Big Goal: Break it Down

I start each Yoga Physical Therapy Therapeutic class with self-assessments.  I modify physical therapy assessment techniques, describe "normal" values and what should be felt.  Participants can use this information to determine what he/she needs to work on.  

Since my Big Goal for 2017 is Extension, I am using wheel pose, aka backbend, as my self-assessment.  The picture above is my first attempt just as 2016 was ending.  I was able to hold this pose for all of 2 seconds before crashing down to the floor.  It is a good thing that a yoga certification is not dependent on performance of this pose!  What surprised me was where I felt most limited in this pose: forearms.  Wheel pose is full wrist extension with elbow extension.  You can see that my elbows are not even close to being extended.  I know that my hips are tight, and I feel it in my hips and spine but my forearms were screaming.  

Just trying to wheel pose every day to reach my goal would be frustrating.  So I decided to break this pose down and work on components of this full body extension.  As I describe is a previous post, other yogis suggest other difficult poses in order to progress wheel pose, such as reclined hero.  I decided to make big modifications and use props to help.  

The focus of this pose is wrist extension on blocks at the wall to open the forearms, elbow extension, and upper back extension.  I am pushing into the wall to provide some weight bearing into the hands, just like in wheel pose.  However, I can hold this position much longer than 2 seconds which will help to open the forearms muscles.

I love my therapeutic ball!  This is my version of reclined hero pose.  As the front of my thighs open, I can adjust the ball backward to sit a little deeper into the stretch.  I contract my gluts a little as I am trying to increase hip extension.  You can see the slight flexion of the hips and this is at the end of my range of motion.

Supported wheel on the ball.  I "hang out" in this pose almost every day.  My neck likes the support most of all.  Here, I can work on alignment of my hips (i.e. neutral rotation), engage the gluts and lower belly to take pressure off of my low back, create hip extension, and open in the chest and shoulders.

With any Big Goal, it helps to break it down into smaller parts.  This way I can feel a little progress and success each day.  Small achievements feel better and keep me motivated.

So how are you doing with your goal/s in 2017?  It is OK to readjust and look at the big goals in smaller segments.  Don't beat yourself up if you got off track.  Keep cheering yourself on and stay positive.

Namaste,

Stephanie

Source of Pain: Go Beyond Physical

What is happening just before you notice the sensation of pain?

I’m talking about the usual, familiar, probably daily pain in your neck, back, jaw, head or wherever it is for you.  You notice it on most days.  But what is happening just before you notice the pain.  Rewind your life just 30 seconds.  What were you thinking?  What did you read?  What was the conversation? Or most importantly, what were you feeling emotionally? 

We tend to blame pain on a physical incident, i.e. poor posture, moving wrong, effects of getting old.  But the more I do this work on myself and with others, I am beginning to believe that it goes BEYOND the physical.  When I ask the questions above to clients in interviews about pain, I get some blank stares, some slow head nods, and every once in a while I can see the light bulb turn on and shine bright.  It is the latter that excites me the most.  I know that this realization will begin to allow compassion and healing to occur.

So if you are in the blank stare or slow head nod category right now, let me help clarify the need to goBEYOND the physical.  I give you an example of own neck pain.  I thought I was getting a handle on it but it has really been bothering me for the last several months.  Here’s how it starts:

I feel a sting behind my eyes.  I hold back tears or even sometimes let them flow a little.  My jaw clenches.  I feel sadness and a heavy heart.  The base of my head and neck now hurt.  I am reminded of losing my Mom.  And it happens every day.

I can work through it 2 ways:

1.      Resist, Resist, and Hold Back the Tears.  Not in front of other people.  Not in front of the kids.  Raging headache and neck pain by the end of the day.

2.      Breathe, Breathe, Breathe.  Allow myself to feel the sadness.  Allow myself to cry.  Remember that the sadness is because she brought so much love and joy to my life and to my family.  Share a memory of my Mom with the kids or even with a stranger! Remind myself that these are expected emotions and that I am allowed to feel them.  As I really allow myself to feel the sadness then the neck pain diminishes a little.  Headache avoided.

So this is a big, glaring example.  But I had neck pain before this trauma.  The pain I had then was caused by little traumas like this or even more so “dramas” in my head.  Creating stories to keep myself from feeling.  Being tough and not allowing myself to feel fear, disappointment, guilt, etc.  I heard Brene Brown say on a Super Soul Sunday interview with Oprah, “the body keeps score, and it always wins”.   Every time I denied an emotion, i.e. stuffed it down, my body kept score.  And it lets me know it is winning with back pain and neck pain.

We cannot separate emotional from physical pain, especially when it is chronic.  But we can recognize and acknowledge the relationship.  My emotional pain is on the surface, but I’m sure I have some buried too.  I may need to dig deeper to find the source of other aches and pains.  It may not be easy, but I know it will be worth it.

Namaste,

Stephani

Tools to Help me Extend and Connect

I needed a plan to work toward my goals to Extend and Connect Every Day.

Body:

As I always do, I started with the physical. I have some ideas of my own for modifications of poses that will help me progress to wheel (backbend), but I like to see what the yoga community thinks so I googled "progressing wheel pose yoga" and got several hits.  Most offered step-by-step corrections to the full pose or other poses that are like wheel pose, such as: reclined hero, upward bow, and camel.  But my problem is that all these poses are too hard.  I can’t even begin to get into reclined hero!  I needed to really break down wheel and work on the components for each region of the body. I also needed body weight support so I got my tools ready:

• large therapeutic ball
• foam roller
• my usual props: bolster, blocks and strap
• yoga wall

I will be sharing how to use these props to "open up" into extension.  I’m excited to see how this will open me up to new realizations, new opportunities, and new possibilities. 

 Mind:

Tools:  Books and maybe Counseling

I am about mid-way through Brene Brown's book: Gifts of Imperfection and I hope to work through the other 2: Daring Greatly and Rising Strong.  I have loved her TED Talks on Empathy and Vulnerability.  Gifts of Imperfection seems to be on the right track as far as "opening up" as the title states it is "your guide to a wholehearted life". I believe that we assume a flexed posture not only because of our positions throughout the day, but because we are protecting our hearts. As we draw our shoulders inward and cave in our chest we close in around the heart. I am convinced that this is the physical manifestation of closing down rather than opening up. It is more risky to open up and live the life you are supposed to live. It is hard work to determine what that life is. It's easier to live how others expect.

As far as counseling, it has been a tough year with the loss of my Mom. As my son describes it: "my heart is empty". He has said this several times and at first I didn't get what he meant. But I think the loss has lead to having less emotional resiliency.  I am frequently on the edge of crying. I need strategies to think about and honor my Mom but also build up my emotional resiliency.

Spirit:

Tools: Meditation and More Books!

I ended 2016 reading You Are Here by Thich Naht Hahn, How to Meditate by Pema Chodren, and Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga by Deepak Chopra.  All of them contain good lessons on how to integrate the practices of meditation and yoga into daily life. These books make me want to go back to the New Testament and read more about the life and teachings of Jesus. I want to honor the religion of my upbringing while exploring other teachings of spirituality. I think the deficiency of my religious upbringing was understanding the difference between spirituality and religion.  So I will be reading more by these authors and could use recommendations.

If you have goals, you need a plan.  It doesn’t have to be rigid.  You can allow for tangents if your interest moves you in a different direction.  But I find getting organized around my plan is the best way to succeed.

Namaste,

Stephanie

Extension Lesson #1: Stand Up!

Since first reading the book Sitting Kills, Moving Heals by Joan Vernikos, retired NASA Scientist, I have been inspired to STAND UP!  From a postural perspective, sitting keeps our hips and knees in a flexed position.  For most of us, this also results in a backward tilted pelvis (posterior pelvic tilt) and a flexed low back.  When the low back flexes or rounds, the rest of the spine follows and we get the HUNCH with flexion through the upper back, rounded shoulders and forward head.  Manifestations of sustaining this position day after day can occur anywhere in the body, i.e. headaches, neck pain, back pain and (yes!) even foot pain.

Dr. Vernikos studied the physiologic effect of weightlessness in space.  To mimic these effects on earth, she studied the effects of bed rest.  She says that the next worse thing that we can do is sit for 8 hours a day!  Sedentary adults experience similar physiologic decline as astronauts in space and it affects every body system: cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, digestive, neurological, etc.  Even if you exercise the recommended amount (150 minutes moderate intensity or 75 minutes vigorous intensity each week), you will not fully overcome these deleterious effects over time.

But what if I told you that you did not need to exercise?  

Will this make you happy?

So what is the answer?  

STAND UP!  

And do so frequently throughout the day.  Even using the recommendations for Correct Sitting Posture won't help if you sustain that position for 8 hours.  It is not how long you sit in total each day, but how long you sit at each stretch.  Find any excuse to stand up from that chair.  When someone comes in your office to talk: stand up.  Place your water bottle across the room so that have to: stand up.  Drink lots of water during the day so that you have: stand up (and take a walk)!

Break up your morning, move during lunch, and break up your afternoon with what Dr. Vernikos calls G-Habits:  Frequent (all day long), Habitual, Non-Exercise, Movement. Along with standing up, you can also do things like:

• change your posture at your desk (try pelvic tilts in sitting or simply reach overhead)

• heel raises while sitting

• stand on one leg (try putting your socks on while standing)

• try a rocking chair instead of a recliner to watch TV

• walk tall (think book on the head or runway model)

• use the stairs

Back to Extension!  The position of standing puts your knees, hips, and low back into extension.  A great way to check your standing posture is to place your back against the wall.  With your heels slightly away from the wall, can you touch bottom, mid back, and head on the wall?  I see the most problem with getting the head on the wall while maintaining the chin in a neutral position.  You should be looking across the room rather than up at the ceiling.

This book inspired me to develop the workshop:  Work Day Yoga.  It consists of over 20 easy movements to do throughout the day.  My guess was that you would want to develop some healthy habits in the new year.  So here is the schedule:

• January 22 1-2:30 at Dublin Community Recreation Center

• January 29 1-3 at beYoga and Wellness in Upper Arlington

• March 5 4-5:30 at Balancing Owl Yoga in Dublin

(you can find links to these sites under the calendar on the Schedule page of my website)

Please comment if you do other activities throughout the day that keep you moving!  We could all use some good ideas.

Namaste,

Stephanie

Extend and Connect in 2017

My overarching goals of 2017 are to Extend and Connect in all aspects of my life: Body, Mind, and Spirit

Physical/Body:  Improve whole body extension (especially the hips and upper spine) and use wheel pose (i.e. backbend) as metric for success

As I watch students in my class attempt yoga poses that require extension range of motion, I see an epidemic in the loss of this motion.  It has happened because of a culture that promotes sitting and the flexed position.  I too feel the loss.  I wonder how it happened, but then look back at when I began to sit.  In 1995, I started a full time academic position and started working on my PhD.  So began the life of sitting which continued for 20 years.  Even now where my primary job is working as a yoga teacher, I find myself sitting in the car, still sitting at a computer, sitting on the floor during yoga classes, sitting, sitting, and more sitting.

Join me each week as I share how I am gradually increasing my ability to extend.

Mind: Extend my knowledge and articulate/express this knowledge to connect with others

As I posted late in last year, my gift is as a teacher.  I always loved teaching in Physical Therapy because it meant I got to keep learning.  And I love to learn, so this part will be easy.  But translating knowledge in a way that it really connects with others will be the challenge.  Sometimes you can be so full of knowledge (and full of yourself) that you miss whether your students are grasping the information.  For me, the joy is in seeing someone “get it”. That is, translating knowledge into true knowing.  Like the student that said she missed yoga in taking a week off due to an illness.  Her body “got it” and then her mind “got it”.  Only she can judge how this practice touches her spirit.

Hopefully I will see you in one of my classes in 2017 so I can connect with you.

Spirit: Talk openly about how yoga affects me spiritually in order to create spiritual connections.  

I have this goal simply because I believe that these are the most important connections we can have.  This will be uncomfortable for me because I like to keep this stuff to myself.  But I think it is important and will keep trying. 

Don’t be surprised if I touch on spiritual issues in class.  Thanks in advance for your support.

Namaste,

Stephanie

Reflecting on 2016

Thanks to Facebook memories, I was reminded that my goal for 2016 was to become more “aware” via a mindfulness/meditation practice.  I had come to mindfulness in 2015 and the practice got me through tough times at work.  I knew that I needed this practice moving into 2016 as I left the security of working in a medical institution and started my own business as Yoga Physical Therapist.

I can honestly say that I accomplished my goal of being more aware each and every day!

However, that did not make my new venture easy.  I think this business has actually been more work, but also extremely satisfying.  In January 2016, I didn't have a grand plan except to just get out and start. The mindfulness practice helped me to clearly define my goals, see and take the right opportunities, tap into my creativity, and mostly allow me to develop and promote my own knowledge and talents in order to use my gifts each and every day. 

The plan unfolded as I went along and paid very close attention.  I think that mindfulness is the primary skill I have developed.  Sometimes my awareness of a situation is still hindsight, so I need to get better at paying attention in the present moment in order to act as I truly want. But it is all a work in progress.

I think that is my biggest lesson:

This life is a journey and you must PRACTICE every day.

The journey is long and you need resiliency of body, mind and spirit. I realized in 2016 that my resiliency could be strengthened, but not in ways of being tough or deflecting or avoiding situations. My resiliency will gain strength by being kinder and gentler as I take on hardships wholeheartedly.

I have big goals for 2017.  I hope you’ll continue to join my on this journey.

Namaste,

Stephanie