Holistic Health Concept: P1

The field of holistic therapies is very vast. It ranges from Homeopathic, Naturopathic and Ayurvedic doctors to Reiki and Body Talk practitioners. Different therapies work for different people and sometimes it may feel like trial and error until you find the therapy or practitioner that helps you.

So how do you go about choosing the ‘right’ therapy? To find the right therapy, therapist or practitioner, you need to ask yourself and the therapist / practitioner the right questions:

1.) Why are you seeking this therapy? Is it for a specific condition; is it of physical or psychological manifestation; do you have a diagnosis; what helps ease the condition and what exacerbates the condition?

2.) Talk to the therapist or practitioner before the consultation – this helps them ‘plan’ your session and if they cannot help you, they would be able to tell you beforehand

3.) Open yourself up to the healing modality and all that it has to offer. Being able to communicate openly with the therapist / practitioner is also very important.

4.) Be aware of your body / mind and any changes that have occurred. If the therapist / practitioner refer you to a different practitioner, it is a good idea to investigate.

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Human Being vs Human Doing

“Doing nothing is better than doing busy doing nothing” – Lao Tzu.

 The majority of the people in the world we live in are always busy doing something. It is pretty much the lifestyle of the city. When I was in high school, one of my English teachers commented that it appears to be a trend to be constantly busy. She herself appeared content to not be so busy. She also never missed much, she was the teacher that would always catch you out or notice something and also one of the least stressed teachers.

Let’s think about this. If we are always busy, even ‘fake busy’, we have less time for real people. We become less approachable and perhaps miss a couple opportunities.

Too much doing can be a distraction from what is really important in life.

And technology is one of the things that keeps us occupied, and it can keep people occupied constantly.

Human being vs human doing, what is the difference?

“Human doings fill up their lives with things that they should do, ought to do, have to do,  got to do, better do, expected to do, are expected to do, trying to do. Human beings do what they need to and want to.” – Anonymous

More specifically a ‘human doing’ has lost the art of being present. Interaction with others should be a present interaction, but the interference of work, cell phones or other devices, or whatever the distraction, makes this contact somehow ‘distant’ and perhaps we lose the sense of distinguishing people we talk to in the physical body and the people we communicate with via technological devices.

People used to go for walks, sit on the porch, have family dinners and even play board games together – this was fun quality time. This is being replaced by giant TV sets, take out and social media.

Somehow people also use busyness to avoid awkwardness, to fill silent pauses in conversion and to seem productive. But being busy does not always mean being productive (as mentioned in opening line).

“I am a human being, not a human doing!

Don’t equate your self-worth with how well you do things in life. You aren’t what you do. If you are what you do, then when you don’t…you aren’t.”  – Dr. Wayne Dyer-

Grounding & Reflexology

The grounding effects of reflexology.

I have mentioned earthing and grounding a couple of times before. It only recently occurred to me that therapeutic reflexology is also a form of grounding!

Grounding or Earthing is being in direct contact with ‘the earth’ – the soil, sand or grass[1]. A conductive surface or instrument can also be used to directly connect the body with the earth (i.e. grounding mats). The science behind it is that the earth gives off a negative charge to balance out the positive charge that we build up over time due to things like electromagnetic radiation. The energy from the earth has a number of positive effects on our health.[2] [3] The earth resonance frequency is also similar to the frequency of our brain waves[4].

Living in Harmony with Autumn

In essence Autumn is the season of letting go of the ‘rubbish’ and taking in the pure.

In TCM Autumn is associated with the Metal element which controls the Lung and the Colon.

Autumn is the season of slowing down and becoming more contemplative.

As you enter this stage it is no use dwelling on the negative aspects of the past and hanging on to negative energy. Now is the time to let go and make peace with the past.

It is time to take in the pureness and positive energy.

A Disconnected Connected Society?

We are living in an age where technology is the basis of comfortable living; where connection and communication from one country to the other happens in an instant. The convenience of the internet, cellphones, PC’s, etc make distance meetings, distant learning (or e-learning), online dating and long distance relationships possible – people are communicating from behind screens.

But how great are these conveniences if they are slowly removing us from physical contact and socializing with people physically around us?

According to Matthew Hertenstein, PhD and director of the Touch and Emotion Lab at DePauw University Hertenstein we lack physical contact: “Most of us, whatever our relationship status, need more human contact than we’re getting.”

Nothing is for nothing, with this convenience comes the sacrifice of our physical / social lives. The speed of technology also pressurize us to get more done, because the means to ‘do’ are always available, thus work doesn’t have to stop. Unless we can create a balance for ourselves, technology can contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle.

Affordable & Doable ways to deal with stress

In this day & age stress is pretty much unavoidable. But we can learn to deal and cope with it.
January generally adds a little more stress to our lives. This stress could come in the form of stressful family issues, weight gain, health or financial issues, or a combination of things. ‘Stressors’ will be different for everyone.
Here are some quick tip & lifestyle management tips to help you manage stress:

The Aging Process in Relation to the Elements

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the 5 elements are the basic principle of all life. Each element is related to a season, climate, time, sound emotion, colour, flavour, smell, body fluid, physical manifestation, organ and even an age cycle. Therefore, in essence, the elements affect our entire lives. Although every living thing contains all the elements, there is always one element more dominant than the rest. This deals with our personality and the period of our lives that we are in.

We can determine this by observing the person’s behaviour, stature and susceptibility to disease or weakness in certain body parts.

The 5 elements are wood , fire, earth, metal and water. More information about the elements are covered in my article “How the 5 elements & meridians relate to reflexology” It is also important to note that in Chinese medicine the organs have metaphysical functions as well which link with emotions.

We start off with ‘Wood’ the element associated with spring. It is the foundation of life and can be known as the ‘birth’ and ‘growth cycle’. The quality and nutrition of food intake is vital in this period. The foundation of education is also very important. Generally we would say that this period is from birth to adolescence in a person’s life.

Living in Harmony with Summer

In essence Summer is the season of maturity, growth and awareness.

In TCM Summer is associated with the Fire element which controls the Heart, small intestine, circulation and the endocrine meridians.

Summer is the season to have fun and pay attention to the things you are passionate about. It is the season to get active to get your body, heart and circulation working.

Acid / Alkaline forming foods

It took me a while to write this article. I like to write from an unbiased viewpoint, and this topic seemed have quite a few debates for different questions surrounding the topic

. In our reflexology course, we learned that an alkaline diet contributed to our health and that a mostly acid forming diet encourages diseases. However, some research for this article suggested that diet does not have that big affect on the acid / alkaline pH of the body [1]. And it probably doesn’t, because the body uses homeostatic mechanisms to ensure that all parts of the body remain at its normal pH balance.

The blood pH balance is the most important, if we go out of the 7.35 – 7.45 range our lives are at serious risk – this could happen, for example, due to a terminal illness.  So how do the homeostasis mechanisms work? Minerals are taken from the saliva, body fluids, and if we do not have the correct minerals from our diets, minerals are leached from our bones and body tissues to correct the blood pH and other organ pH. [2] I do believe that there needs to be a lot more research done on this topic, however, the alkaline diet works because it has an emphasis on eating lots of vegetables and making healthier food choices.

My Understanding & Progression with Reflexology

This article is especially for anyone who is interested in studying reflexology or if you are interested in the ‘behind the scenes of reflexology’. 

Reflexology is something that is quite difficult to explain in one sentence. It is both a science (using the concepts of anatomy and physiology of the body) and an art (the pressure and techniques used).

People know basically what it is – that there are reflexes mapped in the feet that correspond to different body parts.

The common know effects of reflexology are: helping with sleep, improving relaxation and improving digestion and alleviating pain. While all these are great, and are signs of the body healing, I came to learn that there is a lot more to reflexology than this.