Last week was overwhelmingly busy time for this body sleuth! Here are the highlights that are relevant to My Pilates Body Boost.
On Wednesday…I must have discussed my somewhat frequent bouts with spasms of my trapezius muscle. Well, along with continuing to address my tailbone area, my upper left back has been clamoring for attention lately at my chiropractic and body work sessions. My chiropractor mentioned my trapezius a while back but it was my body worker who mentioned Eric Franklin’s (by way of Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, who totally rocked my world last weekend – I’ve got a post on that coming) description of the muscle currents that got me enjoying my trapezius in a refreshing new way. I’ve had the book for years, but I’m giving it a bit more attention now. Basically I’ve been envisioning my lower trapezius like the base of a podium, my middle trapezius like the tray, and my upper trapezius like some lovely sculpture resting upon the tray. It’s doing wonders for my posture, achy muscles, and integration of what I learned from Bonnie.
On Thursday…During my workout on the wunda chair, I fell off! I was doing the teaser while worrying about how exactly I’d navigate sustaining my career while having a second child (I should have learned from my first pregnancy that there is no point in trying to plan certain life circumstances around having a baby, we figure it out a long the way and we are nearly a year away from feeling ready for an addition to our family anyway). Clearly I was not focused on my Pilates, darn it all. But I was pretty relaxed. I watched calmly as my hands missed the pedal and as my reflection in the mirror went out of view and I fell back in what felt like slow motion. Little by little it seemed, I made it to the floor. I skinned my spine on the pedal. As my heart was beating, I decided that it was best to lay and recover while focussing on the place where I touched down. I reckon that I’ll have a pretty good bruise and I wonder how long it will take for the skin to repair since I think of bony spots as receiving less in the way of restorative blood circulation. After a couple minutes I surprised myself by finishing my workout. It would seem that I have successfully established a Pilates habit and for that I’m pleased. And as far as falling, well I suppose that the more years under my belt the greater my chance of falling would be. I’m hoping that just once is enough to teach me the important lesson of being mindful while exercising.
On Friday…A case of mastitis took me down. Mastitis is a curious thing to me. Despite my growing awareness and treatment arsenal, I was caught off guard yet again. In this case, I felt a tremendous soreness in my breast, but no hard areas and so I figured that something else was going on. But by the end of the day it was clear what was happening. My Chinese herbs, soy lecithin, steamed cabbage leaf compress, warm washcloth compresses before vigorous pumping sessions, and nine hours of rest, all contributed to a fairly swift recovery. Which is to say that I managed to keep my studio appointments over the weekend but still needed to take extra care. Husband and boy also needed an extra mellow weekend of recovery so much of the usual was scrapped and we just made do.
On Monday…I finished up an ongoing project for my studio which is a tremendous relief. Only today can I get back to whatever semblance of routine I manage to maintain. So this post is finally going up. I’ll get a workout, and generally feel like myself again. What a relief!
What with all these happenings, and with my reading of Quiet (finally) I’ve been having some interesting reflections. I tend to think that our response to challenges say a lot about us. But in order to respond, we have to know what is actually happening. It’s probably somewhat obvious to frequent readers that I am a sensitive sort of human, prone to really thinking things through. I’m realizing that in order to support my temperament I require a certain amount of quiet reflective time. When I don’t have that time it’s all to easy for me to miss internal signals because I’m in a state of overwhelm. This past week was full of such instances and the ensuing consequences. So it would seem that I can only take so much boost before I run the risk of being a droop. It’s partly why Pilates is so good for me because it is a moderate and meditative system of exercise. But it’s also why I have to be careful to keep my ambitions in check. The danger of my very active mind is that I suffer from over-inspiration. Good to remember and another reminder of why it is so very helpful for me to have this space. Not every idea requires action. Some are best put into words on the screen to take shape in other sorts of ways.