Balance is everything.

First off, I want to say that after all of my searching, I finally found an apartment!!! And it's adorable! Plus, it's in a perfect location! 100 south 600 east. So my stress level has decreased dramatically and I can get back into harnessing my chi.
So if anyone feels like celebrating with me by lifting boxes this weekend... I'd be oh so happy to have your help! ;)

Secondly, I am still totally loving school!!! It is so awesome! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my teachers! I also love that the classes are small, so I'm developing a nice intimate relationship with my (three) teachers and my (3-5) classmates. Everything we learn is still super fascinating to me, which makes it so much easier to stay focused!

Recently, we've been learning that balance is EVERYTHING! As you should know, it is important to have balance in every aspect of life...mind, body, and spirit. But more specifically, we've been learning about posture. Posture, I've learned, is INSANELY important to our health and well being, I never realized just HOW much it affects us. Our bodies are built in, and are meant to remain in, complete balance. Unfortunately, we have this vicious little thing called gravity who is working against us when it comes to good posture. We go our entire lives trying to fight gravity, to maintain that balance...and we all fail. I mean, really think about it... whenever you become off balance anywhere in your system, something, or many things, are directly or indirectly effected by it.

[Side note: I have a very hard time differenciating between Affect and Effect. I know that Affect is a verb, and Effect is a noun... but its still tricky for me, so don't judge my misusage.]

Let's take for example high heels. Ladies, take notice in the difference of your stance next time you put on your high heels. For an example, place your hands on your anterior and posterior lower abdomen (in other words, your front and your backside of your waist), feel the difference in how your pelvis sits when you stand flat footed and how it feels when you lift up on your toes. The pelvis dramatically tilts forward, your gluts stick further out, as does your chest, therefore creating almost an entirely different framework from your original. Remember, that we are built to remain balanced, just on our main frame. When you put yourself in these trechorous high heels, and tilt your pelvis like that, it puts your entire frame off balance. This causes your sacrum, (which is the large, triangular bone at the base of the spine and at the upper and back part of the pelvic cavity) to push forward in towards your organs... therefore pushing your organs to the front of your body, causing you to form a "pouch." If you wonder why you can't get rid of that little front pouch in your lower belly, and you wear lots of high heels, well thats why. And I won't even get into the internal effects it has. And that's just ONE example, and without mentioning the increased curvature in your spine! (the ladies from sex and the city are screwed)
Here's a link to a related blog that I cam across when looking for a photo of Lordosis, this blog is great!

http://jamieatlas.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/high-heels-are-ruining-your-posture-and-feet-heres-why/

So, ladies, I wouldn't ever recommend wearing these:

Yikes.

Since learning of this, I find myself constantly taking note on my posture. Always trying to make sure that I am sitting upright, that my shoulders are pulled back, and when I stand I am not locking my knees. I WILL slowly correct my posture one day at a time.

On a sad note; we also talked about Scoliosis in class, to which I learned...... nothing. No I'm kidding; what I learned, is that still to this day, doctors do NOT know what causes Scoliosis... there are only theories. *sigh*

Another story I'd like to share, happened the other night in Swedish Massage. My teacher couldn't be there, so he had the Energy Essentials teacher sub for him. When discussing different massage strokes, I started getting a muscle spasm in my shoulder. After trying to ignore it for so long, I finally complained about it, asking the teacher what I could do. (it was spasming so badly that my classmates could see it!) She came over and used compression on the twitch with her left hand, and with her right arm she hugged my head and pulled it to the right. After trying compression and traction for a minute she suddenly gasped as if she found something... something big and/or painful. and then she said:

"WOW... wow... what is in here??.... It's so strong...."
Then she stopped, and looked me right in the eyes and said, "What can you not let go of?"

What can you not let go of?....
What can you not let go of?......

That sentence has been resonating with me ever since. I know what I can't let go of. I know there's more then just one thing that I can't let go of. I am also aware that there are very strong emotions that I am storing in my muscles. (did you know we all store emotions in our muscles?) But the mere fact that after touching me for less than 2 minutes, she could feel that I was holding on to something, ....something big. How crazy is that?!

SOOOOO...my BIGGEST goal for this year... is to let go. To let the past lay. Leave it where it belongs.... in the past. Focus on the present, and the future.

I know, I have a lot of goals for this year, but this one is the biggest (this, and graduating school, of course) I intend to have energy work done to cleanse my chakras to help me with this. I am very VERY excited to learn more about energy.

Well that's all for now. Prepare for my blogs to become very school oriented, since that is majorly what I will be thinking about for the next year or so. :)

Namaste.