Martha Peterson – Gentle Effective Somatic Practices to Move From Pain to a Life Full of New Possibilities

What These 7 Modules Will Teach You

In this seven-part transformational intensive, Martha will lead you through the fundamental understandings and movement techniques you’ll need to reverse feelings of “getting older,” significantly lessen pain, and cultivate more ease and mobility… so you can live a self-actualized, profoundly satisfying life.

Teachings in this course will be delivered step-by-step, and practicing will be done with Martha. The practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to reverse the feeling of “getting old” through a variety of gentle yet powerful movements that can significantly reduce pain and provide more ease and mobility… so you can fully thrive—will become completely clear to you as each session builds harmoniously upon the one before it.
Module 1: Address Tight Back Muscles and Release the Habituated Posture of Go-Go-Go!

Do you frequently feel as though you are “running from” life? or dejected by life, sunk inward? Your movement may not represent the freedom you long for because you feel as though many areas of your life are out of harmony.

Life is an intricate web of stresses, some of which are viewed as “positive,” like moving, producing, or exercising, and others as “bad,” like sorrow, loss, anxiety, or failure.

In this first session, you’ll begin to learn about aging and how it impacts your ability to move and feel. You’ll learn to measure aging not by the years you’ve lived, but rather by how you’ve adapted to the challenges in your life.

By helping you experience what these reflexes are and how to start letting them go, Martha will help you regain voluntary control over the automatic and unconscious behaviors that have taken over your brain, nervous system, and life.

You’ll learn in this session:

Investigate pandiculation to relax your nervous system, strengthen your nervous system, and enhance your capacity to regulate your muscles.
Explore how you stand, move, and sit as a new method to uncover unconscious patterns, and learn how interconnected your somatic system is.
Practice the “Arch and Flatten,” “Back Lift,” and “Diagonal Arch and Curl” somatic exercises, as well as a brief sitting exploration, to bring your front and back into better balance and coordination.
Investigate your “call to action” and “withdrawal” responses, also known as the “green light” and “red light” reflexes, to release tension in your front and back bodies and increase spinal flexibility.
Learn how your physical and muscular systems react to everything you experience in life, producing either tension or relaxation, and the distinction between a body and a soma.
Learn about the three universal patterns of muscular holding that chronic muscle tension (also known as SMA) manifests in and how your regular responses to stress might contribute to it (or stress reflexes)

Release the Habituated Posture of Fear and Anxiety in Module 2 by Dealing with Body Tension in the Front.

A very basic instinct that makes us retreat emotionally, cognitively, and physically can be triggered by emotional stress and fear.

We involuntarily stiffen the front of our bodies in reaction to this reflex, sometimes referred to as the “startle response” (or red light reflex). Our head tilts forward, our shoulders slump downward, and our abdominal muscles contract.

Many individuals wrongly believe that this posture develops as we age.

In this session, Martha will demonstrate how to relax these tense muscles so that you may breathe better, have more energy, and have a more relaxed neurological system.

In addition,

Improve your awareness of how you stand and move, paying attention to any imbalances or tense spots.
Practice the “Flower” and “Arch and Curl,” two somatic exercises that help you breathe better, feel less anxious, and stand higher through the front of your body.
Continue to focus your attention inward on your bodily experience as you consider how your posture and sense of self may be impacted by the repetition of this really primitive reaction of defense.
Review the motions from the previous section and keep finding fresh and interesting ways to explore them.
Get a visual showing how SMA manifests in the brain, how to employ pandiculation to lessen it, and how to return the ideal brain-to-muscle link.
Learn about the “somatic qualities” that all human somas possess, which serve as motivation for lifelong learning and progress.

Module 3: Restoring Balance Using Your Waist Muscles to Release the Habituated Posture of Trauma

An imbalance in that region can be caused by accidents, injuries, operations, and several one-side-of-the-body activities, including tennis or carrying a child on your hip.

Our entire system may get out of balance with just one uneven component, including how we walk, the clarity of our vision, and our capacity to twist and spin. Further damage and stress to our joints may result from this.

In this lesson, you’ll learn exercises that will help you loosen up the sides of your body and regain your natural feeling of balance by allowing you greater mobility in your shoulders and hips.

You’ll be guided as you:

Examine how the occurrences in your life, particularly mishaps, wounds, operations, or lopsided pursuits, may impair your capacity to achieve balance in your somatic core.
The “Side Bend” and the “Human X” are two new motions that will help you develop your movement practice.
Learn how relaxing your core will help you release tension in your extremities.
As you stand, stroll, and lie down, feel for any imbalances in your waist and sides.
Start regaining your balance to make walking easier and to strengthen your stability and connection to the earth.

Free Your Ribcage for Happier Hips and Shoulders in Module 4

You’re prepared to link your shoulders and hips through rotation and twisting now that you know how to relax the tight muscles in your front, back, and sides of your body. When the rib cage is unrestricted, the shoulders and hips may move most freely.

Imagine a baby learning about their surroundings for the first time. When a child lifts their head to gaze around or play with their toes, they first become aware of their capacity to stretch and flex (or arch and curl) their spine.

Then, when they start to turn over, they become conscious of their sides and breathe softly and normally. Once they have mastered that motion, they are able to move their shoulders and hips on their own and begin to crawl.

You’ll investigate that similar development in this session as you regain the freedom to move your rib cage, shoulders, and hips in oppositional directions. You’ll be on your way to dancing in freedom as you proceed!

Since we modify our movements, we change who we are as human beings, some individuals may experience emotions like terror as they exercise greater freedom. This may compel them to reconsider how they have been living their life.

You’ll investigate how letting go of moving-related anxiety, other people’s perceptions of you, and mental expectations might affect your long-term success in progressing in life.

The purpose of this session is to:

Practice the “Washrag,” a different somatic activity, to increase hip and shoulder mobility for better coordination in all your everyday tasks.
breathe more easily and naturally once more
As you learn to link the movement of your shoulders to the movement of your hips, you will experience increased rotation and mobility through your spine.
Develop your awareness and expertise of reestablishing real equilibrium in your somatic core.
Consider how your mental outlook and expectations might effect not just your long-term health but also your overall wellbeing and mobility.
Think critically about your past and how it can be manifesting in your present-day movement and body.

Restore a Balanced Gait: Walking Easily is the fifth module.

Everything you have learned thus far in this course has been geared at restoring walking, the most significant motion in our lexicon.

You are now prepared to assemble the mechanics of free and easy walking after learning how to release the red light, green light, and trauma response muscles (located in the back, front, and sides of your body). Get ready to glide toward a better tomorrow while swinging your hips!

In this session, you’ll

Begin to reestablish mobility in your pelvis as it relates to the smooth movement of your back and waist
Practice forceful walking motions to regain balance
Play with your renewed ease and coordination in walking
Experience how freedom in your core leads to increased balance, connection to the earth, and efficiency in walking
Reflect on what’s conceivable for your future now that you can move with greater ease

Module 6: Relieve Neck & Shoulder Pain With Differentiation

Neurons that fire together connect together. In other words, everything we do consistently develops a habit at the level of our brain, neurological system, and movement.

You can, however, train your brain “new tricks.” When you learn to distinguish your motions, you gain the potential for more accurate and sophisticated movement patterns.

Differentiation upsets the patterns of our brain when we study smaller, apparently unconnected components of a movement. When you reconnect to the whole movement, you move with more flexibility and ease – without forcing or striving.

You’ll learn in this session:

Practice modest and soft motions to soothe your nervous system, which substantially benefits your entire wellness
Experience a strong somatic activity, the “Seated Twist,” employing distinction to generate progress without straining
Learn to turn and gaze behind you without straining, forcing, or pushing your neck or back
Discover how, when you can separate your movements, you start to discover more ease in all you do

Module 7: Integrate Somatic Movements Into Your Life

As the classic joke goes, a traveler to New York asks a passing stranger, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The guy answers, “Practice, practice, practice.”

It’s sage counsel.

The greatest approach to achieve long-lasting progress in your relationship with yourself, your body, your movement, and your life is to have a regular practice that helps you in becoming more self-sensing.

As you strengthen your capacity to detect, you become more self-monitoring. And as you develop your ability to self-monitor, you become more self-correcting, self-regulating, and, eventually self-actualizing.

In this concluding session, you’ll experience a brief sitting practice that you may do anytime, anyplace.

In addition,

Learn how simply you may conduct somatic exercises in a chair throughout your day
Be taken through a sitting exercise to help you sit with ease and always return to a position of balance and comfort
Investigate how the way you sit while you work or drive may be based on a habitual response that’s contributing to your physical pain
Understand how what you learned in this course may be applied to your daily life

The Move From Pain to Possibilities Bonus Collection

In addition to Martha’s transforming 7-module virtual course, you’ll receive these exclusive bonuses with top visionaries and instructors to supplement the course and take your knowledge and practice to an even deeper level.