Stop “shoulding” about stretching more
SPINE TIME is back!
Good morning, New Day! And happy “spring” 😂
As some of you know, this past Friday, March 21st was my birthday. So I have a clear recollection of what the weather is like every year at this time ❄️
And let me tell you, this weather is completely text-book for this time of year! I know better than to be disappointed! 😊
Lately I’ve been getting lots of questions from sunshines about stretching, and comments about “needing to stretch more” outside New Day 🧘♀️🧘♀️🧘♀️
It’s time for me to reiterate some points I made last year and to put the idea of “SPINE TIME” front and center for you again 💥
Having a regular, weekly appointment with me gives you a necessary dose of SPINE TIME, creating an interruption to the stress-based and all-too-habitual ways that we feel, function, and experience in our bodies.
But as you might be starting to guess, just seeing me once a week, or however often you see me for care, is simply not going to be enough for you to be flourishing in your nervous system, body, and life.
The experience of getting adjusted at New Day is meant to INSPIRE your week and help you move forward, not simply to help make up for the moments/days that you were disconnected and stressed 😂😱🙏
You are ideally doing some kind of habits and rituals for SPINE TIME on your own every day 😳
Now, before you get in your head (“but I don’t know what stretches to do, Dr. Katie!”) or go into a guilt spiral (WHY don’t I just stretch more?!”) I am going to tell you ERASE these initial energy poor thoughts and stay with me here 🙏
There are actually very good reasons why you don’t stretch more, or continually put it off, even when you know it helps you.
When you are frequently 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, stress hormones hitting the frontal cortex of your brain, will convince you that you don’t have the time or energy to stretch. Every. Single. Time. 😰
Compounding matters, 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 may very well feel awful when you do 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 🙈🙈🙈
This is not a recipe for success!
Therefore “stretching,” (in the way that you have likely experienced it in the past 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.
I would go so far as to say that I don’t recommend it!
Instead, let’s focus on creating an energy rich ritual that works quickly and feels good. Enter SPINE TIME💥✨💥✨
What do I mean by “energy rich?”
I’m sorry for the dated reference, but I saw the above meme on Facebook around the time of the Superbowl last year, and got a good laugh out of it!
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 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, stretch, and free up energy in your body (this is NOT time for quiet, Zen music)
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 the activity formerly known as “stretching.” 😊
We need to start fresh, and then condition your nervous system and body to respond, freeing up energy and getting your brain and body connected 🌱🌱
This general phenomenon does not just apply to songs, by the way.
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 🤩
Thank you, sunshines, for your participation and inspiration! You help me take better care of you with your engagement and questions ☀️
I look forward to seeing you today, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and SATURDAY 💥💥💥
PS if you’re not following me on Instagram, now would be a great time, since I will be sharing a video of me doing my own SPINE TIME later this week #activatedbyUsher ⬇️⬇️⬇️
