“Should” you stretch more?
SPINE TIME recap 💥💥💥
Good afternoon, New Day! I hope you are making the most of your “short” day as we “spring forward”!
(I actually rather like “springing forward” because I see clients at New Day until 7PM or later on many nights. It still being light out at the end of the day makes all the difference for me! 🌅)
Last week I gave you my overdue blog about my experience at the Transformational Gate the weekend before. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already!
But what I ALSO didn’t have time to do in the midst of the trip to Colorado, coming back, and writing about the trip, was to give a recap of SPINE TIME– both for those who attended this class with me 3 weeks ago, and some takeaways to help those who did not attend.
And along with that I want to make it clear that some of you –many of you– really need and can benefit from more time and learning with me, so that you can be even more consistently experiencing the benefits of my care and growing and FLOURISHING within it 🌷🌷🌷
I am attempting to put more of these workshops and experiences with me on the calendar.
These are geared toward both toward more experienced practice members, as well as those of you who just want to go deeper (see below for my announcement about the next workshop on the schedule!) ☀️✨😍🌀🌍💗
The premise of the SPINE TIME workshop was to help participants create a habit and a ritual outside of New Day for energizing the nervous system and bringing movement and stretching into the spine.
Ideally, you are using these habits and rituals on a DAILY BASIS.
That’s right, just seeing me once a week, or however often you see me for care, is simply not going to be enough for flourishing. The experience of getting adjusted is meant to INSPIRE your week and help you move forward, not simply to make up for the bad stuff that’s happened 😂
Now, I am going to start off by telling you the NUMBER ONE thing that I hear from you practice members, and especially from new clients on their first visit with me.
The conversation goes something like this. You say to me, “Well I know that I have (shoulder pain/hip pain/tension/low energy/stress/etc), and it would probably be a lot better if I would just stretch more. But I don’t.”
And you sound kind of mopey and guilty as you say it! 😥
So let me ask you this, dear sunshine, as you are reading this message. Are you, even right now finding yourself thinking “If only I would just stretch more”?
I’m going to tell you why I want you to ERASE THAT THOUGHT (as well as the low energy state and physiology that goes along with it), and then I will tell you what I want you to replace it with 💥💥💥
First of all, there are actually very good reasons why many people do not want to stretch, or continually put it off even when they know it does help.
When you are constantly in stress, constantly in your head with your mind running a mile a minute, your physiology is in fight-or-flight. The experience of your fight-or-flight nervous system running your brain and body will convince you that you don’t have the time or energy to stretch. Every. Time.
Secondly, because of this pattern of being too “busy” to focus on feeling your own body and breath will create quite a backlog of tension and disconnection in your spine and body, stretching will feel awful when you try to do it.
Therefore, your experience of “trying” to stretch will likely be a negative one, which will cause you to go running headlong back to your laptop/phone/tv to avoid this experience again for as long as possible. Not a recipe for success.
“Stretching,” the way that you have likely experienced it as an energy poor or energy neutral “should” where you use mind over matter to take you away from important to-dos and are reminded that your body doesn’t feel good, is NOT going to help you very much.
SPINE TIME, in order for it to work, needs to be energy rich 💥✨💥✨
What do I mean by “energy rich?”
I saw the above meme on Facebook around the time of the Superbowl, and got a good laugh out of it! After all, this is my generation being referenced.
And even though many of us probably thought “Yeah” was a stupid and annoying song, this doesn’t change the fact that the moment we hear the song begin we are likely jump up excitedly and excitedly run to the dance floor (or engage in some kind of chair dancing!) 😂😂😂
Maybe for you it’s not “Yeah,” but it’s some other song that activates you to to move, breathe, and free up energy in your body.
This, my friends, is what I mean about “energy rich.” The hearing of the song instantenseously activates the person to go beyond their thinking mind. We need THAT for “stretching.”
And the phenomenon does not just apply to songs.
How many of you reading this, who have been seeing me for care for any stretch of time, find sometimes that you start feeling better just walking into New Day? ☀️☀️☀️
I haven’t even touched you, but you walk in the door and you smell the smells and see the sights and suddenly you are breathing, moving, and relaxing ✨
And maybe some of you can notice that you have the response just thinking of New Day and Network Spinal care? Or even just reading my words in this message?? ✨✨✨
That’s because the whole process of being in care with me at New Day is re-wiring your nervous system and body to have positive, energy-rich experiences more and more frequently and easily.
SPINE TIME, the workshop, was about helping you begin to extend that experience of re-wiring and energy-richness outside of New Day to your daily self-care habits and rituals.
I led the participants through a process where we used music (you can probably guess which song!), essential oils, breath, and focus so that you can stretch your spine and body in a way that is MUCH more likely to benefit you than the “I should stretch more” thought process and way of being 💥💥💥💥
It’s also more likely to benefit you because you will be more likely to ACTUALLY DO IT.
Does what I’m saying about needing to make SPINE TIME energy rich make sense to you?
Have those of you who came to the workshop been doing it? (Maybe you needed this message from me as your reminder!)
And I’m hoping even if you weren’t at SPINE TIME that you are taking something helpful away from my words on “shoulding” yourself about stretching! 😂😂😂
Thank you so much for reading, and I look forward to seeing you for your care with me this week 💖
And if you are agreeing with me that you probably could benefit from more time and experiences with me to help your care with me go further, please register for the upcoming Focused Breath workshop (scroll down for info!) 🌀🌀🌀
