Elaine Petrone - The Miracle Ball Method: Relieve Your Pain, Reshape Your Body, Reduce Your Stress

The special needs, limitations, and responses of each individual cannot be anticipated. The 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.

The Miracle Ball Method is a trademark of Elaine Petrone, LLC.

Copyright 2003 by Elaine Petrone

Design by Paul Hanson and Elizabeth Johnsboen

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.

eISBN 9780761177555

Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014-4381
www.workman.com

Dedicated to the memories of Chris and Mary Curas, and Paula Curas Didelot

PART ONE
The Basics

PART TWO
On the Ball

I have known Elaine Petrone for more than ten years now. She has worked with my patients in the rehabilitation center where I practice. Her method of ball therapy gives people the tools to help themselves feel better. Many of my patients are struggling with such chronic conditions as back pain, fibromyalgia, unhealed injury, arthritis, as well as physiological reactions to stress. Elaines method gives them ways of reducing their bodies stress and relieving their pain. I highly recommend The Miracle Ball Method, as so many of my patients have received relief from it.

JANET FREEDMAN, M.D., ORTHOPEDIST, THE REHABILITATION CENTER OF SOUTHWESTERN CONNECTICUT AT STAMFORD HOSPITAL, STAMFORD, CT

Welcome to The Miracle Ball Method. You may be reading this book because you have chronic pain for which you are seeking relief. You may have come to it because you feel overwhelmed by stress. Or you may have realized that there are certain parts of your body that no longer feel as toned as they should and that you are looking older and tired as a result. Whatever brings you here, whether it is the nagging pain of a back injury, say, or the intense stress that you may be under, or just a general desire to look good, the solution to relieving your pain and stress is the same: it is to reduce your muscle tension.

Excess muscle tension can come from three sources: an injury, such as a car or sports accident; stress, including the ordinary rigors of family life or financial troubles (even good thingsplanning a wedding or having a babycan bring stress); and alignment problems, such as scoliosis or just poor posture. Any one of these things may have caused your tension, or your suffering may have a combination of causes. No matter what the origin, your muscles respond to stress by activating a cycle of pain in your body. For instance, back pain may affect not only the muscles surrounding your spine, but those at your neck, hips, and other areas. Its a vicious cycle. You feel stress or experience an injury, say, so your muscles tighten, and when your muscles tighten the result is poor breathing habits, which results in higher stress levels, which cause your muscles to tighten further. The cycle is hard to break unless you can find a way to release the tension in your overworked muscles.

The Cycle of Pain

When muscles become tense and imbalanced, your bodys natural correct alignment system cannot work properly. Furthermore, muscles that remain tense for long periods lose the ability to relax at all, resulting in chronic pain. The best way to illustrate this is to imagine holding a tennis ball in your hand. Imagine gripping the tennis ball as tightly as you can for five hoursor even five days. Can you imagine how awful the pain would be? Can you imagine how much you would want to let go of it? But even if you did finally relax your hand, what would happen? It would remain curved in a claw shape for some time. It would probably take hours for the hand to relax into its normal state. Many of us are holding so much tension in our bodies that, despite intense pain, we are unable to relax the muscles: Our bodies have forgotten how.

There are many books on the market that are designed to help you alleviate stress and pain. Some require physical effort, such as stretching. Others suggest meditation or other mental techniques. My method is the simplest one Ive found for relieving pain, reducing stress, and in the process, reshaping your body. It starts with what I call your body formula:

Your Body Formula

Weight + Breathing = Release of Tension

I have found that if you breathe fully while allowing yourself to feel the weight of your body, you enable your muscles to relax and you experience immense relief. Loosening your muscles enables your body to realign, and when your muscles are limber and your skeleton is properly aligned you do not experience pain.

The actual method is simple: You place your weight on the balls and feel your body give in to them. You breathe fully to bring oxygen to your muscles, which in turn restores feeling to them. Because most of us chronically breathe only with our upper chests, our muscles are stiff and as a result we hold ourselves rigidly. When muscles are rigid you have less feeling in them. You cant move what you dont feel, so when muscles are clenched and tight, they resist gravity. (For example, when you are stuck in traffic your shoulders clench upward toward your earsas you tighten them, they rise and resist gravity.) In order to release those muscles you must be able to feel them first, which breathing will help you do, then feel their weight. The body is supported by the ball, the muscles release their tension, and the pain disappears. This may happen immediately or it may come gradually over time; each persons experience is unique. But every person who has followed my method has experienced immense relief. You simply cannot help but get results when you reduce your muscle tension.

In addition to pain relief, my program has two important side effects: relief from anxiety and the reshaping of your entire body. It is difficult to feel stressed when the symptoms of stressclenched muscles and shallow breathingare removed. And you may be surprised at the effect my method has on your figure. Tight muscles are thick and stiff; relaxed muscles are long and flexible. Would you rather have short, thick muscles or long, supple ones surrounding your waist, abdomen, and thighs?

In addition to delivering results, my method of ball therapy is easy to dodeceptively easy. Visualization, meditation, biofeedback, and behavioral therapy all require too much effort for my liking. When I tried these and other mind-over-body methods, I always found that my mind was too active and that it was a struggleand a contradiction in termsto try to relax my mind. It was too much work for me. What I needed to relax, it seemed to me, was not my mind but my body. Now I dont worry about what my mind is doing. I just get on the balls, breathe, and let my body do the rest.

I understand the feelings of my students because I have had my own experience with chronic pain. I understand the anxiety and questions it can produce: Why is this happening? Why cant I find help? And why is it affecting so many other parts of my life? I developed my method of ball therapy in response to my need to find answers to these questions and to heal my own body.