Message to the people of Japan

I’ve been watching the news - while on holiday - of the natural disaster that struck your country. A catastrophe of a dimension that we haven’t seen for a long time. A catastrophe with implications that effect all life forms. 

Although I might be thousands of kilometers away I can feel the influence this calamaty has on me just through reading, listening, by absorbing the news. My mind tries to comprehend  what has happened and wonders what the implications might be in the future on all our lives. As an impact it will have, economically we are all interdependent so already looking from this angle changes will come our way. But there is more as microcosmos and macrocosmos are just a reflection of each other so will this inner shaking of the earth shake us all at the core of our being. I can feel already my body being much more in need of attention as it tries to absorb also on an unconscious level the impact of what happened. 

Japan might be more prone to these earthquakes - lying in the ring of fire - then we are in Belgium but disaster can strike anywhere. Unconsciously this disaster triggers in me questions about survival. Maybe questions is not the right word as my deeper unconscious self doesn’t think but acts on instinct and instinct is guided by my physiology and if one goes beyond the realm of matter by waves and frequencies. 

A quote from Albert Einstein comes to mind “The field is the sole governing agency of the particle.” The particle being matter, our physical body. It is but a quick link to the effects a natural disaster like in your country can have an impact on me directly. 

When the earthquake hit Haiti I already felt a big commotion within me and this was repeated after the floods in Australia and the quake in Christchurch, New Zealand. There have been many more that made me stand still, reflect and made me feel helpless.

Today I write to you as I don’t want to sit back anymore and be indifferent. As an osteopath and body-coach I have come to understand that major life changes, overload of input, emotions, trauma... have an enormous impact on our wellbeing. 

As human beings we have been gifted with a remarkable self healing mechanism. However the fine balance of this mechanism can become perturbed when we chronically challenge it or when it is over challenged, the latter being the case for you now in Japan. The threshold of this balance is unique for every person, but with a disaster of this kind where some of you have lost your whole family, your home, job, security,... I can’t imagine it leaves anybody untouched. 

In my body-coaching and osteopathy practice I see many people who have aches and pains, suffer from depression, burn-out etc just from trying to cope with daily life, work, relationships... The final straw is usually a big change like loss of a job, a loved one or a physical trauma. From that moment it is only downhill. 

Although these final straw moments are terrible and I don’t want to minimize them but what you are going through is of a level that well exceeds the stressors that most of my patients suffer. So therefore I can but predict - taking into account what I see on a daily basis - what this disaster can do to the human being.

Stress is the word used when our organism fails to respond to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined. We experience the signs of stress on a cognitive, emotional, physical or behavioral level: Depression, moodiness, mindlessness, aches and pains, social withdrawal, procrastination, sleeping problems, short-temperedness, loss of focus, feeling of helplessness... 

All these and much more will set in with many of you in the aftermath of this natural disaster. In a time when you need to rebuild your life, when you need focus, insight, vision, you might have no access to those parts of the brain that are creating these due to the physiological stress response that has gone out of control, that has locked itself in a survival mode pattern and that thus runs you on automatic pilot. 

We experience this lock-down on a small scale when we touch something hot and we straightaway pull our hand back. This is a reflex mechanism and purely instinctive. We don’t think “oh that’s hot I need to pull my hand away” as it would be too late. The conscious mind is too slow in reacting to minimize the damage. The same reflex happens when we see a car speeding up in our direction we don’t think we act, we jump or start running fast to get out of the way. Luckily most of the times we go in and out of these survival mechanism moments. A big shock or trauma can impair this physiological stress response mechanism to return to it’s allostatic balance. When this system is compromised you don’t even know it. Slowly, but surely, the body will start showing signs of dis-ease: tiredness, being a bit more edgy, concentration problems, digestive problems... which can eventually lead to depression and burn-out.

However and this is the good news that I like to share with you. There are ways to help your body, your organism to cope better. I’m not saying that all problems will be gone. I’m not saying that there are miracle cures. Some people will need professional help and guidance. However we can do a lot ourselves. 

We can help ourselves by consciously partaking in our self-healing. We have lost this art but it’s time to bring it back.

The self-help tools I will share with you on this website are part of a 2 day workshop that I’ve started to give from the beginning of this year after having done some test runs late 2010. Most of these tools are not something I have come up with but that I have come across over the years and started to gather on my website so that people could take more control over their wellbeing after a treatment. It was my patients that asked what they could do to increase their resilience. It is also thanks to my patients feedback that I’m convinced that these tools work. It worked for them, it will work for you. These tools need  to be practiced on a daily basis but are not time consuming. These tools will give you access to your full potential and thus you will gain time when you apply them consistently.  These tools form part of what I call an elementary health care approach. Elementary as they go back to the basics of what being human is all about. Elementary as they are easy and straightforward. 

You are in need of all the help you can get. I might be just a man somewhere on this planet far away from the epicenter of this disaster but I feel with you and want to contribute and do my part to help. We are all one, we are a collective and it makes me uneasy not to do anything. Knowing, what I know from my experience as body-coach and osteopath about the stress response. From my personal research into solutions to bring back balance to an over challenged stress response. From seeing that a solution to bring back balance can be so easy to learn and apply. I know act.

I wanted already to react after the earthquake in Haiti. I didn’t because I wasn’t ready I didn’t have all the elements needed. It is only now that I can see clearly that although I might not have all the answers this information is what I can share with you. This can already make the difference for many of you.

I also recommend to the people of Haiti, Christchruch, Brisbane, war zones in fact to everyone start applying some if not all of these practices. You will see it will help you on many levels. It will help your wellbeing.

Consider this “80% of all illnesses are related to stress”, stress is the health problem number one our society faces today and that was already before this disaster struck. It is time that you and me, that we start taking measures to do something about this. it’s starts with information and that I’m giving you here. What I can’t do is to apply these tools for you. That you can only do for yourself as I only can do them for me. This is thus about you taking up the responsibility of your health again. To become the driver of your wellbeing and not the passenger and in a worst case scenario the victim of your own body that has displaced your mind. 

Spread the word. Spread the content of this website to all your friends and family. Start groups to share this information. Add exercises that you know that also offer help. 

Remember they need to be simple and straightforward they may not provoke more stress.  

Lets bring light on this planet, you, me, everyone, together as one big family that heals each other.

Be good to you.

Tom Meyers

The self-help tools you will find on the following website dedicated to people all around the world that have been affected by effects of stress and trauma: elementaryhealthcare.wordpress.com

First Aid in times of stress and trauma

A plaster on a wound is first aid for injury. What first aid tool do you use in times of stress and trauma? I've asked around and not many people were able to give me an answer. Maybe no-one thought about putting it in the first aid box or first aid training. Maybe until now there weren't many tools that could be used for this purpose.

With more and more people suffering from the effects of stress and trauma isn't it time that we start to look into this?

I came to ask the question while doing my research on the BioMotions Body-Coaching approach that I've developed and teach. One day it dawned on me what I was teaching was just that. I was teaching people to become stress and trauma 'first aiders'. Since I've been looking at the BioMotions Body-Coaching method and viewing it in this light.

What does it mean First aid? In Wikipedia I found

First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by a non-expert person to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care past the first aid intervention. It generally consists of a series of simple and in some cases, potentially life-saving techniques that an individual can be trained to perform with minimal equipment.

When I look then at Body-Coaching, it:

• Facilitates Self healing mechanism ≃Provides care
• Can be learned by everyone also children ≃ no need to be an expert
• Is a series of facilitating micro-movements based on a single principle ≃ simple
• Is a tool that can provide help but when the condition is serious further professional help is required ≃ idem for first aid
• Works without external tools only your hands and attention are needed ≃ minimal equipment

I can only observe but let me know what you think?

Wouldn't you be interested to learn something that helps you but also others?

Times are changing and everything is speeding up. Stress is the result of our resources to be overstretched. We're not coping so well anymore but what if there is a solution? What if you could learn an easy to learn tool to help you your family, friends or that can be used in a professional environment.

Writing this I'm confronted with the idea can we all do it by ourselves? NO! Partly yes but don't we live in a society? Is our body not made of trillions of cells working as ONE. I think this is a key insight. We are one and we need to start helping others as we do ourselves only then shall we be able to evolve and thus cope better. But first we have to learn new tools...

Body-Coaching is one such tool. It helps us but also it brings us all together. It's an approach that will help us all be better in what we do as we will be empowered to thrive in the ever changing ever increasing moment.

More information on https://sites.google.com/site/biomotionsbodycoaching/

Next Workshops:

12 and 13 February (English) Brussels

5 and 6 March (French) Brussels

9 and 10 April (German) Vienna with a presentation on Friday the 8th

Does our body need coaching?

Insight on the influence of osteopathy on trauma.
By Tom Meyers, Osteopath

Among its many effects, trauma can cause a freeze lock in the reptilian brain that blocks people’s access to their full potential and reduces them to survival mode. Through osteopathy treatment – in particular the cranio-sacral approach - the conditions associated with this downshifting can be lifted, restoring full use of the rational and emotional brain.


No joy in life, apathy, self-centeredness, dissociation, disrupted relationships, chronic fatigue, pain, irritability, easily angered, distress, not coping, overwhelm, feeling locked / blocked, back or neck-ache, upset stomach… We know the emotional effects of trauma but there are other conditions which are as much part of the aftermath of trauma but that are less well known. Trauma has an effect on the whole person - not only our emotions but our entire body, mind and spirit.

Trauma is not only an emotional shock following a stressful event or physical injury, it can also be induced by change. Any change in life can cause stress even those changes that we welcome in our lives: a new job, moving home, a new relationship, retirement, birth of a child… Not only actual change but also anticipated change can cause the body to suffer, resulting in anxiety but also physical conditions like stomach ache, stiffness / rigidity, various kinds of back pain (constant or variable), to give but a few examples.

On top of all this, the world around us is changing fast and keeping up seems to be a constant challenge to which we need to adapt.

One can therefore say that the experience of trauma ailments is caused through an accumulation of stressors over time. So although individual incidents will not always leave us scarred, the unrelenting stream of ‘aggressors’ will have a cumulative impact, both psychologically and physically.

Whether the cause is emotional, physical or environmental, the impact of trauma will reverberate throughout the body-mind-spirit unit. Trauma is a message that is perceived as undermining our survival. When the critical point has been reached, a freeze lock can be installed that can persist and infect our whole being.

To understand the trauma mechanism it is worth exploring the neurological angle, in particular the triune brain. The triune brain is a model proposed by Paul D. MacLean to explain the function of traces of evolution existing in the structure of the human brain. In this model, the brain is broken down into three separate brains that have their own special intelligence, subjectivity, sense of time and space, and memory. The triune brain consists of the R-complex, the limbic system, and the neocortex.

The R-complex, also known as the "reptilian brain", includes the brain stem and cerebellum. It is called the "reptilian brain" because a reptile's brain is dominated by the brain stem and cerebellum, which controls instinctual survival behaviors and thinking. This brain controls the muscles, balance and autonomic functions.

The limbic system is the source of emotions and instincts. It comprises the amygdala, the hypothalamus and the hippocampus. The limbic system must interact with the neocortex in some way - it cannot function entirely on its own: it needs to interact with the neocortex to process the emotions.

The neocortex, also known as the cerebral cortex, is found in the brain of higher mammals and is responsible for higher-order thinking skills, reason and speech.

These three brains each have a different biochemistry, respond differently to impulses and have a different disposition. Although all three must work together towards a genuine output, under certain circumstances a particular ‘brain’ is dominant. For example, in anger - which is linked to the reptilian brain - rational thinking is often impeded. When we come out of our rage and recover our intellectual capacities, we often wonder why we did or said certain things. While in the grip of rage, we were unable to think and reacted completely on instinct. Only when we calm down can we be rational again.

Both emotions and stress / trauma have a tendency to override reason, logic or intellect and therefore have an impact on the functioning of the triune brain. Most of this influence subsides when the stressors or emotions are no longer present, but it can persist when there is an accumulation of stress or when the body is no longer capable of processing the data coming in. When this happens, the system freezes or locks.

Leslie Hart called this freeze hold ‘downshifting’. When we downshift, we operate in a lower, more primitive and instinctual way. We are no longer able to access our full intellectual capacities and we no longer see what is really out there. We are also less able to engage in complex tasks, preferring to stay with the familiar, tried and tested mode of functioning, staying in our ‘comfort zone’. We are no longer coping, we feel overwhelmed by events. This can be seen as regressing to a more primitive state of being - primitive to the point that our instinct is activated towards its one primary goal: survival. The reptilian brain is also called the survival brain and when we are fixed in this system, extra stimuli can be experienced as threatening – although the threat is of course subconscious as our rational brain is out of reach.

In short, when we are locked in a downshift we are functioning robotically with the sole purpose of surviving. The more stimuli we are faced with, the more overwhelmed and stressed we become and in these circumstances we tend to stick to routine rather than find new solutions to overcome a problem. We can also become apathetic, dissociated, self-centered, irritable… But also, when stressed the mind will become focused on the stressor. We can’t think of anything else as rationality is cut off and we become mentally rigid. When this lock persists, the body also becomes stiff, with the most common symptoms being back, neck or shoulder pain.

Other symptoms described by people in this reptilian brain freeze lock is that they cannot engage in activities like meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, working out or other pastimes they had done before. They commonly report feeling caged or walled in. They see that something is not right but can’t seem to do anything about it.

Does our body need coaching? As an osteopath people come and see me because they are suffering from one or more physical conditions like back pain or other musculo-skeletal problems. When probing more deeply through the patient’s history, we have most often discovered, lurking behind these physical symptoms, a series of apparently unrelated psycho-emotional conditions or traumas that then move to the foreground. My interest in these non-physical problems has been piqued when, on the next visit, the patient reports having experienced an improvement. So, through an osteopathic treatment, not only did they get rid of their back pain and other ailments, but at the same time they felt they functioned better. When asked if they related this psycho-emotional improvement to the treatment, they were all 100% convinced. They could focus better, felt less stressed even when their external conditions had not changed, and they were also able to engage in their leisure activities again…

As part of my osteopathic treatment, I use the cranio-sacral technique in conjunction with musculo-skeletal, abdominal, fascia techniques and so on. Osteopathy is a holistic approach and the osteopath interweaves the different approaches into a treatment designed for each individual. So although a different set of manipulations is performed for each patient, the approach is very similar.

I believe that it is this cranio-sacral part of the treatment that makes the greatest difference in improving the psycho-emotional condition of the patient. That being said, the entire treatment is necessary, because the whole body must interact with the cranio-sacral process if it is to work.

In the cranio-sacral approach, the osteopath tunes into the client’s cranio-sacral system through the hands. By gently working with the skull and its cranial sutures, diaphragms, and fascia, the restrictions of nerve passages are eased, the movement of cerebrospinal fluid through the spinal cord is optimized, and misaligned bones are restored to their proper position. It now also seems that this has a direct influence on the triune brain and its functions.

After treatment, patients have expanded from their survival mode into normal functioning. In the words of one client: “I still have the same amount of stress but I don’t let it get to me.” He could accept his situation rationally.

I have no clinical proof of my arguments here, other than the testimonials of my patients and my own observation that osteopathy - and more specifically the cranio-sacral approach - has lifted the downshifting in these cases, allowed the patients to re-access their potential.

It doesn’t always stop there, either. In some cases it was also the start of recognition that further help in the psycho-emotional domain was needed. With continued osteopathic follow-up in conjunction with more mind-oriented therapies, clients have found their feet again, free from pain and psycho-emotional stable, creative, energetic, ready to face changes. Most of all they are happy.

Does our body need coaching? It seems it does help!

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triune_brain
http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/change-can-be-hazardous-to-your-health/
http://www.buffalostate.edu/orgs/bcp/brainbasics/triune.html
http://www.humannatureatwork.com/Workplace-Stress-3.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniosacral_therapy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triune_brain