Pain is a blessing.

Our body was designed to be balanced and in line with the perpendicular line against the pull of gravity.  There is intended to be a perfect balance point between the right and the left, and the front and the back of your body.  When you are off balance for an extended period of time, your body starts to act like a muscular tug of war.  Pain/strain/tension comes from one muscle screaming because they are losing the battle.  If you think back to your tug of war days, you may recall there are 2 ways to win.  You can pull harder (recruit more people or in this case more muscles) or the other side can give in (release). At The Tummy Team, we help people understand what parts of their body are in this tug of war and how to help release and balance it all out.

If we ignore the pain, simply power through, then our body is often left out of balance with one side significantly over dominating.  Ignoring pain, leads to chronic pain.

But where do we start?

First you need to be aware of what is going on.  Awareness begins with reconnecting to your body. "Powering through" leads to disconnection and often desensitization of your body.  It is very difficult to activate something you cannot feel.  It is nearly impossible to change something that you are unaware of.  

Start listening to your body.

Your body communicates to you on a regular basis.  Your brain is the ultimate communication system.  It is constantly "talking" to every aspect of your body.  We often explain this with muscles as every muscle has a voice.  The muscles you are used to using have a voice you can hear.  Muscles that have been neglected or under utilized have a quiet whisper of a voice.  (Think right now about your bicep.  You can easily bend your elbow and "hear" your biceps.  Then think of your pinky toe.  Can you easily isolate it and lift it separately from your other toes?  Likely not- it's voice is much quieter.) Some muscle are quiet because we don't use them much.  Some muscles are screaming because they are being overused.  Screaming or whining muscles are muscles that are fighting that tug of war and likely losing.  If we don't know what to do about the screaming and whining we can start to ignore it and disconnect from that sound.  We can become numb to it.  

Pain is actually a blessing.

I am aware that this is an odd statement.  But think of it this way.  When you drive on curvy steep mountain roads you see the guard rail as a blessing.  The guard rail keeps you on the road and keeps you from falling off a cliff.  The guard rail shows you your boundary, where it is safe to be and helps you avoid injury and even death.  Pain is your body's guard rail.  Actually, the guard rail should be tension and aching but we ignore that and then pain is the next step.  

Pain is your body's way of telling you something is WRONG and begging you to fix it.


What is making your body scream and whine?  Does your back hurt when you carry your kids?  Does it hurt when you do the dishes?  Do you get headaches when you work at the computer?  Does your body start failing you by the end of the day?  Do you wake up in pain?  What is triggering your pain?  

We must start with awareness, even if that awareness reveals our weakness and limitations (no one likes that).  But if you don't honestly know where you are starting at you will inevitable continue to hurt yourself over and over and your body will be so busy trying to survive that it will have no time or energy to be able to help you heal.  ( see shut off the water)

Then we need to start connecting again.  This can be so hard as we have trained ourselves to multitask, disconnect, power through and ignore pain (or even worse believe the no pain no gain lie).  Connecting to your body again is a process but it is essential to be able to fully heal.

Every muscle has an ideal alignment for it to function optimally.  Our body can function in a lot of postures and positions but when you have weak muscles and significant muscle imbalance (pain- tug of war) then you need to start in the ideal alignments to allow the body to balance and rebuild.  

Posture and alignment work never seems like exciting stuff but it can be seriously life changing.  At The Tummy Team, we focus a lot on finding neutral.  This is the balance point, the place to start building from and the quiet calm in a storm of tug of warring muscles.  Neutral never feels natural at first. But when your body truly can reclaim neutral, it will be happy.

Here is just one example of living outside of neutral that creates so much pain in our culture....

The weight of your head....
We teach the principles of "eyes on the horizon", "cable from the crown of your head" and "wings (elbows) in".  These simple posture cues will gradually start moving your upper body into its neutral position.

What do you have going on in your life that keeps your eyes down, your head forward and your elbows out?  How can you adjust your environment to help you fix this?  Is it how you are sitting to nurse your baby?  Is it how you look at your iPad or laptop?  Is it how you look down when you walk?  Is it how you have your car seat positioned?  

The Tummy Team will help you systematically rebuild your core and realign your body to help you become pain free, connected and strong.  But it begins with changing how you are interacting your body.  It is about practical, little steps that add up to life changes.

Are you listening to your body?  What can you do to listen better?

Let us help you.  Find out more about The Tummy Team and check out our online Core Foundations Program to start restoring your core today.