Recovery, and What’s Necessary
Recovery, and What’s Necessary
Recovery tricks from Vanity Fair’s daily newsletter for top athletes are now the big push. Tennis is the primary focus these days, and how to biohack the nervous system to reset and renew in 20-25 minutes has become the latest and most significant investment for wins. Billions of dollars are being invested in creating these extremely private and elite therapy rooms, but only for the top winners or those for whom money is of no concern. They have become the latest and greatest approach at the recent U.S. Open for top athletes, allowing them to return to a more neutral state of their biology and neurology, thereby performing at their best; however, something seems amiss here.
Top coaches are sharing that, especially the youngest of these players, need to connect to their bodies and learn how to find moments throughout the day to practice internal regulation—for example, focusing on their exhalation to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. Finding strategies to relieve a highly stressed nervous system is what many have learned to do to balance themselves. Before the latest and most significant technological advancements, this was a common approach of great Sensei, Yogis, Monks, and many more focused on health and restorative practices for an improved quality of life. I suggest we return to awakening our awareness to not only what we do but how to improve this way of balancing and resetting to optimize for living a healthier and happier life, not just for the top athletes with millions of dollars, as everyone needs to hone these skills better moving forward, instead of relying only on these chambers for the entitled.
Let’s think about this for a moment, for anyone who is coping with a deregulated nervous system, as this is when anyone gets stuck in the sympathetic overdrive state and can’t properly transition into the parasympathetic, rest and digest recovery state. So many now are suffering from PTSD as well as many illnesses, depression, and anxiety, so what are we missing here regarding how to support and move forward? Simply relying on the latest technology can never replace the need to awaken our awareness. Our bodies and nervous systems were developed as finely tuned instruments that help guide us, but first, we must learn to listen to them again. The data is excellent; however, when we rely solely on external tools to regulate ourselves, we lose our certainty that this is truly possible within our own intelligent brain. It’s best to understand and harness our own physiological responses so we are in control.
Here’s where somatic learning and The Feldenkrais Method®, a dynamic learning system, come into play. Have we overlooked our process in learning as infants? This is what we had been doing until we turned outward for someone or something else to tell us what to do. Look, listen, sense, and feel, and awaken to the way we began. Tap back into this process of attuning your awareness not only to what you are doing, but also to the subtle and significant improvements that arise from honing the skill of internal listening to what feels good and comfortable. You don’t need anyone to tell you what feels good. Allow these positive sensations to guide you back into creating as many of your own physiological responses as possible.
“To learn we need time, attention, and discrimination; to discriminate we must sense. This means that in order to learn we must sharpen our powers of sensing, and if we try and do most things by sheer force of will we shall achieve precisely the opposite of what we need.” Dr. Moshe Feldenkrais
I invite you and welcome you to join me for afternoon Awareness Through Movement (ATM)® classes as well as private sessions to explore and awaken your own database that you can count on. Entertain the other approaches to compare and continue honing your skills, finding greater mastery in your life with ease.
I hope I’ve earned the privilege of your time and attention this week, and I look forward to connecting when the timing is right.
Check out the media page on my website to hear and see some of the podcasts I’ve been guest speaker on.
Warmest,
Peggi
