Adaptation in Motion: A Solstice Return -Stress, Stillness, and the Practice of Being Well
Standing in the Eye of the Spiral: Navigating Life's Twists with GT
Adaptation in Motion: A Solstice Return Stress, Stillness, and the Practice of Being Well
WARM UP. Good greetings everyone around the universe! After a couple days of travel during this holiday, I am happy to say I returned rested, recharged and ready to move into the future with good intent. It seems that many would usually avoid traveling so deep into the holiday, it wound up not being all that bad. A couple delays on the way home from jumping from plane to plane, and booking a ride home during peak hours had me testing a discussion topic within my men's group: emotional well-being. Personally it’s considered one's ability to be more aware of your nervous systems stress responses. This is a topic that is often discussed within my professional career, the clients need to become more aware of their internal and external stressors.
This is why it's been the most beneficial practice to have learned and implemented Functional Patterns. At the basis of all human movement, there is a functionality that will be a pattern that your nervous system will adapt to, leading to how you move through space. There is an argument to be made that it goes deeper than just your movement, such as organ function, mental health, and overall health. There have been multiple accounts of people that have reported to me how much the methodology of practicing standing and walking as a priority has changed their overall well being. It seems the more you know how you are adapting to a specific environment, you can prioritize taking the appropriate actions leading to regulating your nervous system as a steady source of energy. One of the more common nervous system responses to stress triggers the fight or flight response. When mental stress is triggered, the bodily stress seems to respond as “you need to fight (throw) or flight (run), to avoid certain death.” The two common bodily positions that a throw or run have is a reciprocity of upper and lower limbs (arm/leg). If you are going to consciously use an external force (or triggering the internal ignorant fight or flight response) to create stress on your nervous system (working out), why would it not be best, to be your best, at mastering these functions of your biology? One of my family members reported that a day's worth of about 20 minutes of practicing foundational principles of my recommended exercise routine improved their pain to about +50% better!
It was nice spending time with my family back in my home state of Michigan. It was a gift from my sister in law that provided me with a way to travel back to Michigan. It wasn’t our intent to spend any time in the cold & flu season up North, however her generosity was taken and we spent four solid days in The Mitten. Michigan has some of the weirdest weather patterning, which ended up being a central theme for at least one of the 4 days. One whole day it seemed everyone planned around a forecast of frozen, icy pathways, perfect for one of my favorite past times: gaming. Which no, it didn’t happen, however, neither did anything else. It also didn’t help that from sun up to sundown, you weren’t really sure if it was 8 am or 3 pm, the skies were all shades of grey. Those days didn’t deter me from enjoying my time with my family whatsoever. In many ways it has given me deep gratitude for my current choice of living environment.
COOLDOWN. That reminds me that the return flight had some incredible topography seen from the view of my passenger seat on the plane. The contrast of seeing Tennessee from above vs. Florida (up the Florida keys and through Miami) during sundown, really highlighted the stark difference in population (by clusters of lights seen from above). Perhaps if there is another move for me to make in the future, perhaps a “view from above” of a specific area will be a deciding factor. We just got back from the beach, and while Michigan's cloudy nature is not ideal, it was invigorating to walk around in it for a few days. Now it’s time to get back into my “endless summer” routine with a stored up “winter-water wonderland” life force.
Be well,
G.Turner