Changes since I've started incorporating ABM (Anat Baniel Method) with my Son-Rise Program - and in myself - include:
- I'm having the urge to apply the super-slow, super-gentle used in ABM to touching my daughter's arm or hand when she's trying to formulate a complex sentence - something she struggles with and is learning - and find it encourages her to go slower, and for both of us to be more mentally present, and she more often to add the words she might ordinarily leave out if she were racing quickly through a phrase she often says with both of us being less-than-fully present;\
- Anna is really into cooking!
- I'm more willing and able to create and allow variations (without judgment!) knowing that variations are what the brain needs to work with as raw materials and to stimulate thought to choose and refine any skill or knowledge. For example:
- my daughter often says "Remember when ___" then fills in the instance to remember with something she's asked me probably hundreds of times already, and I celebrate that she asked to encourage more asking but only get more asking of the same question or round of questions. But today I suddenly realized a variation would be to ask "Remember when ___" myself and pick things she never talks about, stimulating and activating parts of her brain she's not used to accessing. I asked her if she remembered the small creek outside the back of a house we used to live in, and told her about the day she was born and looked into my eyes the first time - I was inspired because I suddenly remembered it was close to the memory of when we lived in that house - we had lived there when she was born til she was 1. My attempt to find something new to recollect brought other things, and her reaction was very strange to the day she was born question that led me to believe she recollected something but she didn't speak - she suddenly stared with her eyes wide like in shock - but just silently stared past me - so wide-eyed you could see the whites all the way around her irises, glazed over in silence and unresponsive - then we just moved on.
- I chose to go the "other direction" at the Whole Foods (grocery store) - left to right rather than right to left as we arrived, buying everything in the opposite order than usual. Normally we get to the pizza last and at least half the time they don't have the kind my kids want to buy, but we're always about to leave and it's too late even to request and wait for them to make a new one because the 10 min to make and cook it we'd have nothing else to do. I suddenly realized that we could, if we went this direction, request the pizza when we arrived and then swing back before checkout and get the one we wanted, then realized we could do one better and order the one we wanted on the way over and get the slices we wanted regardless of the direction we went. I've been shopping 3 years in this store and never thought to do that! Somehow shifting the order we encountered foods jogged new thinking and priorities in m problem-solving - usually I'm just trying to go as quickly as possible but this will be efficient in the long run to have done this variation even just once.
- In my programming class - Javascript at this moment - drowning in material from my two classes I missed the 2nd week of during the ABM training (7 class sessions total!!). I don't think I missed that many in my entire undergraduate experience! It's hard to play catchup from week 2 when things start really setting up and going!! (BTW if you haven't noticed I can't get those bullet point paragraph markers to accept double spacing or let me erase them. We really need better internet programmers and sites! There is so much web stuff that's not available yet or is hard to use, and the internet is just amazing in what we can do with it and how it improves our experience in life. Also learning this materials It's helping clean up and restructure (organize) my autistic brain to do object oriented programming - where disorder doesn't work - which is how people think and store information. Lots of philosophical and cognitive science insights from this experience - I'll share it in a future post.
- My son was saying the muscle near his scapula on his back (near his shoulder) was tight and wanted me to roll my knuckles over it to relax the tension like I used to. I told him I would do the Anat Baniel Method training I learned on that trip away, so I did my first "FS" (Functional Synthesis) "lesson", and the tension went away totally despite that I never had to touch that part of his back, because it works through signaling the brain that it can stand down and quiets unnecessary "noise" in the neurological system of the whole person. In other words, it worked! I only did the following (not in this order): forehead "check", scapular lift, relieving each vertebra's weight by applying equal upward pressure (not moving, only unweighting it), lift each ankle, apply pressure during breathing to each front set of ribs near where they enter the sternum. I then asked him to turn very slowly and easily as he lay on the side until he could feel each vertebra that I put my fingers on turn or not (1-3 times on each vertebra). I think I even forgot the one other method we were taught, I can't even remember which one but apparently it worked so well without it just as a novice and within less than 15 min of a "session".
Gotto go study catch you all later!
Hi Barb!
This is such an interesting blog post! ABM sounds like something I'd like to learn more about in real life. I work with the alexander technique method and I use both a super slow, super light touch, and a deeper touch when it seems to be what the body needs and wants. Breathing "all the way into" my hands when I touch helps me relax my body.
I want to share with you an interesting video on language and the brain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k61nJkx5aDQ and the paper: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v532/n7600/full/nature17637.html
I look forward to reading your next update!
Warm regards,
Ruth Susanna
Posted by: Ruth Binkins | 04/28/2016 at 01:46 PM