Why Create Space In My Body

Last week I sent out a video about creating space in your hips, which many of you loved.  Who doesn’t love some good hip openers?!? They may be painful but they are gooooood!

One of the questions I received was: How does that actually work, creating space in my body? And beyond the body, WHY is that good for me and WHY should I care?  

On a basic level our bodies are made up of bones, muscles, organs, blood, and connective tissue.  The fascial sheath, is a web of connective tissue that surrounds our entire body and holds everything in place.

If we don’t move our bodies, the fascial sheath builds up and eventually prevents us from being able to sit and stand up straight.  When the body doesn’t stand up straight, the bones and organs endure pressure and compression.

Imagine working at a computer for long periods of time; you find yourself hunching forward, right!?! I am doing it right now  Now imagine doing that for years and years. You will eventually stay in that position. Your chest cavity closes, your neck muscles remain tight, you have lost space in your rib cage and in your lungs.

From the small movement of rolling your shoulders back and lifting your chest regularly you begin to open up the space and break up the connective tissue within your body, allowing your chest cavity to expand, your neck muscles to relax, your lungs and rib cage to expand which means deeper breathing and a more relaxed state of mind. 

It is such an important piece of understanding WHY we practice yoga because it is easy to get caught up in the larger yoga movements, the more bendy poses, trying to touch our toes when the body is not ready or forcing ourselves into a backbend only to walk away feeling pain in the low back.

It is not about the big poses or the hard poses, it is about the subtle movements that begin to awaken the true space within the body. 

And when we awaken the true space within the body, it allows our minds to awaken and become spacious. More on this next week…