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Vertigo is any sensation of movement or disorientation when you are still. It can manifest as disequilibrium, dizziness, nausea, unsteadiness, or feeling “not quite right” (NQR). Tinnitus refers to sound sensations that are heard inside of your body—ringing, buzzing, popping, roaring, squeaking—that are not coming from the external environment. Vertigo and tinnitus are like invisible disruptions to a person’s life that are difficult for the medical world to resolve. Both are related to how the brain interprets neural messages coming from the inner ears.

Every person who experiences vertigo or tinnitus has their own way of describing them. Your sensations are something that no one else can ever feel or really understand. While this is a lonely truth, there is still hope. Regardless of whether you describe your sensations as spinning, feeling disorientated, buzzing, ringing, roaring, rocking, or feeling NQR, you are not alone. There are elements common to every person’s recovery, and you can learn how to better understand this process of healing physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for yourself.

https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Steady-Healing-Tinnitus-Neuroplasticity/dp/1774580624

Rock Steady: Healing Vertigo or Tinnitus with Neuroplasticity

Over the last ten years, I have worked as a vestibular audiologist, and I have seen the challenges that clients with invisible and chronic symptoms face. I have also experienced vertigo and tinnitus myself. I remember feeling lost, overwhelmed, and alone. I questioned whether healing was even possible, and it felt that everywhere I searched led me to more disillusionment. In the end, it was because of my training in yoga, psychology, neuroscience, and vestibular audiology that I was able to explore the potential of using neuroplasticity firsthand. The next four years became a deep exploration of self-study, where I learned how to bring the theory of neuroplasticity into practice. I changed my brain and I healed my symptoms. This later developed into the ROCK STEADY program, a comprehensive self-study guide for healing with neuroplasticity.

 https://vimeo.com/322145474

Heal Chronic Dizziness or Tinnitus with Neuroplasticity

Available from Free StarterKit  at  Seeking Balance International https://www.seekingbalance.com.au/

At the time I was healing my vertigo and tinnitus, I had been practising yoga for fifteen years. My daily practice taught me to observe the layers of health within my own body. Yoga did not necessarily heal me, but rather it gave me skills of self-observation, self-compassion, and nonjudgment. Yoga instilled in me the belief that I could change my body, and I could change my mind if I was committed to it. I had completed over seven thousand hours of training to eventually become a trusted yoga teacher. I was then privileged to see my yoga students change their bodies and their minds as their self-study practices and skills evolved. It was from this vantage point that I realized my yoga teaching skills could truly benefit my vestibular audiology clients.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXDCcxMtlWE&t=1s

Tinnitus: What to Do about It

In yoga, we refer to the self-study process as Svādhyāya (pronounced “svah-t-ya-ya”). It is a personal enquiry that brings us closer to our inner truth and guides us to self-realization or inner peace. Anyone is capable of self-study. Not everyone needs to practice yoga or become an intense meditator. There are many simple and accessible ways to look within and explore the sensations of your inner world. One of the most powerful yoga practices is the body scan, described below.

The Body Scan

The body scan is a fundamental exercise for healing with neuroplasticity. You will be introduced to several variations of it in my book, Rock Steady. 

You can practise this exercise sitting, standing, or lying down. The Sanskrit names for these body scan variations used in the context of yoga are, respectively, sukhāsana (pronounced "soo-kah-sa-na"), tāḍāsana (pronounced "ta-dah-sa-na"), and śavāsana (pronounced "sha-vah-sa-na").

Find a quiet and safe place where you can be with yourself, undistracted. Notice your sensation of touch (proprioception), head to toe. Feel into the furniture or clothing that you are touching. Notice your left and right sides, up and down your body, inside and out of your skin. Notice the inner world inside of you and the outer world touching you. Really begin to feel yourself like an art sculpture. Feel your contours and your shape. Notice the position of your shoulders over your hips. Feel your physical center.

Notice as many aspects of touch as you can. Feel it all. Connect with your physical body and practice feeling safe just as you are. Develop a sense of curiosity and awe for your body and your biology. Notice that your sensations are always changing. Become curious about how each body scan is an entirely new felt experience.

For people with vertigo or tinnitus, there is an added feature to the body scan. While body scanning, I encourage you to search for desired sensations (e.g., safety, peace, and steadiness) so that you can stimulate those specific areas of your brain. No one else can make your safety neurons “fire” or force your body to create peaceful and steady neural patterns. The external world can influence your biology to an extent, but only you can directly impact your neural patterns by using your focus and ability to consciously feel. The body scan helps us to refine these sensing and feeling skills and to incorporate them into daily life.

From a yoga perspective, our body is continually talking to us and communicating with us. This includes physical sensations and emotional feelings. Our mind–body communication is often loudest when we are in pain. It becomes harder to ignore what your body is telling you when you are in need of something. It could be that your body is screaming for rest, sleep, or cuddles. It might be in need of better nutrition, exercise, or stimulation. Or maybe it’s looking for support, belonging, or self-love and self-acceptance—or creativity, space, connection, intimacy, and so on.

I invite you to look within. Trust that your body is firing neurons in a particular way for a particular reason. While you may not understand it at the moment, with self-study, compassionate self-awareness, and a practice in self-kindness, you can reveal layers of inner knowing that help you to understand the neural patterns and sensations that you are feeling.