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Flying a Kite

Tension Is a Good Thing

In this Blog I’m speaking of muscular tension. One of the biggest—and I would say most dangerous—ideas that comes out of the “relax, release, and let go” movement in the world of health and fitness is that tension is bad. I believe this is really just a communication…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

How Do You Get Strong Without Hurting Yourself?

What Is a Strong Body? We each have a different idea of what a strong body is and how we get there. For some of us, it feels so far out of reach that we don’t even try. For others, strength means working out very hard — even…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

A Conversation with Your Body

Your Body Dialogue The “Body Dialogue” is something I wrote about in the Miracle Ball Method book. It’s the back-and-forth communication between mind and body. That description sounds simple, but the reality is both deep and complex. This communication happens in milliseconds. It’s open to interpretation, and it…
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Foot on the Ball

Going Back to the Basics: Starting with Your FEET

The directions we use for exercise have been consistent for decades. The number of exercise types has greatly increased, but the way we describe our body remains limited. We usually refer to one part, describe what to do with that part, and then move on to the next.…
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Painter Painting

Miracle Ball Method Basics

Your body is your medium. When you do the Miracle Ball Method, you’re working with your medium. Making that distinction is key to moving freely and avoiding much of the chronic aches and anxieties so many of us live with. Most of us think it’s the “exercise” that…
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The Miracle Ball Method

Take What You Get on the Ball with You Off the Ball

It has been a passion of mine for many years to bridge the gap between the amazing experiences I get on the ball off the ball, and to develop a class that helps others do the same. I’ve been working toward this for decades and feel like I…
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The Miracle Ball Method

Are You Faking or Feeling Your Body?

Many of us don’t even think of our body as who we are. We treat it like a mechanical device. We get “service people” to work on it, replace parts, or look for outside solutions to fix our problems. That’s faking it. Feeling the human body—truly tuning into…
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Miracle Ball Method Balls

What Is the Miracle Ball Method?

Door Number Three People know about exercise, and they know about physical therapy. But they don’t know about door number three. The Miracle Ball Method is door number three. Exercise—whether it’s dance, martial arts, going to the gym, or yoga—is still, even with the best of intentions, something…
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Children Climb Trees—Why Don’t We?

At what point did we stop experiencing the joy of being a small child—curious about movement, excited by what was in the sky, fascinated by things crawling on the ground, wiggling our fingers and toes just because we could? When did we start getting so worried and concerned…
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Simple Solutions for Lower Back Ache

Are You Afraid to Move?

Emotions, Effort, and Exercise It’s not uncommon for people to feel afraid to move. A common question I’ve heard throughout my experience as a teacher is: “What’s the right way to move?” If there were a “right” way to move, none of us would’ve ever gotten out of…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

More on Why Your Shoulder Hurts

And why doing more might not be the answer. Remember the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz? He needed oil to move. Without it, he locked up—stuck and stiff. For us, that “oil” is breathing. Breath circulates through the body and allows muscles to release, move, and…
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Woman at the computer

Why Your Shoulders Hurt—And Why Traditional Fixes Don’t Work

The Miracle Ball Method has been described as stretching without stretching. As a result of the directions, it leads you through this superhighway of your nervous system to the underlying causes of Why Your Shoulder’s Hurt? If you want to improve how a part of your body feels,…
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The Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone, laying on balls to relieve pain and reduce stress

Don’t Try to Relax: The Surprising Truth About Letting Go

If you’ve ever tried to relax by telling yourself to relax—you know it rarely works. When people use the Miracle Ball Method, they often start by chasing a feeling they had the first time the balls felt good. But trying to recreate that feeling becomes a trap. Here’s…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

Strengthening Your Core with the Miracle Ball Method

Strengthening your core using the Miracle Ball Method is fundamentally different from traditional abdominal exercises. When people refer to the “core” of an apple, they mean the central part that exists within the whole apple. Similarly, think of the Earth’s core: it exists because of everything that surrounds…
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The Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone, laying on balls to relieve pain and reduce stress

Don’t Give Up!

I’m reminded of an interview with a famous movie producer I saw many years ago. He was asked about the famous actors he had worked with and whether he could tell which actors would make it through the years of rejection. His answer was interesting. He explained that…
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The Miracle Ball Method

How One Movement Can Change your Entire Body

One Movement, Done Well: Connecting Your Entire Body One movement, done well, connects to your entire body. Imagine your body like an electrical circuit, rather than a bunch of disconnected parts you need to “strengthen.” Your strength lies in your connectivity. And finding your leg joint is a…
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The Miracle Ball Method

Feedback From Your Body Part 2

In Part One, we discussed feedback from the body, and in Part Two, I’ll go into more detail about what that feedback really is. The body is very simple, but we can complicate things because of chronic pain and anxiety symptoms. Sometimes, the body’s warning signals can be…
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The Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone, laying on balls to relieve pain and reduce stress

The Missing Link Between Pain and Pleasure

Feedback from Your Body After the last webinar, I feel like I found some of my greatest clarity from listening to others explain how they do the Method.  The missing link between much of our experience with exercise and what will best benefit us is feedback. The clarity…
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The Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone, laying on balls to relieve pain and reduce stress

The Mind-Body Disconnection: Reconnecting the Mind and Body

Having been on this journey for several decades, beginning with my own experience with chronic pain, I’ve considered the mind-body connection from many angles. Usually, the mind-body connection is thought of as the body listening to what the mind offers as solutions. After all, the body doesn’t seem…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

What Exercises Can I Do to Relax and Relieve My Lower Back Aches?

I get asked all the time, “What exercises should I do?” The Miracle Ball Method works through your nervous system, so it doesn’t follow the same rules as traditional exercise. I should clarify—this isn’t the same type of exercise you’re used to. But, like exercise, it’s not the…
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The Miracle Ball Method

What They Don’t Know Could Be Hurting You

Tools You Can Use When Working with a Physical Therapist, Personal Trainer, or Any Expert in the Fitness Field The missing link between a treatment helping you or hurting you is you. While working in hospitals for over two decades, I’ve heard many comments from massage therapists, personal…
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Fist

What You Don’t Feel Might Matter the Most

Imaginary Moves I’m convinced that many people imagine their body moving, rather than actually feeling it move. I know I do. It’s like how many of us think we’re great singers in the shower — we imagine we’re performing at our best, but it’s all in our heads.…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

Start Taking Classes in 2025

What You Don’t Feel Can Be Hurting You You will benefit greatly from taking classes because your body is an instrument—you have to learn how to play it. Nobody sits down at a piano, picks up a guitar, or grabs a violin and just starts banging away, hoping…
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What Is Your Body Trying to Tell You?

Your Body Is Talking, Are You Listening? Your body can’t send you an email or text message. It communicates through pleasure and pain. How we interpret what we feel is what makes each of us unique. We are also challenged by outside forces that bombard us with a…
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Miracle Ball Method Balls

Don’t Fix It, Feel It, Using the Miracle Ball Method

There’s an expression: You don’t know what you don’t know. Let me change that a bit: You don’t know what you don’t feel. This perfectly explains why many of us feel stuck in our bodies, desperately wanting relief and to move freely, but somehow can’t. We can’t move…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

Healing Chronic Pain Part 2

Here are some specific directions to help relieve chronic pain: Checking in: Notice your body and describe what stands out, rather than focusing on what you want or hope it will do. You can start sitting comfortably in a chair, on the floor, or lying down.  Be as…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

Healing Chronic Pain Part 1

Healing Chronic Pain Part 1 I’m always amazed at how many things in life, from the simplest tasks like tying your shoelaces, require direction. There is even a learning curve. Some of us are more patient than others. Some can be frustrated but still persist through the process…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

Everyday Movements Can Heal or Hurt Your Body

Using the balls feels amazing, but an invaluable byproduct of The Miracle Ball Method is tapping into your body’s ability to move freely without stiffness, or the everyday aches and pains many of us experience. Everyday movements done differently, using the benefits you get while on the ball,…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

Good Pain, Bad Pain

Good Pain, Bad Pain I remember when a friend of mine had a car accident. He was in his early 20s and might have been under the influence. He ended up with 123 stitches in his face, running under and along the bottom of his cheekbone. Remarkably, he…
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The Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone, laying on balls to relieve pain and reduce stress

Emotions and Chronic Pain

So much of our day-to-day life is charged with some level of emotional response. We constantly ride the roller coaster of our emotions. From the seemingly simple act of of sitting in traffic, we are tightening our neck and shoulders, to the rush of packing lunches and the…
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The Miracle Ball Method

The Third Option

Healing therapies, exercise and The Miracle Ball Method: What’s the Difference? Every day, we make decisions not just about what we’re going to do, but how we’ll do it. From choosing our clothing to deciding how much food to pack for lunch, which is the best route to…
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Reaching

Using Everyday Moves to Heal Your Body

It’s not necessary to isolate exercise in a gym, at a sporting event, or on your yoga mat. Moving is something we do all day. This should be good news for those who haven’t found their preferred “exercise” yet. It also doesn’t mean that every day movements can’t…
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Seesaw

Enjoying Moving Your Body: Relieve Everyday Aches and Pains

Do you enjoy moving your body? The body is a peculiar place. One might assume that basic, practical principles we use in everyday tasks—like balancing on a seesaw, distributing weight evenly; layering a three-tier cake; bouncing a ball; or reaching for something on a high shelf—would apply straightforwardly…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

The Miracle Ball Method: Making Exercise Effective

Meet Rose, a regular gym-goer who diligently practices the Miracle Ball Method. She finds great relief from it, but recently, she’s been experiencing hip pain after exercising. While the Method helps relieve residual tightness in her hips post-workout, the pain returns after her exercise class. She reached out…
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The Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone, laying on balls to relieve pain and reduce stress

Don’t Get Old: 5 Antidotes to Aging

Here are five antidotes to aging: Breathing Discovering five key areas of your body Moving five key areas of your body Doing the Miracle Ball Method Never stop moving In the webinar this Saturday, I will go into more detail on each of the 5 antidotes. For example,…
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The Miracle Ball Method

Don’t Get Old: The Antidotes to Aging

Overcoming Fear of Physical Sensations Many individuals struggle with fear of certain physical sensations, often creating a narrative around these sensations that can become disabling yet oddly inaccurate. These sensations can be a momentary twinge in the neck or knee in that same moment we are defending against…
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Miracle Ball Method - Elaine Petrone with neck on ball

A Journey to Inhabiting Your Body

In the quest for holistic well-being, we often overlook a fundamental aspect: inhabiting our bodies. It’s akin to attempting to operate a vehicle without being behind the wheel. In this blog, we’ll delve into the significance of truly inhabiting your body. Many of us are familiar with the…
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Miracle Ball Method

Why the Ball Works When your Back Hurts

Many years ago, there was a neurologist who came to me for a session. She described perfectly why the ball worked. She said it was a neurological tool for the brain. She, being a neurologist, had a completely different vantage point than I. But I sensed her clarity…
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