Want a Pain-Free Body? Eliminate These 5 Triggering Habits

https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1519911937006-b83ad483d860?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxNzY0MzN8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwzMHx8Y2hyb25pYyUyMHBhaW58ZW58MHx8fHwxNjc5NDA5NzAz&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&q=80&w=1080

*Originally published in [Change Your Mind Change Your Life](https://medium.com/change-your-mind)*


When you break your leg, avoiding certain movements is necessary…



You can’t put weight on it, meaning you’ll need crutches to get around. Without the ability to walk normally, most other physical activity is off the table for the weeks or months your doctor tells you it’ll take to heal. It’s a slow, painful process, but it’s necessary to heal this particular kind of acute injury.



Chronic pain is aches and pains that have persisted for more than three months, sometimes with an insidious or unknown cause, other times from an injury that hasn’t healed the way it was supposed to heal.



When you avoid certain movements, behaviors, or activities due to the fear of exacerbating chronic pain, **it can actually make it worse**.



*For 25 years, [back and neck pain](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28919118/) have been the leading cause of the disability burden for wealthy nations. Nearly [4 million](https://hpi.georgetown.edu/backpain/#:~:text=Back%20pain%20is%20a%20leading%20cause%20of%20work%20limitations&text=It%20is%20the%20leading%20cause,leading%20cause%20of%20work%20limitations.) adults in the US between ages 18 and 64 report having difficulties with work due to back pain, including their ability to remain employed.*



With chronic musculoskeletal pain, **avoidance behavior** is a common behavioral characteristic and a crucial component that leads to pain-related disability, fueled mostly by fear and catastrophic belief systems about their pain.



Here’s the thing with pain. If you believe it’s going to slow you down, it will. If you believe you can push through it, you’re also right. **Pain is a sign our bodies are trying to tell us something, not a symptom.**



Movement is crucial to keeping our bodies feeling good and staying healthy, and sometimes that pain comes as a sign that we’re not moving enough. Movement doesn’t have to be an elaborate gym routine that has you sweating buckets, it can be as simple as going on a walk or easy stretches.



Although a more commonplace problem is pain due to *lack* of movement, be careful here as the opposite can also be true. If you had an injury, say a sprained ankle, and you return to physical activity before it is fully healed, too much activity can hinder the healing process, leading to more pain and more residual issues from the injury down the road.


Running may cause knee soreness in some people, but that’s nothing compared to the aches, pains, and stiffness that can come from not moving at all.



Many people these days work at computers, staying in one position for much of the day. They head home, crash on the couch, pop on Netflix, and hang out till bedtime. It’s antithetical to an even remotely healthy lifestyle.



*Inactivity not only weakens muscles and contributes to unhealthy weight gain, but it can also worsen chronic pain. **Even a little bit of physical activity intertwined with your day can reduce inflammation, increase mobility, and decrease pain.***



When we don’t move, [we can develop](https://www.madisonmedicalassociates.com/posts/pain-prevention/how-a-sedentary-lifestyle-impacts-chronic-pain/#:~:text=Inactivity%20Worsens%20Chronic%20Pain&text=Inactivity%20leads%20to%20stiff%20muscles,reduce%20pain%20even%20without%20medications.) something called disuse syndrome, meaning if we don’t use our bodies, they will begin to deteriorate. Muscular atrophy is when your muscles shrink and harden from lack of use. Disuse syndrome also contributes to skeletal degeneration, and deterioration of the cardiovascular, endocrine, and nervous systems.



If you think you are a little achy now, you don’t want to know what living in a deteriorated body feels like.


“Why do my calves cramp?” I get asked by clients and friends alike when they are side-swiped by the mind-numbing, debilitating feeling of a charlie horse in the back of their leg.



Well, there are a few answers to that question, but the most common one is **dehydration**.



Dehydration reduces blood volume in your body, meaning your muscles aren’t being pumped full of the nutrient and water-dense blood they require to function.



*When your body is dehydrated, it reacts by retaining fluid in the organs that need them the most, such as your heart. Less vital organs, such as muscles, get less fluid, causing them to stiffen or cramp. Your digestive system even gets less fluid, which is why stomach cramps are another common side-effect of dehydration.*



**Your muscles and fascia are made up of about 76% water, meaning dehydration pulls a massive component from these systems.** When your muscles and fascia aren’t functioning properly, pain, stiffness, and immobility can result.



The amount of daily water intake recommended varies quite a bit, with many factors affecting the final number such as activity levels, elevation, dryness of the climate, etc., etc.



The best hydration advice I’ve ever received is “drink as much water as you need.” Learning to listen to your body will help you attune to when you need hydration and when you’ve had enough.



There’s also a lot of debate on [drinking warm water versus cold water](https://www.atipt.com/blog/water-cold-vs-room-temperature). The answer is neither here nor there. Cold water can help pre- and post-exercise and when you need to stay alert. Warm water helps with digestion and when you are sick. I advise drinking water as generally good life advice, so drink to your preference and stay hydrated.

[Bonus Read: Don't Let Calf Cramps Cramp Your Style: 4 Common Triggers for Charley Horses](https://www.atipt.com/blog/water-cold-vs-room-temperature)


Inflammation is your body’s natural defense response. When you break your leg (going back to my fracture example), the tissues surrounding that fracture will inflame to protect the area.



Inflammation itself can cause pain as the swollen tissues can press against nerve endings, signaling a message of “I’m uncomfortable” to the brain.



Eating a diet high in inflammatory foods can cause pain in the muscles, joints, and nerves as these foods will trigger inflammation anywhere in the body. If you suffer from chronic inflammatory conditions (fibromyalgia, arthritis, or autoimmune disorders), removing inflammatory foods from your diet may make the biggest difference in reducing or eliminating pain.



- Highly processed meats like hot dogs, bacon, lunch meats, and cured meats.
- Refined grains like white bread, pasta, and breakfast cereals.
- Processed snack foods.
- Refined cane sugar.
- Alcohol.
- Soda and other sweetened drinks.
- Caffeine.
- Fried foods.


5. Not thinking you can do anything about it


As I said before, whether or not you think you can do anything about your pain, ***you are right***.



People who are [less confident](https://www.iasp-pain.org/resources/fact-sheets/psychology-of-back-pain/) in doing things despite their pain or lack the confidence to manage their own pain are generally the ones that are more disabled by it.



When people are constantly seeking the next treatment, the next best health care practitioner, the Godsent healer of their dreams, or the next outside answer to solve their body pain, they are outsourcing their own ability to manage their own bodies. True healers give you the tools to heal yourself.

Don't Let Calf Cramps Cramp Your Style: 4 Common Triggers of Charley Horses

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You’re lying on your bed, checked out for the night when suddenly there’s a searing pain in the back of your lower leg. It involuntarily cramps and spasms, so you move your foot and leg around, or perhaps even get up to walk it off. It doesn’t feel like your typical bout of muscle soreness…



**Some call it a charley horse. Others call it hell.**



Clients bring this issue up in my office all the time. The issue seems to come in waves. Either the cramps happen frequently, or not at all. Sometimes, they’ve never experienced this before and seem slightly panic-stricken at just how bad they can be.



Muscle cramps happen for many reasons, and sometimes, those reasons are unknown. There are a few well-known reasons that charley horses occur, however, so if you struggle with them, you can start here.



Here are the most common reasons that these cattle-prodding-like calf cramps can happen, and what you can do about it.



**1. Too little magnesium, calcium, or potassium.**


Certain mineral deficiencies can also be at fault for leg cramps.



**One of the most common is magnesium deficiency.** [An estimated 2/3 of the American population](https://www.hindawi.com/journals/scientifica/2017/4179326/) is deficient in this essential mineral, which is involved in over 300 of the body’s biochemical processes, including muscle contractions.



Many people take magnesium supplements to help with muscle cramps, although the studies at this time are sparse. Anecdotally, it helps some people, and it’s safe to try.



If you have tried magnesium supplements only to end up with diarrhea, then you want to make sure you go for magnesium glycinate (not citrate).



*Side tip: If you are prone to muscle stiffness in the mornings, try taking magnesium in the evening before bed.*



Muscle cramps can also occur when [potassium is low](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/potassium-deficiency-symptoms#:~:text=Muscle%20cramps%20are%20sudden%2C%20uncontrolled,by%20leaving%20the%20muscle%20cells.) or [calcium is low](https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/7-signs-you-are-calcium-deficient-muscle-cramps-insomnia-and-more-1794893). Both of these minerals also assist with muscle contractions.



Calcium and magnesium are dependent upon each other for absorption and excretion, and magnesium helps transport both calcium and potassium across your cell membranes, so a balance of all three of these minerals is essential.



Foods that contain these minerals that can potentially provide quick relief include:



- Bananas
- Avocado
- Sweet potatoes
- Beans and lentils
- Melons


Our muscles are made up of approximately 76% water, so when we are losing more water than we are taking in, our bodies will reserve what’s left for our heart and lungs, and the “less important” organs, e.g. digestion and muscles, don’t get the hydration nor electrolytes they need.



**When our body lacks the water it needs to function, the effects can range from fatigue and dizziness to cramps in the muscles and stomach.**



Dehydration also decreases blood volume, which can cause muscle cramps and spasms when the blood flow is reduced.



Actually, one of the first tell-tale signs of dehydration is muscle cramps, so when my clients tell me they’re getting those searing charley horses, the first thing I ask about is hydration.



**3. Certain Medications and Their Side-Effects.**


Certain medications can cause side effects that affect the muscles.



The most [well-known cramp-causing medications](https://www.goodrx.com/drugs/side-effects/nighttime-leg-cramps) include:



- Certain cholesterol-lowering medications, like atorvastatin, simvastatin, or rosuvastatin.
- Potassium-sparing diuretics, like triamterene.
- Thiazide-like diuretics treat high blood pressure and anemia.
- Iron sucrose is an IV medication used to treat anemia.
- Conjugated estrogens, which are used to treat hot flashes, osteoporosis, and breast cancer and may cause nighttime leg cramps in around 14% of people who take them.
- Raloxifene, which is used to treat osteoporosis and complications from breast cancer and also may cause leg cramps in up to 12% of those taking it.


If muscle cramps are affecting you and you are on one of these medications, **talk to your doctor who prescribed it**.



**4. Wearing heels when you’re not used to it, and other weird muscle positions.**


Wearing heels is the primary thing that will cause me to get calf cramps, although I don’t really ever wear heels anymore.



**Holding a muscle in a certain position that it’s not used to for a prolonged period of time can cause the muscle to cramp.** When you wear heels, you are shortening the muscles of the back of your legs (the soleus and gastrocnemius) while extending the small, intricate muscles and fascia of the bottom of your foot, or the plantar surface.



Say you get dressed up to go to a bougie wedding and throw on those Manolo Blahniks that generally collect dust in the back of your closet. You don’t wear heels on the reg, so your feet and leg muscles aren’t used to the new center of gravity the lift creates. You walk and talk and dance the night away, perhaps a couple of adult beverages ease the blisters that form on your toes.



You get home, take off those heels, and *streeetchhhh* goes the backs of your legs. You take a few laps to get used to having a foot flat against the ground again, but as you lie down for the night, the charley horses begin.



**Holding a muscle in an awkward position for a long period of time can potentially cause cramps whether it be from wearing heels or working with your hands above your head.**


There are many things that can cause leg cramps and charley horses, so many that it may be a hard thing, even for healthcare practitioners, to pin down.



Other known causes may include putting too much strain on your muscles during exercise, especially in hot or humid weather, pregnancy, nerve compression, and liver disease from too much alcohol. I’ve even had women tell me they know when their periods are coming because their calves will begin to cramp.



Sometimes, the cause may be completely unknown.



But don’t fret. Muscle cramps, even those searingly painful charley horses, are pretty common, and often the fix is as simple as eating a banana or checking in with your hydration levels. If it’s due to a medication or the problem persists, check in with your healthcare provider.



You can even grab a bottle of water and a banana for the ride over, just to be prepared.

The Best Neck and Shoulder Pain Relief Tip

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*Originally published in [In Fitness and In Health](https://medium.com/in-fitness-and-in-health)*

***“I carry my stress in my neck and shoulders,” says everybody coming into my office.***



I practice neuromuscular therapy, a massage technique aimed at unwinding tense and damaged muscles to relieve muscle and nervous system problems, such as poor circulation, bad posture, nerve compression, or issues from old, new, or recurring injuries.



It feels like everybody and their mothers have issues with their neck and shoulders. Some of it can be attributed to working at desks, posture slowly sliding forward into the computer screen as one’s spine becomes more of an angry croissant than the graceful S indicative of healthy posture.



More often, I see it comes from stress.



In Greek mythology, Atlas was condemned by Zeus to hold up the earth and sky after the Titanomachy war. Artwork of the Greek god depicts the muscular man carrying the earth on his upper back, balanced between his shoulder blades and beneath a flexed cervical spine.



*Ouch*, he is literally carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.



**But why are you carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders?**



Zeus didn’t condemn you to hold up earth and sky for all eternity, yet the stress of the world, society, and all of its cyclical problems end up balled within the muscle fibers of your upper back and neck, just like the weight Atlas was sentenced to bear.


Neck and shoulder tension is a very common symptom of stress and anxiety, as it is part of your body’s **fight-or-flight-or-faint** response to a perceived threat in your environment.



When you’re facing a threat, your heart rate increases, your muscles tense, and your blood rush to your limbs in preparation for the impending fight.



While this may be very helpful if you’re facing an angry mama bear in the woods protecting her cubs, this isn’t exactly helpful when you’re dealing with toxic co-workers or an irritated boss.



You may not need your fists to deal with them, but your muscles still want to react somehow, so you hurt yourself instead, even if it is only subconsciously.



**“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.” Buddha**



Your muscles may relax once the perceived threat has passed, however, if your stress is ongoing or chronic, this may not happen. So you’re stuck carrying around your physical response to a stressful event indefinitely, like Atlas and his heavy-looking globe.



**If your stress is chronic, it's hard for your muscles to relax.** I’ve felt muscles in clients’ necks, shoulders, and upper backs that feel like they’re literally holding a weight. That tension doesn’t go anywhere as they proverbially hang on to the weight of the world. It takes a while to get that muscle to let go, let alone work out the little trigger points (or “knots”) that cause pain.



**How to put down the weight of the world.**


If it’s stress that's causing your upper back and neck to feel tight and painful, a massage may feel great, but you’ve also got to manage the stress to make the effects last. (Although massage itself is a good stress reliever).



Stress is a part of life. Some stress is good, as it’s how our bodies get our attention when something is wrong. But when that stress isn’t managed and becomes chronic, then you’ve got a real problem.


You can google “best stress management techniques” and come up with a laundry list of ideas.



**The best stress management technique is going to be what is best for you.**



For me, it’s yoga. Something about mindfully moving my body into contorted positions and sitting with a bit of discomfort is stress relieving, and considering 300 million people worldwide do yoga, there is something to it.



But if yoga isn’t your jam, then it may cause more stress than relieve it. Exercise, however, in whatever form you love, is a fantastic stress reliever.



**“Exercise releases endorphins, endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands.” Elle Woods.**



For real though, exercise pumps up the release of **your body’s feel-good neurotransmitters, endorphins.**



Exercise also can help reduce the pain and tension that have built up from stress. When you don’t move your muscles, tension can build. Many of the body’s problems can be traced back to a sedentary lifestyle. If you’re feeling particularly stiff and painful, getting a bit of exercise in can return blood flow to those stiff areas, strengthen weakened areas, increase flexibility, and thus, reduce pain.



Exercise is grounding. It’s meditation in motion. It brings you home to your body. When you are moving and working up a sweat, it’s hard for your mind to be elsewhere besides in the present moment.


Meditation is another well-known stress reliever. Research shows meditation is an effective stress-management tool and can reduce symptoms of anxiety.



If sitting still isn’t for you, there are so many types of meditation out there. Movement-based meditations focus on moving your body while being aware of those movements and how they feel in your body. Yoga, technically, is meditation in movement. As well as, like I said before, exercise.



If it’s hard to focus your mind in stillness, guided meditations can give you something to focus on. There are several popular apps out there, like Headspace and Calm. You can also find tons of guided meditations on YouTube and Gaia.


Making time for hobbies that you love is also a fantastic way to relieve stress.



Creative acts have a calming effect on the brain and body. The Theory of Cognition suggests that creativity is a basis for human life. We are, ourselves, a creation, and therefore we are meant to be creative.



Creativity, such as playing music, creating artwork, writing, painting, sculpting, sewing, crocheting, doodling, gardening, or whatever floats your boat, has been linked to increased happiness, improved mental health, increased immunity, decreased dementia, and, you named it, less stress.



If you think you carry your tension in your neck and shoulders, you aren’t alone. As Atlas carried the weight of the world on his shoulders, many people have followed suit, carrying around a proverbial world of problems on the back of their necks.



The world may have it’s issues, but you don’t have to carry it with you every day. Put down that tension, find ways to manage your stress, and you may just be surprised how much tension is lifted out of your muscles.



How Myofascial Release Can Reduce Pain and Discomfort During Menstruation

https://app.revivified.co/images/img1655829327055-copy.jpg

As a bodyworker, I’ve always known about myofascial release. I learned the basics of how to affect fascia when I was in massage school. Years later, had many wonderful sessions of Rolfing done where I learned how deep fascia work can run, and I’m not talking about just into your muscles.

*(You can read about my Rolfing experience [here!](https://www.revivified.co/articles/rolfing-massage))*



A few weeks back, my husband, a friend, and I headed to rural southern Minnesota for a music festival. I’d bought the tickets when there was still a blanket of snow covering the frozen tundra outside and was eagerly awaiting the long weekend under the magical oaks of Harmony Park with one of my favorite bands of all time.



**The day before we left, a monthly subscription from mother nature arrived. *Great*...**



I brought more than enough to prepare, telling myself a portapotty in the dark wasn’t going to be an *ideal* situation but I’d handle it like a pro. It certainly wasn’t worth missing out. The subscription had been knocking at my proverbial door for over twenty years and I knew it had come at more inconvenient times in the past (like my wedding day, for example).



The first day out there was supposed to be the worst, but I was mentally prepared, or so I thought.



I realized, a few hours in, that it wasn’t as heavy as it should have been. Actually, it barely seemed to be there at all when it was supposed to last another four days. I’m typically very regular and my period is extremely predictable, so this was peculiar to say the least. 



On the first night of music, I felt a bit lethargic. My lower back was tight feeling and it was hard to dance. But there was four days total, and festivals are marathons, not sprints, so I hung out and watched the music and saved my dancing feet for the following nights.



Overnight, the bleeding almost entirely stopped. Oh, how many times when I was young did I wish my period would just go away like this? As a body-aware 33-year-old, the odd symptom bothered me more than anything. 



On night two during my favorite band's set (who was headlining 3 nights in a row anyway), I could barely dance. The tension in my lower back had intensified, and my neck now felt kinked as well from sharing a one-person cot with my husband and sleeping in an awkward position while the echoes of festival life continued till sunrise.



I tried to dance, but my proprioception was off. I kept bumping into people around me, something I can usually gracefully avoid dancing in crowds. Dancing exacerbated the lower back pain, so I stuck to keeping my feet still and bouncing with the tunes from the ankles up. The music was still magical, as always, so I did my best to get out of my head and enjoy the moment.



Late that night after the music had subsided, my husband and I headed out to “the point,” with our new friend Derrick, a myofascial release therapist we’d met on day one... 



This particular festival ground sits on the edge of a big lake, and within the grounds is a tree-covered peninsula that juts off the campgrounds into the water. People wander out there to hang out in the shade under the trees, dip their feet in the lake's cool waters and feel connected with nature in this small, meditative oasis just beyond the edges of vibrant festival life. 

Being in a rural area, light pollution was low and the new moon made the stars explode over a dark sky. We walked out to a clearing in the trees to observe the constellations. The moment was nothing short of magical…*except for the mind-numbing cramps that accompanied it.*



I sometimes get cramps, but never anything this debilitating. My guts felt like they were eating themselves. I stood in the dark with two guys, telling myself “it’s just cramps, I’m not dying,” as my tailbone tucked under and spine rounded forward to caress my aching guts, hoping the awkward posture would relieve the pain even just a little. 



We watched the big dipper pour into the little dipper, the great bear Ursa Major frolicking across the Milky Way, all while looking for glimpses of anomalies floating in the speckled darkness to hypothesize about what they may be…



I didn’t want the cramps to ruin the moment, so I grit my teeth and endured it, distracting myself with peaceful waters and the night sky.



The next day, Derrick and I agreed to trade bodywork. I’d never had that particular kind of myofascial release done and was curious about the approach.



**A little background for you, first.** 

[Derrick Lundberg](http://www.derricklundberg.com) and I met on day one of this festival when he and his friend stopped at our campsite to introduce themselves. We got into a conversation about Traditional Chinese Medicine and being the wellness-nerd I am, his expertise intrigued me. Not long later, I found out he was a bodyworker currently working at the exact same yoga and healing center where I am completing my RYT-200 training. It was certainly one of those small world moments that seem to be a common occurrence at music festivals.



We set up a cot as a pseudo-massage table under the canopy of the ancient oaks, and he did an intake which involved feeling out where contortions were in my fascial system that was bringing me out of balance. I’d told him about the kinks in my neck from our awkward sleeping positions.



“Do you have lower back stuff going on?” he inquired.



“Only because it’s that time of the month,” I replied. “But not usually. They are worse than usual today.” I thought back to how much pain I was in at the point that I mentally swallowed so I could enjoy the stars.



“Ah ha,” he said, “That makes sense.”



Derrick began the unwinding process at my neck as I lay on my back, gazing at the fluffy midwestern-style clouds and late-spring green leaves. The wind blew that day, rustling the branches above me, and I drifted off to another planet.



Each position was held for 3-5 minutes, and I’d feel myself begin to unwind, first at the head and neck, then around the shoulders (which are *always* tight because of my work). He got to the ribcage and abdominal area and noticed the direct arterial connection between the left kidney and the reproductive organs seemed to have blood stagnation that was evident in how my fascia felt. Using MFR techniques, he was able to release restrictions in that area, allowing the artery to stretch, reigniting my lost circulation.



I didn’t even need to tell him about my obscurely stopped period for him to feel it within my fascia around my kidneys and uterus. 



As he worked that kidney route, I felt a release, and pressure seemed to be lifted both from my lower back and around my midsection. 



He worked down to my feet, now dirty and wookie-like from 2 days at a festival, and with each release, I could feel my consciousness floating into a deep meditative state. There was no more separation between me and the treetops and the clouds. 



As he finished, I felt high on something. I stood up and my body felt light and limber, the restrictions in the lower back and neck vanished, and breath filled my lungs a little bit easier. What a difference the slow-paced, light-pressured bodywork made, a far cry from the deep-pressured therapeutic work I usually get.



Over the course of the next few hours, that subscription from mother nature returned, flushing out what it’d been holding in the last day and a half. Thank goodness I came very prepared.



That night, as my favorite band reclaimed the stage for night two, I danced like I haven’t danced since the pre-pandemic festival days. The music took over my body, its healing energy infiltrating the cells of my fascia and filling me from head to toe. I danced wildly, light on my feet, not running into anybody around me this time. I smiled, I laughed, and an enormous amount of energy flowed through me, through every soul in the crowd, and into the starry sky above and the sacred earth below. I heard some of my favorite songs play back to me for the first time in so many years, and my body, mind, and soul evaporated into pure bliss. This was what being alive is all about.



**Our bodies are vessels for divine energy, and it just took a little release of the connective tissue to begin to re-experience that.**



I excitedly told Derrick the next day about how good dancing felt the night before, still not sure if I could exactly put the euphoric experience into words. He seemed delighted yet unsurprised. **Of course, this technique is magical.**



It took only a few days after the festival for me to sign up for the seminars that teach this particular approach. They come through my home state every few years or so, and this happens to be one of those years. I’m not sure if meeting Derrick and this trade happened coincidentally, or if I was somehow being guided to this seminar. It’s not until November and we’re still in the beginning stages of summer as I write this, so I’ve got aways to go before I find out.



I do know one thing for sure though: Fascia work is a game-changer.


Myofascial Release and Mensural Cramps

A Hack to Healing: Start Living In Your Body

**Originally published in [Change Your Mind](https://medium.com/change-your-mind)**

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In my years as a massage therapist, there is a consistent theme I notice among clients: **People tend to live in their heads, not in their bodies.**



This lesson became more apparent to me over time as I realized I, too, lived in my head. I tore my body up as a young 20-something ski bum, working on the mountain by day and bartending at night, partying like a rockstar, and never sleeping on a consistent schedule. (I’m sure the regular 3 am mac-and-cheese didn’t really help, either.)



But, I barreled through, because it’s what I “had to do.”



When I started massage school, I realized just how torn to shreds my body was...



I had scar tissue built up in my quads. I’d had one knee surgery, and the fascia on that side of my knee and hip was in bunches. My back was weak and my pectoralis muscles and hip flexors were tight as heck. The knee surgery probably happened because of muscle imbalances that I wasn’t even aware of. *I didn’t even know I’d torn my meniscus until months after the fact…*



It was an essential point in human evolution when we really started to use our brains.



*It helped fuel philosophy and art and the industrial revolution. We measured and analyzed the world. We innovated. Technological advances exploded.*



We’ve evolved far faster in the last hundred years than we had in the thousands before that. We did that all with the natural supercomputers that live in our heads called our brains.



But throughout that evolution, we ended up *living* in our heads while abandoning our bodies. It didn’t help that some religious practices through time preached the evils of the body.



**Today, we work ourselves passed the points that our bodies tell us to stop. We take on stress and repress it to achieve just a little bit more. We stay up into the night working on projects that need to be just right, even when all the hormones in our bodies are telling us that it’s time for sleep. We betray our health and wellbeing because our ego-driven minds tell us it’s what we need to do, and our bodies suffer the consequences.**



We aren’t connected with our own bodies anymore. An ache or a pain comes up, and we have no idea. A little turquoise pill will make it go away, for now. We go to work out and can’t comprehend where our limbs are in space and time as we do more than we are ready for because the ego says to just do it. Everything falls out of alignment.



**When you learn to live in your body, it’s a game-changer.**



You *can* learn your limits, and just how much farther you can go to build that strength.



Something hurts, and you know what caused it as well as what can fix it.



You get a stomach ache, and you don’t need to run to a medical professional every single time to find out what it is. **Subsequently, you know when something is actually in need of a medical professional’s attention**.



You grow stronger. Your flexibility increases. Your awareness grows. You begin to feel better, physically and mentally. You begin to love your body more, and your body begins to love you back.



It doesn’t take away from our capacities to use our brains. We still have those supercomputers in our heads that can help us navigate the world and evolve to better it.



When our bodies are in great shape, our mind reaps the benefits, as well.



We can live both in our heads *and* our bodies.



**How to reconnect your body and mind.**


There are two methods I use and preach to reconnect body and mind: **Meditation and movement**.


Close your eyes, quiet your mind. Begin to bring awareness to the sensations in your physical body. Don’t judge them. If something hurts, just send your awareness there without labeling it. See what comes up.



*Try a body/mind exercise program like yoga or Pilates.*



Yoga and pilates are great because they connect breath, body, and mind. You focus on doing the poses or exercises in perfect alignment, bringing awareness to all the different parts of your body that are working. A bridge pose isn’t just about your butt and hamstrings, but where your neck is in alignment with your shoulders and spine and the rest of you.



Our bodies were built to move, not sit around day in and day out. When we don’t move, our circulatory system actually causes blood to stagnate in our legs, not pumping it back up to the heart with as much vigor as it needs. **The systems of our bodies actually rely on movement in order to function properly.**



Movement doesn’t have to be a fancy dynamic workout in the gym. Go on a walk, ride your bike, swim, stretch, shake it all out. Go out dancing. Park in the back of the parking lot and up that [non-exercise activity thermogenesis](https://www.revivified.co/articles/non-exercise-activity-thermogenesis-examples) factor.



Both your body and your mind will thank you.



How To Start Living In Your Body

Inre: “They’re more than inanimate objects, but deeply intelligent microscopic balls of wisdom that are always just living in the moment (cells are always in the now).”

Everything that lives, lives in the now, and the then and the after. Including cells. 

Like humans that prepare in advance for food shortages or even just groceries for the week ahead, things that live also “plan” or store-up for the future or immediate future. (Do squirrels store nuts? Sure they do! Are they “unmindful?” I think they are exactly mindful enough: watch them play.) 

Just so, cells “plan ahead” consistently storing up, or constantly gathering raw materials and producing, a bit more than they need “right now” within their membranes. So, are cells “living in the now” or are they “storing for the future?” Are they producing for only this moment, or for the next and the next? 

Also it is well known that what happened in the past causes at least some cells to cause production of some things that will protect in the future. Certainly T and B cells do, otherwise we would have no antibodies.  It is likely that other cells may also have this ability. How do cells(mitochondrion and DNA) produce the repair-factors needed to make repairs, unless there is a “memory” of what “normal” should be/was in the past? (One cannot repair something with no knowledge of what is wrong and why.) 

So, are those cells living in ONLY the now? Or are they “remembering/evaluating past events to prepare for future ones?” 

“Now” is a moment. “Back-then/now/later-on” or past-present-future, is a CONSTANT continuum. 

For example: By the time I completed that first sentence in the above last paragraph, “now” was already “then” and we are currently looking back at it from what was “later-on” at the time it was written. I hope that makes sense. 

Cells live not only “in the now” but with past and future “in mind.” And their actions demonstrate this. Otherwise each cell would live only one moment and die with no replication, no future. And thus would we all. 

I do understand the “mindfulness” idea. Some people are so mentally preoccupied with the past and/or future that they fail to appreciate/relax/breathe in the moment. Each moment. But a philosophical/spiritual idea is not entirely applicable to an actual active cell. 

Philosophical question: As my neurons fire, stretch, retrieve, produce, send…so that I might attempt to reason and explain to you, and yours do the same to understand me….are they laughing at us? 😄



https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1631048005738-ebeefaf19c7d?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=MnwxNzY0MzN8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw0Nnx8Y2VsbHN8ZW58MHx8fHwxNjUzNDI2Nzg2&ixlib=rb-1.2.1&q=80&w=1080



Biological science traditionally looks at cells as inanimate objects, like rocks or your dirty shoes sitting by the front door. 

Modern medicine was propelled forward when cadavers were able to be studied; it brought us a great understanding of the mechanics of the human body, however, the drawback was that there was no *life* to it. By the time a cadaver is studied, life has left. Consciousness played no role, so it was generally accepted that the brain somehow created a consciousness that then died off when the body died.




When you take a closer look at cells, they have a few key characteristics that challenge this paradigm...
- Cells can recognize danger.
- Cells can communicate with one another.
- Cells can translate information into action.
- Cells produce energy.




These few characteristics give evidence of intelligence. When a cell receives a signal and is able to respond, that is certainly a lot more than a rock or your shoe is able to do.



The cytoskeleton is the structure that maintains the shape and internal organization of a cell and helps it carry out functions like division and movement. **It’s sort of like the connective tissue or fascia of your cells.** 



The cytoskeleton also responds to information that the outside receptors get. It used to be seen as just a useless “jelly” substance, but modern scientists are realizing that the cytoskeleton is so much more important than that.



One component of the cytoskeleton is called the [microtubules](https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/microtubules-and-filaments-14052932/), which are a type of filament made up of a protein called **actin**. In muscle cells, actin plays a huge role in making your muscles move.




Some scientists actually believe that [consciousness can be found in the microtubules of cells.](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140116085105.htm#:~:text=A%20review%20and%20update%20of,theory%2C%20according%20to%20review%20authors.) This theory was corroborated by the discovery that quantum vibrations were found in the microtubules of brain neurons. (Procedures like anesthesia freeze the microtubules, which appear to mute consciousness).




While these studies have looked mostly at brain neurons, researchers like Dr. Sondra Barrett Ph.D. teach us that microtubules exist in *all* cells. If cells show characteristics of intelligence and contain microtubules, *perhaps consciousness exists in every cell in the body*. 



Dr. Barrett explains that the cytoskeleton is like the connective tissue of the cell. It changes shape and tension and has three physical states: **Stretch, attach,** and **let go.**



(When I was in massage school, my wise teacher once said, “muscles are real dumb, all they do is expand, contract, and freak out"). 



*When cells let go of attachment, they express themselves differently.*

**Epigenetics** is the idea that if genetics loads the gun, our lifestyle pulls the trigger, so to speak. Genetics isn’t a sentence to how our health is going to play out. Genes might make us more susceptible to certain things, but it’s the environments we live in, the choices we make through life, how we take care of ourselves, and how we manage our thoughts that determine if that gene will be expressed or not. 



*“Most major chronic diseases probably result from the accumulation of environmental factors over time in genetically susceptible persons.” - Williams, R.D., New England Journal of Medicine*


**Our cells respond to our state of being. If we are stressed, our cells can stay in the attached state, and if we are relaxed, our cells let go as well.**

https://app.revivified.co/images/i-believe-our.png


Body postures can change both the mind and the brain. Exercises like yoga, tai chi, stretching, and walking make a difference in how you feel. 



Posture is a much easier thing to change than stress levels, but changing your posture has been shown to affect how you handle stress. 

**This is because mechanical responses are faster than hormonal or molecular responses.** Because body and mind are so intrinsically connected, starting with simple changes in the body can have subsequent positive effects on the mind. 

Working on changing your posture, such as mindfully sitting up straighter, strengthening your back, and stretching your pectoralis muscles can eventually affect how you handle stress and even as far as how depression affects you.

[***Bonus read: The Link Between Your Hips and Emotions***
](https://www.revivified.co/articles/the-link-between-your-hips-and-emotions)


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