How To AIMM

B. Fight, Flight or Freeze

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The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS)

· The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is your automatic survival system. It allows you to Fight, to Run, or to Hide for protection.

· It turns on by degrees. During the day, it turns up. During periods of high demand, it turns up higher. During the night, it turns down to facilitate rest and repair.

· These ‘high demand’ situations may be ‘stressful’ or fun.

· The SNS causes: muscles to  contract, blood to shunt from the digestive system and towards muscles and the brain, posture alterations, increased adrenalin, etc.

· The SNS is intended to be on high for only hours at a time, not weeks, months & years. Long-term high adrenalin causes rigidity of soft tissues.

C. Symptoms have a Positive Intent

· Since symptoms are the body’s response to help heal injuries, and

· It is logical to say that symptoms are intended to help us, however

· Because survival is the brain’s primary responsibility, it takes precedence over repair work.

· Because healing is important and a part of your ’survival’, your brain continues to work on the healing  processes, but they just become a lower priority.

· We end up with partially complete healing processes—but the brain keeps working on them in the background (think of the muscle that won’t relax).

D.The Brain Can Do Only Two Things

· The Brain only  does two things with soft tissue: Contract & Relax

· Stretching only occurs when it actively contracts an opposing muscle

· Repetition of contracting and relaxing soft tissue is the brain’s way to release old locked in tension

What that Means in  Daily Life

· As humans, we do more than just eat, sleep and run away from lions as the animals do.

· We retain the emotional charge of unresolved shock or trauma  experiences. They remain in the subconscious memory acting as if they are continuously happening, keeping our SNS turned high.

· This response may be constant and ongoing or intermittent from triggers of recent or similar experience.

· Our high-demand life-style and society also keeps the SNS turned too high for weeks, months, and years.

APPLYING TO HEALING

1.Heal the Way the Brain Does

· If we trust the brain is intelligent, and

· If we want to approach the body’s healing in the same way the brain does,

· Then we give the brain a WINDOW OF TIME and we ALLOW the CONTRACTION and RELAXATION.

· This is the process of doing AIMM.

2. How To Do AIMM

· Give yourself a window of time to allow muscles to contract and relax.

· Pick the body region to focus on

· Respect the Brain’s directions

1. Close your eyes (no ‘staring’)

2. If sitting: feet flat on floor for good balance; if standing: Feet directly under your shoulders.

3. Allow your brain to lead muscle contractions to move your body.

4. Go into observation mode

3.Thought and Resistance

Two important things to understand:

1) AIMM will always give way to conscious thought (so do not think ‘stretch’ or “if you left stove on”, etc.) and

2) AIMM will not overcome physical resistance.

TWO RULES: 1. Trust it 

 2. Get out of the way

4.How Often (Frequency)

There are 3 categories:

1) Your pain/restriction is so bad it prevents or interferes with your daily activities

FREQUENCY:

When you get up in the morning

6 to 20 times in the day (+/-  as you choose)

When you go to bed at night

2) You pain/restriction is present and bothering you, but you can still function in your day.

  FREQUENCY:

When you get up in the morning

4-6 times in the day (+/-  as you choose)

When you go to bed at night

3) Your pain/restriction is mild enough you have to think about it to notice if it I there or not:

FREQUENCY:

When you get up in the morning and/or

When you go to bed at night.

5.How Long (Duration) 

You can choose and figure out your own body’s rhythm.

If your muscles do medium or large and/or fast movements that are easy to detect, or if there is a cyclical movement to your body’s movement, doing self-AIMM for a minute usually allows the body sufficient time to make progress.

If your muscles do tiny and slow movement, you will need to give yourself more time to allow the body to get some progress done. It is recommended you allot more time, perhaps between 5 to 10 minutes.

It is recommended that you set a timer for your time. That will prevent you from needing to mentally keep track of how long you have been doing the AIMM, or prevent you from focusing on “peeking” at the clock to see when you are done. The goal is to allow your brain to work on AIMM with NO distractions.

The major guideline is that you adapt doing AIMM to your needs and your circumstances.

*****Consistency*****

Long-term consistency will bring the biggest benefit. In other words, doing AIMM 2 times a day for a year will bring greater changes than doing AIMM for 20 minutes 3 times a day for 4 weeks, and then not doing it again. Find a frequency and duration that works for you to add it to your daily routine.

Symptoms will come and go. This is OK as long as they are showing an overall flexibility in their pattern. Eventually you will see the bad* days are better than the good** days used to be.

If you plateau, or if your pattern has an overall downward direction, that is the time to call and come back for help to get your body’s healing-pattern flexibility back.

Please Note this Wisdom / Disclaimer:The information in this pamphlet is not intended, in whole or part, to diagnose, treat, nor manage any specific condition, disease, nor diagnosis. There is no implication, direct or indirect, that you stop any physician directed medical treatment or medication. It is expected that you will maintain a positive working relationship with your current treating physician. As always, all changes to your medical-directed routine or medication should be consulted with your prescribing physician. If you have concerns on how the principles in this pamphlet apply to various issues, we recommend you set up a consultation with Dr. Rodgers before instituting any changes in your health care routine.