Allison Post - Unwinding the Belly: Healing with Gentle Touch

Copyright 2003 by Allison Post and Stephen Cavaliere. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by
North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Cover design by Paula Morrison
Illustrations by Diana Salles
Photos by Katie Carrin

Unwinding the Belly: Healing with Gentle Touch is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Post, Allison, 1956
Unwinding the belly : healing with gentle touch / by Allison Post and Stephen Cavaliere.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-1-58394-477-6
1. Breathing exercisesTherapeutic use. 2. Stomach massage. 3. Healing. 4. Self-help techniques. I. Cavaliere, Stephen, 1960- II. Title.
RM733.P67 2003
613.192dc22
2003015500

v3.1

Dip in
to the sea
of possibilities

Patti Smith

Medical Disclaimer: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the readers discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.

Health

Common Sense

Intuition

Presence

Digestion

The Viscera

Brain Chemistry

Undigested Emotion

Movement

Other Sources of Tension

Belly Breathing

Movement of the Diaphragm

Phase I-A: Unwinding the Navel

Phase I-B: Cats Paws

The Circuit of Healing

Phase I-C: Lymph Pumping

Lateral BreathingLeft Side

Lateral BreathingRight Side

Full Lateral Breathing

The Shape of the Relaxed, Healthy Diaphragm

Enhanced Lateral Movement

Phase II-A: Left-Side Colon

Phase II-B: Mid Colon

Phase II-C: Right-Side Colon

Phase II-D: Ileocecal Valve

The Shape of the Relaxed, Healthy Colon

Phase III-A: Digestion Left Side

Phase III-B: Digestion Right Side

Digestive OrgansLeft Side

Digestive OrgansRight Side

Three-Dimensional Breathing

Phase IV: Knocking

Movement

The Kidneys and Adrenals

Connected Breathing

Intercostals

Phase V: Pelvic Area

This book came about because of the numerous questions of our clients and students and our attempts to find new ways to contact their healing potential. We thank our clients, who have trusted us with their bodies in faith that we would do some good. Thanks to all of our students, especially those in Tucson, Arizona, who bucked the system to work with us. It is their thirst for practical knowledge, the underlying how to of massage therapy, that spurred us on to find the best way to transmit it to them.

We are indebted to all of our teachers, both within and without the field of self-healing. B. J. Green introduced us to the world of Asian bodywork and taught us how to move. Thanks to Masters Mantak and Maneewan Chia for establishing a legacy of Taoist healing in America. And our gratitude to Hugh Milne and Charles Ridley for opening up the profound world of gentle touch, and helping us move into a new realm of possibilities.

We are especially grateful for the years of tutelage with Gilles Marin. Many of the ideas and practices in this book were transmitted to us in his early teaching career, and he emphatically encouraged us to pass them on to others in our own style. Now that he has published, we feel emboldened to offer our variation to the general public.

Monica Passin, Allisons childhood friend, deserves mention as Allisons first and possibly most patient listener. For over thirty-five years Monica has talked with Allison unstintingly about the mysteries of life and digestion. Loving thanks to Michael Bellino for being there through thick and thin. Love to John and Astride Hofmann for their kind friendship throughout the many good and bad years and to Katie Carrin, because without her help this book would still be buried in the belly of the Beast, our computer. All the photographs are her work. Also, Dianne Salles somehow metamorphosed our emailed scribbles into illustrations that we feel are in keeping with the mood and tenor of the text. And we are grateful to all the patient friends who proofread the rough manuscript, especially Suze Allen, Jeanee Hoffman, Erin Hughes, and Chloe Sundara. Lissa Morgenthaler and Michael Murphy enticed us to manifest our dream and then supported us through to the end.

Finally, we want to thank our editor and champion Michele Chase. Her vision, her wisdom in letting people speak in their own voice, and her dedication to holistic arts made this possible. She was truly an indispensable midwife to this project.

We dedicate this book to Max.

Even though humanity has entered a new millennium, contention between conventional and alternative approaches to health care is more heated than ever. The very soul of our health care system is imperiled because of conflicting ideas about how best to achieve optimal health. As I have listened over the years, Ive noticed that the word healing is strikingly absent in conventional circles. There the focus is on greater technological advances so as to achieve more rapid and complete symptom relief. In contrast, in alternative circles, healing is central.

Throughout my twenty-five years as a mental health professionalpsychiatrist, transpersonal therapist, and more recently homeopathI have gravitated to and increasingly practiced more alternative methods of care. During this time, Ive derived some comfort knowing that the words health, healing, holistic, and whole are all related in their derivation and meaning. And for me, they intimate holy, holy in the sense of what is important to attend to. Im optimistic that alternative health care practices will eventually emerge victorious and that healing will take a central role within our future health care system. As a catalyst its important, if not essential, for alternative practitioners to speak their truth about healing.

My experience and practice convince me of certain principles of healing:

All healing is self-healing. Each person is potentially whole and has within him or herself whatever resources are needed to manifest that wholeness. Healing comes from within. External interventions merely facilitate the inherent healing processes within the organism.