Simple Stress Busters
You can do anywhere and every day
By Evelyn Charters
Does the stress of your everyday routine create tension headaches, neck, shoulder & upper back pain?
Do you suffer from low back or hip issues?
Simple changes to your body’s alignment, your breathing and a little core control can help to banish your chronic aches & pains anytime you desire.
Try a little experiment and see how easily this can work for you …
1/ Sitting in a chair, slump & slouch as far as possible.
2/ Try lifting one arm at a time out to the side. Notice how high you can raise your arm.
3/ Try turning your head from side to side. Can you easily look over your shoulder? Notice how you feel in the neck & shoulder area.
4/ Now imagine that your spine is a string of pearls and the string comes right out the top of your head.
5/ The string is being lifted & lengthened by a helium balloon.
6/ Your entire spine starts to gently lengthen & lift creating space between each “pearl” or vertebrae.
7/ Now let one arm at a time float out to the side & notice how freely it lifts and how much higher than before.
8/ Notice how much easier it is to turn your head from side to side and how much further you can look over your shoulder.
Now that you have created more space in between your vertebrae, the bones of your spine, you have also created more space and freedom in your shoulder joints and your head & neck are no longer compressed and jammed together.
Let’s continue. Visualize your head almost floating off the top of your spine. Picture one of the “bobble dolls” with the floating, bobbing heads. Draw very small circles with the end of your nose, no larger than a loonie, clockwise and counter-clockwise.
Is your circle smooth and fluid or jerky and lop-sided? Let your breath flow evenly to try and smoothen out your circles; let the movement feel free and easy. Try a small figure 8 inside your imaginary loonie, vertically and horizontally.
Doing these small circles as smoothly and freely as possible, allows all the overly tight muscles in the head, jaw, neck & shoulder area to relax and release the unwanted grip of tension. Instant pain relief!
Now for some fun! Imagine a nose on the back of your head. Draw those small circles and figure 8’s in both directions, leading the movement with the back of the head. It’s not easy at first, but release & relax and you will get better with practice.
Our head position is often too far forward from sitting at the computer, driving etc. Doing these circles with the focus on the back of the skull, brings the head back in line with the spine. The head is now correctly aligned and this repositioning is often all it takes to relieve chronic pain and tension.
Not being aware of the way we habitually sit, stand and move is often the cause of our physical pain which then adds to our mental & emotional stress.
A certified Body Control Pilates instructor is a highly trained movement educator that will gently guide your body & mind, leading you into a new understanding of how to take control of your own body with a sense of ease and freedom.
Evelyn Charters has been a movement educator for 40 years. Contact her at Body Control Pilates® Canada. (416) 910-3834. info@bodycontrolpilates.ca. www.bodycontrolpilates.ca
2600 John Street, Unit 207, Markham, ON L3R 3W3 T: 905.475.5222 F: 905.475.6369
