Body Sleuthing
I have spent more than half my life learning to be a Body Sleuth. As a card carrying, fully adult, highly trained Body Detective, here is the most important thing I have learned in all those years:
The amount of pain in my body correlates directly with my mental state.
You may scoff at this, but I would ask you to consider for yourself the following:
There are definitive exceptions to the mood/pain connection. Body parts can and do wear out, especially with age. People get physically devastating diseases whose ultimate outcomes they cannot alter, like MS and Parkinsons.
And yet, even in those situations, I contend – no – I am living proof - that changing your posture and releasing the pain cycle will make you feel better, lighter, more able to function in whatever state you find yourself today.
What, in my more than 30 years of exploration, has made me so confident of this connection?
We can start with living in a body with Ehlers Damlos Hypermobility Syndrome. (EDHS)
I spent much of my young life in a state of collapse, through no fault of my own. EDHS affects connective tissue in the body. Anything that is made of collagen is fair game for laxity – ligaments, connective tissue, even the digestive system from intestines to colon.
I slumped. I put all my weight on one leg or the other while locking my knees in an attempt to feel supported by my bones. I had horrible digestive issues (still do, from time to time.)
By the time I was approaching thirty and starting to experience some of the marriage challenges I’ve described, I was a complete and total physical wreck. My right shoulder was dislocating at the drop of a hat. I’d worn the cartilage off of my knees from years of locking them. My back went out so often during my pregnancy that I had to wear a large band (similar to the compression underwear popular today) to keep my back from dislocating. I was bent over like a C, from postural issues and from feeling so terrible about myself.
The amount of pain in my body correlates directly with my mental state.
You may scoff at this, but I would ask you to consider for yourself the following:
- When you are happy, how do you feel physically?
- What changes your mood? Is it physical pain changing your mood, or is your mood changing your physicality? Or both?
- When you find yourself in acute physical pain, what do you notice about how you are carrying yourself? Are you able to notice anything other than the pain?
There are definitive exceptions to the mood/pain connection. Body parts can and do wear out, especially with age. People get physically devastating diseases whose ultimate outcomes they cannot alter, like MS and Parkinsons.
And yet, even in those situations, I contend – no – I am living proof - that changing your posture and releasing the pain cycle will make you feel better, lighter, more able to function in whatever state you find yourself today.
What, in my more than 30 years of exploration, has made me so confident of this connection?
We can start with living in a body with Ehlers Damlos Hypermobility Syndrome. (EDHS)
I spent much of my young life in a state of collapse, through no fault of my own. EDHS affects connective tissue in the body. Anything that is made of collagen is fair game for laxity – ligaments, connective tissue, even the digestive system from intestines to colon.
I slumped. I put all my weight on one leg or the other while locking my knees in an attempt to feel supported by my bones. I had horrible digestive issues (still do, from time to time.)
By the time I was approaching thirty and starting to experience some of the marriage challenges I’ve described, I was a complete and total physical wreck. My right shoulder was dislocating at the drop of a hat. I’d worn the cartilage off of my knees from years of locking them. My back went out so often during my pregnancy that I had to wear a large band (similar to the compression underwear popular today) to keep my back from dislocating. I was bent over like a C, from postural issues and from feeling so terrible about myself.
I have said frequently that finding Alexander Technique was what saved my life. Finding the mind/body connection, allowing myself to let my bones support me, finding out what being upright and not locked or tense actually felt like, allowing my head and neck to release upward for the first time in years – all these things gave me tremendous physical relief. I also started seeing differently. I would find after a good AT lesson that my field of vision would widen, that I was more present in the world. All of this was such a new, different and welcome place for me that I had to train as a teacher myself.
But my Body Sleuth training didn’t stop there. Oh, no. Let’s throw in years of Gluten Intolerance I was pretending I didn’t have. When the joint pain finally lessened, the gut pain began in earnest. It was another few years of realizing that letting go of gluten was a continuation of letting go of mental and physical pain. I stopped punishing myself and started feeling better.
My 50s were great. I was healthy, I was working out, Dave and I were embarking on happy times together. Physically I was the best I’d felt in years. That’s when I finally earned my Body Sleuth diploma.
Now, there’s aging to contend with. I’ve lived a full life in this body, and it shows. Those old injuries? They’ve resurfaced in the same places, disguised as arthritis and joint deterioration. It’s ok. Injections and somatic work help the acute pain. I know what to do in myself to find space in my joints and to feel supported.
Sense the ground.
Think up.
Let go.
Breathe.
But my Body Sleuth training didn’t stop there. Oh, no. Let’s throw in years of Gluten Intolerance I was pretending I didn’t have. When the joint pain finally lessened, the gut pain began in earnest. It was another few years of realizing that letting go of gluten was a continuation of letting go of mental and physical pain. I stopped punishing myself and started feeling better.
My 50s were great. I was healthy, I was working out, Dave and I were embarking on happy times together. Physically I was the best I’d felt in years. That’s when I finally earned my Body Sleuth diploma.
Now, there’s aging to contend with. I’ve lived a full life in this body, and it shows. Those old injuries? They’ve resurfaced in the same places, disguised as arthritis and joint deterioration. It’s ok. Injections and somatic work help the acute pain. I know what to do in myself to find space in my joints and to feel supported.
Sense the ground.
Think up.
Let go.
Breathe.
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