Creating A Body Awareness

When new patients come in to my office for a spinal evaluation, they generally have some kind of acute ailment or something more chronic like headaches that they want resolved. The Chiropractic treatment that I provide will help ease or even completely alleviate the pain. But it’s also important to ask: what is causing the recurrence of this condition?

One of the most important services that I offer my patients is teaching them how to create body awareness. This helps them become more conscious of how they use their body throughout daily life.

And the most important tool I have to get to this awareness is to simply ask questions. For example, here are some questions I ask about sleep: How do you sleep at night? Do you fall asleep on the sofa or read in bed? When in bed what position do you sleep in? Do you grind or clench your teeth at night or during the day? What position is your neck and upper back in when you are texting?

The majority of my patients are not sure of the answers to these questions on the first visit. But if you are unaware of your daily actions, how can you correct them?

Try This Exercise

I invite you to try an exercise to gain body awareness of how you are holding your body. When you wake up tomorrow morning, make an inventory:

• How is your head resting on the pillow?
• Is your head turned?
• Are you sleeping on your stomach?
• Are your legs crossed in a certain position?

Now notice any aches and pains you might have:

• Does your neck feel stiff?
• Is it difficult to straighten out your legs without causing lower back pain?
• Do you have a headache?

The goal of this exercise is to cultivate your awareness of how you are using your spine during sleep, which of course is just one part of your day. Slowly, you can cultivate this awareness during other parts of your daily life as well. In time this will allow you to be present and conscious of the patterns in your body that may be leading to chronic symptoms within your head, neck and lower back. That body awareness is a pathway to better health.