massage

Most of us are familiar with the idea of self-massage. For many it may grow from instinctively rubbing a sore spot. For a few it grows into an essential healing art, and may even incorporate skills such as trigger point work, myofascial release, and acupressure. 

Healing hands 

Many students opt for the in-person Gokhale Method® offerings (Free Workshops, Initial Consultations, Foundations, Pop-up, and Alumni Classes) because they place great value on their teacher’s hands-on work. I have found that hands-on work continues to be a force for good even in online work. For our online Elements students, who don’t get guidance from a teacher’s hands, it’s especially important to learn to do hands-on work with their own hands.

One of the most useful hands-on techniques that we teach you to do for yourself, whether you are an in-person or online student, is the hair pull. It is the subject of one of our free Gokhale® Moments videos, and one that we frequently refer to. In fact, Hair Pull is our most liked Gokhale Moment! See if you like it too…

The hair pull involves gently gliding your head back and up, lengthening the neck, aligning it more vertically, and pivoting the head slightly downward.

Confine your movement to the neck and head

When performing the hair pull, make sure that you are not pulling your torso and swaying your back. You may detect a straightening of the upper thoracic spine and feel stretch in the upper chest when gliding your neck back, which is fine. Other than that, focus on isolating the movement to your head and neck. If you find yourself swaying back with your front ribs lifting, you want to prevent this and protect against compressing your lower back by first learning to use your Rib Anchor—another Gokhale Moment video that we frequently refer to. 

Healthy head carriage

Rather than having forward head carriage, we want to return to healthy head carriage. Carrying not only your head on your spine, but an additional load on the head, is an almost universal practice in traditional societies, and both necessitates and encourages healthy neck alignment. 

A well-positioned neck and head align directly over the torso—not to the front or behind

The Gokhale® Head Cushion has just enough weight to help you find the verticality you are looking for in your neck. By strengthening your deeper neck muscles, it also helps to relax the more peripheral neck musculature that is often tight. (You can use our $5 discount code TallNeck, valid through Sunday October 13, to purchase a head cushion.)

Letting go

Undoing well-established patterns such as tensing the back of the neck can still be difficult to navigate by yourself. Often the body has “held tight” to a position for decades. This is rather like pulling on a knotted piece of string—the harder we pull, the tighter the knot gets. Take things slowly to allow your nervous system time to find a different response, and your tissues time to relax. If the back of your neck only knows how to draw tighter, you can call on the expertise of a Gokhale Method teacher who has guided other students through this same difficulty and out the other side. Once you have unlocked these patterns together, you can continue to gently coax the elastic release you have discovered using your own hands. 

Here I am guiding a student to experience more mobility, length, and verticality in his neck.

Pain will not bring gain

If you have any pain when you try this maneuver, stop. Don’t feel obliged to follow general instructions that are not tailored for you. Nature spent millions of years evolving a sophisticated way of telling you not to do something, and you don’t want to disregard that signal. This is an instance where a qualified Gokhale Method teacher can look at your health history, together with the advice of your preferred health professional if appropriate, and work with you to progress comfortably and safely. 

Previous generations rarely exhibited the forward head carriage and curved necks that commonly cause tension, pain, and degenerative conditions today.

Help that’s at hand

Once you have mastered this hands-on maneuver, you can remind your neck and head how to move back home into a healthier alignment as frequently as needed. Practice regularly and mindfully, and you will progress with both your range of motion and your baseline posture. 

Gokhale Method teacher Julie Johnson offers a student hands-on help in combination with a Gokhale® Head Cushion to gently lengthen her neck. The weight of the cushion encourages the deep spinal muscles of the neck to work, so that the outer muscles can relax.

Share your progress!

If you have practiced our “hair pull” technique and would like feedback on your neck and head position, please consider uploading a “Before” and an “After” picture in the comment section below. It’s a great way for all of us to share and learn from each other. 

Here I was in 2009, demonstrating the lengthening effect of pulling up the back of the head to a group of teenagers. Hopefully they have continued to enjoy the benefits of space for their cervical discs, nerves, and bones!

Best next action steps 

If you would like help to improve your neck and head posture, get started by booking a consultation, online or in person, with one of our teachers. 

You can sign up below to join any one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops…

I am an acupuncturist and massage therapist who specializes in assisting individuals with chronic pain. Over my 30 years in the profession I had been exposed to hundreds of continuing education classes but had never heard of the Gokhale Method®. 

I suffered with cervical stenosis, multiple herniations, and bone spurs

My battle with cervical stenosis (a narrowing of the neural canal in the neck, causing compression of the nerves), multiple cervical herniations, and osteophytes (bone spurs) began 40 years ago, all of which progressively worsened over time. 

As you can see in this photograph, I had become used to hunching and compressing my neck. I believe this was the cause of my neck problems.

My life had become restricted due to the increasing pain in my head, neck, tingling in my arms and hands, and the severe migraines which I suffered if I moved my neck too much or tried to look down or carry packages. I took migraine medications in order to function, which I was grateful for even though I didn’t want to take them. It’s no exaggeration to say that pain had closed my life down.

It had been years since I worked a normal patient load; one or two patients every other day allowed me to do what I loved while I did my best to manage my symptoms. I consulted two neurosurgeons five years ago and after serious consideration I chose against a recommended fusion of three cervical vertebrae. This was because I had seen many patients after a fusion and observed firsthand the difficulties they endured. According to my observations usually one or more discs above or below the fusion would end up herniating due to the rigidity of the fusion. Neck mobility was often severely decreased, and headaches, tingling, and numbness were common. Certain patients were referred to me if they got nauseous with physical therapy. It was often a long haul for them to get better.

Many of the therapies I tried for my neck problems made my pain worse; few helped me at all. I have spent the last 40 years learning to support myself and advising those sent to me on how to live in a body that experiences various levels of pain on a constant basis.

Me as a baby in 1955. As an adult I could barely remember what it was like to be free of neck pain. How had it crept up on me? Where did the problem begin? I wanted to wind the clock back to the beginning!

As a 10-year-old I enjoyed physical games and happily let my behind behind me and kept my shoulders back, though perhaps I was beginning to sway my back. . .

Me with my Aunt Tilde (left) when I graduated from massage school. It was 1990 and I was 36 years old. I can see that my head is forward and that my legs internally rotate. In my twenties I had learned tai chi in a style that taught me to tuck my pelvis. I now realize this encouraged a poor biomechanical position for bending over my massage clients.

Treating pain as a massage therapist

My focus in treating patients in severe, acute, and chronic pain evolved when I realized massage treatments were a somewhat temporary fix—people experienced relief for a while, but the same aches returned. After a year of practice, I branched out to include craniosacral therapy and was blessed to study with Dr. John E. Upledger, the developer of CST. Over ten years I took a half dozen seminars and began incorporating the techniques into my treatments with much greater success. I also began doing the techniques on myself, getting some relief from the migraine episodes I suffered. Many times I was able to alleviate the nausea and severe pain through the gentle guiding and “unwinding” of my cranial bones and the sacral joint.  

In 1993 I was excited to begin acupuncture school. Acupuncture gave additional assistance to my patients on their healing journey. One of the great benefits of acupuncture is the opening of stagnant energy pathways which have become blocked due to physical and emotional trauma. The release of neurotransmitters (endorphins) from the insertion of needles begins the process of pain reduction and allows the fascia to begin to “unwind.” I always thought the major advantage of acupuncture over acupressure was its ability to affect many points at the same time, allowing the body to unwind in ways that do not occur using just our two hands. While the needles are doing their work, I begin the CST work as well as manual traction.

During the first session with a patient I would advise, “We accept all miracles, but healing is usually a process—sometimes a longer and more multidimensional process than we initially anticipate.” Of course, patients referred to me were very relieved that they could become pain-free for periods of time; but I was still frustrated that their treatment was more of a Band-Aid—a better Band-Aid, but still not a solution to the cause of their problem. At that time my patients and I did not realize that they had work to do in this healing process too. I now believe that healthy posture is the “missing piece” that not only enables the benefits of therapeutic treatments to be preserved, but also allows the body to heal itself. I wish I had known of the Gokhale Method all those years ago.

Finding the Gokhale Method

Thankfully, my local paper printed an interview a couple of years ago with Joan Baez (longtime peace activist and folk song writer/singer). Joan was asked the secret of her ability to continue performing concerts around the world at 77 years of age. She responded that she studies with Esther Gokhale and consistently uses the principles of good posture taught in the Gokhale Method. 

Joan Baez in Esther Gokhale’s garden, preparing to pick some calendula with a deep, healthy hip-hinge and her behind well behind. You can read more about Joan Baez learning the Gokhale Method here.

I immediately searched “Gokhale Method” and became very encouraged and excited. I ordered Esther’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, the DVD, and subscribed to the newsletter, Positive Stance. 

The pandemic prevented me from attending a Gokhale Method Foundations Course scheduled for March 2020, but later that year, I revisited all the instructional materials I had and began active self-directed study. Once again I felt a sense of hope.  

Beginning my journey home

During the pandemic I was thrilled to see Esther was offering numerous Online Free Workshops. You could improve your posture by working on your stance, ribcage position, neck strength, and glutes. (Who doesn’t want a tighter bum, right?). I quickly signed up and began my journey home. I say home because you learn to return to a place of comfort in your body that was there naturally for you as a child.

At about seven years old, I still had a nice open chest and outward facing feet. Both these things changed as I became an adult.

Each workshop built upon the last with wonderful, simple insights. In November 2020 I also joined the 123 Move Gokhale Exercise Program which remains incredibly healing. Awakening each day I look forward to improving how I move through simple, healthy dance moves (I even learned the Samba). I saw improvement in my posture—I could look in a mirror and see noticeable changes to the hunching in my shoulders and the forward protrusion of my neck. 

As a 32-year-old office worker, look how forward my head and shoulders are as I hunch my back!

I continue to learn from the questions students ask as well as the clear explanations and demonstrations by the teacher. If I can’t watch live, no problem—there is always a catch-up available until the next class. And I just love when I get an added bonus—learning new dance moves is apparently as beneficial for the brain as learning a new language, and there is music to enjoy from all around the world. There is also Esther’s generous sharing of her vast knowledge of diverse cultures and their artifacts. 

My neck pain reduced within months of starting the Gokhale Method

Within a month or so of practicing the Gokhale Method, I began having less pain. I immediately felt a difference when sitting and using a wedge to antevert my pelvis, so no more tucking my tail under. This is called stacksitting. I now could sit for prolonged periods of time with NO neck pain. I could physically do more and psychologically was significantly less depressed. I saw a future with fewer restrictions and life seemed filled with endless possibilities.

My 2020 Christmas list consisted of an Online Initial Consultation with Gokhale Method teacher Kathleen O’Donohue. I prepared with photos of myself in a few positions so Kathleen could evaluate how best to help me before our meeting. We worked on a couple of key points and I was astonished and very excited to see how simple tasks could be done with no pain.

Taking the online Elements course

During the pandemic I was initially skeptical about navigating my way online through the Gokhale Method Elements course. Could I set the camera up well enough for the teacher to be able to see and correct the details of each technique? Would I be able to make the postural corrections without the touch of a teacher’s hand guiding me through the experience? I had so many questions before I felt able to make this significant commitment. I had several more online consultations with Kathleen and was amazed as she picked up the smallest detail and guided me to healthy posture. 

Here I am in my current massaging stance, which is healthier for my feet, glutes, hips, back, shoulders and neck. Applying the Gokhale Method techniques, I can continue to tease out residual sway and rounding in my spine as I massage my clients!

The online experience had several advantages for me. It allowed me flexibility scheduling and pacing my lessons and individualized attention. Another feature is that Elements allows you to learn over 18 lessons of bite-sized information, rather than a weekend immersion. I can see advantages to both, but for me, learning one move at a time, or even a part of an activity, such as walking, registers in my brain significantly more easily. I worked hard to learn each step before I moved forward. Luckily, absolute mastery is not required! 

My nerve pain and hyperreflexia are all but gone

I have come to a point where if I am not in healthy posture, I notice the discomfort and immediately want to pause and reset. The nausea I lived with every day is a rare occurrence only experienced momentarily these days if I am doing some very taxing activity. As soon as I correct my stance, I am relieved of any pain or nerve sensation. Life has become a dance with increased strength and grace, rather than a challenge.

One of my neurological problems had been hyperreflexia, which meant that my reflexes were overactive. I was looking forward to seeing how my reflexes checked out when I saw my neurologist a few months ago. (I had seen her six months previously, when they tested significantly better, but still hyper). To our amazement they were normal.

Here I am working on tallstanding. In daily life I can take a more relaxed stance but checking in with points to attend to boosts my progress. You can learn about tallstanding in Esther Gokhale’s book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, Lesson 6.

As an Alumna of the Elements course, I am a member of the Gokhale Online University (and will be forever!), where I get ongoing support and continue my progress. I am thoroughly amazed at how much Esther shares with us. I just LOVE it all. It is such a rich resource. Even though I practiced tai chi and qigong for almost forty years, Kathleen and Roberta’s Moving Meditation has enhanced my understanding significantly. The forms they teach incorporate the Gokhale principles beautifully and I am enthused to be doing it once again. A wonderful way to begin and end each day; energizing, or relaxing and meditative.

Eric's Gokhale Fitness class is challenging and insightful. His calm nature sets the stage as he provides several ways to perform each exercise depending on one’s aptitude. Gentle breathing techniques have provided a new focus for me and are very effective in reducing stress in our structure. The Gokhale principles are always emphasized, so it is a great review. I notice increased strength and vitality as the weeks go by.

When I first came to the Gokhale Method I had a very rounded upper back when bending. 

Over time I have improved my form in bending. Here I am practicing the cues I have learned to make bending health-promoting rather than harmful. 

I am forever grateful to Esther and all the teachers for my continued progress and for proving we are never too old to learn new tricks and grow in our understanding of moving in healthy ways. I am looking forward to continuing my posture journey—standing taller as I age gracefully. Hope lights the way.

Namaste,

Felicia Grimke

ALL OF ME

In December 2020 I received an email from Gokhale Method® offering a five-day trial period of exercise classes and dance parties with posture lessons. Every day for five days! I was thrilled to receive this email and joined on January 1. From day one I knew I had found something very special.  

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I swam to stave off the pain I felt in my back and hips. But when the virus struck, I wasn’t able to swim. Eventually my back pain returned to being constant. This showed me that being dependent on an external circumstance, swimming in this case, to feel good, could not give me everything that I needed to heal. 

January 1, 2021, day one of my five-day free trial of the Gokhale Method daily program. It was about the inner corset and how it protects your back.

Those first five days were like a prayer being answered. I thought, “this is the place where I can learn how to care for myself day by day." Three weeks later I decided to take the online Elements course. With each lesson, I learned new ways to relieve pain in my body and gained confidence that I could help myself if pain returned. Fortunately, I could take the lessons at my own pace which allowed me to take my time and savor what I was learning. Some positive results came very quickly for me, and yet there is a lot more depth left for me to appreciate. For both these reasons, it was with deep gratitude that I came to write this article.  

As a very young girl I was confident in my body. Being athletic, I felt I could do anything. I was just me. . .whole. That all changed growing up in a troubled family. Mine was a childhood of great conflict and uncertainty. But I was resilient, so I forged ahead.

Here I am, aged 18.

In my late twenties I fell through a porch, leaving one leg on the deck and the other dangling below. Alone, I pulled myself up. It was a terrifying experience and had a strong physical impact. Sitting became possible for only short periods at a time. I was profoundly uncomfortable with no ease or let up. Doctors couldn’t find anything “wrong” with me —no broken bones or serious injuries that X-rays could detect. A chiropractor told me my pelvis was twisted from the fall. This was a helpful diagnosis but he treated me for nine months with no change. So began my search for something that would permanently help me. Yoga, swimming, massage, physical therapy, chiropractic; you name it, I tried it—everything mainstream and more. All were helpful in some ways, but none resulted in lasting improvements.

Me in 1997, aged 40. I would tend to lock my knees and park my abdomen forward, creating sway and compression in my lower back. 

My search continued for 32 years. My back would give out, I would have to lie down for days, and then slowly over weeks I would loosen up and go on. My chosen profession in the Fine Arts is of a physical nature, allowing me to move around frequently throughout the day. This was my saving grace, because moving kept some of the muscular tightness at bay. 

Leaning in to paint book covers contributed to my hunching. I needed to learn how not to round my back and hunch my shoulders.

Sensing there was an emotional connection to my physical pain, I continued searching and exploring different avenues for a deeper understanding of why I was still “not right.” Talk therapy was enormously helpful. The fall had scared me. So had other experiences in my early life. Even with all this therapy work, the pain persisted. Over time I gained in self-confidence and felt reconciled to what I had to deal with—occasional debilitating bouts of back pain—and I moved on with my life. Things could be worse, I thought to myself. Years later the answers to my predicament became clearer as I took on the role of a caregiver. I imagine as I write this that many readers will understand from personal experience what it is like to care for someone who is ill and relies on you heavily.

Caregiving became a central focus in my daily life as I cared for my mother and later my sister. Caring for them made for conflicted feelings. As my mother’s condition worsened I took on more responsibilities for her care. One day she asked me, “why are you helping me?" It floored me, though I knew why she asked. Why would you care for someone who did not care for you? All I could say to her at the time was “because I love you, and you deserve it." She did not believe it—I was conflicted. But deep in my heart I knew she did deserve my help. This is what family does, right? I had to care for her, love her, show her that she was worthy. I do believe that we are all worthy of love and care. For myself, I wanted to learn what it is to have a positive experience of family.  

The Dust Bowl book. (Buttons, tin type photos, hand-painted paper, birch bark.) A central focus of my work is to give attention to the unseen in plain sight. From the tiny bits on the forest floor to the unrecognized work that women do daily. Now after many years I understand hiding was my main way to feel safe, unrecognized, and unseen.

But it wore me down. It was almost more than I could bear, and my body caved in on itself. I stiffened with fear and worry. My shoulders slumped forward and my back rounded. It was a relief when my mother quietly passed away in her apartment.

The Dust Bowl, closed. Its insides are hidden.

Several years later I drove to Georgia with my husband and our pup, Ace, to bring my older sister home to Massachusetts so I could care for her. We had seen each other only a few times in 40 years. We were sisters but you wouldn’t know it. She needed help and care desperately. I knew I had to step in.

I made this piece when my sister was diagnosed with cancer. Dark and light come together. My photographs are not enhanced—these are printed on tissue paper, then applied to the frame like gold leaf. The black handmade paper is arranged edge-on.

That was nine years ago. Through those years we got to know each other and grew as close as she would allow. Several times she asked me nearly the same question my mother had, “Why are you helping me?" And again I said, “because I love you, you deserve it.” But I was angry with her for the hurt and pain she caused in our childhood. Even though I had grown a deep emotional understanding of myself by that time, I still didn’t recognize what was happening in my body. Again my body stiffened and caved in.

My mother and my siblings. I am the worried looking one on her lap.

Caregiving wore me down and filled me up, leaving room for little else. The burden from stress, worry, responsibility, and physical strain, is exhausting. Along with that, the sense of connection and privilege of being trusted and important to the people who needed my help filled me with wonder, love, and self-confidence. I held up and helped out. This is as it should have been in many ways, except one—I could not find effective or adequate ways to care for myself at the same time. 

I have learned for myself how interconnected everything is. I used to think that we were made up of separate parts—a mind, soul, spirit, body. I sought out solutions to my pain as though I was made up of these different parts. It was as if, like jigsaw puzzle pieces put together in the right place, I could become whole. This did not work for me.  

A limited edition of 39 copies, published by 21st Editions. As a bookbinder I co-designed and created many editions. This is one of my favorites. I painted linen papers for these covers. Each set is different. All stages of production are by hand.

Book cover opened. It took me a long time to find the integration within myself that I could create in my artwork.

Now I understand things differently. I believe there is an interrelated dance to the patterns we develop. These patterns play out over and over again. Our own individual ways of moving our bodies are part of the constellation of being who we are and how our life experiences inform our reality.  

While I was still taking the Elements course and attending the daily program, the puzzle pieces started coming together. Sometimes, while dancing in class, I’d be swept away in movement, crying and integrating the grief my body was holding. All while moving with better posture!

Tucking my pelvis and rounding my back as I am doing here was a self-protective postural habit—almost like a turtle’s shell. 

Now I prefer to hip-hinge and my spine, back muscles, and neck are much happier!

It’s been 13 months since my first Zoom classes. I still show up for the daily classes and dance my heart out. Moving as freely as I can, feeling myself move through space, sensing the physicality inside of me. How does it feel to anchor my ribs? What’s it like to roll my shoulders back and feel their weight as they hang by my sides or float around? I feel alive and connected to me. I feel wonderful sensations of flow as I move around the room. 

I loved painting these lines, which are covered in tissue paper. This is the flow I had been searching for and have now found for my body/self.

This work with the Gokhale Method teachers and the online community continues to be full of opportunities and I am still learning. My latest adventure with this wonderful work is using the PostureTracker™! This is an amazing tool that gives real-time feedback on my body’s movements and is rapidly deepening my understanding of my posture habits.  

PostureTracker used to show how I habitually contracted the back of my neck and lifted my chin up (left). Now it is helping me to learn and maintain a much healthier, tall neck position (right). 

Aligning my body in healthy posture so that I can move with ease is my goal. I am simply engaged in the process of making the unfamiliar familiar. Over time I will be “at home” standing tall with ribs anchored, shoulders back, arms hanging comfortably by my sides, and strong feet beautifully supporting all of me.

Here I am seeing that my back remains unswayed using the Upright and Relaxed PostureTracker™setting.

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, sign up to join one of our upcoming FREE Online Workshops…

Suffering with back and hip pain, Kapil recalled the upright, elegant posture he had seen in India.

My background and posture in India

I am a 45-year-old software engineer living in California. I grew up and lived in India until I was 37. In my mid-twenties I developed lower back pain and right hip pain, and I recollect having a series of MRIs and medical traction but obtaining nothing more than temporary relief. I also went for Indian massage therapy, which did effectively relieve the pain for some years. Like many modern desk workers, my posture had gradually deteriorated. The massage addressed the symptoms this caused but did not improve my posture.

Here I am 33 years old. I am starting to round my shoulders, sink into my chest and lift my chin.

As Esther often says, older generations, villagers, and the manual workers in India have excellent posture, which includes a J-spine, the head back, and the shoulders back. 

I would observe people around me with upright, elegant posture, and could see that it was healthy, but I couldn’t figure out what I should be doing to get there.

Tall, elegant posture is almost universal among Indian villagers. Firstpost

My father had very good posture and no back pain. I wondered if I had muscle weakness, or if it was just that my body was structured differently. 

In this photo my father is in his eighties and has preserved his upright bearing. Note that his feet are angled outward due to the external rotation of his legs.

Here in the States, I continued to work with various health practitioners to see what was causing my pain. Some sessions with a chiropractor helped, but the relief, though it sometimes lasted as long as a year, was always temporary. I felt that something I was doing was making the pain reappear. 

Getting started with the Gokhale Method®

I found the Gokhale Method through a blogger in the Bay Area, who referred to the Gokhale Method having seen Esther’s presentation at Google. That led me to the concept of postural education. I realized that I needed guidance to restore healthy posture to my body that didn’t know what to do.

Because poor posture is a relatively modern problem, traditional therapies like massage and yoga did not need to address it—and didn’t for me. Even though I grew up in a part of the world where healthy posture was common, I did not know how to integrate it. In many areas humanity has made huge progress, but now, with our posture, we actually need to achieve some healthy regression!

Traditional therapies such as massage may temporarily relieve the symptoms but not the root cause of back pain. Pexels

I read Esther’s book, realized I needed a teacher and decided to take an Initial Online Consultation. It became clear my posture could be changed. I chose to take the 18-lesson Elements online course over about six weeks in the autumn. 

Becoming pain-free and making further progress

The earlier lessons were quite easy because each lesson focused on just one thing, so I had time to practice and adapt. They nevertheless had already helped to decrease my pain by the time we came to the later lessons. The later lessons needed finesse to coordinate everything that had been learned. Walking was the most challenging, with so many parts to consider at once.

The course is well paced and structured, using intelligently designed stepping stones. I could see how the lessons fit together. Reflecting back, if we had started with the later material, it would have been a daunting task.

When we got to the walking lessons, I thought about asking to spread the lessons out more, but I now recognize that the momentum of our regular schedule was important. Mastery was not expected, and I needed that additional input and tips to continue making progress. There is a saying, “without the guru I cannot gain knowledge” and I found this to be true both for the content and the teaching method.

My “Before” pictures as I embarked on the Elements course. I was trying to implement a few principles I read about in 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back. I still had a long way to go.

I have learned to focus on one posture tip at a time, and cycle through them to keep improving on everything I do, whether it is bending or sitting well. Ongoing practice, rewatching course videos, and referring to photographs all help keep things on my radar, reinforce good habits, and create muscle memory over time. 

An active lifestyle is not enough

I have always led an active life—I played racquetball at least twice or thrice a week, I did yoga almost every day, I gardened once or twice a week, and I walked (and still do, almost every day). On reflection I can see that all this exercise, without paying attention to my posture, did not prevent my back and hip pain.

I wouldn’t be able to garden for more than 30 minutes if I hadn’t learned to hip-hinge. My pain would come back. Agricultural workers in India can work eight hours a day, day after day—because they hip-hinge! It is fascinating to see Esther point out this type of bending, in photographs and in ancient art.

Women hip-hinge with ease at a market in Odisha, India, while they examine pots.

I can see that some of our modern occupational hazards arise from sedentary work—so I have always been very careful to not sit for a long duration, switching places each hour. Yet, if I don’t roll back my shoulders, glide my head back, and take care of my rib anchor, none of that matters—I would still have pain. Taking breaks is helpful, but it’s not enough. Posture is a fundamental thing that needs to be taken care of too.

Going forward

I am aware that I have taken Elements only recently and still have a way to go, but the posture that I have learned to recreate in my body has not only stopped my pain, but also feels very natural to me—my neck being tall and my head staying back as I sit at my desk, for example. I would still like to use the PostureTracker™ biofeedback tool that can help me to track my progress and monitor my posture adjustments in real time.

I paused my yoga regime while I was taking Elements in case there was anything I was doing that was contrary to a new way of doing things. Esther then showed me a new way of doing sun salutation which I look forward to resuming shortly. When I learned to improve my posture I made no other lifestyle changes, so I have good reason to believe posture has addressed the root causes of my pain and will be sustainable. 

I would have had many years of a pain-free life behind me if I had made these changes earlier—however, better late than never! I am very fortunate to have found something that has made such a difference to my life.

I have a lot of respect and enthusiasm for the Gokhale Method, and my motivation with this blog post is to spread the word about it. Please share my story to inspire others who suffer unnecessarily with back pain. 

Free Online Workshops

If you would like to find out more about how the Gokhale Method can help support you, whether you have back pain or other musculoskeletal pain, sign up to join one of Esther’s upcoming FREE Online Workshops.

Back, neck, and joint pain may be flaring up for many of us, especially those who have come to depend on palliative interventions such as massage, chiropractic, and physical therapy.

Does it seem to anyone else like the ribbon of life just tangled dramatically? It makes sense to feel this way — we’re living in a rapidly changing world with new information coming our way all the time. One way we may be physically experiencing that change is in our daily pain levels, which can increase due to myriad reasons: working from home on unfamiliar furniture, stress manifesting as tension in the body, eroded sleep quality from anxiety flare-ups, childcare we are suddenly having to do unassisted. Now, more than ever, we are forced to visit the root of the problem because our usual methods for temporary relief — such as massage therapy and chiropractic — are unavailable or inaccessible. These are marvelous interventions, but now we have an opportunity to address things ourselves. What do we do when we can’t physically visit our massage therapist or chiropractor or physical therapist and our aches and pains are spiraling out of control?

Massage is a worthy therapeutic intervention, but largely inaccessible during shelter-in-place restrictions. Posture re-education, on the other hand, is something you can learn online and put into practice immediately.

This is actually the perfect time to learn, revisit, and refresh skills to relieve your own back, neck, and joint pain without relying on recurring treatments from outside professionals. In the new world of COVID-19, the ancient wisdom and Primal Posture of the Gokhale Method are even more relevant than usual. We’ve had these tools on our side for decades, and our ancestors and forebears have had them for countless generations. Let’s now put them into practice with the goal of self-sufficiency.

To help with this, we’d like to remind you of our no-cost offerings which you can regularly access from your home. Here’s an example to introduce (or re-introduce) you to the fundamental Gokhale Method technique of stretchsitting, a way to gently lengthen your spine through traction and take pressure off compressed discs, nerves, and tissues. You can use equipment already found around your house, such as a rolled-up towel, or a Stretchsit® Cushion if you have one available. If you are even more fortunate, you own a Gokhale Pain-Free™ chair. Even if you’ve learned stretchsitting previously, refreshers are great at a time like this.

In the coming weeks, we’re further expanding our online offerings to include practical new material you can access from the comfort of your own home. Join us for new free teleseminars, posture workshops, online consultations, and online lessons to improve your quality of life without putting others or yourself at risk. Due to high interest, our next free teleseminars (taking place today, April 2, 2020) will revisit the topic of exercise breaks for calm and productivity. Each of our teleseminars is offered multiple times on the same day for ease of scheduling. Coworkers, friends, and family are welcome!

Social distancing can be a perfect time to learn some practical new posture skills alongside those in your household.

We also hope to support many of you with one-on-one online posture sessions, where our qualified teachers can provide personalized coaching on leading a pain-free lifestyle. Email our Customer Support team today so they can connect you with Gokhale Method teachers experienced with online teaching. Your body and mind will thank you, long after restrictions have been lifted. Consider it a gift to your future self and to future generations. Wishing you good health!

We’re all in this together. Hang in there!

My students sometimes lead me to particularly juicy nuggets that enrich my understanding of posture-related practices in other cultures. Sometimes they simply send me a link to an article; sometimes it is an introduction to a special person. Recently, my private Gokhale Method Foundations Course student Alpana informed me that her friend had a visitor I might be interested in meeting. She was right.

Two days later, my daughter Monisha and I showed up at Nirmala’s host’s home in Saratoga. I was immediately struck by the woman’s presence, regal carriage, slender and strong frame, and sparky energy, especially for a 60-year-old. Nirmala does traditional Indian baby and post-natal massage on newly delivered babies and their mothers in Surat, India. She speaks no English. Thanks to Alpana’s fluent Marathi and my broken Hindi, I was able to communicate very effectively with her.

She described her daily routine, which begins with chai upon waking and chai again as she is about to leave for the day’s work. Her workday goes from 7am – 3 pm. In all that time, she rarely accepts offers to consume anything besides water. If a host insists, she might eat a small morsel of food. She bikes from home to home, massaging babies and mothers and sometimes taking care of an elderly person. She wears sandals to ride her bike but goes barefoot when she walks in her neighborhood. It was hard not to notice her especially kidney bean-shaped feet, and she was tickled that I wanted to photograph (and touch) her feet. Touching someone’s feet in India is a way of bestowing honor on them and also puts you below the person in some essential way. I was happy to touch her feet, and I was happy to hang on her words. I usually have to travel far and wide to find subjects like Nirmala.

Nirmala’s feet have a particularly strong kidney bean shape. Walking barefoot often probably helped keep her natural foot shape intact.

Nirmala described various aspects of her massage practice and her life, but also insisted that it would be much better if she could show me what she does. We settled on an afternoon two weeks later to meet again so I could observe her in action. Alpana offered to provide her transportation and be the translator for us once again.

I was able to find an 11-month-old baby in my network whose mom brought him along for this event. No one knew what to expect and the experience made a deep impression in many ways.

• The base position was identical to what I had observed in Burkina Faso. Nirmala sits with her legs outstretched with the baby lying on her lower legs, the baby’s head close to her ankles.

Nirmala prepares to massage the baby with her legs outstretched.

• When she massaged my daughter Monisha (as though she were a post-partum mom), she stood astride her and hip-hinged beautifully.

Nirmala hip-hinges to perform a post-partum massage on volunteer Monisha.

• The baby massage was quite rough, comprehensive, rapid in the strokes, and unrelenting. Front and back, every organ, limb, and crevice received its treatment. I was reminded of Piglet pretending to be Baby Roo in the Winnie the Pooh story. Kanga pretended not to notice the switcheroo and paid no attention to Piglet’s squeals. But Nirmala was not meting out punishment, but rather helping the baby be strong. Some of us reached out to the baby to offer him solace. Nirmala explained that she was doing a light massage since the baby’s skin was light and might redden if she were more vigorous. She wasn’t sure how the baby’s mother would feel about that. Nirmala explained that the baby would sleep really well following the massage, giving the mother a rest. After the oil massage came a warm water massage in the bathroom. In Burkina Faso, the massage was done with shea butter and warm water at the same time, instead of sequentially. That massage was also vigorous, and the baby seemed a little in shock during it, but being only days old, didn’t have as developed a cry as the 11-month-old baby we observed.

• The baby cried for the entire 10 minutes of being massaged with oil and then warm water — Nirmala seemed unphased and said that this usually happens for the first 2-3 massages, after which the babies get used to being massaged and don’t cry.  She also said crying makes the lungs and baby strong. Mom was impressively able to withstand what must surely have been a stressful experience. All of us were too taken aback to say or do much, banking on the premise that Nirmala knew what she was doing. In Burkina Faso, the baby (only days old) cried only during the part where it was held upside down by the ankles (Nirmala did not do this).

The baby faces Nirmala’s feet as she works on every part of him.

• Part of the massage included leg and crossbody stretches. This was quite different from what I observed in Burkina Faso, where the focus of the stretches was on the joints between the limbs and torso. Nirmala drew the opposite arm and leg toward each other, and both legs up above the head to stretch the back.

Nirmala’s baby massage involves various kinds of stretching.

• Nirmala has additional expertise for conditions in both the baby and mother. She described what she would do in case the testicles hadn’t descended. Also what she does in case the mother has had a C-section. The masseuse in Burkina Faso was also comfortable doing procedures in some instances; for example, in case of a kink in the spine, she would have used a corn husking device to straighten the baby’s spine out. In both cases, the knowledge is passed down within the family. Nirmala’s daughter and daughter-in-law are able to provide similar services, and are, in fact, filling in for her during her U.S. visit.

My quick takes from this experience: massage for babies is an old tradition spanning many cultures. Babies are particularly targeted for massage post-delivery. The massage covers the entire body, is vigorous, and includes stretching. Oil/butter and warm water are used for baby and mommy massage. Crying is not a show-stopper. The masseuse maintains healthy posture throughout the act of giving the massage.

Have you seen or experienced baby or post-natal massage? What was your experience like?
 

   A four-year study involving 276 spine patients ages 53 to 75 published in the journal Spine suggests that we should--at the very least--take a deep breath and think twice before choosing epidural steroid injections to relieve the pain of lumbar spinal stenosis, not only because this oft-used treatment may not work, but also because it may cause more harm than good. Better yet and instead it might make sense to simply get in the habit of breathing deeply, which naturally lengthens the spine and helps relieve unhealthy stress on the vertebrae.... But more about Gokhale Method solutions in just a bit!

While the authors of "Epidural steroid injections are associated with less improvement in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis" caution that the unexpected results of this small, retrospective study warrant further investigation, a couple of findings leap out:

• Using well-established scales for measuring leg and lower back pain, the researchers found significantly less improvement among patients who had the steroid injections than among those who did not; this was true even among those patients who went on to have surgery. 
• Despite conflicting reports about the efficacy of epidural steroid injections in lumbar spinal stenosis, 69% of spinal surgeons consider ESIs to be the first-line invasive treatment when exercise and physical therapy have failed.

The Spine study—together with recent alarming reports of fungal meningitis, paralysis, and other risks associated with epidural injections—prompted me to tackle this topic today.

What is lumbar spinal stenosis?

Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the open spaces in the spine that can compress nerve roots and cause pain and numbness in the neck, limbs and back. Lumbar spinal stenosis is the narrowing of the spinal canal in the lower back--that is, in the five vertebrae that run between the rib cage and the pelvis. If we dig a little deeper and consider the anatomy of the spine, itself, we find that stenosis can happen in a couple of places:

• The space at the center of the spine (central stenosis)
• The canals (or vertebral foramina) through which the spinal nerves pass (lateral stenosis)

Visualize it

I believe in the therapeutic value of mental imaging, but in order to visualize solutions to a problem, it helps to see and understand the problem, itself. Take a look at this information video.

No wonder lumbar spinal stenosis hurts! As we just saw, a number of factors can contribute to the narrowing of space in the spinal cord:

• Bulging discs
• Bone spurs (also called osteophytes)
• Thickened spinal ligaments
• Enlarged joints near the spinal canal

Not only do these bulges, spurs and hypertrophied ligaments and joints pinch nerves and cause pain in individual people, they represent a burden on our healthcare system and society at large.

"The growing epidemic"

In 2010, The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons described lumbar spinal stenosis as "the growing epidemic," noting that with the aging of the population this already costly problem will only get worse:

• 8% to 11% of Americans are thought to be impacted by lumbar spinal stenosis.
• 2.4 million Americans are likely to be affected by 2021.
• As "boomers" increasingly qualify for Medicare benefits, government spending on lumbar spinal stenosis will no doubt increase.

Additional evidence was provided by the Chairman of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians, who, in a 2012 review of Medicare records, found that the number of  spine injections from 2000 to 2010 increased 159%. And the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that in 2011 it paid providers $106.4 million for 252,288 injections, which averages out to $422 each. All of which raises the question: What can we do to prevent or manage lumber spinal stenosis apart from relying on costly epidural steroid injections, which may not work as well as people had hoped and which are now also associated with contamination and infection and other risks?

Gokhale Method solutions

If you'd rather not count yourself among the the 2.4 million Americans (and untold numbers of others outside the US) likely to be afflicted by lumbar spinal stenosis between now and the year 2021—or if you are currently experiencing pain from spinal stenosis and would prefer a non-interventional approach—then I recommend the following Gokhale Method techniques:

• Stretchsitting
• Stretchlying on your back
• Stretchlying on your side
• Using your inner corset

All of these techniques involve lengthening the spine, which—by increasing the space between the vertebrae, as well as the open spaces in the spinal canal where the nerves exit—take stress off the places where stenosis occurs. One way to enhance these powerful techniques is to use imagery, a method known to promote all kinds of healing, together with deep breathing, which will improve movement of macro- and micro- elements of the spine. To begin to test this out you might now take a very deep breath and, as you feel your spine naturally lengthen, imagine what it feels like to naturally stand like the beautiful kouros figure, just below.

The benefits of reestablishing good length in the spine cannot be overstated

Stretchsitting and stretchlying on back and sides

As noted above, Gokhale Method stretching techniques involve lengthening the spine (including, of course, the lumbar spine). Reestablishing natural length creates space and helps relieve unnatural stress by decompressing nerve roots as they branch away from the spinal cord via the spinal foramina. Spine-lengthening techniques also take pressure off bulging discs that can cause pain when they press in against spinal nerves. Relieving unnatural stress on the vertebrae via spine-lengthening and reshaping may also confer benefits by slowing or even halting the formation of unhealthy calcium deposits, which, when they form bone spurs, can poke into the spinal column, compress nerves, and cause pain.

Using your inner corset

Bracing the torso is also really important in preventing or managing lumbar spinal stenosis, and this can be accomplished by strengthening the deep abdominal and back muscles and making good use of what I call the "inner corset." We can actually relieve compression on the spine by transfering it to these strong central muscles, which are ideally placed to help carry the weight of the upper body. It follows that engaging the inner corset may also help minimize the pain that occurs when bone spurs intrude on the spinal cord or spinal nerves, as well as when spine instability (spondylolisthesis) narrows the spinal canal by allowing one vertebra to slip forward on another.

Complementary techniques

Breathing and mental imaging

Only when the body is in correct alignment can the natural action of breathing massage the tissues of the spinal area and confer its own therapeutic value in relieving the pain of lumbar spinal stenosis. And because mental imaging is known to help reduce stress and relieve back pain, it may be beneficial to consciously envision what's going on inside your body, every time you take a deep breath:

• With each inhalation, the spine lengthens and massages tissues in the back while relieving stress on entrapped spinal nerve roots.
• With the settling back that occurs with each exhalation, the natural massage-like action continues, and this goes on and on, with every breath.
• With the natural massage that occurs with each inhalation and exhalation, blood is pumped through the tissues around the spine, normalizing circulation in the area.
• Good circulation presumably normalizes related physiologic processes that might include calcium deposition and calcium reabsorption.
• Good circulation also promotes the flushing away of waste products.

To sum up, stimulating circulation in the lumbar region—both of which are achieved through the Gokhale Method—are invaluable in the prevention and amelioration of stress on the vertebrae.

Imagery can help relieve stress and minimize pain

Secondary benefits of Gokhale Method techniques

Lengthening your spine and using your inner corset are things you want to be doing anyway, in the course of your usual activities—not only to clear up pain stemming from lumbar spinal stenosis, but to make you look and feel better, overall. Added perks of learning and practicing low-cost, no-hassle Gokhale Method techniques include zero risk of infection and other adverse effects, and—beyond the initial learning—no expenditure of precious time.

Where to learn more?

You will learn to lengthen your spine and use your inner corset in Sessions 1, 2, and 3 of the Gokhale Method Foundations course, and in Lessons 1, 2, 4, and 5 of the book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back, as well as in Scenes 1, 2, 3, and 6 of the Back Pain: The Primal Posture Solution DVD.

Image and Video Credits: Spinal Stenosis: Wikimedia Commons Journal Cover: Spine Lumbar Spine: Wikimedia Commons Spinal Stenosis YouTube Video: DuPuy Kouros, Archaic Greek Youth: Gerard Mackworth-Young Feather collected in Washington State: Kevmin, Wikimedia Commons