Exploring and Learning from the Gift of Life

Posted on August 24, 2015 by admin

By Patrick Cunningham, LAc, BCST, FMT

I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to teach cadaver dissection classes and workshops with Stephen Cina at the New England School of Acupuncture over the past seven years, first through the Sports Medicine Acupuncture Program and later as a NESA elective course. We use unpreserved specimens that are flash frozen with no exposure to chemical preservatives so the tissue closely reveals the reality of the living body. In our classes, we utilize the specimen to the fullest extent. We examine tendons, ligaments, bones, disks, and menisci in situ and in cross section. We experience the strength of these structures by placing them under stress. I once cut through a sacroiliac joint with a scalpel, it took 20 minutes and I was dripping with sweat when finished. But this joint has a demanding job in the body, so it has to be strong. It’s amazing how well we are put together and how each structure is uniquely designed for its purpose. I’d like to share with you four things that have changed the way I look at the human body.

First

The first is the arterial system and the nature of arterial plaque. I had always imagined plaque to be similar to lard and you do find that, but when they say “hardening of the arteries,” it’s not an abstract concept. Our specimens ranged in age from 50 to 101, and most have had plaque, many to a degree that I find remarkable. Sometimes it forms pebbles embedded in the arterial wall, some small, some quite large and generally rough and lumpy. Sometimes it forms long needle-like shards of calcified plaque that are sharp as a needle and can easily pierce the skin through a glove. When you grasp the outside of an artery that contains this type of plaque and squeeze, you feel and hear it breaking under your fingers, like a muffled version of the sound of walking on thin ice on a winter sidewalk. Some of the thicker shards are strong enough that they are difficult to break with your fingers, and some of the pebbles are as dense as the pebbles in your driveway. We have seen arteries such as the common iliac or femoral artery, so densely filled with plaque that you wonder how any blood got through at all. In some cases, expansion of the artery during systole must have been the only way for blood to move past the obstruction.

One dissection was a woman who lived to the age of 90. I often discuss with the students what we’re going to see, and due to her age, I felt confident that we would see some significant arterial plaque. However, much to my delight, this 90-year old woman had beautiful arteries, they were clean, elastic and completely free of plaque. We removed the heart so students could hold it and feel the strong rubbery consistency of the heart muscle. When I held her heart, I was deeply moved. Time stood still and I could feel her spirit. Then it was time to pass the heart to the next person.

Second

I’d like to talk about the spine. There is such a remarkable difference between a healthy spine with thick disks and a spine in the advanced stages of degeneration where the disks have compressed and dried out. Healthy disks have thick, strong rings of tough annulus fibrosus with a nucleus pulposus that looks like thick creamy yogurt. In a spine with advanced spondylosis, you see the bone spurs that have tried to shore up the spine, while the disks are thin, dry and brittle. Stretching and exercising the spine is so important,

keep your disks supple and hydrated with movement and fluid intake. Sit less and move more.

Third

I’d like to talk about fascia. Through the work of Luigi and Carla Stecco (1) and many others, fascia has been analyzed to a degree never imagined just a few decades ago. During dissection, one can simply marvel at the interconnection and at the endless variation in how fascia responds to movement and muscular contraction. Fascia creates a complex web of connection throughout the body, and provides sensory and proprioceptive input to the nervous system. Fascia allows us to be far stronger than we would be with muscles alone. As many have said before me, traditional anatomy books were made by people who removed the fascia to get at the muscles, never appreciating the interdependent relationship between them.

Some muscles, like the erector spinae, vastus lateralis, and gastrocnemius have strong thick bands that resemble strapping tape. These structures provide great tensile strength and store energy when elongated, only to release it upon shortening. Fascia responds to the stresses it encounters, including elongation, compression and torsion. In one male specimen the suboccipital muscles had numerous thick bands of supporting fascia so strong they were like thin pillars of bone. I wondered if he had been a wrestler as I could imagine him doing neck bridges. In others, the suboccipital muscles are soft and almost mushy. Muscles will atrophy when not put to use. A recent specimen was from a woman inactive at the end of life, her multifidi were about 70% fat.

The infraspinatus muscle is one of my favorites for observing fascia. I always look forward to carefully exposing its surface where you often see circular swirls and curving lines of fascia going out in many different directions, to accommodate complex, multiplanar movements.

Fourth

Let me briefly mention the organs. The stomach wall is much thinner than I had imagined it. It’s thin and stretchy and the mucosal layer internally is also much less formidable that I expected. I’m more careful now not to stuff my stomach with excess food. The Chinese have a saying “eat until 80% full.” It’s good advice. The intestinal walls are much thinner than the stomach, thin enough that you can easily see through them to the waste within. When you see the intestines in all their blue-collar glory, fasting and cleansing seems like a smart idea. Abdominal fat stores toxins to a greater extent than fat in other parts of the body. People who had chemotherapy shortly before death often have greenish abdominal fat with a toxic chemical smell, while fat on the rest of the body appears normal. The greater omentum also seems to reflect overall health. It too absorbs chemical toxins, and in smokers is gray, dry and shriveled, when it should be moist, yellow and bright. In smokers you can smell the cigarette smoke as you expose the greater omentum, almost as if someone in the room were smoking. There is a vast difference in the appearance of healthy and unhealthy organs. Healthy organs are brightly colored, there is a vibrancy and integrity to the tissue. They look beautiful.

Changed My View

I lead a healthy lifestyle, but doing dissection has changed how I look at myself and how I look at others. We all have an inner reality, but we focus on the outer. At this moment, your bones, muscles, organs, (3) nerves, and arteries all have a reality that is partially hidden from you. We’ve all heard stories or had patients who suddenly experienced chest pain, went to the doctor only to find that their coronary arteries were 90% blocked. Maybe they were feeling fine up to that moment. The body does a remarkable job of coping with the constraints and stresses of life and lifestyle, until it can’t.

I’ve always been a people watcher and as a structure and movement specialist I look at how people stand, sit and move. Now there’s an added dimension, I picture what people look like on the inside. I visualize spinal degeneration, picture the pitting of osteoarthritis and the joint destruction of rheumatoid arthritis. I have seen metastatic colon cancer that colonized the entire abdomen, and the blackened lungs of smokers who died of lung cancer. I picture the many different kinds of fat in the body, how different it looks in different areas, and how much it varies between body types. I feel and imagine the fascia, resilient and protective in active athletes and less than it could be in sedentary individuals.

We begin and end every class with a ceremony of gratitude for the individual who donated his or her body to further the education of others. Maybe they did it years before death, maybe shortly before. These people took the time to think of others not only in their lives, but afterwards. If I can see into the body it is because of these generous individuals, and I am forever grateful.

Reference

1. “Fascial Manipulation: Practical Part,” Luigi & Carla Stecco, Piccin, 2009.

Patrick Cunningham is chair of the manual therapy department at the New England School of Acupuncture. He specializes in orthopedic and myofascial acupuncture, zhenggu technique, craniosacral and visceral therapy, chronic pelvic pain, and manual lymphatic therapy. He can be reached at livinganatomy@gmail.com.

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(Editors note: I have known Patrick for many years and have been the grateful recipient of many hands-on sessions with him. I was also privileged to attend one of his dissections and am still absorbing lessons from that amazing day. Those of you in the Boston area have an amazing resource in him. This article was originally published in Acupuncture Today.)

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http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=33059&no_paginate=true&no_b=true

(apologies for the formatting; for some reason, this one has been a disaster.)

Chakras, Vayus and Asana in Awakening

Posted on August 12, 2015 by admin

The Big Picture

Yoga is the exploration of: Awakening and stabilizing that Awakening, aka: Enlightenment, Self Realization, Moksha, Freedom from Suffering, etc, and involves Awareness, Attention, Intention, and Identification. This awakening allows our own unique creativity to emerge as a crucial component to the on-going planetary and Cosmic awakening arising in the fullness of this moment.

This exploration requires:
1. an ability to: differentiate the two perspectives available to humans:
Purusha and Prakriti, Being and Becoming, Luminous Emptiness and Creation, Now and Time, The Changeless and Impermanence, etc; cultivate each as a proficiency or skill, and integrate them into …

2. the realization of Oneness, of Non-duality, Advaita. That the two points of view, while differentiated, are never separate from each other. Purnamadah, purnamidam.

3. the recognition that the “I am”, the Self, Atman, ‘drashtuh svarupe‘, where the Infinite emerges into form as Soul, is eternally unbounded, luminous and the source of all creativity.

4. the understanding that life conditions, experiences and karma have created patterns of belief, thought and emotional reactivity that can obscure or completely hide the inner light of soul and inhibit creativity.

5. that there are skillful means, upayas, that specifically address these obscurations and reveal the inner light. (Citta vrtti nirodha, sthira sukham asanam, Mindfulness, etc.

6. that these obscurations appear as either rigidity, an imbalance of tamas, or chaos, an imbalance of rajas; or possibly combinations of the two. And they all involve a confusion of self-identity. (vrtti sarupyam itaratra.)

7. Somatic practices such as hatha yoga transform these imbalances back into coherence and harmony, sattva, by bringing attention/awareness to the deeper structures of the nervous system, including the gut body and cardiac nervous system, as well as the other physiological systems, which have their own inherent intelligence that moves toward healing and wholeness. Surrender into this awakened intelligence ( ishvara pranidhana, II-47: prayatna shayithilyaananta samapattibhyam) dissolves (nirodha) the self confusion (avidya), and allows the light of the soul to shine clearly (I-3: tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam,) and Divine creativty to emerge as your life journey.

8. This process of healing and awakening creativity is an evolutionary impulse rippling throughout the entire Universe. (I-40: paramaanu-parama-mahattvaanto’sya vashikaarah

The Details

How can we work with chakras and vayus ‘on the mat’ to transform psychological/emotional/spiritual confusion into light?

There are seven major energy centers in the human, known as chakras or energy wheels. As somanauts, we bring the buddhi (as light) to each and explore them as regions of movement and coordination of movements. This allows ‘enlightened posture and movements, or movement/posture as Divine Prayer. When all seven have been turned on (lit up), there is a clear sense of the spinal axis as emerging from the chakra line, like beads of light on a string. This of course, is refined in tadasana.

Our spiritual home base.
4th chakra: The center of our universe, where love, wisdom and compassion are awakened and sustained and all the chakras learn to work together. We begin here, and return again and again until we are rooted here as a felt sense in the body deeply linked to Mother Earth and Father Sky. It also supports heart and lungs, and feeds energy to upper limbs and head for movement and support and integrates the subtle spinal movements with the breath. Feel the heart chakra as a point where the infinite expands into form and keeps going. It’s a continuous opening.
Lower chakras:

1st chakra: tail and legs: the three pillars of support in tadasana, and the anal mouth, the root of the gut body. The first cosmic gate, opening a connection to Mother Earth. 2nd chakra: Sacral region: small movements at sacro-illiac joints and the bladder as an organ of support and vibrancy. 3rd chakra: upper abdominal region: liver, kidneys, spleen, stomach, adrenals, descending fibers of the diaphragm, T10 – L3 and more. Modulates spinal curves where the lumbar undergoes large changes in shape. We’ll see more below when we get to the samana vayu.

Upper chakras.
5th chakra: continues support and movement of head, jaws, mouth, and tongue. Integrates cervical and thoracic curves in movement and support. 6th chakra: inner ears, third eye, pituitary center. Subtle movement of skull on C-1, a place often stuck. Cranial-sacral work involves integration skull and sacrum, 6th and 2nd chakras in subtle inner waves and inner energy fields. 7th chakra: crown, above the skull, organizes movements that totally release neck. The second cosmic gate, opening connections to the heavenly realms/Father Sky.

Now we add to the mix the physiological/spiritual organizing energies of aliveness known as the Five Prana Vayus. These are:
Prana = what we take in / expansion / upper body centered
Apana = what we get rid of / condensing / lower body centered
Samana = what we choose to keep / the balancer / middle body centered
Vyana: distributing the good stuff to all cells and tissues
Udana: growth and development on biological, emotional/psychological/spiritual levels.

Can we ‘feel’ these five organizing activities as movements of energy and energetic fields? Can we integrate these with the chakras? This will bring us to the basic laws of living structures and the effortless support they offer. Then our poses and practice in asana become divine prayers, healing and awakening creativity.

The primary organizing activity in the Universe is the balance between expanding and condensing. This is the yin/yang of Taoism and Chinese medicine, and also ‘Tensegrity’ as articulated by Buckminster Fuller, Tom Myers etc. In a tensegrity structure, like the human body, the compression elements push out against the tension elements, which in turn pull in against the compression elements. B.K.S. Iyengar describes asana as the balancing of centripetal (toward the center) and centrifugal (away from center) forces. (Light on the Yoga Sutras on Patanjali). A star, like our sun, is delicately balanced between the intense condensing caused by gravity and the equally intense expansion created by the nuclear fire. Our life flows from this dynamic relationship at all levels of reality.

As the prana vayu governs taking in, we can experience it as an expanding energy field centered in the chest (fourth chakra) to open heart and lungs. It is the yang, or centrifugal energy. Imagine this as a radial expansion, like the opening of the hoberman sphere. In kinesiology, we feel prana also in supporting the action and movement of the arms, ribs and head.

The apana vayu governs releasing out and thus is a condensing or squeezing field centered in the lower body (first and second chakras). It is the yin, or centripetal energy. When functioning in a healthy manner, apana squeezes out solid and liquid waste from below, but also helps to squeeze the air out of the lungs. Kinesiologically, apana can be felt supporting the action and movement of the pelvis, legs and tail, maintaining grounding energy in posture and movement.

Samana is the balancer. It integrates the upper body action of taking in with the lower body action of squeezing out. Usually described in digestive terms, as it is a third chakra energy, somanauts explore the samana’s role in balancing the upper body and lower body in movement. It’s role is to integrate the movements of upper body/head and arms with movements of the lower body/legs and tail like in the cheetah. Notice the cheetah is actually flying more than running. Notice also the coiling and uncoiling of the core as it oscillates between flexion and extension. This is the mammalian action will will explore first in the asanas.

Ideally there is a single integration of all five vayus, the prana, apana and samana riding on vyana and allowing udana to function at highest most refined level possible. Iyengar describes this as samyama in asana, where organs of action, organs of perception and intelligence (buddhi) integrate into a single conscious movement in the entire body.

Now we add the poses. Take what we have covered above and integrate with what follows.

Integration through the Standing Poses

Lesson 5 of the basic course in my home study section of the site covers this,
(and saves me the need to rewrite it all! ) so please click here to continue.

Flipping the Dog (Please click here.)

Into Inversions

Preview of Coming Attractions

Creativity, Conflict and Resolution

Posted on August 4, 2015 by admin

The spiritual journey is as easy as 1,2,3. In theory anyway.
Part 1: Discover the problem.
Part 2: Come up with a creative solution and resolve the problem.
Part 3: Reap the benefits.

1. I am asleep to my true nature.
2. Find an awakened teacher who does not share my shadows.
3. Wake up myself and live life fully!

To live fully essentially means that you will continue to uncover challenges, conflict and trauma, you will again and again utilize the wisdom of the awakened mind, and you will continue to be a creative contributor to the Cosmic unfolding.

This three step process can be found in many forms, including at the beginning of The Yoga Sutras, although Patanjali changes the order slightly.
I-4: vrtti sarupyam itaratra:
(The problem is ) identifying with dysfunctional ideas about myself.
I-2: citta vritti nirodha.
“yoga (the creative solution) is resolving the dysfunctionality arising in the mind field.”
I-3 Tada drashtuh svarupe avasthanam.
“(When mental conflict is resolved), ever-present Being reveals itself effortlessly.”

Nirodha is often translated as ‘stopping’ or negating, but those English words do not capture the energetic alchemy of the mind field Patanjali’s ‘creative resolution’ describes. This yoga is not empty-minded, but rather is the vital, energized, dynamic aliveness present in an awakened mind. Or to use a slightly different wording, when the light of the soul shines unobscured, it can evoke creative responses to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that befall us.

The light of the soul is ever-present, unbounded and infinite. It does not appear as the result of eliminating conflict. It is unchanged whether the mind is conflicted or not. What the yoga alchemy does is to liberate, or ‘unstick’ some of the mental energy stuck in dysfunctional identification and point it to the soul. This is the beginning of the awakening and the birth of creativity. This process is like raising children. It requires nurturing, patience and deep trust in the mystery of Being.

How can we begin to resolve our own conflicts and trauma, connect with this ‘inner light’ and discover our own unique and infinite source of creativity? As somanauts, how can we use our practice on the mat to embody this process and integrate it into our moment to moment existence off the mat? How can we get unstuck and find freedom and creativity?

We are going to call on an old friend to help us look more deeply into the notions of creativity, conflict, and the alchemy of yoga described by Patanjali. Ron Alexander, author of “Wise Mind, Open Mind” will offer insights from his book on the role of mindfulness and his own ‘three step’ program in awakening to the soul, and evoking our inherent creativity to transform conflict and trauma into positive action in the world. (Ron and I went to high school together; Braintree High, class of 1968, Go Wamps!, and Kate and I had a lovely dinner with Ron and some friends the other night in LA.)

Before Ron became a psychotherapist, he was a musician, and thus had an intimate understanding of the artistic mind and the nature of creativity. He became involved in yoga and meditation practices in college and thus began a life long exploration of the body/mind/spirit connection. When he began his therapy practice in LA, he came into contact with actors, musicians and artists who were struggling with the usual human issues of loss, anxiety, and other emotional traumas, and thus were often ‘stuck’ in their lives. Realizing that he could ‘speak their language’ and could use that as way to begin helping them get ‘unstuck’, he used his experience and training to create the three step process described in his book. Anyone could use this process to help resolve the stagnation and reawaken the flow of creative juice and he based it upon the ‘simple’ practice of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is a word that points to the art of being ‘present to’, or ‘aware of’, whatever is arising in consciousness, on a moment to moment basis. It involves a ‘meta’ level of attention because there is a distancing or separation from the particulars of what is appearing in the mind field and a conscious choice to not get lost, entangled, or stuck in their stories. It’s power lies in the capacity to observe ones thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and ongoing commentary from a place, or a mental space, of open curiosity. As the mindfulness becomes ‘stronger’ through practice (hello Hebb’s Axiom), the capacity to see conflict and trauma from a distance awakens.

We are all subject to conflict and trauma. The teachings of Buddhism begin with acknowledging that life will bring dukkha, usually translated as suffering. Dukkha literally means to be stuck. The wheel of life stops flowing through you, or if it does flow, it is not smooth, but jarring and unpleasant. This is universal. Mindfulness is stepping back and noticing. Wow, I am stuck. I am suffering. From the open mind this may actually become ‘something is stuck’, suffering is happening and it is very unpleasant, or worse.

Dr. Ron’s first step, once established in mindfulness, is ” Let Go”. “The art of creative transformation begins with the willingness to be mindful of your hidden resistance, examine it, and break it down so that you can sweep it away like sand on a door stop.” When we resist what is unpleasant, we reflexively contract. We become gluey and dense, on every level of existence. As somanauts, we can find tension in the skin, muscles, fascia, fluids and organs. In our ‘samyama in asana‘ we use gravity, leverage, subtle movement, breath and intelligence to transform this holding and tension into freedom. We learn how to support the body in letting go.

Stuckness can arise in life situations as well. “If all signs point to the need for change, it’s important not to deny them and cling to the status quo even as it is slipping away.” These moments can arise in relationships, jobs and even with spiritual teachers and spiritual communities.

Ultimately, what we are letting go of are our dysfunctional ideas and beliefs that perpetuate our own stuck-ness. These all stem from feelings of inadequacy because we have lost sight of the light of the soul. Inadequacy can lead to feeling small and unworthy, burdened with negative self commentary. It can create an exaggerated sense of self importance and entitlement. Or inadequacy spawns a helplessness that needs to continually impose its will on the world to feel safe. When mindful attention allows us to see the futility of these beliefs and patterns of behavior, and the problems they inevitably create, we can begin to release them, to stop feeding them with energy.

This intuitively arrives at Ron Dass’s second step, ‘Tune In’. “The second step in the creative process is tuning in and listening to the wisdom of your soul by achieving open mind, the state in which core creativity takes place, beyond the limitations of the mind’s thought process. Whenever you reconnect to this core, authentic self through open mind, the temporary circumstances of life stop distracting you. You’re able to trust that the creative process will produce opportunities and possibilities in due time. You don’t find yourself feeling that you’re running out of time and must make a decision quickly.”

The ‘open mind’ Ron mentions, developed in a strong mindfulness practice, is also the foundation of our somatic explorations. Somanauts learn quickly that thought is useless in the deeper levels of cellular inquiry. Something else, something unknown, mysterious and vibrant, must emerge. In yoga terms, the soul is the vehicle of the prana shakti, the Divine Feminine, as it emerges into atoms, cells, organs and fluids. As B.K.S. Iyengar frequently noticed, asana is prayer, an invitation for the Divine to emerge as aliveness. This is the soul. Ron adds: “The soul, which recognizes its connection to the divine and to eternity, is quite different from your false, external self, the part of yourself that identifies with the temporary world of your senses.” This is the identity problem described by Patanjali in I-4. This false self keeps throwing dysfunctional road blocks in our way, but when we can step back and watch this phenomenon in action, and then let the inner light trigger creative imagination, we are unstuck, we are back in the flow of Divine imagination and creativity.

Then step three arises: ‘Move Forward’. “Accepting that discomfort and suffering are a natural part of life, you’ll understand that happiness ebbs and flows, and that you can’t be a Zen master at all times. You’ll never be able to fully eradicate the little voice in your head that harshly judges you with thoughts such as “You’re no good” or You’ll never succeed.” In many ways, this voice is like an undertow in the ocean, trying to pull you out to sea and away from what you want. To be successful at surging forward, you have to learn not to be sucked into the undertow.” Practice and discipline become part of your life, like eating and breathing. A confidence arises that is not artificial, but stems from a deep connection to the soul level, where you and the Cosmos are surfing the moment to moment waves of creation. Everything is exactly what it is. Your life continues to unfold.

Here is an opportunity to evoke your Divine imagination, and because Bonnie is coming to Santa Barbara in February to do more explorations in embryology, we will imagine that the spinal discs dissolve into fluid and/or light and then we will bring back the nucleus pulposi, one per disc, as a string of luminescent pearls. These are the remnants of the original notochord, a crucial component to embryological development.

Start simple with one of the large lumbar discs. I’m in a serious supported bridge pose phase and this is a fun place to play with this. find a balance across the block and float the lumbar vertebrae. With a balance of double action, zero in on the disc and find its center. Feel fluid vibrancy. Let the center of the disc emerge as a pearl of light. Link it to the one above and below so you begin to create a strand. I can get one or two, but T12 keeps disturbing the vibes when I try to link in the thoracic discs. T12 is my spinous undertow and muse. It wants to suck me back into the past, but also invites me to find a new and more creative future. As long as I stay open to my soul, no worries. An who knows what surprises will arise when the discs become luminous?