blocks and a targeted release to get the blood flowing once again.
Here we are, over one hundred years later, and these ideas are still not mainstream—but we see them working every day. I see the validity of Dr. Still’s approach when my patients are lying on the table and the acupuncture needles practically jump out of their shoulders or back; when they fall asleep on the table and are completely peaceful and relaxed; when they get up from the table and their whole demeanor is changed—the rosiness is back in their cheeks, and they feel alive again, at home in their body. They describe the feeling of energy moving back into their hands and feet, the sense that their mind seems clearer. They say things like, “I feel lighter,” “My shoulders have dropped,” “I feel more space in my body,” “I feel grounded.” “I’m ready to take on the world.”
The same core mechanism that drives these osteopathic treatments powers the Positive Feedback program, because the Reflect * Release * Radiate sequence taps into the same biochemical responses in the body. Whether you have acupuncture, get a massage, or do your trigger points or dry brushing or Tibetan Rites, your body releases lymphatic fluids and your brain and central nervous system release natural painkillers, beta-endorphins. Just like osteopathic modalities, the Positive Feedback program also helps to soothe the hypothalamus—the part of the brain that links the nervous system to the endocrine system, the site of appetite and love and sexual energy and sleep—and quiet the panicked energy of the amygdala—the site of fear and stress and panic in the brain. Any of the program’s activities will help you tone your parasympathetic nervous system and build your body’s capacity to thoroughly relax and bounce back from stressful experiences.
That’s the ultimate goal of each stage of the Reflect * Release * Radiate sequence: building your body’s capacity. Both Positive and Negative Feedback start in a moment of stress, be it an acute injury or an exciting challenge. In Negative Feedback, rather than rise to meet the challenge, you shrink in defeat and get stuck in lethargy. You attach yourself to negative thoughts. You surround yourself with negative people. You either never, ever stop running—or you sink into inertia. (A body at rest stays at rest.)
Glucose builds up in your blood; plaque builds up in your brain and in your arteries; toxins build up in your liver. Your body responds to this systemic congestion with chronic inflammation, muscle atrophy, insulin resistance, and cognitive decline. Negative Feedback feeds on itself, keeping you trapped in pain.
But you have the power of choice. When faced with a challenge, if you rise to meet it, you become stronger going forward. Positive Feedback, as with negativity, also feeds on itself, so once you escape Negative Feedback, every second you spend in Positive Feedback strengthens this biological response: Your lymph nodes release accumulated waste. Your brain releases neurotoxins. Muscles build back up, insulin sensitivity increases again, and blood sugar drops. As blood sugar drops, chronic inflammation recedes and brain fog lifts. Circulation improves and blood pressure drops, putting a halt on cardiac risks. And all those improvements started with a simple choice—to meet the challenge, to feel the pain, and to move all the way through it.
A recent study of the Jewish Polish population that immigrated to Israel before and after World War II found that, compared with their contemporaries who’d been spared, men who’d been imprisoned during the Holocaust lived an average of ten to eighteen months longer than their peers who had not had that harrowing experience. Researchers believe that this “post-traumatic growth” is a perfect example of the Adaptive Response. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who spent time in Auschwitz, and whose wife was killed in a different concentration camp, wrote Man’s
Here we are, over one hundred years later, and these ideas are still not mainstream—but we see them working every day. I see the validity of Dr. Still’s approach when my patients are lying on the table and the acupuncture needles practically jump out of their shoulders or back; when they fall asleep on the table and are completely peaceful and relaxed; when they get up from the table and their whole demeanor is changed—the rosiness is back in their cheeks, and they feel alive again, at home in their body. They describe the feeling of energy moving back into their hands and feet, the sense that their mind seems clearer. They say things like, “I feel lighter,” “My shoulders have dropped,” “I feel more space in my body,” “I feel grounded.” “I’m ready to take on the world.”
The same core mechanism that drives these osteopathic treatments powers the Positive Feedback program, because the Reflect * Release * Radiate sequence taps into the same biochemical responses in the body. Whether you have acupuncture, get a massage, or do your trigger points or dry brushing or Tibetan Rites, your body releases lymphatic fluids and your brain and central nervous system release natural painkillers, beta-endorphins. Just like osteopathic modalities, the Positive Feedback program also helps to soothe the hypothalamus—the part of the brain that links the nervous system to the endocrine system, the site of appetite and love and sexual energy and sleep—and quiet the panicked energy of the amygdala—the site of fear and stress and panic in the brain. Any of the program’s activities will help you tone your parasympathetic nervous system and build your body’s capacity to thoroughly relax and bounce back from stressful experiences.
That’s the ultimate goal of each stage of the Reflect * Release * Radiate sequence: building your body’s capacity. Both Positive and Negative Feedback start in a moment of stress, be it an acute injury or an exciting challenge. In Negative Feedback, rather than rise to meet the challenge, you shrink in defeat and get stuck in lethargy. You attach yourself to negative thoughts. You surround yourself with negative people. You either never, ever stop running—or you sink into inertia. (A body at rest stays at rest.)
Glucose builds up in your blood; plaque builds up in your brain and in your arteries; toxins build up in your liver. Your body responds to this systemic congestion with chronic inflammation, muscle atrophy, insulin resistance, and cognitive decline. Negative Feedback feeds on itself, keeping you trapped in pain.
But you have the power of choice. When faced with a challenge, if you rise to meet it, you become stronger going forward. Positive Feedback, as with negativity, also feeds on itself, so once you escape Negative Feedback, every second you spend in Positive Feedback strengthens this biological response: Your lymph nodes release accumulated waste. Your brain releases neurotoxins. Muscles build back up, insulin sensitivity increases again, and blood sugar drops. As blood sugar drops, chronic inflammation recedes and brain fog lifts. Circulation improves and blood pressure drops, putting a halt on cardiac risks. And all those improvements started with a simple choice—to meet the challenge, to feel the pain, and to move all the way through it.
A recent study of the Jewish Polish population that immigrated to Israel before and after World War II found that, compared with their contemporaries who’d been spared, men who’d been imprisoned during the Holocaust lived an average of ten to eighteen months longer than their peers who had not had that harrowing experience. Researchers believe that this “post-traumatic growth” is a perfect example of the Adaptive Response. Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who spent time in Auschwitz, and whose wife was killed in a different concentration camp, wrote Man’s
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