Archive for August, 2009

What is bodywork? Who is the bodyworker?

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

I was so delighted to read this next quote. It really resonates with my intentions and backs-up my belief.

“A point worth remembering here is that in this educational experience it is not the bodyworker who is “fixing” the client. The bodyworker is not attacking a localised problem with specialised tool, confident of achieving certain results. Instead, he or she is carefully generating a flow of sensory information to the mind of the client, information that is not being generated by the client’s own limited repertoire of movements – new information that the mind can use to fill in the gaps and missing links in its appraisal if the body’s tissues and physiological processes. It is then the mind of he client that does the “fixing” – the appropriate adjustment of posture, the more efficient and judicious distribution of fluids and gases, the fuller and more flexible relationship between neural and muscular responses.

The bodyworker is not an interventionist; he is a facilitator, a diplomatic intermediary between a physiological processes that have lost track of one another’s proper functions and goals, between a mind that has forgotten what is needs to know in order to exert harmonious control and a body politic which increasingly utilises disruptive demonstrations, terrorist tactics, and even the threat of all-out civil was to regain its governor’s attention. Touching hands are not like pharmaceuticals or scalpels. They are like flashlights in a darkened room. The medicine they administer is self awareness. And for many of our painful conditions, this is the aid that is most urgently needed.”

Deane JuhanJob’s Body (Introduction xxix)

A drama called ‘love’

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Eckhart Tolle on Relationships:

“True communication is communion – the realisation of oneness, which is love. Usually, this is quickly lost again, unless you are able to stay present enough to keep out the mind and its old patterns. As soon as the mind and mind identification return, you are no longer yourself but a mental images of yourself, and you start playing games and roles again to get your ego needs met. You are a human mind again, pretending to be a human being, interacting with another mind, playing a drama called ‘love’.”

Eckhart Tolle – The Power of Now (Page 156)

Does this make sense out of context?

Live my life at ChickenOut.tv

Friday, August 21st, 2009

I’ve just been sent the email below.  A campaign well worth supporting.

Over 39 days – the pitifully short life of a typical factory -farmed chicken – we’re spreading the free-range message online and in 11 cities across the UK.

chicken_outUntil the 17th September, you can follow the short life of an intensively reared chicken via our  blog at chickenout.tv. See for yourself just what millions of factory farmed chickens endure, living just 39 days between hatching and slaughter in a typical overcrowded, barren and windowless shed.

Read the latest blog entry here>>
http://www.chickenout.tv/39-day-blog.html

Watch a 30 second trailer here>>
http://www.chickenout.tv/why-chicken-out.html

How you can help?

Please encourage others to join our campaign for a free-range future:

“We need thousands of signatures to convince supermarkets, farmers, government regulators and anyone else involved in this unacceptable business that they must change”.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Chicken Out! on tour
http://www.chickenout.tv/39-day-blog/39-day-tour.html

We’re hitting the road over the next 39 days to take the free -range message out to  11 locations across the UK. Join us at a town near you and meet the team – and our own free-ranging chicken – as we spread the word.

P.S. Please consider  making a small donation http://www.chickenout.tv/donate-to-the-campaign.html to help cover the cost of taking our message across the UK.

Join our Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/chickenout.tv

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/chickenout_tv

Belly grumbling during massage

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Vagus nerveThere are 2 main systems in the body that we are concerned with when it comes to massage; the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

The sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response/stress response) is the system that helps us ‘keep going’ when we are under stress and the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response) is the one that helps us chill out. The Vagus nerve is responsible for the functions of the relaxation response.

The picture above shows the Vagus (meaning ‘wandering’) nerve starts in the brain and extends to all the main organs in the chest and abdomen. It is the only nerve that does this. By breathing deeply, we stimulate the many Vagus nerve endings which results in the switching on of our relaxation response.

Amongst other wonderful things, massage slows down our breathing resulting in the aforementioned: relaxation on, stress off.

So, we’re on the massage table, we’ve got a nice and relaxed stomach, colon and small intestine. Digestion is increased and our bellies start rumbling. It is therefor not uncommon to have escaping gas, from either end, during a massage. In fact, it’s a sure sign that we are nice and relaxed. Your massage practitioner won’t even expect you to stir from dreamland to excuse yourself.

As and aside, this is why massage is great of anyone with digestion challenges.

So next time you have a massage and you experience this, don’t be shy, it’s all part and parcel of our bodies amazing response to the good you are doing it by getting on the massage table.

All hail the Vagus nerve!

The Iliopsoas muscle group

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Psoas muscle groupA few days ago I went to see Jay Ruddock who does Structural Integration/Rolfing in Bath. The treatment was interesting and effective, as expected. Now I’ve now got some of my missing mobility back. Thanks Jay!

I still find it fascinating how manipulating attachments (where muscles and ligaments attach to bone) can have such a great effect. Proof that working on one thing affects another.

We spoke briefly about the Psoas muscle (which amazingly attaches our spine to our legs) and I asked him if he’d seen this picture.

So, here you go Jay (and anyone else who finds it). Isn’t she a beauty?

As an aisde, Liz Koch has dedicated her life to the Psoas muscle. Imagine that? One life, one muscle. Fantastic! I wonder which muscle she’ll choose in her next life.

Picture credit: Bonkless.wordpress.com

Kundalini Yoga in Victoria Park, Bath

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

anniebassil-in-the-park What a treat!

On this lovely evening, Annie took us to Victoria Park for our Kundalini Yoga class.

For me, doing yoga out-doors is one of the best things in this beautiful universe.

What’s your favourite favourite thing?

Annie’s Kundalini classes (which I highly recommend) are every Tuesday at 6.30 at Seasons on George Street, Bath.

Might our ability to handle stress be better if we know we’ve got that massage appointment booked?

Monday, August 10th, 2009

I’ve been musing on something interesting which has previously not occurred to me.

We know the effects of stress reduction, during and post massage, are massive. But I never considered what the psychological effects of having an appointment booked in the future might be i.e. pre massage. Might the knowledge that our next massage, being just around the corner, help us to ‘cope’ better when stress levels are high for a period of time?

It’s like having that holiday is in sight; it’s a little easier to deal with everything that might be getting too much. I propose the same to be true about having a massage to look forward to.

If we are going through a stressful time, surely subconsciously, or maybe even consciously, we are able too remain sane in the knowledge that, in a few days, we can just let it all drift away and feel the post massage effects for the days to come?

Surrender. And change will ensue.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

“No matter how much I move myself around, my strongest tendency is to move in the same ways that I have always moved, guided by the same deeply seated postural habits, sensory cues, and mental images of my body; but if I can succeed in surrendering to the movements that another person imposes on my body, without my own system of cues and responses interfering, it is possible to treat my mind to a flood of sensations that are novel in important ways, sensation that may well be able to indicate things I have been doing that have produced aches and pains at the same times as they have reinforced my normal sense of self.

And even more important, this movement of surrender and new sensation can demonstrate to me that I am not permanently obliged to continue acting out a habitual compulsion. I can see that habit is habit, that I am something else, and for that moment at any rate, I can choose to repeat it or not.  And if I can drop a compulsive behaviour or attitude for a moment without causing a crisis, then perhaps I can dispense with it all together.  As any physician knows, this kind of insight can often be worth more than any number of drugs or procedures for the reversal of a chronic condition.

In other words, just as the mind organises the rest of the body’s tissues into a life process, sensations to a large degree organise the mind. They do not simply give the mind the material to organise; they are themselves a major organising principle.”

Deane JuhanJob’s Body (Introduction xxvii)

Movement

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

“No only is it true that the nervous system stimulates the body to move in specific ways as a result of specific sensations; it is also the case that all movements flood the nervous system with sensations regarding the structures and functions of the body. Movement is the unifying bond between the mind and the body, and sensations are the substance of that bond.”

Deane JuhanJob’s Body (Introduction xxvi)

My new site is live!

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

It’s fitting to write my first blog on the launch of the second version of my site.

I designed and built version 1. The problem was that I built it with very simple and old programming and I needed some serious upgrading. This would give me increased functionality (I’ve got a geek in me somehwere), better SEO (search engine optimisation) and it would be quicker and easier to maintain (we all need a good CMS at some point in our lives… even if its not computer related).

My old and simple site looked like this:

My old site

So I called the best man for the job – Duncan – ‘the programming and information age god of gods’ at Codeistry.

I’m bigging him up as I’ve never seen anyone who can digest, filter, explain stuff and build anything as well as he can. Anything you need to know about website creation and pretty much anything computer related, Duncan’s your man.

What you see here now is my slightly adjusted design and many more glorious whizzy bits thanks to Duncan. We’re still tidying up a few things, but please let me know what you think!

THANKS SO MUCH DUNCAN for making something brilliant for me and so easy to maintain. I feel like I’ve moved from the dinosaur internet age into the future!