Restoring Functional Wisdom - "Female Pelvic Wisdom"

As teacher and practitioner of a multitude of modalities, I come back to the conclusion that it is not necessarily the practioner's knowledge or "wisdom" but the reciprocal exchange and self validation by client/participant.

What we sense about our own body and emotions can truly move an individual towards a path of functional independence and better state of health that we can self-monitor and maintain; we can discern when it is actually necessary for outside advice and consult.

Through the sharing of "Female Pelvic Wisdom" I have observed a group of females of a variety of ages, physical constitutions, find resolution from various challenges and issues that have, in some cases, dictated their lives for a long time.  For some, pain and stress have been a cycle that finally dissipates.  For some there is finally an acceptance and acknowledgement of being female.

The beauty that we seek truly exists in the current body we occupy! 

(Written February 11, 2011, Note modified to keep it 'updated')

Mardy's Note: This class has been filled each time she ran it since it started in 2011! By mid 2011, it was mostly from provider-referrals hearing good things from those who had taken it previously.  She generally starts a new group every month.  I took it early in 2011 and had remarked results, with lowered pain levels noticeable to me and a level pelvis noted by practitioners who previously observed ongoing alignment dysfunction.  Lumigrate/I encourage permanent solutions with the least intervention for maintenance, so HIGHLY recommend this course and hope demand expands it for men as well. And Analii does wonderful follow-up related to 'tune ups' and can form groups for people you know to do together and make it a healthful and fun thing to get together with your 'loved ones' for! 

What shifted for me was the awareness that how I moved into a position was more important than being in the "perfect posture ".

It seems to be a subtle and powerful difference. This matches Analii's concept that inner mobility and focus leads to more natural and fluid movements. I have to agree on both a physical and mental level- looking for wisdom within gives more information than anything we seek from others.

One class gave me a new insight into how I pay attention to my core, that went beyond the time spent in class. Great class and such fun with movement instead of seeking perfectionism.

I just got back from my first long car trip in a long time and my pain levels are markedly better than before I took Analii's class the other week, so I'm signing myself up for her next round.  

~~ Mardy

Note from January 13, 2012 - Analii's series continues, the Pelvic Wisdom is at 10:30 and the ongoing Women's Wellness is at noon but I got them mixed up in my head so I went at noon today and she did such a great job melding what the pelvic wisdom class covers with what the women's wellness covers.  For over a week, my muscles had been just freaked out and causing problems and so despite being very busy today I was motivated to get to class when in a 'flare up' so to speak.  I couldn't sit on the yoga mat without 'sacral sitting' at the start and by the second or third series she took us through, I sat up and .. could sit up!  My pain levels were immediately much lower and I have enjoyed the rest of my day much more than I would have otherwise.  I cannot more highly recommend this class to people who live here and look forward to the day when this type of work is available to people at home or in their communities.  ~~ Mardy

Here's a link for a new topic I started about abdominal adhesions in the gut health forum.  You might think that was not the obvious place to put a topic about abdominal adhesions but many people's symptoms might be IBS and etc, and then I'll also put links from the other more obvious sections/forums (such as "pain", and this one!  

The piece at the link below takes you to a blog site that is similar but different in ways from Lumigrate and only talks about the allopathic approach and I talk about my experiences, including Analii's class.  If you want to think of Analii's approach as preventive medicine as well, for those who are at risk for developing adhesions, in addition to those of us who know we have various things going on in our pelvic/trunk/spine (sacral through cranial).  www.lumigrate.com/forum/chronic-pain-abdominal-adhesions-link-healthmadcom

I snapped this photo of one of our 'core group gatherings' of the Grate Groove of the Grand Valley ("search on Grate Groove here at Lumigrate to find more about it in the Forums (Building Health Communities section).  The Grate Groove was designed to have a handful or two of providers initially get to know each other and what we do professionally in the formative months ...  "cross pollination" I call it. 

The next step is to reach out to others who have an interest and ability in the fibromyalgia population and who will participate in collaborative and ethical ways.  On this occasion Analii was able to arrive at the start of our scheduled time and present about Pelvic Wisdom.  Bryce Christianson arrived when he was finished up with his morning chiropractic and Active Release Technique® patients and showed us the type of core exercises he has historically prescribed.  

Then he and Analii really lead us in a thought-provoking conversation about the whats and whys.  Carolyn (long blond hair) and Kohava (long dark hair) reminded me how many people have fallen in the past and hurt their spine/tailbone -- so it was really a very 'information hungry' small group.  These are rewarding moments coming from the Grate Groove, as people ARE collaborating about challenging patients and therefore the consumers are getting to receive the benefits of this 'Grate Groovy Group'.  

{Mardy's note from end of 2011: Analii and Bryce collaborated on a patient with good results mid-year and by fall he'd moved to a new space and invited Analii to have a nice big room there.  I went to the well attended open house: she has room for her massage/mat table for private sessions, a good wall surface with the floor for the floor/wall work, and it's private for fittings of the ingenious pelvic undergarment she's developed.  It was SO rewarding to know this has come about from just a little bit (eyeroll) of work on my part to get people together via the Grate Groove in just our FIRST year}. 

If providers can understand fibromyalgia, they can also be understanding and being of more benefit to about 20% of the population who are 'on the continuum' right now of having the condition. And to the other 80%/ALL people. For example, someone might attend a PT session, yoga class, exercise class and not come back if it flares them up -- the providers don't know that's why they didn't come back oftentimes, so they don't learn that someone with FMS can look like they're keeping up with a class or exercise routine and then really 'suffer the effects afterwards'. 

When I first started having a stream of people with FMS coming to me as an outpatient OT (meaning they had insurance to pay the very high costs of insurance-based, allopathic medicine as I was doing at the time), I'd ask as part of my assessment if they ever had PT or other similar services and they typically said 'yes, but I didn't go back because they only made it worse'. 

When I looked into what was going on, I found that PTs are so 'set up to function around orthopedic injuries' with younger people, they didn't drop the level of exercise down and it came from a lack of education about what fibromyalgia is and how to treat it.  Lumigrate was created to solve that gap -- consumers more than likely will find it and Lumigrate encourages people to be the YOU in control and take information to providers surrounding you. 

If providers are better educated and aware and they scan, screen, talk to and ask more questions of their clients, patients/consumers, 'customers' --  they might figure out together they're in a precarious position with their health and be referred to resources such as Lumigrate or another provider in the Grate Groove which is 'just what the doctor ordered', except in our case it doesn't have to be a 'doctor'.... in this picture the only one with a "D" is Bryce Christianson, DC.  

What I've learned so far from the Grate Groove's formative time of existence in my community, is that there are many providers who say 'I was thinking I might have a little bit of fibromyalgia stuff going on' or 'now that you've told me what the contributors are, I realize I was having (this symptom) in the past and took care of it by (doing what they knew to do to correct it, such as diet or other lifestyle changes).  That is not surprising, as everyone is running around like crazy and very busy PLUS keeping up on the computer and phone with communications, which seem to be increasingly time consuming and boggled lately for everyone, requiring more late nights and things which contribute to adrenal fatigue.

I commend the Grate Groove for taking time to come together, learn, settle and as you can see, 'hang out' comfortably with some time and space together to do that 'cross pollination'.  I particularly thank Analii for always saying 'yes' when asked to teach/further education and to have immediately done problem-solving by learning what it was with my body due to the fibromyalgia (hightened sensation about pain/pressure) and ordering a thinner yoga block to adapt with something a bit cushioning yet providing the support required for the unique work she has created.  Which as I have said over and over, has been extremely beneficial to me and solved a lot of 'problems' with pain and the structure of my body in just a few sessions!  I'm looking forward to MORE, but by the time the block arrived I was able to use the usual ones, allowing that block to be used by others when they begin, if they have similar pain sensitivity.  Then that might lead Analii to refer the person to learning at Lumigrate or through other qualified resources and providers and potentially solve problems before they get out of hand.  Or IF they're out of hand already, get them back 'in hand'.  

As always, thanks to Monica Cullinane of Integrative Wellness Today and Academy of Yoga for providing the beautiful space for us.  ~~ Mardy

Carolyn Lampshire, Analii Cunningham, Kohava Howard, Bryce Christianson at Academy of Yoga, Downtown Grand Junction, Colorado, USA.  Owner Monica Cullinane got us set up and was off to educate at a local (and large) employer group's wellness program.  (Mid day, one mid-week, March 2011)

I wanted to post a note here to suggest people who are interested in this topic follow along if they're wanting to learn more about fascia or 'myofascia' because it is why, in my mind, Analii's techniques and work is so powerful.  I want to note that I ended up arriving an hour early for a meeting and met a woman just before she had her first private session and then I came back and got to see her reaction/amazement from just the first session together! It was 'meant to be' that we had a schedule mishap that day, I think! (And I went next door to the lovely 7th Street Deli and had a good early lunch, caught up on work from my phone and it just was SO great to see.  (A professional businesswoman with fibromyalgia.) 

www.lumigrate.com/forum/youre-achy-youre-sore-and-you-have-no-idea-why-oprahcom

 My goodness does this need refreshing.... that photo above is such a wonderful reminder of the formative months in 2011 of the Grate Groove's 'more alternative' providers such as movement therapist (YogaDance, Functional Wisdom, yoga), chiropractic, esthetics and skin health, and foods/eating/nutrition coming together to get to know each other and what the others do so that we could continue on to bring new people together in different 'pods' and then start integrating in some conventional providers who are 'onto the scent' of what functional medicine and alternatives area about.  "Integrating" the communities as much as connecting people within the same "thinking" community.  

We'll be having a function at Anallii's Center and I hope we'll have time to get it looking really nice and get some photographs with those who want to be photographed.  We're doing something in the immediate future so check back soon and see what we do to revamp and revitalize this information about Analii and what SHE is up to!  LOTS, I can tell you that! 

Mardy's Note: Unfortunately, we had issues with the photographs at the event getting produced so I cannot offer that. BUT in 2013, she offered to be part of a project I suggested we collaborate about relative to a local woman who had been already making headway on her own relative to reversing many health issues that she had. She had many diagnoses over the years and was being treated via conventional medicine with a diagnosis if 'fibromyalgia'.  So I'm going to provide the link to the comment on the thread about that topic at Lumigrate so YOU can see, as I attended, with my camera and took photos and therefore have photos to show from that. 

www.lumigrate.com/forum/out-health-care-crack-billie-green-now-groove-grate-groove-grand-valley#comment-2536

The providers who participated learned a great deal -- there's a lot of interesting tidpits at that overall thread, I believe -- worth taking time, particularly to see how someone in England was inspired and got more professional assistance and a kick in the pants about proactivity (by herself, just from reading about Billie). Or about how we added up our total costs if we'd charged and it was about $10,000 (US) -- for the improvement in function Billie had, I'd say we proved that this type of collaboration with support of a competent guide helping Billie navigate putting a team together 'pays off'. 

And it was kind of like we'd made cake batter in 2009 with the foundation of the Groove, baked the cake starting in early 2011, then by 2013 we frosted the cake with this project, and I opted that at the end of 2013, I was going to no longer focus on the Grate Groove of the Grand Valley -- we're done! 

To be clear --- I'm NOT done, I've only just begun -- as has Lumigrate! We're now (as of the start of fall 2014) exactly 7 years since I was asking the first providers to come to my allopathic medical building where I contracted OT services and speak about fibromyalgia to a free educational 'fibromyalgia forum' the group wished to call it. Some of those providers were with the startup of the integrative clinic in 2008 where we did low-coast educational seminars every other week, and I selected a batch to produce a recording studio and launch Lumigrate with for download.

That clinic didn't stick to the agreed upon focus we'd have, overall, so we all went our separate ways (except the MD who remains there today -- now using the logo Lumigrate helped produce as part of the marketing plan we provided (as they'd been so eager to get signs and awning for their new building so that people would know about it, they ordered them without having gotten a logo. It takes a team, a village and the good thing is that overall for the community there are more services available in town because of the directly the MD took things. It bummed me out to not have patients and income, naturally, for all these years so it was GRATE to get to 2013 with Billie and get to 'do my thing' finally, with someone face to face, with team members who I was connected with, and who were connected together as we show in this topic. And in the mean time I then networked in 2009 and through 2012 and into early 2013 to get national experts giving us advise in the forums at Lumigrate for our YOUsers. I've learned to TRUST that things are going as they're intended to by something I'm not fully aware of. My job is to just tap into my portion of it, go with the flow, and navigate to the best of my abilities. Same as everyone. 

Where would YOU like to see me help a community to do similarly? The Grate Groove of _____. (fill in the blank).  If anyone sees the potential for doing something similar where they live, consider letting me know (contact us comes to me, or mardy at lumigrate dot com is my email.

Stay tuned about that at Lumigrate and in 2014 / 15 perhaps there will be something about that. I don't know for sure though. It's a transition time and 'at a crossroads' for me. The website's with a great complement of information and it's getting found by increasing numbers, very gradually.  And I sometimes get very nice compliments from people, such as one today who said Lumigrate was a primary bookmark for searching now. I love hearing that.

Slow and steady we've been, same as the way people really do best on their health journey after having a crash with chronic fatigue and pain, such as with 'fibromyalgia', 'CEBV' (as it was called in my first crash in the late 1980s).  It seems once past the end of 2012, when we were at the well-attended and invigorating meeting we had at Analii's lovely new studio that I referred to above (without the photos to prove it, ha!) everything shifted into another gear. And now as we're heading to the end of 2014 it seems there are a lot of thing happening. I've never seen so many people aware and working on improving, and also so many needs. And so many providers of a wide variety of types, working away and contributing to the process. It's a marvelous and exciting (yet challenging) time! ~ Mardy