 Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash Do you want to know the truth about pain? Then read on, my friend.
Simply put it is just a signal perceived by the brain that something is wrong. The brain senses the pain signal and tells you that something is off balance, out of the neutral, out of the order. Next the mind starts producing rather unpleasant thoughts accompanied by rather unpleasant emotions. The usual response to pain in the body goes like this. The muscles tense up, the breath becomes shallow, shoulders ride up to the ears, the ribcage lowers down to the pelvis, the hips and calves tense up. Sound familiar? Feeling all of this nonsense happening in your body brings on more unpleasant emotions and thoughts. You tense up more, clench your jaw, tighten your fists and the buttocks. Now you are creating compression on your joints and organs. The brain screams louder and you get caught up in the cycle of negative signals going between the body and the brain. Now imagine if you were going on vacation tomorrow. You are boarding the plane and arriving at a beach paradise. Palm trees, sunshine, the waves crashing, the breeze in your hair… Or maybe you head up to the mountains. Snowy peaks, sunshine, snow covered trees, the quiet… For a moment the mind gets taken away by the beauty of nature and you get a flood of pleasant emotions, thoughts of happiness and relaxation. The body responds by relaxing the shoulders and the hips, now you want to take a deep breath, and slowly a smile appears on your face. And what happens to the pain? You forgot about it! For a split second, you forgot about it! Yes you did! Or maybe it was longer than a second or maybe it just went away? On its own? How could this happen? Well, my friends this is the beauty of mind body connection. You take your mind off of something and it no longer exists in the awareness. Out of sight, out of mind. I have two little kids, you know what is the best way to get them to quiet down after a scraped knee? Switch their attention to something else. All of a sudden the tears dry, the smile is back and they are chasing after Josie (the dog) again. The knee is still scraped though, the problem is still there… but it gets better after about a day or two. It heals on its own because of our wonderful built in healing potential. You are wired to be resilient and to get better. Now I know, some of you had knee pain or back pain for years and it is not going away on its own. However, every day when I ask my patients what took them so long to get help, they respond with “oh it would just come and go, get better and then get worse.” Yes! It gets better when you are happier and it gets worse when times are hard. This is the mind body connection at work. Unfortunately it doesn’t go away completely, right? That’s because the muscles have become habitually shortened, so they are creating compression on the joints and joints hurt or deteriorate with time. When you are in pain, you start moving differently. Your body does a magnificent job compensating for lack of mobility. The problematic area becomes extra sensitive because of lack of movement and old swelling. The area of the brain that senses the signal from the original injury becomes bigger. This is called the sensitization. Now add an emotional component to this mess and you got yourself a big problem. Luckily, there is a way out of this. There are many different bodywork techniques that can be done to release the tight muscles. Here at Healing In Motion we do a variety of different techniques. It may be massage, dry needling, work with nervous system (Neurovascular Integration), etc. We place a lot of emphasis on work done by hand, because honestly, you need it. Humans need to be touched. The studies on babies show that babies who are not touched don’t gain as much weight. Touch is healing, it’s love, it’s comforting and it feels awesome! Next there is the integration piece. This is when we teach you to move. All the tension which was binding your muscles is going to come back if we just do the manual work. The wires of the brain to muscles need to be reconnected. We do this through really cool Pilates and Somatics exercises. The goal is to get you to experience the joy of simple movement. The joy of breathing, the joy of walking, the joy of feeling alive in your body. When the tension is released, and you are moving correctly you feel like a kid again – FREE! You can do a quick jog instead of walking because it’s fun, or you can choose to jump up and down in place because you are excited. My kids do it all the time. When and why did we lose this ability to be joyful? Yes, it can be done! And you got absolutely nothing to lose just by learning more about it. Do you want to explore this further? Click HERE to talk on the phone. Or maybe you want to take it a step further and talk in person, click HERE to register for a Sample Session. Anyhow, life is too short to spend it grumpy and in pain. So let’s talk if you are ready to make a change. Now go out and enjoy that Colorado sunshine. We are so lucky to have 60 degree day today! Talk soon, Elena
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 Photo by sharon wright on Unsplash What’s up with neck issues lately? It seems like all of my patients are complaining of headaches and neck pain. Is it the winter thing?
So this week I decided to talk to you about headaches and neck pain since it seems to be the ongoing theme. The biggest cause of neck pain and headaches is…. Drum roll please…. STRESS!!! I’m willing to bet money that if you are having neck pain, you are likely in the middle of some challenging times in your life. Seriously, the common thread showing up with every single one of my patients who have neck pain is stress. “I’m under so much stress…” “The work has been crazy lately…” “So many things are happening, they are all good, but I’m so stressed out”. Let’s take a look at this mind body connection a little closer. You know when you get stressed out, our natural reaction is to bring the shoulders up to the ears and clench the jaw. Your body prepares for fight or flight. Your heart races, your breathing becomes shallow, your muscles tense up. The rational way out would be to acknowledge this and take a break. Say “No” to certain responsibilities, sleep in, eat good food and just take care of yourself. However, we are emotional beings and can’t stop in the middle of a roller coaster ride. The bills have to be paid, useless paperwork needs to be done, the house needs to be clean, the kids need to turn in their homework and the dog needs a walk!!! You know, the usual. So the stress stays in the system. The shoulders slouch and the head moves forward on your body. Now the tiny little muscles in the back of your neck and your lower back have to work twice as hard to keep you upright and support that 15-20lb ball of brain on your shoulders. The muscles on the back of your neck and the front of your neck have different referral patterns. That means if there is tension in those muscles, the pain can be referred to the back of the head, the eye, the side of the head or the jaw. So you pop a couple ibuprofens and keep going. So many times I hear my patients tell me that they have been self-medicating with ibuprofen for months and the headaches only get more frequent because the underlying issue of stress and forward head posture is not resolved. Hey, sometimes it can get so bad that injections and surgery are suggested. Sometimes you have to wait until it’s that bad to finally get help. Luckily, there is a way out of this. Through the combination of hands on treatment and posture re-educating exercises we are able to get you out of pain. One of my patients had headaches twice a week for couple years. Finally his girlfriend booked him a session with me. After 3 treatments headaches were gone. My other patient had such bad pain in her neck and around her shoulder blade that she scheduled surgery. After several treatments the headache was gone and she cancelled the surgery a day prior to scheduled date. So this is how we take care of this nasty problem. First the tight muscles have to be released by hand. Next we use NeuroVascular Integration Technique. This is very cool and kind of magical. We balance out your nervous system. Yup, it can be done. And all you need to do is just lay on the table. It doesn't hurt and kind of feels amazing. Since it calms down the nervous system now we can work on your posture. This is even more fun. So check this out. The muscular holding is completely reflexive. This is how we are wired. You get stressed out and the muscles tense up. So it becomes my job to teach you how to relax and become aware of your posture. I base my exercises on work done by Joseph Pilates and Thomas Hanna who were complete geniuses in teaching people how to move. Now, this is not the type of exercise like lifting weights or running. This work is super relaxing and feels more like a yawn. We get into your muscle memory and unconscious muscular holding to teach you how to move again. The result – you feel energized, light, free and tall. You feel like your head can just center itself on your shoulders and the tension is gone. True story! In fact, I am so fired up about this exercise system that I am going to put together the “Joy of Movement Workshop.” Stay tuned. Yes, movement and life can feel terrific. You can feel happy, energized and young despite being of a certain age (J) and busy. Yes, it is possible and it is my job to show you how. I want to help you find that joy of movement again. But I’ll tell you more about it later. We don’t have to be bound by our life stresors, there is a different way. And you can keep your job and your responsibilities and feel amazing. The sooner you do something about it the better, the easier it is to take care of it. So if you or someone you know is suffering from headaches and neck pain, pass them this information and let’s get them some help. Headaches and neck issues are miserable and so preventable. You can start by downloading one of my E-books HERE or maybe you are ready to chat so press HERE. Or maybe you just need a little more time. I understand. Just remember, if you don’t take care of it, it only gets worse. Now go out there and have a terrific day! Elena |
We help people who refuse to slow down
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