Heel 2nd Toe. Heel 2nd Toe. Heel 2nd Toe.
That’s what I had to chant to myself (and will need to TRY to do and REMEMBER to do from now on) and guide myself to do as I did what my Chiropractor called, “drunk walking” (because it’s easy to lose my balance when it’s so new) down the street to train my body how to walk correctly and in the right alignment. Apparently my walking alignment is way off so I get to do what feels really hard to do. And so AWKWARD. A friend of mine loves using the word “Awkward” so I hope she appreciated me using it here in this post. ANYWAY–When I’m walking I’m not supposed to be using my Big Toe to guide my walking. I’m supposed to use my 2nd Toe next to the Big Toe and also focus on my hips to guide my leg out in front of me to land on my Heel and with the foot turned in (only what it seems like to me–it’s actually not in…it’s just not too far out and walking like a duck anymore…) and that’s my newest exercise. Weirdest part is that when I stand “right” and look in the mirror what FEELS so wrong actually does look RIGHT.
I’M RE-LEARNING HOW TO WALK AGAIN.
WEIRD.
It’s hard to train a body to move differently after it has been doing probably the same movement for almost 36 years….
So I’m trying to be patient. He had me take a walk up and down the block doing that. I asked him if the residents on the street where his office is ever stop in and ask him what is going on in here and why are there people doing all kinds of strange movements walking down the street. He said NO but he’s sure they talk about it amongst themselves and try to figure it out. “Keeps their minds going…”, he chuckles.
I bet. So I did just what he asked me to do. Of course there were people out and about. Don’t mind me. Just walking totally off balance… It was a beautiful sunny California spring day. The birds were chirping. There was a lovely breeze blowing through the leaves. Flowers have been in full bloom. I was sure EVERYONE ever was staring at me but I’m guessing they weren’t. And if they were, I hope they had fun watching me. I didn’t look as wobbly after awhile but I was walking really slowly almost in a walking meditation and really focusing on what I was doing.
AND YOU KNOW WHAT?
My overall body felt much better walking the “correct” way. I was surprised. As much as my hips started aching (who knew hips were used so much with walking?), certain muscles in my legs that I didn’t know existed started yelling at me, I kept going. I’d let myself stop, take a break and shake it all out but I’d start up again. It really did slow me down and it was quite relaxing at times…Definitely could be a meditation if it wasn’t so distracting at too. Sometimes I’d be distracted too and find that I was back to my old walking so I’d start up again. Going that slow I was able to see the colorful vibrant flowers I walked by, to see more birds flying around me because I wasn’t moving so fast, a butterfly and to REALLY HEAR the breeze. That was a gift. I’ll take it.
I’m trying to remember this so that when I wake up tomorrow morning and wonder why on earth my legs and hips are aching so badly I’ll be reminded of the “new” walking I had been doing and will have to try to do from now on and then hopefully I’ll be reminded of how peaceful it was at times. There were some truly quiet moments…
PRECIOUS ACTUALLY…
Otherwise, he stretched my body in ways I didn’t know it could stretch today and he also gave me even more homework to FIGURE OUT what the MAGIC word was to get my hips to RELEASE and LET GO. He said the word RELEASE doesn’t work for my hips. He’s even tried others (I had no idea he was doing this I was so focused on what was going on) and they didn’t work either. Soooo, he’s asked for help in figuring out what the MAGIC WORD is for helping my hips and torso to RELEASE.
MAGIC WORD.
Silly guy. Felt like I was back to being 6 and an adult asking me, “What’s the Magic Word?”. The thought crossed my mind that perhaps he should say, “Pretty Please?” and then maybe my mind and my body would finally RELEASE and LET GO…
So yeah. Good appointment. Doing OK so far. Feeling a bit of the walk and a bit more lightheaded as the day goes on. So I should probably stop writing, finish up my day and get to resting. Never know what mental and physical symptoms are going to show themselves with these treatments…
Oh and by the way, I get to stay up as long as I want if I keep getting the late night energy that tells me I don’t need to sleep.
SLEEP? WHO CARES ABOUT SLEEP?
Me in the mornings…
BUT–That’s what my body keeps asking me late at night. I’m becoming quite the night owl. I’ve been concerned about this because I need my sleep but when I told him today he was excited that I was starting to get ENERGY BACK.
“Yay!”, he exclaimed as I told him. “Take advantage of it. Don’t suppress it. This is actual ENERGY. Take the time to do some sit-ups (Ha!), some push-ups (Ha!), some walking around your apartment, some dancing…something. Find an outlet and some activities to do when this happens. Your body is resetting it’s cycles and rhythms. I know you need sleep. I’m sleep’s biggest advocate. BUT your body isn’t ready for sleep like that just yet. At least not at night. It’s just learning how to be again. LET IT! DON’T WORRY. DON’T PUNISH YOURSELF FOR NOT SLEEPING. USE IT! I bet you’re not sleeping well when you have this energy right?”
I told him no. Definitely not sleeping well.
He responded with an encouragement to use the energy so that I could sleep better and it would be able to even out eventually.
His whole point was that this is like a “RE-START BUTTON”.
My body is RE-STARTING…
RE-STARTING…
Hmm. Cool.
I’ve been saying off and on over the years that I needed a Jump Start at times. I guess this is my chance.
And now back to the chanting…
HEEL 2ND TOE. HEEL 2ND TOE. HEEL 2ND TOE.
Nahleen.com: On the Inside Looking Out 