... and my CANTIENICA® journey into the land of nerves
It’s Sunday morning. I get on the train and head to the CANTIENICA® studio in Zurich’s Seefeld neighborhood. Soon, the beautiful scenery outside begins to pass before my eyes; everything is in motion.
By Luzia Meyer
I’m reflecting on yesterday’s training day and sitting on the edge of my train seat, completely relaxed and full of anticipation, my feet They feel very light, and I let my breath flow through my body. After aligning my pelvis and spine from the sacrum upward, I gently yet powerfully engage the psoas all the way up to the diaphragm. The diaphragm expands, and my breathing responds instantly with greater depth and breadth.
By stretching and straightening from the bottom up—from the soles of my feet to the crown of my head—a chain reaction is triggered in my body that I cannot avoid. My body follows the instructions…
The skull hovers above the atlas, the first cervical vertebra, and I let my upper eyelids rest gently on my lower ones.
Now, in my mind’s eye, I am right in the middle of my head, right in the middle of my skull, and I imagine two more eyes at the same level as my two eyes, but further back in the skull.
I stretch my eyes diagonally, slowly and with relish, far beyond the edge of my skull, and observe my body’s immediate reaction; I feel the connection from my feet to my head. An incredible sense of presence builds up. Perhaps it’s a feeling similar to what I experience before a competition or a stage performance.
Let the show begin!
I am connecting more and more with my optic nerves. My body immediately follows this visualization, and I let acrobats and tightrope walkers perform true feats of artistry on and around my optic nerves. They do double somersaults, balance, hop, dance, and swing. There are no limits to my imagination.
A faint smile plays on my lips—what a crazy circus going on in my head.
The mental effort is paying off. The right side of my face, which has always been more tense since the facial paralysis began, is starting to relax and let go.
I can literally feel my lower right eyelid relaxing and the right corner of my mouth aligning with the left. The right and left sides of my face support each other and become one.
Ever since I developed facial nerve palsy 4.5 years ago—which was diagnosed during my ninth month of pregnancy—I have been suffering from synkinesis in my face, which consists of involuntary muscle movements and twitches that I cannot control. My facial nerve—which had been completely severed—took a few detours as it regrew.
Now, every time I blink, the right corner of my mouth twitches upward. When I chew or yawn—as well as when I laugh, or when I’m tired or stressed—my right eye gets smaller.
The muscle tone on the right side of my face is always elevated, even though you can’t tell from the outside.
Almost always.
Right now, though, it’s exactly the opposite. Right now, it feels a bit like it used to, before the paralysis.
Thunderous applause inside my body—every cell in my body is cheering.
Everyone’s clamoring for an encore.
Slowly, I open my eyes and, sitting up straight and full of anticipation, fish an apple out of my backpack and take a bite of the juicy fruit. It feels like a miracle to me when I realize that I can chew the piece of apple without my right eye twitching in time with my chewing. It remains open, relaxed, and the same size as my left eye.
That leaves me speechless, even now, and incredibly grateful.
And something else stirs within me; I feel, very gently, a new sense of trust in my body—that together, we can make this work.
We have the abilities within us; we just need to activate or reactivate them.
And aligning, straightening, and stretching—for a lifetime; you can’t do without it. The key to lasting physical well-being.
Thank you, Benita Cantieni. Through your wonderful bodywork, you possess the incredible ability and knowledge to restore the body—and all its structures, right down to the cells—to its memory and trust in itself.
Luzia Meyer, 42, a mother of four, is a licensed CANTIENICA® Body-in-Evolution instructor and a trained intensive care nurse.
“We just spent a few days in Paris with the four kids—it was just great. During our many trips by train and metro, our walks through the city, and climbing up and down stairs—sometimes with a child weighing nearly 20 kg on my back—I really noticed how light, supple, and responsive my body is compared to a few years ago. Life is so much more beautiful when you feel this way in your body. I can no longer imagine life without CANTIENICA® awareness.”
