Massage and Ortho-Bionomy in Omaha - Ric Chamberlin, LMT

Self-Care Part 2—A Practical Application
By Ric Chamberlin, LMT

Self-care is anything we do that addresses our own well-being physical, emotional, or spiritual.
This is explored in the article Self Care - A Gentle Approach.
In this article we continue to explore these concepts and look at some simple, yet effective ways to
improve our sense of well-being.
A gentle, honoring approach is suggested. We tune out the voices of others, telling us what we should
be doing, or our own inner critic that says what we are doing is not enough. Instead we listen to our
bodies to determine what we need and are ready for. When we honor "where we are at" rather than set
excessive expectations for where we want to be it becomes easier to sustain our self-care efforts and
advance to other things when we are ready.
When we acknowledge that "one size does not fit all" and instead look inside ourselves to see what does
fit we move closer to being aligned with our true nature, closer to being all we are supposed to be.

Sometimes figuring out what our bodies want and need means doing some research and trying different
things, keeping the things that resonate and work for us, discarding the things that don't .
What follows is one simple, yet effective, technique that might be useful to you for releasing tension and
stress, improving your posture, and enhancing your sense of well-being.
Many of us spend our workday sitting at a desk. One very common complaint I receive from people that
work at desks is upper back pain. This often happens because our bodies don't like being in one
position too long. On top of that when we put our focus intently on the work in front of us we lose touch
with our bodies, allowing our posture to slip and patterns of tension to set in. The chest muscles tighten
pulling us forward and closer to out work resulting in tension in the upper back.
Many people are aware that their posture is not ideal and try to adjust for this by taking on a rigid,
straight posture. The problem with this is that it usually only lasts as long as we focus on that straight
posture. When we re-focus on our work, our posture slips.

What can we do to stay in comfort?
Here is one simple technique that can very useful desk dwellers and anyone concerned about posture
and comfort.

Desk Dwellers Stretch

Break contact with your work.
Stand up.
Put your focus on your body.
Take a slow, deep breath in.
As you inhale raise your arms in front of you and over your head.
When you are ready to exhale slowly lower your arms to your side as you breath out.

That's it!

This simple, yet effective exercise takes no more than 30 seconds after which you are ready to sit down
and continue your work, revitalized and from a more comfortable position.

How can an exercise this simple be of benefit? Let's examine what you just accomplished:

You took your focus away from your work and put it on your body. This is necessary if you want to
allow your body to self correct and find comfort.
Normally we breath very shallow, which has limits. By taking even one deep breath we increase
the amount of oxygen and energy flowing through our system and reduce stress.
Raising our arms over our heads gives our spine a gentle stretch and straighten it out. It also
opens up the chest area, which was probably contracted and allows more energy to flow.
Lowering your arms to your side allows the spine to come to rest in a more normal posture
naturally, on it's own, without having to impose a rigid posture your body might not be ready for.
Doing this exercise regularly retrains the body to find, and stay in, comfort.
Another aspect is that this looks like a stretch anyone would instinctively do after being in one
position too long. No reason to feel uncomfortable doing this in front of coworkers.

How often should you do this? There is no one right answer. Every fifteen minutes might be optimum but
once an hour would go a long way. If you just do this once, rather than give yourself the message that
you are not doing enough, let yourself feel good knowing that what you are doing now is benefiting you.

The hardest part of this simple exercise may be just remembering to do it. This may not come easy at
first but if you do it just once and focus on the benefits, this is something that over time you can build on.

Empower yourself by honoring where you are now. Grow into all you were meant to be.

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