Movement Is A Part of Your Psyche

How you move is so much more than your biomechanics.

Modern medicine and physical therapy has conditioned us to think of our bodies as the sum of many individual components, and that if something goes wrong, like an injury, you simply fix or replace the faulty part.

But does that actually work in the long-term?

How many people do you know who are still in pain from an old injury, who've never regained full function of their body or are trapped in a repetitive cycle of pain, injury, treatment, improvement, pain returns, more treatment etc etc? Maybe it's you who're stuck in this pattern?

There must be a missing part of the puzzle that's stopping the body from healing.

So what might that missing piece be?

Let's think about what muscles are made up of - cells. The humble cell is the base structural and functional unit of all living organisms.

The cell receives signals from the brain which tells the cell what to do. The cell also sends signals back to the brain giving information about it's state and function.

The nervous system and circulatory system are the messengers between the cell and the brain, sending electrical signals via the nerve cells and chemical signals (hormones and neurotransmitters) via the bloodstream.

It's now well established that our emotional state and our environment (external and internal) hugely influence the signals being sent to the cells.

What also affects the signals the cells receive from the brain are our life experiences, core beliefs and thoughts. Many of these are implanted during early childhood up to the age of 7 years, and run as unconscious programmes deep in our subconscious mind.

These unconscious programmes control how we perceive the world around us, the choices we make and our habits. They can also influence how we hold ourselves, use our body and how we move.

Let's have a look at an example of how this works in real life:

Your dad hurt his back at work and is always complaining about his back pain....how stiff his back feels first thing in the morning and how careful he has to be when he bends over, otherwise he'll put his back out again.

You've spent most of your childhood hearing about bad back pain is.

Then you hurt your back and you remember your childhood listening to your dad. You start to feel anxious about whether your back will ever get better, or if you'll always have pain like your dad.

You book yourself some treatments with a physiotherapist who reassures you that it's a muscle strain that feels sore right now but will heal in a few weeks.

But the pain doesn't go away after a few weeks. In fact, it seems to be getting worse. You can barely stand up straight when you get up in the morning, and your back feels like it's going into spasm whenever you bend over to pick something up.

You begin to take painkillers to get through the day. X-rays aren't showing any major injuries to the spine so why is your pain not going away?

Here's where we move away from structure and biomechanics......

When you wake up in the morning your brain recalls the memory of your dad complaining about his stiff back. The fear centres of the brain (limbic system and amygdala) become active, initiating the release of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol - the stress response. 

The stress response quickly increases muscle tension ready to fight or take flight. The nervous system is now in a sympathetic state.

When you use the sympathetic side of the nervous system you become more fearful, anxious and pessimistic. You become more worried about your back, your body releases more of the stress hormone cortisol and your muscles stay tense.

You begin to hold and use your body differently. This leads to movement compensations, pain and eventually an injury.

Does this sound familiar? Maybe it's someone you know who's trapped in this cycle, or perhaps it's you?

How can you break up this repetitive circle of pain, stiffness, injury, pain etc?

Here are a few strategies to consider:

• Bring awareness to the unconscious programming that runs your subconscious mind - your thoughts and habits
• Be curious about your body, how you use it and how it responds to movement
• Educate yourself about pain, especially chronic pain - knowledge helps to eliminate fear

Tools that you might think about using to implement these strategies include:

• breathing exercises,
• somatic movement practices,
• Yoga, 
• apps like "Curable",
• vagus nerve toning exercises,
• meditation
• mindfulness.

Using one or more of these methods can empower you to feel more in control of your body, emotions and thoughts, with less dependence on long-term regular use of painkillers. They can also boost the long-term effectiveness of soft tissue therapies, such as physiotherapy, massage and osteopathy.

When we bring awareness to our history, all our life experiences, thoughts and emotions we unlock our body's innate ability to heal so we can move with ease, freedom and confidence once again. 

NEXT STEPS

• Come to a Stretch or Yoga class with me - participants say they feel very relaxed, less achy and lighter after class.
• Attend a half-day mind-body retreat - these are deeply relaxing, fun, social small group experiences typically held in various locations within easy reach of Worthing, West Sussex
• Subscribe to my email list to receive "The Movement Chronicle", a weekly e-newsletter delivered directly into your inbox every Monday morning,

To find out more about my classes and retreats, or to join my email list you can contact me via any of these channels:

• Email at norma.pearson1@ntlworld.com
• DM me on Facebook Messenger 
• WhatsApp message to 07801 867361.