Gravity Issues Aren’t Just for Astronauts!
Say gravity and a scientist thinks of Sir Isaac Newton with his apple. Athletes and dancers defy gravity when they leap for a basket or float across a stage. And how many of us have dreamed of floating in zero gravity like an astronaut in space? From birth we live surrounded in gravity like fish in water, each of us outfitted with a sense of gravity and reflexes to help get us standing upright.
The interplay between the reflexes and the vestibular system of the inner ear inform our sense of gravity, balance and underpin our spatial abilities. We move in an endless variety of complex patterns and combinations because it allows us to tell up from down, side from side or spin around all without a moment’s conscious thought. Like an internal gyroscope the vestibular system of the inner ear works with the cerebellum, vision and hearing to inform us of where we are in the space around us. Starting in utero our reflexes begin getting our muscles and bodies ready to sit, push up into crawling, pull up into standing, catch ourselves from falling, then to walk, run, dance, and play. Thousands of unconscious and conscious movement choices are made daily and taken for granted unless challenges, injury or illness bring them to our attention.
If you have ever spun around until dizzy or had a bout of vertigo you can appreciate what it would be like to live with a challenged sense of gravity. The eyes have a hard time focusing making it hard to hold an image steady, this contributes to a sense of being off balance causing nausea and dizziness. Being able to focus on conversations becomes a challenge because you are busy trying to spatially anchor yourself. Simple walking becomes a challenge making you clumsy leading to falling or bumping into things. This sense of where your body is in space is called proprioception, it’s rooted the vestibular system and is one of the most foundational systems in our lives.
Indications of Gravity Challenges:
Using touch to orient when entering a space, bumping into things, clumsy movement, misjudging distances (hitting a ball, driving a car)
Having mountains of stuffies in bed, heavy blankets year-round, needing another next to you to fall asleep or to calm down
Preference for tight clothing, compression shirts, deep pressure touch
Difficulties with math, time, reading, writing, organization, sequencing, spatial concepts
The eyes tracking smoothly together, adjusting vision from near to far
Audio processing challenges, trouble following conversations, focus
Headaches, nausea, dizziness, low muscle tone
Feeling emotionally uncertain, poor self-confidence, anxiety, hard to make decisions
Using movement-based activities to slowly challenge and activate the vestibular system can bring steady improvement to the gravity issues. I use activities that are designed to pinpoint and strengthen the different gravitational axis of up to down, side to side (ear to shoulder) and side to side (peripheral/ looking back over the shoulder). It is possible to have a single axis impacted or a combination. Work on the sense of gravity is done slowly to reduce nausea, disorientation or headache but by consistently following a home activity program tailored to a client’s specific needs improvement happens and change flows upward. Home programs are typically 3-5 days a week and take 15-25 minutes done in small chunks scattered throughout the day.
Our sense of gravity is the neurological equivalent of a house’s foundation. If I have a crack in my foundation everything above is impacted, the bigger the crack the more off kilter the walls or roof will be. So just like that house if my gravity sense is challenged my ability to do math or follow a sequence will be impacted too. Take a moment to imagine working, playing or trying to function in a constant state of disequilibrium always feeling like you just got off that spinning wheel from the playground! It may be a fun feeling to visit but it is no way to live.
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Because every body should be a comfortable place to live in
