Dooley Noted: 6/16/2016
I have a truck ton of thoracic spinal extension and flexion. (See photo)
I know that thoracic spine extension and flexion are the secrets of shoulder health and full spinal health.
As much as I worked on it, I felt blocked right in the center of my chest.
It’s as if I could move all around that center of the sternum – but I just couldn’t move that spot.
As I started to analyze the anatomy, I saw some correlations.
I grew up in a smoking house, where I didn’t breathe fresh air until I left for school. This would leave me with tightness at my chest center when I tried to breathe.
I gave love all the way, and I often gave it to people who didn’t return the favor. The heartbreak would leave me locked, right in the center of my chest.
I started to develop bilateral shoulder problems, switching side to side, as my shoulder tried to move on an unstable T-spine platform.
When I got anxious, I felt tightness at my chest center and at T4, the area that supplies sympathetics (fight or flight) to the chest.
I felt my shoulders start to raise over the years, destabilizing my center of mass. I got low back pain as a result.
But here’s the rub.
Attack all factors, and the movement improves.
I let go of the resentment of growing up In a smoke-filled home. I performed consistent, daily breathing correctives to take control back of my breathing.
I employed movement correctives, to help me earn extension and flexion at the spot in which I was stuck, right at T4.
I received acupuncture, so I could give permission to open the chest again at Ren 17. This is the point that Chinese medicine has shown to open the chest for the past 6,000 years. It just so happened to be the point at which my chest felt stuck.
I fell in love with someone I truly deserve, someone who loves me as a reflection of my own love for myself. That opened my chest like never before.
My spine is mobile, yes, but I have surrounded that mobility with stability and strength at 37 that I never had permission to obtain in my younger years.
You can open up your chest.
You can earn thoracic movement.
It may take more than movement correctives.
It make take letting go of just as much as you employ.
It may take focusing on breathing in a way you never have, since your auto-pilot setting may be making your chest tighter.
It may take loving and respecting yourself enough to love someone else in the same way. And it may take receiving that love right back.
Consider that the tightness may be more than temporary – and it may take some consistent awareness to keep that area open once you get it unlocked.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley