Your Tongue and Stress Relief

The brain controls everything we do; all our thoughts and actions begin in the brain.  The brain's response to stressful times, like we've been living since Covid, is a tensed, forward-flexed posture with hormones of the sympathetic nervous system running rampant.  Prolonged exposure to cortisol and adrenaline has a detrimental effect your brain, body and bodily functions.  The longer we're in this fight/flight mode, the worse effects on our nervous system.

We need to calm down however that is often easier said than done. To counterbalance the sympathetic nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system which is our "rest and digest hormone system" needs to be consciously activated.   There are simple ways to activate areas of the brainstem that activate this calming, necessary balance in our life.

The vagus nerve is the focus for calming the brain and body down.  I wrote a blog about humming as a way to activate the vagus nerve and calm the nervous system down.  There are breathing drills to stimulate this system and here is one of my favorite ways to activate areas of the brain to calm you down.

The tongue is powerful connection to the brain.  Where you place your tongue can have a significant impact on your balance and tension level.  Swallowing activates nerves surrounding the vagus nerve and because neurons that wire together fire together,  swallowing activates the vagus nerve.

Another benefit of swallowing is the activation of the insular cortex.  This is the fifth lobe of the brain and is involved in emotional connections to physical body, aka how you 'feel' in your own body. Times of stress can leave you feeling 'disconnected' from your body, from your life.  This is when you need to activate your insular cortex.

Swallow.  Trust me.
Smiling activates the nerve next door to your balance nerve.  Smiling can improve your balance which is probably needing some activation as well.

If you want to know more about the insular cortex and the power of smiling, my book will be ready soon!

Follow along with me!  Cheesy grain and swallow.
Be safe.  Stay engaged.

Yes, I want to read your book, ABCs of Balance!

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Brain-based Shoulder Rolls

I recently wrote about and demonstrated how to do shoulder rolls to reduce neck and shoulder tension that might be related to the stress of  Covid19 isolation.    Shoulder rolls are great to improve the brain's mapping thereby reducing stress (the better the map, the better the movement).

So I trust you've been practicing the rolls as needed to loosen yourself up throughout the days. 

Because I'm encouraging you to stay engaged, I want to show you the advanced version of the shoulder roll, the camshaft.  This is a shoulder roll with the arm extended in front of you.

This is hard to do.  This requires more brain activation to keep the arm straight the entire time.  Think about moving the shoulder blade as if you were doing a shoulder roll.

Enjoy.  Stay engaged.  

Stay well at home.

Watch and then follow along with me!

Osteoarthritis Knee Pain Diminished after One Private Session

This year, I'm six years cancer-free.   It seems like a lifetime ago but thanks to the best oral cancer team in the country at UCDavis Cancer Center, I truly appreciate each day of my life without cancer.  Of my team members, the radiation nutritionist always made me laugh by keeping everything in perspective.  She was a beam of sunshine among rays of radiation.

Even though we're facebook friends, I was surprised when she contacted me about some balance training services.  In her early sixties,  she's active and looking forward to her upcoming retirement except for one problem:  she's been falling down.


The last fall was totally unexpected and her inability to react quickly enough due to severe knee pain scared her.  She's lost her confidence and feels like she's crawling through life guarded and scared.

She's an educated healthcare professional who knows there's more to life than living in fear (of falling) and in constant pain so she opened her mind and reached out to me.

After an extensive health history, we started some movement drills because movement makes her feel better!  Her number one complaint was knee pain.

We did some brain-based pain relief drills and she immediately felt 'lighter'.  Due to several falls from horseback riding, the nerves in her legs were entrapped.  Nerves that can't move can't transmit signals very well and shooting pain or muscle weakness results.  We did some neuromechanics to get those nerves moving.

Ninety-minutes later, she was walking better and was no longer focused on the knee pain but was thinking more about her walking gait.  She left with a list of exercises to do at home.

The next morning I received and email from her saying she was doing the drills as recommended and her knee pain was almost entirely gone!  She is hopeful about regaining control over her body and living her life without fear of falling.

If you're approaching retirement or are already enjoying your golden years and are living with chronic body pain, you need to contact me.  Pain is an output of the brain and with precise drills, we can send better signals TO the brain for better output (aka, no pain).

Holistic management of chronic pain.  No pills, just simple, subtle strategies to give your brain what it needs for pain-free movement.  I know this sounds "out there" but trust me, your doctor isn't going to give you these drills because they want to give you a knee replacement.

Stop the madness. Stop the pain.  Contact me today.  info@thefallpreventionlady.com