I am having a hard time keeping my shoulders down today. Every ten or fifteen minutes I notice that they're pulling up again. I've been at just about chin level a couple of times.
I don't know why this happens, biologically speaking. It's not like I'm more ready to attack the problems in front of me with my shoulders to my ears. My best guess is that it's a subconscious turtling up. Subconsciously, as you feel more and more vulnerable from the pressures of the outside world, you attempt to save your own neck by pulling your shoulders around it.
I like the general principle there. That in tense times it's instinct to save your own neck, and takes conscious thought to relax and take a long view of the situation. (Is my eternal soul in jeopardy if I don't finish entering all these numbers into the spreadsheet? No. Do the people I send the spreadsheet to even look at it anyway? Quite probably not.)
I'm also trying to relax my heart rate and slow my breathing. Those don't seem to be as connected to turtles as the neck bit, so maybe they don't even belong in this post.
Mostly I'm glad it's Friday afternoon.
3 comments:
Suzanne, the real reason you "turtle up" is that the trapezius, the muscle that controls elevation of the shoulder girdle, is affected by the sympathetic nervous system which handles stress. Therefore, when you stress, your trapezius muscle kicks in more than it needs to and you lift your shoulders.
Solution: when you feel stressed, lower your shoulders, and stretch them long and hard, but slowly. That slows down the nerves in your shoulders, which will then relax the muscles that they innervate.
Hope that helps = )
P.S. Can you tell I miss my REAL job?!?
WOW, Abby, I am so impressed, and... it makes good sense.
Abby, I love you. And thank you for the explanation. I will be putting those shoulder stretches to work!
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