The Thing About Chickens and Eggs
Putting my Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher hat on for a sec
Hello! Just a quick note before getting to today’s post topic. First off, thank you to everyone who has subscribed to this here publication. I appreciate you! Also, the Coffee Analysis Project will be getting its own weekly post, starting this Friday. You can send me your photo anytime, I am standing by…
Okay, so now back to our regularly scheduled program so LET’S GO
The Thing
I’m a big fan of idioms. Like Hallmark cards, you can find one for just about every occasion, only idioms are way cheaper. I don’t think that “which came first, the chicken or the egg” started out as an idiom, but you could argue it’s become one—we might use that phrase when wondering what causes what, right? Well … I just looked up “it’s a chicken and egg thing” and most dictionaries say it’s an adjective. Shoot.
This post actually has nothing to do with idioms. Or adjectives. Or even chickens or eggs, although that could end up being a future topic because omg, the cost of eggs! No, in fact this post deals with health issues.
Today I went to my acupuncturist for a treatment for my shoulders. I have compression, mostly in my right shoulder, under my clavicle. It often causes numbness or prickly feelings when I raise my arm over my head. Also some other weird things happen, like muscle weakness and increased crankiness (not sure about the last one except it sounds like a good excuse so let’s go with that).
I suppose my thoracic outlet syndrome (fancy, right?) could have “just happened.” Like boom! Whoa, this weird condition came outta nowhere! But I have a different theory. The compression in my shoulders comes from years and years (AND YEARS) of being in chronic fight or flight mode.
If someone sneaks up on you and surprises you, what’s one of the first things you do? Hopefully you didn’t answer “drop my coffee” or “soil myself.” But you might lift your shoulders in surprise, right? That is an act of protection. Next, imagine being in protection mode for 50 years.
Lots has been written about how the way we live our lives causes us to be in FoF mode way more than is healthy (a little is okay, a lot is really really bad). Sadly for us, we don’t usually take the time to properly get ourselves out of FoF. We’re there so much that we don’t even know we’re in it until it’s too late. That’s when small chronic conditions can become big-ass problems.
If someone grows up with childhood trauma which changed the wiring of their brain and nervous system (can you imagine being “surprised” for years? I can), wouldn’t it make sense that they would have physical reactions those emotional states? Like, oh I don’t know, shoulder compression? Personally, I’m not surprised that the results of years of undiagnosed and untreated sensory overwhelm combined with traumatic experiences are still locked in the tissues of my body.
Many cultures or practices have known this to be true for thousands of years (lookin’ at you, Ayurveda and TCM). I’m so grateful that I learned a teeny tiny bit about some of these things during my yoga teacher training and subsequent studies. The practice of yoga (and also qigong) address more than the physical body. The ancient smartypants had this stuff down. Sadly, I only know enough to entertain you for 30 seconds at a party. But maybe it’s time to learn more.
I used to think of “holistic” medicine as—duh—treating the body as a whole. You can’t treat someone’s [fill in the blank] without addressing their [other fill in the blank]. But what if this were expanded further? What if I need to treat not only my shoulders but also the fear and overwhelm? How come we don’t talk about this kind of thing in doctor’s offices more? (For the record: my acupuncturist and I did talk about this today, which is what got me thinking about it for today’s post).
It’s not about answering which came first, the chicken or the egg. It doesn’t matter. It’s about acknowledging that the chicken and the egg are inseparable.
And what if you had to address your body’s issues on the physical, emotional, and spiritual planes?
This is more of a “chicken and egg and waffles” issue now.
I don’t mean to suggest that we have to go back and relive all the sh*tty things that have happened to us. What I do mean is that we can’t address our feelings separately from our physical bodies. If we do, we’re only treating part of the problem. Which many people do, every day.
None of this is new thinking, in some circles anyway. But we don’t always get that “aha” moment by thinking intellectually about concepts, which I am prone to do most of the time. (Just because I learned about it in training, doesn’t mean I understand it—kind of like calculus). Rather, sometimes the lightbulb only goes on when we feel an idea or answer. Those types are experiences are tough for me—that’s when my brain asks for a life preserver because it’s in some murky waters. But I’m trying.
Maybe all the neurotypical people reading this will wonder why it’s taken me so long to catch up? (I’ve spent most of my life fretting about all the things I haven’t caught up with, it’s exhausting, and a post for another day).
So here I am, back from the acupuncturist, feeling pretty good about things, but also knowing I have some work ahead of me to feel better. Some of it might be releasing some physical tension, much of it might be releasing emotional tension.
But first, I kind of feel like having an omelet for lunch.
Thanks for reading!
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