The Tension of Stillness
The dichotomy and duality of it all
In the last two Mover’s, we talked about the Brace and the Torque, which are important concepts while in movement. But what do we do with our bodies in stillness? Sitting, standing, and lying down? Do we torque or brace 20% and hold in our abdominals? The answer is quite simple, but the pathway to get there is surprisingly challenging. It’s a strange dichotomy for stillness to be difficult, but it is a truth we can attempt to answer in many different realms of body and spirit. But one definition for stillness: we do nothing! We TRY to relax, and settle into the stacking of our bones for good posture and alignment without intentionally holding or activating at all. The hard part? We need to have the awareness of where we are holding tension and gripping. It just might be a reason for having pain!
Sitting
This story one is fresh off the tire tracks of our recent road trip. I am in the beginning of learning a meditation practice. I tried it once, but I found myself falling asleep, so why not just sleep?? But in these trying times, it’s good to have tools to relax the mind, body, and spirit. My whole life practice has been how to activate and move. What has been revelatory about meditation is learning to let go of the body. After a couple of sessions, my meditation teacher asked if I felt any different and in all honesty, I didn’t. He mentioned that I might feel my body unraveling. The practice unknowingly gave me the awakening of this awareness. I consider myself deeply aware of my body, but as a body moving through space. But put the brakes on inertia, and I was in a different galaxy. Turns out, I have zilch awareness in stillness! Now back to the road trip. It didn’t matter if I was the driver or the passenger, my body was tensing while sitting! My area of grip was my low back and left psoas. They are usually tight for reasons I didn't understand, until now! Every couple of minutes, I caught myself in the lower back/left psoas death grip and had to undo. And wouldn’t you know, 2 minutes later, the return of the death grip. And we are talking about a multi hours car trip. WHAT AND WHY??? Why was I so tense sitting and just now realized it? How long have I been doing this for? Yes my body was starting to unravel in the glamorous seat of my car. Even as I write this, I am constantly scanning and finding tension to undo. It’s quite a revelation and reason why I love being a Curious Mover, but I see the need to learn curious stillness as well.
Now you try it!
You don’t have to spend hours in the car like I did, but next time you are sitting, do a body scan. You can just be talking to people, or eating a meal. Start up and scan down. Check your neck, that’s a huge place to hold tension while driving or talking. Is your chin jutting forward to see the road or to talk to someone? That shearing adds a big strain on the neck, so try and relax it. Is your jaw clenching? It’s the ticket to having chronic headaches and high dental bills. Next check your right and left shoulder. Are they up by your ears? Could be just one shoulder acting crazy. Relax! Next check your fists. Are they balled up like you are trying to turn coal into diamonds? It happens! The tension, not the diamond part! Unravel. Next check your pelvis and low back. Yup that is my area, are you joining me? Let’s just chill there too! Continue down checking your gluts, are they squeezing for no reason? Then down your legs and feet. Can they relax (with the exception of driving, of course)? Do they have that nervous energy twitch through the feet that shake a table or annoy your neighbor sitting proximally?
Let it go, let it go!
Frozen 2 was so much better, but I digress. Take time this week to do some body scans for tension in stillness. The same scan applies for lying down and standing. In standing, use the ground and the bones to support you and stack for good posture and alignment while having muscles contracting naturally as needed for standing. Don’t put anything extra on that. It might help solve the mystery of the painful knee or tight neck. Join the no on tension in stillness proposition with me and let me know how you do!