The Sacrum and the "safe" nervous System.

Back, hip, abdominal and pelvic pain...

...can manifest from a number of places in the body, but most of the innervations for the vital parts of the hip, reproductive system, colon, and genitals come from the lower parts of the sacrum and Coccyx. If these structures are not free to move, whether it be bones, ligaments, nerves or muscles, through their surrounding environment, then you are not free to access the full sensation and full potential of these areas.

The deep ligaments are like the cables that hold the suspension bridge together. Your spine should NOT be a rigid and immovable tower, it should be a flexible and freely moving system that allows impacts and stresses to be moved through it, like the wave down a rope. The bones and ligaments are held together with an iron strength, and are difficult to damage, until they aren't.

Ligaments don't sense or cause pain, and in fact, they do not even generate their own blood supply. The only way these deepest ligaments get new nutrients is by moving, and "opening the sponge" so-to-speak to allow new blood and fluid in. They are like thick self-hydrating bungee chords; as they stretch and move, they actually get more resiliant and stronger. If they don't move, they start to freeze up and harden, and prevent or restrict movement of the skeletal system, and then the nerves, and that is where the pain starts happening.

One thing to note about the deepest ligements of the sacrum and hip (pictured above), is that these start to solidify themselves in the earliest years of development, while we are still learning the tools for our own self-regulation. The difference between "safety" and "danger" at a very young age is not something that gets consciously processed, but that gets programmed deeply into the way a child reacts to his or her environment, or how their environment reacts to them.

Survival is a relative term in the modern world, but survival for a little baby is still relatively straight-forward; Eat, Digest, Rest and Sleep, all in as safe and nurturing an environment as possible. When those needs aren't met, panic and anxiety ensues until they are. If we need to be in an absolute state of desperation to get any attention at all, then that is what we will learn to get our needs met later in life.

How did the little baby we all started out as learn to "Regulate" it's nervous system? In the best case scenario, it did so by having a calm and grounded parent or guardian to "Co-Regulate" and calm it down. In the worst cases, a baby is left to "cry it out" and essentially fend for themselves, or perhaps their parents are equally stressed out and insecure. These patterns start to turn into habits and "normal" behavior at a very young age, before we have cognitive agency over our surroundings and emotions.

Behaviors are dicated by needs, and so movement is too. It is these basic behaviors and movements that we internalize in early-childhood that can solidify patterns that affect us deeply as adults. These things can present as anxiety, stress, physical pain or other issues that affect daily function, sleep, relationships, work and more. Learning the ability to regulate your nervous system means learning a new way to relate to and regulate your own body and stress levels.

With the help of a well-trained practioner, it is possible to re-wire the neural-circuitry that keeps your body and mind on high-alert, and to refresh and renew the deep ligaments that "hold on" to old patterns of movement and expression.

-Brian Romanelli, LMT, Arrow//Spine Manual Therapy