June 24, 2017
I know how ya feel. I’ve been there. It’s called being a human being on this planet. Inescapable stress 24/7 coming from 360 degrees. It seems never ending. Constantly bombarded with so much sensory stimuli our brains are overloaded and on high alert. We become numb to the environment and to ourselves. We often lose our sense of self in the never ending quest to do more, be more, get more, work more and even play more
There are three things that contribute to stress in human beings:
These are all emotionally driven and have the greatest affect the on HPA hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal Nexus (mouthful of words that simply means how endocrine glands talk to each other.) This system feeds fight or flight reactions.
How can the ground be helpful for these?
Sensory input drives perception.
Threat and stress are perception; real or imagined. The more sensory input you can give your brain the more perception of the environment is has, and that fosters comfort. The skin is the largest sensory organ in your body. The more skin you can get in the game the better. When you walk on two feet you get pressure coming into the feet with very little sensory input because you are wearing foot condoms ( otherwise known as shoes). You feel stuff but it just ain’t the same. Get it? When you go to the ground you have more pressure sensory feedback, giving your brain a perception of less threat.
You may think that walking upright is easy, it ain’t. It’s the most complicated movement pattern on the planet. Only humans can do it. It took you months to learn how. You can’t learn to walk until you learn how to move first. Where did ya learn how to move? On the ground. There is always some nervous system activity devoted to preventing a fall, you just don’t feel it.
When you go to the ground you have more stability. Think of stability as safety. The safer you feel the more your body will allow Movement. Stability always precedes force production and force production is movement. More body parts involved in motion the more certain your body is that it won’t fall. Plus you ain’t got that far to go since you are already down there.
Loss of control No doubt life kicks your ass. You never know where it’s gonna come from or from whom. Take yourself back to a time when you didn’t have any stressors of the world and you were just playing around learning how to move. Where were ya? Hopefully on the ground and not straddled to some jolly jumper. Your brain never forgets.
Your brain and nervous system remember the movement patterns of safety and play on the ground. When you revisit the ground, the brain goes right back to how it felt whether you realize it or not. Lots of emotion is tied to the floor. Primal emotion. Limbic emotion. And the number one cause of stress in man is emotional. Go back to the ground and revisit a time when the world was a lot nicer.
So there ya go. Get back down to the ground. Roll. Crawl. Rock. Climb. Twist. Do whatever. There is no wrong way to play. Remove vulnerability from your environment and feel how your body is more receptive to motion. The more you play on the ground the less likely you are to end up under it anytime soon. I’ll see ya there. The first roll is on me.
#sharethemojo
Perry
