3 Things to Do when Your Body is ANGRY.
"The best way out is always through."
– Robert Frost
What do you do when you’re in pain or your body is cranky? Like your lower back seizes when you bend over? Or your knee bites when you go upstairs? Or your neck is so irritated you can barely turn your head to check your blind spot?
Depending on what’s going on in your body, there are different strategies to self-generate healing. These strategies reduce pain, create balance and supplement other modalities like PT, massage, or chiropractic.
Choose the right strategy for what’s going on in your body:
Strategy 1 is for when you have a tight, angry muscle or area.
Strategy 2 is when your body feels clunky, wonky, or your back "could go out”
Strategy 3 is a formula to bring balance and lasting change
Strategy #1: When you have an isolated, specific area of the body that is angry, painful or uncomfortable.
For example, your outer hip is tight and kinda hurts. You have a knot near your shoulder blade, or can pinpoint the spot where your neck is bound up… the best remedy is myofascial release. A ball under your outer hip. A massage tool for your shoulder. Or a TENS unit for your neck. Stay curious because as Ida Rolf would say “where you think it is, it’s not”.
Strategy #2: When you notice an area of the body is wonky, clunky, misaligned or weak. For example, your knee is wobbly, your lower back feels fragile, your shoulder keeps catching… this tells you parts of the body are not communicating. Use somatic release work to re-write and re-wire patterns.
Strategy #3: When you’re working on a long standing pattern or want one of these fixes to stick, here is a formula for lasting change: First, release what’s tight and over-compensating. Then, activate what’s weak or offline.
Examples:
When your lower back (between your lower ribs and rim of your pelvis) is chronically tight and sometimes feels like it’s going to “go out”, release your psoas and activate your deep core.
When your shoulder is sticky, release your upper trapezius and activate your rhomboids. (must have back body full for this to work).
When your neck is chronically tight, release the connective tissue on the back of your skull and engage your deep neck flexors.
It’s the engagement of deep stabilizers that reduces imbalance and re-writes patterns of pain.
This is the promise of practice: you can self-generate healing. Every day.
May your practice take you through,
Alison
PS: for more examples, watch on YouTube or listen on Spotify.
PPS: want to know how this applies to your body? Hit reply, tell me about your situation, and I’ll give you my recommendations.
