I Believe Quality of Life Matters.
Balance matters; both physical balance and life balance. My secret weapon is my yoga practice that aims to keep me in the moment, welcome change and to manifest opportunities in life. What about you?
A number of years ago I started into the profession of physical therapy thinking I was going to help all my patients heal from injuries and return to all the activities and sports that they loved. Graduating from school and moving into clinical practice was a wake up call.
Every patient presented a different challenge. Some responded well to the physical therapy others needed more support. There was always more to learn about physical therapy; the techniques, ways in which we could help and the research that supported or didn’t support these techniques.
Physical Therapy is an Art and a Science.
The art comes in when I listen to my patients and my intuition rather than just applying the research or evidence based practice. I have taken numerous post graduate continuing education courses about physical therapy protocols, technique and have spent countless hours learning and bettering my skill set so that I could understand the multitude of diagnoses and symptoms that might walk into the clinic. Some of those courses, however, tapped into the more intuitive side of treatment.
Learning to Trust my Intuition
Learning to trust my intuition and then perhaps back it up with the research made the practice of physical therapy interesting. It fed my soul.
But when a shoulder injury from a fall skiing was not responding to the traditional physical therapy model, nor the acupuncture or massage, I started missing out on my regular activities. Daily activities including work activities and manual therapies were harder. As I was compensating for the injury, my neck and back became more achy and stiff. Soon I was unable to do the connecting vinyasas in yoga class. I had to stop going to class and I felt my quality of life plummet..
My yoga teacher met with me and offered a home practice that didn’t require weight bearing on my arm. This practice was all of about 20 min a day but over the course of 6 weeks, my shoulder pain decreased and the physical therapy started working.
It wasn’t until I enrolled in a yoga teacher training to “learn more about yoga” that I learned what had really happened with the home practice. The practice was so well designed that it did not irritate my shoulder, but rather I did poses that supported my posture, strengthened the upper back and improved my range of motion. And as it turns out, the practice had an amazing effect on my nervous system.
In case you are curious Body in Tune would love to collaborate with you to find your perfect movement practice to address your pain.
Levels of Consciousness
During the practice I had reached a different level of consciousness. I was present and focusing on my breath for that 20 min. Apparently the 60-75 min yoga class I had been attending was doing just that helping me to be present and quieting my nervous system.
Quieting the Nervous System?
Well when our nervous systems are all revved up by stress, anxiety and worry, it makes our muscles more tense and guarded. This in turn often creates more general aches and pains in the same muscles. And since my brain already knew that I had an injury, it followed those nerve pathways directly to the shoulder and all the supporting muscles in the upper back and neck. This created more pain.
So if I am actively quieting my mind by the steady breathing practice associated with the yoga postures, I was helping to relax my muscles and quieting my over active brain. In essence I was giving my brain permission to “let go” and not worry, be less frantic, etc.
It was these types of sensations that had originally drawn me back to my second yoga class and started my journey of discovery. Now I understood!
Yoga Changed Everything
Naturally I had to add this into what I was already doing in the practice of physical therapy. It has made me a more holistic practitioner. It is as if I have finally given myself permission to treat the whole body, not just the injured parts that show up with the person seeking my help. It feels like a natural progression, using yoga awareness, connection, breathing practices and postures to help my patients address all the aspects of their injuries.
Yoga is about creating the space, awareness and connection within ourselves. And when we can allow this, the physical therapy works much more quickly.
Good news! Body in Tune would love to collaborate with you to teach and support you with a yoga practice so you can enjoy your life off the mat with confidence.
Yoga is an Adventure of Self-Discovery
Judith Lasater, PhD, PT offers, “Yoga is an adventure of self-discovery.” And when we are ready to connect within ourselves, we can begin to listen and trust our intuition when it comes to managing aches and pains. We might become more accepting of the situation. We might find that the yoga practice as your physical therapy homework allows the worry and the aches and pains to be less invasive. We can instead begin to feel confident in our body’s healing capabilities, to trust that the body may have already healed the injury and what we need is for the brain to feel confident in that healing and begin to allow movement without pain.
We may find that a yoga practice increases flexibility, strength, and coordination, improves posture and helps us manage stress. This in turn makes room to experience equanimity, a balance in our lives. The return of the quality of life is often all we seek.
As a women's health and orthopedic physical therapist I have a toolbox of in depth knowledge and understanding of how physical alignment, muscle strength and flexibility affect our lives. My yoga training allows me to address more than just the physical, but also the effect of the emotions surrounding the injury and the sudden loss associated with feeling isolated from our favorite activities.
This is not to say I am treating and mental health issues. That would be outside my scope of practice. It is more that a yoga practice can allow us to feel more connected and the breathing associated with the postures allows us to quiet nervous system to focus our brains attention on maintaining efficient alignment of the spine and joints in the extremities. Attention to our physical alignment will overflow into life off the mat.
Body in Tune, LLC was born from a belief that quality of life matters; both life and physical balance matters.
We would welcome the opportunity to be part of your support team with regards to your muscles, joints, bones and osteoporosis. The goal is, after all, to help you feel confident in your body so you can play with your grand children, take that long-dreamed of vacation and get outside and enjoy a walk with friends.