Notes

Introduction

¹ Elsa Gindler, “Gymnastik for Busy People,” Sensory Awareness Bulletin: Elsa Gindler 1885–1961 1, no. 10 (Summer 1978): 40.

² Mirka Knaster, Discovering the Body’s Wisdom (New York: Bantam Books, 1996), 352–380.

³ Alan Fogel, Body Sense: The Science and Practice of Embodied Self-Awareness (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013), 29–33.

⁴ Fogel, Body Sense, xi.

⁵ Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score (New York: Penguin Books, 2014), 275.

⁶ Gindler, “Gymnastik for Busy People,” 36–40.

Chapter 1: The Bodymind Connection

¹ Robert M. Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1994).

² John Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), 167.

³ Ivy Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience: Rosen Method Bodywork Science and Practice (Campbell, CA: Fast Pencil, 2016), 230–231.

Chapter 2: The Nervous System, Stress, and Relaxation

¹ “Recent work by the psychologist Shelley Taylor of UCLA has forced people to rethink this. She suggests that the fight-or-flight response is what dealing with stress is about in males, and that it has been overemphasized as a phenomenon because of the long-standing bias among (mostly male) scientists to study males rather than females.

Taylor argues convincingly that the physiology of the stress-response can be quite different in females, built around the fact that in most species, females are typically less aggressive than males, and that having dependent young often precludes the option of flight. Showing that she can match the good old boys at coming up with a snappy sound-bite, Taylor suggests that rather than the female stress-response being about fight-or-flight, it’s about “tend and befriend”—taking care of her young and seeking social affiliation.” (Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, 33)

² Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy, 167.

³ Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 196.

⁴ The hypothalamus starts the process of activation of the stress response, which is both neurological and hormonal. Our central stress response system is called the HPA axis, and it goes like this: the hypothalamus sends the hormone corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) to the pituitary gland, which secretes adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which tells the adrenal glands to secrete cortisol and epinephrine. This axis was first described by Hans Selye.

⁵ Homeostasis is the process of maintaining balance in the body’s physiological functions.

⁶ Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, 48–49.

⁷ Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 125–128.

⁸ Herbert Benson, The Relaxation Response (New York: HarperCollins, 1975).

⁹ Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 196.

¹⁰ Mel Robin, A Handbook for Yogasana Teachers: The Incorporation of Neuroscience, Physiology, and Anatomy into the Practice (Tucson, AZ: Wheatmark, 2009), 179–182.

Chapter 3: Soft Tissues, Pain, and Release

¹ “The definition of the word ‘fascia’ is evolving; researchers and clinicians don’t always agree on what types of tissue are included in this term. Some include ligaments, tendons, aponeuroses, joint capsules, and retinacula as ‘fascia,’ seeing it from a broader functional point of view.” (David Lesondak, Fascia: What It Is and Why It Matters, Edinburgh: Handspring, 2017, 1)

² Thomas W. Findley and Robert Schleip, eds., Fascia Research: Basic Science and Implications for Conventional and Complementary Health Care (Munich: Elsevier, 2007).

³ Ibid., 157–158.

⁴ Thomas W. Myers, Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists (Edinburgh: Elsevier, 2014), 301.

⁵ Lesondak, Fascia, 11.

⁶ Fogel, Body Sense, 193.

⁷ Robert Schleip, “Fascia as a Sensory Organ,” in Dynamic Body: Myoskeletal Alignment: Exploring Form, Expanding Function, ed. Erik Dalton (Oklahoma City, OK: Freedom from Pain Institute, 2012), 137–163.

Chapter 4: Body Schema, Body Image, and Conditioning

¹ Paul Schilder, The Image and Appearance of the Human Body (New York: International Universities Press, 1978), 112.

² This condition, which also can occur in those with normal childhoods, has various medical names: tactile defensiveness, sensory processing disorder, sensory integration dysfunction.

³ Fogel, Body Sense, 195.

⁴ Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 128; Rick Hanson with Richard Mendius, Buddha’s Brain (Oakland, CA: New Harbinger, 2009), 67–77.

⁵ Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 299.

⁶ Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, The Whole-Brain Child (New York: Bantam Books, 2011), 72.

⁷ Donna Jackson Nakazawa, Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal (New York: Atria/Simon & Schuster, 2016).

⁸ Epigenetics is the study of how a gene’s expression and function can be dynamically altered by environmental factors.

Chapter 5: Defense Mechanisms and Trauma

¹ Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 75.

² Paolo Tozzi, “Does Fascia Hold Memories?” Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies 18, no. 2: 259–265.

³ Bessel van der Kolk, quoted in Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 327.

⁴ van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score, 4.

⁵ Fogel, Body Sense, 58.

⁶ Siegel and Bryson, The Whole-Brain Child, 37–61.

⁷ Note: other writers refer to these two ways of functioning as “bottom up” and “top down.” See Hanson, Buddha’s Brain, 107–108.

⁸ Fogel, Body Sense, 56.

⁹ Hanson, Buddha’s Brain, 101.

¹⁰ These areas are the anterior cingulate cortex motor area and the supplementary motor area.

¹¹ James Austin, quoted in Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 367.

¹² Fogel, Body Sense, 95–101.

¹³ van der Kolk, quoted in Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 284.

¹⁴ Ibid., 337–338.

¹⁵ van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score, 333.

¹⁶ Ibid., 357.

¹⁷ Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 278–279.

Chapter 15: Conclusion

¹ Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 270.

² Joseph Campbell, quoted in Green, Relaxation Awareness Resilience, 355.

³ Edward Maisel, introduction to The Resurrection of the Body: The Essential Writings of F. Matthias Alexander, ed. Edward Maisel (Boston: Shambhala, 1969), xxx.

⁴ Gindler, “Gymnastik for Busy People,” 4.