Struggling with mobility? Have you considered your INNER EAR?! 🤯
"Brainy What-Why-How"
Your weekly nibble of brain-based tips to help you move and feel great!
No.2
What:
The inner ear (a.k.a. your vestibular system) is out-ranked only by the visual system (your eyes) in importance for your brain's overall perception of your environment.
Meaning: a vestibular system with some problems will be felt in your whole body.
Why:
Your vestibular system tells your brain two super fundamentally important things:
Which way is up
What direction you're moving in
If that seems trivial and unimportant to you, then 🥳congratulations🥳 -- you mostly likely have a healthy and functioning vestibular system.
Because the moment your vestibular system stops functioning, you'll feel like poop.
Have you ever felt dizzy after spinning around? Motion sick from reading in a car? Unable to balance because you've got a cold?
Yep -- all of those are examples of your vestibular system being like "waaahhhhhh I cannn't".
The canals of the vestibular system sense different types of movement:
⬅️ ➡️ linear
⬆️ ⬇️ vertical
↪️ and circular
They work together to tell your brain what's happening as you, say, stand up from sitting and ⤴️ simultaneously spin around because you were sitting peacefully on a beach and then suddenly an angry seal started chasing you. (⬅️ Click that link to watch my full YouTube video on this topic!)
How:
So how can we use this information to help our movements?
My recommendation is today's new class on Move With Adell: "Warming Quads and Vestibular Balance Flow"
In it, we do a little drill called Vestibular Ocular Reflex Cancellations (or simply VOR-C)...
where we take the head through movements that train all the canals of the vestibular system.
Because in everyday life --
and in a lot of movement practices, including yoga
-- we tend to do what feels easy and familiar (forward movement, and a bit of up and down) sometimes backwards, spinning, and combos are under-used.
Adding some simple and intentional head movements in a yoga practice is an easy way to give your brain more information from its second-in-command system, the vestibular system.
More information = better movement. Watch the YouTube video for more!
And in case you have any doubts, remember:
If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint" then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
This month empowerment is the theme on Move With Adell. Thursday's new upload is a Confidence to Be Yourself Tapping Meditation. Interested? Start your 7-day free trial here.
Thank you for reading! Let me know -- either in the comments section of my YouTube video, or by replying to this email -- what you think of the VOR-C!
And please share with a friend or colleague who might find this valuable.
Wishing you vivacious vestibularies,
Adell
Want to go way deeper on all of this geeky brain stuff?
• check out my discount codes for Z-health University courses (where I learned the majority of this -- seriously it's mindblowing)
• and get on the waiting list for my next NeuroYoga teacher training course!