Almost a week later

It has nearly been a week and I can see why they recommend having lots of neck massages. My neck muscles have stiffened up a bit since the procedure was done, but are still incredibly flexible compared to before.

I was practicing pavanamuktasana at yoga this week and could touch my head to my knee no problems! It was amazing and I wanted to keep doing it for ages! Usually my neck is so stiff I have to warm up for a while but even after a day looking at my computer, I went straight into the pose. Yee ha! It was just so joyful!

The other thing I can do is rotate my neck in a full circle, which didn't feel safe before. I am feeling more confident overall about exercises that stretch the neck and have a renewed motivation to work on that area. I feel like possibilities and have opened up that weren't there before - a new optimism!

As far as energy goes, I have been so exhausted only a few times in my life. I just want to sleep or relax on the couch all the time. It is a bone-tiredness but I have enough energy to go to work. It feels like once I just get my energy back, everything will be ok. Maybe I'm just tired from work, which is quite busy at the moment.

I noted on the handout that you can enter a state of depression and sadness as the body realigns. I have had depression before, for about 2 years. This tiredness is nothing like the depressive tiredness, just a sort of physical exhaustion.

I've done a lot of sitting this week, which usually means extreme neck pain and discomfort. This week, the pain is much lower than usual - I keep waiting for it to happen! I'm still a bit wary of whether the changes really are permanent. When your body has been held in certain patterns for 15 years, any change over a week really does feel temporary!