Integrating Relaxation Techniques into Your Hypermobility and EDS Management Plan
As you already know, having joints that move in and out of place is quite painful. It’s important to remember the three basic principles of hypermobility and EDS.
They are:
1) Alignment can be done by a good osteopath, gentle chiropractic, or myofascial worker. Sometimes you may be able to realign yourself. And sometimes the body realigns itself without you.
2) Dextrose prolotherapy or PRP and
3) Strengthening. Today I want to add another principle. And this is relaxation.
In today’s world, we are inundated with different stress factors coming at us. The basic struggle to make our way in the world and keep our relationships calm and uplifting, not to mention being exposed to the media in any form can produce tremendous anxiety.
For most people living in the 21st century takes its toll on the body in multiple different ways. For some people asthma, for others, acid reflux and for us, instability and body pain. I find it confusing that stress in people with hypermobility and EDS causes our bones to sublux. Oftentimes my patients come in with more pain and subluxation having had no injuries but undergoing a higher amount of stress in their lives. I find that even a regular amount of stress can contribute to their pain.
This is why I think it is vital that we all have a daily meditation practice. It doesn’t matter what religion you are or if you have no religion. What matters is that you know how to calm your nervous system. I have been meditating for many years and I can’t imagine life without it. I see upset people all day long and I must maintain my equanimity for them and me. I have even found that sometimes during meditation, while I have been deeply concentrating, my body will spontaneously re-align itself.
The easiest style of meditation is called passage meditation. It is nondenominational. I say it is the easiest because in this style, the mind is given something to hold on to rather than the breath or the repetition of a word. It involves memorizing a Passage, Scripture or prayer from one of the world’s mystics and then repeating it at a later time (during your meditation time) slowly with complete concentration, gently returning the mind again and again to the passage when it wanders. Even in the beginning stages, the mind will be much, much calmer afterwards. This style has the side benefit of infusing your being with uplifting words of the highest order. It is said that you become what you meditate on.
I highly recommend the book Meditation by Eknath Easwaran as well as the accompanying book God Makes the Rivers to Flow which has beautiful prose from all the great mystics.
I wish you all peace, equanimity and a nicely aligned body that stays in place!
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