On a holiday morning when no one else is awake,
I quietly face my own body alone.
After riding, I've noticed that certain muscles in my body become particularly tense. I can't leave them as they are.
I want to loosen up my body, knowing that the fluids inside, such as water, blood, lymph, and cellular fluid, are flowing and moving.
With all my strength relaxed, I take the time to gently work through the muscles around the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae and
the sacrum below.
Maintaining the correct posture while riding seems to make this area the most tense.
How much time has passed?
There's still no sign that any family members have awakened. The surroundings are profoundly silent.
Having continued this stretching routine daily for over a year (excluding during the COVID outbreak), I've realized something.
Initially, I started this exercise for health reasons, to regulate my disrupted autonomic nervous system. But at some point, my brain began to register the pleasantness and comfort of these movements. It's as if my brain started suggesting, "Shall we start the exercise?"
Changes began to appear in both my body and mind.
When the body relaxes, the mind does too. In other words, if the body is stiff, perhaps the mind is stiff as well. I've come to this realization.
It might be a late realization, but I'm looking at it positively, glad to have gained this insight.