Decompress……

We all know what a terrific tool yoga is for decompression. The practice allows us to relieve stress and anxiety to reattain mental equilibrium.

But…

When you practice advanced asana, sometimes yoga can actually cause compression. On a physical level, that is.

Despite my strongest efforts to be incredibly mindful with my alignments, I have had to deal with shoulder and elbow pain for years. And earlier this year, I started suffering debilitating wrist and biceps pain for the first time, as well. So bad, in fact, that I honestly thought my yoga career might be over. Yes, that bad.

Finally, I told my massage therapist (best masseur ever, by the way!) and he said I was suffering from wrist compression. Something I had never even considered, but upon reflection realize that I have been working my one-handed handstand daily and intensely for many years now and, yes, that was when the pain was the worst.

Here’s what I did. And it worked miracles.

I got a pull-up bar.

This one: https://tinyurl.com/bz4ruc2s (this is NOT a paid or sponsored endorsement of any kind…promise!)

All I did to heal my arm was hang on it between OAH’s. No pull-ups, no strength maneuvers. Just simple hangs from all different handles and rotations. Internal and external arm rotations from the parallel and perpendicular grips. Just 3 – 5 breaths at a time.

Girl Scouts’ honor (even though I was never a Girl Scout, I do have honor), the result was basically immediate! From the very first hang, the pain went away from my wrist, all the way up to my shoulder. These days I feel 100% and honestly and truly stronger than ever before (did you see my 51 poses for my 51st birthday??? 🤸🏻‍♂️)!

Now, I do the hangs every day between OAH’s–even though I no longer feel pain–simply as a preventative measure. Sometimes preventative medicine is the best medicine.

Get your dose!

Old Dog, New Tricks

It’s not true what they say. Who the heck are they anyway?

You can teach an old dog new tricks. As long as the dog is willing to learn.

At 50 years old, the one thing I hear the most about people and relationships is that–by this age–people only become more and more entrenched in who and what they already are. They are too old to change.

And so, what you see is what you get. Don’t expect different and you won’t be disappointed.

I call bullshit. (Excuse my French).

At 50 years old, I can honestly say that I am still a work in progress. And I try my darnedest to progress every single day. I think it is imperative if I want healthy relationships that I am constantly evolving.

At 50 years old, I am willing to put in the hard work of changing because it’s not like I turned 50 and suddenly became perfect.

Growth is hard. It can be painful. It is slow, tedious, and messily nonlinear. It comes with steps forward, and it certainly comes with setbacks.

At 50 years old, I have a lot of perspective. And it is up to me to be willing to observe, own, and break 50-year-old patterns. Because there is no sense in giving up on me until I am dead.

And I am not planning on being dead any time soon.

People always tell me, don’t go into relationships hoping people will become something they are not.

I’m here to tell you that I, for one, do want to be what I am not.

I want my healthy relationships (of every kind) to bring out the best of who I am. I want to be kinder, gentler, more patient. I want to be more tolerant, less rigid, more receptive. I want to be more awesome. Because no matter how awesome I may already be, there is a heck of a lot more awesome just waiting to be tapped into.

Tap. Tap. Tap.