om body om body
Supporting your uniqueness through Reflex Yoga. By Sarah Hopwood
W
e are all so wonderfully unique, yet the
interesting thing is that we all follow the
same pathways of development. From a tiny
helpless being to an all-encompassing human
powerhouse, we are guided through complex
developmental stages by our primitive reflex system.
Your primitive reflexes get you from embryo to foetus, from
womb to birth, from birth to earth, from lying to sitting, to standing,
running, jumping, feeling, understanding, learning, and an integration
of all this as ‘you’.
Our first block of reflexes is vital for survival; the next set for us to
become upright, cognitive and emotionally balanced.Primitive reflexes emerge in a specific order in infants, and
indicate ‘on track’ development of the nervous system. One early
example is the Plantar Grasp Reflex, usually present from birth to
one year, whereby the toes fan out when pressure is applied to the
ball of the foot. Crucially though, babies cannot walk until this reflex
is suppressed. If these building blocks of our being do not develop in
sequence and at the crucial times, are slightly off-centre (retained)
or are interrupted (unintegrated) there will be a long-lasting effect
that we may not even notice. Yet we may be aware that we have
consistent muscle holding, postural tightness, tension, automatic
emotional responses or sensitivities that rear their head even when
we feel undisturbed – for example, when doing yoga.Reflex Yoga