Kinesensics in the Time of Covid
By Michael Stock, Lessac Practitioner
At the end of September, I started a new job as an inspector for basement solutions. I addressed leaks, foundational repair, and particularly mold. The mold hit me first. Then Covid.
Within a week after finishing training, deep pain and pressure started in my chest. Anxiety and panic set in; I could not catch a breath. My immunologist / allergist said that in the first week on the job I triggered a severe allergy to mold as well as asthma. With two inhalers and medications, I went back to work.
Medications allowed me to function. Lessac Kinesensics allowed me to feel at peace.
My deepest breath was very shallow as if someone was standing on my chest in heavy boots. When I couldn’t breathe, what calmed me down from my panic attacks was Kinesensics.
Possessing very little breath capacity because of the mold and asthma, I investigated Lessac voice explorations to help me heal and stay calm. During my sales calls, there were hours spent driving alone in the car. I simply hummed and “loo loo loo-ed,” enjoyed the consonants and vowels, as well as investigated a Lessac exploration called the “Tonal 8.” I spoke as if singing, and when the breath allowed me to, sang unabashedly at full volume. The breath-work and tonal-work allowed me to catch and expand my breath. When on the verge of hyperventilating I reminded myself of the wonderful stories Master Teacher Crystal Robbins shared with me about using Kinesensics to overcome her severe panic attacks and help during the birth of her daughter. I used Kinesensics similarly to help me feel at peace.
On November 14th my Covid symptoms started. I was already sick with allergies and asthma, but I knew immediately that I was really not well. I could barely drive home because I was so exhausted and disoriented. I immediately went into isolation in my room and out of contact from my family. I experienced more symptoms than listed on the Covid websites.
One thing that differentiates Covid from other viruses is that it attacks your system in totality. For me, the leading symptom changed every minute. One moment I experienced blinding migraines, then disorientation and confusion, then coughing so hard that I threw up, and more. I could not get a handle on which symptoms would be attacking my system next, and so I could not feel any sense of consistent peace. I am extremely fortunate that while I visited the ER twice, I was never kept overnight nor experienced anything more extreme.
However, total isolation for a week and a half, plus caring for myself were some of the most challenging experiences I ever lived through. Kinesensics kept my sanity intact.
I began exploring Kinesensic “Wheel Walking.” The feet and arms roll like rims of wheels, like peddling a miniaturized bike. This loosened and expanded my intercostal muscles between my ribs. I realized I was having such shortness of breath because the muscles in between my rib cage felt like ironwork; there was no way to fully expand my breath. Dealing with mold allergies, asthma, and Covid, I utilized Wheel Walking to mobilize my shoulder girdle and rib cage, elongate my spine, and release emotional tension. Walking became a means of massaging my frozen muscles. When I was too sick to walk, I still did wheel-walking motions with only my upper body. Remaining seated, I moved my arms in the circular motion which put my torso into an undulating dance.
Artwork by Michael Stock
These kinesensic strategies were not new to me. About ten years ago I was physically assaulted. In turn, this Trauma triggered a major mental health crisis. One of the tools I used to heal from that Trauma was Kinesensics, so I was very familiar with using this work to help in a crisis. I detailed my journey in a chapter in the recent Kinesensics book, Play With Purpose; and writing that chapter solidified for me the personal effects of Kinesensics on my body and spirit.
In Covid isolation I made space on my floor to go through Kinesensics progressions: “small-ball rolling” particularly loosened and expanded my ever-increasing psychophysical tightness. I began working on small-scale visual art projects while engaging in the Lessac practice of sighing for pleasure and humming.
Researchers discovered humming alone can lessen the feelings of Trauma and fear. The vibrations produced while humming essentially massage the vagus nerve and deactivate key areas in the brain’s limbic system that neurologically produce the fight, flight, freeze instincts.
The word “breath” comes etymologically from the Greek root of the word “psyche” and the Latin root for “spiritual.” When researching my book chapter for Play with Purpose, I came across this quote from two doctors: “fear is excitement without breath.” This phenomena of excitement without breath leads to all sorts of negative effects on the psyche and spirit. With Covid, I could not physically catch my breath so I was trapped in a state of perpetual fear and panic. As a means to release that fear, I invited more breath through Kinesensics. Sighing for pleasure and humming became my two most efficient ways to find excitement in breath without fear. Sighing is one of the most primal actions the brain experiences, and neuroscientists discovered that sighing is controlled by the fewest number of neurons in any human action. Sighing for pleasure is the most basic life-sustaining reflex.
This is how Kinesensics helped me through another Trauma in my life, and has become my most basic life-sustaining practice. As Arthur Lessac wrote, Kinesensics “is the universal potential of every human being… This [work] is about being human.”
Michael Stock, Lessac Kinesensics Practitioner
BIO
Michael Stock is an artist. He is an award-winning author, actor, director, producer, visual artist, teacher, and started his theater and film production company as a high school sophomore thirty years ago.
He began his Lessac Kinesensics journey seven years ago. He worked with all the world’s Lessac Kinesensics Master Teachers as well Phyllis Griffin at The Theatre School at DePaul University. He is a recognized Lessac Kinesensics practitioner, completed teacher training, and recently wrote a book chapter in Play With Purpose detailing his own journey of addressing mental illness, PTSD, and Trauma by using Lessac Kinesensics.
Please check out some of his work at michaelAstock.com or reach him at Michael.Stock@mac.com