This practice will help create softening and ease in the shoulders. Go slow, and as you develop a habit with these movements, try slowing down to 10 or even 20 breaths per movement.
Author: doctorsamz (Page 2 of 5)
This slow low back opener is great if you tend to be tight, compressed, stiff in the low back. If you have electric or shooting pain down the legs, don’t do this one, just give me a call at 415-735-1778, and let me see if I can help.
Increasing your range motion and flexibility in your rib cage and thoracic spine can help you breathe fully, calm down the chattering monkey mind if your nervous system is stressed out and wound up, and generally just feels good. Give it a try, it’s a quicky!
This exercise is great for opening up the breath, and increasing mobility through the ribs. 5x to each side is plenty, just keep your shoulders dropping!
A lot of people ask me if they need a chiropractor. Short answer: yes, you have a spine and a brain and we keep those running smooth. Longer answer, well… watch!
Coming out isn’t just a matter of disclosing a sexual or gender identity. For many LGBTQIA+ people, it’s a lifelong and even a spiritual practice; I look inward, I find what’s really there – what’s really true about who I am – and I bring what I find outward, to share and show myself authentically. I name aloud what and how I am. I use the phrase “coming out” to denote that I’m doing my work of self-discovery and revelation.
Which is to say:
MOM, DAD, I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT: I’M A WIZARD.
Ok, this is maybe not that shocking an announcement, since “Posture Wizard” has been on my business cards for over 3 years. Bear with me a second.
I got into Chiropractic so that I could have a set of technical skills and knowledge to really help people, and a “doctor” in front of my name to lend me credibility. Before I started school, I had this thought:
“I’ll be a chiropractor so I have a convincing and socially acceptable smokescreen behind which I can take people on transformational journeys in their bodies.”
When I started school, to my absolute shock, I discovered that this is already a well-established tradition in chiropractic.
What I’ve been learning in quarantine (the Mandatory Introspection Period, as my best friend terms it) is that the most meaningful work I can offer is work that is transformational, at least a little bit magical, and rooted in a philosophical position that the body itself is our greatest spiritual teacher.
The best results I know how to deliver involve not just healing the physical structure of the body, but transforming the entire story of our lives to be one of deeper meaning, greater joy, and more heartfelt connections. Healing and understanding the body is the best way I’ve learned to do that.
I have resisted that word, “spiritual” for a long time. I don’t want to be one of those chiropractors. I’ve wanted to be taken seriously. I’ve wanted to be seen as a “legitimate” doctor.
But when I look at my values, there are two things that matter most to me:
- This process of turning inward to learn, turning outward to name and share what I’ve found.
- Loving people so hard that they can’t help but start loving themselves more.
And that is literally my spiritual practice, y’all. When I use the word ‘wizard’ to refer to myself, I mean I’ve practiced diving into the dark inside, and naming the lights I find there. It means I can hold the flashlight for you while you dig, and hold your hand when it gets hard, and cheer for you when you catch a fragment of truth in there.
Helping people grow and evolve and share who they truly are is the Great Work. I am glad you’re doing it with me. Let’s make the world a better place by growing into who we are meant to be. The world needs us all awake and fully alive.
This practice is a special application of the Seated Seaweed practice, targeting the neck. If you haven’t done the seated seaweed practice, start there.
This 5 minute practice helps reduce muscular neck tension, and even more importantly, guides the nervous system away from the fight-or-flight self-defense mode and back into rest-digest-connect-and-heal mode, where we thrive.
This practice is great for quickly soothing the nervous system, turning down the fight-or-flight response, inviting your brain to remember to breathe, and reset yourself back into the rest-digest-connect-heal mode.
Remember to use the lightest possible pressure; you’re looking to soothe the brain and ask the tissue to lengthen, you’re not trying to work out knots!
See if you can notice:
- your brain chills out (fight or flight drops, mental chatter quiets)
- your body feels looser afterward (fuller breath, wiggle-factor increases, more fluid movement)
- emotions might move a bit more (increase intensity, decrease intensity, suddenly appear or disappear)
This practice is drawn from the work of the incomparable Dr Satya Sardonicus. Check out her site here.
This series of movements will increase your mobility slowly and gradually (ie safely and sustainably) if you practice them regularly. There are two goals with this work:
- Soften and open the joints and surrounding tissues gently and safely
- Turn down the fight-or-flight response in your nervous system, particularly for folk with trauma or injuries in or around the pelvis.
See if you can notice:
- Your brain chills out (fight or flight drops, mental chatter quiets)
- Your body feels looser afterward (fuller breath, wiggle-factor increases, more fluid movement)
- Emotions might move a bit more (increase intensity, decrease intensity, suddenly appear or disappear)
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