Practicing a Neutral Posture

August 11, 2018




When it comes to our Hoopment practice, the Neutral Posture is as important as allowing the hoops to guide our movements.

A Neutral Posture provides a stable base, that allows for motion/sway, while supporting our spines/centers/cores.

As we practice Level 1, Finding Our Centers, we are not only discovering how the hoops prefer to move, we are also practicing maintaining our Neutral Postures throughout all of our movements--despite changes in elevation or foot position.

While grazing the hoops directly over our skin/clothes, our nervous systems (via proprioception) can get a better sense of where we are in space/how much space we take up; and where we are in relation to the objects around us, within & without our spheres--but more importantly, within our spheres. 

We continue practicing maintaining a Neutral Posture as we progress to level 2, Expanding Into Our Spheres

Contracting & expanding in every direction and way the hoops may move through space (vertical/horizontal/diagonal planes), while engaging a Neutral Posture, trains our bodies to move with a supported center--which helps to support our backs.

So many people experience back pain--and often, that pain is accompanied by a weak core. If the muscles on our backsides are not supported equally by the muscles on the front and sides, then there will likely be imbalance that could easily result in compensation/injury/strain/pain.

Regular Hoopment, while practicing mindfully engaging a Neutral Posture, helps support a strong core.

We can also practice engaging a Neutral Posture, mentally--attempting to perceive the data that our nervous systems are observing, from as neutral a perspective as possible...attempting to see all sides...every direction of the sphere.

Practicing a mental Neutral Posture, may help reduce perceived pressure (brought on by strong opinions/emotions); when we reduce the pressure within our systems. our bodies have more resources available for self-reparation.

When we practice a mental Neutral Posture, we may find that we can see more possibilities/potential ways to address the basic challenges that affect all of us--and work together, collaboratively, toward solutions. 

The differences aren't as important as the similarities. We all need the same basic resources to thrive; and there IS enough, when the resources are better distributed--and when much more is allotted to Science & Education. 

An educated populace (as Earthlings who share this planet) with a focus on Science, Engineering, and Life Skills (Art is integral throughout it all) could result in a more collaborative society that mutually uplifts and excels and succeeds.

Through COLLABORATION, not competition, is how the human species has survived long enough for us to make it to this level.

And it is through collaboration that we shall continue to thrive. 


Self-care is key; consciously cultivating a Neutral Posture, mentally and physically, is an important aspect of self-care.

Now go play; consciously breathe and Hoopmentitate.

Feels great.


 

Acknowledging Our Human Tendencies

July 15, 2018
When it comes to reducing pressure on our nervous systems/vessels, WE are most instrumental.

Each individual has a basic reaction to ALL the things being taken in by our senses, whether biologically/socially programmed, or chosen.

The basic reaction is colored by the filters through which we perceive the data that our nervous systems are interpreting. 

Frustration is a human emotion that many of us (if not all of us -Allovus-) can admit to experiencing...sometimes daily...multiple times a day. 

T...
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The Importance of "Choice"

June 16, 2018
Our experiences on this planet are very much affected by whether or not we feel we have a choice.

There are humans who think this experience has no reason; there are some who think this planet is a form of purgatory, or a prison planet; some people think it's a testing ground of our virtue, that determines where we go in the after-life....there are likely as many iterations of "why" as there are individuals, even when the perspectives are shared.

I spent more than a few years wondering why I wa...
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Clients & MT's: Seek Compatibility

March 16, 2018
Throughout the last 15 years that I have provided massage therapy, my working style has evolved. I would be a very bored therapist if I hadn't...I likely wouldn't be in this line of work anymore!

In the earlier years, I tried my best to provide each client with the session that they expressed wanting--which early on, was intensely deep tissue, primarily on the back, because that's where they felt discomfort, and that's what they wanted.
  
After a couple years of that, I recognized that my clien...
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Holding Space: Pressure Rainbow Style

March 11, 2018
Since recognizing the Pressure Rainbow as a valuable tool for better understanding one's self and nervous system, I have been practicing "holding space" in the Blue, Blue-Green, and Green zones.

"Holding space" basically refers to being present, usually with/for other people. 

After acknowledging the Pressure Rainbow, I started recognizing when I was in a certain color zone, as well as when other people were, as well.

Over a lifetime, I've recognized that, thanks to (unconscious) social mirrorin...
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Silence is Golden

February 10, 2018

It's something that, honestly, took me a few years to learn.

As a massage therapist, I acknowledge that the time on the table is the client's time; and not mine. 

As a human being... 

I tend to be fairly open already, even more so when vulnerable. It was easier to express thoughts/feelings to individuals who weren't as close to me as my primary nurturers, especially when the vulnerability was in regard to a primary nurturer. I avoided conflict with my primary nurturers; which filled me with much...
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Addressing the Neurological Component

February 3, 2018

Let's perceive the nervous system as the central communications system of our vessels. 

Our nervous systems interpret data that get picked up by our nerves through various senses, many of them pressure related. 

Our bodies/vessels may be perceived as pressure gauges that help us to navigate through space. What we interpret as emotions, are part of our navigational systems. 

As our excitement increases, so do our heart & breath rates. The excitement could be due to either "positive" or "negative"...
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Mini Hoops: Training Wheels for Ergonomic Movement

January 25, 2018
"The Hoopment" was born before it had a name...I was giving away mini-hoops for months before deciding that I needed to name the action of engaging with the hoops, to distinguish it from "hooping."

When we're 'hooping' our main objective is to keep the hoop moving around our bodies.  With 'Hoopment' our objective is to move our bodies around the hoops, by letting ourselves be guided by the hoops.

I injured my shoulder around the end of May in 2016, and it progressively worsened over the weeks. ...
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Perceiving Our Bodies as Spaceships

January 22, 2018
I self-published Your Body is a Spaceship, in 2014, which applies the Pressure Rainbow to emotional states, in addition to being a way of communicating physically perceived pressure. 

The analogy puts the conscious mind as the "navigator" and our bodies, being the vessels we inhabit, our "spaceships."

There is a finite amount of energy available to each vessel.

When a vessel is navigating through "safe" space, it's protective systems are not engaged--thus more resources are available to the immu...
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Sharing is Caring!


Margarita Navarrete-Hutchinson Sharing tools that assist us, as we figure out the "Humanning," help us on the journey of life, together. If my insights may be of service to others, I am grateful for the opportunity to share. May they serve you well.
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