My body keeps score of what?

Your body remembers,
 

Ever get an overwhelming feeling that you need to reach out to someone? Or do you ever start to melt into relaxation when you smell a certain scent? It's as if your body is responding to something before you do!

This is very normal, and is actually happening most of the time whether you realize it or not.

Maybe you've heard the phrase "your body keeps score," but you didn't realize just how often your body is responding based on memory stored within your nervous system. 

Your body and nervous system are brilliant (I can't seem to say this enough)! 
Every experience (physical, mental, emotional) is an opportunity for your nervous system to process, adapt, grow, & evolve. 

Your nervous system can either process a life experience real time (think easy breezy biking to the library) and grow and evolve from it. Or if it's outside your bandwidth (think: a car cut you off while biking and you almost went down, and you found yourself pissed!) your body may not have the capacity to process it real time and will hold onto this information to process later. 

You'll form patterns of stored stress and neural networks based on experiences and whether or not you have processed them. Say hello to your bodies memory! 

An unprocessed experience, is remembered in the nervous system and can cause us to be tense or jaded in the future. (Ex. You don't want to ride your bike to the library anymore, or you do but you're pissed off at all the drivers around you regardless of who it is!).

Our body also creates neural networks when we process and grow and evolve from something. (Let's say after you got cut off on your bike you paused took a few deep breaths, and when you got home you did a meditation to move your emotions. Your body learned from this, you now choose to ride a new way to the library and always check your right shoulder. These new ways of riding, and checks become second nature, they become an automatic learning and your body naturally takes on less stress this way. When you do experience another close call, your body processes through any fear or anger much quicker this time.)

Neural networks are like autopilot programs that help us better respond to future stressors. Neural Integration is my favorite way to lay new neural networks, and meditations that help create more coherence in the nervous system.

For those that receive Neural Integration on my tables, your body is learning to re-process past experiences/stressors in a safe and calm environment. After our work you may experience an old trigger, or experience that would've been stressful but you watch yourself in awe as you brush it off and move along. 

Now, that's your bodies memory working for you!

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

New Year Reflections and Possibility!

"Optimal living is not about perfection...
 

... It’s being able to grow stronger from the events and challenges we experience everyday.”

When approaching the holiday season and the end of the year it's easy to get wrapped up in "busy-ness" or become critical, focusing only on what we need to do better. We can tend towards perfection, or just plain get overwhelmed.

When our focus is Perfection, life's circumstances look black and white, the world is skewed based upon our perceptual lens of past experiences. 

If instead, the goal is Integration, life looks full of possibility, we can learn and grow from our past experiences and change how we show up, as we become more whole, and feel more happiness.

Happiness is more than just an emotional state,
happiness is the feeling of progressing in your life,
and becoming more whole as a result. 

Our corner of the world heavily focuses on resolutions for the new year. 
Or "resolving mistakes from the past," but when I hear this, I believe we are missing a big piece of the puzzle, when we resolve something we are coming from a limited viewpoint of the past, what has already happened. In quantum physics we learn that the matter or material world, anything we see, is less than 1%. The other 99.9% of this universe is the energy and life force that animates you, the field where infinite possibilities exist. 
Therefore, we may be limiting our perceptual lens from seeing all that is possible if we only seek to resolve our past. 

In order to open yourself up to more of what is possible,
I invite you to spend time in reflection of the last year.

Set yourself up for success by carving out some time that is solely focused on this, be intentional and kind to yourself.
-You can have fun with it, light a candle, use a fun journal and pen, or sip your favorite warm beverage.
-Reflect on each category of life and ask yourself what is going well here and what needs work or improvement (example areas of life: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, quality of life, character, family, social, vocation, finances).
-Be honest, and don't forget to celebrate your wins, no matter how small.
-Reflect on big and small gratitudes for the last year. 

Once you have reflected and processed your year, you're in a more whole place, from here ask yourself:
If I were doing this reflection one year from now, what would the most amazing and empowering reflection of 2023 feel and look like for me?

Journal, or visualize in your mind in full detail. Forget "how" it's going to done and simply let yourself feel as if it's already here.
From this place of "it already being here," ask yourself:
-What would I do differently this year?
-Do I have a word, intention or phrase that sums it up and I can reflect back on over the year?
-Are there specific actions I would start or stop doing?
-Who must I become to live this year I just imagined? How does this version of me walk, talk, interact with the world around me?

I hope this process opens up more possibility for you, and know that you can revisit this any time of year and as often as you like. 

At Heart of Life, it’s our absolute pleasure to help you integrate your life’s experiences, stresses, challenges, and to reconnect you with the powerful intelligence within you, so that you may experience true happiness more fully.

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With love and gratitude, 
 Dr. Jessica

What is Tonal Chiropractic?

Part 2:

In part 1, we covered: what is tone? How does it influence health? What controls the tone of your biology?

Essentially, poor tone means poorer expression of health,

Our physical structure may show imbalances,

our body systems may experience dysfunction,

our mental/emotional state may be poor, etc. 

What changes the tone of your biology?

When our nervous system experiences what we perceive as stress, this changes the tone of our biology depending on whether we integrate that experience or not. 

For example, let's say you twisted your knee skiing. If with time and healing your body integrated that stress the next time you go skiing you will respond differently with learned movements, muscles and ligaments that will help prevent injury. A body that did not integrate this experience may hold tremendous fear even thinking about skiing and could even increase the likelihood of re-injuring themselves.

The body that has not integrated the experience holds tonal/tensional patterns keeping that person in the frequency of the experience. Our nervous system does not know the difference between the past, present or future and will run patterns of stress until they are integrated - kind of like an agitating noise in the background of your life continuing to influence your mind, body, and soul. This stress could be physical like the example, or it could be mental, emotional or chemical and as long as it remains unintegrated, it’s changing the tone of your body, the response of your nervous system and your overall expression of health. Unintegrated stress can show up in many ways, like overwhelm, anxiety, depression, aches/pains, PTSD, irritability, poor posture, and other symptoms. 

What is a tonal adjustment?

Gentle specific contacts into the areas where tone is not optimal, and patterns of tension are stored, stimulate the nervous system to reprocess and reintegrate that stress so that our system grows and moves beyond it.

As the body begins to rebalance tone and create homeostasis via the nervous system our body is able to better communicate. With proper communication our bodies are able to do what they are designed to do, which is heal, repair, regenerate and continuously evolve and express optimal health and lives.

When greater levels of homeostasis AKA balance are restored, symptoms often disappear as a side effect of a better tone in your biology. 

Our sessions are called Neural Integration sessions, which is just a fancy word describing that process above. 

Simply stated, an optimal life starts with optimal health, and it begins within!

Who does it help?

Many ages and stages of life can benefit from tonal chiropractic care. First of all, the sessions use gentle and energetic light touches that produce noticeable changes in tone in your biology, and are very friendly to most bodies.

We all experience stressors, from children all the way to grown adults. For example kids may experience birth trauma, falls, stress from school. Young adults may have a lot of personal and professional stressors to manage. Older adults have more life experience, and have most likely experienced more transitions, loss, sickness, etc along their life's journey. Anyone can be subject to stressors in their life, if they're showing symptoms or signs of imbalance they may benefit from an assessment of their tone and support processing the stress they've experienced. 

Sound like anyone you know?

We'd love to help. 

 Click Here to Schedule an Appointment 

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“True stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are in balance. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed.”

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With love and gratitude, 

 Dr. Jessica

What is Tonal Chiropractic?

Your body is a beautiful compilation of soft tissues
(fascia, connective tissues, organs, joints, ligaments),
muscles and boney tissues. Each of these tissues has a different tone;
for example, bones are far more dense than organs,
and your heart has a much different tone than your liver.

In order for your body to be in alignment and for your cells,
tissues and organs to do their job and adapt well to life’s experiences
(physical, mental, emotional, and/or chemical)
the tone of the body must be in optimal balance,
in cell biology we call this homeostasis.
In simple terms, health comes from the inside out!

Say you have an instrument in a musical band and it is in tune,
the sound is pleasant and your sound compliments
the other players in a band and the show can go on.
When your instrument is out of tune the sound is unpleasant
or undesirable, the show will stop
so you can figure out who is out of tune.  

Likewise when the tone of our biology is off,
what we feel, experience and express is undesirable and unpleasant. 
Our physical structure may show imbalances,
our body systems may experience dysfunction,
our mental/emotional state may be poor, etc. 
 

What controls the tone of my biology?  
 

The nervous system, the master control system of your body
is responsible for regulating, regenerating and healing all systems of your body,
and it produces an overall tone.
The bioenergetics of the nervous system is
housed within the brain and spinal cord and peripheral nerves
that send signals throughout the rest of the body.
Ultimately, your body cannot function at its optimum if
there is an imbalance in its overall tone;
this is because your body is not getting the proper
information to do its job via the nervous system. 

Part 1 of 2

I was going through the motions,

I believe sharing stories can be a powerful vehicle for healing.
The following is a personal share and story from me over the last couple of years,
"I love love love my boys AND early motherhood was a total shock to my system.

I felt like I was just going through the motions to get by and I was struggling to live my life in alignment with my values
(Prioritizing my vitality, my relationships, and my service to the world).

It was stepping back into my work that gave me a sense of purpose outside of the struggle, and it reconnected me to the simple principles of nourishing my body, mind, and soul that gave me back that SPARK for life.

It was a journey of many small simple steps, walks daily, hydrating my body appropriately, connecting with community, and practicing what I preach that brought me back into myself as a whole new, healed, and more embodied woman.

I have always believe that our struggles can be gifts, even if we cannot see them in the moment. I am now an even more firm believer that we are here to grow and evolve, to integrate our personal challenges. That these will become gifts that will help us become the person we truly want to be, and our gifts we have to share with others."

There is no easy button through early parenthood, or when you feel challenged in life… but there is support and practices that bring forth more calm, connection, and alignment over time. Lighten Your Load is a culmination of everything that brought me back to life and has helped my clients do the same.

If you have lost your spark or zest for life, or are going through the motions I hope you'll join us inside of Lighten Your Load.

Link is below with more info & early bird sale goes through next week only.
Please reach out to me if you are wondering if this course is right for you.

Learn more & Sign Up Here!

Only ONE week left to receive an Early Bird offer - these coupon codes will get you 25% off for the plan you choose:
4-Month Payment Plan: EARLYBIRD4
2-Month Payment Plan: EARLYBIRD2
1 Time Payment: EARLYBIRD

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“Each of us has a spark of life inside us, and our highest endeavor ought to be to set off the spark in one another.”

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With love and gratitude,
Dr. Jessica

Vitality Spotlight: Movement!

So much of our journey to optimal health is understand and speaking the language of our bodies. When it comes to movement, recall that we used to be hunters and gatherers, we used our bodies actively, often. Now, whether it's occupationally or recreationally we are more stagnant than ever.

Movement actually stimulates and provides nourishing information to the brain.
When we are not moving about our day tension patterns settle in; stagnancy is stressful to our bodies.

A Mind-Body Perspective: The next time you feel low energy, try opting for movement (jumping jacks, dancing to a favorite song, or a 15-minute power walk) before reaching for caffeine or a snack.
The next time you are doing a house activity, like cleaning, move intentionally. If you are low, get into a full squat to complete your task, if you are on your hands and knees, add several "cat cows" or "bird dogs."

You will most likely find that it is actually fun and energizing to start adding more movements into your every day!

When you feel blocked or limited...

"The only limits you have
are the one's you've created within your mind,"

How do you feel when you hear that?

I believe and want you to hear that you are truly limitless.
Feeling blocked or limited are not your final destination, in fact these feelings are a road map towards accessing more of your full potential.
This is not just a philosophical statement, but a biological one as well.
When you move through a change a limiting belief, you feel clear minded, fresh, inspired.
The same goes for your biology! When your tissues release tension from yesterday that "stuck" energy can be set into motion; energy can go to healing and repairing, to digestion, to creation, etc. When energy is released we become lighter, more vital,, more alive, and aligned.
It's been said that 80-90% of thoughts you're having today are the same ones you've had the day before, and for some even the decade before. Just like our minds, our tissues hold patterns, and layers to tension.
In order to access our limitless potential the goal is to create change.
Change allows the old patterns to unwire, and the space necessary to begin to rewire and refire new patterns that serve us more fully.

The time to let go of your limits and to access your limitless is now.
Let's change together.

Vitality Spotlight: Movement!

"The hope molecule" was first discovered in ultra marathon athletes. Proteins, called myokines AKA "the hope molecule," were found secreted into the blood stream by these endurance athletes; when studied they found incredible health benefits associated with the release of myokines.
They reduce inflammation, help the body burn fat as fuel, act as antidepressants, can shield against cognitive decline, increase motivation, and build resilience. The wonderful thing is that these proteins were found in everyday athletes when big muscle groups were activated, like our deep core muscles in a yoga class or our quadriceps when biking or running.
Scientists have termed these proteins "hope molecules" because of the incredible benefits they give to our bodies.

I hope this is a wonderful reminder of all that you are creating when you choose to move your body this week!

Vitality Focus: Movement!

A Mind-Body Perspective: This month we are going to entertain all the reasons why movement is so beneficial for the mind and body, and encourage a steady practice. Let's get moving!

This week, think of movement as essential to living life as eating,
or sleeping is.
You might make note of all the ways you move! What inspires you or what do you wish to be able to do through movement? How do you move in big ways (classes, long runs, gym, etc) and/or more subtle ways (house chores, with children, dancing, walking, etc)? What are the most fun ways to move your body?

Where you attention goes, energy flows! Use this observation practice to cultivate excitement and curiosity towards expanding your movement "vocabulary."