I’ve been slowly reading A Year to Live by Stephen Levine.
In it he is describing his journey of really looking at his life as if he only had one year to live. In it he offers many poignant insights into the experiences of people he has personally worked with in the dying process. I’m reading it along with a lovely group of women and we talk a bit about what shifts we have in our perceptions of our daily lives as we read along.
The most interesting bubble up for me has been how I often perceive myself at “war” with time. I want more or want to do more activities in a fixed length of a day. So as I’ve been reading just the first 40 pages or so I keep finding myself doing less. Just being with my sensations and even feeling fine as I accomplish less. I’ve been wondering when I will start feeling guilty for stretching out on the couch a few hours each week and watching my son play or even indulging in solitaire. Often I just contemplate my current state of mind and body. So far all the things that must be done are getting done and I’m definitely less often in a stress mode of action. I have had more positive interactions with my family and have been staying well fed and hydrated.
The concept of what would I let go of if I only had one year to live has been pervading many of my contemplative moments. Needless to say I’m disposing of quite a few things that no longer bring me joy and get in the way of me enjoying other aspects of my life. As my space is clearing, time seems be more of a friend and as I let go of controlling time, I seem to find more internal space. So as I read along further I hope to share more insights I receive with you. In the meantime if you are curious I can highly recommend this book as a clear, concise and profoundly loving way to review how we live our lives.
So far I haven’t met anyone who dislikes Zero Balancing. Occasionally I’ll share a session with someone who doesn’t feel any changes from their session but usually that is because of reduced sensitivity to bodily sensations caused by medications or being so intellectual that the person doesn’t have much awareness of the sense of touch.
I recently attended a Zero Balancing Refinement Day held in Charlottesville, VA at Studio ZB in my office building. My faculty colleagues, Elliot Abhau and Judith Sullivan, facilitated the great day of exploring a very succinct Zero Balancing protocol that can be done almost anywhere in just a couple of minutes. In an earlier post I describe a typical ZB session that is done on a massage table. This one is done with the client seated and begins with the practitioner standing on one side and ending at the client’s feet kneeling in front as pictured. The beauty of this is that many people who can’t or don’t want to lie down can feel relaxed and grounded in a couple of minutes. So far I’ve offered it to my son’s classmates sitting on a garden bench waiting for their parents to pick them up in the midst of a noisy group of middle schoolers. Each child I balanced paused, relaxed into my hands and returned to their assigned waiting area much more quiet than before. I also have used it for a couple of elder clients who get stiff from being prone too long. I can see the potential for helping people confined to wheel chairs and for young children when they are sitting on their parent’s lap.
Elliot developed the basic seated form out of a desire to provide people quick care and refined it while offering sessions to massage practitioners at a convention. Judith added some of her flavor to it and along with Roxanne Broadbent shares it during volunteer days with The Haven, an organization supporting the homeless in Charlottesville. When our Refinement Day was over we all felt very refreshed from having given or received the seated session three or more times. That’s why I love ZB!
Zero Balancing (ZB) is based on a standard protocol that uses evaluation of specific joints to guide the practitioner through balancing the whole skeleton system. Yes, I said the whole skeletal system and it only lasts 35-45 minutes! In a session of ZB you remained fully clothed and are resting on your back on a massage table so our hands can slide easily under the body. We use fulcrums, lifting motions that create a point of support, to create a just right pressure into bone. We also use gentle traction and rotations to remove the looseness from feet, hips, ankles, shoulders and the neck.
The session begins with a health history. We perform a seated evaluation of the range of motion of the shoulders and sacroiliac joints. Then you lie down for the rest of the session. First the lower torso is addressed along the spine. Whenever our evaluation indicates held tension we place a fulcrum at that point holding the appropriate angle for the client in stillness as the body reorients. We then evaluate the hips rotating internally and externally then gently traction to balance them before moving to the feet. I have to point out here that ZB has the most complete foot protocol I’ve experienced and it has helped me tremendously! Our bones in the ankle and heel region of the foot can not be consciously moved so attention to those bones that help decompress the complex arches can really give you a feeling of a spring in your step.
At your the head your practitioner applies comfortable pressure into the trapezius muscle at the top of your shoulders. She evaluates and balances the upper back by lifting into ribs, shoulder blades and shoulder joints. The neck is evaluated by holding the base of your skull to lift, side bend and rotate in a comfortable range for you. The neck fulcrums combine rotation and fingers sliding through muscle tissue. We carefully traction the shoulder and address any hand and finger issues before offering a few motions into the skull and integrating the entire session through body in a series of 5 curving tractions from the head to the feet. In the last movement while the whole body is in a fulcrum we can assess the greater connection you have to yourself. You then have a few minutes to be still before sitting to have a short seated evaluation and returning to a slow walk around the office.
When a person stands up after a session their eyes are more clear, the mouth is softer and lines of forehead tension are erased. Clients regularly report feeling taller and that their feet feel more firmly on the earth. Practitioners see more even shoulder height, relaxed hands and upright but relaxed torsos. Many clients say they sleep better and feel more like themselves again.
When I left your office I looked up into the sky and just said, “thank you.” DC mother and teacher
In my last post I talked about ZB incorporating the energetic anatomy as understood in Eastern healing systems. By utilizing the feel of energy flow through the body’s structure each Zero Balancing becomes customized and can accomplish a lot on multiple dimensions of a person. There are common phrases that let us know tissue held memories are true and impact us on a long standing basis. ” I was cut to the quick. The accident was gut-wrenching. Leaving the family home made my heart ache. They were bone-tired.” Zero Balancers are taught to use their fingers to look and feel for density, too much or too little range of motion in a joint, a lack of resiliency or feeling of dullness in a bone as well as how the energy is able flow from one bone to the next. It is our understanding that when releases occur the energy is freed to be recycled into the client. There are times that a client feels a sensitivity in one place for no apparent reason and the practitioner feels it too. My favorite sensation of energy release is when I feel the bone soften much like I’m cutting through a soft stick of butter. Other times I feel like I’m holding a 4th of July sparkler. My client may say, “I felt that in my left toe,” when I have my finger on a rib.
So really what happens in a Zero Balancing session is up to you. What you want, what you need and what your body is prepared to do. Zero Balancers believe in the body’s self-healing capacities no matter whether they are trained in physical therapy, acupuncture, nursing, massage therapy, chiropractic or other healing methods. Our full body protocol is a whole Being support system that can be used in many contexts for people of all ages.
It’s a question I get asked all the time. And truthfully, it’s not that easy to explain. I do know that the first time I experienced it I wanted to learn how to do it and knew I could.
I was sitting in the cozy wood fire warmed kitchen of my friend, Ida Smith, while my husband received his session. She didn’t even touch me or tell me anything about what she was doing. What I felt in the room was what hooked me. Yes it felt peaceful and relaxing but a very, very, deep grounded presence was what spoke to my inner being.
During my first class, six months later, in 1994, Ida helped me to understand that the depth of what I felt was partially because Zero Balancing focuses on touching the bone. Dr. Fritz Smith, the founder of Zero Balancing, grew up with his chiropractor father touching his bones regularly and went on to become an osteopath as an adult. Dr. Smith had a thriving practice for patients with back pain in California in the early 1960’s.
I learned the rest of the reason that I felt the deep presence was that Zero Balancers connect with the natural energy flows through the body tissues as understood in Eastern medical traditions such as acupuncture, ayurveda and yoga. Most people are now familiar with healing practices that come out of these traditions. Chi gong uses slow fluid body positions to move chi in the meridians, MBSR, mindfulness based stress reduction, uses the breath to support quieting the mind both support the body’s natural movement toward homeostasis and health. The internal energy flows Dr. Smith incorporated in Zero Balancing came from his training as an acupuncturist with Dr. J.R. Worsley and studying meditative techniques that use the breath energy.
So when I give a Zero Balancing session my touch attention is focused on bone, the core of the body, in areas where the energy should flow clear and strong. The spine is a prime example of where structure and energy meet. If you look at a profile view of a healthy child you can see the natural curves moving forward and back from the base of the skull to the pelvis. You can compare the spine with the flow of a meandering stream. The water (energy) moves easily and fastest around a bend yet when debris or stones build up the flow is impeded and an area of stagnated water pools behind the debris. As I move my fingers along the ribs and sacrum I lift gently and feel for differences from side to side and for the pliability of the bone and connective tissues. If I get the sensation of density (debris) or stickiness in movement (stagnation) I can use my touch to share that information with the bone and let my client’s body reorient and make changes as appropriate. Unlike some techniques we don’t force any changes. The session continues and I feel for any other or related structural or energetic imbalances.
Since Zero Balancing touch is clear and very attentive our clients take that attention in as being listened too deeply even though they don’t often talk much during a session. That in itself can be very healing in stressful times of constant requests for our attention from the outer world. So a short answer to, “What is Zero Balancing?” is “It is a gentle system of touch that connects with the deep energy flow of the full skeletal system and the whole person.”
Experience Zero Balancing for yourself and develop your own definition! Many clients that find it relieves chronic and occasional stress, helps them sleep well, significantly reduces pain and helps untangle mis-alignments in joints that they’ve had for many years. Almost everyone leaves feeling their feet on the ground and with a smile on their face.
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Equilibrium, equivalent. So many descriptions of balance lead us to believe that it is a state to achieve and then stay there. Yet that isn’t really desirable as we need a bit of imbalance to encourage us to move forward for growth and change. It is also nice to step back at times and re-group, make course adjustments or to contemplate how where we’ve been can lead us to where we want to go.
I encourage you to play with a little meander in the spring woods getting off the beaten track before coming back to the comfort of the familiar trail or to try leaning side to side and forward to back and finding that most comfortable balance on your sitz bones or your feet. What other ways can you find to stretch a little past your comfort zone? Remember to review what it feels like when you move back to your everyday routines. Here’s to the ability to find equilibrium and equanimity in ever changing experiences. And when you can’t, give me a call for a Zero Balancing session to help you move forward with ease to your next opportunity to grow.
Let’s face it tough guys don’t need help. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Those messages are everywhere in our culture. Are you being a responsible do it yourselfer with a work ethic?
These messages can be very damaging if you are talking about your primary mode of transportation in this life. Mogul kings revered their elephants, Arabs and cowboys their horses, teenagers their first car. These vehicles got the best that could be offered. What about your body? Do you go back and forth using it like it’s always going to stand up to excessive pressure and then cratering when it finally seizes up or breaks down?
Most of us go out and immediately polish up the first scratch on our new car. And make sure the first oil changes get done on time. Just as a car isn’t built to withstand continued ignoring of lubrication, worn tires and shock absorbers the human body needs a certain amount of high quality maintenance. Routine preventative care is better than living with limiting disabilities or having major surgery.
Zero Balancing practitioners use tools chosen by Fritz Smith, M.D. who is fully trained in osteopathy and acupuncture. He found that combining the best of Western anatomy with Eastern views of healing led to the greatest recovery of his patients in his busy general practice clinic. Zero Balancing is effective at both preventative maintenance and can assist in trauma recovery particularly when traditional care doesn’t get you back to full normal.
One of the hallmarks of Zero Balancing is that it uses fundamental principles of nature to effect deep long term healing at the pace each body is comfortable with. When a person feels deeply relaxed at the bone level all the biomechanical processes can move toward better health. Forty minutes of aware touch, lifting and tractioning bones and joints, is a booster (higher octane) to your hard working body. As the current tensions are released you feel more energetic and begin to find the limiting patterns that you’ve been holding and are holding you back from living the life you deserve. A full life with those you love.
You don’t have to live with your aches and pains limiting you. Zero Balancers world-wide are standing ready to support you in your journey to well being.
You know that little spark you get when someone touches you just right? Dr. Smith built that into a Zero Balancing session. Through awareness of the rhythm and tension in the skeletal system many of the places that Zero Balancing practitioners fingers lift into have a little zing. At other times you may feel deeply quiet and spacious. These are just two ends of the scale of your body’s harmony. I like to call them the “Feel Fabulous” sensations. When you feel energized and relaxed at the same time your body is in wellness mode. Stop by Tabor Presbyterian in Crozet this Saturday 10-2 for a chance to feel your Whole Body Well Being. See my previous post for more details.
As I sit propped in bed unable to sleep I feel myself relaxing just as I contemplate how I can slip back into my wellness. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. My husband retiring, my son at home after big adventures in his first overnight camp, me trying to settle into to the routine of a new office mate and new patterns of opening and closing a shared building. I’m spending a lot of time planning for the future that is a bit unknown.
What I haven’t given my self, in the busyness of play dates and shopping for school supplies and supporting my husband’s move forward into his consulting business, is the chance to just be. Ahhh, a big inhale and even bigger exhale. My headache is easing and shoulders are relaxing. I can hear the silence again and my being is moving to wellness.
This is my exploration. I also know I need to let go of my chaos survival eating habits. I need to cut up extra fresh veggies when making salad, plan a few meals ahead for leftovers we can all enjoy so we don’t eat out where temptation abounds. Be sure my water bottle is filled and ready to go for the car. Drop sugar and gluten again and nourish myself with local veggies.
Most of all I will go back to sleep by breathing deeply and feeling the refreshment of fully oxygenated cells from head to toe. My whole body can engage in well being and wake up to a new day full of conscious choices.
July First has come and gone and at last I feel settled in my new “home.” The Shala Healing Arts Community at 800 E Jefferson Street in downtown Charlottesville is beautiful, welcoming, convenient and full of compassionate practitioners who want to bring health and happiness to all who step in our door. The practice website is shalacenter.com and you can download directions from the bottom of the page.
If you mention this blog when you make an appointment I’ll give you 20%off your Zero Balancing Session.
Three Zero Balancing practitioners share this room so look forward to lots of great experiences on the table. each session just adds a little healing energy to our collective space.
Here I am with Dr. Fritz Smith, creator of Zero Balancing. He had many lovely presentations during the Zero Balancing Health Association Benefit at the Claggett Center near Frederick, MD. May 2013. I think this photo shows his warmth and generosity. It is always so inspiring to be with him and to bring back new understanding and skills to my clients, students and mentees.
Make plans to come early for a great event of free health information and services.
Whole Body Well Being 