Healthy Tips: Body Awareness

Even a small improvement in function in our body when we are hurting and don't feel well can be like a breathe of fresh air. The change may also be something that you don't appreciate right away but the improvement in function that it allowed for, the step in the right direction, can be the turning point that determines whether you stay the same, get worse or start getting better. This change like a new way to walk, a drink of water, eating something light, satisfying and healthy or a chiropractic adjustment can be a functional improvement that takes stress off the body and allows it to heal itself instead of maintaining it or putting more stress on it. This change may not be all the change that you need , but it is, for the moment, huge.

Awareness of how your body is functioning especially at this moment of change can help you capture the subtleties that teach you how to improve quicker. [Changing positions slow and controlled and/or frequently for movement and circulation instead of not moving to avoid pain; finding low stress neutral body positions for rest instead of sitting or lying long periods on the couch for rest; drinking water and eating lots of fruits and vegetables to minimize inflammation throughout the body instead of eating comfort foods]. Improving quicker is usually building on your successes instead of experiencing the frustration of the peaks and valleies of an unstable and incomplete recovery because of not knowing what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.

Although, sometimes these ups and downs are necessary for the body or even the universe to communicate a deeper message, body awareness can help you get the message quicker.

It has taken me a lot of these ups and downs to learn this message.

Try for 30 seconds or some short period of time, to draw your attention out of your daily activities and onto your body position or the details of how it is moving. Try this 3 times an our for 4 hours, preferrably when you are busy because you will learn more, and see if you gain a greater appreciation of the body and the universe.

Dr McMaster