Summer Qi Chats | Week 4
Feeling a little green?
This week we discuss sensory mismatch (motion sickness) and how balance training can help.
Planes - Trains - Automobiles
Can you read in a car? Are you okay with the big UP & DOWN motion of a boat on the ocean. Do you find turbulance thrilling or nauseating? For many, each one of these examples could even trigger that feeling of motion sickness. So what causes this? What can you do in the moment and what can you do to prevent this horrible feeling from happening again?
Sensory Mismatch
Think of your brain as a mother that is getting 3 different commands from her three children. If each message is different then not only is Mom/brain getting overwhelmed and confused but now everything just seems chaotic.
Your brain is getting information from your body (proprioception), your eyes (the visual system) & the inner ear (the vestibular system). If you’re sitting on a plane & it has yet to leave your gate.
Then all of a sudden, you look out the window and you realize you’re moving. It’s a little disorientating at first. You’re seated and your inner ear didn’t detect anything until you looked out the window. Whoa! This is sensory mismatch. Your eyes has to confirm something that you body and inner ear didn’t detect.
Now the plane has taken off and your brain may be getting different messages.
Your body is seating. Not moving.
Your eyes are staring straight ahead at the seat in front of you. Not moving.
But your inner ear is screaming “WE’RE GOING 500MPH & WHAT IS HAPPENING?!”
This is a more prolonged sensory mismatch & it can become intense.
Now last example - sensory mismatch can be overruled when you use the eyes (looking at the horizon) and watching the movement. But that turbulence of the UP & DOWN from the plane isn’t familiar (it’s also moving your organs) and this feels just as icky.
We need to train our inner ear so we don’t feel so over stimulated when we get inner ear stimuli from planes, trains & automobiles. This is why I added the BALANCE TRAINING in our Seasonal Drills in the Membership.
Neuro-Qi Tip o’the day!
Dramamine or Brain Training - which to choose?
Know how to treat motion sickness - PC6, Feet Squeeze, Low Breathing, Less Stim
Practice your BALANCE TRAINING in our Seasonal Drills in the Membership
Play with the VOR and get specific (demostrated in the recording!)
*Video posts every Friday by 11:30am MDT
