Theme: I Talk
Acknowledging our impacts
Chapter 3: Inspiration & the Lymphatic System
Once we have practiced some honest communication with ourselves, and maybe even tried out some personal expression, we start to tap into clairsentience, or “clear feeling”. This is our innate ability to intuitively take in information through feeling. Have you ever walked into a room or come home and felt totally relaxed and comfortable? Or walked into a different place and felt weird and jittery like your body is screaming at you to leave? Our bodies have a way of reading the room far beyond what our mind can bring words to. And kids are Way better at feeling this than adults. Kids are just these raw bundles of energy and ideas and feelings and expressions. And there’s something about growing up, and socializing, and wanting to fit into our surroundings that teaches us to cover up all that rawness. To ignore the floods of feelings we go through all day in order to appear normal, and steady, and balanced on the outside. But who is that helping? How can we feel balance and peace on the inside? How can we relearn how to trust our own instincts? What do instincts have to do with inspiration, and where does inspiration come from?
Inspiration
It’s hard to feel inspired if you’re surrounded by garbage. Garbage food, and garbage entertainment. Garbage chores that never end, and a body loaded down with a lifetime’s worth of emotional garbage we can’t figure out how to take out. Inspiration strikes through necessity (ie: ahhh what do I do?? I need to get rid of this garbage if I ever want to function properly!), or in times of rest or boredom when you are least alert (ie: what are all the thousand ways I could fill my day: the saga of a daydreamer). There are lots of expressions for this: “The best ideas always come in the shower.” “Inspiration strikes when you least expect it” is a common one. Another even more common one is “hitting rock bottom.” It’s not that you hit some day or event that couldn’t get worse. Cuz sh*t can always get worse. It’s that you stopped what you were doing just long enough to have a “clear feeling”. You felt something that made your body scream at you “no don’t do that!” or “yes! That’s what we want!” You were inspired. And that moment of clarity feels so big. You have no doubts. You know what you felt, and all your actions that follow suit feel authentic. You feel like you. You feel all the energy and ideas and emotions exploding out of you like when you were a kid. Lots of artists and writers are master procrastinators for this exact reason. If you need inspiration to strike, you can force it through necessity (ie: ahhh I’m out of time! Just do something! Start something! Go go go!) But might I suggest perhaps trying the healthier route of letting inspiration strike in the shower, rather than at the bottom of a rock you threw at yourself.
The lymphatic system is your body’s way of cleaning out it’s own garbage. Fresh nutrients are delivered through your arteries and blood vessels out to your body’s cells and tissues, and then plasma and some waste is carried back. But there’s about a 15% seepage rate of excess fluids called lymph that also includes fun stuff like fats and proteins from the intestines, excessive minerals, bacteria, viruses, and damaged or cancerous cells. (yum) Lymph nodes are scattered all over your body along the lymphatic system, and they attempt to filter out the damaged or cancerous cells in lymph. They also create the immune system’s cells (like white blood cells) that attempt to fight off harmful bacteria, viruses, fungii, etc… before it all gets returned to your regularly circulating bloodstream to maintain blood pressure. Some lymphatic organs that probably sound familiar are your spleen, appendix, bone marrow, tonsils, and adenoid. They’re all doing their best to filter out the garbage and keep you running. Some things you can do to make their job easier: avoid consuming or breathing in harsh chemicals, cleaning products or pesticides. (hello 2020’s mask collection) Drink lots of water to keep that lymph-sludge moving along. And move your body.
This week’s posts are different types of lymphatic massage you can do at home. It’s best to do them in order from the chest working your way out, always pressing in an upward motion to follow the path of drainage. It’s also important to drink lots of water, and if you have any history of blood clots or cancer to consult a physician before performing lymphatic massage.
An example lymphatic massage from start to finish
Resources this week from: Unimedliving.com and ClevelandClinic.org
Jet Tries 