Sensing Changes

“Most of us go through each day looking for what we saw yesterday. And, not surprisingly, that is what we find.”  ~ James A. Kichens

When I complete a bodywork session, I coach my clients in how to get off the table:
come completely in to the present moment, feel you body, roll on to your side, and then sit up slowly, sit and rest for a few seconds before standing down from the table, and…most importantly…feel what is different in your body.

We are creatures of habit, and this is especially true in how we move our bodies.  Or, more correctly, how our bodies move us.  Impact, injury, habits of standing, sitting, moving–all effect how we are in our bodies and are re-enforced every time we move.  After receiving bodywork, the muscles will be in a different state than before.  If one moves quickly and in the same old way, without consciousness of the difference, then habit will take over and results will be lost.

This is especially true for pain relief.  Chronic pain becomes a habit, and I have witnessed countless times when someone will register change as pain.  After a long time in pain, or even a short time in acute pain, the pain receptors in the brain are overly activated.  The body-mind expects pain, not the change, and so when there is a feeling of difference in the body, the mind wants  to register it as pain. Describing the pain suing words that are not directly associated with pain helps to re-define the feelings and clarify them.  Sometimes I will ask for color or shape descriptors and help the person to focus on what has changed instead of what was there before. 

I also work with the person to get hem in to correct posture so that the body can start to re-learn and move fluidly instead of moving with, or away from, the pain.  Also, better posture has been shown to reduce pain.  An article in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology based on research done in Canada, standing/ moving in a balanced posture rather than holding the body in tension can lead to greater tolerance for pain and decrease the levels of cortisol, which will reduce the experience of stress.

So, take time when you get up in the morning or rise from a chair after a period of sitting; in just a few seconds you can register the balance in your body.  Take a breath deep in to your diaphragm, lift up in to your core muscles (the back wall of your abdomen, near the spine), relax your shoulders and have your chin parallel to the floor.

Don’t look for what you felt before; find what you’re feeling now.

A Moment

The car temperature gauge said 53 degrees, but in my little alcove up against the sandstone cliffs I feel warm enough to take off my fleece jacket.  The sky is “Regulation Fog Grey” with the color reflected on to the water, mixed with a hint of ocean green.  Every once in a while I feel slight sprinkles of fog falling on me; my hair starts to actively curl and get lively as it drinks in the moisture.  The waves are loud today. The water is calm and almost smooth until the rollers form just before they break crashing on the shore and rolling back underneath the next wave, but there are no white caps out beyond the shoreline.  There are not many birds flying, and those that are, are flying silently.  Just in the one or two second lull between waves, I can hear the moan of the foghorn. In this moment, there is nothing but the ocean and me.

Remember, after standing in a doorway and pressing arms out against the frame, the feeling of lightness and freedom when you would turn and your arms would lift away from your body?  That magical feeling as gravity was defied and arms floated?  (If you never did that, or haven’t in a while, I recommend it.) It is the absence of pressure that allows the arms to rise up without effort,

I think it is a good example of how we can feel when we let go of the holding patterns we have in our lives, be they physical or emotional/spiritual.  We tend to hold on to what we know, how we have been, and we can get so caught up in our patterns that we tend to not see opportunities where we can shift, make a change, learn a new way. 

We hear a lot about meditation, contemplation….some form of actively working on stilling the mind, or letting the stressors go. I am all for it.  But I am also all for just stopping to be fully and completely aware of the moment, and recognizing and feeling it fully. To drink it a moment, to let everything else go and to be free of stress and burden and worry…even just for a moment…can be a great healing experience.  And, the more we do it, the more we can be aware to do it more often.

My Dad, the Healer

My father was my first teacher in the healing arts.  When I was in high school in the late 1960’s, he was diagnosed with Paget’s Disease, an incredibly painful abnormal growth of bone tissue.  His mother had recently passed away.  She suffered from Paget’s where it showed mostly on the interior surface of her skull.  She had had numerous operations where sections of her skull had been removed and replaced with metal plates. The headaches she suffered were debilitating.

When Dad contracted the disease, it affected the right side of his body.  Although it was in all the long bones, it was most visible at the joints which were swollen so badly that one could not see the joint at all.  Every movement he made caused him excruciating pain. His doctors offered him a morphine prescription and suggested he invest in a wheelchair.  They said that they could do no more for him. Dad had watched his mother live on pain medications for years, and he was determined to not follow that path. 

He moved his office home and began his own regimen of treatment: he moved his body, and he kept on moving his body, not giving in.  He would find things to do that forced him to keep moving.  He walked my younger brother to the school bus stop.  He started out with vacuuming the house on a daily basis, holding the vacuum wand in his right hand and moving slowly, methodically, back and forth, back and forth, with tears and sweat flowing down his face.  After a while, he bought a bicycle, and began to take rides around town, setting a time limit and riding to the minute. He refused to take pain medication; he said it dulled his senses and he couldn’t fully feel and stay in contact with his body.  
He started to show signs of improvement and within a year he was pain free.   Blood tests did not show any signs of the disease at all. 
  
I, in the beginning stages of my search for spiritual and emotional meaning in life, recognized that this was the mind ruling over the healing process of the body.  I watched him closely as he went through his healing process, and I could see that he was drawing on a source that was deep within him.  He would call it determination, some would call it the good side of stubbornness, but I saw that he was drawing strength from deep within himself and willing himself to heal. Years later, I would come to know that place within myself, and learn to use it effectively for myself and for others.  I have studied and learned much about healing over the years,  but those seemingly endless days of watching my father draw on his inner resources to keep going, to keep getting just a little better, to keep fighting—and win– against the disease that wanted to take over his body, always come back to me as the First Great Lesson.
         Thanks, Dad, for that and so much more        (D.B. Cowie: July 1920– August 2010)

Summer’s End Workshop

Kaleidoscope  

     Summer’s  End

Spiritual Care Workshop

Harvesting our Spiritual NatureS

Join us as we gather, honor and celebrate

the hidden parts of ourselves.

Through nature’s treasures we glean insight

into our own truest self, where Spirit dwells.T

Facilitated by Kate Riley, D.D., CMT

Who  has studied spiritual frameworks for 45 years

and has taught and led meaningful workshops for 20 years.

                                                        

Friday, August 26, 2011

Making Changes One Step at a Time

Kaleidoscope Workshop: SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

Making Changes One Step at a Time

In this two hour workshop, we will look at various ways in which we can make changes in our lives that will positively affect our health and the health of the environment. Specifically, it is recommended that cancer patients significantly change their food habits, and these same foods are highly recommended as cancer-preventative. Many of the products with which we come in contact on a daily basis are known to have cancer-causing ingredients in them.

Using various sources we will look at the “Dirty Dozen”: the 12 foods that should definitely be eaten as organic due to the intense use of pesticides used on them. We will look at the “Clean Fifteen” foods that do not transfer pesticides to us as readily.  We will look at food groups that are particularly connected with causing cancer and other severe health issues, talk about why we need to avoid them, and discuss positive alternatives.  We will discuss the healthy alternatives to these issues and how we can take small but effective steps to bring ourselves to a healthier lifestyle.  This workshop will be of interest to everyone, especially those with or caring for those who have significant health challenges.