Settling the Psoas Muscles
Often it is important not to take stress personally. Look at the small picture before the big picture.
I am tired and hungry can be satisfied with a little food and some rest rather than quitting the job, divorcing the partner, and moving to Montana.
Fix the little things first.
Once they are consistently cared for, the big things take care of themselves.
Sometimes when we are stressed, we imagine that we've done something wrong. We've made a mistake. We internalize the chaos of the day or the conflict and we identify with the symptoms. I'm tired becomes I am weak or I'm useless. I've worked hard today becomes I don't do enough.
However, the symptoms we are calling stress are most often physical not psychological. The body needs care and will act out when ignored.
Next time you are stressed, check
- Have I had enough to eat? Particularly vegetables? Fibre. Protein.
- Have I slept well?
- Am I hydrated?
- Am I breathing? Breathe now to check.
- Am I holding on to tension in my body unknowingly?
If you are consistently aware of the following symptoms, irritability, can't make decisions, tense and tight muscles, digestive issues, can't make sense of what you are reading, you are not
SICK. You are simply experiencing a key mechanism in the body that saves the brain.
It's called SWITCHING. The brain switches off under stress. No brain, no gain.
With no brain, the organs are not getting the nutrition or the water you are feeding it. Everything is shut down.
This mechanism is designed to be flexible, adapting to stress indicators within the body, but also within the environment.
But it is a catch 22. When the body is switched off, it cannot interpret the environment with ease or clarity so the body is switched off and fear becomes the main interpreter of reality.
You see fear, not the trees. You see fear, not your children.
This switching mechanism can get stuck. If at work or school, we are run by an external clock: the bell, the boss, set times for breaks etc, we are not following our unique body rhythms.
The brain's switching mechanism (a matrix of meridian and cortical connections) gets stuck.
Ignoring the need for food, water, sleep, puts the brain on OFF. If the switching mechanism is set too high, you hit the wall but you keep going.
There is an apocalypse outside and you think, is that the door bell?
If the switching mechanism is set too low, someone rings the doorbell and your body thinks, Is that the apocalypse?
You want the most natural reaction to what is presented to you.
You want the brain switched on and you want to know when it switches off and take steps to switch it back on.
You can do so in a number of ways. Eat a little, rest, drink water, breathe.
You can tap out your cortices.
You can take the bodytalk Access class (next one I'm teaching is May 28th, 2016) to learn to reset this mechanism yourself.
The important thing is to know that these symptoms listed above are not YOUR PERSONALITY. These irritable traits are not something you wish to covet as the more the brain is turned off, the more time your essential energies and vital organs struggle. If you hit a wall, stop. You are hurting yourself at the cellular level. The essential level for renewal.
