Relieving Baby Boomers Pain and Movement Challenges

There is no way to quantify the influence the baby boomer generation has had upon our world unfortunately, they are only now beginning to be aware of the price they are paying for their efforts... While their highly intelligent and articulate minds have produced amazing results their lifelong reliance upon protracted analytical thinking has conditioned their bodies to remain tight, locked and out of balance. Continual mental overuse along with accumulations of tension from past stresses has caused their bodies to develop progressive aches, pains, movement compensations, joint dysfunction and disease. Most are well informed regarding the nature of their condition(s). Unfortunately, this often results in an acceptance that positive body changes cannot and will not occur. Living with this attitude about their pain or dysfunction eventually causes them to identify with it as part of who they are. Then, resignation dominates their mind-body relationship. There is a way out; it is based on harnessing the inherent ability of the nervous system to adapt. The potential found in adaption is immense. All that is required is: 1) an open-minded approach to the body and its current situation and 2) clear nervous system leadership. Then, not only does the pain go away but progression into higher levels of function and movement becomes possible. Clear nervous system leadership is based on adopting a nervous system perspective. We can empower the nervous system’s ability to create balance, eliminate pain and restore function by supporting its capacity for adaption. Adopting this perspective reveals a deeper aspect of human intelligence whose relationship to life differs from that of your mental mind. Its domain is physiological responsiveness to direct experience. rnThe nervous system is the bridge between your external and internal environments. One of the ways it accomplishes this is through something called the reflex arc. This nervous system mediated reflex does not involve the brain. When a stimulus occurs in the environment, for instance, touching a hot object with your hand, it causes a signal to travel from your hand to the spinal cord. Immediately, the spinal cord sends a signal back to your arm causing it to retract. If the brain were to be involved, it would take too long and the burn would be much more significant. The reflex arc is also involved in the synergetic operation of muscles to provide you support and balance while seated and standing, walking, and most daily actions. The nervous system adapts to these repetitive motions and movements by programming them as habits. 
As a health professional, I am always asking the question of each client’s system; what programs has your body’s intelligence created because of the habits of your life? If you are like most, your life has been spent not only meeting job responsibilities but also managing constant parenting responsibilities, bearing financial concerns, meeting social needs, maintaining composure, overcoming daily challenges, reaching for higher aspiration and more while seated at a desk using a computer, the phone or other hand held devices. rnBecause the mind is busy with so many of these concerns, the body must meet these daily demands on its own. The intelligence deep in the body, left to its own devices is unable to take a higher perspective. It responds to its daily pressures by shifting into the excited physiological state called “Fight or Flight.” rnThis survival state prepares the body for action. One of these preparations is to tighten muscles in anticipation of some sort of physical action. Because modern life demands such a high degree of continual exertive energy, the body is forced to remain in “Fight or Flight” throughout the day. Unless you have interspersed each day of your life with deeply calming activities that trigger your nervous system to release its grip upon the “Fight or Flight” state, your muscle system has been conditioned to remain in a perpetually tightened physical state that pulls on all your joints. This system-wide tension leaves you vulnerable to injury. All it takes is one twisting motion and a back is out or a shoulder is impinged. Now the system has the additional duties of healing the injury and coping with the associated aches and pains along with the continued demands habitual tension places upon it. Now the physiological fun really begins! The usual reaction we have to pain is to brace against it. This bracing is part of a protective mechanism. The problem now is you have additional tension caused by the bracing added to an already tightened system. One joint affects all other joints. Local muscle and movement compensation to the injury occur to avoid experiencing pain and reinjuring the joint while system-wide muscle and movement compensations occur based upon the addition of this new situation.rnThe result is your adaptive nervous system learns to incorporate tension, pain and dysfunction as its “normal” state. Many have accepted this situation to be permanent however; it does not have to be this way. Pain or imbalance is not the body’s normal or natural state. The bottom line is the body does not want to be in pain or retain a dysfunctional state. The nervous system is always striving to regain a balanced or homeostatic environment. It is just waiting for you to provide it the right kind of leadership. 
Developing habits that release system-wide tension is the first step. Then learning to interrupt your habit to physically tense in response to daily life events is the next. You may have learned to mitigate your mental stress but this does not change or address your body’s habitual conditioned reaction to develop tension. Relieving your system-wide tension provides your dysfunctional limb the freedom to move with less restriction. Then you can incrementally progress towards increasing its range of motion. All it takes is patience and the ability to listen to your limb’s desire to release its tension.