Do I have to live with more pain as I get older?

I want to share something with you.  Every single day I talk to people around my age (turned 50 in January!) and you know what I hear most often coming out of their mouths....all of the health challenges and the pain they are having.  Yes, we have turned into our parents and grandparents.  

But here's the important thing.  I know, in my heart of hearts that you don't HAVE to surrender to pain in your body.  And this is how I know.  I have struggled with lots of different health challenges MOST of my life and the truth is, NOW, 95% of the time, I have NO PAIN.   This isn't to say that I don't have challenges, I do.  However, physical pain isn't one of them.  And as a yoga teacher of 22 years and as someone who has tried lots of different approaches to health and wellness, as well as serving hundreds of people,  I know you can find a way to tend to your health where you can feel better as you get older.  Do things change, yes.  Is it a shift of lifestyle, yes.  Is it easy, no.  Is it worth it, ABSOFREAKINGLUTELY.

I talk a lot about emotional health and the nervous system but did you also know that your nervous system also affects your physical body?

Your nervous system lives inside your fascia which is the connective tissue of your body.  That system is a system of nerves that looks like roots or branches and it is designed to keep you alive and protect you.  It’s always sensing danger or safety and then shifting your system into different states to help you protect (fight/flight/freeze or dissociate) when there’s a threat and regulate (feel safe, at ease, open to possibilities, excited, play) when it feels safe.  When we’re in a state of threat there is going to be more tension, tightness, hypervigilance, and sensitivity to pain OR the opposite side of the spectrum, hypermobility (too loose in joints) which can also cause pain.  

If you have stuck stress energy in your body from current or past experiences that is called Trauma.  And the stuck energy can cause these protective responses and patterns to turn on causing chronic pain patterns in your body, sciatica, shoulder pain, back pain, knee pain, neck pain, migraines, and chronic fatigue.

In order to shift these patterns working with the nervous system in a gentle systemic way is crucial in repatterning how your system responds to stress

ALSO, your physical movement routine will also help with your nervous system.  More exercise is not always the best approach.  What I have found over the decades is that doing the same type of exercise all the time can have detrimental effects.  For example, there was a time in my life where I was doing strong 1-2 hour yoga practices 4-6x/weekk.  Right away you might think that is impressive but I will tell you, I had lots of pain.  I had a chronic shoulder injury, chronic neck and shoulder tightness, and sciatica that would flare up the more I practiced.  Too much of a good thing becomes detrimental to your health!

Now, I’ve found a rhythm with exercise that keeps me pain-free.  One of the most amazing things I’ve done is mixed it up.  I’m going to share what works for me but it’s likely NOT what works for you.  The point is to continue to experiment with something for a bit and let your body tell you if it’s too much or not enough.  Like, if you have pain that won’t go away or chronic tightness patterns etc something needs to change.  Keep experimenting and checking in to see what your body says to you.

I do:

Yoga (1-2 x)

Bowspring (1x)

Long walks (almost daily)

Dance class, Salsa or Bachata, or choreography  (1-2x)every week.  

The variation is so so important and so is doing LESS.

Need to add something different into your routine?

Join us for a class this week

Wednesday 9:30-10;30am Bowspring

Satruday 10am-11:15am Yoga

Class recordings available if you can’t make it live

Register here and I’ll send you the recording link

With LOVE and Regulation

Dorie

I'm Feeling Emotions My Mind Doesn't Understand

You're sitting at dinner and all of the sudden your chest gets tight and you feel like you want to run out of the room.  That's weird, you think.  There's nothing specific happening that would evoke such a big emotion but yet your body is screaming at you, "get out of here!" 

It's confusing and your mind wants to figure it out.

You feel exhausted but you had a good night sleep.  Why am I so tired.

You are spacing out but you've had your coffee.  Why am I so spacey?

You're irritated at everyone you come in contact with today but you don't understand why.  Why am I so irritated?

Let's make some sense of this.

Your Nervous System's Memory bank:

Once you start to connect that what you're experiencing is in your nervous system, you realize you don't have to figure out why you feel the way you feel.  (A relief, right?!?!?).  What you're feeling might be from something that's happening in the moment or it could be that something that's happening in the moment is reminding your system of something that happened in the past.  Your Nervous System has a memory bank and it remembers everything you have ever experienced, some say it can go back to conception and even generationally. 

Ultimately the goal is to feel different.  Here's how:

Instead of trying to figure out why you feel the way you feel, shift your attention to your Nervous system which you can also think of as your body's brain.  Identify what state your NS is in, then use tools to regulate and digest any emotional charge that's in your body.  This is a moment-to-moment process of being in a relationship with your nervous system which is honestly the longest relationship you're ever gonna have.

Working with your nervous system is the quickest way to shift out of feeling anxious, stuck, depressed or overwhelmed because your nervous system directly affects your thoughts, emotions, behaviors/impulses.

You ready?

Reply to this email with "I'm ready" in the subject line to schedule your

Why Mindset, Affirmations and Talk Therapy May Not Work for You

Have you found that when you try to change your thoughts/mindset or do affirmations, it might feel good at the moment but it doesn’t change how you feel long term?

This doesn’t mean that you’re doing it wrong or that there’s anything wrong with you.

The reason these practices aren’t working for you is that working with your thoughts accesses the cognitive part of your brain. When you are feeling stuck, anxious, overwhelmed, or depressed, that is originating in your nervous system which is your brain in your body. This is the part of you that feels emotions, sensations, sees images and has impulses. This part, your somatic nervous system part, detects and sends 80% of the information from your body to your brain. Only 20% goes from the brain to body.

Nervous system repatterning is totally possible and proven, it’s called Neuroplasticity.

How do you effectively shift how your respond to stress?

Adopt this 3 step system. Remember, this is a Lifestyle, not a quick fix:

1. Educate -> learn how the nervous system works and more importantly how YOUR nervous system works. This is a VERY important step. You can’t just do some mindfulness exercises and then voila all is well forevermore.
2. Regulate -> develop of toolbox of nervous system regulation tools that work for you so that you can build regulation into your system. This is a daily practice of regulating and building a relationship with your nervous system to support yourself in feeling grounded, at ease, open to possibilities, curious and interested in connecting with others.
3. Repattern - once you have more regulation on board you can learn how to move emotions through your body to full digestion. Learning how to do this is a superpower that we should have learned in science class when you learned about your body. You will be able to clear stuck stress (aka Trauma) and move through challenging emotions when they arise.

I invite you to contact me here to schedule a one-on-one consultation to talk about what it will look like to work together

With LOVE and Regulation
Dorie

PS. Check out the weekly class schedule for Somatic Movement Classes