This week I found myself speaking in front of a large group of physiotherapists and chiropractors at the annual conference for the Norwegian chapter of the
Bone and Joint Decade. I decided not to tell them about my little "working on my posture" project, as they all looked suspiciously healthy and pain-free... it sort of felt like we were living in different worlds.
Sometimes when I give talks about my story, people in the audience start crying. They laugh too, but that's sort of part of the deal, I use a lot of humor when talking about health and healing. But why do people cry when they hear about other people's pain? Is it just empathy, or does it awaken their own grief, something they don't often look at but maybe need to deal with? Sometimes it feels like by being a professional patient who has learned to live with her handicaps I am also being some kind of ambassador, reminding others that quality of life is not simply about "fitness of body".
While preparing for this conference I spent time working on my presentation, and realized that the posture thing was very very relevant. Body language and all that... But keeping a good posture when standing up and concentrating on it wasn't all that hard - and it definitely feels like it can make a BIG difference on my overall muscle pain.
While working on my posture this week I have just kept bringing my attention to it, checking and correcting as needed, maybe once or twice an hour, sometimes more often. For correcting my posture I have used this old technique I learned sometime in drama class, visualizing that there is a silk thread attached to the crown of my head, gently pulling me up and straightening my whole neck, spine and body.
It works really well when I sit too, and this week it's been really obvious that my neck pain (and in extension migraines) are very directly affected by my
seated posture. Especially when I'm in front of my computer I have a tendency to slump and let my head fall forward, which I notice strains my neck muscles in a way that seems to provoke the whiplash pain with a delay of a few hours.
Ok. So first week of implementing gradual change feels very meaningful!!! I have learned important things about how HOW I use my body directly affects my physical pain.
Hmmmm... now what would be a natural next step? Will ponder this until tomorrow... :)
