The next time you're on a plane, try these body-based practices that can provide relief when you’re “stuck” in tight spaces.
There are strategies that can help your body withstand being "stuck" in tight spaces like airplane seats. Whatever helps you rest during a flight will help you recover and be prepared to perform when you land.
endocrine system and your digestive system and every other system in your “system”). But that airplane might be the only option you have for travel to competitions and training camps. What follows are some body-based practices you might try when you’re “stuck” in tight spaces. This is not a comprehensive guide. There are many strategies anmight use that are not discussed here. Think of what follows as options, any, all, or none of which you might try, adapt, and make your own., or tenth cranial nerve, wanders from your brainstem into your face and ears and down your throat and into your chest, your heart, your lungs, and your digestive organs, all the way down to your rectum., processing perceptions of the state of other people’s nervous systems as well as the state of our own. Working with your vagus nerve can be a powerful way to activate your parasympathetic nervous system, communicating to your body that—at least for the span of this breath—it’s OK to be right where you are, right in this moment., particularly with slower exhalations, so maybe breathing in naturally, not trying to breathe “deeply” necessarily, but just so that your in-breath will happen, and breathing out a little bit more slowly than you breathed in. Another way to connect with your vagus nerve could be to move your spine, arching any amount, and then maybe rounding forward, possibly dropping your chin to your chest and moving your chin from collarbone to collarbone. Still another way to connect with your vagus is to trace its path from the base of your skull through the sides of your head, tracing your ears, your eyebrows, the muscles of your jaw, down the sides of your neck or along your throat, down below your collarbones, over your heart, and into your diaphragm and abdomen. You can use any amount of pressure—featherlight touch or compression, or tapping or tracing circles of any size—and move at any speed that feels right for you. There are many other ways to connect with your vagus nerve, including head and neck movements, loving eye contact with a trusted other, listening to music, or looking at a picture of a loved one. Whatever you choose, connecting with your vagus may allow your nervous system to release activation that may not be serving you in this moment, which can help you rest during the flight and assist with recovery upon landing.Sitting in a pressurized chamber for prolonged periods of time can shift how our bodies retain fluid. There are many ways to address fluid accumulation in your tissues, including compression garments, hydration, slow breathing, and movement, but when movement is limited, you might consider sweeping your limbs from distal to proximal—from your extremities in—to promote circulation. This sweeping might be featherlight or it might be firmer pressure. You might try both and use the information from your body to decide what’s most useful for you. Your fascia, which comprises the largest organ of your nervous system, also transports fluids and electrical and chemical signals from your nervous system to all your muscles, organs, and tissues. There are many ways to connect with your fascia, including self-massage anywhere in your body that you notice tension or need for. Any movements you make—sweeping, tapping, flexion/extension, stretching of joints that have space to stretch in teeny-tiny compressed spaces—will also connect you with your fascia.Another way to connect with your fascia is through acupressure, and many acupressure points can be very potent to attend to on a long-haul flight, including the upper shell of your ear, your inner wrist crease, the space between your eyebrows, your inner upper calf a few finger-widths beneath your knee, the space just beneath your collarbones and inside your shoulders, and the space between your deltoid and your biceps. You can use any type of touch that feels right for you—tapping, pressing, or massaging, with any degree of pressure that serves your body in this moment.The muscles that attach your head to your neck are hard-working and don’t always get a lot of love. Your occipital muscles are made to help your head move with your eyes to face danger, find rewards, and survive in the world. Beautifully and wonderfully, the part of your neocortex that processes visual stimuli is back here too, beneath the part of your skull that’s sheathed by your occipital muscles. This part of your brain processes the stimuli you see with your eyes and the things your mind’s eye imagines. And as you probably know, in-inducing situations, your mind’s eye can be very active. So attending to these muscles by rocking the back of your head along your seat or a pillow or other object, or massaging these muscles with your thumbs or with a soft, small ball or other tool can be powerful. Maybe closing your eyes if that feels safe for you to do, or maybe, with your eyes closed and your thumbs on the space where your head rounds away from your neck, moving your closed eyes from left to right, right to left, up and down, down and up, feeling how these tissues respond to your gaze, slowing your breathing as you do and maybe noticing for a moment how cool your body is! We’ve already touched on the potency of slowing your breath and potentially lengthening your exhale, and there are many other ways to connect with your breath in flight. If you’ve ever practiced yoga, you may have learned some pranayama, or breath disciplines, for working with your breath. If you haven’t ever practiced pranayama, here are a few you might consider: There are many other ways to care for your body, and, of course, whatever helps you rest in flight is what will help you recover and prepare to perform when you land.Being overly polite might seem kind, but it often leads to problems anyway, in relationships, with friends, and at work.
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