Tensegrity

Wikipedia describes as, "Tensegrity or tensional integrity is a property of structures with an integrity based on a balance betweentension and compression components."


Also, "Tensegrity was a term used by Carlos Castaneda to refer to some movements called magical passes (a series of meditative stretches, stances and movements) that he said were developed by Native American shamans who lived in Mexico in times prior to the Spanish conquest.


The concept has applications in biology. Biological structures such as muscles and bones, or rigid and elastic cell membranes, are made strong by the unison of tensioned and compressed parts. The muscular-skeletal system is a synergy of muscle and bone. The muscles and connective tissues provide continuous pull^[2] and the bones discontinuous push."

This is how the human body is held. Look at the image and imagine the bands of string that are holding the tubes in place as your fascia, the beams, or your bones are completely held without being connected to each other, here Tom Meyers explains,

Fascia is the fascinating biological fabric and glue that holds us together.  Long ignored, the fascial system is now getting its rightful due of attention, from both therapists and researchers.


Tensegrity is a model for understanding the geometry of the body, on both a micro- and a macro-cosmic scale, that leads to many new insights in terms of body connectivity, the relation between stability and movement, and how we can develop what might be called “Spatial Medicine”. 

This is what I have been posting about throughout the last three entries.  Is this starting to make sense? Please, let me know!

We're 3D (pt.3)

  Listening to Thomas Meyers talk about the fascial system today in greater detail continues to puzzle me, but in a good way. In a way that is expanding my conception of how intricate the human body is and how meticulously created we are. Like, literally down to the cell. The reason the arm cannot extend beyond 180 degrees at the elbow is because a series of arteries and capillaries and veins are running through the arm. If the arm did extend beyond that point, they would rupture.

  Here's what I do want to talk about. Remember my post a few weeks back on proprioception? No? Ok, I'll review. Proprioception is basically, in my own terminology, how our body remembers to move, and does move in every situation, both physical and emotional based on how we record, store and process information. In other words, we are the physical manifestation of every experience we've ever had, to put it-bluntly.

  An example could be something like this. A teacher yells at a 5-year old in kindergarten when trying to grab for second helping of cookies from the cookie jar. The child was startled, shocked.  In that very moment, chemicals excreted from its' glandular system rapidly oozes and secretes and fear becomes known. The child shrugs the shoulders towards the ears and sinks the chest inward to protect the heart. From that moment on every time the child would receive desert from the teacher, the body would recoil in some fashion, fear was the past experience as the body replays the motions. As the child grew up and would be around an authority figure or let's say the lunch lady or a parent ready to give out desert, the body would in some way twitch towards this structural movement. It became ingrained. This is proprioception. This is of course a fictitious example and exaggerated, but not one that is far fetched. We all have these structural integrations that have been set neurologically. When this happens the fascia that connect the muscles and runs throughout the body become set to hold the body in that way.  Proprioception could also be something as passive as sitting at the computer in an irresponsible way. Irresponsible to how the body naturally is aligned, which will set the motor of the body to remember this position and repeat it over and over again.  Proprioception. Got it?

Ok, now I can move on. Here is what I wrote in my notes today while watching and listening to how the body's fascia, which is it's pliable, fibrous structure, like wrapping to taffy and is like a network which downloads all kinds of environmental information to hold the body upright, works.

'So the fascia is a moving neural casing or web that runs the length of the body and is directly related to our proprioception. So, by breathing in newly and with correct alignment, with a clear mind thinking positive, affirmative thoughts can open up and replace tight proprioceptive posture and reprogram the body, it's thoughts and emotions towards what is possible for the individual. We will now be able to move more freely in life without, not only physical restriction, but mental, emotional and psychological blockages as well. We will be reformatting the fascial system and reprogramming ourselves so we can come closer to achieving our highest potential.'


So listen up. If you have pain, if you have trauma, if you have doubt, fear or insecurity, or even if you have poor posture and your neck just hurts, you will need to realign your own structure and melt away the old fascial network holding your muscular system in place.  Because it's the fascia that is directly channeled to your systems make-up which gives you your posture, or how you show up in the world, just as you are-right now. Is this blowing your mind!? It is mine. You can literally melt away old fascia that no longer serves you by working the fascia itself.

That's the work I'm doing over here. It's not just yoga, its structural realignment and body transformation. I'll be soon posting videos showing you how to do this for yourself. It's magical. Just today Michaelle worked with me on my sacrum and at lunch all kinds of buried emotional stuff came out. You have to start relating to your own body as a storehouse for it's emotional make-up. The reason I couldn't open up my lumbar spine and sacrum was in part due to what I was 'holding' in it. That's all for now.

We're 3D (pt.2)

I have about 10 minutes to post this, actually-less than that. I woke up this morning and washed all my underwear and realized I didn't have any to wear in class this morning in yoga. That's not good when I am now the only man in class. So, I had to do some creative thinking which took blogging time.

But I do have time to briefly wrap up the body and fascia system for you. When we last spoke I was telling you how everything is all connected right, and that there is more to the body than our muscles and that the fascia is the structure that holds us together. Many people think its our bones, but what holds that up? The muscles right, no because our muscles are mostly made up of water. And if we are mostly water and space, and the muscles held us together and upright then we would be falling off our bones.

What holds us together is our fascia. Consider it to be the wrapping paper to taffy. It runs all around our body from foot to skull. There is fascia that runs superficially on the front and back of our bodies, just as there is fascia that runs through the center, called the deep front line, opposed to the superficial front line. We also have fascia that wraps around bone and that weaves diagonally across our bodies.

So, what's this have to do with anything? Well, next time you notice your hamstrings are tight consider stretching the back line of fascia that runs over your posterior thigh. It's connected from the bottom of your foot and runs all the way up your leg, through your pelvis, up your sacrum and back to your occipital skull (base of your skull) and up over the crown of the head to your forehead.

This means that maybe instead of trying to overstretch your hamstrings, which never really seem to work, we should try to work the foot, or the head, or neck. Because that could very well be what's causing that leg of yours to cramp and strain, make sense? More coming later. I'm going to post something that Buckminster Fuller created in the 1960's which will give you a visual of all of this, for now, I'm off to class, Mahalo~

We're 3D (pt.1)

  Forget about Avatar, we're the ones that are 3-dimensional.  My mind is beginning to break apart. I always thought that the body was composed of muscles, each individual and separate to the next.  When I would go to the gym, for instance, I would say something to myself like, "I'm going to work my triceps (triceps bracchii) today," and then would proceed to do my workout through a series of arm extensions which would contract my triceps, thus building muscle by straining it.

  It makes sense that we go about compartmentalizing our muscles, our bodies and our lives in such a way. We mostly want to know that everything in our lives fits into a certain category, it's easier that way, right?

  Well, I am grateful for being able to study a modality like Yogalign which combines inspiring practice of body and movement with breath (yoga), in conjunction with a therapeutic massage therapists mindset in studying anatomy and how we move, connect and are put together.  Because, now I have found that...-get ready.

  That when I work out at the gym, the triceps brachii I think I am singularly working is hardly the case at all!
First of all, it's made of 3 muscles (duh-TRIceps), and connects to the scapula and two of its' muscles, teres major and minor, which leads towards lots in the back.  One of the muscles of the triceps, the lateral head connects to the deltoid muscle, which is like this artichoke looking meaty muscle on the cap of the shoulder and originates on a bit of the scapula, called the 'spine of scapula'. The scapula connects to muscles like the trapezius, rhomboids, and levator scapula, to name a few. Then these muscles are connected the lattisimus dorsi (the lats), which connects to at least the last 3 to 4 ribs, and now that you know this, the ribs are also held by the erector spinae group which runs vertically from the sacrum to the base of the skull and connects to ALL the ribs.... WHEW! Are you out of breath, I am.

  So what's my point. When you work out your arms next time remember that you really are engaging everything. And the mistake is to think that we can only work one muscle group at a time. We actually can't. Just like in life, everything is connected and the illusion is that we are all separate, just like the muscles in our body. There is no such thing as one muscle. The groups (there are 639 named) are just for us to classify and compartmentalize, causing us to say, "I don't really want to work my legs today, they're kinda boring." Ha. Guess again. The impact is, that our health is compromised as is our lives as we actually think an action, any action we take, whether its a squat, a curl or doing the dishes the next morning instead of right after dinner doesn't make a ripple out into the world, or have any impact at all. It's almost to say that we're not responsible for how the world is. What do you think? 

  To take this a step deeper, I haven't even mentioned the fascia system, which getting back to my Avatar reference, is a 3-dimensional web of interconnecting muscle fibers which act like a giant support structure that hold us together. Yes, the fascia hold the body together.  This would be like the analogy of the metaphysical supernatural world of our bodies. Oy! This post is gonna keep on going, I just want to come to the computer and write a paragraph or two, and go to bed, which I have to do. Now. Because the roosters are gonna start roosting in precisely 4 hours from now, which is a whole other story in itself. 

  So, tomorrow, a continuation of this post with more of the fascia system and how incredibly amazing and important it is for us to know about when coming to moving our bodies and staying pain free.  Because as my teacher Michaelle says, "we're mostly made up of water and space, the denseness we feel is a result of the mind."  I'm not too sure if you can grasp that yet, but for now, sit with it.

Traveling Back To The Future.

  Its been 2 weeks since I have gotten here. What's really amazing is the view of life that is opening up, that a life outside the box which I've been in is possible. It's the life of a child, I will explain. There's no traffic, smog, people hurrying or pushing by each other. Kauai is truly a holistic place to live. Organic farming, community atmosphere and hitchhiker friendly (yes, I have- last Thursday).  Not to mention there's only one main road that connects about 80% of the island. Some of Kauai, the Western side, has no roads and isn't developed.

  But really, it is. It's been developing, naturally, over time. It's funny how I type the word 'develop' and instantly think of yellow bulldozers and cranes knocking down nature to build up concrete. No. It's divinely developed, trees, air and sea enveloped, developed. Perfect as is, and what's great is that here, man doesn't want to finish the road around the island. Locals are happy to have a rare piece of 'un'developed  land to call their home, this is their Kauai.

  What else keeps boggling my mind is that no one uses the (808) area code before giving out a phone number. It's not posted on signs, said over the radio, shown on television or anything. The only time someone would give out their area code would be to announce their visitor status. There is a sense of Kauai island pride to only dish out 7 instead of 10 digits. How nostalgic is a place like Kauai in this regard. I remember when I was a teenager in the early 90's and everyone made 'the area code'  switch. It felt so alien.

  Last night I drove with new friends, people whom I never met before, that took me to the town of Kapa'a where a dance party was taking place at the Bikram Yoga studio. I was supposed to get a ride from this guy I met through one of my yoga friends. He called me to let me know he couldn't get me, but arranged a ride for me. How sweet. Heading there in the back of their van I noticed the wet roads and country-like scenery. It reminded me of when I was growing up in semi-rural Bucks County, where there was stillness. The dark roads not only looked like my childhood, but they felt like it. I felt home.

  One thing Michaelle says to us in class is that Yogalign gets us back in our "kid bodies."  The body where we can just sink in and evoke that sense of play and being that only being a kid could produce. What we used to feel when feeling good was being in our bodies, and being a kid. I think this is what could be happening. I think I'm actually going back in time.

  I'm Going back to my kid body and my kid feelings where everything is reminding me of 1987.  I'm moving away from the New York life, the life of hustle and bustle to get ahead towards "the day which never arrives" spoken by Chilean poet Nicanor Parra in his poem 'The Final Toast." Instead I'm easing backwards in time to a place where I once loved to be, where life was simple, the weather was sweet, the food was fresh and people were good.

We Shouldn't Judge What We Want.

 A teacher of mine used to say, "You should always do what you want, and never do what you don't want. But the flip side is that you should never not do what you want." I use this saying when applicable, like the action that took place today.

So much for community living. I've moved housing locations and I'm so happy I have to tell you about it! Let's recap, briefly. 13 days ago; Brandon moves into very large and plush house in a what looks like a carbon copy of a suburban Los Angeles neighborhood circa 1977, introducing-Princeville. A rich town on the North Shore of Kauai embedded with 'no pedestrian' golf courses and outdated condos that survived the real estate boom 25 years ago. I meet my roommates, 2 of which move out instantly because it's not clean enough. The ones who survive, myself included, endure a psycho-gauntlet of processing throughout the last 2 weeks as we all adjust and get to know each other. It wasn't the typical roomy situation. I have lived with MANY people before in many housing situations. This was one of the most challenging.

I kept trying to tell myself 'this isn't a bad situation', 'I should be happy where I'm at', 'Don't run away from the fear', 'do the work, Brandon, stop focusing on what's not working.'  Blah. blah, blah. My heart would hurt in yoga during the first week of study as I was generally annoyed. I had to deal with expectations, as I wrote about in earlier entries.

Although after processing and being open and giving myself to the moment in our house, what kept ringing louder than a foghorn was the fact that I wanted my own space, that what I wanted to create while I was here was stillness, clarity and that physical space where I could practice, read and learn yoga.

After the last two weeks living in the yoga real world house, even though it was getting better and I was understanding myself and my own limitations clearer, I learned about group energy. The energy of a house is consistent to what the individuals who live in it put out. In other words, I realized that after class each day I would come home and veg-out, play guitar, shoot the shit, surf the web and go to sleep. Then, repeat the next day. It kinda sounded like my life I had back home. And it wasn't the life what I wanted to create for myself here, in Hawaii. It was all of us living in our new home hangin' out.

What I noticed was I wasn't able to pull myself away to do self-study and reflection. I kept seeing that I wanted still mornings in nature and calm evenings of reflection. I wanted to hear the breeze shake the palm trees and meditate to the sound of rain on the roof.  What I had was a suburban party house, so to speak, surrounded by golf courses.

In life, there are basically two things we usually do. We can count our blessings or complain about what we don't have. I wanted another option, create what's missing, the presence of which would build my dream. I did this by stopping judgement on what I wanted, 'but I'll have to pay more when I can stay in my current house and save my money.' Gosh darn-it if I notice anymore times where I become a martyr for my happiness so I can save a few bucks I'll go insane.  So there was that, and what my roommates would think, 'oh, they'll be upset if I leave, they'll say this and that, blah, blah, blah.' Yeah, I stopped that and started to talk OUT LOUD in class, around everyone and let them know what I wanted.

I want to move and live in my own space and be in nature. After one day of putting that message out to the Kauaiverse one of the participants in class, Ilsa, a retired anesthesiologist said, "I know of a cottage right across the road from here (the yoga studio)." During our lunch break I called the neighbor, who was literally right across the dirt and gravel road from the school I have been studying at, met Dave, the owner and saw the 1-bedroom cottage. That was two days ago and as I write this, I am all moved in.

There are no street lamps, no traffic, no cookie cut-out housing and definitely no golf courses. What there is, are wild trees and plants, egrets and chickens, mountains and lots and lots of space. This is the country-side farm land of Kauai. This is my new home, I feel abundant and I love it. I even went out and got a new didjeridoo too, so I can sit, breathe and play.

What I have been noticing is how alive I feel when I go for what I want, because life is always wanting to provide for us, all we have to do is trust what we want and go for it. I could have stayed in the house for any number of made-up reasons, but as my dad sometimes says, "you either have results or the reasons why."   Thanks Dad.