First things first

 

First things first

                                        Lion stretching

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

What’s the first thing you do on waking? Maybe you do it so automatically that you’re unaware of it.

Something that I thought was universal across the animal kingdom turns out not to be. Many mammals, not all, as I mistakenly believed, stretch when they wake up. Cats and dogs stretch their spines, extending their back legs behind them and then reaching forward with their front limbs. People often raise their arms above their heads and s-t-r-e-t-c-h, sometimes accompanying the action with a squeaking, grunting exhalation.

It seems that wild animals do not feel the need to stretch, as they must always be in a state of high alert on waking . . . and yet, when I looked for photographs of 'stretching,' I found many showing wild animals stretching and yawning

What I thought of simply as ‘stretching’ is actually referred to as ‘pandiculation.’ Isn’t that a delicious word?

I investigated the differences between stretching and pandiculating and got thoroughly confused. While one source informs me that pandiculation is an involuntary action, another claims that it is a conscious activity, engaging the brain to ’reset the resting length of muscles’- who would have thunk it?

As with many activities, it is possible to ‘find a practitioner’ or participate in an online six-week course. ‘Essential Somatics,’ as they are known, will help you to ‘Move With Ease For The Rest Of Your Life.’

Enthusiasts might even train to become practitioners, to help others realise the benefits of pandiculation. To my untutored brain, it sounds like yoga, for example, or Pilates, or Tai Chi, all of which use careful movements to ease and train muscles, or relieve pain or stiffness.

Someone described stretching – or was it pandiculating?- as ‘a whole body yawn.’ That doesn’t sound very attractive, but I do find an occasional stretch during the day quite helpful, if only to wake me up!