3 Days to China: Adventures in Drastic Self Care (Patreon)

Some people's version of self-care is a quiet read with a good book. Others like their fancy face-masks. Apparently my version of self-care in advance of a big travel and a big festival involves lots of needles and a dash of sensory deprivation.

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My body feels like a sack of bruised rocks. 

Yes. 

Bruised rocks. 

Even though I’ve managed to get in once in the last week to see my Body Wizard (aka physiotherapist), Garnet Santicruz at his MOA Living clinic – and will see him at least one more time before I leave for China – it seems that my intense month of performances all over the country in October have come home to roost. When I fall off my body-care plans (seeing my chiro, my physio, spending the appropriate amount of time in forward-bending positions, spending the appropriate amount of time strengthening . . .)

Early in my contortion training days (cough, okay, two years ago …) I often experienced inflammation in my SI joint; one side of my pelvis would rotate anteriorly more than the other side, squishing all the tendon-y tissue-y bits that sit in the small space between that curving upper edge of the back of your pelvis, and the bottom of my spine. Turns out that constantly jamming your lumbar spine into extension without correctly using the rest of your spine and engaging other posterior chain muscles isn’t great for you in the long run. 

It was an unpleasant sensation. Not painful, but a low grade, intense ache that would have my mind constantly worrying like a bone if it would turn into something more serious, if it would impact my training, etc. Sometimes, a bit of ART therapy and a spine adjustment from Tig Fong (you’ll remember him from my Mongolia blogs) would do the trick; other times I just needed to lie in a gentle twisted position on the ground for long stretches of time to coax space into that part of my body. Slowly, over time – and especially when I started lifting weights again – that chronic almost-injury ceased to be a regular part of my life, and then ceased altogether. 

Until this month. Juuuuust in time for China . . . 

When Jen Crane (@cirque_physio !) was in Toronto this past weekend, she kindly poked me with many long, scary-looking dry needles. This helped. I got in to see Garnet; he remarked that the entire left side of my body was extremely unhappy with me and proceeded to start chipping away at sprains and blockages above and below my pelvis that were aggravating the situation further. 

Now, with rehearsals and final days leading up to departure (not to mention Toronto’s first snow / big temperature drop that just happened . . . ) my mind is looking towards anything that can further assist my body de-stress, relax, and heal. The better condition I leave in, the less un-snarling I will have to do in my body after I get off a 15 hour plane ride followed by a 4 hour plane ride (I hope). 

Mild but related tangent: working in the film and television industry can mean that you have zero control over your life; you might have a free-looking week on a Sunday, and then by Tuesday night at 10pm be getting a text or a call asking (telling) you that you are working at 0800 the next morning. 

I had been trying to set up an artist-friends date at Body Blitz Toronto, a therapeutic waters spa, with little luck. Inevitably, I had to tell my friends that it would be a morning-of decision for me – and of course, most of the rest of the world doesn’t function that way in their day-to-day lives and their afternoons were now spoken for. 

What was a bruised little noodle supposed to do? 

Well – through the magic of the internet, I came across a fascinating artist named Taylor Oakes, who remarked at length upon her experiences in float tanks (sensory deprivation tanks) during a period of a few months earlier in 2019. This little memory came wandering up from the depths of my brain this morning as I sadly said goodbye to my water circuit plans.  

It’s reputed to be wonderfully beneficial for athletes and non-athletes alike. Float Toronto’s website explains the experience like this: 

“Floatation therapy, also known as floating, floatation, sensory deprivation, or R.E.S.T (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy) involves lying in a salt-water solution in a spacious tank. It is one of the most effective means of stress relief and relaxation available. Now widely accepted as a legitimate therapy, floatation is also used to treat a wide range of ailments and conditions and has been proven to lower cortisol levels (the stress hormone) . . . It turns out that when you’re not fighting gravity or receiving sensory input, your body has a lot of extra resources at its disposal. Your mind is free to navigate without distraction, your brain pumps out dopamine and endorphins, and the parasympathetic nervous system gets to work helping you rest, de-stress and heal.”

Apparently, sensory deprivation can also do funny things to your brain if you are prone to psychosis-induced hallucinations (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2015/439379/). 

I’M ROLLING THE DICE, PEOPLE. 

Despite this apparent risk of going back 10 years in my mental health history (har har), I think the benefits outweigh the potentially unpleasant hallucination possibilities. I hop on Float Toronto’s website and pull up their online schedule – one spot left at 4:30pm. 

I’ve snagged it.

I’ve got a cranky pelvis that I would dearly love to just chill out for me. 

A left shoulder that I’ve apparently ignored for far too long and is full of sprains left right and centre / taped up like a Christmas present until my next physio appt on Saturday 

China to focus on, and let my mind get back into my duo contortion act. 

And a big, creative challenge on the horizon immediately after China that I dearly need some inspiration for . . . 

Let’s see what happens.