Turtles Should Wear Scarves

  

Intentionality

Many of us do not have intentionality in our lives. We are more reactionary, responding to the needs of the moment. Our schedules are so packed full; we have home, work, family, volunteering and recreation all making demands on our time, energy and attention. We fly from obligation to obligation with barely time to breathe. When we do have a little time in the evening or on the weekend, we crash into a couch potato mind fog of TV, gaming and social media because that is all we feel capable of.

Think about the common responses when you ask, “How are you?” We either get the ubiquitous “fine” (which we all know is meaningless), or “busy” or “tired”. Coming up with any other answer requires a mental energy and awareness of self that we don’t give ourselves time for.

In our new normal, many of us have been given the gift of time at home. Those of us who are still working, are working twice as hard, trying to keep essential services going. Either way, the clutter of other obligations is on hold for a while. This is the perfect opportunity to re-assess our priorities. 

Now that we have time to reflect, we can see what things in our lives we are grateful to have shut down and which things we truly miss. We are recognizing what we have taken for granted.

“I’ll start swimming next week, the pool is always there.”

“I’m too tired to visit Grandma after work, I’ll go on the weekend.”

“I don’t want to cook tonight, I’ll pick up a roasted chicken from the store.”

Self-isolation has forced us to be more thoughtful. Even a trip to the grocery store, the most ordinary task, has become thought provoking. Those of us who live in rural communities are used to planning ahead; making a complete list, buying two of something on sale. This is a new concept to many. Now, we aren’t running errands on our lunch break or after work. We plan our shopping trips to be as far apart as possible to comply with physical distancing recommendations. In our old lives, piece-meal errands seemed faster.  We didn’t feel like we had time for a big grocery shop, so we would pick up a little something every day. A big shop takes an hour. Stopping for milk and bread takes 20 minutes. It adds up. Being intentional with our errands gives us more time in the long run.

We are cooking from scratch more. My teenagers are going to come out the other side of this as fantastic cooks! They are in the kitchen helping with meals instead of returning home from after school activities to find supper done. We have eaten around the table together more in the last two weeks than the last year (totally confusing the dog!) We are remembering how much better “real food” tastes. Hopefully this will lead to continued intentionality of what we fuel our bodies with.

Following the theme of intentionality, today’s muscle takes a little more concentration to isolate. The following stretch will be a little challenging to get just right. Don’t give up, it’s an important muscle to take care of if you spend a lot of time at the computer!

Levator

Teenagers have very well developed levator muscles. We use them to shrug our shoulders! The levator travels from the top four cervical vertebrae (neck bones) to the upper edge of the scapula (shoulder blade). It also assists with moving the head and neck.  Back when we were talking about scalenes, I mentioned how important it was to keep your neck warm. This is especially important for the levator. When we get a chill, our natural instinct is to hunch our shoulders up around our ears. I call it our turtle imitation. So much unnecessary tension can be avoided by wearing a scarf!

This can also be a protective gesture when we are in emotional distress. We are all familiar with the concept of carrying our stress in our neck.  As a result, the levator is responsible for many tension headaches. When you think of the iconic kneading the tops of the shoulders when people massage each other, the levator is one of those muscles. 

Stretching the levator is a little tricky. By definition, a stretch is lengthening a muscle. It is the opposite of contracting it. When we contract the levator, our shoulder moves up. How on earth do we move our shoulder down enough that it feels like a good stretch? The key to good stretching is being able to identify your muscles and being able to make them move individually.  One of the reasons I started with the scalene stretches (besides that they are my favorite) is that when you do them, the three different muscles are so obvious.

Let’s get to know our levator:

Stand in a relaxed position with your back straight.

Shrug your shoulders up, and then relax, one at a time. Slow and controlled. Feel the muscle move.

Now move your shoulder blade down. Your arms should be still, do not bend your torso to the side. Picture it trying to go into your back pocket. It doesn’t go very far. It’s a little tricky, it may take a couple tries to get the right motion.

That was a little bit of a stretch, but not much.

Remember back at the beginning when I said it also helps move the neck?

Pull your left shoulder blade down.

Tip your head down so that you are looking at your right foot. Now you should be feeling a good stretch.

You know the drill: hold 20-30 seconds and don’t forget to breathe!

Repeat with the other side.

Now that you know the scalene, pects and levator stretches, you have a solid 3 minute stretching routine that you can do throughout the day; coffee breaks, lunch breaks, whenever you stand up!

I would like to acknowledge the co-operation of my youngest son, who keeps getting conscripted to test out my stretching instructions. He really didn't like this one!