A lot of what I teach in lessons is essentially:
How to change muscle tension that’s hard to shift; reliably for yourself.
How to get a joint or area moving that doesn’t like to move, that’s guarded from pain, past or present.
What you are doing in these cases is teaching your nervous system. That it doesn’t need to be so switched on. It’s safe to let go. Yes, muscles and soft tissues are involved, but they aren’t the intelligent part of this system… its brain and neuro-muscular communication where the good stuff happens. It needs to be taught to do things differently.
You are your body’s teacher.
Unfortunately, most of us seem to model the worst teacher we had at school.
The shouty, demanding one.
The one who didn’t stop to find out why you found the assignment difficult.
The one who wouldn’t adapt their teaching skills for the student in front of them.
We resort to forcing/pushing our bodies. Either physically with stretching or pulling it around. Or mentally, by trying too hard, that leads to physical tension, and perpetuating guarding.
We need to be kinder teachers to ourselves.
As most of us have an absence of good teacher role models, I suggest being an excellent dog trainer to yourself instead.
A force free, positive dog trainer, who takes into account your history, and your current mental state. Got an over-stimulated collie body anyone?
A trainer that realises that your body has learnt to be a certain way (guarded, tense) to keep ‘safe’ and needs kindness, reassurance and gentle guidance to change.
So what does training yourself mean?
- It won’t always ‘get’ what you mean the first time you try and teach a new lesson (what do you mean let go of tension in the lower back? huh?)
- Your body might need to learn some other foundation behaviours before it can be successful with what you want ( bending comfortably is hard when it hasn’t learnt to be stable on its feet, or long and wide through the back, or bend easily at the hip)
- Your body might need lots of repetition, and to learn the same thing again in a different context. (OK, I can relax lying down now, but what happens when I’m standing. What happens when I’m stressed out at work, that’s totally different, right?)
If your body is taught kindly and consistently, it can really learn to be different in a way that it gets on with all by itself. You don’t have to keep stretching and pushing and ‘shouting’ at your body. It feels safe to move around just as part of everyday life and exercise, so you don’t have to force it any more.
Would you like to learn how to be an kind trainer to your body?
What is it you need to teach it? Contact me to find out how I can help.