Daymakers with Dr Becca: Get in the water!

Ryan Gosling was right! (No surprise there…) Let’s talk about getting IN THE WATER as a serious help in feeling more vitality and health in our bodies. 

Today Dr. Becca explains how moving in water can make a big difference in reducing chronic pain and more. Admittedly, there are lots of valid reasons why we don’t…so let’s talk about those, too!

Then we move, as always, to the WHY of what things make a difference. Travel with us through the lymphatic system, sensation, attention, and neurology, and how they relate to the pain dial as well as how to gauge your exercise level. 

Dr. Becca guides you through stretching in the water,  how to use hot tub jets to aide your muscles, fascia, and lymphatic systems, and…if you read this far and listened to the pod…you know a story about flirting dolphins and elderly ladies that will always make her burst out laughing. 

Let’s do it! Enjoy the pool! (And chat with a senior citizen if you get the chance while you are there. 🙂)

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the what really makes a difference podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Becca Whitaker. I've been a doctor of natural health care for over 20 years and a professional speaker on health and vitality, but everything I thought I knew about health. Was tested when my own health hit a landslide and I became a very sick patient I've learned that showing up for our own health and vitality is a step by step journey that we take for the rest of our lives and This podcast is about sharing some of the things that really make a difference on that journey with you So grab your Explorer's hat while we get ready to check out today's topic. My incredible guest network and I will be sharing some practical tools, current science and ancient wisdom that we all need, no matter what stage we are at in our health and vitality. I've already got my hat on and my hand out, so let's dive in and we can all start walking each other home. Hello, loves. This is Dr. Becca, just sharing solo today. I am starting a new segment, which will release every so often called Daymakers. And these are the things that I have found in a day that help give your day back to you. You know, you never know what's going to happen in a day. Sometimes when you have a chronic illness, you never know what your body is going to feel like when you wake up in the morning, but certainly none of us really ever know what's going to come, what, what your teenagers, if you have them are going to say to you or what your boss is going to say, let alone what your body is going to say. And I have found through this journey that there are some things that can help no matter what is happening in your day to give you yourself back. within your day. And really, I think that's the whole game, right? When we step away from ourself and into pain or illness or difficulty or drama or trauma or things we can't control like other people, then we lose ourselves. And that's when the day starts to spin away from us. That's when our life truthfully starts to spin away from us. And in this segment, I, would like to share some things that help me through my day. Things that give me back my own life within my life. Today, what I would like to share on Daymakers is the power of getting in the water. I don't know if, you have seen the notebook, but I've seen the notebook a lot of times. And there's this one section where, the two main characters, played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, are playing on a rope swing across the water, and everyone has gone in except for the girl. And he's sort of chant yelling at her like, Get in the water! And that's, that's what I think when I think of I hear Ryan Gosling in my mind. Maybe that's why I like it so much. No, I, I have a condition still where sometimes I wake up in the morning and I just hurt. And I know so many of you listening to this can relate to that, whether it be whatever part of the day, if you have chronic pain, um, or if you have depression or anxiety, lots of times the mornings, Mornings can be hard. Mornings used to be my best friends. It was my best time. It was my quiet time. It's where I gathered myself. It's where I exercised hard and meditated and prayed and studied and improved my mind and body. And I was a morning girl. Life has changed since then. During the years where my illness was really bad and my pain was really high, mornings began to be the worst. Um, I would have vivid dreams of, my body moving and me being a protector and a planner and a leader. And, I was blessed to have. A dream space where I could still create and sort of escape the body that I lived in, but that was kind of a mixed bag of blessings because then when I landed back in this body and I went to, before I even opened my eyes, just when I woke up, it was just this groan, like please don't make it, so I have to stay in this body all day long like this, um, um, Um, we will talk more about pain as we go, but I am shocked at really fibromyalgia, chronic pain, all that kind of stuff, how really every cell can hurt, every fiber of your muscle can hurt. I mean, I'm no stranger to pain and still that, that shocked me. I mean, I'm, I'm a go get them kind of person. I've delivered babies naturally. I've done martial arts. I am not afraid of pain. But. Chronic unrelenting pain or, depression or anxiety, the stuff that just doesn't go away. That's what I'd like to address with water today. So, today was one of those mornings, and I'm not sure why. It was worse this morning than it has been in a long time and now I know a big day maker for me is that before I do anything outwardly, often before I even open my eyes, I know to take a breath. just as big of a breath as I can based on what it feels like. And I tune into myself. Before I commit to how the day is going to go, like before I do the groan and this day is going to be really hard and oh crap, I had this and this to do and how am I possibly going to do that? Um, how am I going to work? How am I going to parent? Like before I let myself zoom off into the future or zoom off into the past, like I cannot believe I feel like this in the morning. What has happened to my life? Where did that exuberance go? I, how did this even happen to me? And think about the loss. I have learned my breath brings me right to the present moment. I take whatever breath I can before I even open my eyes. And then I decide to tune into myself as if I'm talking to a loved one. I have four children and I imagine as if one of those children was snuggled up to me in bed and saying, Mom, it really hurts. I would not start punishing them. I would not remind them about how their life used to be. I would not tell them, How are you possibly going to do this? How are you going to do this? You have to do this today. I wouldn't do that. I would hug them. I would tell them. I'm sorry. That sucks. What can I do? How can I help? And when that really, uh, struck a chord with me that I could speak to myself as though I loved myself and tune in as though I am there for me before I even open my mouth, then I ask myself, what can help? What I need. Sometimes what I need is to roll over, if my husband is in the bed and say, Oh, it hurts. It hurts. Can you please just hold me? Sometimes it's I need to not talk yet. And I need to breathe for a minute or I need to slowly get up and go to the bathroom, but I need to put on my soft slippers, something comforting, something kind. But truthfully, the more that I go into the water, my body's answer. It is, please get me to the water. Now, um, I have done water in cold plunging, which we definitely will talk about. If you are not used to cold plunging, don't get the shivers and stop listening. Just look forward to some new information coming through because cold plunging truthfully saved my life. I am a huge proponent, but today I'm going to talk about moving in the water. Um, it can feel like a daunting task when you are in a lot of mental or physical pain to get up, get yourself in your swimming suit, the have the mental capacity for a swimming suit, get yourself to a pool. And if you don't, you know, have one in your basement, do the thing. What is the weather like? What is how cold is my car going to be? Who's watching me? All of those kinds of things can prevent people from going to a swimming pool. But I would just like to say, if I can walk you through how it feels and what a game changer it is, I'm hoping you'll be brave enough to try if you aren't already. So this morning for me, it was pain, pain in every muscle fiber. So when I heard the answer, please get me to the water, I'm like, Okay. So did it hurt in my hands to be pulling on my boots? Yes, it did. Did it hurt my feet putting on my socks? Yes, it did. Um, did I stand in front of a mirror putting on my swimming suit? Probably not today. Did I worry if I, my legs were shaved? Not really. So I just put on the gear I need for my, to be warm. I make the drive over something. that I enjoy. I, have a lovely friend from England who left me a voice message and I listened to it on the way there so I could just have something lovely that makes the drive so it isn't drudgery. It, there's snow all over the ground. It's cold where I live. So thinking of going swimming, I need something on the way to, make it more pleasant. Um, what I have found is this in the water, once you get in and you get over the initial wah, the water does something to help our lymphatic systems and to help our muscular systems. So our lymphatic system, if you are not aware, that is the system that, um, I think of it like the aquifers in our body or the. the way that our body can cleanse out the guck from the cells. It goes into our lymphatic system and then we filter it, drain it and get rid of it. It does not have our own pump, have a pump like the cardiovascular system does. It has our heart to move things around. Our lymphatic system has our muscles to move things around. So when you have stuff like lactic acid, that. That accumulates in your muscles and can make you really sore. That happens after you exercise, but it can also happen for other responses too. Or when you have inflammation or food reactions or all kinds of stuff like that, it's like, if, if you're not moving enough, then you're still bathing in the guck. Your lymphatic system can't pump it through. And many people that are struggling in mental or physical pain end up having to lay down or sit down. You're not nearly as active. Which is understandable, but the not being active sort of makes it like you're swimming in your own guck still, which doesn't help at all. Doesn't help mentally or physically. So the water is like a nice, it helps move that with our bodies feeling lighter and freer and just easier. I get in the water and after I get over the sort of like cold, buzzy shock, I feel that feeling of buoyancy. Things feel. Easier, kinder. As I'm moving my arms, I start in the lap pool. uh, for many years, for the last three years, I could not swim at all. Before then I was a swimmer. I loved to go to the swimming pool. I would go once or twice a week. Um, and then I wasn't able to, or it would wind me terribly, terribly, and sort of like suck the gas from the rest of the day. So I am just as pleased as I can be that I can swim again. And in fact, in the last couple of times I went, I even swam for 20 to 30 minutes without many breaks in between, which is like so fun for me. I'm just going to celebrate the improvement, but pulling yourself through the water. You start, like your body has to come online to keep you above water. So you can feel that feeling of your muscles flexing. And what I do is just pay attention to that feeling. The muscles flexing, something working, the breath in my lungs, the feeling of the water on my arms, it gives me something so many. Different some things to think about other than the pain in every cell. Does that make sense? Um, when you give yourself different. neurologic feedback, different sensory feedback. your brain has other things to think about when you are dialing in on the pain mentally or physically, the pain gets louder. That's what our brain is designed to do. It's a stress survival response. So when you're focusing on the pain, it gets louder. If you're focusing on the Delightful feeling of buoyancy or of your muscles or of the water sliding past your arms or your legs or the splashes that gets louder and your brain can only have so many really loud things at once. It has to turn down the pain when you're focusing on something else. It's just a neurologic phenomena. It's an activity. Our brains are so amazing when we learn how to work with them. So I swim until my body starts to say, Okay. Hey, actually, please slow down, like actually, okay, and you learn that as you go with any activity, what you can do where you're not taking it to 100%, you're taking it maybe to like 60 or 70%. So when I am at about 60 or 70 percent when it's getting a lot harder to pull myself in the water or when I feel just that sort of like, Oh, come on. Then I get out of the lap pool and in my town, we have like a lap pool area and then a swimming pool area that is a little bit warmer, which is nice. And I go in the mornings when the senior citizens are there. That's like my time. It's me and the seniors. It helps me feel more athletic. It's great. But I grabbed the little water aerobic barbells that are like the floaty barbells. This is my second secret. The first is moving and what I'm paying attention to. The second is those floaties. Oh my if you can find a place where you can use those floaties to hold up your body weight and stretch in the water It is miraculous. For me, I go to where the little like tube slide goes out. It's not rolling, but it's this little like section of the pool. So I have a little more privacy, which is nice, but find some area where you have room to spread out all four limbs. And I start by just laying on my back. And breathing. I recommend you have goggles. Please, please wear goggles for this so that you don't have to just keep your head above water and you can more fully stretch. I lay on my back and I breathe and I feel that feeling of my lungs going in and out. I feel how my body raises to the surface or comes back down from the surface again. Another mindfulness and neurologic exercise that turns the volume down on the pain. Then I spin over on my belly and I stretch out all four limbs. Oh, I'm like a starfish and stretch as much as I can there. And then I just start to wave my body side to side. So you can do this with your head out of water and just have your arms out like kind of in a T swing. I bend my knees because the pool's not that deep and I just swing back and forth side to side. Wow. If you have any kind of back pain, this feels amazing. It stretches the muscles in your back and in the side, um, of your body down, you know, by your waistline. It's awesome. I, lay either on my back or on my front and I stretch as. Far as I can on the same side, one arm away from the other leg. So I'm like curving into a C I stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch until I stretch so much that it makes me flip over onto my other side, take a deep breath, and then stretch my other side body. And like a C shape stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch until I flip over to the other side. Um, I just move, move, move with those barbells to help me be able to sway my weight and move my weight. There is something incredibly delicious about stretching that way. And part of the deliciousness is that it gets into your fascia. So fascia is a covering that covers your organs, your muscles. If you think of it like a big thing of saran wrap, right? That's like from head to toe covering everything. Um, but you know how when you're pulling out saran wrap, sometimes when you're pulling out a sheet, it can get a little jumble in it and it kind of like screws up the whole piece. Our bodies can do that. Our fascia can get jumbled like with scar tissue or with injuries or ways that we move repetitively, repetitively. Um, or ways that we move repetitively that can, um, kind of like torque it and what happens when we do these long, slow, intuitive stretches is that it can sort of like work itself out. What I do is I focus on my breath and I focus on the delicious feeling of the stretch and I just ask my body to direct the stretch however it wants. Having the goggles means I can put my head in and out of the water as much as I need to and, um, You just let your body move how you want a funny story about that. That makes me smile both about being there with seniors, but also about stretching. So, when I was really sick and couldn't really move my body much at all, and I was in a wheelchair, obviously like getting myself on my own power. Um, to go to the swimming pool to try to swim laps was way out of my range. I mean, I had barely energy to make it to the bathroom, um, to roll over. Like this was not, I was not getting myself to the swimming pool. And when I got healthy enough that I could, be helped into the water. My husband was with me. Oh, I might cry a little. My husband was with me. that first day and my goggles just filled up with tears, which is why I'm sharing it because what the tears was from was not like, Oh, now I can be athletic again. It was that I could move my body. The water helped make it not so heavy. The water helped it not hurt. The water helped it not take so much energy. I could move. And I could stretch in a way that you just like, can't stretch when you're heavy and in pain, we were stretching and moving. And my husband just really is so fun at gatherings. He's like the guy that you want to take if there's a birthday party, because he'll. Find some game, he'll turn into a like whale and the children will ride the whale in this big long trail behind him or something while they're going in and out of the water. So he started doing what he does with me, which was just play. and I decided to smile and to go under the water and sort of dive, dive with him like dolphins or something. And as we were diving under the water, you know, I could do a little, and then I had to rest. So he came over, and he gave me a hug, and I just sort of wrapped around him. And, I wasn't even thinking about how there's all these seniors and other, you know, community members in the water. I was just so grateful to be there. Literally, like I had to Letting the tears out of my goggles as we were playing we started flirting and the cute water aerobics class Started doing a walkover to where we were to the wall that we were at and this lady Two ladies, one was like, Oh, you remind me of my husband. He always did love to make love in the water. I was like, and the other one was like, you guys should go behind the wall. I think you should go behind the wall for a little bit. That was. a year and a half ago and I still giggle about it when I go to that section of the pool. So play like a dolphin whether you're flirting with someone or being observed or not. The third thing that really helps in the water on high pain days is at my aquatic center, there is a hot tub with jets. If you can get anywhere where there is water moving through a sort of jet stream, be that your bathtub, be that a community thing, be that make friends with your neighbors and use their hot tub, whatever it is. All those. jets. I don't really just sit there and boil. I put those jets wherever there is pain. First of all, there's so much neurologic feedback. How pain works in your body is that there are fibers, almost like think of it like electrical conduits, right? There are fibers that run the length of your spinal cord. It's your nervous system, how it communicates with your brain and how your brain communicates with your body. And some of those are for pain and some of those are for movement and the movement fibers. Trump, the pain fibers, if we can get movement, if we can get sensation, they literally can start to talk louder than the pain. There's just not enough room for our body in the electrical board for all of them to come in at once and movement and sensation, Trump's pain. So you get the feeling, the sensation of the jets on wherever it hurts. I put it on my low back and I let out this deep sigh and then I turn and I just like put that nozzle on my hip. I put it on my knee. Um, if there's a foot one I put all around my ankle and the lower parts of my legs where they get swollen. I put it on my hands, I put it on, My, arms. And because you can gauge how close or far away you are from the jet, then you can gauge, then you can like make it. So it's a place that feels comfortable for you. If your body's really sensitive, then just don't put it too close. Um, it gets the lymph moving. It changes the sensation. It helps activate our muscles and relax them. There's just so much good that comes from getting water to move on your body. That full process, the getting to the pool. Swimming, stretching, hot tub, out, redressed, and back home took about an hour and 20 minutes because of the drive time really. In the pool it takes about 45 minutes and you can do less than that if you can't swim as much or if you don't like stretching like a dolphin or if you don't have a hot tub. But that gives you back an entire day. Or more, I mean, I was shuffling to move and everything hurt that my hands touched going into that and coming out of that, I'm like, wow, I have a day, I have a day. I mean, really think about that when you have yourself, when the pain isn't as high, that mental or emotional pain isn't as high, and you can be present in your own life, the things you can do with one day. As yourself, the conversations you can have, the productivity you can have, the self love you can give yourself, the love you can give other people. It's amazing. And to give that back, to give an hour back, if it took an hour to give me an hour, that's still a better exchange than laying in mental or physical pain all day. Another thing I know that is great about being in the water is I feel like the activities that we do Set us up for what we are sort of craving the rest of the day and after water Everyone I've spoken with about it typically wants to eat healthier. You're thirsty and you're thirsty for water You want to eat something but an apple or a protein drink sure sounds better than something heavy or fatty anything that is lifting your inner frequency to a place where you want healthier foods, where you feel good moving, and where your brain is cleared a little has my vote. So this is just sort of your daily dose of wisdom from in the trenches, um, something that can help get your day back. And I hope that. You will give it a try if you haven't already. And if you are already enjoying the water, here's one more voice to support you in gratitude that we are figuring this out together. So as Ryan Gosling says, get in the water and enjoy your day. Love you until next time. Bye.