Learning to Relax - make your movement and breath work practice a kind one!

So many of us are on the grind. All day, every day, chasing one of the ten dangling carrots that have caught our attention, encouraging us to move from an energetically misaligned place. We're exhausted and operating from a drained tank. If you have an imbalanced musculoskeletal system (we all do), you'll have to literally use more energy to move through tight tissues than you would having more balance to the system - remember stretching promotes symmetry - symmetry means energy efficiency. The society we operate in isn't conducive to a properly rested body or a body that has the time and space to digest and process everything we're asking of it.

This is where the techniques I teach can help. Breathwork, passive gravity-assisted stretches, sensation awareness, pain reduction, stress management, and simply having an opportunity to slow down and not look at a screen are restorative to our entire system. Reconnecting with yourself and tuning into what's happening within your tissues is how we recharge.

Think of lying on the floor as one of those cellphone chargers we have in the kitchen, where you just set your phone down and it starts charging. Yeah, that's what the ground is to our bodies. There's a charge that happens when you learn how to relax and let go, sinking into the floor and allowing yourself to be heavy for a while.

For some of us, an hour of relaxation triggers that panicky "I need to be doing something" narrative that fuels the tension building in our muscles. That tension then makes us want to get up and go do something, ANYTHING, other than just lie on the floor and breathe. How miserable it can feel to stop and turn all of your attention to our physical body. How unproductive that feels!

I'm here to try and convince you that there is nothing more precious and nothing more powerful than taking the time to pay attention to what you're feeling, witnessing your asymmetries, and working to create alignment in your tissues.

You will be shocked by how much energy comes from choosing movements based on sensation INSTEAD of choosing general movements designed to "strengthen." Moving from felt sensation is how we build intuition. Listening to and honoring our tissues' requests for attention means recognizing when they might need contraction because they're spasming or a stretch because they feel tight. There are so many more sensations, but those are two we work with the most.

If you're cramping, explore gentle movement and move with it rather than immediately trying to stretch your way out of it. Your body is giving you information, and this is an opportunity to pay attention to what it/you are needing. If you've found a position where a tight sensation is present, take a big breath. Give those muscles time to register the pressure of the stretch and allow your nervous system to become more comfortable with that sensation. This is where high sensation will require your patience and breathwork to feel safe enough to stay. If the stretch is too much, come out of it a little, to a place where you can manage the sensation, breathe, and wait for it to change. Then go back into the bigger stretch. You'll notice it won't feel as intense the second time you visit it!

That is the practice of expansion. Finding what's tight and positioning yourself at an intensity that's manageable, where you can stay for a bit without putting yourself into a guarded panic trying to get as much as possible out of the experience. Instead of cranking and forcing your way through your tissues, why not take a gentler approach, more frequently?

This is how I believe movement and breath work become less like a chore and more like a little escape from the busy hustle and bustle of the external world. An escape from the external world into yourself, into your tissues. So please, make sure you're making that experience a pleasant one.

I wish you all a glorious rest of fall and hope each of you give yourself permission to slow down with the seasons as we shift from Fall to Winter.

Warmly,

AJ