Turning the ship

(an act of self-love)

Change happens at the neural level. That is what I remind my clients of. People think strength training or yoga is about training muscles, but it’s actually about training nerves to innervate the muscles. When we strength train properly, we are teaching our nerves how to communicate to the muscles. Nerves instruct muscles how to move the skeleton in the correct way, at the correct time, in the correct plane of motion.

The reality is, when we make changes in our lives on any level, we are actually rewiring our nervous system. Just like in any new activity this rewiring (i.e. the mastering of the activity) takes time, is a process, and very rarely is it ever instantaneous. Take a healing modality like therapy where we take the lid off past traumas and learn to heal- it’s like turning a huge ship around! It doesn’t happen on day one. It takes commitment to change the trajectory of thoughts and beliefs that have been in power for a long time. Maybe years. Maybe tens of years. Maybe 50 years.

All negative habits or illnesses - mental and physical- have their own trajectory. But- when we become conscious enough to want to make changes, to become better, stronger or more healed - we can intervene. We can start to turn the ship.

I have to bring it back to myself to share about it effectively. The times in my life when I have found myself symptomatic with chronic symptoms (migraines, nerve inflammation, gut issues, acid reflux, and the many others I have experienced) I can look and see that I was also….

• Under some form of mental or emotional stress

• Generally run down

• Out of touch with what I was eating

• Not drinking enough fluids

• Not keeping up with my supplements

• Not getting enough sleep

• Bored in my exercise regime (not cross-training)

The reality is when we shift all the above, there will be changes. There can’t NOT be changes when we dedicate ourselves to being rested and well-nourished. When we invite ourselves to look at and deal with emotional pain or trauma and commit to listening to the voice of our inner self. Our deepest selves already know what we need in order to thrive but the issue is that few people are really able to sit and start peeling back all the layers that are in the way of that truth inside us. (That is why illness is so prevalent in our country and in the world.)

Perhaps it sounds like I’m getting a little “woo-woo” and “spiritual” but it’s actually all just perfectly logical. It couldn’t be more logical. If you want changes in your life, if you wish to change the trajectory of your life, or any part of your life, you must be willing to give up the old way and begin to rewire yourself. You rewire yourself by simply doing things differently than you were before. Perhaps you need support from a professional or perhaps you don’t- but either way, just like if you were learning to hold a yoga pose for the first time, over time….it gets easier. And one day you notice you are feeling much better, much stronger, more agile.

You must be willing to give up the things you think are keeping you from falling apart. (Also known as your crutches.)

You must be willing to think differently and act differently against all (seeming) odds.

You must begin to turn the wheel in another direction even if you are scared.

You must be willing to identify and abandon what holds you back.

XO

C