As the world consciously awakens you hear that life should be ‘easy’ and you should ‘follow the path of least resistance’. Depression doesn’t work well with ease or least resistance, it is all about resisting. A way to uncover a lack of self-love is through the body and its sensations. To teach the body a good sensation makes an energetic, emotional and mental shift. Then the mind and ego cannot get caught in games to hold on to the past.
The Weight of the World on Your Shoulders
This saying reflects the energetic aspect of the shoulder girdle complex. When out of balance it cannot carry the weight of your world (your head) on it with ease. The shoulders are the body’s expressive output – your heart and voice are either side of the shoulder girdle.
The heart and throat chakras are closely linked in understanding how to live a fulfilled and joyful life. Imbalanced shoulders show up in your ability to show compassion, connect with others, and set healthy boundaries for yourself. When the heart is closed it cannot speak to the voice, you cannot hear what is best for you and communicate truthfully with yourself and the world. If the heart is too open it cannot define itself and the voice is unclear.
The glands in this region of the thyroid, thymus and heart are your rhythm of life. The thymus is important in immune function to fight disease whereas the thyroid balances fatigue, weight gain and hair loss. If encased in a tense and rigid ribcage then the glands and organs are impacted due to the nerves in the spine sending confused messages to the brain*. This impacts the function of the glands and in turn your moods. When you have less energy you are less compassionate and empathetic to yourself and others.
If the mind is in control and creating an imbalance, then it’s time to turn to the body to tell the mind that you are aligned and do care to live a fulfilled life.
Aligning Your Heart and Voice Through Your Shoulders
To make sense of this approach you need to know your basic anatomy of the region that connects your heart and voice. It is a complex of 3 joints and 24 muscles on each shoulder girdle – that is a lot that can go amiss. You don’t need detail at this stage but the basics include:
There are three shallow joints with a large range of movement from the sternum to the top of the arm bone. This creates a heavy reliance on soft-tissue attachments to hold it all together. Soft-tissue across several joints can become tense and rigid in the attempt to hold it all together. Where tension is felt is often not the cause of the pain. A stretch or massage of the shoulders will rarely resolve the problem because muscles need to be balanced in their length and strength to correct the muscle tension held in the body.
The diaphragm is the base of this region and can be impacted by the muscles around the region. This affects the breath becoming tighter and higher in the ribcage. Shorter and shallower breath makes you more tired, foggy-headed and stressed.
Shoulder pain can refer down to low back problems, neck issues that spread to the jaw and tension that become headaches. For me, it was several dislocations and whiplash.
The Resistant Experience of People Pleasing
Between shoulder dislocations, bronchitis and whiplash this region should have been obvious for me to address energetically. My logic-brained approach to living focused on the biomechanics only to resolving the issue. This is the first mind-body step to healing – get into your body.
IN MY BODY:
I have a ‘banana back’ so easy backbends and poor core strength. Pilates was a perfect pairing to help find balance. Yet, my practice was always a ‘workout’ and I enjoyed the sensations of ‘effort’ in my muscles. My body reflected too open a heart that became overly strong in how I approached the world. I never had back problems instead it was my shoulders and neck that suffered.
The Pilates Side Bend exercise and reformer Pilates classes taught me stability and the breadth of my capacity to hold others. I noticed my own strength yet I felt that it was being abused by others.
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THE EMOTIONAL SHIFT:
In Qi Gong I discovered the concept of ease in movement: this gentle yet strong constant flow of balance. To let the breastbone soften inward permitted space for me within my heart. As this softening spread throughout my body from my heart I could feel dis-ease in my body, but notably across my shoulder girdle and into the neck.
I noticed when this disease arose in my life and took me off balance. My physical body had become aware of what neutral felt like and made me conscious of the effort to find this ease in my body continuously throughout the day.
THE MENTAL PATH:
Resistance is full of thoughts and mental gymnastics to keep you engaged and entertained. As ease spread to my brain, I began to seek less effortful thoughts and those ‘fun’ of those problem-solving lawyer moments seemed just exhausting. I quite simply sought beauty in moments that would make me softly smile.
There are moments in life where we have a choice of facing or postponing an issue. Whether postponing is truly easier or not, I found that like lies, the longer you leave it the more complex the web to unravel. As I became more present to moments, I found myself addressing issues that did not support me rapidly and speaking more honestly about what was best for me. My heart and voice became stronger in representing me in the world.
IN MY RELATIONSHIPS:
I could never understand why I was so nice to others and they would just take advantage of it. Then I would become upset and the relationship fall into a mess. It seemed that being nice and generous wasn’t so great for my karma. What was I missing?
People pleasing is a habit of avoiding confrontation until you snap. This means that you have to learn to show up for yourself and address situations that create unease in your body. When you begin to hear and speak from within, you create your boundaries.
Holding to your boundaries can be very disruptive to unhealthy relationships. I lost people and situations I had loved deeply, but I was lost in that love. Through respecting my boundaries new people came to me who respected me and I formed healthy connections.
The Path of Least Resistance Has Boundaries
Michael @ Blue Osa
It is a path. Paths have a defined route or else you get lost. Your boundaries are your alignment with who you are. To know your neutral physical alignment and feel it with a sense of ease will help you steer the course of your journey.
As the sensation of ease in my body spread it eventually made it to my brain! This changed my behaviour and relationships. When I discovered my boundaries they kept me from losing myself in others and I began to get clarity on my dreams being achievable.
Life should feel easy. Like you are floating downstream and all you wish comes to you at the perfect time. The path of least resistance may be to address whatever is stopping you right now.
DISCOVER YOUR EASE
We are all different. For some, the mind is the place to begin and a mindfulness-based practice will help you discover your ease. For others, it is more energetic and we need to heal energetically through reiki or something similar. Whatever your approach is, we can support you through your journey of discovery.
Our TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM uses a mixture of practices from movement, mindfulness to coaching depending on what works best for you. Learn More https://omegamovement.org/transformation-program
YOGA THERAPY uses specific yoga techniques to target your needs. Learn More https://omegamovement.org/yoga-therapy