Winter is coming! Do you feel it in your bones?
Here’s how to stay warmer, on your inside.
Unless you’ve been on another planet recently, I am certain you’ll have heard, or felt, the effects, of our energy crisis and recession and fuel bills. Yes, this is real. And there is an element of choice for middle class English people, how much we expose ourselves to this grim news and its effects. How much we dwell on the information or instead, we can process and work our way through the effects with self-care and warmth to ourselves.
When we listen to bad news
Our heart rate goes up, our blood flows to our main organs and large muscles get pumped ready for running or fighting. This is part of our evolution where those of us who’s ancestors could fight or run, have survived. Yet this same ancient survival mechanism is set-off by the ping of our phone, someone sharing the worst news from around the world, or seeing 51 unread emails!
Our body reacts – which would be fine if there were someone or something to run from.
We can’t run away from our own brain or our body. Well many of us disconnect, disassociate, or distract ourselves.
I’d love you to become more attentive to your body and mind, to be present and to have more choices. Sometimes this is scary if we’ve had pain or trauma. Being accompanied and guided is often necessary for healing.
When we get stuck in a negative loop where we are revved up most of the time – this is stress. This can leave our heart working overtime and our feet and fingers with less blood, less circulation and then we feel colder and more tired.
Our joints also get squished, with less space, the soft tissue becomes bunched up and there is less space for our natural lubrication meaning our joints become stiffer and take more energy to move us about our daily round.
So this is about you, and how to stay warmer.
Here at Lucy Ascham’s Bespoke back-pain Solutions, we know a lot about joints and self-warmth
The Alexander Technique is a conscious way of moving our mind, directing our thoughts, to support movement that is necessary, efficient, and kind to the whole body.
I have a client in their 70s who often comes with cold and grey-looking hands, even in summer. Their circulation isn’t great. When we work together to use their mind and body more consciously and as nature intended, then their hands come back on-line and take on a much healthier colour, and warmth! They say that their hands ‘get younger’ from working with me which means they can move them more easily.
The soft tissues around every joint can become more pliable so your joints can be easier, freer and more comfortable.
With younger hands it’s possible to write those letters, chop the veg and make phone calls to loved ones.
Instead of being scrunched up on the inside, the joints work more easily making it safer to move around, and for our circulation to flow better. Win, win!
It’s not so much What you do, but How you do – that makes the biggest difference in my experience.
Every movement is preceded with a thought
Your mobility and improved circulation start in your mind.
Our nervous system is made of 2 circuits – the excitatory one – which revvs us up for survival and the parasympathetic nervous system or inhibitory circuit– which helps us calm down, rest and digest.
Alexander’s discoveries are fundamentally how to do each activity with the least amount of stress and excess effort. And how to calm down and switch off the muscles and circuits which are not needed in this moment or activity.
This is where the work I do differs from so many others. It helps you be in charge – to calm down the muscles which were overworking – even if we don’t know they were, because it is so habitual and normal.
We can attune to ourselves with more care and warmth and our body wakes up to the background tension which keeps us tighter and colder than is good for us.
So to conclude, in order to feel warmer – a very portable and easy way is to learn to unscrunch your self. Not to hunch your shoulders, shorten your neck or clench your hands. I can show you how.
When you look after your self with kindness and this level of self care, then you will feel warmer as your circulation flows around your body more easily, you are less stressed so your blood can reach all parts of your body keeping those hands and feet warmer.
So next time you are listening to the news and feeling cold and miserable – turn it off, and bring your attention back to yourself. Take time to gently unscrunch and restore yourself gently to your full height and consciously send that warm blood circulating around your whole self.
Let me know how you get on, and as ever, if you have any questions or are unsure about anything you’ve read here or how it applies to you. I’m always happy to hear from you.