Somatics and Scoliosis: A Body Moving Freely by Cindy Heidel
Our fifth TOPS Guest Blog feature writer is Cindy Heidel, from Baltimore, USA. Cindy came to our first Fusion Retreat in Black Creek, BC, in September 2019, and in recent times has been attending our online classes.
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My daily life has been transformed due to my newfound evening practice of Somatics!
Initially, I would have described this amazingly transformative bodywork experience as “a whole lotta nothing”. The movements are simple and easy, and I could not have imagined they would have such a powerful effect on this scoliosis-riddled body (the dictionary meaning of riddled… adjective: filled with, and often thoroughly weakened by, something undesirable).
My Scoli profile, in brief, is as follows: found at 13, put in a Milwaukee brace for three years, had anterior and posterior surgeries at 52 in 2009 for a 68-degree major curve; three and four years later the rods broke.
I am now 63 and trying to live in some semblance of comfort, in this body, has been a riddle. I have tried almost every modality out there. The list is long... Iyengar yoga, Pilates, Schroth Method, Watsu, Yoga for Scoliosis, weight training, swimming, Feldenkrais, Transcendental Meditation, Physical Therapy prescribed by a doctor, walking meditation, Rolfing, Chiropractic, Reiki, Sacral/Cranial Therapy, and let's not forget the surgeries. I am probably missing something, because I’ve been at this since the early 80s, when I realized my curve was progressing. I received temporary relief, but it never lasted more than the day of the treatment. None of these modalities allowed my body and mind to be at ease and pain-free for long periods.
I was introduced to Somatics by Martha Carter through a scoliosis yoga workshop. I had been inquiring with many scoliosis sources about anyone who may have had their hardware removed, and was directed to her. I traveled all the way to British Columbia, Canada from Southern Florida in hopes of yet another solution to living in this body.
As mentioned, at first I thought, “This is a whole lot of nothing”. They were simple stretch-like movements with no strict instruction on how ‘exact’ each move had to be. I didn’t feel like I was exercising or struggling to do a yoga pose. That night I fell asleep easily and slept better. I started doing the floor portion of somatic exercises nightly. I have always been high strung and full of nervous energy, but Somatics is calming me down. It changes our muscle memory by re-educating the nervous system. It engages the nervous system in slow, focused, conscious movements. The techniques teach the nervous system how to release chronic muscle tension in order to stand and move in more efficient ways. And if Scoliosis isn't the queen of chronic tension, then I don't know what is!
Before I started my daily bedtime practice my body was riddled with discomforts: there was a deep constant aching and weakness in the middle of my spine where my rods broke, the left side of the nape of my neck was always aching, taut, and pulled; my right knee hurt and felt like it could give out at any moment and I needed a support brace for walking, and my left side lower hip/tailbone continuously ached.
I’ve been practicing nightly for a few weeks now and the difference was revealed recently thanks to my new puppy. We walk each morning before dawn. As we pass under the street lamps, my shadow on the ground precedes us. I see a new gait. A body that is moving freely, unencumbered, with a new swing of the arms and hips. My hips and waist seem to be moving separately, even though I am fused from T-4 to S-1. I feel a freedom of movement.
Before Somatics, my legs and arms moved, but my torso was like a block of impenetrable wood with these dangling appendages. Like a Czech marionette that has a rod going up its back, it takes a master puppeteer to manipulate them. I’ve been to plenty of homeopaths for manipulation as I lie passive, and I've spent lots of money for temporary relief. I believe that because Somatics is an active ‘self manipulation’, it re-educates ingrained muscle memory from our brain conditioning that has kept muscles tight which previously restricted our movement for years.
Cindy Heidel