How rocking like a baby is the most adult way to relax
A fitness class where you spend an hour lying on the floor trying to do less is a novel experience. We’ve been conditioned to think that big body changes take big movements and high intensity.
Here I am though, at a Soothe Programme session with Nahid de Belgeonne, a yoga teacher, movement coach and self-styled “nervous system whisperer.” I am lying with my knees gently bent, lightly rocking my whole body back and forth. Disengaging, rather than engaging my muscles is the aim.
There was a time in all our lives when being rocked was the obvious way to soothe our minds and bodies. As babies, those caring for us knew that the best way to send us to sleep and into our parasympathetic nervous system was gentle movement.
As adults though, when we need to relax we rarely tune into ourselves in a soothing way. So here we are, living in a crisis of the stress hormone, cortisol. According to a survey by the Mental Health Foundation, 74 percent of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. Too many of us live with our nervous system in a constant state of alert. Long-term exposure to cortisol and other stress hormones can negatively affect almost all of your body’s processes; increasing the risk of heart disease, lung issues, obesity, anxiety, depression, and more.
Where once cortisol was a reaction to a very real need to survive, now we’re feeling it when we get an annoying email, rather than staring down a ferocious tiger. The challenge today is to move into a state where you’re not always having that high-stress reaction to events. To train the nervous system to slow down.
This may all sound a bit ‘woo’, but two studies published in Current Biology in 2019 showed that rocking releases endorphins to self-regulate the brain state. Not only does it lengthen and deepen sleep in people, it can help improve memory and focus. Other research from King’s College London revealed that besides improving cardiovascular health, the slower breathing rate of six breaths per minute also seems to be optimal for pain management. This may be due to the psychological comfort that comes from slow breathing, as much as any direct physiological changes to the pain sensitivity.
Slowing down
De Belegeonne’s Soothe Programme is based on Felendekrais, a type of alternative exercise therapy invented by Ukrainian/ Israeli engineer Moshe Feledenkrais in the mid 20th century.
The key components are breathing deeper, rocking yourself calm, softening your hard, stressed external body and rolling your eyes to soothe your brain. “What we’re resting from isn’t physical exertion, but mental effort. 20 percent of your whole day’s energy is taken up by the brain,” says de Belgeonne.
I’m unfamiliar with this way of moving. De Belgeonne helps me to get going, pushing my shins rhythmically. The trick, she says, is to rock without engaging your muscles and to aim to “move from my bones”. “We’re taught to grip and contract, but you don’t need all of that,” she says. “When you move from your bones, the muscles and connective tissue will come along with you,” says de Belgeonne.
“Let your head start to move, saying yes,” she says. “Then let your head gently roll from side to side.” At her instruction I slowly let the rocking action go, coming to stillness. I slide my legs long and notice how much more relaxed my body feels. “You’re starting to let go of muscles you didn’t know you were contracting,” she says.
Every time I start and stop, changing my position very slightly, my body lets go a little more.
The aim, says de Belgeonne, is to cultivate interoception. Interoception is a new area of neuroscience and biology, basically about ‘listening to your body’. “When you cultivate more awareness of the signals coming from your body you’re more likely to notice anxiety and depression,” says Belgeonne. “More so than when your attention is all over the place.”
Dial it down
Too often, says Belgeonne, we look for solutions outside of ourselves - that morning coffee or the glass of wine at night. However, the tools we need to deal with what life throws at us, de Belgeonne passionately, believes lie within us. “We’ve been taught not to trust our feelings. We’ve been conditioned to think we need to spend money to correct something. We’re drawn to really big sensations. We’ve been indoctrinated to not feel the small stuff.”
She acknowledges that hers is a simple message, but people still struggle to follow it. “Telling people to lie on the floor and feel, isn’t very sexy,” she says, “so instead we do HIIT classes and listen to instructions to squeeze the glutes. All of which spikes our stress levels even further and teaches our muscles to use more effort than what is required. “It’s a bit like a dimmer switch. Recognise how much effort you’re using and then slowly dial it down.”
By the end of the session, I find myself completely unable to spring to my feet. Doing so would feel completely at odds with how my body now feels. Instead I take my time. First moving onto my knees, then placing a hand on the ground to steady myself as I place a foot on the floor. Small effortless movements until I’m upright.
For the next three hours I go about my life with the connection between my body and mind quietly alive and tingling. It echoes de Belgeonne’s words: “When you do this method it influences your sensations, emotions and your thoughts.You realise that your actions are made up of your thoughts and emotions and sensations.”