Imagine you called me and said:
“I tweaked my lower back. I can't get in to see you for a few days. What should I do?”
First, I’d tell you not to panic.
A tweaked low back doesn't necessarily mean you've injured something or that you need to completely stop moving.
This week, I had the hardest time focusing. I was easily distracted and my brain kept asking for a vacation. That's what inspired me to revisit one of my favorite grounding practices—a body scan.
When I notice I'm anxious, everything feels tense. My shoulders are in my ears, my breath is shallow or sometimes held, my belly is a rock and my jaw is clenched. It creeps up on me through my thoughts and takes over my whole system.
There are many things that can affect our ability to focus. We can be distracted by sounds, people, thoughts or stress. Fatigue can make it hard to keep our eyes open or concentrate on what’s in front of us. Our body might need to move to release some pent up energy or lay down to recuperate and rest. The level of interest we have in something can also make it easier or harder to pay attention. The capacity we have mentally to engage if we haven’t taken a brain break can be diminished. Our nervous system can be dysregulated which makes it hard for our brain or our body to maintain balance or control.
The majority of us sit more than we’d like, but that doesn’t mean it has to hurt us in the process. The exercise for this month is from the book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back by Esther Gokhale. She researched cultures of the East and old art to see what our ancestors understood that we’ve unfortunately lost over the years as technology continues to improve.
Years ago I took a class with a chiropractor that was focused on releasing the TMJ. We get dysfunction when there's too much tension that displaces the jaw. He showed us the skull and went over how to release the muscles on the inside of the mouth. We partnered up, gloved up and went to work. I definitely shed a tear or two having those muscles released. It's a very specific type of pain that's also intensely connected to memories and emotions. I thought about teaching that to you in this month's video, but if I'm honest, I really don't use it anymore.
Rigidity in the body (or in belief) feels like protection of the self. It’s bracing with a barrier so what’s sensitive avoids getting harmed. That’s the unconscious idea from my understanding. When things are so black and white, there’s no space for the grey; the in between.
There are some types of people that can be experiencing stress on the inside, but to the naked eye, you’d never know. These people most often don’t know they’re stressed because they’ve learned to quiet that part of their inner knowing.
When we’re sensitive and we grow up around people that are not, our sensitivity can feel like “too much” for those around us. They don’t understand it, so their response is you don’t feel that, or that’s not something you say, or nobody cares.
A sensitive person will learn to override their nervous system and their intuition to disconnect from that type of feeling.
Over time, our body can’t handle the consistent stress it’s navigating and will try another way to alert us. The alerts can be issues in the chest or the gut among other things. Doctors will run through all the test, but nothing will show up.
That’s usually when people will come to me; when nothing else is helping and they need to find some calm in the chaos. The technique in this month’s video is simple but very effective. It can take as little as 3 minutes with noticeable shifts in ease. I recommend it to people that have a hard time getting into their body or are looking to reconnect to what they feel.
If you have a hard time understanding what you’re feeling or if you feel disconnected from what’s going on in your body, it can’t hurt to try. So much is stressful in the world, in the US and in life. Let’s do what we can to come back to ourselves so we can feel safe to be at ease.
June was the month of travel me and my husband. I spent every weekend on a plane, in a car, or on a train. Each destination was beautiful and full of family, friends, and sunshine! That was the upside. On the downside, I was feeling all sorts of discomfort from sitting more than my body is used to. After the first trip, I changed things up a little and made a mini workout in the seated position. If you travel for work or leisure, try out any or all of the following tips to get rid of discomfort.
