Section 8: Your Body

Physiology and Hormones

We have a far more delicate hormonal system than men, especially given the stages that we go through with menstruation, pregnancy (for some) and eventually menopause.  As you probably know, stress will negatively impact our hormones. But, tending to your body through deep breathing, movement and simply by standing differently will also impact your hormones - but for the better. In fact, the way you stand will either create havoc in your system or strengthen it.

PRACTICE THIS:

Starting today, become aware of how you habitually hold your body when you’re walking sitting, or standing somewhere. If you practice yoga, this may come more easily to you, but you do not need to be a yogi to do this - not at all.

• If you struggle with fear, (especially in the form of insecurity and self-consciousness) or you tend to over-think, and/or easily stress, chances are your shoulders round forward, your chest and collar bones narrow, and your head goes forward of your chest. Maybe you look down a lot. This is a mini nightmare on the body. It restricts blood flow to the brain and a dropped chest can create too much weight on the diaphragm restricting deep full breathing. The rounding into oneself in self concern, as I like to say it, also can burden your stomach and therefore your digestion.

• Does your lower back frequently hurt? This could be emotional - persistent stressful emotion manifests as patterns in our bodies. You could also be “resting” on your pelvis. If that's the case, when you stand, you have a tendency to thrust the bottom of your pelvis and butt forward which then pushes your thighs forward. This tightens your groins and hips and flattens our your natural curve of your lower back.

• In both cases, if you were to take a deep breath and lift your torso up and out of your pelvis, this would help tremendously. Because when we round or drop into ourselves in any way - when we thrust parts of our bodies forward or backwards, we are habituating ourselves to a specific emotional state that serves stress. And stress is what governs cortisol and adrenaline - two hormones that when chronically released in excess, destroys our endocrine system.

MOVE

Although I prescribe movement to all my clients, how you move is very important and my movement prescriptions vary from person to person.

YOGA

As a teacher of 16 years and a practitioner of 19.5 years, yoga is the one thing that I urge everyone to try. Even if you’ve been practicing for years, how you practice is key. The physical branch of yoga is a science designed to balance the mind via the nervous system and muscular skeletal system. One can either practice with the intention to restore balance or not. Admittedly, I have all types of intentions here. To get strong, to get flexible, to sweat, to get out of my head. These are all good intentions, but ones that can get very mired in neurosis and further imbalance. If you’re new to it, just get yourself to a class and find a teacher who you like. If you’ve been practicing for years, keep inventorying how you practice and its impact on your emotional, physical, hormonal, psychological and spiritual states.

Some sample prescriptions designed for women:

• If you’re on the thin side, feeling ungrounded, have endocrine issues, and feel uncertain: Lift weights. Start small and simple at home or a gym (how I do it), or hire a trainer if that's in your means.

• If you’re stressed out, tired, having a hard time losing weight, type A, and or feeling burnt out: Chill on the cardio. It’s working against you. Intense long cardio is a stress on the system which is fine when its on a resilient system. But if you're burnt out, stressed, and overwhelmed, you do not need more stress. The excess cortisol is making it harder for you to achieve your body goals. If you must do cardio for your mental state, do short spurts of it. Try HIIT exercises online and do not exceed 20 minutes. Do restorative or light yoga more and watch your body and mind go into much better balance. It’s miraculous.

• Dance. I prescribe this to every single woman I work with. It is an incredible way to flush out stress hormones and it connects us with our feminine, free nature. Do it at home. Go nuts. This works for just about everything.

• Swim. Not everyone has a pool accessible to them, but if you do, and you know how to swim, try it. Try 20 minutes of laps 3x or more a week. It is by far the best thing I have found for the body on a pure physical level because there is no impact on the joints. It’s also extremely meditative.

• If you don't regularly exercise: Find something your like and do it 5x a week as it fits into your schedule. At least 15 minutes. But do it. You have to connect to your body if you want to feel better in it.