The Flip Side of Release, Relax, and Let Go

Miracle Ball Method: Relieve your Pain, Reduce your Stress, Reshape your Body.

Yesterday I was teaching a gentleman who is very high energy, and at the end of class he said, “I feel so relaxed”, Whenever I teach a class, there is a common response people have from “letting go”. Those are their words. I hear them often. I avoid those words when I teach. I want you to build a vocabulary of physical feelings.

I remind people, once the body stops holding it doesn’t end there. It shifts to the right places. These new experiences take the pressure off the lower back, improve your posture, and help you to freely move. When you get off the floor, or stand up, just notice what you feel. Take a walk, do your favorite stretches, is it different? Yes, relaxing is pleasurable, but there is a flip side.

If you can acknowledge what that is, then you can use it to move freely without the aches and pains so many of us live with. That is the flip side. Your body doesn’t just relax, it adjusts to balance and alignment. It’s always trying to go there; we keep in stuck even when we exercise. If you just simply let go, then you return to the habits of movement you are familiar with. Unknowingly your body returns to how you have trained it.

Last week I wrote about when exercise doesn’t work. I don’t want to imply that exercise is not good for our body. But, if exercise did all we wanted, then there would be one exercise for low back pain, one exercise for carpal tunnel, here’s the exercise for strong abs and better posture. And that would work for everyone. But that is not the case.

We feel good while we exercise and then the low back stiffens or the knee pain returns. Some of us think we must be doing something wrong. Why does that person seem to get what they want, and I don’t? The missing link is exercise doesn’t change your body it’s the feeling of exercise. Its letting your body give you feedback, and make adjustments because you know your “instrument”. No guitarist would walk on stage and begin to play an out of tune guitar. But we do that with our bodies all the time.

The Good news is there is a flip side to Relaxing and Releasing.

If you release those tight hamstrings, relax your neck and shoulders, don’t end it there. That’s like getting the appetizer but missing the main course. Once you begin to acknowledge with just a little more specificity what physically changed, you can take what you feel on the ball when you are off the ball. You can do that while you are exercising or simply walking down the street.

A little homework 😊

This week if you are using the balls, or releasing and relaxing, take notice if you feel different afterwards when you move. Just acknowledging something, anything, you might be surprised what happens! You begin to build a Body Dialogue different from the habits that might be keeping you stuck. Your body will continue to take you in the right direction. The possibilities are endless.