Reframing Safety and Movement Through Awareness
For many individuals with hypermobility, movement can feel like a balancing act between freedom and fragility.
The body’s range of motion can be both a gift and a challenge—allowing fluid, expansive movement but often coming at the cost of joint instability, tissue sensitivity, and compensatory movement patterns.
One participant in my Understanding Hypermobility Course recently shared her journey, offering deep insights into how redefining safety and movement can foster meaningful change.
Her story begins where many do: navigating hypermobility without fully understanding its layers.
She experienced joint instability from overtraining, carrying heavy backpacks, and years of compensating through her core and mind.
Movement, for her, wasn’t just physical—it was deeply tied to the need for safety. At first, this sense of safety meant protecting her body from injury by limiting range of motion or avoiding pain.
But through her work in the course, she realized there was another dimension: interoceptive safety—the body’s internal sense of security.
Unpacking the Layers of Hypermobility
Hypermobility isn’t just about being “too flexible.” It involves multiple layers of compensatory responses, including hypomobility in certain areas where the body overprotects through bracing patterns.
These bracing patterns, as discussed in Module #8 of the Understanding Hypermobility course, are often the body’s attempt to create a sense of stability when joints feel vulnerable. However, over time, this can lead to restricted movement, tension, and even pain.
For this participant, recognizing her bracing patterns was pivotal. She described how her body would “lock down” in certain positions, creating a sense of false safety that actually limited her ability to move efficiently. Through awareness practices, she began noticing when her body was bracing out of habit versus when it genuinely needed support.
Redefining Safety Beyond the Mind
A key takeaway for her—and for many others in the course—was understanding the difference between what the mind perceives as safe and what the body feels as safe.
Initially, she believed safety came from external cues: maintaining proper form, staying within pain-free ranges, and avoiding overexertion. But as she delved deeper, she realized that safety is a “felt” experience, rooted in the body’s ability to sense ease and stability from within.
This realization shifted her approach to movement. She began tuning into the subtler signals of her nervous system, such as the “yellow light” moments when her body questioned whether a movement was appropriate. Instead of pushing through, she explored options like:
- Decreasing the range of motion
- Reducing the load or intensity
- Choosing alternative movements that felt supportive
This flexibility in approach allowed her to develop a movement practice that wasn’t just about what she could do, but what truly nurtured her well-being.
The Softer Side of Safety
One of her most profound discoveries was what she called the “softer side of safety”—a state she could access when she allowed herself to fully listen to her body. Whether on the mat or in the gym, this state of internal safety arose when she moved with intention and awareness, without judgment or force.
This felt like balance and calm, where the body feels supported and the nervous system can downregulate.
This softer safety wasn’t about rigid rules or avoiding discomfort altogether.
Instead, it was about allowing and noticing—giving herself permission to explore movements, check in with her body, and make adjustments when needed. Over time, this approach rewired her relationship with movement. She stopped seeing her hypermobility as a problem to fix and instead viewed it as an invitation to deepen her understanding of herself.
Moving Forward with Awareness and Choice
Her journey illustrates a powerful truth: even when we seemingly have the range of motion to perform a movement, there may be other factors to pay attention to – and when we do – we move better, feel better and get stronger.
Honouring the body’s cues, even when they challenge the mind’s expectations, is an act of self-compassion.
For individuals with hypermobility, this approach can transform movement from something that feels risky and uncertain into a practice of trust and growth.
As she reflected, what she once viewed as limitations became opportunities for connection. By tuning into her body’s signals, she experienced a sense of safety that wasn’t imposed from the outside but cultivated from within. And this, ultimately, is the heart of the work—helping individuals rediscover the wisdom of their own bodies and create movement practices that nourish their whole being.
If you’re navigating hypermobility, consider exploring not just what movements you can perform, but how those movements make you feel. Safety isn’t just about protecting your joints—it’s about creating an environment where your body can thrive.
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