When Your World Won’t Hold Still

Mal de Débarquement (MdDS)

A Gentle Reset for Rocking, Swaying, and Internal Motion


First — Reassurance (Please Read This)

If you feel like you are rocking, swaying, bobbing, or moving internally even when you are still, you are not broken, damaged, or degenerating.

Mal de Débarquement is not anxiety, not inner‑ear damage, and not a permanent condition.

It is a learned motion pattern that the brain has not yet turned off.

Your nervous system adapted brilliantly to motion (boat, plane, travel, repetitive movement). It simply stayed in that mode longer than necessary. Our work is not to fight your brain — it is to remind it that the movement is over.

This is reversible.


What MdDS Really Is (In Simple Terms)

Your balance system uses three inputs:

  • Inner ear (motion)
  • Eyes (visual reference)
  • Body & feet (gravity and position)

In MdDS, these inputs are slightly out of sync. The brain keeps predicting motion even when the body is still.

The goal of this program is to gently re‑synchronize those systems — without forcing, without triggering symptoms, and without fear.


Who This Page Is For

  • Rocking like you’re on a boat
  • Gentle swaying side‑to‑side
  • Bobbing up and down
  • Internal motion without visible movement

If movement makes you feel better and stillness makes it worse, this approach is especially appropriate.


Daily Reset Routine (10–12 Minutes)

Do once or twice per day. Stop before symptoms increase.

1. Base of Skull Release (2 minutes)

Location: Soft hollows under the base of the skull on both sides

How:

  • Gently press upward with your thumbs
  • Let your head rest into your hands
  • Slow nasal breathing

Why:
This calms the brainstem and vestibular nuclei — the core balance centers.


2. Top of Head Centering (1 minute)

Location: Very top of the head

How:

  • Light touch only
  • Eyes closed
  • Imagine your body stacking upright

Why:
Helps your brain re‑establish a stable center of gravity.


3. Ear–Brain Reset (1 minute)

Location: Soft area behind the earlobes

How:

  • Gentle circles
  • One side at a time

Why:
Soothes communication between the ears and the brain.


4. Foot Grounding (2 minutes)

Location: Center of the soles of the feet

How:

  • Firm but comfortable pressure
  • Long slow exhales

Why:
Draws excess motion sensation downward and anchors you to gravity.  Coordinates Right/Left Brain.


5. Eye Stillness Exercise (2 minutes)

How:

  • Sit upright
  • Hold your thumb at eye level
  • Move your eyes slowly left and right
  • Keep your head completely still

Why:
Reconnects eye movement to a stable world.

Stop before symptoms increase.


6. Gentle Standing Anchor (2–3 minutes)

How:

  • Stand with feet hip‑width apart
  • Slight bend in knees
  • Very small forward/back sway only

Why:
Teaches your nervous system that stillness is safe again.

FOLLOW ALONG 👉


Pattern Differences (Quick Reference)

Rocking (boat‑like):

  • Most common
  • Focus on foot grounding and downward settling

Swaying (side‑to‑side):

  • Add gentle cross‑body tapping
  • Emphasize midline awareness

Bobbing (up/down):

  • Add slow heel raises
  • Emphasize lower abdominal grounding

Internal Motion:

  • Use more eye‑closed practices
  • Prioritize reassurance and calm breathing

Important Recovery Principles

✔ Gentle is better than intense
✔ Consistency matters more than duration
✔ Stop before symptoms increase

❌ Do not push through symptoms
❌ Do not force balance challenges
❌ Do not interpret symptoms as damage

Your nervous system recovers when it feels safe enough to stop adapting.


A Final Word

MdDS can feel isolating and frightening — but it is a functional pattern, not a permanent condition.

With calm, consistent input, the brain does recalibrate.

Stillness is not gone.
It is simply waiting to be remembered.


If you need guidance or individualized support, we are here to help.

West v East

My medical history is a perfect, side by side comparison of Western to Eastern Medicine.

The first half of my life was all Western Medicine.  It’s the only option we knew.  So when I got sick as an infant, they took me to The Doctor, and got Pharmaceutical Medicine.  Antibiotics.

Some studies find that antibiotics increase risk of future infections.  You are more likely to get sick again!

I did get sick again, and again, and again…prescribed multiple rounds of antibiotics in the first year of my life.

The second year of my life, my immune system started attacking my platelets.

Thats the autoimmune bleeding disease, where a cut could potentially end your life.  They said my tiny body was purple and black and blue from head to toe, because my skin would bruise wherever I was touched!

Back to Western Doctors.

They tried immune suppression, but apparently it didn’t go well, because the next part of the story was Emergency Spleen Removal to save my life!  And that’s all I knew.  This terrible disease attacked me when I was a baby and nearly killed me, but Modern Medicine saved my life!

I was left with a scar and a weak and sensitive immune system, but they saved my life!  The childhood I remember included miserable spring allergies, and painful summer infections (Strep), I guess from my immune system being so stressed out in the spring!

When I graduated high school, I was an adult with a medical condition and a medication for life.

I did find one medication that reduced the severity of allergies.  (Others made me feel worse!)

I lived with my medical condition, allergies, which is not bad by medical standards, until adult life stress happened!  I was opening my first business, stressing over money, skipping lunches to work, and worrying for the worst, when WHAM!!, it all hit me, right in my weak link!  Sinus and immune system. A sharp pain behind my eye that wouldn’t go away.

Back to the doctor.  But I chose an Eastern Medicine doctor!

The doctor diagnosed a fungal sinus infection and prescribed Cats Claw, a plant from South America.  I’d never heard of it, but the natives believe it is very good medicine, and use it for many inflammatory problems.

When I took my first dose, I could feel some relief.  After that, every day was better, bad days not as bad, and good days more and more often.  A Healing Trend!  Until the pain was completely resolved!

That sure increased my interest in plants!

Over the next couple years I experimented on myself, trying different herbs until one spring morning, I stepped out the door to go to work, and everything was covered in yellow pollen.  I stopped, because something was missing!  I sniffed, and sure enough, I had NO allergy symptoms!

Then adult life stress happened again!

Western Medicine revoked my insurance contract (and 70% of my income) for “helping people with medical conditions.”  I have never seen a patient who hadn’t already been to a Medical Doctor, so they had already received western medical treatment, most by many doctors and many years!  But they still punished me for helping!

It was stressful trying to replace 70% of my income, and sure enough, it hit me in my weak link again.

My immune system started attacking collagen.

The soft stretchy tissue in our skin and organs that allow us to stretch and our heart and lungs to expand and contract.

sclerodermaIt started as a hard scab on my finger, then moved into my hand and down my arm.  The scabs were hard, itchy and painful!  Western Doctors call this conditions Scleroderma.  Sclera- is hardening, and derma- is skin.  They will explain that this condition can reach your heart and lungs, and literally harden your heart, cutting off your oxygen supply, taking your life!

They acknowledge that their immune suppression drugs make this conditions worse, so “there’s nothing we can do.  So sorry.  Good Luck.” And they send you home!

So I was doing the Medical Protocol – nothing.  But I had more than luck.  I had been studying eastern medicine and learned the 3 steps to reverse autoimmune conditions.  1 – Remove infections and toxins (different herbs for different types). 2 – Balance the immune system by optimizing Vitamin D (need lab) and Turmeric.  3 – Treat the target tissue.  Which tissue is being attacked.  (Skin in my case).

Everybody knows a plant that heals skin, right?  Most people have used aloe on a sunburn!

I mixed up my elimination herbs (based on labs), and stimulated proximal points (on the face) that run down into the arm and hand (they call that “clearing the channel”). I used my electro-acupressure pen to stimulate local points, in the area of the rash, and “systemic points, like large intestine 11, a point used for inflammation anywhere in the body.

I was taking my herbs and stimulating those points, and sure enough it started to get better.  Every week was

 better, bad days not as bad, and good days more and more often!  Until, there was no evidence that I ever had an incurable, terminal medical condition!  It was completely resolved.

After that, I notice my immune system was very strong.

Many times over the next years I was exposed to sick people, and every time “I didn’t get it. You got it?  Wow, I didn’t get it.”  My immune system seemed stronger than everyone I knew!

I also learned, while studying eastern medicine, that antibiotics are a common trigger of autoimmune diseases!  So now I wonder –

I don’t think Western Medicine saved my life!  I think they made me sick, and then made me weak!

I’ll never know for sure, but this is a fact:

After Western Medicine treatment for infection and autoimmune disease, I was weak and sickly, immunosuppressed and unhealthy.

After Eastern Medicine treatment for infection and autoimmune disease, I was strong and healthy, immune enhanced and stress resilient!

If you’re interested in how Eastern Medicine would care for your health problems or conditions…

You can get personalized clinical evaluation and coaching with Dr. Stone!  I’ll review your history and labs, and tell you exactly how I would handle your situation, from 30 years of experience!

That’s me at 54.  All conditions and symptoms resolved.  Better fitness and mobility than any time in my life.  NO Gyms or weight lifting – just Tai Chi and Calisthenics, along with supporting my body with nourishing herbs and acupressure that relax my body to increase repair, improve metabolism, energy production, and organ health.

At least thats what science says they do!  Can you see any evidence? Can you see my surgical scar running from my sternum to my belly button, right in the middle?

 

Compare for Yourself!! West v East Medicine

Medical Conditions Comparison

Who Would You Rather Care For You?


 AutoImmune, Cancer and Thyroid

AMD – Macular Degeneration

Age Related Macular Degeneration

This is what I would do.