Elaine Petrone - The Portable Miracle Ball Method

relieve your pain reduce your stress

Workman Publishing, New York

The special needs, limitations, and responses of each individual cannot be anticipated. The Portable Miracle Ball Method is not intended for the purpose of diagnosing or as a substitute for medical treatment. This book does not license a person to teach the Elaine Petrone Method.

Copyright 2006 by Elaine Petrone

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopyingwithout written permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7611-4382-6; ISBN-10: 0-7611-4382-3

Design by Paul Hanson and Paul Gamarello

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Dedicated to John, Lucas, and Rose

Welcome to The Portable Miracle Ball Method. You may have come to this book looking for relief from pain. You may be looking for a way to ease stress and anxiety. Or you may already be familiar with The Miracle Ball Method and be looking for more ways to improve the overall condition of your body. The Portable Miracle Ball Method is a book and program designed to offer you relief from whatever ails you in a convenient, small package. The Miracle Ball Method is great when you are in the space and privacy of your own home, while The Portable Miracle Ball Method is designed to go with you on the road. You can use it at the office, on a plane, in your hotel room, or any of the other places you go, to ensure that you always have energy, feel good, and are able to participate in life to its fullest.

My first book, The Miracle Ball Method, was published in 2003, and the response to it was overwhelming. Thousands of readers from around the world contacted me to let me know that using the balls with the method helped relieve the symptoms of back and joint pain, sciatic pain, sleeplessness, rotator cuff problems, headaches, pain resulting from accidentsthe list seems endless. I heard from a mother of four who had been suffering since an injury in high school. She told me that after just a few sessions with the Miracle Balls she was almost entirely pain-free. A flight attendant from a major airline wrote to say that she had been using the program to undo the stresses of being on her feet all day. A painter told me that his carpal tunnel syndrome was much better after using the balls. And so on. Fans of the method are astonished to discover that just a few hours or days or weeks of using the balls can ease years of suffering that standard therapies have been unable to address.

I noticed that many of the people who had found relief in The Miracle Ball Method were using the balls when they traveled. Some asked me for exercises specific to the ailments and conditions of travel. Others simply raved that the balls helped them stay healthy and sane on long or challenging trips. The idea for The Portable Miracle Ball Method was born.

The Miracle Ball Method, for those of you who are new to it, is a therapy that I developed to heal myself after an injury. I was a serious dancer in college and experienced a back injury that became a leg injury that became so serious it ended my hopes of becoming a professional dancer. I went from doctors to chiropractors to physical therapists to other professionals, with no results. My right leg eventually shriveled to half its size, and doctors told me I would never walk without a limp. This was unacceptable to me. I sought alternative opinions, and I met bodywork people who thought differently from the doctors. While some doctors told me to stop moving, some teachers I found told me to keep moving. While most doctors believed I needed to build up my strength, I realized that it wasnt weakness in my body that was causing the pain, but the opposite: My muscles were overworked and their excess tension was the root of my chronic pain. I visited some teachers who worked with balls, some who focused on breathing, and others who worked to realign the body. I absorbed all that they taught me and ended up understanding how to let my body heal itself. The system I created is explained in The Miracle Ball Method.

Its been thirty years since my original injury, and, thanks to the Miracle Ball Method, Ive found myself in better shape after my injury than I had been before it. These techniques changed my life, and now I have dedicated myself to teaching students and certifying teachers of the method, so that others may benefit from the system as I have.

The Miracle Ball Method is deceptively simple. You place a ball under a part of your body, notice your breath, and let your weight be absorbed by the ball. Eventually, your muscles release their tension and the cycle of pain is interrupted.

Pain, no matter what its originan injury, stress, alignment problem (for example, scoliosis or poor posture), or perhaps all threecauses excess muscle tension. Lets say you experience an injury. Your muscles tighten up, your breathing becomes less effective, and less oxygen gets circulated to the muscles, so they get even tighter. A cycle of pain has started. Muscles that get tight lose feeling; this makes it difficult for our nervous system to receive feedback from the muscles, and our natural alignment system fails. After a while, all we can feel is the pain without knowing where it comes from. At that point, its difficult to know where to begin to solve the problem. Also, the whole body is usually affected by an injury. Although you may have hurt your knee initially, when you start to limp you may end up feeling the pain in your back, your shoulders, your neck. Eventually, your whole body is subjected to the problem. The cycle of pain continues until you can find a way to relieve your unyielding muscles.

The Cycle of Pain

Excess muscle tension blocks your bodys natural alignment system. It makes you inflexible and unresponsive. In my previous book I offer the image of a tennis ball to illustrate this. Imagine gripping a tennis ball in your hand as tightly as you can for hours or even days. First you would experience pain, then after a while your body would adjust and you might stop feeling anything at all. If you removed the ball from your hand, what would happen? Your hand would likely remain in a claw shape for a very long time. Most of us are holding so much tension in our muscles that, despite pain and stiffness, we are unable to relax them: Our bodies have forgotten how. My method is devoted to getting you out of your thinking body and developing a dialogue with your feeling body. Once you can feel your body, your muscles will be able to relax, and once they can relax, your circulation improves, your breathing returns, and your body can realign itself. Relief of excess muscle tension equals relief of pain.