Page 125 of Slew Foot
Mickey wrenched his thoughts away from the terrifyingly uncertain future spiraling ahead of him and back to the present moment, where yes, he had tightened up.
“Now,” Dakota said. “Are you comfortable with me touching your hands? It might help ground you.”
Mickey nodded.
Dakota gently grasped them and looked into his eyes. “Breathe with me, please.”
For a few moments, Mickey had to fight the rising panic in the center of his chest that threatened to spill out in ugly,terrified sobs every time he let himself consider the idea that this condition might never get better.
But, eventually, as he watched Dakota’s shoulders rise and fall in a steady rhythm, his did too. The panic receded and the ocean roar in his ear became a sort of white noise.
“Good,” Dakota said. “Now, I have a handful of poses I’d like you to try out. I sat down with Dr. Pope to work through those that we felt would be beneficial to you but if any of them worsen your symptoms, I want you to slowly and carefully ease out of them and let me know. We’ll modify the plan as we go, okay?”
“Okay,” Mickey agreed. Because what else could he do?
“We’ll stay in this seated pose for now. Turn your palms face up and press your thumb to the spot between your pinky and ring fingers, pressing gently into the muscle. Fold the rest of your fingers in to close around your thumb. You don’t need to squeeze tightly, just gently apply pressure to that point.”
Mickey did it, feeling a little ridiculous. How was this supposed to help?
He caught a glimpse of Dakota smiling like he knew what Mickey was feeling, and he was amused by his skepticism about all of this.
But Mickey did as instructed, breathing and pressing on that spot for a few moments before Dakota instructed him to release everything.
He then demonstrated some weird breathing where he blocked one side of his nose with his finger.
Mickey followed his lead, but he must have looked skeptical after the first round of breathing because Dakota said, “I knowsome of these feel ridiculous, but they are science-based ways to soothe the nervous system.”
So, Mickey gamely continued, switching from one nostril to the other and breathing slowly and deeply.
He was a little relieved when Dakota had him shift onto his back with his knees in the air, but it wasn’t until he realized he’d done it without a wave of dizziness washing over him that it hit him that all of this breathinghadactually done something positive.
After seeing the results for himself, Mickey was a little more enthusiastic when Dakota instructed him to lift his hips into a bridge pose. He did a handful of those, then lowered back to the ground.
When Dakota told him to, he brought his knee into his chest to stretch his lower back, extending his other leg out long. It felt good to grasp his shin and deepen the stretch, gently pulling his knee toward his shoulder. He was used to intense exercise daily and he hated how stiff andwronghe felt without it.
Mickey did the same on the other side, then did some more deep breathing on his back while gently rocking his head side to side. There were a few more poses, including one that made him wonder if he could put Rafe into it, restrain him, and edge him.
That idea was filled with fun possibilities, but Mickey’s good mood crashed when he realized he’d be lucky if he could make it through tying Rafe up before the dizziness and ringing in his ears became overwhelming, much less edging Rafe until he came.
“Breathe,” Dakota instructed. “Slowly and deeply.”
He’d clearly noticed the way Mickey had been holding his breath and struggling again.
Mickey couldn’t decide if he was annoyed or impressed by Dakota’s powers of observation. Maybe both.
After, they switched to Mickey bringing his legs up until they were straight up, feet aimed at the ceiling.
“Place your palms flat on the mat on either side of your spine,” Dakota told him. “Then slowly and gently roll your pelvis up until your knees are pressed to your ears. I’ll demonstrate for you.”
Mickey watched, then did it himself. He had no trouble with it, his core strength was good, but he felt slightly ridiculous with his ass in the air.
Again with the poses I want to put Rafe into, he thought.
“Now, use your knees to apply a little bit of gentle pressure to your ears. You’ll stay like this for about a minute, unless the dizziness gets worse or ringing starts. If it does, gently come out of it and let me know.”
It didn’t make him feel any worse, so they did a few more rounds of that before Dakota instructed Mickey to shift onto his back with his legs up the wall.
They did more breathing in that pose, and he was starting to drift, the waves of noise in his ear and the soft music almost lulling him into a deep enough relaxation to sleep, when Dakota spoke, softly telling him their time was almost up for the day.
