Holistic Approach to Healing Common Imbalances

I wanted to speak to my community about a topic that affects 80% or more of my clients within the last 6 months.

That means some of you might have some “challenge spots” in these areas as well.

And what are those areas?

It’s your shoulder girdle, pelvic girdle, or BOTH!

And while I can’t cover a comprehensive lesson in an email newsletter, I’ll cover the important points:

The shoulder girdle and pelvic girdle are intricately interconnected, in terms of both physical and energetic pain.

First of all, these two areas are the most common areas of imbalance because they both have ball and socket joints, which are the most mobile kind of joints. But when it comes to joints, there’s always a trade-off between mobility and stability!

So that means, for these super-mobile joints, these areas of the body become more vulnerable to injury, especially with prolonged activities such as driving, sitting at a computer, or other repetitive lifestyle movements.

Remember how we discussed in my last newsletter the importance of support systems and syngery? If not, here’s a quick reminder:

Synergy is what happens when coexisting systems are functioning efficiently and effectively toward accomplishing a greater objective. This requires proper environment, force (inputs), and recovery.

Synchronicity becomes newly accessible; recovery/regeneration happens without much conscious intervention. Having the right support systems in place can make all the difference between everything feeling easeful and everything feeling off balance and overwhelming.

When either the shoulder girdle or pelvic girdle are not functioning properly, it puts extra strain on your musculoskeletal system, and sometimes your nervous system too!

Whatever part of your body is the ” counterpart” to the underactive one, tends to take on the burden through “overcompensation patterns.” This simply means that certain muscles, tissues, and nerves are having to work extra instead of the one whose job it really is.

So to put it in laymen’s terms, the shoulders and hips become like an old married couple constantly fighting.

Instead of playing to each other’s strengths, they are stuck in reactive cycles to each other’s weaknesses.

This reactive cycle between the shoulders and hips gets expressed in both physical and energetic ways.

Physically, the shoulders become chronically weak and tired. Cervical rotation (turning the neck) becomes impaired, L4/L5 and SI joint imbalances develop; various levels of nerve pain may present.

Energetically, they may feel frazzled, tired, unmotivated, disembodied or dissociated, nervous, anxious, depressed, or bouncing between these. Breathing will be shortened and shallow.

Together, these lines of both physical and emotional usually present most frequently in the thoracolumbar junction and neck muscles as areas of “hidden stress.”

The mid and low back get energetically & physically “caught in the middle,” and absorb the burden. Over time, the burden increases, eventually culminating in some kind of pain response.

So then, oftentimes low back pain can be the “squeaky wheel that gets the grease.” When the underlying story is, that the shoulders and hips need to learn how to get along better.

Treatment Protocols:

Work each individually, then learn to play nice together.

In unwinding these cycles and patterns, the typical treatment protocol involves:

• Increase passive range of motion in both areas
• Connect breath to movement
• Teach core stability and lumbopelvic stability (lower body movement therapy)
• Isometric scapular and shoulder mobility (upper body movement therapy)
• Combine upper and lower body exercises
• Reintegration into daily cycles of living

Where emotional trauma and processing is necessary, integration of energetic healing modalities is also appropriate depending on personal, medical, and injury history.

Please note this is a general outline which is NOT meant to substitute for professional therapeutic advice… there are people who specialize in JUST the shoulder or JUST the pelvic girdle… so this is truly a complex and deep topic which affects so many people.

I would be happy to speak with you and get you started on the right path. I urge you to seek personalized care, whether it is with a yoga therapist or another provider.

Looking forward to speaking with you soon!

In health and peace,
Missy