Physical Health: Shoulder Therapy

I love my shoulders again! Last week I fell down twice on the icy steep steps of Leith Hill, landing hard into my right wrist and tennis elbow (caused by making cappuccinos and lattes). At the weekend I needed to catch up on computer work and pushed things a little too far by sitting for 8 hours in a seated crossed leg position on my bed huddled over my laptop and using a trackpad. By Sunday, my right shoulder had begun to seize and by Monday it felt like I was heading for a full repeat of my frozen shoulder two years ago. But I had learned something from that episode, to keep my shoulder moving at all costs. So this time I did not hesitate to take Ibuprofen to help me deal with the acute pain and enable me to explore every range of movement possible in my arm and shoulder. Monday's class supported me greatly and then after the class I did a two hour practice of gentle and flowing movement focusing on releasing my shoulders without taking the joints to their end range of movement.

There was playfulness in the movement, swinging the arms like a monkey, twisting my body with flowing arms and reaching in an offering gesture from side-to-side, moving into a floppy forward bend to a soft shouldered standing position with fingers gently interlaced behind my head and raising each arm and cupping the elbow with the opposite hand to slide the hand down to the middle of the back. It worked. I slept that night without waking in pain, woke without any stiffness at the elbow, even the tingling in the middle finger had subsided. The greatest thing of all was that I was in the best mood ever with the most energy ever. Glad to be without physical pain, my mind had also been released so that I appreciated my health and happiness and felt like I had been given a new chance at life. Strange but true, we learn from not having what we usually have and cultivate a deeper gratitude when we get it back. #shouldertherapy #bodyharmonics