“Where has the year gone?” is a phrase that has been repeated many times here at the clinic at Ready Set Chiro. What we also hear is the stress and hesitation in people’s voice when they say this. There are only 3 weeks before Christmas break and most likely there are a lot of things that haven’t been achieved despite their best efforts. Stress effects us in physical, emotional and spiritual ways

Do you notice that your shoulders are near your ears? Do you get a sore neck? Headaches? Everyone has a different way of dealing with stress. One of the most important steps is to recognise that you are stressed. When you body is stressed it can show up as physical manifestation that creates dysfunction in the muscles and joints. This can lead to bad posture as we try to minimise the pain. The longer the bad posture continues the more likely it is to wear down the spinal joints and discs causing less movement. The joint stiffness causes less range of motion and starts to affect our bodies ability to continue doing the things we love like walking, gardening or keeping up with the kids.

Fortunately there are things you can do to help avoid the cycle of pain and avoiding movement due to fear of pain.

Seek professional advice: A chiropractor’s adjustment is aimed at releasing the interference to the nervous system that may be causing the pain in the first place.
Get moving: a gentle walk and stretch can be of great benefit for those aches and niggles. You may know of some stretches you have done in the past. Use them to gently stretch aching joints.
Use your mind skills: find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes for 5 min. Relax your shoulders, jaw and legs. Try a breathing technique called box breathing. Take a breath in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, out for 4 seconds and hold for 4 seconds. Repeat 3 times.