Last month, I had the privilege of speaking to members of the local group of the National Association of Lactation Consultants (CALCA). What a dedicated group of women committed to helping new parents make the decisions that are right for their newborns and families! While I could have easily spent the next three years just scratching the surface of what Craniosacral Therapy is and what the benefits can be, I decided to spend my hour sharing how a slow pace can help newborns develop a sense of safety and trust.
Stephen Porges of the University of Illinois at Chicago used the term
Neuroreception to describe how neural circuits distinguish between situations or people to determine if they are safe or pose various levels of danger. A slow tempo and conscious stillness help the mom and her baby to perceive safety in their environment. This sense of safety and trust are necessary for proper nutrition and absorption to take place in the newborn/infant. We can ALL benefit from the calming of our neural circuits through slowing.
I recently described the sensation experienced last year in a class exchange in Switzerland to a Craniosacral Therapist in Italy:
'All 40 students and the entire teaching team were simultaneously in a still point while the mountains surrounding the Kiental breathed us. It elicits a sacred response in my soul just to think about it.'
She replied: 'I have spontaneous goosebumps all over. Dynamic stillness in the Swiss Alps. My midline is tingling. How beautiful!'
*
Stillpoint=
The natural rhythm within the craniosacral system easing into a therapeutic slowing/standstill.
Here is the brief meditative piece we experienced together at the end of the Lactation Consultants meeting.
Read it slowly and Enjoy the Stillness!
The German word for nursing/breastfeeding is
Stillen.
Psalm 46:10 says, "
Be Still and Know".
Stillen.
Say the word to yourself as you take a breath, gently in and out at your own pace.
Feel your feet, tap them to feel some input you your legs to your core. Take a breath. You are
grounded, present.
And if you feel a breath rise up from within you, from the base of your sacrum to your head, savor it. You are
grounded, present, centered and calm.
Your spine is bathed in fluid, surrounded by fluid. Your bones and tissues are moist and alive, welcoming the fluid nutrition, circling around your brain, down your spinal cord, exiting to all areas of your body, through the nerves and tissues.
You feel a sense of the
Energy of the Calmness, the
Energy of the Stillness.
Let's just take a moment to sit quietly in that beautiful slow pace.
Experience the
Slowing and Stillness
that comes with being
Grounded, Present, Centered and Calm
*I will be out of the office 22 May-13 June training in Switzerland and Italy. Please contact me by email:
sari@sarihands.com for scheduling needs or alternative resources.
Speaking of resources, my friend Judy has a Wonderful Parenting
blog. Here's how she describes it: "
There are so many different factors to consider when facing most of the common parenting issues. The Nurse Judy approach is a combination of many years of medical experience, a desire to treat things as naturally as possible, a large dollop of common sense."
Warm hugs!
