Have you been suffering a lack of movement during the shutdown? Are you stiff, achey, and sore? 

I know, me too. No matter how much things have changed for you, chances are almost 100% that your regular routines have been upended and you're not moving as much or as well as you were just last month. Ugh.

Let's not beat around the bush.

• I want to teach you a simple, fundamental move that will relieve most of your aches and pains, and I want to share a common herbal remedy that will help the relief stick
• You want to feel better, move better, and even rest better

Sounds like we need to hang out!👍

What are you doing next Wednesday, May 6, at noon EST? Not much? Great, you should join me then for a FREE webinar!

What kind of webinar? Well, in classic Paula style, it will include some interesting facts, some movement practice, and a bit of plant medicine. I'm going to show you a super easy, sitting-in-a-chair position that has the potential to to remove the strains and stresses on your body from poor posture and improve everything from low back pain to reflux (if you practice). (We're also going to share a spot ☕ of tea.)

It's a tiny shift, a subtle habit to form, that can rock your world. And it can be yours, in less than an hour, on a Wednesday afternoon. Not bad, hmm?

And like I said, this is FREE. Zero dollars. Gratis. All you need to do is register HERE, and you'll get the link to the webinar, as well as the details you'll need to know beforehand, in your email. 

Oh, and why not invite a couple friends too? This'll be fun!

Have you ever felt the slow, disorienting fall? Sure, I’ve missed a step, stumbled, tumbled, crashed, and just plain dropped. But that one time, on a street corner, it was very different.
 
I had food bags in both hands, I was contemplating how I was going to reach my keys when I got to the parking lot, and I stepped into a handicap ramp on a corner.
 
It was early spring, a beautiful day, and the restaurant across the street had an outdoor deck full of diners. A winter’s worth of plowing had deposited a good layer of tiny gravel and glass shards on the ramp, and I put my foot down. It just didn’t stay there.
 
As I started to slide my mind shattered into about a dozen pieces:

• I'm falling backwards! I worried about hitting my head
• I'm sliding forwards! I worried about ending up in the busy street
• The gravel was so LOUD! It was surprising
• Will anyone from the restaurant deck see me?
• Don’t squash the food. Don’t squash the food.
• What is happening?!

What’s the point?
 
Simply, that one day you may also find yourself on unstable footing, unlike anything else you’ve ever experienced before, and in need of grounding, direction, or even adaptation.
 
Sometimes it’s something physical that changes you dramatically. Sometimes is your perception or acceptance of what's “normal” or “reality”. Whatever it is, it can shake you up and make you lose your senses.
 
And I get it. I can help.

I’m stepping into the space of working on our physical foundations, literally and figuratively. Whether you’re trying to avoid, recover from, or adjust to your own slide in the gravel, we’ll get you settled first, see what’s what, and build a framework to help you work in the strengthening and supporting practices I give you- like scaffolding.

​You're not alone.

​You can’t trip over an exercise article without mention of the “core”. But seriously, who cares? Well, it IS pretty useful, in all honesty.
 
Our bones exist for our muscles to pull on them (among other reasons, of course. Cool it, #anatomynerd) We need our muscles to pull on our bones to move, like a lever and pulley system, but also to stabilize the pulleys (joints) so we don’t fall apart.
 
The core is cool because the middle of our torso doesn’t have any bones. Instead, layers of muscles between the pelvis, ribs, and spine work to help keep us upright, to keep us from peeing ourselves, and to create “intra-abdominal pressure”- useful for things like digestion and blood pressure.
 
So the core is really the front, back, top, AND bottom muscles of the torso- abdominals, pelvic floor, diaphragm, spine muscles. They’re supposed to have some give and take, some ability to expand and contract, and not just be locked in for that impossible-to-attain washboard looking thing.
 
Besides, if the rest of your body is mis-aligned, the core can’t work the way it’s supposed to anyway. What does this look like?
 
At the bottom end of things, the core is attached to the hips and pelvis. So if your leg and hip muscles are uneven, unengaged, or unbalanced, they will pull your core off-center and impact the function of everything from your feet to your spine.
 
At the top end, rib flaring is common in our “chest out, belly in” culture. We learn how to Stand Up Straight by throwing out the chest, not by straightening our alignment- it’s fake posture. This puts an awful lot of strain on the psoas (pilates peeps, you knew I couldn’t get through any mention of anatomy without the delightful psoas making an appearance!!) and on the neck.
 
Any kind of alignment issues will literally mess you up from your feet to your forehead.
​

Rather than thinking of the core like a “wall” with a front and back, think of it like a balloon. Your abdominals wrap around your torso like plastic wrap (or a corset), your pelvic floor supports it at the bottom, and your diaphragm supports it at the top.
 
What would happen to that balloon if you squeezed it in the middle (the equivalent of sucking your belly in)?
 
First, all your organs get squeezed, and they’ve got nowhere to go. They lose all movement and blood flow is reduced. For context, a good deep breath can move your kidneys 3 inches side to side.
 
Second, all that squeezed intra-abdominal pressure has to go somewhere, and it only has 3 choices- up, down, or out.
 
If you squeeze the balloon and the top bulges, now you’ve got pressure pushing UP on the stomach, esophagus, etc. Reflux, and all its friends, are common. Plus, since blood flow is being cut off any kind of inflammation in there (think: leaky gut, ulcers, esophagus erosion) can’t be healed very well.
 
Bottom-directed pressure pushes on the pelvic floor. This can look like urge or stress incontinence (I can’t hold it vs sneeze pee), prolapse (or enlarged prostate in men), pain (during elimination, sex, sitting, walking, etc), constipation, or the like.
 
Out-pressure exits through the belly button. Hernia. ‘Nuff said.
 
Absolutely NONE of these are easy issues to deal with. Wouldn’t you rather avoid them in the first place?
 
The very first thing you can do to help is relax your belly, right now. Then, by the time you’ve finished reading this sentence, relax it again. Got you, didn’t I?
 
The idea of sucking in is so very, very ingrained. It’s good for support. It’s good for looks. It’s good for who knows what else. But it’s not. No more than tight shoes or tight bras or tight shirts and jackets are good for us, regardless of how we think they look.  

At what point does a toddler’s cute round belly become a sign of “letting yourself go”, and who taught you that anyway? It’s crap. They know how to move naturally, let's take some lessons from the under-3 set.
 
Your core muscles reflexively engage when you need them. They relax and allow for internal functioning when you don’t. Yes, you can work with someone like me to align and strengthen them when lifestyles aren’t challenging enough to do it already (that’s most of us, tbh.) You can also make sure you’re breathing when you move, that’s a massively important part of the core reflex.
 
The biggest thing you can do, though, is relax your belly.
 
Sucking in only rearranges your internal organs. It does NOT support, stabilize, brace, or improve anything. And yet, just about everyone has this habit, me included. The practice is just to relax, over and over and over, retraining yourself that relaxed is normal.
 
Yes, there’s conversations to be had about the position of the pelvis, and muscle recruitment patterns, and stress responses and habits, and other such related subjects. And yes, there’s LOTS of practitioners out there besides me who have wonderfully helpful and accurate things to teach you about this.
 
Learn from them, or from me, whichever- just learn it! Your body is supposed to work and move, fashion and culture keep it restrained and embarrassed, you have to practice to relearn natural habits. That's my calling, relearning those natural habits. Check out ways to work with me if you're interested. ​

In the midst of these uncertain times, we’re “All in the same boat, but not all in the same storm.” I wish I could remember who wrote those words, because the sentiment seems to perfectly encapsulate how differently everyone is experiencing the Covid-19 crisis. Personally I am alternating between fear and anxiety (which drives me to excessive production as a way to deflect the unknown) and acknowledging my decades of fatigue and exhaustion already brought on by excess productivity (which calls me to rest and contemplate and dream). As a result of these two states, I’m having bouts of insight that I’m moved to record here for the future shape of my work. However, I don’t want you to think that I am suggesting you should use this time to be, do, or change anything that doesn’t feel appropriate for you now. Even I can’t do that, and these are my thoughts. Just know that in the After Times, these posts will form the foundation of how I want to effect change in the world. Do what you can for yourself now. 

​You too? 
Here's 2 stretches that are part of the Release & Relief program that can help ease your tech neck. 
Read more about the R&R program or reach out if you have questions!