Autism Awareness Month Part 2

Autism is a spectrum disorder where different developmental milestones vary widely. One area that is consistent in all folks with autism is weakness in the gravity sense. All people with autism have issues with any or all of the following:

The gravity sense organ, the semi-circular canal and its ability to read and react to gravity

The cranial nerve and tracts that connects the gravity sense information and intake of sound into the brain stem

The cerebellum with the brainstem that modulates muscle tone and presorts sensory input

Why is this important? One of the most important reasons is that weakness with the gravity sense and other body senses can cause the Lower Brain to send alarm signals to the Upper Brain often resulting in anxiety.

Addressing the issues of the body senses can make this functioning better and lessen anxiety.

Developmental Resources: Dorothy's Slippers

Inner developmental resources are like Dorothy’s Slippers: you had them all along; you just didn’t know how to use them. Nature has provided us with some magnificant tools for healing and self growth. These tools are very real and physical, yet most people aren't consciously aware of them. We live in a cortex driven (upper brain) era. Many of us have lost awareness and trust in our deeper resources, such as our body senses and reflexes. We feel cut off, fragmented and somehow missing something. Our upper brain or cortex hunts for the reasons for these phantom feelings, usually in outer, complex, and unproductive ways.

Think of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. She wanted to get home. She went to the upper brain (the Wizard) and he sent her out into the world to seek her way home, only to end up back where she started with no satifaction. It was only when she listened to her inner resources, Glinda, that she found that she had always had what she needed, both in Oz and at home. Her slippers of gems (ruby in the movie and diamond in the book) where literally at her feet.

The developmental gifts in our lower brain, including our body senses and reflexes, are there waiting to be called upon to balance and sustain us through our life. Let's start using them now. So all together: click your heels together three times....