Prepare your Body to return to Class/Studio with the...
Somatic Movement Series Videos of work
created by Thomas Hanna and featured On PilatesJ YouTube.
Thomas Louis Hanna was born in Texas 1928 and died in 1990 in a car accident.
He was a philosopher and movement theorist who coined the term somatics in 1976.
Our muscles accumulate tension in response to stress. This occurs at the level of the Nervous System which is the body's recorder of our life's experiences. We develop over time muscles that won't let go. Our brain which is the command centre of the nervous system forgets how to sense and easily move these tense muscles. Thomas Hanna called this, Sensory Motor Amnesia. In this series of movements we will work with our Motor Brain and our Sensory Brain and develop Sensory Motor Awareness.
This awareness builds from the inside where the distinction between mind and body disappears. Our recognition of feelings and subtle active processes from within override our awareness of the body itself...we become more animal.
Thomas teaches of 3 responsive reflexes.
The neuromuscular adaptation to sustained negative stress is the Withdrawal Response, which occurs primarily in the front of the body and he calls this the Red Light Reflex.
The neuromuscular adaptation to sustained positive stress is the Action Response, which occurs in the back of the body and he calls this the Green Light Reflex.
The 3rd reflex is a response to trauma. The Trauma Reflex is a reaction of the sensory-motor system designed to guard us against perceived danger. We consciously or unconsciously move a threatened body part away from physical or psychological danger. Or our bodies hold a tight protective pattern around places of injury and pain. Trauma affects the body only on one side where the injury occurs...muscles cringe and curve the body to that one side.
The somatic move pictured below invites a release from the trauma reflex.
These three become basic adaptive reflexes, deeply inscribed in our central nervous systems as habitual patterns affecting our posture and how we feel in the world.
We may be experiencing any or all of these entrenched patterns in our bodies.
This sensing, feeling approach offers a path back to the original, innate resting state and position of our muscles.
When we are given the all clear to group again for our Pilates Practice we will be rested, released and ready in body, mind and breath.