Have you been suffering a lack of movement during the shutdown? Are you stiff, achey, and sore?
I know, me too. No matter how much things have changed for you, chances are almost 100% that your regular routines have been upended and you're not moving as much or as well as you were just last month. Ugh. Let's not beat around the bush.
Sounds like we need to hang out!👍 What are you doing next Wednesday, May 6, at noon EST? Not much? Great, you should join me then for a FREE webinar! What kind of webinar? Well, in classic Paula style, it will include some interesting facts, some movement practice, and a bit of plant medicine. I'm going to show you a super easy, sitting-in-a-chair position that has the potential to to remove the strains and stresses on your body from poor posture and improve everything from low back pain to reflux (if you practice). (We're also going to share a spot ☕ of tea.) It's a tiny shift, a subtle habit to form, that can rock your world. And it can be yours, in less than an hour, on a Wednesday afternoon. Not bad, hmm? And like I said, this is FREE. Zero dollars. Gratis. All you need to do is register HERE, and you'll get the link to the webinar, as well as the details you'll need to know beforehand, in your email. Oh, and why not invite a couple friends too? This'll be fun!
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Semi-private training has always been my favorite way to work. Some private, one-on-one time, together with some small group energy, has consistently given my clients the best results. This way, we pull the best of both worlds together. In private sessions, we can talk about the deep stuff, we can focus on the particulars, and you can learn specific things that you really need with an attention to detail that we can’t get in “mixed company”. But in small group sessions, there’s energy. There’s the wisdom of a crowd. There’s inspiration for me and everyone else too, to see, think, do, and experience the work in brand new ways. So, let’s do both! In my Foot-to-Forehead Fundamentals Fix, you get both private sessions and small group sessions, all online. You get my personal attention, and you get to benefit from others. Bonus- the pricing is always better in a SPT course than it would be if it were all private work! FInd out more about my online Foot-to-Forehead Fundamentals Fix program here I've been going around and around deciding how to tell you about my online program- why I'm offering it, who it helps, why you should care. Finally, I just sat down and wrote you a letter. Since I don't have your snail mail address, here it is. Dear You, I know you’ve always been active, in motion. Keeping everyone and everything around you going, flowing, clean and tidy, engaged and entertained. And I know you’re worried about aging, gracefully or otherwise. And I know you’re BUSY! Life doesn’t slow down just because you have a few more aches and pains. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just make your physical history go away? If you could wave a magic wand and you could feel as nimble as you used to? So many of us have accumulated Living Pains that have eroded our confidence, our trust in our own bodies. I want you to level up your experience of your own “normal”. I want you to feel your confidence again, your self-assurance, your mojo, your strength- literally and figuratively. (Whaaa..? Well, we hear that mind/body/spirit are one, we see the word “holistic” bandied about, but our culture still divides them and our ingrained understanding is of separations between what we think and what we do. So I talk about connections. You can have muscular AND personality strength. You deserve both! You can have spatial AND systemic balance. They work together! It takes some practice to understand the world as a Whole, so just roll with me on this for now. OK, let’s continue.) Back to that “life doesn’t slow down” idea. What I’m suggesting is, yes, a little bit extra. Some online classes, a few private meetings with me. And I know you’re busy. But what’s that old saying? Oh yeah- An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. (A favorite Ben Franklin-ism) I also like this one: I don’t believe in luck, I believe in preparation. (By the great Bobby Knight) Can you handle just one more? Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond your control. (Thank you Richard Kline) In all the years (allllllll the years!) I’ve been teaching people like you about functional, whole body movements (in those reformer pilates classes) and about integrating plant medicine into your lives to stay healthy and sane in the first place (Stress? Sleep? Anybody? Boy, that’s a lot of hands waving. Alright, everybody!), I keep seeing the same 2 things over and over and over: EverySingleOneOfUs needs to go back to basics just a little AND Everyone feels AMAZING when they suddenly, finally get it. You feel strong, self-assured, confident, balanced, and lively. Imagine that. The preparation plan that I’m offering you is made of foundational, small movement practices. They’re designed to fit easily into your life, in natural pauses and positions you already have. And of simple food medicine to heal our most common complaints, like around chronic stress, inflammation, poor digestion or elimination. This program doesn’t ask you to stop anything you’re already doing. In fact, it encourages you to get more in! It’s not a replacement for your workouts, your walks, your memberships and your favorite sports. What is does do is create a solid, stable foundation for you to move and live from, so that everything you do is improving your physical infrastructure. What if taking a walk improved your hips, pelvis, and core? What if gardening or washing dishes improved your posture and endurance? What if you learned not just to breathe, but HOW to breathe, and it improved your reflux? Imagine having a sense of adventure again- do you want to climb the Rocky steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (72 steps)? Or maybe climb to the top of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome (551 steps!)? I’ve heard these stories and more from amazing, normal clients who finally decided to go for their bucket lists, stories about hiking volcanoes, and zip lining in rainforests, and biking across beautiful countries. I’ve also heard about getting on the floor to play with the grandkids, and doing home-improvement projects by hand, and taking up a favorite game again, and managing an over-full shopping basket with ease. The bigger story here is what it took to get from sitting too much, hurting too much, limping and creaking and groaning too much, to these successes. Surprise- it doesn’t take that much. So if you’re ready to start at the beginning, just a little bit, and learn how to literally and figuratively reposition yourself for living healthy and active again, let’s chat. Our next class starts soon. With Hugs and Chamomile, Paula Have you ever felt the slow, disorienting fall? Sure, I’ve missed a step, stumbled, tumbled, crashed, and just plain dropped. But that one time, on a street corner, it was very different. I had food bags in both hands, I was contemplating how I was going to reach my keys when I got to the parking lot, and I stepped into a handicap ramp on a corner. It was early spring, a beautiful day, and the restaurant across the street had an outdoor deck full of diners. A winter’s worth of plowing had deposited a good layer of tiny gravel and glass shards on the ramp, and I put my foot down. It just didn’t stay there. As I started to slide my mind shattered into about a dozen pieces:
What’s the point?
Simply, that one day you may also find yourself on unstable footing, unlike anything else you’ve ever experienced before, and in need of grounding, direction, or even adaptation. Sometimes it’s something physical that changes you dramatically. Sometimes is your perception or acceptance of what's “normal” or “reality”. Whatever it is, it can shake you up and make you lose your senses. And I get it. I can help. I’m stepping into the space of working on our physical foundations, literally and figuratively. Whether you’re trying to avoid, recover from, or adjust to your own slide in the gravel, we’ll get you settled first, see what’s what, and build a framework to help you work in the strengthening and supporting practices I give you- like scaffolding. You're not alone. In the midst of these uncertain times, we’re “All in the same boat, but not all in the same storm.” I wish I could remember who wrote those words, because the sentiment seems to perfectly encapsulate how differently everyone is experiencing the Covid-19 crisis. Personally I am alternating between fear and anxiety (which drives me to excessive production as a way to deflect the unknown) and acknowledging my decades of fatigue and exhaustion already brought on by excess productivity (which calls me to rest and contemplate and dream). As a result of these two states, I’m having bouts of insight that I’m moved to record here for the future shape of my work. However, I don’t want you to think that I am suggesting you should use this time to be, do, or change anything that doesn’t feel appropriate for you now. Even I can’t do that, and these are my thoughts. Just know that in the After Times, these posts will form the foundation of how I want to effect change in the world. Do what you can for yourself now. A is for Anatomy and AlignmentYou can’t trip over an exercise article without mention of the “core”. But seriously, who cares? Well, it IS pretty useful, in all honesty. Our bones exist for our muscles to pull on them (among other reasons, of course. Cool it, #anatomynerd) We need our muscles to pull on our bones to move, like a lever and pulley system, but also to stabilize the pulleys (joints) so we don’t fall apart. The core is cool because the middle of our torso doesn’t have any bones. Instead, layers of muscles between the pelvis, ribs, and spine work to help keep us upright, to keep us from peeing ourselves, and to create “intra-abdominal pressure”- useful for things like digestion and blood pressure. So the core is really the front, back, top, AND bottom muscles of the torso- abdominals, pelvic floor, diaphragm, spine muscles. They’re supposed to have some give and take, some ability to expand and contract, and not just be locked in for that impossible-to-attain washboard looking thing. Besides, if the rest of your body is mis-aligned, the core can’t work the way it’s supposed to anyway. What does this look like? At the bottom end of things, the core is attached to the hips and pelvis. So if your leg and hip muscles are uneven, unengaged, or unbalanced, they will pull your core off-center and impact the function of everything from your feet to your spine. At the top end, rib flaring is common in our “chest out, belly in” culture. We learn how to Stand Up Straight by throwing out the chest, not by straightening our alignment- it’s fake posture. This puts an awful lot of strain on the psoas (pilates peeps, you knew I couldn’t get through any mention of anatomy without the delightful psoas making an appearance!!) and on the neck. Any kind of alignment issues will literally mess you up from your feet to your forehead. B is for Breathing and BittersThe ribs move SO THAT they can disperse the pressure of breathing. If your ribs are flared (aka popped), then when you try to breathe they can’t go any farther and they stop being part of your breathing mechanics. Instead, when you breathe without your ribs you’re messing with your intra-abdominal pressure (bad idea) and with your chest (also bad idea). Chest breathing can actually cause anxiety, because it puts stimulates upper back nerves which feed signals to the brain that scream, “Pressure on the chest! We’re suffocating!” If you’re feeling tightness or burning on the center of the breastbone just below the collarbone, or a feeling like you need to take a deep breath and stretch that area, you may benefit from relaxing your ribs. More on that in a future video. Half of your digestion happens inside your ribcage, so realigning it really helps here too. Pretty much every organ except the large and small intestines are actually inside the confines of your ribs. How do you relax your ribs? Think about a big yawn. Now that you’re yawning (gotcha!), take that big stretch and big breath in, and let it out all at once- whoosh. Where are your ribs? Down, relaxed, and over your hips. Pretty quickly, they’ll probably start reaching forward so yawn them back down again, until you recognize the down position and can just go there. Side effects- you might gurgle, burp, fart, or even release constipation. Yay you! We’re not built to be silent machines. Digestion is a dynamic process, and anything we do to support it should be increasing its activity and energy, not just creating an end result. I’ve been thinking about this, though. Digestive remedies work in a variety of ways that act together to move the instinctive processes of metabolism and elimination along. They stimulate the different parts of digestion- chemical, mechanical, instinctual. For example, Herbal Bitters (my personal favorites) are amazing, and not just for digestion. When you taste a bitter flavor, bitter taste receptors ALL OVER your body relax smooth muscles. (Do a PubMed search for “bitter” and “asthma”!) In digestion, this means that smooth muscles like the intestines relax and expand and allow for more effective functioning. Bitters also stimulate the liver, the gallbladder, the pancreas, saliva, peristalsis, all kinds of fun things. But here’s the problem: In addition to popping our ribs to fake good posture, we also worry about the look of that belly. What good is herbally supporting the relaxing and expanding of your smooth muscles if you’re also “sucking in” AllDayEveryDay? How can the GI tract relax if it’s got nowhere to go? Or worse, what if it finds somewhere else to go? C is for Contraction and (In)continence and ConstipationRather than thinking of the core like a “wall” with a front and back, think of it like a balloon. Your abdominals wrap around your torso like plastic wrap (or a corset), your pelvic floor supports it at the bottom, and your diaphragm supports it at the top. What would happen to that balloon if you squeezed it in the middle (the equivalent of sucking your belly in)? First, all your organs get squeezed, and they’ve got nowhere to go. They lose all movement and blood flow is reduced. For context, a good deep breath can move your kidneys 3 inches side to side. Second, all that squeezed intra-abdominal pressure has to go somewhere, and it only has 3 choices- up, down, or out. If you squeeze the balloon and the top bulges, now you’ve got pressure pushing UP on the stomach, esophagus, etc. Reflux, and all its friends, are common. Plus, since blood flow is being cut off any kind of inflammation in there (think: leaky gut, ulcers, esophagus erosion) can’t be healed very well. Bottom-directed pressure pushes on the pelvic floor. This can look like urge or stress incontinence (I can’t hold it vs sneeze pee), prolapse (or enlarged prostate in men), pain (during elimination, sex, sitting, walking, etc), constipation, or the like. Out-pressure exits through the belly button. Hernia. ‘Nuff said. Absolutely NONE of these are easy issues to deal with. Wouldn’t you rather avoid them in the first place? The very first thing you can do to help is relax your belly, right now. Then, by the time you’ve finished reading this sentence, relax it again. Got you, didn’t I? The idea of sucking in is so very, very ingrained. It’s good for support. It’s good for looks. It’s good for who knows what else. But it’s not. No more than tight shoes or tight bras or tight shirts and jackets are good for us, regardless of how we think they look. At what point does a toddler’s cute round belly become a sign of “letting yourself go”, and who taught you that anyway? It’s crap. They know how to move naturally, let's take some lessons from the under-3 set. Your core muscles reflexively engage when you need them. They relax and allow for internal functioning when you don’t. Yes, you can work with someone like me to align and strengthen them when lifestyles aren’t challenging enough to do it already (that’s most of us, tbh.) You can also make sure you’re breathing when you move, that’s a massively important part of the core reflex. The biggest thing you can do, though, is relax your belly. Sucking in only rearranges your internal organs. It does NOT support, stabilize, brace, or improve anything. And yet, just about everyone has this habit, me included. The practice is just to relax, over and over and over, retraining yourself that relaxed is normal. Yes, there’s conversations to be had about the position of the pelvis, and muscle recruitment patterns, and stress responses and habits, and other such related subjects. And yes, there’s LOTS of practitioners out there besides me who have wonderfully helpful and accurate things to teach you about this. Learn from them, or from me, whichever- just learn it! Your body is supposed to work and move, fashion and culture keep it restrained and embarrassed, you have to practice to relearn natural habits. That's my calling, relearning those natural habits. Check out ways to work with me if you're interested. In the midst of these uncertain times, we’re “All in the same boat, but not all in the same storm.” I wish I could remember who wrote those words, because the sentiment seems to perfectly encapsulate how differently everyone is experiencing the Covid-19 crisis. Personally I am alternating between fear and anxiety (which drives me to excessive production as a way to deflect the unknown) and acknowledging my decades of fatigue and exhaustion already brought on by excess productivity (which calls me to rest and contemplate and dream). As a result of these two states, I’m having bouts of insight that I’m moved to record here for the future shape of my work. However, I don’t want you to think that I am suggesting you should use this time to be, do, or change anything that doesn’t feel appropriate for you now. Even I can’t do that, and these are my thoughts. Just know that in the After Times, these posts will form the foundation of how I want to effect change in the world. Do what you can for yourself now. You too? Here's 2 stretches that are part of the Release & Relief program that can help ease your tech neck. Read more about the R&R program or reach out if you have questions! |
Fun Fact: I'm an herbalist and a movement coach. Not a doctor, or a pharmacist, and not pretending to be one on TV.
This is a public space, so my writing reflects my experiences and I try to stay general enough so it might relate to you. This does not constitute medical advice, and I encourage you to discuss concerns with your doctor. Remember, however, that the final say in your wellness decisions are always yours- you have the power to choose, you are the boss of you. And, some of my posts may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them I'll earn a few cents. Thank you for supporting my work. This website is provided for educational and informational purposes only and is not medical, mental health or healthcare advice. The information presented here is not intended to diagnose, treat, heal, cure or prevent any illness, medical condition or mental or emotional condition. Working with us is not a guarantee of any results. Paula Billig owns all copyrights to the materials presented here unless otherwise noted. Categories
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