Feeling Tense or Shutdown? Try this!
The tone of your body & the tone of your life,
You know that feeling, when anger pulses through your veins, it hits and you want to fight back or run? Imagine watching someone in this state, their body suddenly gets very tense and rigid.
You're also familiar with shame and guilt - it comes on suddenly and you feel frozen, words won't form, and you can barely move. Imagine watching someone else go through this from a birds eye view, you may see this persons body slump, eyes glaze over, or look like they've "left the room."
Our bodies share a lot of subtle information about where we are at internally, we can call this body language. Vice versa, the biochemistry within our body responds to our change in state and creates a chemical cocktail that keeps it going, like a feedback loop.
The tone of your body and nervous system is like the radio frequency running through a stereo. If you can remember an old stereo, you'd recall the tuning wires on top, you would move them around to find a good connection.
The frequency is high & the connection is good in your body when you feel good, energized, and receptive. The frequency is lowered when you are stuck in the past, processing a heavy emotion, or in fight/flight or freeze.
News flash - we're not supposed to always feel good, it is natural and healthy to cycle through highs and lows, it is when we are stuck in a lowered frequency that we can find ourselves less happy overall, experience dis-ease, or unwanted symptoms.
Notice the state of your body right now: do you feel rigid and tense? Do you feel absent, disconnected, or slumped over?
It may be obvious when you feel angry or shutdown, but most people continue to carry this energy into their lives and this can really influence how you feel and function.
A slumped and shutdown body overtime creates a depressed state, low energy, and disconnection from the higher vibrational states like inspiration and joy.
A rigid and tense body overtime creates burnout & exhaustion, you'll feel like you have nothing left to give, and will therefore be drained of your energy and yet still wired to "keep going no matter what."
Next time you notice yourself tense or shutdown, try this!
Bring your spine into a tall neutral position, ears over shoulders (tuck your chin), shoulders over hips, hips over ankles. Bringing your gentle awareness to the backside of your body. If you feel rigid, you're going to soften or imagine the tissues melting down around your bones, your shoulder blades sink down along your back and your chest gently raises. If you feel slumped and shut down, create the same tall neutral state in your spine and imagine a gentle upward pull from the top of your head, your spine feels taller (your rib cage remains tucked in rather than flared out), it opens your chest, and for a boost add a smile to your face :)
Stay here for a few moments, & return here as often as you think about it. By doing this you are tuning yourself to the channel of calm and ease. Your nervous system is regulating into a place where healing and more bandwidth is available for life.
The tension and tone of your body mirrors the tension and tone of your life.
Let me know how you like this exercise!
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With love and gratitude,
Dr. Jessica