Feedback Loops

We have feedback loops occuring all of the time between the Central Nervous System (brain and spinal column) and the Musculoskeletal System. The next time you reach for a glass of water, let yourself be amazed at all that goes on to do this "simple" act.

The visual stimulation of seeing the glass - the sensory cortex communicating with the motor cortex, so the arm knows how far to reach and with what amount of grip to hold the glass. More communication between brain, nerve, muscles, bone to get the glass to your lips and then put it back on the table.

Now, let's think about this in terms of:
- always carrying your bag over the same shoulder
- limping from an injury
- head poking forward or looking down at a screen

These are habituated movement patterns - the ones above are repeated loops of a patterns that aren't really that great for us. Resulting in...yep, you guessed it - tension, strain, pain and more. Sort of like a record skipping a beat where the same part of a song gets played over and over and nothing changes till someone moves the needle.

Our muscles can get "stuck" in tension - never fully releasing from contraction. Also know as Sensory Motor Amnesia (more on that in another post). This can create changes in gait, posture, mobility, breath. This can create injury and pain.

How can we get these feedback loops to shift?

Gentle, slow, repetitive, deeply aware movement.
Beginning the process of freeing yourself from tension and pain really can be that simple.

The magic comes in the fine tuning of how you are moving and how you are paying attention to your movement.