SIMPLE PAIN RELIEF with Kathryn Merrow, the Pain Relief Coach
It's NOT just "old age"! Discover the truth about why you hurt and the "secrets" to becoming pain free!
What’s the relationship between gratitude and pain?
It turns out that when you realize all that you have to be grateful for, your levels of stress and pain go down. That’s a very good thing!
Gratitude helps you feel better on ALL levels. Being thankful for what’s good in your life can help you feel warm fuzzies and that increases your immune response.
Increase Gratitude, Decrease Pain and Suffering. And start feeling better!
Is your posture good or not-so-good?
People with poor posture look like they are leaning or collapsing forward.
Often their head is way forward in front of their body (“forward head posture.”) The curve in their neck is either too much or too flat, and so is the curve behind their waist. Their shoulders round forward.
Poor posture impacts a LOT of your body! Almost every part of your body is affected by collapsed posture.
Here are several things you can check so you will know whether your posture is good or not-so-good.
1. Stand up and hold your arms at your sides in their usual position. Look down. If your thumbs are pointing to each other, your shoulders are rounded forward. Your chest muscles are tight and shortened. They are pulling your shoulders forward. 🙁 But, if your thumbs point straight ahead, your shoulders aren’t rounded forward. 🙂
2. Are you constantly straightening up and constantly collapsing forward again? That’s a clue that the muscles in the Continue reading “Is Your Posture Good Or Poor? How Can You Tell?”
Can your posture cause pain?
Oh Boy! It surely can! In fact, it does.
Poor, or collapsed, posture can cause pain in your head, neck, feet, legs, hips, hands, arms, upper and lower back. Why?
Because being out of muscular “balance” means that you are using muscles to do the job of bones.
With poor posture, your muscles are trying to hold you upright, but that’s the job of your bones. Muscles are for moving. Bones are for supporting.
All of your muscles attach to bones. When a muscle is overworked or overstretched because of poor posture, it causes pain.
Poor posture can even cause your organs–heart, lungs, intestines, stomach–to have difficulty functioning. Why? Because you are collapsing forward.
As you bend forward, all of your organs are compressed, or squashed. It is much harder for your organs to do their best job when they are squashed.
What can you to to correct your posture?
One important thing is to get arch supports (orthotics) for your shoes if your feet are “flat.”
How can you tell if your arches are flat?
Stand up with your weight the same Continue reading “Does Poor Posture Cause Pain? How Do Arch Supports Help?”
Did you ever think that there may be a simple, logical reason for most of your pain?
I’m going to share a secret with you. This is not something most doctors learned in school. That is why they cannot share it with you.
The most common reason for pain is, are you ready, muscle imbalance.
Let’s say that I sit for eight hours a day at a desk. Maybe I walk around for ten minutes during the whole day. My muscles get used to being in that seated position. Some muscles are shortened in that position. Some muscles are being unused, so they shut off.
Or maybe I drive around all day in my pickup. I like to stick my left elbow out the window and keep my right hand down low, on the gear shift. Of course, I have my right foot on the accelerator.
By and by, when I get out of my truck, those muscles will stay where they have become used to being. My muscles now think that this new position is comfortable. Now when I sit on the couch, I assume the same posture, because now it is “comfortable.”
We are always most comfortable in our dysfunction. Whatever we get used to is what feels comfortable to us.
Is it best for us? Will it help us grow older strong and straight?
The answers are no.
What muscle imbalance does do is cause us pain. Sometimes current pain, always future pain.
When we lose that nice balance we used to have, when we were toddlers, we are setting ourselves up for future pain and dysfunction.
Headaches, migraines, neck and shoulder pain are all caused by muscles complaining. Upper and lower back pain, carpal tunnel pain, almost any pain you experience is caused by muscles. When muscles are unhappy, they complain. When muscles complain, you experience pain.
It is never too late to get back into balance, and start getting out of pain. It takes some work and dedication, but is well worth the payoff: Having straight posture with a strong back will take us into old age in a healthy, happy body.
If you are already doing an exercise program of some sort, be sure to incorporate exercises to strengthen the backside of your body from neck to knees. Squeeze your shoulder blades toward your spine. Do exercises to strengthen your shin muscles.
Get more information on how to strengthen your whole backside at SimpleStrengthening.com.
Be strong and be happy.