What is Pandiculation?

Pandiculation is THE core movement technique used in Somatic Education and movement in the tradition of Thomas Hanna, & is what makes Somatic so very effective.

It is what WORKS to ease muscle tension - in the short and long term - and so enables us to ease away from pain through gentle movement. (To learn how to pandiculate, by the way, sign up for my FREE video series, “The Truth About Pain - and how to get rid of it”)

Importantly, pandiculation is not some new-fangled notion, nor a neologism (new word) created by Hanna and other Somatic Educators! It is, in fact, something that humans as well as all other animals evolved to do; other animals still do it, but our technological and 'civilised' society has made us mostly forget how & why to pandiculate at all, which is - as Thomas Hanna opined about often - one of THE main reasons we suffer so many aches & pains, including so many that medical science has little to say anything about... (As an aside, it’s interesting to note that nothing in Somatic Education opposes the basic medical understanding of the body and nervous system’s structures - not at all: where we Somatic Educators differ quite dramatically is in our APPROACH to the same information, & our understanding of how a human being works as a functioning whole, rather than as a ‘structure’ [with a separate body & mind]: our emphasis is on FUNCTION, not structure, & how we as individuals can affect our own functioning in ways that are simply not accessible to anyone else “from the outside”…)

PANDICULATION is a 3-part process:

(1) Contract an area of muscles/your body, bringing your conscious, voluntary attention to that area (this in itself starts to challenge your automatic movement habits/patterns); contract it as gently or as much as is comfortable (or at the edge of comfort: NEVER move deliberately into pain, & never stretch);

(2) Then SLOWLY - with awareness & as much voluntary control as you can - release the contracted area, allowing the muscles to ease back to rest (never pushing them beyond where it stops naturally, and NEVER stretching); notice in this stage e.g. any jumps or shakes, any sections of the movement where it speeds up, or where you feel less.

(3) Then, let the muscles/area REST for a few moments so your brain & nervous system can take in the new information... This is an essential part of pandiculation, without which the movements cannot create lasting change.

In the process, your brain gets new information, some of which allows it to know if it’s forgotten that the habitual resting muscle tension in the area contracted was NOT in fact 'resting', and has now released more than it had before the pandiculation. The brain therefore ‘re-sets’ its information about the area, which lays the groundwork for and - often, over time - creates new ‘habits’ that include having less muscle tension in the muscles you pandiculated (i.e., the muscles you contracted then slow-released).

Many people feel immediate release (& pain relief) from pandiculating a tight area: at the same time, many of us - especially in painful areas - have muscles that are VERY contracted that we’re just not used to releasing, or don't know HOW to relax, so it can take time and focus to KEEP those areas released, and to release them fully... And that is the value of a regular somatic movement practice, and regular pandiculation in everyday life!

One way you might pandiculate without knowing it, by the way, is when you YAWN: as with what cats & dogs do, this is not actually a stretch, even though we tend to label it as such!

(Watch a cat or a dog - or a bird, or a horse: rather than stretch, observe how it starts with a gentle, often tiny contraction, then lengthens the area [not a stretch!], then allows a moment to ‘re-set’: in tense humans & other animals, this may involve a few seconds of rest - but for many non-human animals who pandiculate regularly, so keep their brains fed with important information so many of us humans lack, they just give a gentle shake for a second or two, & then get on with their day…)

Notice what you do, when next you yawn, & see.... also, of course, Part 1 of my FREE INTRO MINI-COURSE teaches you, specifically, how to pandiculate: so give it a try, if you've not yet signed up - or revisit it, if you have: the average cat pandiculates 50 to 60 times per day. How often do you pandiculate? CAN you pandiculate effectively? Take the time to learn more, as the benefits are enormous.