I have had quite a few patients this month who have been stuck in a painful protective patterns. In my search to find a new approach for self correction I came across some of Jason Silvermails articles. I'll post the other one tomorrow. have a read and tell me what you think.

-Mike Reoch

~ Watering the Grass ~ 
Practicing Corrective Movement
by Major Jason Silvernail U.S. Army

The body is a wonderfully self-corrective machine. When you know more about how your body works,
you can learn to treat your pain naturally through movement.

Watering the Grass

Understanding how to help your nerve tissue to heal is a lot like watering your lawn.  It’s not a question of waiting for enough time for healing; it’s a question of providing the right  environment.

Let’s say you have some grass that has started to turn brown from lack of water.  In order to help it grow back, you have to water it a little bit every day, and it slowly comes back to being healthy and green on its own. How quickly this happens depends on a lot of factors we can’t control, so it’s important to take things day by day and focus on what we can control – how much you walk on your grass, and how much you water it. You know that if you regularly water your grass and stay off of it while it’s growing, it will come back – it’s only a matter of time.

To get your grass to grow back, you first need to stop walking on it while it’s growing.

Depending on how brown it is, you may want to walk on it just a little, or not at all. If you have a volleyball game on it, you can be sure that will REALLY slow down the process. Your nerve tissue is the same way. As it heals, you can load it with exercise, activity, or prolonged postures more successfully. But early in this process, you need to minimize aggravating activities and prolonged positions, in order to maximize your healing. You will notice slowly that you can tolerate more activity and a longer time in different postures, but this ability is a direct result of how often you are doing the movement therapy to “dose” the tissue with blood. If you keep it up over time, soon you’ll be able to have that volleyball game on the grass after all.

To get your grass to grow back, you also need to water it, that’s how it gets its nourishment. Your nerve tissue is like that, too – only instead of water, it needs a regular blood supply to heal. Doing the movement therapy you’ve been practicing is how you both supply the tissue with blood and reduce the mechanical strain on the tissue. You will get better as a direct result of the frequency that you do this. Now, if your grass is brown and dying, you don’t want to just dump a lot of water on it the first day – that will just get you a lot of mud. You need to start slowly and work yourself up. Some increased pain is expected after you start to do the movement therapy properly. This will go away with continued movement and activity. 

Remember, in order to grow back, your grass needs rest and regular watering. The same is true of your nerve tissue. As long as you are providing it both of those things, you will get  better in time. It’s impossible to predict exactly WHEN, but if you are doing both these things, it’s simply a matter of time:

RULES FOR REGROWING GRASS
1. Don’t walk on the grass while it’s growing
2. Water it slowly and regularly every day


RULES FOR HEALING NERVE TISSUE
 
1. Don’t do things that aggravate the problem until it’s ready
2. Do the movement therapy to supply it with blood slowly and regularly every day