Mindful body awareness and just one little change
How cultivating mindfulness and body awareness can sometimes be the first step toward feeling better
One of the greatest compliments I’ve received from a client is, “You’ve made me so much more aware of my body.”
That really means something to me.
Early in my career, I experienced a 10-series of Rolfing sessions, a form of bodywork that works with the body’s connective tissue and explores how we hold ourselves and move through space. A modality very similar to my Deep Space Fascia Release offering. The experience made me much more aware of my posture, alignment, movement patterns, and subtle sensations I hadn’t previously noticed.
It changed the way I experienced my own body.
I became more aware of where I was holding tension, how I was moving, and the little ways I compensated without realizing it. I credit those experiences with helping shape the body awareness, and the precision, that I strive to bring to my work with clients today.
Mindfulness doesn’t have to mean sitting quietly for twenty minutes with your eyes closed.
Sometimes, it’s simply noticing.
A while back, I developed significant chronic pain in my thumb.
And when I say significant, I mean it was affecting my work and everyday life. Things I normally did without thinking became difficult and painful. One thing in particular became a challenge-opening the containers of cat food. Gripping that small tab and pulling back the foil sheath became impossible.
So I started using a pair of pliers to open them.
You might be thinking, Why didn’t you just change the cat food?
If you’re thinking that, you don’t have a cat.
It was such a small adjustment, but it meant I wasn’t repeatedly stressing my thumb with that particular movement several times a day.
And then something interesting happened.
Over time, I stopped noticing my thumb.
One day, I realized:
That pain was gone.
I hadn’t started some elaborate new treatment. I hadn’t made a dramatic lifestyle change. I had simply noticed something that was aggravating my body, changed one small thing I was doing multiple times every day, and given my body a chance to rest.
It got me thinking about how often we do the opposite.
We notice something hurts but keep doing the same thing.
We notice our shoulders are always tense but don’t pay attention to what we’re doing when they tense up.
We notice our neck hurts at the end of the day but don’t notice that we’ve been holding our head in the same position for hours.
We notice we’re exhausted but keep moving at the same pace.
Our bodies are constantly giving us information. The tricky part is that we’re not always paying attention.
That’s where mindfulness and body awareness can be so valuable.
Mindfulness isn’t necessarily about changing everything. Sometimes, it’s simply becoming curious about what you’re experiencing.
Where am I holding tension?
What makes it worse?
What makes it feel better?
What am I doing repeatedly without realizing it?
Those observations can give us clues.
And sometimes, the answer isn’t a major change.
It might be changing the way you sit at your desk. Taking a break before your neck starts hurting. Relaxing your jaw when you notice you’re clenching. Putting your phone down for a few minutes. Taking a few deeper breaths when you realize you’re holding your breath.
Or using pliers to open the cat food.
One of the things I love about therapeutic massage is that it can help bring awareness back to the body.
Sometimes, you don’t realize how much tension you’re carrying until someone helps you slow down enough to feel it.
A good massage isn’t just about making a tight muscle feel better. It can also be an opportunity to notice patterns: how you hold yourself, where you habitually brace, how you breathe, and what your body may have been trying to tell you.
For me, that awareness has always been an important part of the work.
And maybe that’s why one of the best compliments a client can give me isn’t simply that their pain improved.
It’s that they became more aware of themselves.
Because awareness gives us choices.
And sometimes, one little change is all it takes to start moving in a different direction.
If you’re curious about what your own body might be telling you, I’d love to help you slow down, listen, and explore those patterns through massage. You don’t have to arrive with everything figured out. Sometimes, simply making space to notice is a good place to begin.
Pay attention. Your body may already be telling you what it needs.
Comments