I’ve been having some left arm pain for over a month. It started with my shoulder, but after an adjustment the shoulder pain went away and moved into my upper arm. Before everyone starts yelling at me, it is not a heart attack. It’s my neck. Wonkiness in my neck is causing nerve pain in my arm. One of the ways my chiropractor is treating this issue is by making me wear a shoulder brace for hours at a time. The brace pulls my shoulders back, relieving some strain on my neck which has been working at keeping those shoulders up near my ears. When she first put it on, I though “Wow! This is great!” but after ten minutes of it, I felt like screaming. The thing about pulling the shoulders back, is that it also opens the chest.

Heart opening poses are great for physically stretching the front of the body. Mentally and emotionally though, it can be terrifying. Heart openers can make a person feel vulnerable. Lifting and stretching open the chest can release some emotions, emotions that have trapped inside a body for days or years. While releasing all of that pent up crud is good, it is also scary. Heart openers are an invitation to courage. You have to be courageous enough to be vulnerable. I’ve basically been walking around in a heart opening position all week.

The first day of my forced vulnerability made me want to shove all of the things away from me. I wanted to yell at people to tell them not to stand in front of me and not to look at me. The second day, I cried a lot. I couldn’t stop thinking about episode three of The Last of Us and if you haven’t seen it then you are missing out on the most beautiful love story in television history. The third day, I stood at my desk all morning, occasionally dancing. I didn’t sit down until I went to teach my chair yoga class at noon. After that, all I wanted to do was lay down under my desk and sleep.

Does anyone remember the Care Bears’ cartoon? They would rub their bellies until light a beam of light would irradiate out from their centers. I think Teletubbies do this too. This was the Care Bears super power for thwarting evil enemies and healing those corrupted by that evil influence. That’s what today feels like. I feel like I’m emitting a beam of light from my chest and I have the power to thwart evil and heal all emotional distress. I am no longer fighting the vulnerability or crying uncontrollably at my desk. That’s something to be grateful for, for sure, but also…super powers.

I’m grateful for my new super powers.