The Paradigm Shift: Your Body, Your Partner

By: Kathleen Gramzay Friday May 6, 2016 comments Tags: health benefits of movement, holist, movement, pain relief

The idea that you can partner with your body is somewhat novel to many people.  Isn't your body something you have and manage?  It's great when you're young (even if you don't appreciate it at that time) and then it becomes a pain, literally somewhere down the timeline.  

When I became a massage therapist in 1999, I was eager to learn as much about the body as possible because I wanted to help many people.  What I couldn't have known then is how that knowledge would change my perspective, my life, and my own health.  

What is one of the basic tenets to good health?  

M-O-V-E-M-E-N-T! Not really a shock is it?  

I mean, you know that it's smart to exercise and there is a ton of evidence that supports why it's a good idea, yadda-yadda-yadda.  It's not that you don't know that.  It's how you feel about it that is the deciding factor.   

If you've not found some kind of movement that you enjoy, mentally putting movement in the "exercise category" automatically makes it work of some kind.  And who wants more of that?  Goodness knows your plate is already full, who's got time?

When you were a kid, did you think of riding a bike, walking with your friends, playing some sport, swimming or anything you did as exercise?  Odds are, no.  It was just fun.

To your body, movement is life.  

Every system within it is predicated on movement to function well, like a self-winding watch.   Over time if you haven't "shaken your watch" in a while, the parts start to get sludgy and things start to stick.  Arteries clog, joints stiffen, muscles tighten, bowels constipate, lungs congest.  

And all of those parts live within the most amazing system of all, your fascial system. When it gets stuck down it becomes more like flypaper. Everything in it gets squished, including nerve sensors whose main job is to send warning signals that register to you as pain.  

Your body is trying to get your attention.  "Hey can you get this thing moving?  Things are getting stuck in here!"

So today, I invite you to make some time, even a few minutes, outside of what you normally do- walk down the hall or up the stairs, stretch, play your favorite song, anything that feels good, and shake it for five minutes.  

Put your attention into your body and FEEL it.  It's your partner.  Let it know you're listening and give it some love.

To your great health and well-being, 

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.