This is Part 46 of a serial blog originally titled 'Martha Carter's Healing Journey'. Curious about the earlier posts? To start from the beginning, read Part 1.

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This is the time of year when we all have to be extra cautious with cold weather.

Yup. I was reminded the hard way as I slipped and fell on my icy deck today. Twice. TWICE!!!

*First frost at home in the Comox Valley*

The first time, I landed hard on my left hip, jarring my left wrist and shoulder as the impact rippled through my arm. The second time, I was holding a cat and landed straight down on my tailbone with my right hand slightly twisted under me as I tried to catch my fall while releasing the startled cat.

It was the first very cold morning of winter — I woke up early to a frosty white lawn, with temperatures dipping below freezing. I decided to go outside for a hot tub to enjoy the pink sky view. To do this, I have to open the sliding glass door, which always makes the cats come running as I occasionally let them out for a short sniff (there are many eagles in the trees around my house, so I don’t risk letting them be outside for long). Once the glass door is open, I slide open the screen door while using my feet to block the cats from bolting. But alas, the doormat was frozen on the slippery icy deck and as I turned to close the screen door, my feet went out from under me, and I went down. Hard. OUCH.

I checked that nothing was broken and got myself up. By then the cats had run into the yard, so I swore a few times and went to get them. The older one could tell I was upset, so she ran inside and I closed the door. The younger one was harder to catch, but I managed to swoop her up and head for the door. By then, I was so distracted by chasing the cats, that I forgot to be careful. As I opened the door for the second cat—whoop, crash!—I was down again.

As I lay there looking up at the sky and once again checking my body for broken bones, I was grateful that the cats stayed inside, and extra grateful that I had chosen to put on a bathing suit that morning. Sometimes I don’t and I am pretty sure that would have felt even worse.

So I got up, moved the frozen mat once and for all, put a towel over the slippery part to give some protection, and then finally got in the hot tub. My left hip, shoulder and wrist felt jammed, and the ring finger on my right hand was sore and swelling.

Ugh.

Seriously?

I felt shaken and beaten up and stupid, and then emotional as I realized that it was all ok. I was in a hot tub for heaven’s sake! With a gorgeous view! Although I had planned to go for a bike ride, do a workout and then shopping etc, I was relieved to remember that my usual Wednesday meeting had been cancelled, so I could be flexible with my schedule. It occurred to me that I could actually take the time to listen to my own advice and pay attention to the fact that I had just, quite violently, jolted my whole body - my whole nervous system - my whole soma!

I decided to take the accident(s) as a sign to slow down and focus on some self care. There was no point in working out while shaken up, and the shopping could always wait.

I stayed in the tub for about 30 minutes, doing some gentle dance-like movements, letting the water reflect its fluidity back to me. Then I sat and did some breath work, meditating with the beautiful nature around me. When I left the tub, I was extra, extra cautious. The cats seemed to understand to give me some space around the door so I didn’t have to deal with their excited energy. Inside, I turned on the shower and let the hot water pound on my back, soothing my tailbone. After I dried off, I put on loose clothing and got on the floor. Time for Somatics.

This is exactly the reason I am so grateful to have Somatics in my toolbox as it gives me very specific things to do in order to undo the stress and tension caused by the assaults of life - in this case, the shock of falling and jolting my body (twice!). In fact, the philosophy behind the Somatics technique teaches us that a sudden fall causes a ‘trauma’ response in the body - a natural, unconscious reflex that causes the muscles of our torso to contract more on one side than the other. And interestingly, they call a scoliosis a ‘trauma pattern’, as it has those same characteristics.

All our natural reflexes (of which there are four) are meant to help us in times of crisis, however, they are not meant to ‘stay’ in our body. When the danger is over, our brain is supposed to let go of the contraction and let our posture normalize. Yet this sometimes doesn’t happen, and it is very common that a few months later, although we may have forgotten the fall and its associated pain, we find ourselves unusually slumped, or there is a new, nagging joint pain which perplexes us. It’s easy to think it’s something new that has happened, but it’s all because there is still an unhealthy muscle contraction held deep in our soma from the previous accident.

There are many people who believe that a childhood fall may be one of the main causes of scoliosis, however, we know that is not the only reason. After all, almost every child falls multiple times during their childhood — so why is it only a small percentage of children who develop a twisty spine?

But I digress.

As I lay on my mat with my knees bent, I gently started to explore what kind of new trauma I had done to myself—beyond my usual trauma pattern. I started my favourite ‘washrag’ movement: I gently tilted my knees to the left while turning my head to the right. This first side felt ok as I lengthened my ‘long’ waist or ‘convex’ side and took several deep breaths. It actually felt good. There was no resistance and nothing hurt. I brought my knees up to centre.

But as soon as I started to tilt my knees to the right to lengthen the left side of the body—my shorter, concave side—I could immediately feel how it had jammed up and contracted in the fall. My knees hardly tilted to the right at all, and my neck felt tight as I turned my head to the left. I took several deep breaths as I willed my body to let go of the tension. I returned my knees to centre and tried again. During the second time I could go a little bit further, although I could feel a bit of shaking as my nervous system resisted. It didn’t really hurt; it just didn’t want to let go. I took several more deep breaths and, after a few minutes, I finally felt something release, and my body relaxed. My knees tilted a little further, but still not as far as usual. I decided that was enough of that exercise for now, as I know there is no point in pushing past the comfort or forcing the range of motion.

I gave myself a big cat stretch and rolled onto my right side so that my left ‘jammed’ shoulder was facing up. I started with a gentle shoulder roll, rounding my shoulder forward while ‘roller-pinning’ my whole left arm forward. Usually this is a smooth movement for me, but at that moment it was very jumpy and jerky. This signals the fact that there is some SMA or ‘Sensory Movement Amnesia’. In other words, the shoulder had lost its usual solid connection to the brain and the best way to reconnect that lost connection was to move very consciously and very slowly. More deep breaths.

As I rolled my arm backwards to contract the muscles behind my shoulder blade, I felt a sharp burn. Oops! There it is! Evidence of how hard that shoulder was impacted by my fall. My breath stopped and my whole body tensed up as I felt the sensation. I backed off the movement and willed my body to relax. After several more repetitions, the burning eased and the movement smoothed out. Phew. I repeated it on the other side, and that shoulder was fine. It was only my finger that was sprained, so I made a mental note to ice it after.

To finish off my emergency practice, I lay on my back and explored the ‘arch and flatten’ movement. My tailbone was a little tender as I pressed it into the floor for the arch, and my lower back felt stiff as I went into the ‘flatten’ movement. I took a deep inhale to repeat the arch and stayed there for a few breaths, sensing the contracting of my back muscles. On my next exhale, I repeated the flatten, purposefully contracting the front of my body, letting my chin move up and backwards, which also awakened my sore shoulder again. I repeated both movements several times, keeping it very small, while using my inner vision to imagine it letting go. I did another cat stretch and then lay flat in ’sivasana’ to completely relax for several minutes.

When I got up, I still felt a bit stiff and sore, but my nervous system had definitely relaxed. Walking around the house, I noticed the strain in my shoulder and finger were still there, but less so, and otherwise I felt good to go. Of course the bruising always takes a few days to show, but as long as the mobility is addressed right away, I find that the healing happens faster.

The older cat followed me around, making sure I was alright, plus she also wanted her morning treats.

All was ok. Crisis averted.

As one of my yoga teachers exclaims regularly, “Om Namah Shivaya”, which is basically another way of saying Thank Goodness!

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Gentle reminder: It’s important to address injuries immediately so they don’t worsen or accumulate. These free YouTube videos show the movements described above, from our 10+1 Somatic Movements (On the Floor) series:

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Dangerous Times: The Importance of Taking Time for Self Care, Especially After a Fall!

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