STRETCHING OPEN
New ranges of motion
We tend to live in a pretty comfortable range of motion of ourselves. This range is a container, box or bandwidth that includes who and what we know ourselves to be. We often don’t even know that we are living our life inside of this range, it’s simply what we know. There wouldn’t even be the thought to question or stretch it because we are merged as it. However there comes a rhythm where we know we need to stretch. We feel the confinement and don’t even really know what we are confined in. We simply feel that the clothes we are wearing are too tight and a sense of restlessness and impeding uncomfortableness is on the horizon.
When we hit the point where the way we have been living, operating and viewing ourselves from is too small or limited we must stretch. That stretch occurs outside of the normal range of motion. Due to the fact that it is beyond where we normally hang out, or perhaps have ever been, it feels uncomfortable and unfamiliar. That uncomfortableness can deter people from stretching. If the stretch is deferred then we will go back into our familiar range, inside our familiar box of self, but feel slightly miserable. Often our tolerance for misery is high, some people even pride themselves in this. Yet this high tolerance to low level misery is the enemy of stretching out of our current range of motion.
The pain of staying inside of our limited perspective, with it habits and ways of functioning, must become greater than the perceived pain of uncomfortableness, uncertainty and the potential lack of something we aren’t even really clear about, but which boils down to loss of love in some form or another. If the pain doesn’t become greater, or our tolerance is exceptionally high for misery, then we will stay un-stretched and feel ourselves slowly wither away as we resist our own change and progress. When we thwart ourselves in such a way we remain in a sea of our own frustration, often feeling like nothing works and like we will never be different than we are. If instead we use the fuel of misery, and allow, feel and actively participate with the stretch, even though its uncomfortable and we don’t know what’s on the other side yet, we start the journey of going beyond the box of our current self. The truth is that the range that we have been in has someway and somehow served us, perhaps even really, really well. We must however be willing to un-attach to our ranges and release the aspects of our identity that are connected with those ranges, when the rhythm of stretch presents itself.
EMBODYING YOUR STRETCH
Inviting change
When the rhythm of stretch presents itself it is ultimately stretching us open into more of ourselves. It is not stretching us into some bad or wrong place even though our mind might try to convince us in these ways. Stretching does however imply change. Change in experience, change in feeling, and change in sense of self. When I have you stretch certain parts of your body on the table it is the activation of stretching your range of motion and thus range of self of sense. You may find it hard to stretch certain areas and easier for other areas. You may feel not entirely present during the stretch or find yourself mechanically moving your body without your awareness behind it. You may find yourself meet some resistance to the stretch or you may go into automatic pilot mode having stretched that area before.
It is important to notice your experience of stretching. How does it feel to stretch? Where do you go? Are you present? Does it feel hard? Does it feel too easy? Do you want to give up in the middle of it? Do you want it to be over? Are you bored and not present? Are you slow to move? Are you fast to move? Do you release into the stretch? Do you resist the stretch and maintain your holding patterns? You can use these questions as a way to see how you respond to stretch in your life. How we respond to stretch in our bodies is how we will respond to it in our lives.
On a physiologically level when you stretch your body in the spots that I am touching it activates certain receptors in the tissues in that area. The activation of those receptors allows oscillation to occur at the tissue level in the area of stretch. That oscillation can be felt as vibration or energy at the area. In Network terms this is the development of the energetic portion of the spinal gateway. Remember the spinal gateways are those areas that get touched during entrainments and which grow into little energetic vortices as you continue to stretch them open. As you stretch they grow. They grow into your subtle energetic body, first reaching into your emotional body and then beyond that into your mental bodies. When the spinal gateways are in subtle layers of your mental bodies you are able to more clearly see the boxes, stories and limited containers of self that you are in. Through this sight you gain more energy for transformation and greater fuel to be ready to relinquish those more limited ranges of self that come from your limited perspectives.
The stretch is the beginning of something anew. It’s the birthplace of a new range. You must stretch in order to come out of the birth canal so that the new expressions of you can come into form. Yes it’s uncomfortable. Yes it’s uncertain as to what will come out exactly. Yet we must move forward. We must emerge and we must be fully in. Along the way of our emergence all that no longer works and no longer serves must go. There simply isn’t room for it. Holding onto it weighs us down and interferes with what’s coming through now. There is a sweet love and a sweet goodbye to who we were. There is deep gratitude for how it served and shared. Now there is this here, a new range, a new expression, a new experience, a new sense of self, a new way to participate, and a new contribution and sharing.
Dr. Amanda Love, Chiropractor, Network Spinal Analysis & Somato-Respiratory Integration, Boulder, Colorado