🦵Tight Hamstrings? LET GO of worries, fears, and anxieties.
Mindfulness Practices to help you quiet your 🙇over-thinking 🙉monkey mind.
Happy Leap Day.
This is the last installment for February 2024 theme of 🤲 LETTING GO.
The theme for March 2024 is 🪄Magick.
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Storytime
When I first started taking yoga classes in 2001, the teachers at my home studio kept a list (a sort of “wall of fame”) of all the students who could touch their foreheads to their thumbs in paschimottanasana (seated forward fold).
My over-thinking monkey mind told me that I wasn’t a true yogi unless I could touch my forehead to my thumbs. For years I strived to kiss my forehead with my thumbs.
I’m not a “stupid human trick” type of yogi.
It never happened.
23 years later, I’m not any closer.
I will never become one of those “stupid human trick” yogis.
Oh well…stupid human tricks are just that…🤪 stupid.
After two decades of teaching yoga and watching thousands of yoga bodies, let me tell you, it’s pretty rare for an individual to be able to touch their forehead to their thumbs in seated forward fold pose. Most people need to bend their knees (a lot) just to touch their toes with their hands!
Hamstrings store excess worry and anxiety.
Those same yoga teachers always said that hamstrings were the place in our bodies where we store excess 😩worry and 😳anxiety.
They would say, “if you have tight hamstrings, it is a sign that you are a highly anxious individual. Let go of your worries and your hamstrings will release.”
Heck, I’m guilty of teaching this same concept.
And all those yoga teachers are right.
Stretching your hamstrings is the best way to LET GO of excess and unnecessary worry and anxiety.
But why?
Why do we tend to hold worry and anxiety in our hamstrings?
Lesson
Hamstring injuries are the most common leg injury.
We even use the term “hamstrung” to mean disabled, useless, completely unable to function or move forward.
The hamstrings are the muscles located on the back of your thigh, connecting your knee pit to the bottom of your butt.
🦵Hamstrings are the muscles athletes injure the most. And they are the muscles that get the tightest in those who are the least athletic (most sedentary).
They are also the muscles of your legs that are most likely to be TIGHT. That’s because they tighten when you use them for running, jumping, climbing stairs, walking, etc…AND they tighten when you don’t use them when you sit too much.
Let’s think about the symbolism of the physiology of these muscles. They tighten when you use them (fight/flight) and they tighten when you sit too much and don’t use them (freeze).
Your hamstrings tighten as a stress response…fight, flight, or freeze.
No wonder hamstrings hold energy of fear, anxiety, and worry…the three emotions most closely connected to stress.
In life we are constantly bombarded with circumstances of stress. While we can avoid some stressors, and we can mitigate others, we cannot completely eliminate all stress in our lives. We need to build the skills to be able to manage stress.
That’s where hamstring work comes in.
Regular DAILY stretching of your hamstrings is KEY to helping you process and move out the emotions of stress (anxiety, worry, and fear).
Proper stretching of your hamstring can really help you process the excess anxiety, worry and fear that comes into your life with stress, and help you find more peace and calm because you feel more stable and secure.
AND, how you were taught to stretch your hamstrings is most likely WRONG.
Cuz you were taught as a kid in PhysEd class that you should be able to bend over and touch your toes…with your knees straight.
Well let me ease you of that unnecessary worry right now…it’s okay if you can’t touch your toes. In fact, it’s actually quite normal.
In the next section, I’ll teach you the BEST way to stretch your hamstrings so that you can LET GO of worry, anxiety, and unnecessary fears and feel more safe, stable, peace, and calm.
Hint…only 1/3 of the exercise I teach is about bending your knees first…there’s more to making this work for you on a holistic level.
Personalized Support
If you are dealing with some intense stress and worries and anxieties in your life right now, your hamstrings might be screaming in revolt…and the mere thought of a standing forward fold stretch might be way too much. I’ve been there. During the first months of my divorce, my hammies were so unhappy I couldn’t do any forward fold poses at all…and I was a master yogi at the time!
If that is the case, you could likely need some deeper support to help you through this major life transition that is causing significant stress in your life.
In Sacred Mentorship, I can be that extra support for you…like a not-therapist therapist who can give you the strength and faith when you don’t have it for yourself, and teach you the baby-steps of what to do to get yourself feeling more solid, confident, and calm in your process.
Homework/Practice
There are right and wrong ways to stretch your hamstrings.
The wrong was is to strive and strive to touch your forehead to your thumbs, or to unsuccessfully beat yourself up because you can’t touch your toes with your knees straight.
Healthy Hamstring Stretching is the best stress management tool I use on a daily basis.
I invite you to just give up that fight. It’s not worth it.
Stop trying so hard…try easy…
*Included below is a step-by-step 3min video teaching you how to release anxiety and worry from your hamstrings safely in a way that feels good.
**Please consider sharing this article with anyone you know who may struggle with tight hamstrings or excessive worry, anxiety, and over-thinking.