Chapter 3 - What Prevents Us From Feeling Good and Having Health?
Defining Your Physical Comfort Zone
Everyone has a physical comfort zone. The majority of our day is spent in this zone because it is the most gratifying. The comfort zone is framed by two “modes.” On one side, we find the mode in which we deliberately relax our bodies - releasing daily stress and tension. On the other side is the mode in which we exert our bodies to the extreme - increasing our personal efficiency, strength and endurance.
Your Daily Comfort Zone is the area located between your two extremes – exertion (mental and physical) and intentional relaxation.
Our bodies are similar to an extremely advanced computer system. There are vast memory storage areas reserved for your daily data input. You probably have heard the term “muscle memory”. Every activity you complete during the day is “logged” into your muscle memory – eventually becoming a behavior or habit.
For example, both good and bad postures are remembered behaviors. Good posture leads to better posture and poor posture will just get worse. The same is true for all body movements, lifestyle behaviors, ways of thinking and emotional attitudes we practice – in the end; we are always traveling down a road of our creation.
Stress has Been Affecting You for Years
Unless you have been practicing stress-releasing techniques since you were in high school, most adults store daily stress as internal muscular tension. As this tension accumulates, the muscles of our bodies have no choice but to adapt by incorporating this tension into static positions. In other words, the more tension stored, the less flexible you become. Decreased flexibility decreases available energy, increases daily discomfort, closes your mind down and promotes the likelihood of injury. A body with an open energetic flow is much more adaptable to life than a rigid fixed body. The oak tree in a hurricane has much less chance of survival than the reed bending in the wind.
If you are constantly stressed and do not practice relaxation, your tension will build and the size of your comfort zone diminishes. Exercise is a good way of reducing stress; however, exercise without some degree of relaxation will only release small degrees of stress and tension.