“Yeah round ‘n around ‘n up ‘n down we go again.” – Chubby Checker
A twist in real life can be furiously difficult. We’ve seen a great deal of the unexpected these last few years in natural disasters. Certainly the great measure of a person is how one endures such twists. Our range of motion shrinks over time with age and isolation, both figuratively and literally. Without good moves, the spine tightens up and a twist, which is inevitable (think about every time you have to back up in vehicle), becomes constrained. Without resiliency, we get more rigid at heart, making an emotional twist unendurable.
Two solutions:
1) Get on the move to lubricate that spine with some great stretches (see below for Olga’s favorite), and;
2) Lubricate your soul with some re-framing when fate throws you for a loop…
“And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be….” – Anne Frank
Fall and the harvest begin the season of thinking about what makes us thankful in life. Someone thought this out well… As the light of day wanes, isn’t it fitting that we use this time to reflect on what matters most, and spend extra moments with loved ones celebrating the bounty of what we reap? To punctuate that with science, experts in positive psychology tell us that we’re most able to pull ourselves up from the bootstraps when we savor what we’re grateful for; and better yet, when we do so in the presence of friends and family.
If the Fall sends you a twist that constrains your range of motion, take a deep breath, grab hold of your loves and twist your heart round again toward the good. And stretch.
- Sit sideways on your chair with your feet and knees and feet together.
- Gently twist to the back of the chair grasping the top and sides of chair back.
- Straighten up your spine toward the ceiling.
- For a stronger twist, push with your left hand and pull with your right, also look to the far wall over your left shoulder.
- Relax and untwist, then switch sides.
Breath it in, go with the twist and be the change you want (Ghandi) on the PATH Ahead.