They always say time changes things

But you have to change them yourself

Andy Warhol

 

I am taking the action to change my mind, I have a choice, it is my body…. I am the one in control,  I can regain function. There is no magic pill that can transport me back to how things were before my stroke happened.

Before my stroke movement was  not something I really paid much heed to, oh sure I exercised and worked on my fitness but, for example, I could lift my arm without much  thought,  because well it just happened didn’t it?  Just like babies and toddlers do, I can relearn the basics of movement, all over again, and retrain my body/brain connection. Thanks to neuroplasticity I have an opportunity  to alter the neuro – circuitry of my brain. 

One of the most important components of recovery is patience.  I wish I  could in all honesty espouse this virtue in spades, but  I am human and have  melt down days. Days when frustration trumps triumph. 

Its been  one of those times. The past few days have been a struggle. I started NeuroMovement® for Healthy Necks and Shoulders with enthusiasm, only to struggle with lesson 4. The pain in my shoulder is my brain overwhelmed, too preoccupied to  be able to move through sequences, and it  is  same with lesson 5 . I practise the visualization, but feel ultimately a sense of disappointment.. I get very excited when I start something new. Eager for immediate results….. and now I realize   I am missing a vital point of this program.  Go slow . Its not a rush.  Time to regroup.

Those who know me well  are aware that prior to my stroke a big part of my fitness regime was The Tracy Anderson Method. Over  the past 5 years patrons of my local gym got used to my daily workout which incorporated 30 minutes of dance  cardio…. Crazy old bird dancing! Ha ha! Today I would like to share this Ted Talk video by Dr. Jaquin Farias, after watching this talk today, I am thinking its time to re-introduce dance to my exercise regime TAMily  🙂

* I want to caution anyone reading my account, that I am no medical expert, I am writing this as a personal account of how stroke has affected me, and it’s my journey of recovery.

I love this little video that I discovered on the Feldenkrais online website. It perfectly illustrates of the main tenets of The Feldenkrais method, we’ve all done this before….. Its taken stroke to set me down a similar path of discovery.

The great power of the brain, is that it’s plastic! Once you learn something it is not set in stone, it’s continuously shaped by experience and so the learning continues.

I have now completed the first 6 lessons of the NeuroMovement® Whole Body Fitness streaming. Frustrated by my painful left shoulder and restricted range of motion, I decided to start the NeuroMovement® for Healthy Necks and Shoulders series of lessons. The exercises for the neck and shoulders concentrate on where the changes need to happen first, in the brain.Today is lesson 3 in a series of 6. Instead of focusing on tight muscles, the exercises for the neck and shoulders tell the brain how to move in harmonious and pain free ways.

After 2 days of this practice I have noticed the pain in my shoulder is easing, so I am feeling encouraged Stephanie my physio-therapist also noted an easing in the tone in my arm when I saw her this afternoon.

Today is lesson 3, I learned a different way of sensing and using the core, this is where our most powerful muscles reside and connect to the pelvis. In the past I believed like many that a strong core means keeping ab muscles contracted ( a flat stomach) , I planked and contracted with the best of them! But I am discovering there is much more to the core than just contracting abs. In addition to the abs, the back muscles and transverse muscles are important , and becoming aware of when to release and use these muscles is the purpose of this lesson.

As I progress further into this practice, I so love the sense of calm and relaxation I feel as each lesson advances. There is no sense of hurry, and (not to sound too smoshy) at the end of a session I feel a sense of peace.

My progress is slow, but there is improvement, and this builds a sense of achievement.

* I want to caution anyone reading my account, that I am no medical expert, I am writing this as a personal account of how stroke has affected me, and its my journey of recovery.

Ok, I hold my hand up (the good one, lol), I’m so guilty… always in a rush, caught in the “fast – track”, that is up until now when life’s cruel circumstance has forced me to slow-down.

Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going fast- you also miss the sense of where you are going and why

-Eddie Cantor

Slow movement is the key to the awareness of movement.

Awareness of movement is fundamental to improving movement.

It is is our brain that organizes and decides how we will perform any movement or action. The brain maps our movement from a multitude of our experiences from the time we are born, through this process the brain grows billions of new connections and builds our self -image. Any movement we perform is a brain/body movement…for example when we raise our hand, its not only the hand that the brain has to organize- it has to know where every part of the body is in space and the dynamic relationship between different parts of the body at all times.

As a result of stroke, a part of my brain has been destroyed, consequently the connections in my brain that were responsible for movement and sensation in the left side off my body no longer are getting the right message… I have muscle weakness and muscle stiffness (also known as spasticity), and altered sensation.

I am hopeful that the Anat Baniel Method will guide my brain (thanks to its neural plasticity) to focus on the different areas of my body, and form new connections that will enable me to recover and organize the basic and more complex movements that I have lost.

I started this process last Monday with NeuroMovement for Whole Body Fitness.

I felt quite excited as I began the first lesson. The lessons so far take place lying down, no fighting gravity here! I brought my full attention, and listened carefully….. move slowly, pay attention to how you are feeling, be gentle don’t force movements, don’t go into pain, avoid doing movements that you find difficult or are unable to do at the moment.

There is so much to focus on…. my mind is busy and this does not come naturally to me. I now understand why I’ve been told to do this in the evening, not after therapy or exercise. A quiet mind and  environment is important for the practice.

The second lesson brought a different challenge. The pain in my shoulder interferes so much that I am not able to physically do this movement, and so as Anat suggests I visualise the movements.Thinking and doing are the same in the brain. The same brain regions that are activated when completing a motor skill are activated when mentally rehearsing the same task. This technique is difficult, and will take some practice! The carry over from this however, is that I am beginning to now find myself visualizing tasks that I struggle with, throughout the week.

By the time I reach the third lesson (the pelvic clock) and the end of the week, I do believe things are starting to make a bit more sense. This lesson follows a physiotherapy session that   I had earlier that day, where my therapist worked on my very stiff misaligned pelvis, ribs and shoulders.

I am now beginning to direct my focus, on how movement feels, much more successfully.

Am I seeing changes yet? Honestly not yet.The subtlety of each movement takes a lot of attention. But then I am only 3 lessons  and 1 week in.

As I move into lesson number 4 today and my second week of doing this method, I am finding that I am starting to sense movement more as a whole body experience. I am consciously experiencing movement more now, even when I am participating in my traditional physiotherapy.

Practice makes perfect….. Oh  yes, I am going to need a lot of practice!

* I want to caution anyone reading my account, that I am no medical expert, I am writing this as a personal account of how stroke has affected me, and its my journey of recovery.
 

ᔥ The Anat Baniel Method