I have realized that I hold a lot of tension in my body that I am able to release when I think about it. This comes primarily from two sources. First, I am always vigilant about maintaining proper alignment, but I often try to overcompensate and end up sending my muscles into spasms. My back is something that I am more comfortable with now, but still have major psychological problems with which are compounded when there is physical pain.

Second, despite broadening my personality and temperament, to the point that one of my friends said I never stop talking, I still am deeply introverted on the inside. Although I don’t let this stop me from pursuing anything in life, I definitely retain a lot of physical tension when doing things that challenge my introvert inside.

This month I want to focus on being aware of physical tension or stress that I am retaining, and then just letting it go. Here are the main areas I want to focus on:

• Upper back. This is an area that I am constantly engaging muscles in to retain the best alignment I can despite my back conditions. While I don’t want to just be lazy about posture, I do want to be subtle about it. I will still engage traps and abs most of the time, but just slightly and will always release if I feel tension building up.
• Hands and arms. This might be in large part due to holding tension in my upper back, but I often find myself chopping things for dinner, or doing other simple tasks and being more tense than is necessary in my wrists and arms.
• Legs. My hamstrings are already super tight by default, and I don’t need to add to that by retaining tension in them. I’ll often find myself walking or sitting and holding tension in my legs that can easily be released.

Other than being aware of physical stress and releasing it, I want to give every effort to meditate for 10 minutes each day. This is a great practice for getting out of distracted thought patterns and working on deep breathing, both of which are integral in minimizing physical stress.

I am also going to try making yoga my daily exercise routine instead of my normal nerve flossing, stretching, and series of exercises and see if this helps at all.

Up next: evaluation of my month of no media.