Muscle Tension is a Good Thing

Many of us do a dance between straining our muscles to work and then relaxing them completely. We think, if I didn’t have so much tension in my neck and shoulder, or lower back, then I would feel better. That is probably true, but no tension is not good either. It can be just as responsible for chronic aches and pains in the body as those areas that are stiff all the time. Its probably more the areas of your body you don’t feel, that are controlling what you do feel.

Discover your Body Dialogue to improve muscle tension?

In my last Blog, Beyond Relax, Release and Let Go, I was leading us to what I call the Body Dialogue. When we think “too tight” or “relax” we really only give our muscle tension two options. They are each on different ends of the spectrum. Tension at a 10, very high, or then down to a 1, very low. Its all the levels of tension in between that allow your nervous system, the part of your brain that controls movement, to coordinate you to move freely without pain. Give your nervous system a “sense” of feeling new parts of your body. The more parts of your body you move the easier it is to move without strain. Our Body Dialogue can help with that. Think of it this way, if you move a piano, isn’t it easier if 5 people are helping, than if you are alone?

There is always a communication, or what I call Body Dialogue, happening moment to moment between our body and brain. Our physical feelings are always directing us, and we are always directing our physical feelings. This is not something we are meant to focus on. It’s like blinking, or the way a cut heals. You don’t focus on it. When it comes to moving our bodies, and healing, there is an underlying “training” that has been going on in all our lives directing how we move. The Body Dialogue asks you to simply notice what you feel.

Don’t Fix it, Feel It!

Some might say “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” , but however you want to describe it, we have been adapting to ways of moving throughout our lifetimes. When we do the Method, we begin to acknowledge that Dialogue and that gives the brain/body connection choices it can use to “do it different”. Its really that simple. Its not fixing, as most of us are taught, its feeling.

With The Miracle Ball Method, the “new” feelings that you experience will allow your body to make those adjustments I talked about in Beyond Relax Release and Let GO. These adjustments are not arbitrary, the body knows where balance and alignment are. But if we stay “stuck” in the unconscious Body Dialogue, then we never really free ourselves into the possibilities our body holds.

What if you already do breathing techniques when you exercise or meditate, is that the same?

I believe exercise , meditation, breathing exercises are all good, especially while you are doing them. But that unconscious Body Dialogue, will return if we don’t change it. I am not talking about fixing your breathing but becoming more intimately connected to your breathing. You don’t have to make it stronger, just notice how you breathe from time to time. Since you are breathing all the time, you can do it anywhere, and it only takes a few seconds.

You might be surprised muscles are very integral to breathing as well. If we don’t acknowledge the way we breathe, and the muscles involved, you will still be controlled by the man behind the curtain.

There are only two options, you either hang on to the old, or you begin to feel what the body can do. The result is a completely different experience. this makes moving easier, exercise more effective, and allows you to feel more at ease in your everyday life.