A Certain Kind of Stretching

Hey, everybody.

I've noticed in response to my years of sleep addiction that supposedly sleepy feelings in my muscles might just be inhibited urges to stretch. It seems like a favorable breakthrough.

It's the spontaneous way to stretch that's often before or after a good sleep usually accompanied by a yawn. You see a cat doing it after a nice nap in a patch of sun. In contrast, there's an intentional way to stretch that people do before or after a workout. I've always kind of resented having to do this latter kind and wonder if I'd be a healthier person if I found more ways to trigger the former.

Just curious. Can you make yourself yawn so that it feels natural? If you can, you might have a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Making a habit of the "spontaneous" full-body stretch seems to get a general flow endorphins going, a feeling of well-being, promising less stress held in the body and mind for a valuable length of time. This could take the edge off too much stress, anxiety or lethargy that's often associated with relapse. The latter, athletic and intentional kind of stretch, seems to me to create more stress than it alleviates since it is uncomfortable and has never seemed to make my hamstrings, for instance, less tight, however many times I've done it. My legs even tend toward a fetal position while I'm sitting or sleeping, as if to protect themselves from the discomfort I've inflicted upon them by athletic stretching.

If anybody has any insights, ideas or experiences they'd like to share about stretching as therapy, please chime in. It's been a topic I've been meaning to explore and develop for many years, now, believing that learning to trigger the spontaneous stretching and yawning response on cue can be truly life-changing for people with addictions and behavioral disorders.

I'm also writing this to remind myself to do it more often so I can let you know how it goes.

Thank you.