“Treat your body like a temple, not a woodshed. The mind and the body work together. Your body needs to be a good support system for the mind and the spirit. If you take good care of it, your body can take you wherever you want to go, with the power and the strength and energy and vitality you will need to get there.”—Jim Rohn
Yes, it’s that time of year again when those pesky resolutions rear their heads—clamoring to be fulfilled. And no resolution clamors harder than the Fitness Deity. Her temple is a mess. She cries at her neglect and disrepair. In our hearts, we know we owe her. For who wants to worship at the altar of dirt and clutter?
Yet those of us in recovery often shudder when we feel forced from our procrastination into the challenge of change. “We’ve seen this movie before”, we think, “and we don’t like how it always ends.” Our terminal uniqueness can make us squeamish in the face of what we see as an inevitable decline into failure and disappointment.
Well, let’s resolve to take a different approach to our fitness for this new year. Instead of jumping in hog-wild—and flaming out within a couple of weeks, let’s do what we know to do best: take it easy, one day at a time, with our fitness goals. Let’s start by acknowledging the essential beauty of our body, the temple—and begin to care for it, one small cleansing at a time. Slowly and gently, let’s clean away the crud to reveal the beauty beneath…
Release The Neck
Want to get your first day of this New Year off to a fast start? Then nothing much beats releasing the tension in that stiff rod which links your torso to your head. When we crimp the hose, the cleansing, nurturing gush becomes a miserly dribble. When we crimp our necks, there’s less fresh, oxygenated blood getting to that hungry brain of ours—and the brain can’t signal back its healing messages to the parts that need it.
One of the very best ways to release the neck, is through this simple movement:
Turn your head to the left as far as you can without pain, keeping your head level and your shoulders down and still. Now, turn your head slowly all the way to the right. Inhale softly through the nose to the left, exhale softly to the right. Do from ten to twenty rotations in each direction, depending on your comfort level. That’s it!
Oh, by the way, don’t worry if you hear some snap-crackle-and-popping as your neck rotates—your head’s not about to fall off! It’s something called crepitus, created when air releases within the tissues. Perfectly ok.
I am excited to have started cleansing my body, my temple—with this one simple action for the day.