Fear gets stuck in your shoulders
Padma Spring #3
Fear gets stuck in the shoulders.
Think about it. With just a whiff of danger, your shoulders tense up towards your ears. Your breathing gets short and shallow. The chest breathing causes your shoulders to curl a little more. And then the cycle of creeping and crawling, tightening and restricting builds. (Unless you reset or until your nervous system gives the all clear)
In today's world "danger" is not what it used to be. Because stress = danger in the body. The news, an email, or traffic can flip the switch. Or a deadline, event or argument. And the body’s response is an ancient, innate protection mechanism.
The muscles that you feel tensing and elevating are the trapezius. They’re literally large and in charge. One of the first muscles to develop in utero, super-fast-twitch, super instinctive. Their engagement is to prime you to respond. Like swinging your arms to fight back, or pumping your arms to run faster, or curling into a tight little ball to hide or protect your organs.
The body’s response is powerful, primitive, and happening well below conscious thought. So it’s not about stopping it, but responding to it. Using the elevation and activation of the shoulders as a signal. To slow down, take a break, reset.
A reset will calm your shoulders, dissipate eye strain and neck pain, reduce the likelihood of headaches and migraines. It will improve your breathing, digestion and circulation. But it’s not just for your body. Also your nervous system and mind. The reset will get you out of churning thinking, ruminating and rehearsing, overwhelm and unsolvable-problem-realm.
The reset will open your chest, release tension in the back of your head and neck. Restore deep breathing and blood flow to your organs. It will open your vision, spark your creativity, and present new possibilities.
Sounds amazing, right? Why wouldn’t you do it? Because you get too far down the stress/danger pipeline and you can’t see it. The reset is most effective before it’s urgent. Like being thirsty. By the time it's a strong urge, you're already dehydrated.
Learn to see it, respond to it, and disrupt the cycle of stress and tension with the Upper Body Reset at Padma this Saturday. There will be new strategies for your upper body, plus a breath-based flow to imprint new alignment. All levels of practitioner are welcome (hint, hint: this is a good one for friends and family!) If you can’t make the workshop, classes will be sprinkled with upper body magic while I’m in residency. Schedule below.
If you’re not in the Bay Area, practice with us from home through the 20 Minute Miracles App:
In the free Intro Membership, you have the Shoulder Soother.
In Curated Collections, there is the Upper Body Reset series.
To learn about the trapezius muscle and your breathing, review the Basics of Breathing with Dr. Andy Sabatier.
To learn about your nervous system, listen to Polyvagal Theory meets Yoga Philosopy.
May your practice be a place where you reset, recover, and reclaim yourself,
Alison
