Safety Inside vs. Danger Inside
By Michael McKay, L.M.T.
“Like Being Held Like A Baby”
This is how one of our customers reported feeling when resting on her Gravity Pal® Low Angle Inversion Table.
It’s a very profound statement and opens the door to deeply understand what happens when you lay down on one of our unique tables.
Inverting on a Gravity Pal® is VERY unique: you’re hanging from your hips NOT from your ankles or feet.
In other words, due to the unique materials and design of our tables, there is no need for a foot strap and there’s no slippage. Result? You feel safe and SECURE.
Instead, when you lay down on your Gravity Pal® your hips gently rotate and the spine naturally elongates – and the legs feel basically weightless.
This is a unique experience that we believe triggers what we call a Safety Inside Response by the Central Nervous System – that feels like being held like a baby.
Triggering the Opposite of the Danger Inside Response
Our Nervous Systems hate surprises. We maintain a high alertness and quick response for any time we may slip or experience sudden imbalance or surprise.
This is called Muscle Guarding and it’s related to the Fight or Flight Response.[1]
We call this our Danger Inside Response. We’ve all experienced it as being immediate and involuntary.
We tighten up everywhere – all at once.
The opposite of this is what we call the Safety Inside Response – which is MUCH harder to trigger.
When my wife and I were in massage school we were taught it takes at least 15 minutes to get a massage client passed the Danger Inside Response.
It might be better to call this our Danger Inside Setting. It’s actually our pre-set condition.
On a Gravity Pal® it appears that people feel Safe & Secure and immediately move past this Danger Setting – and immediately relax.
As a result, one only needs to be on their Gravity Pal® for 1 to 3 minutes at a time to have effective results.
There’s no need for longer time sessions and no “working up to” a relaxation point. This also makes it more likely you’ll use your Gravity Pal more regularly.
And THAT REGULARITY is the real magic because it is the longer term “cumulative side benefits” of regular, daily 1 to 3 minute sessions that makes a Gravity Pal a Central Wellness tool.
Our customers have consistently reported longer term cumulative results including:
- Improved Mental Clarity
- Maintaining Chiropractic Adjustments (often for many months!)
- Relief from Scoliosis
- Relief from Sciatica
- Improved Digestion…
… as well as many other benefits that are beyond simple back pain relief and point to a greater overall Wellness. [2]
Relaxation is Virtually Immediate
We believe that the Central Nervous System recognizes when it’s safe and secure – in the same way it recognizes when it’s in danger.
Triggering this Safety Inside Response allows not only all the muscles and myofascial tissues throughout the body to immediately release tension but also increases the circulation flow of lymph and cerebral spinal fluid throughout the body and brain.
For most of us who haven’t been babies for several decades this is an experience that we immediately recognize – but perhaps were not expecting to happen for us again.
Long Term Results
We believe that experiencing this Safety Inside Response & Daily Repeated Relaxation also has potential long term benefits of:
- Conditioning the person’s Central Nervous System to MAINTAIN a more stable, relaxed state longer throughout the day as a MORE FAMILIAR state of functioning.
- Consequently, helping the person to more quickly REGAIN a more calm state of functioning more easily after facing more challenging moments.
As always, we invite researchers to test and verify our hypothesis.[3]
But the best way is to see for yourself.
We recommend you try a Gravity Pal® Low Angle Inversion Table today.
Please Go To www.GravityPal.com/shop
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Physiology, Stress Reaction, B. Chu, et al. October 10, 2020. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541120/ ↑
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See my book, The Inversion Revolution. Beyond Back Pain to Wellness, http://selfcarepress.com/ ↑
