As you move into your New Year, now in this space and time, this is a stage of completion and renewal. It’s a time to reflect on what’s going right, what needs improvement and what you’d like to do more or less of, to create your healthiest potential. Now is the time to put your best foot forward. Centered, grounded and in balance, you can achieve whatever you put your mind to. 

When it comes to creating and maintaining healthy changes there are a few tricks I’ve found useful, and I offer these to you. Set reasonable, realistic goals. Look for expertise to create a personalized program that feels doable. Don’t put too much expectation on yourself all at once. Start learning “new to you” skills with a beginner’s mind. Don’t beat yourself up when you get off track. Keep returning to the practice. Stay consistent, and keep showing up even if you’re feeling challenged. It’s ok to take a break, but get back on the horse. Make achievements bite sized and reward yourself with affirming self talk. With every step you make, you’re getting there if youre moving in the right direction.

With a beginner’s mind you suspend your ideas and needs for perfection. When you begin something, if it’s difficult you might fail at first. You might do the wrong dance move in dance class more than once, you might drop the ball several times before you catch it. Letting yourself learn means yo’ve got to let yourself suck can take the pressure off. Relieving the part of your mind that thinks you have to do everything perfectly can help you get into your creative flow state…Don’t be afraid to fail. If you want to sing well, you’ve got to be willing to sing off key, to explore new territory so you have a full range. To do great things you have to be willing to make mistakes. And every time you are willing to try and fail, you get a little better at finding the notes, at understanding what it is you are learning. You can create an internal environment of ease, of no worries, of… I’ve got this. Because you take the stance of courage to explore and expand your skill set without the pressure of immediately measuring your success, you can achieve greater things, one step at a time.

Often when you start something you think a lot of things about it. Sometimes with the best intentions your mind goes into hyperdrive and analyzes and critiques you until you’re convinced it’s too much, or you’ve talked yourself into not taking action. Maybe you want to lose weight, to get stronger, to be healthier in your body and you feel you lack the discipline to achieve your goals. Watching your negative thought patterns is a great start to breaking the cycle.

When I had my second child I weighed 200 lbs after I had my 8 lb 5 oz little bundle of nectar joy. I was kind of mortified. I had gained about 45 lbs and it was time to get my body back. The task felt daunting. How was I supposed to get my core back? My belly was a wibbly wobbly deflated sac. I knew I needed to get back into shape, and I was not at all sure how I was going to achieve this. So I started small, I started with 5 crunches. It was barely anything, and it was something that I didn’t feel was too much. So I started with what I could get to and get done. It worked because I was able to add more everytime I felt like it and I kept myself from talking smack to and about myself, to myself while I was exercising. I made sure to do 5 more the second week and the third I was up to 20 and by the time I turned around I had a 2 hour core work out because I was consistently coming to my mat. I was showing up and my mantra was “you're doing great and whatever you need Body, I’m here for you.”

Your body can hear you, and your body listens to the words you say about yourself. I have had several clients who have had anxiety and we have been investigating their thoughts and feelings when they have pain and symptoms. Much of the negative feedback loop of their mental and emotional states are reflected in the health of their fascia.

A client has come in with migraines and he has not been able to turn his head in its full range to the left. He frequently goes to the ER to get medicated and has been having trouble for years. I have been guiding him to explore how he treats himself inside his own mind. His own narrative, the internal dialog he has been observing is how he begins a loop cycle of anxiety. The anxiety winds up in tension and his thoracic vertebrae between T7 and T12 seems to be going in completely opposite directions. His cervical vertebrae as well are far from center and from one to the next the subluxations are far from function. His spinal alignment is affecting his arms, wrists and fingers with neuropathy. There is brachial plexus that innervates the arms and coordinates complex motor function with divisional branches, roots, trunks, cords all moving through this major hub from C5 to T1. Alignment of the spine is important for these neural pathways to relay the information to and from the body to the brain. When the subluxated vertebrae are twisted, tipped and rotated the innervation to his upper extremities is compromised and the tension created in his neck and shoulders transfers to his head.

These migraines could also have to do with the trauma he experienced as a child. His dad yelled at him and he could never do anything right. He beat him pretty badly. His mom had to leave his dad to get him out of this hostile environment. So he gets anxiety and he has an internal dialog that is not far off from what his own fathers words used to echo in his head. And so as we work his spine is staying in better and better alignment. As he finds his center and his body is brought back into a plumb- true state, he is also being guided in his awareness to hold himself and be present to feel and access his feelings. He is able to release trauma by centering in awareness that holds and heals. By being witnessed and guided he is letting go and he is pain free and having significantly less pain in his neck. Form a 6 in pain to a 1. He is able to watch his process and notice his anxiety. Which helps him to let it go. The migraines are less frequent and he is able to identify how he can jump off the anxiety train and not wind his body up into tension.

Angela works helps you get out of chronic pain patterns and back to doing what you love. She works at Sol Bodyworks in Grass Valley, CA as a Myofascial Release Therapist and an Injury Specialist.