Overdoing: To Do or Not To Do?

We live in a culture that is “go go go”, where we prioritize doing far more than not doing. Many of us juggle excessive work hours, family and household responsibilities, hobbies, fitness and wellness practice, social lives, errands, appointments, and more. We are often left with little to no down time, and when we do have this down time, we may spend it in ways that are less than ideal for restoring balance and peace back into our lives. This constant rush can be stressful and taxing on our bodies and minds, and due to time constraints we begin to have to pick and choose what we do. Self-care and sleep may be underprioritized, setting us up for burnout.

Think about yourself as a tea kettle: a 100% full tea kettle means you are in a state of optimal health, energy, comfort, peace, happiness, and overall well-being. The less tea you have in the kettle, the less bandwidth you have, which can manifest in irritability, exhaustion, reduced performance, as well as mental and physical health challenges if this continues over time.

If our goal with the “go go go” mentality is to achieve and succeed, but this mentality actually can set us up for failure over the long term, isn’t this entirely counter productive?

Think about what sources in your life are draining your tea kettle, and what sources are helping to fill up your kettle. Consider both external and internal factors. External may be people, situations, and activities, whereas internal may be thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, emotional reactivity, and movement patterns. What changes can you make in your life to ensure you have a full kettle? After all, an empty kettle serves no one!

Written by Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist, Yoga Instructor and The Wellness Station Team

Reflections on Giving and Receiving

When Giving is Receiving

In giving what may be required is to contemplate a  cause, a group or a person -finding the essence of a need or desire. 

 Through attentiveness and deep caring the giver may surprise the recipient(s) by showing that someone else understands them and through a display of giving virtuosity, can even identify needs they may not have been aware of or could not admit to themselves. 

Benefits  of Being a Giver

The recipient has the astonishing ability to acknowledge both the somebody who has given and the something that is given to them.

As far as we know, no other corner of creation but a human being has the ability to fully acknowledge the spirit of another in this way. 

To give is to take an imaginative journey and put oneself in the body, the mind and the anticipation of another. 

To give is to make our own identities more real in the world by committing to something specific in the other person and something tangible that could represent that quality. 

To give is also to carry out the difficult task of putting something of our own essence in what we have given. 

 Giving is a form of attention itself, a way of acknowledging and giving thanks for lives other than our own.

Giving is a“ mutually blessed“ experience.

Inspired By: “Consolations”by David Whyte

You Can Break the Cycle of Chronic Pain!

It’s All In Your Head: Your Brain & Pain

Many of us who experience pain might feel very offended if we were told that this pain was all in our head. However, all pain, as well as any other sensation, is created by the brain. This is because pain is a perceptual process- the experience of the pain is not actually happening in the part of your body that hurts, but rather it is happening in your brain. Sometimes this perception of pain can be a very useful process (Ouch, I just touched a hot stove, let me move my hand away as quick as possible!), but when it comes to chronic pain, this process can severely impact our quality of life.

In cases of chronic pain, the brain tends to get hypersensitized to the pain until we are in a constant state of high alert. A learning process occurs in which neural pathways involved in pain perception of a certain area (the low back, for example) become strengthened. The neural pathways responsible for chronic pain experience go far deeper than our acute pain pathways, such as in the stove top example. This is because over time, the neural pathways related to the chronic pain will be embedded into the memory and emotional centers of our brain, making chronic pain far more complex than pain from acute injuries.

As with any learning process, we form associations, such as... sitting = pain, long car rides = pain, exercise = pain. These associations can contribute to a self-perpetuating cycle in which we avoid certain activities because of the fear of pain, which decreases our quality of life, thereby contributing to depression, inactivity, limited social participation, and other factors that will actually make our pain worse over time.

How do we break this vicious cycle?!?

Pain is our brain's opinion of how much danger we are in, and we have to change that opinion. Our brain was capable of establishing these detrimental neural pathways that contributed to the chronic pain, and it is just as capable of creating new pathways that will help us get out of this situation. This is because our brain remains plastic for our entire lives, meaning we are always capable of learning. We must learn that we are safe, and that movement of the affected body part is safe and beneficial.

At The Wellness Station, we help those in chronic pain learn that they are safe.

By creating individualized movement programs, we help our clients learn ways of moving and relating to the body in a manner that will drive neuroplasticity. We will help to teach the little person in the control room (aka your brain) that movement can be associated with calm, pleasure, and ease, rather than movement = pain. The movements lessons are designed to help our clients move with greater efficiency to make movement easier and to decrease tension and tissue strain. We will also help with self-care tools necessary to calm down the nervous system to decrease pain sensitivity, and provide guidance regarding management of the psychosocial aspects of living chronic pain.

Do not let pain stop you from living life to the fullest. It is never too late to learn!

Written by Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist,Yoga Instructor and The Wellness Station Team

Core Strengthening: The Wellness Station Way!

What is our core, what does it mean to have a strong core, and what are the best methods to achieve this?

Many of us associate the idea of having a strong core with the ability to stay active and independent as we age, maintain our balance, avoid injury, ease back pain, or perhaps maintain a trim waistline.

Although the idea of core strength is popular and highly sought after, what we are really after is core responsiveness: how efficient and with how much precision are our core muscles able to respond to the needs of our environment and our intentions. In other words, how well are our bodies able to do what we want them to do in a given situation?

This responsiveness depends on our neuromuscular system- the intricate connections between our brain, spinal cords, and muscles. It is crucial that this responsiveness includes all of the tiny muscles that connect each of our vertebrae, which are vital for dynamic stability, proprioception, and the ability to "change shapes" depending on the needs of the situation.

In the world of traditional physical therapy and fitness, the idea of core strength is often reduced to "core stability", and focuses on the ability to brace and hollow the abdomen. The general notion is that we must be able to keep our core very tight and rigid during movement, lest we injure our spines. This rigid stability utilizes the large, long muscles that travel up and down the spine, neglecting the tiny muscles in between each vertebrae. This is not how we function as human beings!

As we live in a three-dimensional world, our bodies need to be able to efficiently change shapes based on the situation we are in. By only training ourselves to keep our cores tight and thus restricting movement, we are behaving in a linear manner that is not conducive to our dynamic, three-dimensional world. Although this type of core engagement can be helpful in some situations (perhaps if a pet or a baby decided to crawl on our stomach!), far more often this approach is selling ourselves short and could actually put us at a higher risk of injury, pain, or limited function.

   Consider the example of a stack of blocks connected by elastic bands as referenced in our Ehlers Danlos blog post, illustrating the difference between segmental vs. rigid core responsiveness. The traditional approach to core stability is similar to the example in which the blocks are connected only by four long rubber bands, in which the vertebrae (like the tower of blocks) are undifferentiated and controlled using the large, long muscles of the spine. This would neglect the small muscles of the spine that allow us to move with efficiency, fluidity, and balance. Our approach at The Wellness Station reflects the example in which the tower is connected by smaller rubber bands in between each block, allowing the structure to form a variety of complex shapes and forms, representing segmental spinal responsiveness.

Our core is our spine- we need to be able to move our spine in the three dimensions. Flexion and extension, side bending, and rotation. Each of our many vertebrae are capable of movement, and our deep spinal muscles (including the transversospinales and the segmental muscles) allow this movement.

By engaging in mindful movement practices to target these muscle groups, we can strengthen our mind-body connection to these areas, thereby improving responsiveness of our core.

This is truly what core strength is- our ability to move our spines into different shapes efficiently, mindfully, and powerfully depending on our intention and the circumstance we find ourselves in.

Here are some examples of mindful movement drills that engage the body in three-dimensions, and target segmental movement of the spinal column. Enjoy!

Written by Jacob Tyson, DPT - Physical Therapist, Yoga Instructor and The Wellness Station Team