This is the last very powerful segment of eliminating pain by regaining balance from within. In this 10 minute end of the mini-series, I show you how I create balance in my life. Using the so-called good experiences and the bad, like eating sugary foods drinking wine and having an all around a great time. The secret trick is understanding where I focus my power. Before you can get a handle on your power, you must take an inventory of what is creating havoc in your life. Using the secret trick of power takes an understanding of the bigger picture.
Taking inventory of the bigger picture to use the secret trick
Ask yourself what makes you happy to do? One of mine I speak about in the video is being in awe of my garden, it has taken a life of its own, and growing at a rate that I can not explain. Those tomato plants are taller than Michelle now. Why this is important is because it balances out the internal equalizer, Inside all of us is this equalizer, I call it our foundations. The mental foundation, emotional, and the physical foundations need to be in balance. Think of it as an algorithm we must get right to use the secret of power.
I speak of other experiences that build up my foundations in the video but, how I experience or perceive these good experience makes the difference. I have learned to be present during them which gives more power. Allowing me to do as I please with no regrets.
Here’s an example: Going out of our way to eat awesome doughnuts from a place in the city. I focused on the fact we went on a journey as a family and connected more, rather than getting down on myself for eating bad food. If I focus on the bad, I would have never been able to experience the maple bacon cronut. It was like bacon melted into your pancake that had maple syrup on it, absolutely delicious.
In short to use the secret of power you have to know and see what’s in the bigger picture. How your foundation is managing them. Then, change your focus and becoming present in the moments that build up those foundations.
Today I will be discussing physical balance. How is being clumsy showing you are out of balance? Actual standing balance can show how you are interacting with the world. Many speak about being clumsy and having lousy balance. Unless you are getting up there in age or you have a nerve issue, your balance can improve dramatically with this exercise.
How does balance translate to not being balanced within
Have you ever reached for something and missed it, or missed your mouth or messed up your footing while walking? These are all signs your not aware of your mind-body connection. I give another example of what it looks like as a child in the video with what happened with my daughter on our walk to school 🙂
When your mind moves faster than your body can, we get clumsy and make mistakes that can be embarrassing. So use this moment as a sign or a clue that you are not connected mentally and physically. In the video, the exercise is used for rehab to work on intrinsic muscle strength, creating better balance and movement patterns. I do the spin during my meditations and learn how to build a better connection between both areas.
Part two of how to clear chronic neck pain. I give you a way to notice if you have the makings of chronic neck pain. I will Show you a few muscles that come with neck pain. We will be using trigger point to help with the immediate neck issue I see a lot of times when you can turn your head and a shoulder might be holding a higher position. If you have not watched the first video, I did go through a lot of details on the first rib and why this is happening so please watch that as well to understand the bigger picture of not being able to breathe completely.
Before I show you that I had a few people ask me, ” I do have to tightness throughout my upper body, and I do hurt my neck, How do I know is it chronic neck pain.” There are many muscles throughout your upper that can hold tension and focused on like the rhomboids and traps. They play a big role but not for keeping a person in a chronic state of repetition. They get targeted because they are well known and superficial. In the video before I speak about scalenes.
Scalenes
Have a referral pain or a tightness pattern down the arm in the front and the into the chest. Also down the back of the body between the shoulder blades. This is a common tightness pattern that many have but do not put the clues together. The blame goes to working out or sleeping funny. When it signs of scalenes tightness and more so the stress of the first rib not functioning well.
Sternocliedio mastoid
Is another muscle that plays a role and does not get enough attention. It referrals a lot of tension into the head. But cause many other ailments and plays a major role in chronic neck pain. Inside the video, I show the other areas that SCM refers pain too. This image shows more the head and ringing of the ear points.
Enjoy the video.
If you struggle with this issue you might want to check out my trigger point course that shows you how to reclaim a pain-free life.
Many issues go unknown for some time before pain or sudden need brings your attention to it. Hand strength is one of those problems. We lose our strength so slowly we don’t even notice, today I work with mindfully working on bringing back hand strength and eliminating thumb pain using trigger point self-care.
Trigger pointing to regain strength in your hand, and or eliminate thumb pain might be not what you think. The way to do this is not to just work with the thumb, palm, and the pinky. Trigger pointing the forearm is the way to go.
The forearm is an area that does not get worked anywhere near enough. The weakness here can cause you to overuse your shoulders through an overcompensation. A way to notice if you have been compensating is if you have shoulder pain for unknown reasons. Also, take a look how you open a jar are you using your pinky excessively or your thumb. The power should come from the entire hand, not one side.
Here is a quick exercise to show you how hand strength works with the shoulder.
Bring your arm out in from of you and make a light fist. Watch the shoulder then squeeze the fist hard. Notice the shoulder works to bring the power there. This example explains the harder you need to squeeze your hand to do anything the shoulder has to work
In this video, I walk you through a comfortable routine to feel and give you more strength using a handball and a wall. The forearm holds many areas that can provide you many referral patterns so take your time. Mindfully doing all my self-care activities is the only way to make them more efficient and work quicker.
Watch the video to see how to clear your wrist and hand.
Patrick Lerouge here from Evolve Restorative Therapy. You can find me at livepainfreeprocess.com. I have a pain-free concierge services that teach people how to heal their bodies based on their life experience, based on what’s happening in their mind as well as in their body. Last two weeks we’ve been talking about the concept of healing through mind-body balance, what I want to show you is that it’s easy, that it just takes you waiting a minute. We’re going to become mindful using foam rolling.
Foam rolling is another big topic that a lot of people do. It works with fascia, works with connective tissue inside of our muscular system. Many people do it all wrong. Moving fast or use the grid roller to speed up things. It’s multitasking in our head, but our body doesn’t handle this type of multitasking very well. It will just lock up. If you do not have my foam rolling video series, I suggest you get that, because I’m not going to be talking about how to foam roll so much here but what to do to hone the mind-body balance after you foam roll.
Before you even start, I want you to try out something, test something. Come into a deep squat and see what it’s like to have your ankles on the ground, your heels on the ground. Or, if you’re on your tippy toes, what it feels like to be on your tippy toes, and how well your ankle balances out. How well does your body roll through putting the heels down, picking the heels up if you can’t do it, if you’re bent over, and you’re stuck here, see where you’re at? You need a starting point to see if something worked. Now that’s key for you have to understand anything. If you’re going to progress in anything using the mind-body balance to heal, to run faster, to lift more weights, to be more present, to be more kind to yourself, you need a number system, something that’s going to make it real that shows you where you started.
Are you able to drop your heels to the floor in a deep squat? Can you even get in this position?
Then, take our foam roller, place it underneath our calf, and we’re just going to sit down for a second. Now foam rolling is just the object or the tool of choice that I’m doing today. You could do this through trigger point work. You can do this through stretching, yoga, Pilates, chiropractic, meditation, boxing, walking, playing with the dog, playing with the cat, playing with the kid. Just about anything does this tool.
Let us relax for a second. After you’re done doing what you’re doing, you stop. You stop moving, and you breathe. You have to see now what did I do to my body to make it better, to make it feel better. Did I do it too fast, did I do it too slow, is not the point here. It’s what did I do. I foam rolled. Foam rolling is supposed to help fascial system. It’s supposed to allow things to move through smoothly. I want you to just to freeze now, move that area. See how much better that area slides within itself because we used foam rolling and there’s not much of a glitch.
Then you get up, and you go back to your test. How much better?
You wait, and you see what’s happening inside your body. How well does that leg circulate? How well does that area feel better? If you went through a yoga class, how well is your body connecting? Then, how does this translate into you walking? I now had my ankle rearrange itself so it should translate to walking differently. It should move better. It should flow better. It should have more range of motion, so on and so forth. That’s only stepping one. Remember, foam rolling is not what did it. It’s what I’m doing after that makes it work and makes it stick, that makes it better. That’s your mind-body connection. Because now you’re saying it’s so much easier. Now I have to use it in that way. Allow it to go through.
A Common problem I see
I see with clients. I’ll get them off the table, everything is moving, everything’s working, and they go back into their old way of walking because they’re not being present to what’s happening now. They go into this walk and say, “Oh, I feel great.” They’re walking in this sturdy way, and they’re saying, “Oh my God, I can’t believe the way I’m feeling,” but it doesn’t translate to moving properly now. It’s humorous to me to watch.
Now to explore, play with it, do something and then comment down below. If it’s foam rolling, foam roll. If you have not gotten into the program yet about foam rolling for self-care and getting to do it properly so you can do it, I teach you how to become more mind-body balanced throughout the whole training. It’s really easy, really simple. I’ll put the link down below. Do that.
Comment below. Tell me what you did: foam roll, trigger point, and stretch. I did jumping jacks. I meditated for a minute. I watched this video and just sitting here I could feel this, this, this. I need to workout my glutes. I have to do something. Then write below how it changed, how you thought differently about how your body’s moving. It could go the opposite way. If you’re sitting all day and you’re like, “Oh man, I feel horrible,” how does that translate to how you move in your life? Comment down below. Next week we’re going to be talking about trigger point work, and we’re going to show you exactly what you need to do to get more hang strength, some more thumb mobility. It’s all based on the mind-body connection. Until next time, later.
I will be discussing how to look at pain in the upper back and strengthen your pain-free mindset. Mainly by looking at the other things that can be causing your pain.
and plays a major role in chronic neck pain. Inside the video, I show the other areas that SCM refers pain too. This image shows more the head and ringing of the ear points.
