Have you ever wondered what it would be like to talk to your body? “Why do I keep getting a sore back and neck?” “Why am I feeling anxious?” Well, the good news is – you can! Kinesiology combines the ancient wisdom of Eastern healing practices with Western techniques. Through muscle monitoring, a kinesiologist uses this system of biofeedback to find stressors in your body, be it physical, physiological, emotional, mental, or spiritual and helps to release them through a range of non-invasive techniques.
Kinesiology is one of the fastest growing complementary medicine modalities in Australia, and being holistic, natural and gentle means that those who see a kinesiologist are excited about the changes they see and feel.
The History of Kinesiology
To understand what kinesiology is, let’s look at how it was developed. Kinesiology means ‘the study of movement’. In the 1930s and ‘40s ‘Academic Kinesiology’ began as the systematisation of isolating individual muscles and testing them in their contracted state to assess the health of the muscle for patients with disabilities such as polio. However, in the 1960s chiropractor Dr George Goodheart took kinesiology to a new level developing what is now known as ‘Applied Kinesiology’.
Through keen observation, Goodheart noted that certain muscles were presenting as weak in clients with particular physical ailments. This was the start of Goodheart’s work in bringing together muscles and organs of the body. Goodheart began to link techniques such as ‘neurolymphatic reflexes’ (points on the body that improve lymph flow) and ‘neurovascular reflexes’ (improving blood flow) and his own ‘origin and insertion’ massage to balance a muscle and return it to health.
He noted that once improvement was seen in a muscle, the same affect was had across the whole body. Still, he felt there was more and it was a friend who introduced him to the acupuncture meridian system of Traditional Chinese Medicine. This gave Goodheart the final piece of the muscle-organ-meridian matrix. He was able to relate muscles in the body to each meridian. Through further development of muscle testing techniques, Goodheart gave kinesiologists the ability to access the state of energy within a meridian and draw on thousands of years of wisdom, insight and practical applications to the mind, body and spirit whole.
The Exciting Emergence of ‘Energetic Kinesiology’
‘Energetic Kinesiology’ grew in popularity as practitioners worked holistically, drawn to the ability to not only treat the physical body but to access subconscious emotions, mental patterns and connection to spirit. In the 1970s and 80s, Dr Alan Beardall discovered several profound uses for muscle monitoring through his clinical work and in-depth study of anatomy and physiology.
Beardall understood that the messages from a muscle to the brain was either a ‘yes, I am in balance and can contract’ (known as ‘lock’) or ‘no, I am stressed and unable to function’ (known as ‘unlock’). And so began the ability to talk with the body and test a client for stress in an acupoint on a meridian, determining whether the stress was physical, physiological, nutritional, emotional, mental or spiritual when a muscle presented as ‘lock’ or ‘unlock’. Once a correction such as neurolymphatic reflex points was applied the muscle was retested and the stress challenged and a muscle now in balance indicated that healing had begun to take place.
The history of kinesiology did not stop there as momentum took the field into the world of yogic mudras, chakras, emotion and thought patterns, the brain and learning, nutrition, hormones, goal setting and spiritual work to name a few.
Today, there is a diverse range of kinesiology practices, some of which are: Touch For Health, Clinical Kinesiology, Biokinesiology, Brain Gym and Edu-K, Three In One, Applied Physiology, Professional Kinesiology Practitioner (PKP), Vibrational Healing System (VHS), Neuroenergetic Kinesiology (NEK) and much more! Techniques to restore balance have expanded to include acupressure, flower essences, sound therapy, light therapy, essential oils, physical corrections, and esoteric energy healing.
Kinesiology and You
You can work with a kinesiologist for any issue. The practitioner will use the muscles in your body to uncover the pattern of imbalance within each level of existence from the cellular level right up to the divine spiritual plane. Your body has a memory. It expresses genetic patterns and responds to daily life accordingly and the stressors from past and present are triggered in daily life. By working to release these stressors you are able to understand yourself better, learn healing techniques to do at home and connect to your own innate healing. Most of all, you are able to reach your full potential and be at you best. So try it now – find a kinesiologist that resonates with you and start listening to your body, finding balance and your own personal power!
I am a kinesiologist based in Canberra, Australia. I was asked to write this article about the history of kinesiology for a beautiful magazine SilentEarth The Magazine Volume I.
Come and try kinesiology with me at the Live Well Spa & Wellness Centre so I can support you to understand and heal all aspects of yourself and to live authentically. I also run seminars and workshops on topics such as sleep, stress, anxiety and depression, energetic science, children, learning, emotional intelligence and addiction.
This article was inspired by the incredible hard work and inspiring writing of kinesiologist, Dr. Charles Krebs and his book ‘Energetic Kinesiology Principles and Practices’ who presents the science behind kinesiology to the world.
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