Whoda thunk it: carrying a toddler in a sling, showing him how to hold a baseball bat, one minute—and in the blink of an eye, consulting him about some of my bad habits acquired over the years resulting in problematic posture, back pain, neck pain, even neuropathy, (and more).

Short story: After recording the Slow Love record, sitting in studio for almost a year, my back was in such terrible shape that I wouldn’t have dared attempt running, weight lifting, yoga or even any light exercise. Three doctors, one, who tended to the Portland Blazers basketball team, advised surgery due to two perforated discs.

The others warned if I declined surgery I would most likely be in a wheelchair in a short time. The odds of a successful surgical outcome were 50/50—to my mind, too much a roll of the dice.

By good fortune, I met Dr. Sarno, who had written a book called, Healing Back Pain. In essence, he believed my condition was psychologically induced. “Your perforated discs have little or nothing to do with your pain and hardened muscles in your lower back. My opinion: do everything you want to do… run, hit the gym, do yoga… and break through the pain… give it a week or two… my guess is that the pain will go away. You have a type of phantom pain, I have seen it in over half my patients.”

The hurt was unbearable but after a week or so, for some yet to be explained reason, Dr. Sarno’s theory proved right—at least for the time being. Which leads me to Anton’s scientific understanding and expansion of Dr. Sarno’s premise.

According to Anton’s breakthrough findings, behavioral patterns, unconscious habitual muscle tensing, (like grinding teeth in your sleep), old (and chronic) thinking pathways that adversely affect the central nervous system, are the root cause. It’s a bit like the limbic brain having tangles or tight knots. (Unavoidable, we all get them.) The knots seem to create a type of gridlock in our bodies.

Through specific muscle activation, Anton is able to get to those virtual knots that physically bog us down. He has discovered a method to pick at and loosen them, until they straighten out completely. The outcome being, lighter in body and diminished pain.

I never would have believed the impact such things have on our bodies (and daily lives) until Anton found a very simple explanation and remedy for these ‘old knots’.

I am sixty nine. I do twenty minutes of rebounder jogging each day. Yoga, every second or third day. HIIT (high intensity interval training) three times a week, and some weights. (other regimens include vocalizing, reading aloud and a couple of mind/heart practices)

Anton’s method plays an integral role in my ability to do all of this. We do a central nervous system offload once a week. Item by item, however small, the unnecessary baggage is dropped. We check core and glutes, making sure my strongest muscles are supporting my every movement by specific sequential activation (brain to muscle) methods. We access and practice muscle independence to make sure I am not taking a hammer to shoo a fly away.

Sometimes past traumas pop up and say hello, seemingly out of the blue, as we go through the process. Nothing happens to the body without some dark corner of the brain having a record of it.

Friends, I share this with you cause I know it works.

There’s much left I’d like to create, but it can’t be done in the way I did it when I was thirty. The repercussions of the long hours of concentration, practice and travel (barring world-wide plagues) are too destructive for the unsubtle approach. A more scientific process is the only way to create as much bodily ease as possible. A clear and more productive mind is apt to follow.

The link I leave you with here explains more in detail what the Atheq method is all about.

Just thought to share.
Love to you
G