Finding Pleasure and Results With Organic Stretching®
Organic Stretching® functions on a set of principles and small movements, rather than given postures and sequences. The effectiveness of this approach can be seen in the following guest post by Richard Beswick-Arthur.
I am in my second “season” of Organic Stretching® as a way to keep my body supple. Now, as a 63 year old, I want to share my experience of how one particular part of the stretching “program” has positively affected me.
Find an Edge and Turn
Pat Henry has always talked to us about ‘finding an edge’, which is to say that one should be pushing oneself to move a little farther, a little farther, without experiencing any pain. This combines very much with ‘turning’ (perhaps the word ‘twisting’ would mean more to the non-initiated). Combine the two, as indeed all factors in the OS system are meant to be combined, and one can experience wonderful sensations.
My wrists particularly have always tended to be stiff, probably due to intense and continuous writing over a 30-year period, but I have finally found something that will take all that away. In fact the ‘turning’ and ‘finding an edge’ have made exercising my wrists an absolute pleasure. The more I ‘turn’ my wrists during the exercises, the more intense the pleasure. Pat often says that the body will tell us what it needs once it has experienced appropriate movement in Organic Stretching® and we have learned to listen; my specific interpretation of this is that when the body feels exquisite pleasure it wants to do more of the same!! Exercise with results AND pleasure is hard to believe, but it happens!
Flexibility through Organic Stretching™ Workshop
Enjoy this inside view from an Organic Stretching™ Weekend Workshop held at Main Street Yoga in Bloomington, IL, in July 2012. Participants were enthusiastic in their response to the Organic Stretching™ system, the ten-hour workshop and Pat Henry’s instruction.
The next workshop is scheduled in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, from January 25 – 27. Future workshops are listed on the Calendar page. If you would like to plan one in your area, contact Pat.
Comments sent by participants in Illinois:
- Thank you for the amazing OS workshop you led in Bloomington, IL. I went away impressed by the method you teach, and impressed by your effectiveness as a teacher. I would like you to know that after the weekend of OS I could feel my legs carrying my body more squarely. My posture definitely feels more balanced, relaxed—my lower back is grateful! And (as if painless posture isn’t enough) the method you teach has taught me how to slow down and focus. I’m certain OS practice is the closest I’ve ever come to actually meditating—my mind is grateful too! I love everything about OS and will continue to sing its praise! Thank you again.
- I can do it!
- It works! Additionally, it’s original—not the sort of stuff you hear everyday; it’s creative; there’re no poses you have to remember; and you feel great afterwards!
- …keeping it “real” so that it was adaptable to all that attended with many different levels of capabilities.
- You have wonderful personal energy; the pacing of activity and information sharing was excellent. I loved the idea of presenting principles rather than strict following of poses. The content was simple and, at the same time, offered excellent guidelines for deeper practice. Sometimes we just need permission to reconnect with the universe of our own bodies, and Pat, you did a great job of helping us do that. Thank you!
This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended as diagnosis, treatment, or prescription of any kind. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with your physician or other qualified health professional before adopting or changing any exercise regimen. The decision to use, or not to use, any information is the sole responsibility of the viewer.
Richard’s Experience with Organic StretchingTM
Richard joined my twice-weekly Organic Stretching® classes in December 2011 and has been a regular member ever since, along with practicing the work at home each day. He tells us how and why this has become such an integral part of his days and the results of his work.
Classes are available at my studio in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico, and workshops in various locations.
Organic Stretching® is an improvisational method. The movements illustrated by this video are only a fraction of the possibilities available, but the viewer can gain an idea of the principles that guide the program and can begin to feel the way in which Organic Stretching® works on the body.
This information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended as diagnosis, treatment, or prescription of any kind. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with your physician or other qualified health professional before adopting or changing any exercise regimen. The decision to use, or not to use, any information is the sole responsibility of the viewer.
Range of Motion Testing Session
Consulting the charts
Increased range of motion is one of the primary goals in Organic Stretching® along with improving and maintaining the health of the connective tissue system in all its many forms. Students gathered for a bonus class session at my studio in Mexico recently to see how they measured-up after from 6 months to 2-1/2 years of work.
Using the charts prepared by Richard Finn and C.M. Shifflet (available through www.Round-Earth.com), everyone picked a partner to watch for “substitutions,” assist where needed, and take measurements. “Substitutions” are the ways our bodies try to sneak around the edge to make a movement…instead of doing it by the rules, therefore not giving us the information that we are seeking.
Between smiles of delight at reaching a level that wasn’t expected and the sighs of disappointment when something we were sure we could do didn’t happen, it was a valuable experience.
Organic Stretching® uses a general, holistic approach rather than targeting specific sites for focus, but by being aware of the area of manifestation (pain or minimal range) we can pay increased attention to those locations, allowing our bodies to guide us to the source. We may do this by working more slowly and with greater intention and by extending our pauses to allow the gentle shifts in structure that lie at the heart of Organic Stretching®. Those changes may be a softening of fascia, an increased fluidity in the matrix, or subtle changes within joints as restrictions ease.
More sessions will be held in the following months.
Jell-O® Joints
Have you ever discovered a forgotten serving of gelatin in the back of your refrigerator? Not brick hard, but intractable. Now imagine that substance inside your body surrounding tendons, ligaments, bones, muscles, holding them firmly in place. This is much the case with the blocks that keep our bodies from moving as they did when we were very young.
Old, dried gelatin
Our bodies are composed to a very high degree of collagen, the basic substance of connective tissue, which technically includes blood, bone, tendon, fascia and much more. In its most fluid state, collagen is the inner sea that fills all the spaces between everything else…the living matrix. Nutrients and waste move through this fluid to support cell life. So do the messages that initiate healing, that notify the entire system with critical information. In that very fluid matrix the messages travel at speeds way beyond what nerves can deliver…speeds like the fastest electronic superconductors.
But reduce that fluidity and the matrix cannot perform as it is intended. Think of someplace in your body where you can no longer move fluidly. Perhaps it is a stubborn shoulder. Raise your arm, elbow bent…with the bicep against the side of your head behind the ear, slide the hand around behind your head to the opposite jaw (keep your head vertical and turned 45° toward your hand). Can your fingers reach the corner of your mouth, or the middle? How about squatting all the way down with your heels on the floor? And so many more limitations that we gradually learn to live with. But we were designed to be able to move in these ways and started life (most of us) with that capability.
What happened? In a lifetime there are many possibilities…accidents, illness, misuse, and habits can all play a role as we gradually ask less and expect less from our bodies, chalking it up to “old age.” But it is not only seniors who experience these limitations. It can even be from overdeveloped body-builder muscles which are only asked to move in flexion in small ranges. Are we stuck with these results forever? Many of our blocks and limitations can be reduced and even eliminated if we return the matrix to a more liquid state.
Back to that dish of gelatin…what would you try first? I would set it in a bowl of very hot water and watch it liquefy. So how can you build heat inside your body? Movement and pressure. Remember high school physics. A really good massage can cause movement and pressure, but perhaps not in all the places you need it and maybe not as effectively as you can by moving your body in the right way.
Small, very slow, rotational, and widely varied movements (such as the Organic Stretching® principles produce) within and around the joints and throughout the body have that capacity. Gradual, tiny stretches of the fabric of connective tissue can help return the matrix to a more fluid state allowing more movement bit-by-bit. And even more important…you can regain better circulation of blood, lymph, and those critical messages that regulate and maintain the health of the whole system.
Author’s note: This has nothing to do with the Jell-O® product, but I loved the title. Eating gelatin will not give you Jell-O® joints.
Movement is Life…A Romp on the Beach
I remember a day in 1978; I was 37, long an adult who contained my movements to normal daily routines of driving, teaching at a university, and appropriate exercise…running and weights. I was on a beach in Southern California with three men friends…sizable guys…when someone started a sand fight. We rolled, ran in wild patterns, and scrambled in a pile. I thought how crazy I was…these guys could trample me, but I was having more fun than I could remember. I felt ten years old and totally free. The only reason my grin did not spread all the way across my face…I would have a mouthful of sand!
My body listening to its inner guide and playing
Every bit of my body was alive, and today I understand a great deal more about what actually happened inside. About giving myself permission to move in any way my body wanted to move. About what my body knows that my mind cannot fathom.
Have you watched very young children as they play in a free environment…without little chairs and rigid furniture to conform to? How about a pile of kittens or even adult animals? Think of the large apes swinging in the trees or tying their bodies in knots as they reach for a remote itch. Our bodies long for that forbidden level of movement long after it has been “trained” out of us by family, school, church, society, the military, and advertising, etc.
These body-directed movements produce vital changes inside…increased oxygen through the circulatory system, improved cleansing of wastes in little-used parts of the body (brought on by our limited range of motion in daily life), stimulation of the piezoelectric effect which has the potential to stimulate the stem cell system (including the embryonic level) for all its healing power, and not least increased range of motion to engage long dormant parts of the musculoskeletal system, opening constrictions and delivering life and joy. With so many benefits why do we procrastinate starting our personal program of movement?
There are numerous movement systems that have evolved to give us the permission to move as we did at one and two years of age. Organic Stretching® is such a system, built on a structure of principles to guide the movements, producing positive results for countless people. It is the teaching system I developed from a background in The Wallace Method, a pain management program created by Heather Wallace.
Deane Juhan, author of Job’s Body: A Handbook for Bodywork and Touched by the Goddess: The Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Powers of Bodywork and TraegerWork® Practitioner/Instructor (CEU certified), wrote the following review for my video Organic Stretching®: The Principles and Movements:
Pat Henry’s DVD, Organic Stretching, is much more than just another how-to offering of poses and procedures. It is a dynamically exploratory invitation to sculpt your own yoga and to develop the strength and flexibility that are unique to you. Well thought-out and innovative examples of stretching movements are, of course, presented (with aesthetic beauty, I would add), rich ideas for getting started in the evolving of your own personal practice. But more importantly than that, Pat’s purpose is to lead you beyond the imitation of asanas and protocols, into an organic unfolding of your own body’s needs and capacities and your own individualized path to vitality. Very like Trungpa’s groundbreaking Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism in spirit and intention, Organic Stretching cuts through imitative discipline and opens the door to the celebration of your own idiosyncratic being and its expression–like no other’s–in your own joy of movement and self-development.
Give your body the Gift of Life, February 17 – 19, when I will be offering the Organic Stretching Weekend Workshop for the 2012 season at Inkarri Vallarta, a lovely meditation center easily accessible by bus in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The course includes ten hours of instruction over the weekend with convenient daytime classes and a copy of the video. See the calendar for the next scheduled workshop.
