Here’s the transcript from Samantha’s presentation:
Ryan: So now I would like to introduce for everybody a Bow Spring yoga instructor who is going to share with us 3, I’m sorry I think I’m going to mess up your presentation now, 3 posture habits that could be causing you pain and low productivity. So, everyone please give Samantha a hand, and Samantha you have the floor.
Samantha: Hi guys, thank you so much and Ryan thank you for providing this space for us to gather, share about our businesses and I’m so glad to share with you all today this powerful, powerful alignment system and these tools that can help you, could help anybody, no matter your age or ability level.
Samantha: I’ve gotta, a presentation here I’m going to share with you.
Samantha: Can you all see this.
Samantha: Yeah, good. So, like I said earlier, I help people with their posture, their strength and their flexibility.
Samantha: And it doesn’t matter who. I hate it when people get confused about what I do and they think oh that’s not for me. That’s for somebody more athletic or able-bodied that I want to point out this picture in the left corner.
Samantha: A friend of mine and he has had mobility issues and you see, he’s propped up on two blocks and, uh, actually four blocks and we got him to open up his belly and come into an open posture here.
Samantha: And when he did, he let out this sigh of relief. It was so beautiful and meaningful, and that when I hear things like that. It makes me know that what I’m doing is good.
Samantha: He said that he wasn’t. He hasn’t been able to sit in, we used to call it [cross-legged] style, when I was a kid since he was a little kid and we got him sitting in that now. He feels so good he’s made great progress.
Samantha: So what I teach may look like yoga, but it’s a little bit different than the traditional yoga that you may have heard of.
Samantha: If you see this picture in the top. I’m working with a woman here and she’s doing a basic tabletop yoga pose or so it looks.
Samantha: Actually, there’s a lot more to it than that, and what I’m going to point out is the posture that I am in while I’m working with her.
Samantha: So the posture that I teach is more than something that you do on the yoga mat. It’s something that you live in in your life and it helps open up possibilities.
Samantha: It opens up; it opens up fitness; it opens up strength and it allows more flexibility and functional movement in people’s lives.
Samantha: I’m going to move to the next slide and the reason why this is so important is because in this day and age our lifestyle and our environment is quite challenging.
Samantha: Of course, we’ve got a lifestyle where we’ve been destined to sit in chairs. Humanity has moved from working with our hands and building things to sitting in chairs all day, and this is terrible for the body. Plus our food supply is corrupted.
Samantha: I like candy just as much as anyone else, but it’s addictive and the food, the processed food we get in the store makes it hard to say no. It’s almost impossible to say no.
Samantha: They create it like that, so we can’t stop and that affects our bodies, that affects our blood pressure, affects anything. So they have a solution for that and the solution is in the lower corner of the screen, it’s pills, it’s medications.
Samantha: It’s a pharmaceuticals and that might not be something that you’re ready to face and look at, but they are connected.
Samantha: These brand name foods and these brand name medications and they’re leaving us feeling sick, tired in pain and I got a picture of this guy, his brain is gone, the brain fog.
Samantha: I don’t know if any of y’all have felt it before. I feel it, I feel it too and it doesn’t feel good and makes it hard to do things that you want to do.
Samantha: And as entrepreneurs we have to be self-motivated.
Samantha: I’ll tell you a little bit about myself, so I have been into yoga since I was a little girl.
Samantha: I’m 40 years old now and ever since I was, before I could remember, I was playing around making up yoga poses and having fun with that. I was officially introduced to yoga at the age of 12.
Samantha: And I have been doing it ever since. Loving it and doing it.
Samantha: I have gone through a myriad of careers in my life. I studied theater. I was a professional movie extra for a while. I worked in pharmacy. I, uh, took prerequisites and applied the medical school at some point, I, uh, I started Graduate School for behavior analysis.
Samantha: I was accepted into a Graduate School program for stage management in theater and throughout my life in these ups and downs, I was not having a good time, actually was having a hard time at this, in this picture on the left you’ll see me, I’m doing a traditional yoga pose.
Samantha: It’s called wheel and I think the most striking thing about that is the setting I’m in. I am in a $315 apartment that is infested with cockroaches. I was not living my best life. I was in extreme pain, physically and mentally.
Samantha: So, I was having problems in my body from my processed diet and from my stress. I had severe IBS and pain. I developed spots all over my body. I had all the weirdest symptoms in the world and I was seeing dozens of doctors and none of them knew what to do and none of them could help me.
Samantha: Fast forward to 4 1/2 years ago when I discovered the Bow Spring alignment method. And with this empowering method, I was able to re pattern my body in my mind. It changed my mind so much and it changed my body, that I it enabled me to start my own business, which is something this girl on the left never could have done no matter how many yoga wheel poses she was doing and the reason why this alignment system changed me is because I repatterned my brain.
Samantha: And so that’s what I’m helping people do. So not everybody is going to want to get into deep yoga poses, and that’s OK.
Samantha: I worked with seniors who just want to be able to get up and down from the floor with ease.
Samantha: And that’s what this alignment system that I teach does.
Samantha: So the number one thing that could be and probably is keeping you in pain and getting you stuck is sitting with your tailbone tucked under.
Samantha: So what I’m talking about here is you might be sitting like this now, instead of sitting on your legs, your thigh bones, you’re sitting on your tailbone.
Samantha: If you touch back to your low back now, and if it is flat or even tucking under your tailbone is tucked.
Samantha: So let’s all readjust ourselves now so you can kind of pull your butt up and you can even prop your back hips on something and instead, sit on your thigh bones so we’re sitting on our legs instead of our butt and now we’ve got a longer belly.
Samantha: We’ve just got taller.
Samantha: And now you’ve got an opening your belly can soften.
Samantha: It’s got room to digest and do its things, and it also sends a system to your nervous system that you are awake and that you are ready to do things, also its taking pressure out of the front of the hips socket where people, guess what? Everybody needs a hip replacement now.
Samantha: So instead of the femur bone pressing to the front of the hip socket exactly where that hip replacement happens, we’re moving the femur bone to the back of the hip socket where it doesn’t ever go, all right.
Samantha: So that’s part of the repatterning of this, going to help you save your hips and keep you awake and attentive when you need to do the things you need to do.
Samantha: The next thing, this one is coming from our lifestyle of looking at technology, of being stuck at our desk all day with from it with a nine to five, of texting you- this is really sad, because we look at teenagers these days and they already have a forward head position. It used to be the people we would see with that forward head position are in their 80s or 90s and they get that way from, you know, getting old, sitting in a chair, you know.
Samantha: Eventually you close up, but now we’re starting to see it, people younger and younger, and that’s really sad.
Samantha: There’s nothing wrong with tucking your tailbone and pushing your head forward.
Samantha: Going into that, what we call a C shaped curve, in fact, we were when we were first created in Mom’s bellow belly. We had one curve and it was a C shaped curve. However, when we came out and Mama put us on the floor. For tummy time, for the first time, the first time we pushed our knees into the earth, it lifted our head back.
Samantha: We created a double S curve of our spine.
Samantha: The curve of evolution.
Samantha: OK.
Samantha: And the more we can bring ourselves back into that double S curve, the more we can progress forward, the more we can be aware and awake in life, the more we go back to this single, curved the head forward, the tail tucked, the more we’re going back to the embryonic curve, so it starts with the embryonic curve.
Samantha: We come to the double S curve and then when we get old we go back to the C shaped curve So what I teach people is to stay longer in the double S curve.
Samantha: And it opens you up in your body and mind and you’ll have less pain in your neck as a result.
Samantha: One thing to be said about coming into the C shaped curve, it’s a good place to go if you’re feeling like you’re in pain. Going into the C shaped curve, it will lower your blood pressure and your heart rate.
Samantha: So, it’s good for that, but it’s not a place you want to stay.
Samantha: If we want to be progressive, if we want to make money, if we want to be successful in our business. The third thing that I want to talk about is mindlessness of hands and feet, so this one is huge.
Samantha: When I started to study the bowstring alignment system.
Samantha: I was in awe about how particular it was in the hands and feet.
Samantha: And I realized I was losing energy and in fact chasing arthritis with the way I used my hands and my feet.
Samantha: For example, this is the way I hold my pen and my pencil for my whole life. I’ve done it since I was a little girl. I’ve done it up until probably three years ago.
Samantha: It’s a tight knuckle. I’m squeezing. It actually hurts to write like this, and I started developing arthritis in my hand in my early 30s.
Samantha: OK, the alignment system of the bow spring is not just a yoga pose that you see, like on the mat, it’s actually a movement and alignment system that you can use with anything.
Samantha: So now this is how I hold my pen. I garner the strength from my palm, not from my fingers. My fingers are springy and light, it’s more delicate, and it’s changed the way that I write as well, and it changed the way I think as well..
Samantha: About the feet, almost everybody I work with constantly has their toes flipping up, so I see people barefoot a lot, I’m a yoga teacher.
Samantha: What’s interesting is that when I ask them a question, maybe they don’t want to answer – those toes, flip up toes, flip up the toes, flare up.
Samantha: Your toes might be doing it right now.
Samantha: They might be flaring up, or if you’re wearing shoes you may not even notice how often they flip up when every time our toes flip up, we’re shortening the front line of our body.
Samantha: And that’s no good. That’s gonna cause me problems. Hip problems, back problems along the line.
Samantha: The reason toes flip up makes sense, evolutionary speaking, it’s a reflex, so you drop a shampoo bottle in the shower, your toes flip up without you having to think about it. It’s a good reflex that helps you save your toes or protect them from being broken in case something falls on them.
Samantha: However, we are living our lives in fight or flight, our nervous system is on edge from all the stimuli and everything we’ve got going at us so.
Samantha: When we’re constantly living in fight or flight, our body thinks we’re in danger all the time so it’s pulling that reflex even when we don’t need it to work.
Samantha: Alright, so instead I teach people to soften their toes down. They can become more sensitive, more mindful, more focused.
Samantha: The same thing with the hands too, and also less arthritis, less hip pain, all along the way. It’ll change the way you walk.
Samantha: Moving on.
Samantha: So this system works and it works for everybody. Not everybody is going to want to do it because it requires a lot of thought process and studying of the system, it takes a little bit longer for some people to embody than others.
Samantha: Some people can embody it right away. It’s memorizable I can teach you the system. I can give you some slides and show you and didactically teach you how to do it and if you understand it that way, you can conceptualize and start moving it into your body.
Samantha: Some people need to move into it, some people need to be shown it, some people I need to touch their toeand say toe down.
Samantha: Everybody learns at a different way so if you’re interested in this, I would love to share with you more about it.
Samantha: This is one of my clients and she came to me not for physical issues. She came to me just because she wanted some time for herself. She’s a mom, she’s a full time RN and she was full time graduate student going to school to be a nurse practitioner.
Samantha: What I loved about her results is yes, she got the time for herself that she wanted and the cool thing about this was you can see how her body changed and we didn’t exercise a ton, I’m not, I’m, we worked together a couple times a month.
Samantha: However, she employed this alignment system while she was doing her nursing duty, she’s on her feet all day. She changed. She told me, bow spring changed my center of gravity.
Samantha: So, you see, the center of gravity in the first picture is a straight up and down Plumb line.
Samantha: And then in the second picture, she’s got a springy posture.
Samantha: Which one do you think would be more helpful if she was on a boat that was rocky.
Samantha: It’d be the second picture. The first picture, if I were to use my finger and push at her, she might topple over, so that’s a that’s a weakness, so we’re moving towards balance.
Samantha: We’re moving towards strength and stability.
Samantha: Uhm, you can see the picture on the right, I love this one.
Samantha: You can see her shoulders balance now. All of us have an imbalance in our shoulders because there’s one arm that we’re using a lot more than others and that arm is the one that gets really janked up that arm and shoulder, you see in this picture on the left there, her right shoulder that’s her dominant arm.
Samantha: That’s the one that is compressed and it is drawn into her body.
Samantha: Now look at the picture on the right. The shoulders are balanced, it’s obvious, plain as day.
Samantha: So, is it acceptable to stay where you are? If it is for you, then that’s fine.
Samantha: All parts you are believing you to follow your own path. A lot of people, they don’t want to go. They don’t want to take the knife. They don’t want to take the medication. They want to look for other methods that can help them heal, and I’ve seen this one work..
Samantha: I’ve seen it work with people that I’ve worked with. I’ve worked with seniors who are now able to get up and down from the floor. I’ve worked with children who have had motor skills issues and I’ve also worked with an athlete.
Samantha: A doctor told him. He didn’t know why and he couldn’t help him anymore. He had just had a knee surgery and this athlete said that he was in so much pain he couldn’t walk around the block.
Samantha: I looked at his feet and told him he has lost complete sensitivity to his feet from the way that he’s been marathoning. I taught him how to use his feet in a different way, and not only did he heal from that pain that prevented him from walking around the block, but he got his personal best in the next Ultramarathon he ran.
Samantha: I love working with people who want to better themselves, want to feel better in their body, who want to have more focus or less stress.
Samantha: I work with a myriad of people.
Samantha: If you know somebody who you’ve been praying for, who needs help, please recommend them.
Samantha: You can find me on, I have a yoga group on Facebook. I have a YouTube channel. I have a website and if you would like to ask me any questions you can send me email.
Samantha: I’ve also got a link I’ll put in the chat or you can just directly schedule a free consultation with me or you can send it to a friend if they want to schedule a free consultation with me.
Samantha: If you’re interested in coming to one of my group classes, I highly recommend you send me a message first so we chat about that. Group classes aren’t for everybody; if you’re especially, if you’re just starting out and you go to a group class, if it’s not right for you, it may leave you feeling worse than before.
Samantha: That’s why I like to talk to people first. To look at your goals and I’ll recommend, maybe it’s a video for beginners, or maybe it’s some private coaching.
Samantha: So thank you for your time and I put these pictures here just to some of the beautiful things that I’ve seen for the clients I’ve worked with.
Samantha: Seniors who are able to play with their grandchildren like they weren’t before. People coming out of their shell and finding love and friendship..
Samantha: I had some clients who were complete shut-ins and this posturing system because of the way it opens, it opens your face up so no longer looking, walking around, looking at the floor anymore. That’s how I used to be.
Samantha: Now I am more extroverted, more open to connection and making eye contact with people and I think that that’s profound and beautiful.
Samantha: The way I’ve seen it worked for me and other people in that way and a lot of the people that I’ve worked with have moved forward with their dreams and goals of starting a business of speaking in public things that they would have never thought possible before.
Samantha: And if you have time Ryan, I want to see if anybody had any questions. Well, if no questions, I want to thank you for your time and I’ll put that link in the chat if anyone here wants to set up a consultation.
Samantha: Thank you.
Ryan: All right, does anyone have any other questions for Samantha.
Ryan: All right, Samantha, you gave everyone so much to consider they’re still processing.
Samantha: It’s a lot, yeah.
Ryan: Well, everyone, let’s give Samantha a hand for her presentation today.
Samantha: Thank you.
