Cramps

It's really helpful to look at cramps sort of in context 'cause of course cramp can appear or rise at any time in our life, whether we're sitting to get some Headspace, whether we're walking down the road relaxing at home, or even in bed at night. But if it's specific to sitting down and sort of doing your session each day, then there are some useful ways you can sort of relate to that or even kind of adjust your posture so you experience it less. It's important to say that there can be medical reasons for experiencing cramp and if it's particularly severe or worrying, then of course you should consult your doctor. Often it can be related to sodium levels but if we take those issues aside and we look at it specific to getting some Headspace then often it's to do with the way we set up our posture. So if we're sitting on a chair the temptation is to move ourselves towards the back of a chair. So we have the benefit of the back rest. And although that sounds like a good idea unless we have particularly long legs, what that usually does is it just means that the muscles are still slightly engaged. Although our feet are resting on the floor, it's not really the full weight of our legs. So just very subtly, the hamstrings and the calf muscles are engaged. And it's usually in one of those muscles that we experienced the cramp. So by moving towards the front of the chair, of course you lose the benefit if you like of the backrest, but also that tends to set up the body in a slightly better way anyway, where there's more balance of focus on the one hand and relaxation on the other. So that's a way you can sort of just shift the posture. But it's possible that it might just arise regardless. And sometimes that can simply be the body sort of almost readjusting. So if we think about this whole process of settling the body in mind, is giving the body the opportunity to readjust for muscles to soften, relax. Sometimes part of that process is that it almost needs to sort of or we almost need to feel and experience some degree of tension before it then releases. The body does it quite naturally, we don't need to do it ourselves. So don't be too concerned if it happens. Usually the temptation is to hop out of our seat and to push as much weight down as possible. If you can, try to avoid that. To begin with, simply bring your attention to the sensation, not thinking about the feeling, definitely noticing the discomfort but really focusing our attention on the feeling. And it is changing a cramp, there is a phase of the cramp, it begins, there's a middle bit, there's an end bit. And if we can watch it all the way through, then...