MELT Map for Low Back Pain
Note: Remember, no part of MELT should ever
hurt. Pain is your signal to ease back pressure!
Mini Soft Ball Foot Treatment
Body Scan Assess
Stand with your feet side by side, hip-width apart, arms relaxed at your sides. Close your eyes
and, using what I call Body Sense, notice your footprints. Do they feel evenly weighted? Scan
up your legs and notice if you are clenching any muscles and see whether you can consciously
relax.
Autopilot Assess
Keep your eyes closed and legs relaxed. Lift all ten toes off the floor and take three breaths.
On the final exhale, set your toes down. Notice if you felt yourself drift forward. Try the same
assessment with your eyes open and notice how much less you drift when you can rely on
your sense of sight to remain balanced. Drifting shows Autopilot Inefficiency, which decreases
balance and stability.
Position Point Pressing
1
Stand up straight with your feet hip-width apart. Place the soft ball on the floor in front of you
and step onto it so it aligns with position point 1. Put your feet side by side and gently shift
some of your body weight onto the ball to create tolerable pressure. Then shift some of your
weight off the ball. Repeat this shifting 2–3 times to ease into tolerable compression while you
take focused breaths. Step backward with the opposite foot and shift your weight to that foot.
Place the ball under position point 5, in front of the heel bone. Apply tolerable compression to
that point as you take a focused breath.
5
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Glide
Keeping the front of your foot on the floor, slowly move the ball from side to side in front of the
heel. Continue Gliding the ball from side to side as you work your way to the back of the heel
and then back to point 5.
5
Direct Shear
With the ball on point 5, use a slightly heavier compression to wiggle your foot left to right. The
ball should barely move. Hold the compression and take focused breaths as you allow the
tissue to adapt.
Foot Rinse (down)
2
Place the ball on point 2, directly under the big toe knuckle. Apply tolerable compression to
that point, then press the ball toward your heel in a continuous motion with tolerable, consistent
pressure. Lift your foot to move to the next knuckle. Repeat from each one.
Friction
Using light, quick, random movements, rub your foot and toes over the ball in a scribble-like
motion.
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Body Scan Reassess
When you finish this self-treatment on one foot, close your eyes and use your Body Sense to
quickly notice whether you sense any changes in your leg. Repeat all the techniques on the
other foot.
Final Body Scan Reassess
Now that you’ve self-treated both feet, close your eyes and use your Body Sense to feel your
feet on the floor. Notice your joints. Do your legs feel more cohesive on both sides now? Do
you feel more evenly grounded?
Autopilot Reassess
With your eyes closed, repeat the Autopilot Assess, lifting your toes and setting them back
down. Do you drift less when you set your toes back down than you did before you did the
Foot Treatment?
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Rebalance Sequence
Rest Assess
Lie on the floor with your palms face up and your arms and legs extended. Breathe and allow
your body to relax into the floor. Close your eyes and take a moment to sense your body.
You’re going to use your Body Sense instead of touch, vision, or movement to notice whether
you have stuck stress accumulation in your body.
There are 4 common imbalances many of us have: feeling like all of your upper back weight is
on your shoulder girdle rather than your ribs, feeling a big arch in your mid back instead of a
small low back curve below the belly button, feeling your tailbone rather than your butt cheeks
on the floor, and feeling like the back of your thighs are off the ground on one or both sides.
When these common imbalances are left unaddressed, they cause excess compression in the
neck and low back.
Next, assess your Autopilot. Sense the left and right sides of your body as they rest on the
floor. Do you feel evenly weighted? If one side feels heavier or longer, that’s what I call Autopilot
Inefficiency. Make a note of what you feel and try this sequence to eliminate the accumulated
stress to restore balance and efficiency.
Gentle Rocking
Slowly, lie back on the roller with your knees bent and forearms on the floor. Make sure your
head and your pelvis are on the roller and your feet are in line with your sit bones, knees bent.
Place your forearms lightly on the floor and gently tip your body from left to right like a rainbow,
keeping your spine on the roller the whole time. This gives your Autopilot time to adapt to the
pressure and challenges your balance. Do this for 30 seconds.
Pelvic Tuck and Tilt
Come back to the center so that your spine is on top of the roller. Make sure your feet are still in
line with your sit bones, knees bent. Place your hands on the front of your pelvis, fingertips on
your pubic bone and the heels of your hands on the front hip bones. Slowly tuck and tilt your
pelvis 4–5 times. Keep your feet light as you tuck your pelvis – your low back travels toward the
roller. Keep your ribs heavy as you tilt your pelvis, which will increase the low back curve gently.
The size of the movement is very small if you perform it correctly. Take focused breaths as you
move from tuck to tilt.
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3-D Breath Breakdown (Focused Inhalation)
Sense your head, ribs, and pelvis resting on the roller. Put one hand on your chest and the
other on your belly. Take 3-4 focused breaths and sense the breath expanding your torso up
toward your hands and down into the roller in equal timing – breathing depth-wise into your
body. Remember: It doesn’t need to be the biggest breath you’ve ever taken – just a two-directional focused breath. Then move your hands to the sides of your ribcage. Take 3-4 focused
breaths into your hands to expand your diaphragm to find the width of your body. Then place
one hand on your collarbones and the other on your pubic bone and inhale 3-4 times to find
the length of your body.
3-D Breath (Focused Exhalation)
Place both hands on your belly and take a breath into all six sides of your torso. During the
exhale, make a firm shhh, seee, or haaa sound and sense the reflexive action in your deep
ab¬domen as it contracts away from your hands toward your spine. Sense all 6 sides of your
body gently hugging inward like a corset. Inhale and firmly exhale 3–4 times. Then, without using the sound, see if you can use your Body Sense to feel and follow that same reflexive action.
This is what we call finding your core.
Rest Reassess
Slowly come off the roller by straightening out one leg and sliding off that side, first with your
pelvis, and then your ribs and head. Lie on the floor, close your eyes, and take a moment to
sense any changes in the weight of your masses and the lift of your spaces. Notice if you have
eliminated any of the common imbalances. Are your ribs, pelvis, or legs more relaxed to the
floor? Assess your Autopilot by sensing the left and right sides of your body. Do you feel more
balanced from left to right?
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Lower Body Rehydrate Sequence
Rest Assess
Lie on the floor with your arms and legs extended, palms face up. Use your Body Sense to notice the 4 common imbalances. Notice the weight of your upper back, the size and placement
of the curve of your low back, whether you’re feeling your tailbone or butt cheeks, and whether
the back of your thighs are on or off the floor.
Back Thigh Shear
Place the roller under your upper thighs. Your legs are straight and relaxed. Slowly drag your
legs together and apart like jumping jacks to Shear the back of the thighs 4–5 times. Bend
one leg and relax it on the roller, and then drag the other leg in and out 4–5 times – like patting
butter on bread, you are twisting the flesh around the thighbone as you move the leg in and
out. Repeat on the other thigh. Straighten and relax your legs again. Pause, wait, and take 2
focused breaths while you let the tissue adapt. Move the roller halfway down your thighs and
repeat the techniques, and then move it just above your knees and repeat.
Pelvic Tuck and Tilt Challenge (Modified)
Position the roller under your pelvis by putting your feet on the floor, finding your core, and
slowly lifting your hips. Keep both feet on the floor, about hip-width apart. Take a breath in and,
on the exhale, try to tuck your pelvis. On the next exhale, slowly tilt your pelvis so your pelvis is
flat on the roller. Don’t let your ribs move when you tilt your pelvis. Repeat the tuck and tilt 4–5
times, moving slowly. Remember the Pelvic Tuck and Tilt you did in the Rebalance sequence.
The motion will be small and subtle in this challenging position.
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SI Joint Shear
Position the roller under your pelvis, and then bring your knees toward your chest. Point your
knees toward the ceiling, but stop before your thighs are fully perpendicular to the roller. Maintain a consistent pressure and slowly angle your knees slightly right and left to explore both
sides of the SI joint. Try to keep your knees together. Pause on the right side and Shear the
right SI joint by making small circles with your upper legs 2–3 times in each direction, clockwise
and counter-clockwise. You can also try circling just the lower leg in larger but slower circles.
Also try moving your knees forward and back in a marching motion, 2–3 times slowly. Once you
Shear, pause for a moment, maintain the pressure, and take 2 focused breaths. Switch sides
and repeat.
Bent Knee Press
Place your right foot on the floor and interlace your hands loosely over your left shin. Begin by
tucking your pelvis to feel a two-directional pull on the front of the right thigh. Find your core (if
you need to, make your shhh sound) and allow your ribs to sink toward the floor as you gently
pull your left knee closer to your chest to increase the tensional length you sense on the front of
the right thigh. Hold for 3 focused breaths. Switch sides and repeat.
Rest Reassess
Lie on the floor with your arms and legs straight and relaxed, palms face up. Are the backs of
your thighs more settled to the floor? Are your legs weighted more evenly from left to right?
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