That wriggly child.

Why are some children unable to sit still?

They wriggle in their chair; sit on one leg; then lean forward off their bottoms onto the table. Anything but sitting still in a chair.

This could be partly due to some primitive reflexes that have not been integrated into the nervous system.

When a baby is in the womb and in the early months of life it had certain primitive reflexes that it uses to protect itself. These reflexes then become integrated as the nervous system develops in a specific sequence.

For instance the Spinal Galant Reflex.

You can see this at work if you stoke the lower back of a baby on one side of the spine. The reflex is to twist away from that side and raise the hip. Stimulation down both sides of the spine at the lower back activates a related reflex that elicits urination.

The Spinal Galant Reflex is normally integrated between 3-9 months.

However if is not integrated by then it can be stimulated at any time.

Light pressure from a child's belt or waistline or from leaning against the back of a chair may activate the reflex causing the child to wriggle and constantly change body position. The constant irritation affects concentration and short term memory.

In addition the bladder voiding reflex may lead to poor bladder control and prolonged bedwetting as the   bedsheets stimulate the reflex.

Upledger Craniosacral therapy has techniques that may help balance the body and reduce the effect of the reflex.

Saying thank you can help you.

I am sure most of us were brought up to say "please" and "thank you"but did you know that saying thank you can help you feel better?

If you take a moment before you go to sleep to remember your day and say thank you for all the good things that have happened both big and small you will feel different.

For some of us the act of remembering the good things puts the day into a more positive perspective and you can close your eyes with a lighter heart. For others the act of saying thank you may shed awareness on some of the events or stream of events during the day. It may also be a moment for others to remember to slow down and consider themselves for a few seconds and that is almost as good as a hug.

So why not try it tonight. Say thank you for all that has happened in your day.

Be happy.

Craniosacral Therapy and a visit to the dentist.

You are sitting in the dentist's chair after having had an x-ray. Your hands are a bit sweaty with anxiety about what is to come and what you have experienced on previous visits. Your jaw is wide open for a bit too long so it starts to ache and you are trying to swallow and move your tongue without getting in the dentist's way. Then the injection in your gum to numb, the sound of the drill starts and your teeth are pushed and pulled and plugged and sanded. Then finally you can rinse out your mouth and go home numb mouthed and trembling.

The good side is the pain has gone and your teeth look great which gives you that extra bit of self confidence.

But what of the residue of that treatment? There is the general anxiety which hopefully has dispersed but what of the trauma experienced by the teeth and gum and jaw? This is where Craniosacral Therapy CST can be very helpful.

We have techniques that can identify any emotional residue in the teeth, gum and jaw and facilitate its release. We can rebalance and realign the TMJ, the maxilla and the muscles holding the jaw. Then we can help relax the mastoids, the cranial base and the neck to remove any residual strain. And then finally we can check on the Reticular Alarm System RAS to ensure complete relaxation.

So at the end of the day a visit to the dentist is only a positive experience thanks to CST.

Pain relief.

Pain can be all consuming and the worst must be pain in the head.

I have just been suffering from an abscess in my jaw. Before I could get to see a dentist I was experiencing waves of pain that had me in tears and reminded me of birthing contractions! The abscess was stimulating my trigeminal cranial nerve, sending snakes of pain along my maxilla, down to my mandible and up the side of the eye. There was also pain down my neck and my shoulder was tense and tight. This was probably due to the spinal accessory cranial nerve being stimulated. The trigeminal nerve is connected to the reticular alarm system so when the pain came I had to get up and walk it out.

When talking to friends about the pain I realised that quite a few had been through the same experience and they winced at the memory.

So what can you do when you are suffering with so much pain?

There are some amazing drugs that you can take that give you periods of relief to catch your breath or time to sleep but if you want to be able to do something for yourself as well, particularly when the drugs are wearing off but you can't take another dose just yet, then try this.

Direction of Energy Technique.

The idea behind this is that you send energy through the body's tissue and bone to help release the tightness of the pain at a particular area. This doesn't necessarily get rid of the pain for good unless that area was the root of the problem but it gives you moments to recover. So for my abscess I was able to reduce the pain and the amount of drugs I needed but the pain didn't stop until the dentist had drained the abscess.

The technique is very simple. You place your first and second fingers in a V shape around the area of pain and then using your other hands place a finger perpendicular opposite the area of pain. In the case of my abscess this was quite easy as I could put my finger in my mouth behind the gum and with the other hand I could make a V on my cheek. You may find that being perpendicular from the pain takes you on the other side of the body but that is fine.

Then with your hands in place you can start sending energy from your finger through the body and out between the V. Continue to do this until the pain has reduced or stopped.

Sending energy is something you can visualise and can be different for each of us. If you have done energy healing or Reiki you will know how it feels. Otherwise you can imagine it in any form you like but the essence of the energy is your love, compassion and empathy for your body and what it is going through at that moment. I suppose you could call the energy, self love, and where that self love comes from depends on what you believe.

I would suggest you start by practising on a ache so that you are comfortable with the technique when the pain hits you.

Enjoy loving yourself.

A New Year.

I usually find the eve of a new year one of tension and anxiety about what I have done or not done during the year and what I want to do in the year to come.
It feels as though I carve solid images of myself to represent what I have done and what I want to do. Structured and immovable. Devoid of emotion and separate from who I am at this very moment.
Then it occurred to me that a carved solid image is hardly a living entity and I am very much alive and breathing. So why don't I see myself as such?
So I looked at the images I made of my "last year's" self and my "next year's" self and saw them as living entities with high and lows, goods and bads but most importantly with love and compassion. Now I feel relaxed, maleable and content knowing that what has been, has been and what will be, will be and love supports it all.
Be present in that love.
Engage with the flow of life.

So what makes someone a psychopath?

At my book group this month we read a fascinating book called "The Psychopath Test" by Jon Ronson.

Have you ever met a psychopath or would you know one if you had? I wouldn't have known one before reading this book so here is a description of one:

"a person who behaves in an antisocial way and shows little or no guilt for antisocial acts and little capacity for forming emotional relationships with others."

Jon Ronson very skilfully led us past an array of people that may have been psychopaths but a definitive assessment was hard to come by except for one finding. Psychopaths all have damaged or dead amygdala!

The amygdala are almond-shaped masses of grey nerve cells located within the temporal lobes, one on each side within their anterior regions at the ends of the fornix. From the outside, they would be behind the upper eyelids and about two inches inward which, from the side view, places them about midway between the eye and the upper ear.

The amygdala receives information about problems and crises and then decides which brain areas should be activated to initiate the survival response. When the amygdala are overwhelmed by the severity or number of problems the organism may die. Also when the amygdala suffers injury in the embryonic stage, the adult may have a reduced or complete lack of emotional feelings and responses.

It makes you think!

What cleans out the brain?

In August of this year the University of Rochester USA posted a Youtube link describing their findings on research they have been doing on Alzheimer's.

It has been found that Alzheimer's sufferers have a build up of amyloid between the neurons in the brain that cause the neurons to die.

Using mice they have been trying to determine how to eliminate this build up of amyloid and they have come to the conclusion that Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF) is the brains cleaning agent.

Dubbed the "Glymphatic System", the CSF follows the artery routes to the brain and then passes through the brain clearing out any debris on the way and then exits down the route of the veins. When experiments on increasing the flow of CSF in mice with amyloid build up were conducted it was found that up to 50% of the amyloid was removed.

This understanding may have implications for traumatic brain injuries, strokes and Parkinsons suffers.

As Craniosacral Therapists we know the importance of improving the flow of CSF through out the body!

Now thats something to think about.