my clients around the world and in my adoptive home town of Adelaide, South Australia. Your questions, queries and feedback have contributed to me writing this book. Keep the questions and feedback coming, I love to hear how you are all getting on with your Somatics practise.

Thank you for taking the time to select this book. You have chosen to read this book because you are interested in finding out how Somatics can help you improve your ability to move freely without the burden of aches and pains. Embracing Somatics into your life, will allow you to pursue the activities you love and want to do, which will in turn improve your quality of life.

I have often heard (and you may have said this to yourself), Im getting older so I cant do the things I love to do any more. Basically, what you are really saying is you are getting more aches and pain, getting sore and stiff doing the activities that were once so easy to do. You feel that your quality of life is not as great as it once was. You feel old age is creeping up on you. But dont despair. This does not have to be the case. I will explain how Somatics will make you feel young again without the nagging aches and pains. You can regain a good quality of life full of movement and activity.

I have worked with sports people who have often developed pain or repetitive injuries. This impacts on their performance and sometimes stops them from doing the sport they love . If you are involved or you love to participate in a particular sporting activity, this book will outline to you why people often get pain or repetitive injuries. I will explain to you how Somatics can improve flexibility, muscle strength, durability and performance.

Another benefit you will experience if you decide to practise Somatics is developing mindfulness during your day. This will help you understand why and how to move differently with your day to day sporting or other activities which will ultimately improve your health, well being and happiness.

Somatics can help improve your ability to move more freely, reduce pain and do every day activities with greater flexibility and ease.

This book will highlight the following:

• Why and how we lose movement
• Why we develop sore muscles and injuries
• How Somatics helps increase movement, reduces pain and improves flexibility
• How Somatics works and how it can change your life
• How Somatics improves your mindfulness practise
• Real life examples of how Somatics has helped individuals improve their quality of life.

Would you like to know how Somatics can improve your quality of life? Lets begin.

Somatics is mindful movement to release tight and tense muscles. The gentle movements are accompanied with deep rhythmical breaths to ensure your nervous system stays relaxed and responsive to the activity.

The benefits of Somatics are to:

• Reduce pain
• Increase flexibility and movement
• Increase mind and body awareness to movement so you do not have reoccurring or repetitive injuries.

Somatics uses a movement process to lengthen and relax muscles which have been very tight for a long time. These very tight muscles can be as a result of poor habits we have developed such as being slumped in front of a computer for hours on end. It could be carrying a child on one hip as you go about your daily activities. It may be a poor form or techniques with your chosen sport. It could be from an injury, resulting in spending a considerable amount of time limping on one leg. However long after the injury has healed, you still have a limp or funny walk. The reason for this is because your brain is absolutely amazing. It will adapt to the new way you are moving and sitting. If you do an activity or posture long enough, your brain will register it as the new normal. This means it will tighten certain muscle s groups, creating future disfigurements, distortions or pain to your body.

What you may not realise is that these changes in posture and muscle tightness occur subconsciously. What do I mean when I refer to muscles being held tight subconsciously? Your brain controls all muscle movement and coordination. So if you have held your body in a certain way which is detrimental to your health, certain muscles will get tighter and tighter. This all happens without you being fully aware. The brain will take charge of the muscles whilst we you go about your daily activities. So unconsciously or subconsciously the brain will automatically hold certain muscles constantly tight, creating chronic pain, limited mobility, poor posture and/or a re-occurrence of an injury.

Did you know that there is a way to relax, tight, tense muscles which will improve posture and increase mobility? A process known as PANDICULATION is used in Somatics to achieve these results. When you pandiculate, you create three phases: a contraction, a slow release and complete relaxation.

Pandiculation creates the following results:

• Reduction in muscle and joint pain
• Recalibration of mind & body to release tight muscular patterns, allowing one to move more freely with increased movement
• Improves posture
• Prevents recurring injuries by changing how the brain communicates to the muscles
• Restores muscle length, function and strength
• Accelerates the muscle recovery from training or sports injury
• Improves the overall performance of muscles

Getting to the ROOT CAUSE of pain

Have you found that you develop muscle soreness and stiffness on a regular basis? Do you find that you see your health care practitioner who will fix you, but within a short amount of time your symptoms return? The reason for these is because we are merely treating the symptoms. To actually deal with the pain and stiffness, we need to look at the ROOT CAUSE. Somatics deals with the ROOT CAUSE of muscle and joint pain, namely the influence your brain has on your muscles.