Ritam Studio Podcast With Jonni Pollard and Carla Dimattina

Chain movement: The Holistic Approach to Physical Healing

• Jonni Pollard

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Our body's physical ailments often reveal deeper emotional and spiritual blockages that conventional medicine fails to address. Holistic physiotherapy treats the interconnection of mind, body, emotions, and spirit to create lasting healing beyond symptom management.

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Speaker 1:

What I thought would be really great is to explore more deeply the work that you do, what you refer to as chain movement, and what does it mean to be a holistic physio? Maybe let's start with that. What is a holistic physio?

Speaker 2:

Holistic physio means that we're not just treating on the physical level, which is traditionally how I was taught as a physiotherapist. Physical level, which is traditionally how I was taught as a physiotherapist, so it's treating on the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual. So it's taking into account all of those elements, because the mind and body, like we've spoken about, are inextricably linked and what affects one affects the other, and so I can't look at a physical ailment and see it in isolation of some mental or emotional problem.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So when somebody comes to you, what's the first thing that you do?

Speaker 2:

I watch everything. I look at the way they walk in, the way they sit down. But you don't know, I'm intensely watching you.

Speaker 1:

Well, everybody's going to know now.

Speaker 2:

So I'm observing. I'm really great at observing just your natural movement patterns, because in that tells me everything. It's the way you hold your body is very revealing as to where there is blockages.

Speaker 1:

So someone comes in, you get them to take off their shoes, you get them to stand. What are you doing?

Speaker 2:

I'm assessing their posture and that doesn't just mean looking at like rounded shoulders or a chin that's poking forward. I'm looking from the ground up. I'm looking at where their weight's distributed through their feet. I'm observing, I look at the body like a chain and I'm observing every link in that chain because the interconnectedness of the body, when there's a blockage at one part, it affects you know you might come in with a problem with your knees, but I'm really going to look at what's happening at your hips and at your ankles.

Speaker 1:

Right, and what does that reveal happening?

Speaker 2:

at your hips and at your ankles Right, and what does that reveal? It reveals areas that you're avoiding, probably on a much more emotional level. These blockages in the body reveal stagnant energy, so something that hasn't had space or awareness to be addressed. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1:

It does, and so why isn't it a fascinating thing that somebody comes to you with a back problem and you find out that it's in their neck or it's in their thoracic? What is this phenomenon of this pain being a secondary thing from a more primary thing that is not in that location?

Speaker 2:

So there's a couple of things. There's referred pain, where you can be experiencing pain at a site distal from where it's actually coming from. A common example of this is people experience sciatic pain or pain in their butt going down the back of their leg. The root source of this is in your lumbar spine, but it doesn't mean that you feel discomfort through there, and quite often people won't feel discomfort in the area that I identify as a problem until they're on the table and I touch that area. They go oh, I didn't know that was a problem.

Speaker 1:

So how is it that the area that is the problem isn't the obvious place and why it's kind of referred down the line somewhere? What's happening there?

Speaker 2:

So I described referred pain, johnny, which is the Western medicine approach to treating someone's pain. But I'm never looking at the body with just Western medicine in mind with knee pain. But I can see there's blockages in your back. That relates to the tension you're holding in your hips. So to me, the knee pain's revealing that you're unable to move forward in life. There's something you're having trouble with stepping forward into, but the root cause of that is the emotions that are stored in your hips, that is attached to your back, and so by me opening up the joints in the back and releasing some muscles through the hips, I create a flow of energy through your body. Then we go through movement sequences that sustain that open posture and build strength in there. And what we're building is strength in your connection to your deepest state of self-awareness Now, and it's only in that place that healing can really happen and that you may be able to have insights around what you're not stepping forward into in life. So the knee pain.

Speaker 1:

Right. So it correlates beautifully with my understanding of what restricts us from resolving things with inside of ourself, because quite often we're trying to resolve the problem on the level of the problem. You know most people perceive the symptom to be the cause of the problem. You know most people perceive the symptom to be the cause of the problem and this is a big inhibitor and probably the biggest issue with the Western model of health and healing is that it is very surface level and symptom orientated. And I guess the more traditional and we could say Eastern leaning perspective is that most things that present as a physical or mental or emotional problem have their cause at a deeper layer. That requires an investigation down a line back through the system in order to understand, and it requires a more holistic, interconnected model of mind, body, emotions and and spirituality in order to to gain that level of insight yeah, spiritual.

Speaker 2:

Can I just uh, go on from that? Spirituality is the root of it all. So if we take the, if we look at the body and we look at the spine as as the main source, we'll always treat the spine scent. You always treat the spine before you treat anything else, because everything else comes off that place. You know, the nerves that supply your legs, the nerves that supply the muscles in your arms all come from your vertebrae, that central spine, and if we take it and we combine the mind and the body perspective, spirituality is that central, is that spine.

Speaker 1:

You cannot treat anything without looking at that, or you can treat it but it's only going to be temporary relief yeah, so, from a deeper spiritual standpoint, um, trauma is in the chakras, and the chakras are the subtle organs, the spiritual, energetic organs that are receiving life and broadcasting life from within one's being the points that are most important to free and realign and to uh expand, open and cause to spin freely without obstruction and fascinatingly or not so is that at each chakra level correlates directly with an essential gland, like an essential gland for our functioning.

Speaker 2:

You know, the thymus, the thyroid, like along that, every spot that Johnny's just mentioned. At each level there there is a gland essential for our function. So I said fascinatingly, but it's not really, because of course yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we're. We're again. You know, what we're highlighting here is that we're so much more than just a body and we're so much more and there's so much more to what's going on in us than just the symptoms. And so continuing this conversation of what somebody experiences when they come to see you because I've watched extraordinary things happen People walk through the front door of the studio in a really, really bad way. In only 45 minutes they leave looking like they've got life force in them. They're standing up tall, straight. They're not limping or holding their back or whatever it was that they were coming to. There was an immediate alleviation of the symptom because you've tended to something far deeper.

Speaker 2:

I'm so glad that you get to observe that, johnny, because I see it when I'm working with people but not just in person online as well. So the same effect can be had working with someone online as it can be physically in person. And the reason is the main constituent of the work comes down to your posture and my cueing and identifying where there's restrictions in your posture, blockages of energy. And by getting you into and when I talk about posture it's not a rigid thing I'm getting you into correct alignment and training you to move in that. So it's a dynamic movement, but constantly connecting to your center. You're having to activate through the main stabilizing muscles in your body. What this does is create a flow of energy in the body. It unlocks those blockages.

Speaker 2:

So you know the color in people's faces will change because there's a different element of blood flow, will change because there's a different element of blood flow. You know the limping or the overcompensatory patterns change immediately because I'm training you to connect and utilize activate muscles that you haven't been, that have been. They're there but they're dormant and that's because you're stuck in a pattern or a habit of movement to protect some aspect of you. And the moment I correct that alignment and positioning. It creates the cessation of that restriction and allows you to have access to the deepest part of you, and it's from that place that that which Johnny has spoken before, that we know we are strong, powerful, lovable. That that you know. There, there is no doubt of that, and what you see with someone afterwards is no doubt in themselves. There's, there's a confidence in them and it's immediate. The transformation is immediate. Then it's sustaining that.

Speaker 1:

so you know, continuing to move in that way so I've I've also kind of, you know, walked in halfway through a session just to kind of, you know, speak with you and and kind of gone. Oh, because somebody's standing on the mat, you holding them very subtly, maybe on their belly, with a hand on their back, holding them in correct posture, and they're bawling their eyes out. And it's only been five minutes into the session. What's happening there? What are you doing when someone's having this experience?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm seeing them. I'm seeing where they're restricted and seeing where they're most powerful and I'm holding them accountable to that. The way I do that is by putting you in the right position. That in itself creates the tears you may see or describe. It can be nothing that's been said, it can be a silent room and I just we work on their alignment and it can cause that immediate clearing and that accountability of somebody who can see you in your most powerful self and hold you to it is a really beautiful and special thing.

Speaker 2:

Where your weight is distributed on your foot reveals a lot about where you may be stuck. So, weight through the heels you're often stuck in something in the past. The weight really far forward onto the toes is someone very future-based, is constantly about what's next, what's next? But neither of those places is the present moment and the greatest change can only happen in the present moment. When I bring your weight through the center of your foot and cue you into how to position and plug in through your foot to start activating those muscles, you immediately gain access to your core. You're in present moment stance what I call present moment stance the most powerful position to stand in, to train in to move in to live in.

Speaker 1:

Is this what is causing this unlocking of the stagnant energy of the past? Is it as simple as that?

Speaker 2:

It's not as simple as that. Everything's very complex and layered, but that's the beginning of it. That's the beginning of it. Unlocking the knees and finding the feet creates a flow of energy and an access to a place where you can begin going into the layers of what's causing your postural habits, your pain and your. You know your discomfort, your resistance, your stress, your anxiety. All those things are laid in deeper places and that is where we will often work together so that Johnny can dive deeper into opening those layers.

Speaker 1:

I want to talk about the actual movement sequences and because I do your classes and I've been transformed by them, physically, but also on a subtle, mental, emotional and spiritual level. Who and what I am is really contained and embodied in the body, like I'm in my body, clearer, aware and able to correct myself when I notice these bad habits, which are reflective of some deep, old thing that I've been carrying my whole life, and the progress that I'm making in these very significant increments are as a result of doing these sequences of movement that really need to be experienced, to be understood. My experience of it is that in every passing moment there is awareness to an exact cueing, position, posture. Every aspect of the body has a correct place to be and I'm probably there about 15% of the time in the class and require your cueing. Like it's. I can see the journey for advancement and progress and every single time I come and do your class, I feel like I've I've improved, I'm getting better, I can.

Speaker 1:

I can not only hear your cue, but I can actualize it, I can put it into practice, because sometimes I can hear it and I can go yeah, no, I can't quite get there. Or sometimes I'll hear your cue and I'll go I don't know what you mean there and then you'll come and you'll touch me and you'll go, bum up this down, put the ground through the toes, more on your front toe. You know you'll get these cues. And then all of a sudden my whole body lights up because boom, oh there it is Okay. Yeah, no, I wouldn't have accessed that without some guidance, so, and it just feels so sophisticated and so advanced in terms of what it is, but really it's so simple and elegant.

Speaker 1:

You know, there's not a lot of flapping about and jumping about and getting upside down and into pretzels and kinds of like it's very basic movement, but it's actually just the cueing in the simplicity of the postures that make it profound in the simplicity of the postures that make it profound.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thanks, johnny. I really enjoy listening to someone articulate what I do because it comes so effortlessly to me. It's not an intellectual thing, it happens in the moment, I know. But to hear someone articulate it like that, it's like, oh, yeah, it is quite profound because so many things are happening. But it's just a simple instruction that I'm saying in that and my cues are repetitive. You'll hear the same thing over and over again, but you'll hear it differently because it will meet you where you're at.

Speaker 2:

The beautiful thing is is that you could do the same, the same class and, like johnny said, get different benefits and gain from each one, because you're at a different state of evolution. Your consciousness has changed and you're going to hear it and be able to implement what I've said differently. And it's in the activation. It's what we're activating that's causing the change. And when Johnny says he feels it in that position like, oh, as a teacher, what I feel is, if I was to come over and try and correct him, he's stable, I couldn't knock him over. And you feel that in the body there is a strength and a stability in that position. When somebody's not in the right position, I can come over and try and do an adjustment and they could quite easily lose their balance. There's no losing your balance when you're in that spot. Do you feel that when you get there?

Speaker 1:

It's like boom, it lights up.

Speaker 2:

It's like the whole body, like a lightning rod. What I feel on my hands when I'm adjusting and putting someone in that position, when they're in the position, it's like lightning bolt just happened in their body and they get it.

Speaker 1:

They get it it's the difference between you know a christmas tree lights being plugged in or not, like when you yeah the christmas tree is pretty, but you turn on the lights and it's like whoa you know, it comes to life it comes to life. It's kind of like the circuits are connected and the energy can flow through the whole body.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, even though I might be cuing your pelvic position, what that does. There's the feet that I'm cuing, usually both top and tail end. There's something I'm cuing at the top, down the bottom, through your feet and through your pelvis. When you get them in the right alignment, like johnny said, the christmas lights come on your body, the circuit. But that neuromuscular pathway in your body is firing and alive.

Speaker 1:

But that circuit, most importantly of energy, is what's happening and it's that, that's how you cultivate the energy within your body that causes you to move with greater power yeah, and then the implications of that on mind, emotions and your sense of self, which is a synonym for spirituality, is extraordinary, because in order for us to truly be in ourself, we have to understand what the body is and what it requires. Body is and what it requires, and when we are truly in ourself, there is a spontaneous and natural alignment with the way in which the body has been designed to move correctly and when we are standing in correct posture and moving in correct um movement patterns we're not even correct.

Speaker 2:

Let's say true true because it's not like it's correct or incorrect. It's the truth or not the truth.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it's in alignment with the truth or it's malaligned with the truth, correct? And so when we are aligned with the truth, the difference between a Christmas tree being on or the Christmas tree lights being on or off, between a Christmas tree being on or the Christmas tree lights being on or off, you've got this whole energetic system that is dysfunctional when it's malaligned. Our mind is dysfunctional when it's malaligned. Our emotions are discordant when we are malaligned, and what we're talking about here is the realignment of mind, body, emotions and sense of self as one cohesive thing and through chain movement. It is a very exact pathway to establishing alignment.

Speaker 1:

Again, you don't have to just sit there and contemplate the problem in order to get an answer. We can get moving, and this is like what a relief you know as a therapist, sitting with people every day and having them talk about what's going on and feel deeply. What's going on is a very powerful process and it is very transformative. But the missing component is activating and awakening the container which is the body, and when the body wakes up and it aligns and causes the connection in that circuitry, the mind and the emotions and the spirit just flourish in this beautiful harmony.

Speaker 1:

It's just a yeah, it's a next level thing, and we've been deeply engrossed in this process for over the last decade, refining our understanding of this beautiful design that is within our humanity and in our, in our processes, um seeking to, to, to master the way in which we can teach it. And this is what retime studio is all about. Is is sharing with you what we understand as a matter of direct experience that we're deeply engaged in every day of our lives. We're either practicing it or we're teaching it, and now we just feel like we have such an abundance of knowledge to share, and we'll be delivering all of that through the Ritam Studio platform, our events, our retreats and our teacher training programs.

Speaker 2:

So I encourage you to get on to Ritam Studio and try the Chain Movement class for yourself, like, feel and experience what we're talking about here, because there's one thing to hear it, but to feel it, it's everything yeah, and so as a prescription, you know, what we recommend is that you do a movement class or a movement sequence.

Speaker 1:

You can either. Like just the 10 minutes a day in carla's 30-day challenge is going to change your whole game. If you're already a meditator, you add this movement sequence in. You is going to change your whole game. If you're already a meditator, you add this movement sequence in. You're going to notice profound shifts in your consciousness. If you're not a meditator, then on Retirement Studio we have a really elegant meditation course in 12 steps that will get you practicing and you literally just do one of the recordings of the classes and then sit down and do one of the recordings of the meditations and it'll teach you a technique.

Speaker 2:

I mean just some examples of members that have been existing meditators but didn't have the movement component and added it, the changes they reported. I mean one sent me a picture of this massive mountain that she climbed and she was just like I would never have been able to do this. Just finished the 30-day challenge and I feel strength and confidence that I didn't have before. Another one her sex life completely changed. She had access to herself and it unleashed parts in her body that was able to, uh, enhance her relationship with her partner.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, we've got countless stories and maybe we'll we'll sprinkle more of those through these episodes to give some more anecdotal sort of data and understanding. Um, yeah, what was I going to say? Oh, the One Giant Mind app is another great way to learn to meditate. The One Giant Mind teachers directory on the One Giant Mind website is also a great way. And the crown jewel of it all, if you can get in front of a Vedic meditation teacher and learn that technique with a teacher in person, that is also a really, really great way of establishing a daily meditation practice. So check out ritamstudio. With all of that said, looking forward to presenting our next episode very soon.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, Johnny.

Speaker 1:

Thanks, carla, bye.