CTMM

Oh, unrelated. But I did say I'll keep you posted @Kit_L! Inspired by @Andrew1 (I really thought of you then!), I did do cartwheels outdoors in public last weekend! We were passing the ball with our toddler at a local small football pitch and a 5-year-old kid had stopped by to play with our little one, my antics left her nonplussed, but her grandmother cheered! It made me feel inordinately proud of my wobbly, crooked cartwheels ! All in all a very empowering experience that I am eager to repeat, but despite the very mild winter, the ground is still quite cold! 😆

Haha, typical. I was very mindful to pace myself and approach this course in an organized prudent way, because I know myself and how I am prone to hurt myself in my enthusiasm if I am not mindful of it... But really, I shouldn't have bothered! Life got in the way anyway. Of course, it did. It always does! As a result, screen-time got really scare for a few weeks (not a bad thing for my neck in it-self) and it had to be entirely dedicated to work, no place for self-study and wellness. My daily relaxation session didn't survive either, and I mourned it even more so that my sleep took a turn for the worth. Though not able to watch and progress along the exercises, I still managed to implement daily bite-sizes neck limbering moments picked for the first 10 videos. I would sometimes just do one, sometimes string together several exercises up until I ran out of time (or quiet). In itself, it has already proved to be very effective and useful, even though I can feel how much I need to recreate a new relaxation slot in our family schedule for it to fully bear its fruits. At this point, the most dramatic change this course has brought to my neck is an increased level of awareness of the whole neck and shoulders area. I feel tensions faster, before they build up for too long, I find myself realigning my head more often, and I regularly remind myself to let go of the tension in my jaws and shoulders. (I also relax my belly more frequently, but this new habit started before this course, after I listened to Kit in a podcast for the very first time). At some point, before life got too crazy, I even felt confident enough in my neck to attempt a headstand again (see what I mean when I mention being carried by my enthusiasm? That being said, it's less crazy than it might sound, as I used to pop into that pose regularly not two years ago). It was a success, in so far, that I was able to get in and out of the pose without hurting myself. But it highlighted various areas in need of strengthening before I can stay in the pause for any length of time. Not that it is a really important goal of mine, but I took it as a fun way to assess where I stand. I am eager for life to settle back down further and allow me to delve deeper into the course at a steadier pace again.

@Kit_L haha, thanks for the prescription! I just took the first dose 😁 In the process discovered 2 things : I am stronger than I thought but still not going to do handstands free from the whole anytime soon Being upside-down really messes with my proprioception more than I remembered, and I had to come back down first to remember which way was tucking my tail and how it felt 🙈 @Andrew ☺️ I'll keep you posted of my next cartwheel!

Hi everyone, I want to log my "progress" here as a mean of keeping myself accountable, as well as for the joy of sharing. After all, I have been reading the forums previous to enrolling, to help me decide, maybe this will help someone else take their decision. I just started the Overcome Neck Pain course after pondering for a long time where to start. I considered the starter course at first, as a logical entry point to discovering the Stretch Therapy method and, in time, working my way to the mastery course, the squat –especially but not exclusively– having been a goal of mine for a while. In the end, I decided that before aiming for accessing new shapes with my body, I should start by addressing the shapes in my body that are causing discomfort and distress, one of this area being indeed my shoulders, neck and jaws. It is also my hope that if I manage to heal myself, I'll be better equipped to share with others, particularly with my mum, whose neck is very often a great source of discomfort and pain. It helped my decision that the course seemed complete enough to also give a good insight into the system as a whole. My starting point : my posture has never been great, I have seen my head hanging forward and my shoulders both creeping up and slouching forward on most pictures of me already back in the days when we had to print them from film. It did become better for a time, over five years or so of drastic increase in my physical activity levels. In a nutshell, upon reaching 30, I had burned out twice (slow learner here) and this triggered a sudden mindset shift followed by an incremental lifestyle change to which my body responded. What an epiphany! Imagine that, I discovered that I was also a breathing moving body. Anyway, more thrilling discoveries ensued, with the many flavour of the yoga industry as a gateway to movement and breath in general. Unfortunately, I reverted to a lot of sedentary bad habits in the past 2 years. My practice didn't survive being pregnant and then adjusting to parenthood in a pandemic. I am slowly but surely trying to implement more movement into my life again, rather in the course of it than in a separate practice, though. But in the meanwhile, well, my body also responded. My "head forward" posture is at the worst I have ever seen : I recorded a time-lapse of myself working, it was shocking. My little one keeps lifting her shoulders up to her ears when she imitates me. As for the incredible tension in my jaws, it has been there for all my adult life at least. It never disappeared, even if yawning a lot during yin practices or nidra would help at the time. During stressful days, the tension can cause my jaws to lock partially. My experience in the first few days of the course: I made the mistake of going too far too quickly on one of Kit's free YouTube follow-along and was impressed by the sensations occurring the next few days. So, with this course, I am diligently taking his advice and starting very slowly and gently. So far I proceeded as follows : DAY 1: lying relaxation DAY 2: lying relaxation + watching ex. 1 and 2 DAY 3: doing ex. 1 + 2 and watching ex. 3 + 2+ 4 // lying relaxation at a separate moment DAY 4: doing ex. 1, 2, 3, 4.+ watching following exercises (I'll do the relaxation tonight) I find that watching the exercises to come the next day work well for me to pace myself, and that way I can follow along right away the next day. A few reflexions : lying on the floor is no longer as comfortable as I remembered from delicious protracted savassana. There used to be much more of my body touching the floor too. I am happy to work on reacquiring that ease, though, and improvement is already showing those first limbering exercises beg to be stringed together a short routine to incorporate in my work days as a regular break I didn't feel the soreness at all in my neck or shoulder after the exercise, on the other hand, now all the tension seem to have moved south in the zone in between my shoulder blades on the second days limbering neck 2, my chin bumped in my shoulders at full ROM, repeated it after doing ex. 3, worked like a charm I can actually touch my chest with my chin, I wonder if that's new Using my hands and arms to lift my head up is extremely counterintuitive, my neck muscles automatically engage the ex. 4 self massage is 🤯 Enough rambling for today! To whomever is reading this, have a lovely day.

Not a very insightful input, but I so relate to this sentence. I started doing the same a few years back, it felt both awkward and great! I lost the confidence and strength to do it after having a kid and loosing my movement practice altogether, but you just inspired me to work on it again. The sheer playfulness of cartwheeling as a grownup is amazing, and I think it also sets a brilliant example for kids who might be tempted to outgrow their natural variety of movements too soon because it's a "little kid" thing! 🤸🏻‍♀️🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏼‍♂️🤸🏿‍♀️