Episode#95- Expand/Contract

Expand- Contract

 

This is a principle of growth I first learned about from Peter Levine and Trauma Healing.

 

He talks about how expansion is followed by contraction, and that this is the normal process of growth.

 

When I found out everyone who had been with me at the Peter Levine retreat had a week of contraction when we came back to real life, I started noticing this principle other places.

 

With chronic pain this principle can be called “symptom imperative” (Sarno) or “extinction bursts” (Alan Gordon).  Basically when you start healing, there can be a flare up or a new symptom that shows up.

 

The Upper Limit Problem, as described by Gay Hendricks in “The Big Leap” is an example of how we may sabotage ourselves when we reach levels of success that are uncomfortable for us.

 

There is a way of stretching in Physical therapy, called contract-relax.  And yin yoga is a restorative yoga. 

 

There are many examples of expansion and contraction as a normal way of growing, so be compassionate with yourself along this journey when there are natural ups and downs!

 

Listen here to learn more!

 

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Transcript- Automatically Generated:

This is Betsy Jensen, and you are listening to Unstoppable Body and Mind, episode 95, Expand, Contract. In this podcast, we learn to upgrade our brain and understand the power of our thoughts, to heal and to create the results we want in our life. Become the person in control of your healing and make peace with your life.
Become unstoppable body and mind. Hello, my loves. In this episode, I talk about this principle of expand and contract.
I first really started learning about this with the nervous system healing and Peter Levine, he's a somatic practitioner and he uses this small toy ball that as you pull it apart, it expands into a bigger ball. It's called a Hoberman sphere. And so you can Google that if you want to see what that is.
But he talks about nervous system healing, that as you expand, there's naturally a little bit of contraction, and then there's more expansion and a little bit of contraction. So he talks about that a lot. I actually went to a retreat with Peter Levine for a week and the last couple of days were remarkable.
I felt really, really like some deep issues were resolved and healed, and then the next week I went into freeze. My nervous system got overwhelmed, dysregulated, and I was really hard on myself about it. And then one week later, after the retreat had ended, we had a meetup with the group, and everyone talked about how they experienced their week, and they had all experienced this basically contraction after this big expansion that we'd all grown together and connected, and so much had happened.
And then we went back to our lives and responsibilities and things and our minds and the world, and there was this natural contraction. And so it helped me to see that in real life, to know that this expand contract is really very normal. And I started really noticing it in a lot of different places after that.
So with chronic pain healing, when people first start to learn about how to heal and rewire their brain, you could say, more than heal or regulate their nervous system, there's usually some results, some experience that's positive. And then there can be what they call either the symptom imperative, that's what John Sarno would call it originally. Extinction burst is what they call it in the way out by Alan Gordon.
So just know that your body may try, or your brain and your body, your nervous system, there may be some reaction as the normal pain that you're used to or whatever you're changing, the thought process that you're used to having is changed. Something new may come up to take its place. Another example of this is the upper limit problem.
If you've read The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, he talks about as we're evolving and changing, often we'll kind of reach this upper limit of what we're comfortable with, allowing ourselves to have the new title or the riches. Sometimes we just, or the happiness, it doesn't feel safe to us. It doesn't feel good to us.
We don't accept it. And so we start a fight. We have an accident.
There's something that happens that brings us back down to the amount of suffering and misery that we're used to. So one of the things I talk about in Alignment Academy in my course is actually allowing positive emotion because it sounds like that should be easy for us because it is, it should be easy for us. It should be our natural state, but it's not what we're taught.
It's not how we've conditioned our nervous system. And so it doesn't just give up easily if it feels there might be a threat. In physical therapy, there's a concept called contract relax, where we're working on increasing range of motion.
So we're working on, again, expanding, but what we do is have the patient contract. So if I was trying to stretch the shoulder, for example, I'd have them push up against me and then relax as I took their shoulder back further into the stretch. So that principle, again, reminded me of this concept as well in yoga.
There's a whole form of yoga, yin yoga, that's a restorative yoga. So we're not always meant to just push and do high power vinyasa flows. We're also meant to restore and regenerate and rejuvenate the body through the practice of yin yoga and through even yoga.
Nidra is a sleeping yoga. So although we're not taught about that in our current society, this is ancient wisdom of how to keep our body regulated and healthy. Often in life, you'll see seasons and times of things of work and rest.
And even with my son, my 18 year old, he's been working on working out. And so he's been trying to build his muscles and he gives himself rest days because that's actually better for building your muscles. And he alternates muscle groups.
So he's not working out the same muscles day after day. He's resting certain ones and working out others. He's actually bulking and cutting.
So with his food, he was very, very restrictive at first. And then it was weird to me because I've never dieted this way, but he started bulking. So he was eating whatever he wanted in these massive amounts.
And then he started cutting again. And the whole time he's getting more and more muscular. So I don't understand any of that.
But again, it just goes to show that we're not meant to steadily push and grow and expand. There's kind of these growth and rest periods. In fact, I just saw a video of a ball being released onto a surface that was just flat and then rolled back to the other side versus a ball being released on a surface that had a slight curve up and down.
And then as it got to the other side and went back, it had more momentum because as it goes up the hill and down, it kind of gathers this speed. So the contrast is part of life for us. If you think of us as energy, energy is moving.
There's a vibration to it. So we're not meant to stay still. We're not meant to just constantly expand.
We are meant to expand and contract. Think of a child that is going through a growth spurt or maybe a teenager, they need a lot of rest. And if you look up this concept called cognitive dissonance, so cognitive dissonance is when you are learning something new that contrasts, that is different than what you have previously believed.
And your brain is holding two opposing beliefs. And that is actually psychologically, physiologically and emotionally draining for your brain. So there's actual like physical tiredness from learning these new things, from developing, from growing, you know, your thought capacity, your emotional capacity and your spiritual capacity.
So all I'm saying here is that all of this rewiring the brain does take energy and to be super kind and gentle with yourself. If you do notice yourself needing some rest or needing more rest or really breaking away from some of those beliefs that you've been conditioned to believe that you need to be working all the time, because as we look around and see many, many, many examples around us, that it makes sense that we have times that we grow and times that we rest and times that we restore. If you are looking for a way to apply this in your life and you wanna coach, I'm so excited to announce my new monthly membership program.
For a low monthly price, you will get a weekly group coaching call with me, and there will be recordings available of the calls if you wanna listen back on your own time and hear other people being coached. There'll be a private podcast for that, as well as a private Facebook group where you can write in about your celebrations or receive written coaching. You'll have access to all of the modules that I use in my group coaching program, Alignment Academy, that you can watch on your own time, and an app like Netflix that you can have to access different meditations and lessons and workbooks.
So no matter what your learning style, I've got you covered. Here's a testimonial from one of my clients that's been in my group coaching program for about three months. Hi, Betsy.
I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything I've learned through your program. I get overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude when I think of the skills you've given me and the quality of life I've been able to return to. I was hopeless and discouraged before starting your program, and now everything has changed for me.
I'm doing the things I love again and stepping into the genuine, authentic me. Just wanted to let you know how grateful I am for the work you're doing. It's truly life-changing.
These kind of results are common. Another one from my group was having pain with running when she began the program. And this week finished a triathlon that she wanted to do without pain.
If this is calling to you, check the show notes for more information about the program and how to sign up. All right, you guys have a great week. Thank you so much for listening.
I hope you learned a little bit about your brain today that helps you in your life like it helped me. Please be sure and subscribe and leave a review. And of course, be sure and share this podcast with someone you know that wants an unstoppable body and mind.