Thursday, August 13, 2009

"Say, how's your back doing?"

I promised an update about my healingway down the line. Well, I'm down the line and I've been re-xray'ed by the chiropractor's office. Here's the skinny:

~My pelvic tilt has gone from 18mm to a mere 2mm! I am now wearing a heel lift in my left shoe and orthotics for my feet; they're remembering what it's like to have arches! (lol)
~The scoliosis curve in my neck is a fraction of what it was. (see what happens when you clear energy properly? lol) I've been given a stretch to do to further re-align myself, which is easily incorporated into my ever-developing yoga practice.
~I didn't look hard for signs of osteoarthritis, I'm afraid, but my chiropractor didn't mention it, so looks like that's no longer a concern. :-)
~I have a new pillow for my head and a wedge to stretch out my neck. I can feel the curvature of my neck returning.

I also did a purificationway with the chiropractor's cleansing system of choice, Isagenix. Yah, they're pretty good. My "chicken wings" are smaller, my calves are shapelier, and I can feel my collarbones, hipbones, and spine. Oh yes, I'm also at least fifteen pounds to the lighter.
...or, as one of the gals at Trader Joe's exclaimed the other day, "Ohmigod, are you getting skinny? You look GREAT!"
Yes, we could open up a whole can of whoop-ass around body image issues/myths/etc., but I was amused and took the compliment as it was intended, in high spirits. Maybe we'll go there later. (And yes, I'm such a regular shopper that several of the TJ's folks know me - by name!)
At any rate, weight releasing was not my primary goal; detoxification was - and judging by the subtle changes in my dietary habits, it was a total success in that regard!

And then there's the yoga practice...equal parts traditional asanas, qi gong, basic Western stretching exercises, and stuff I've added because it feels good. ;-)
In the beginning, I felt overwhelmed by starting a yoga practice - when do I start it? and there are an awful lot of poses here...am I going to have time to do all this? I noticed myself continuously putting it off, and putting it off, until I grabbed the bull by the horns: I'll start late at night, I eventually resolved, with one asana. Just the first one. Then I'll add on asanas one or two at a time as I go.
So although I'm only a bit more than halfway through the entire "official" practice, I'm moving on a rather consistent basis - and if I skip too many days, I can so feel it! I knew I had hit a turning point when I was at work one evening and couldn't wait to do yoga when I got home...ah, yes!
I've just incorporated my old nemesis, the Downward Facing Dog...though it's not as bad as it used to be. (Oh yes, I'd dabbled in yoga here and there before this healingway, and DFD is my least fave of the asanas, because my tendons are so damn taut, I can't put my feet down all the way onto the floor - believe me, I've tried! lol)

And, of course, I feel sooooo much better than when I started! Tension? what's that? ;-)
Although I do tense up at work, since I sit so damn much on my tuchis, I do make an effort to stretch my back out at regular intervals, and I walk around the building on my breaks. Then I can come home and do yoga. Joy!

So there's the physical stuff.
But, of course, that's only one dimension of my being.
That, however, is another story, which shall be saved for another time... (like, tomorrow, no worries! lol)

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