EQUIVITA
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Mission
    • Contact/Location
    • Media
    • COVID Protocols
  • Services
    • Initial Fitness Review
    • Fitness
    • Group Classes
    • Massage Therapy
  • Virtual Studio
  • Partners
    • Equanimity
  • Blog
  • Community

Relaxing Into Authenticity, Part 3

6/21/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
by Carla Fox RYT500, TFT
Part 1
Part 2

​The last two installments of this blog series addressed disconnection from oneself, over commitment and how these things begin to manifest in life. You can read those if you click here! In this piece we begin to look at how yoga can be effective in addressing the physical forms of So how do we move through this gap, and into our true selves? Here is the part where things start to open wide and some movement, on all levels, can begin to happen. Tools!
It is the beginning of restructuring one’s approach to the world. Feeling and living the recognition that doing more, or adding onto what is already probably too much in life is not going to cultivate the sense of peace that many are missing. It is in doing things differently that we start to feel our way back to ourselves, the felt sense of our wholeness. Which again, was never gone. It was never not there. This is about overcoming one’s elementary stress, the stress of being separated from your own way of being, or one’s core spirit. Separated from living your own truth. This is not the same as the external stressors of circumstance in the world. The external stressors and how they are handled are road signs. They are the indicators of how we are within ourselves. The goal is to find the tools that help move elementary stress into vitality, the energy we need to thrive in our lives; to use tools to move into living, relaxing in our authenticity.
Yoga, by its very definition is something to serve this population. It is to yoke, to join. It is the act by which wholeness becomes realized and witnessed at the same time. Taking the human being out of elementary stress, and bringing them into vitality to experience their birthright of joy and success.
We want to awaken some awareness in the physical body. Practices are needed that wake up the rhythms that exist within us as particular beings, those rhythms that match the universal, natural rhythms of the earth. When you begin to live and move with the rhythms of nature, your mind becomes more lucid and more peaceful and your health improves. Your entire life becomes easier. Maya Tiwari The Path of Practice: A Woman’s Book of Ayurvedic Healing (New York: Wellspring/Ballanatine 2001), 5. Simply beginning with a body scan, observing all the parts of the body, is a safe, effective way to get in touch with sensation that may be dulled. Movement based on body sensing, briefly guided, and then encouraged for each individual to explore independently offers the chance for people to step into their own inner guidance. The challenge there is in allowing oneself to hear it and follow it. This practice has potential to unearth deep, powerful coding from the physical form. Women have wisdom in their bodies that need an outlet, and once given that outlet, the effect can be strong in restructuring patterns for the individual and their community. Because women have always been the guardians of life’s wholesome practices, when we strengthen our health and spiritual power, we also strengthen the health and wisdom of the men, children, and communities around us.” Maya Tiwari The Path of Practice: A Woman’s Book of Ayurvedic Healing ( New York: Wellspring/Ballanatine 2001), 5. The positive effects of asana have been documented any number of places at this point in our history. In relationship to women relaxing into their authenticity, it could be said that trying on any number of practices until you find one that is “juuuust riiiiight” would be the way to go. Take a page from Goldilocks. One form of practice in the physical body that serves very well to begin to hear what is just right is restorative yoga. To relax is to rest deeply. This rest is different from sleep… Relaxation is a state in which there is no movement, no effort and the brain is quiet. Judith Lasater Relax and Renew ( Berkeley, CA: Rodmell Press 1995), 5. Rest is where we digest. This includes our food, our information, our emotions, and our experiences. Everything we consume must be integrated in some way. Rest is the time when change can occur, and restorative yoga offers the guidance for the body to allow rest to occur on all levels.

To learn more about restorative, you can join a class at EQUIVITA, next class starting Monday, July 25th! The next piece in this blog series will delve into the energetic, mental, emotional and other subtle effects.


0 Comments

I Do Not Want to Change Your Gait

6/8/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Adam Milligan, President EQUIVITA

This time of year as the weather gets nicer a lot of people run outside. Being trained in biomechanics, I can assure you that seeing so many runners just makes it painfully obvious why running is damaging to a lot of people. The bouncing, rotation of the knee to foot and rounded back are all easy ways for the body to place the impact of each stride onto your joints and away from your muscles. But, as painful as it is to witness the joint stress I understand that it is a choice and there are reasons why a runner might choose to not disrupt the gait pattern.


We know that athletes often do much damage for their sport and to achieve success they do not focus on how they are moving. In fact, there are times when the unique movement patterns they have allow them to achieve in a way that they would not be able to without sacrificing their body.

So, if you can run farther or faster or jump higher because you are not using as much muscle then that could be a choice that you make. A choice where you accept the wearing out of your joints - and the surgeries, replacements and ongoing pain - as the cost of your performing in your sport.

Even those who are not competitive athletes may choose to run in a way that is more natural because it is more enjoyable or fun. And I understand that 'natural' is a word that nowadays has a positive implication, but here it means running in the most efficient way and that is the way that places the stress away from the muscle. But it doesn't take as much focus to maintain while you are running and it seems like you can do so much more without getting exhausted.

That last line should really be your clue. Your body will find the easiest way to move. Measurements like distance and speed do not provide you feedback on how your body is moving and the easier you can achieve those goals the more likely it is that you are using less muscle.

Using muscle is the goal for things like fat loss, muscle tone and health. Not focusing on how you move is about performance.

Unfortunately, the majority of us were never taught this differentiation. We live in a society where people - younger and younger - are tearing up their bodies for sport. Have you seen the number of kids that are getting orthopedic surgeries?! But as with so many health related issues, addressing the cause is far too costly and time intensive. So we focus on trying to clean up after the damage, dealing with injuries and symptoms.

Being proactive is hard, especially when it comes to our health. It takes effort and focus that seem like a luxury when nothing is yet failing.I designed the Initial Fitness Review as an education tool. It is an assessment that provides you with information on how you move your body so that you can make informed choices.

It is your body and it is your choice to place greater stress and impact onto your joints or on your muscle, my goal is simply to ensure you know that it is a choice. Because how you move your body has a great impact on your quality of life now and in the future.

As always, let me know how I can help.
 
Adam

0 Comments

    EQUIVITA

    This blog is written and updated by the staff that support EQUIVITA. Individual blog posts are the thoughts of the staff member that submitted the post.  The content of these posts often support the thoughts and ideas of our organization, but do not always(and we scarcely use definitives) reflect the same thoughts or ideas of the organization as a whole.

    Archives

    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

    Categories

    All
    ACSM
    Ailments
    Alignment
    Anti-inflammatory
    Back Spasm
    Biomechanics
    Body Building
    Exercise Recommendations
    Fat Loss
    Fitness
    Health
    Hypertrophy
    Image
    Massage
    Muscle Spasm
    Pain
    Protein
    Stabilizer Muscles
    Throw Out Back
    Trigger Point

    RSS Feed

15o8 Hess St.,
​Columbus, OH 43212
​614.298.8781
Copyright ­© 2015 Body By Me.
​All Rights Reserved.


Sign In/Register


EQUIVITA is proud to serve our community for over 18 years.

Picture