Ep 50.2: MS/Posture & Anxiety

Today I have a movement snack in regard to Posture and Anxiety and how when we are staring at our phone we are creating a fight or flight response within our bodies. 

You can check out Ep 14 with Dr Alyssa Runyon where she speaks more into the Vagus Nerve
Ep 14: Helping Families Ease Stress and Anxiety with Dr. Alyssa Runyon (buzzsprout.com)

or head to www.raisinghealthyhumans.com 

Transcript

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It is always my goal to help you and your family move more. So every Thursday, I am dropping a movement snack into your ears to help you and your family move more. It is our movements snack of the week. And today I want to talk to you about posture and anxiety. I happened to be on a call with someone the other day, and she was asking me about anxiety and asked if I had any tips to provide in regards to that. And it made me realize that I actually do. And it has to do with our posture. So if you think of yourself, we as busy moms, how we tend to hold ourselves in life, when we're sitting around, looking at our phone. So if you look at your, if you're looking down at your phone, you're gonna start to feel this four word rounding down, right? And you might feel like your ribs start to grip down, and you're rounded. In that mid back area, your shoulders are coming forward, and you're staring down at your phone. Okay. So what is this creating, when you're in this position, think about what this is, like. If you think about a, an animal out in the wild, who is being like a predator is looking at them watching them? What did they do? They shrink down, they try to get small, and their eyes focus in on that one thing. What are you doing when you're looking at your phone, if you're looking at your phone, you will notice that you stop seeing what is in your periphery, because your eyes are so focused on the phone. And then when you're in this rounded forward posture, it is as if you are trying to get small, you're trying to get smaller. So what is this do to your system? What is your body thinking is occurring, it's probably leading you into a fight or flight response without you even know knowing it. And especially if something that you're seeing on screen is bothering you is creating a anger, disappointment things like that. Your whole system is thinking it needs to be in a fight or flight situation, it is not realizing the difference between you staring down that tiger or you just looking at your phone, okay, because you've gone into this system of rounding down protecting your body protecting your core organs. That's what happens when we round down. We're protecting those core organs. And we're focused on one specific thing. So it is imperative that we if you deal with anxiety that you need to start opening your body up, lengthening, taking deep breaths because your diaphragm gives your vagus nerve a massage when it is working correctly. It's massaging that vagus nerve. And that when think if you have listened to the podcast, going way back to Episode 14 with Dr. Elissa Runyan, she talks about helping families ease stress and anxiety. And she mentioned the vagus nerve how it's the sympathetic and parasympathetic system. So if you want definitely go back and listen to that to learn more about the vagus nerve, but your diaphragm when you are breathing properly and it's moving in that position, it will massage that vagus nerve. So we need to work on opening up that chest taking deep cleansing breaths and let those eyes which I've mentioned before in a movement snack, let them look at something far off in the distance so that they can relax. So that is what I'm going to recommend for you today is maybe try not to get into that position often or if you are one who tends to look at your phone a lot. Be aware because I always think that You awareness is where we begin, if we don't know what we're doing, and how it's affecting the body, then we can't change. So just by knowing now, what I've mentioned in regards to this position, maybe you can become more aware. And maybe you hold that sewn out in front of you instead of down to where you're rounding your body forward. Or maybe you take a few minutes to look around, so that you're not so focused in on one area, like your phone. So hopefully, that provides you with some information. If you are feeling anxious, I would encourage you to reach out, I'd be happy to talk with you. There are a lot of things that occur within our body that are affected and why we we may be dealing with anxiety. So this is just in regards to posture. But I can dive much deeper into breathing with you breathing in anxiety, posture and anxiety, nutrition and anxiety and then your workout routine and anxiety. So I'd be happy to speak with you more about that if you are interested. So just reach out to me. And as always, I hope you have a wonderful day. And make sure to get out and warm. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you could do me a favor if you like what you hear. Could you leave us a review or take a screenshot and share your favorite takeaway on social media. And make sure to tag us over at raising underscore healthy humans. Now go out and enjoy more movements throughout your day.