SUSIE GRIFFIN, MASSAGE THERAPIST, 

PERSONAL TRAINER & WELLNESS COACH 

GRIFFIN WELLNESS SOLUTIONS, LLC

It started as a simple solution to fulfill a need to move but soon evolved to a more profound purpose. After a normal workday seemed long, expending energy completing others’ to-do lists and daily tasks while simultaneously putting out fifty million fires a second, I was left feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. It was evening, after dinnertime. The sun was still high enough in the sky but starting to throw long shadows as it made its way toward the setting. Darkness soon followed, and the sun handed off its baton to the moon.  

I was sitting at our dining table, across from my husband, both of us mindlessly and silently engaged with our phones. Part of me felt guilty being inside while it was still light outside. “I should be out doing something, completing some of the items on my own very long to-do list,” I thought. However, the other part of me sent a strong rebuttal; bedtime is right around the corner, and I need my sleep to restore energy I’ll expend all again tomorrow. My response was an exasperated sigh. Between the moment of my exasperated exhalation and social media scrolling, the words of a wise friend are remembered, “Susie, what would you have your clients do?” This memory produced a laugh that lured my husband away from his phone. I stopped scrolling and put down my phone. He looked at me quizzically as I took a deep breath and asked, “Want to go for a stroll?” 

My clients come to me seeking help to incur positive changes in their lives. These changes occur when verbal challenges in wellness coaching, physical challenges in personal training, and/or visceral challenges in massage therapy are met and succeeded. This sentence makes change read as a simple, direct, and straightforward process, but it is not. Change is uncomfortable. It requires a conscious commitment, honest introspection, recruiting of resources, a willingness to take a step forward despite feeling mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted, and a lot of mindful breathing.  

We, humans, tend to be creatures of habit. Our genetics and life experiences inform the way we think, speak, and move. Over the years, this information can build up resistance or “stuck” points in the way we think, speak, and move through the world. Even the smartest educator, eloquent orator, or highly cross-trained athlete isn’t immune. An example of this is an experience that often happens during a massage session with my clients. They are always surprised when I find a “stuck” point in their body which elicits a tender feeling. “What is that and how did that get there?” they ask.  

“That” is chemically stuck energy from contracted myofilaments, the smallest contractile unit in a muscle. These myofilaments need energy to contract and they need energy to uncontract – to unbind and be available to contract again. When we are mentally, emotionally, or physically stressed, survival of the fittest mode will generally get us the energy we need to get through that specific stressor. However, there are repercussive side effects with this type of survivalist living. 

“IT IS WHAT IT IS 

UNTIL IT ISN’T.” – S. GRIFFIN 

If we continue to subconsciously barge ahead through life’s hurdles, our body will accumulate and develop these “stuck” points into a habituated way of thinking, speaking, and moving. This will work until it doesn’t; life is a game with lots of curve balls. How many times have you heard, “I don’t know what I did. I just bent down to pick up my keys and my back went out”? Also, developing “stuck” points and habituated posture in the body isn’t isolated from just physical events. Emotional stress from traumatic experiences can also elicit this kind of “stuck” energy in the body. Mental stressors are also a culprit to a “stuck” body and posture. 

To make a positive change in posture and help release chemically “stuck” energy in the body requires an application of mechanical energy and conscious control of breath. These two necessities come together in a collaborative effort between therapist and client. The mechanical application of energy is my strategically applied pressure; the most crucial buy-in is the client’s breath. When the two meet, cool things can happen. Since energy cannot be destroyed, only transformed, the energy that is released can sometimes cause heat, which causes the body to sweat. Sometimes the heat and sweat are only in the area worked, but in some chronic cases with extreme release changes, they can also show up in a distant area. Despite some uncomfortable moments, the client usually leaves relaxed yet reinvigorated.  

Back at our dining table, my husband took a minute to answer my question, as if waiting to hear me say, “Just kidding.” When his save didn’t come, he replied with an unenthusiastic, “Ok.” We left all distractions – phones and four-legged furry kids at home and stepped out into our neighborhood.  

  It was a quiet evening. The air was still, and the roads were empty. The only sound was the crunch of gravel under our footsteps. Moving through the world together is not a foreign activity for us. We regularly ride our mountain bikes together. However, this mode of movement yields different dividends. The slower pace gave us time, time to think, speak and be together. We had time to talk about current and future things we need or want to do. We had time to stop and admire our neighbors’ houses, yards, fences, flora, and rock art. We had time to just be silent and smile at the love-struck rabbits chasing each other across the road into the bushes.  

Our evening stroll took less than forty minutes. Within those forty minutes, we talked more than we had during the whole day. What we expended in energy and time was gifted back to us in invaluable conversation and connection. We both felt relaxed yet reinvigorated. We made a pact to make an after-work evening stroll a daily, therapeutic habit.  

Revisiting my wise friend’s words regarding how I would coach my clients toward change, I reflect on the evening stroll I had just finished and silently answer:  

Stop. Take a breath. Recruit your resources and take a step forward. Repeat. Tally Ho and stroll toward change.