Recently I posted about my plans and goals for this year, and one of them that I have been working on quite fervently is the physically "fit and free" one. Rather than dwelling on what is wrong with me, with my body, or with the mind, body, spirit connection, I have been focusing on what I can improve, and I hope that this continues throughout the rest of my life. A sweet soul shared with me a physical therapy regimen for fixing my iliotibial band, and I will be forever thankful to him for doing so out of his free time and without a cost, at least to me. As I have been working on strengthening and stretching this area, I have noticed an undeniable connection between my hip and shoulder on my left side - every time that I do a lateral leg lift, my left shoulder pops. In the meantime, I have been researching what a winged scapula is, and how it can be strengthened to improve the strength in my serratus anterior, thereby allowing me to do more inversions (read: upside down poses) in my yoga practice. Who would have thought that all of this would be related? In western medicine, we are taught that each individual area of the body is a separate compartment, like a drawer in a dresser. However, as is true with the dresser, if one of our legs were injured or severely removed, our foundation would be shaken. For years, I have been asking one part of my body to do more than its fair share, and then wondering why it is aching when it does so. Since the foundation has been shaken for such a long time, it stands to reason that the rest of the structure would be aching as it compensates for the extra weight that I have been asking another part to handle. The point is, instead of spreading the weight evenly and justly, I have asked more of one area than it could give, and so the entire structure has been struggling to adjust to my request. Although this rings true for the physical components of my body, it stands to reason that it rings true for the other parts as well. If I ask more of my mental area, then my emotional area suffers, and if I ask more of my emotional area, then my spiritual area suffers. My goal is to align all of these areas - physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, so that what shows on the outside of my body is also true on the inside. I strive to have integrity in every step I take, and in doing so, to treat my body, spirit, and mind justly and with care so that what I give to myself, I can give to the world.
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AuthorValerie Ellis, who is in alignment with the Black Lives Matter Movement and everyone whose life is impacted, now or before, by times of social injustice. Archives
July 2022
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