Weight of the World on Your Shoulders?

​Gentle stretching, done frequently, with attention, and intention, can make a world of difference to your life.
That is no exaggeration.

“He’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders“, is one of the classic phrases used to describe the person who worries, overreacts, and can be generally besieged by problems in life, many of which don't exist.

Marcel Proust, the French, philosopher, and writer said on his deathbed, “my life has been a series of catastrophes, most of which never occurred“.

The inner shoulders, known as the area of Primary Control, can create tension, stress, and even massive distress.
Inappropriate stress often comes  from seemingly insignificant small events. A missed phone call, a red traffic light, a parking ticket, being late for an appointment, all relatively small things in themselves, but they can accumulate into a massive force. The cosequence is physical tension and distress.

When we train, and when I say train, I mean teach, or inform, when we train our minds and bodies to adapt to a particular state of being loose, composed and calm, we lessen the effect of physical reaction to life’s events.

Much of the stress experienced today comes over time from our physical reactions to events that take place daily.
When we become even mildly alarmed, our shoulders tense, our muscles tighten, adrenaline pumps our systems in readiness to fight or flee. Tense muscles act like clamps on the circulation system, and place massive pressure on the heart and on the arteries. This can become habit.
The wrong kind.
It creates inappropriate tension and as we continue to do it frequently, we get good at it and suffer chronic tension.

We can reverse this.
By teaching our bodies to be at ease, composed and free from conditioned tension, we unlearn the wrong habit and begin to reteach ourselves  to be free of much, if not all, of the stress we place on ourselves.

If we are in agreement that life is not so much about what happens to us, but about how we react to what happens to us, then we have a clear path to reacting, and even responding, to circumstances that can change the quality of the lives we lead.

Learning the state of composure and the condition of mindful attention to how we are using ourselves allows us think more clearly in any situation.

 As we know, what undoes us in stressful events is not so much the circumstance with which are faced, as it is how we react to it.

Which is another way of repeating that venerable adage, 'Life isn't so much about what happens to us, as it is about how we respond to what happens to us.'

For information on the innovative and effective workshops coming up in the latter end of June, see HERE.