One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say:
"It's just old age. Nothing can be done about it."
🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Sure, when we're young, it is easier. We have a ton of collagen, which gives our tissues lots of flexibility to be able to move around restrictions and imbalances.
When we age, we naturally lose collagen, and those imbalances, that we didn't even know were there, start to cause problems.
But that doesn't mean nothing can be done. It means we just need to balance the scales between the tension on the tissues and the flexibility we have available.
Just ask @trainwithjoan . You can be fit and mobile and pain-free at any age.
Stop for a second and check in.
Are you trying to predict every possible outcome? Are you still rehearsing that tough conversation you need to have?
Now, notice how you're holding your body while these thoughts are swirling around in your head.
Are you clenching your jaw? Squeezing your butt? Trying to wear your shoulders as earrings?
Now I want you to close your eyes. Put your hand over your heart and tell yourself that you're safe.
Say, "You're safe. No matter the outcome, you are safe, and you are loved and you are fully capable of handling any situation as it comes up. You do not need to rehearse it beforehand."
Take a big breath. You've got this ♥️♥️♥️
Let me explain...
Fascia moves energy - Fascia (the connective tissues that surrounds EVERYTHING, every organs, every vessel, every nerve, every muscle) is a neuroconductor. Which means it moves energy through the body. Emotions are energies. When we don't allow our emotions to flow, we create restrictions in the fascia.
Emotional representations - in Osteopathy and in Chinese medicine, every area of the body and every organ holds an emotional representation. We create tension within the respective tissues when we hold onto emotions because we tell ourselves stories like "I have no right to be angry" or "that happened a long time ago, I shouldn't still be sad."
Stress - Your body doesn't understand the difference between the stress caused by a stack of paperwork on your desk or stress caused by a bear chasing you. Stress is just stress. So when you feel stressed or heavy with the burden of expectations, your body will react to protect you. This means muscles tighten up, posture will change, and adrenaline is released.
Fight, flight, freeze, or fawn - Again, this is the body's way of protecting you. The problem is, long term secretion of the fight or flight hormones creates inflammation, changes in blood flow (to optimize fighting) will limit blood to certain areas, chronic muscle contraction will degrade the muscles and joints.
Deep-rooted beliefs - these are beliefs formed during childhood that tell us who we need to be and how we need to act to be accepted by our peers. They are formed as a way to help us feel safe, but they can lead to a lot of social anxieties. (See points 3 and 4)
Understanding what you are holding onto and why is the path to releasing it. This will allow your body to be more calm and in less pain.
Which one of these surprised you the most?
Ok I lied...
It's actually only one reason. And that reason is that most therapists treat the symptom and not the cause.
9 times out of 10, where you feel the pain is NOT the root cause of the pain.
Sorry I lied. To make it up to you, here are three reasons why therapists often get dooped into treating the symptom:
1. Fascia lines - there are major fascia lines that cross the body, connecting the opposite shoulder and hip. If you have shoulder pain that gets better with treatment but inevitably comes back, maybe look at your hip mobility.
2. Meridian lines - energy channels that run throughout the body and are associated with the organs. Tension around an organ can cause tension anywhere aling the meridian line. Maybe your pain in your foot is really telling you that your gallbladder needs some TLC.
3. Hierarchy of needs - the body runs based on the principle that the important tissues get first dibs on flexibility. So, if there is tension around your intestines, they are going to steal flexibility from your hips because they are more important. This is often the case with pain in the extremities. Sorry, arms and legs, you're not necessary for life.
Think about your pain differently. Is there another area that could be the root cause?
Let me know in the comments if this got your wheels turning.
What do your kids and your body have in common?
They both show you when you're holding onto fears that you'd really rather ignore. 😉
These fears can be tricky because they're not in the forefront like "I'm afraid of spiders."
No. These fears run in the background, and you adjust your behaviors (or try to adjust the behaviors of your kids) to try to keep yourself safe.
Remember, our brains see acceptance = safety. So if we feel like we don't fit in, these fears will be louder.
Has your body or your kid shown you any fears lately? Let me know in the comments.
There is so much more to pain than just the physical experience.
Pain is your body's way of communicating with you.
I totally believe the body is a messaging system, and we've just become so out of touch with ourselves that we've forgotten how to listen... which only makes it yell louder.
You are not an old car whose parts are constantly breaking down! You are much more complex than that.
If you're ready to learn to listen to those messages, follow along. I've got lots of tips and tricks to help you get connected♥️♥️♥️
If no one else is going to talk about this, I will.
We have to start acknowledging the grief that comes up with every transition phase of being a parent.
There is grief, and there is a change in your role as a parent. As they grow, they need you less and less. This means that a part of your identity has to change with them.
Let me give you permission to feel this grief. It doesn't mean you're not happy for your kid or so incredibly proud of their milestones. You're allowed to feel two things at once.
Being able to acknowledge and validate these emotions is a key part in allowing yourself to feel them fully so they don't get stuck in your tissues and cause pain.
Let me know if the video made you realize how much grief you're holding onto.
You got me... I'm a witch🧙♀️
Follow along if you want to learn more about the body's interconnectedness - like connections between your feet and your headaches.
I hate it when people are told the only option is medication.. or worse, they get told nothing can be done.
They body is an interconnected web of tissues.
Sometimes, the solution to your pain can be found in simply understanding what tissues are connected into your area of pain.
Have you ever been told medication is the only option?
Follow along to learn more about these connections!
This will change how you think about your shoulder pain ⬇️
I was having a conversation with a client the other day about her shoulder pain. She was explaining how stressed she was and how she had all these things on her plate.
I asked, "Why are these things your responsibility?"
She thought a minute and explained, "It's just how it's always been."
She had a lot of responsibility growing up, which is very typical for first-born daughters. Because they are older and usually more mature than their siblings, some of the weight of the household gets defaulted to them when parents become overwhelmed.
Praise for this helpful role creates a belief in a child's brain that "this is how I'm valuable." And they hold on to roles and extra responsibilities throughout adulthood.
Every area of the body holds an emotional representation. The shoulders have a few, but across the top of the shoulders represents "weight of the world on your shoulders" or "carrying the burdens of others." Translating into "I take on responsibility for things I may not have any control over."
Let me know in the comments if this sounds like a familiar story.
Fear is a very necessary emotion. It keeps up safe. If we didn't have fear, we would put ourselves in a lot of dangerous situations.
But, because our brains are wired to keep us safe... not to keep us happy, our fears will often keep us small.
It'll try to stop us from reaching for that thing we've never done or the goal we want to achieve as a way to try to protect you.
These are just a few examples of how my fear tried to protect me. It reminds me of all the ways something could go wrong.
Now I want to hear yours!! Drop it in the comments.
Ready to have your mind blown?!?! 🤯🤯🤯
9 times out of 10, where you feel the pain is NOT the root cause of the pain.
This client of mine has had long-standing shoulder pain. When I explained how everything is connected, I asked, "Knowing this, is there anything else I should know? Any injuries, surgeries, or weird pains."
This opened up a whole new area of conversation. And, in the end, I was able to help her with multiple issues she had been dealing with for years!
The take away: Everything is connected, and imbalances and restrictions don't typically go away on their own. Your body compensates for them, creating pain in other areas.
Tell me about your pain that hasn't gone away, no matter what you've tried. Maybe its root cause is connected to another area.
Here's the back story👇
I grew up in a small town where it was very common for people to get a job, settle down, and start a family right after graduation. So much so that I considered it to be "what you were supposed to do."
I have chosen to live my life very differently than that, but it always surprises me when those deep-rooted beliefs from my childhood come-a-knocking.
When thoughts pop into your head and it doesn't align; maybe it's what you were taught, not what you believe.
So let's talk about it! When was the last time your learned thoughts took you by surprise?
P.s. I believe feminine energy is full of power, strength, and resilience that exists far beyond one's ability to bear children. What do you think?
Have you ever wondered if your gallbladder is angry??
It can be tricky to pinpoint because gallbladder symptoms are similar to symptoms of other ailments.
Let me know if any of these traits (physical or mental) resonate with you.
Anyone else wonder about this?
I recently had this conversation with a client.
She was working to change one of her belief systems. This meant that she was growing and changing and expanding what she believed was possible for her life... but this changed the picture she had for her future.
So, even though it was positive, there was still grief associated with it.
Sometimes, our emotions don't make sense. But, we have to allow ourselves to feel them anyway.
Tell me about some ambiguous grief you might be hanging on to.
Remember that stretching routine that really helped your back pain, but you haven't done it in months?
Running was once a staple for your mental health, but now your running shoes are collecting dust by the door.
Why do we do this to ourselves?.
It's because what you think about yourself and what you believe is possible is stored in your subconscious mind, and she works really hard to protect you by keeping you in your comfort zone... keeping you small.
When you don't show up to save yourself from yourself, you are reverting back to the lowest version of yourself. That's where we slip back into the procrastinating, the poor self-talk, eating junk, drinking too much, etc. You're succumbing to the limits that YOU'VE set for yourself.
Don't let what you've always thought was possible be your limit. Show up and prove yourself wrong.
Did this quote hit anyone else like it hit me?
"Just let it go!" - we've all heard that sage advice at some point or another. Usually when we're trying to process some big emotions.
But when we don't feel safe within the body to fully experience those emotions, the body will start to adopt a protective posture.
There's more to it than just "letting go."
Have you ever gotten frustrated with yourself because you just couldn't let something go? Let me know in the comments.
Your mind is about to be blown when I tell you how this client went from tons of restriction within her pelvis to having an emotional release that made her hips feel more free than they have in years 👇.
Of course, we worked on the fascia and joint alignment, but most of the time, when it's difficult to find an explanation for an issue, it's rooted in emotions or experiences.
Since every area of the body and every organ holds an emotional representation, we dove into her relationship with her feminine energy.
This is a confusing concept to a lot of people because I don't mean feminine in the way of dresses and makeup and tea parties.
Feminine energy is creative, playful, wild, and free.
When we convinced her body (through Chakra balancing, meridian line unwinding, fascia manipulation, and visualization exercises) that femininity can look differently than how she was taught, it opened the door for a less restrictive relationship with her feminine organs.
She got off the table and couldn't believe how open and light she felt! Her hips hadn't felt this good in YEARS!!
How were you taught to express your femininity? Do you think that belief serves you now or holds you back?
#feminity #feminieenergy #mindbodyconnection #mindbodysoul #emotions #emotionalrelease #everythingisconnected #limitingbeliefs
I personally believe they are both important.
I believe we need balance, flow, and movement within the physical, mental, AND energetic bodies in order to achieve true health and wellbeing.
Emotions can cause tension within the fascia. But sometimes you need emotional and energetic release AND fascial stretching and mobility to relieve pain.
We are multifaceted beings. Why do we box ourselves in?
If you agree that multiple things can be true at the same time, you have found the right account. Follow along for more!
#mindbodyconnection #easternandwesternmedicine #twothingscanbetrue #worktogether #emotions #emotionalrelease #pain #painrelief #everythingisconnected #multifacetedbeing
