Put the Healing Before the Horse

Sometimes when you run a half marathon and your quads are shredded afterward, you feel good about it.  And sometimes you don't.
If you've prepared well, i.e. worked hard to listen to your body, pushed just enough, recovered productively, and laid out a mental plan, you've had a race of which to be proud.  In this case you relish having to hold on to the sink while lowering your tender glutes to the toilet.
Flip that coin over (your race did NOT leave you in a good mental or emotional place for various reasons), and you are cursing at the effort getting out of your car and crying at the sight of your foam roller.  You feel like shit and are annoyed with yourself, your exploded muscles, and gravity in general.
The mindset you take in your recovery is the lace that ties your good and bad racing experiences together; the way to approach healing your body is the same whether you've achieved a personal best time or walked through a windstorm when you'd intended to fly to the finish line.
Begin by honoring your body's need to heal and the time it requires to do so.  This includes letting your current level of fitness be and minding what hurts, when it pains you, and for how long.  Then you can determine when and how to be active:  maybe yoga, maybe a run, perhaps a nap.  To rebuild your workout schedule too quickly will only extend the healing time; train when your body feels good again, not just good enough.  You wouldn't accept an effort that's "good enough" in a race - don't allow that standard to govern your recovery, either.  If you don't have faith that you will heal, how can you ask your body to break down and rebuild as you gain fitness?
We are always in a state of healing, be it potential or active.  The human body continuously allows cells to die regenerates them, thus giving us the potential to recover from whatever might befall us.  In this state of potential healing, we can improve fitness, but only to the point which we believe (consciously and subconsciously) that we can rebuild our tissue and recover from training.  When we race or overdo it in a workout or a training program, we come into a state of active healing in which we can, at best, retain our current level of fitness, and at worst have to avoid our sport or activity of choice altogether.
Take each workout as  a real-time fitness yardstick:  What can I do today for my body?  Will my workout help me to heal or to improve my fitness?   Be mindful of whether your body desires a push to reap athletic benefits or simply to focus on regeneration to prepare for future workouts (which may in crude more healing and repairing until you are fully recovered).  Then, tear up the roads and the quads knowing you can trust yourself to bounce back.

Just Relax, Man

Summer is short here in the Northeast.  It seems every year I have all weekends from June through August booked well before we even hit the solstice.  This means that summer can be relaxing, but it can also be rushed and overwhelming. On a really hot and sticky day (like today in Buffalo), just to eat your vegetables can be daunting (oh, the chopping, slicing, and chewing!).

If you are lucky enough to have air conditioning or not, being alone can not only make you feel cooler, but also calm the fires of the mind during a hectic work (or play) day.  We always talk and hear about the "little voice" inside our heads, but our heads (more specifically, our brains) can talk us into anything, whether is it positive or negative for us.  Our bodies, on the other hand, use their voice to warn us. They speak to us every day through aches and pains, rashes, and even broken bones.  Our bodies are the physical messengers for what is going on emotionally, energetically, and psychologically.  In solitude, a "non-meditation" such as the following will center you and bring awareness to possible causes of any negative feelings.

Quick, Calming Non-Meditation (Nonitation?)
Sit for ten minutes and do absolutely nothing. Look at your phone or watch periodically if you need to mark the minutes, but just hang out with yourself, in your body.  Sit inside your body, as opposed to in your head, that customized PC that keeps going and going.
Notice any part of you that feels off, different, sore, or is in some way asking for attention.  Try and make connections between it and other body parts, emotions, or behaviors.   If you want to keep going beyond ten minutes, be my guest.
Do this for a few days to discover which sensations recur, then use your brain to think about possible origins of the most bothersome.

Anything your discover can be useful in your healing and will definitely be positive for taking charge of how you feel.

One Leap at a Time

For a really, really long time, I was a huge fan of doing the very least amount of work to yield a result. It was like my life was a microwave and as long as I pressed the Easy Pop button, something fragrant, buttery, and vaguely satisfying came out of it.  And like when eating microwave popcorn, I was always left wanting more - never satisfied with life or the too easily obtained fruits of my efforts.  I tried an antidepressant to lift me out of my blues, and after a couple years of that not doing it for me (the operative word being for),  I ventured into alternative wellness in search of a "cure" for life's challenges. 

When I first began my personal wellness journey, I spent a couple thousand dollars on classical homeopathy over the course of five years.  In that time, I learned that the body is capable of healing itself (I was able to stop taking antidepressants), but I still had anxiety, fatigue, and a generally negative outlook on life.  I felt like a huge piece of my life puzzle was still missing, and when I was introduced to Total Body Analysis and Energy Healing, I knew that becoming a practitioner would help to fit the components of my life together.

All of my choices and experiences have led me to where I am now, and they've helped me realize deeper issues and identify how they were influencing my life. However, if I could have had a guide to owning my health, I would have snatched it up and followed it step by step because I knew I wanted to heal mind, body and "spirit,"  I just didn't know how to navigate that path.  I have always been food-centric, so to know that my approach to what I put into my body can positively influence my entire life is hugely empowering.  Food is the common denominator for living things, and it's a great place to start a guide on owning our health and our healing.  Today's post begins a series of steps toward building a commitment to holistic health, and you are ready to leap forward!

Giant Leap #1:  Leverage Your Veg

Since we all have to eat, and all food contains energy (not just calories, but frequencies that can be highly positive or negative for our bodies), put only what you know is good for you into your gas tank.

How do we know what the best foods are for our individual bodies and metabolisms?  Without a TBA consult, most people have trouble pinpointing exactly what will be most beneficial (or harmful) as far as diet, but two things we know for sure are that (most) fruits and vegetables are good and pesticides are BAD.

So for this first month of summer, your mission is not only to eat as many fresh (or freshly juiced) vegetables as possible, but also to select only organic incarnations of the produce on the following list from www.ewg.org.  You can buy all other produce conventionally grown.

The Dirty Dozen Plus

Apples

Celery

Cherry Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Grapes

Nectarines (Imported)

Peaches

Potatoes

Snap Peas (Imported)

Spinach

Strawberries

Sweet Bell Peppers

Plus:

Hot peppers

Kale and collard greens

Time investment:  Minimal (assuming you go grocery shopping anyway) - just wash and chop, add some organic, first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil and you're all set.

Monetary investment:  $5-$10 increase per week (per person).

Hold the phone, Hann!!! You expect me to spend FORTY dollars more a MONTH on groceries?  Next you'll be telling me to give up Netflix to cover it.

Please, don't cancel Netflix!  What grocery items are you regularly buying that aren't clean fuel for your engine?  Orange juice or any other pasteurized juice is a great junk-food-in-disguise to omit from your shopping budget.  Try suspending the purchase of just one of those items if you're looking to save some dough.

 

Where will you be one month from now if you haven't tried this?  By avoiding the toxins stored in conventional versions of the above produce, you can actually allow your body to start getting rid of any from past consumption on its own.  Who knows what benefits you'll already start to feel when neurotoxic pesticides are no longer splashing around in your bloodstream?

Where will you be one year from now if you don't make the leap?  You will continue to fight a battle with the negative energy of chemicals having full run of your body (on top of anything else that might be overtly bothering you). You might have $500 more in your checking account.  Or you might not.

What will you have accomplished by buying and eating only produce that will give you nutrients and not pesticides?  A sense of completing a small challenge.  You'll feel those good neurochemicals that bust out when you've taken on something positive.  Most importantly, you'll have a strengthened commitment to your health, and you'll be ready to take our next action leap.

If you already abide by the Dirty Dozen list, incorporate a fruit into one meal a day and different vegetables raw into the other two.  You'll get a wide variety of nutritional benefits by doing this every day!

 

Food? Food!

I love food:  Talking about recipes, dreaming up party menus, prepping the night before for warm biscuits after a morning run.   One thing I can't stand is feeling limited in what I can eat.  I research nutrition and the various dietary and culinary approaches to healthy eating, and I have found a balance that fits my family, our needs, and our busy schedule.  We eat all kinds of foods, and I make every effort to ensure that the ingredients are high quality and nutrient dense.  

However, eating a variety of foods (meats, grains, dairy, sweets) sometimes equates to overeating certain items for me. I love to go out for coffee in the morning, and we hit a café for breakfast as a family every Saturday.  It is during those times that I am reminded of how delicious a well-made white flour and sugar scone can taste with dark roast coffee, or the savory satisfaction of a buttered artisanal English muffin.  Those pleasures can often lead to allowing a slice or two of take out pizza for dinner, a weekday coffee shop rendezvous with a toasted pumpkin muffin, and a veritable snowball effect of processed wheat occurring in my gut.  Then I feel tired, bloated, sore, and generally unhappy while I stick to quinoa, beans, and nuts trying to rid myself of the junk my body is working overtime to digest and eliminate.  I don't have an intolerance to wheat, but too much of anything will eventually put a smackdown on your physical operating system.  However, I do love the W. Somerset Maugham quote:  Excess on occasion is exhilarating.  It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit - a perfect reason to overindulge.

On Saturday I diverged from the familial café breakfast and had a lovely brunch with my running gals.  We all brought a dish and gathered at the warm and welcoming home of our self-appointed social organizer (thanks, Amy!).  That the company was fabulous was a given, and the food covered all bases:  Savory, fruity, sweet, and hearty.  For us, eating food leads to talking about food, and that morning our culinary chatter was linked to healing.  We spoke about eliminating digestive issues with TBA remedies and the occasional need to avoid (not eat) a food for a short time while on a remedy to allow the body to heal.  Food itself is not the source of a digestive problem, but rather a trigger of symptoms.  So, until the body is ready to detoxify the cause of the issue, it is sometimes necessary to stay away from the aggravating food.  This is different from an elimination diet because in TBA we know (through advanced kineseology) which food(s) is not jiving with our frequencies, and to allow the remedy to do its job of supporting and detoxifying the body, we avoid the problem food so as not to disrupt the healing harmony occurring between the body's frequencies and those of the remedy.  Digestive problems are not the only symptoms that can be set off by foods.  Asthma, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, inflammation, sinus conditions, and multiple other complaints can mitigated or eliminated by a TBA remedy and avoiding aggravating items or food groups until the body is through uncovering and detoxifying the cause of the problem.  One friend was so happy to know that although her gas problems ceased while avoiding wheat when taking her remedy, she'll be able to enjoy the ubiquitous grain again soon with no issues.

We live in a world full of drive-thru lattes, "healthy" cereal bars, and other convenience items that, once in a while, can save the day for even the most well-intended and informed eater.  Should we limit our consumption of these "day-savers"?  Absolutely (I'll give you a list of awesome versus acceptable options for your pantry soon), but we don't need to live in the restrictive and isolating realm of food allergies and intolerances when we have TBA to figure out what's behind it all. 

Click here for details on TBA sessions and a free consultation.

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Check out Well Vibrations on You Tube!  Thank so much for your help.

Well Vibe, in a Nutshell

For those of you who appreciate brevity, here is what Well Vibrations offers in a nutshell.  I will paste segments of this post into my info pages as well. 

Total Body Analysis (TBA) focuses on supporting our anatomy and physiology while detoxifying Disease Causing Agents such as chemicals, heavy metals, bacteria, emotional stress, food allergies, and genetic mutations.  The remedies initiate and facilitate physical, psychological, and emotional healing. 

Energy Coaching sessions aim to bring our energetic vibrational frequencies to their highest (healthiest) point through eliminating limiting subconscious beliefs trapped in our chakras (energy centers).  My technique is based on Dr. David R. Hawkins' research in his book Power Vs. Force.  Click here for a cool chart:  http://www.dharanipitaka.net/2011/2008/teachings/DavidHawkins-PowerVsForce.pdf   This is not a talk therapy session and the client does not need to divulge personal information or share painful emotional memories.  Energy Coaching facilitates setting achievable goals (in running and in life) and taking steps toward realizing our greatest potential.  In addition, we can support injured tissue to allow healing while continuing to run happily! 

These two approaches work harmoniously and together provide the most complete (and speedy) path to eliminating the issues that hold us back as athletes, professionals, partners, and parents.

New Year, So What?

"New year, new you!" How many times have we seen that declared on a magazine cover or postered on the gym wall?  A brand new calendar year seems like an opportune time to get in shape, kick a bad habit, or plot a course toward any life goal.  But how many of us have made that resolution, broken out of the gate like gangbusters in January, and either given up before Valentine's Day or renegotiated with ourselves a simpler, more digestible attack because we hadn't really been ready for the change to begin with?

Anytime can be the perfect opportunity for change.  However, time itself is simply a modern, human regulatory constant - not the healer of all wounds popularized through greeting cards.  Since we can move forward any day, month, or season, and we really want to lose 10 pounds, ditch the antidepressants, or find a new career, what in the heck is stopping us?  We might not be aware of the impediments to our success.  If we want to finish a marathon, but on a deep level believe:  "I am not a long-distance runner" or "I am not a winner" then we won't even make it to the starting line. Can we simply create a mantra like:  "I can run 26.2 miles," repeat it when we're tempted to sleep in, or the weather's nasty, or we see the short cut home, and four months later have a marathon finisher's medal draped over our heads?   For most of us, the answer is no, because the question is not "What should I tell myself?" but "Why do I keeping telling myself I'm not good enough?"  We hold ourselves back because of an emotional blockage in our energy flow, a dense spot (or spots) in our chakras which harbors negative beliefs.
To use energy work to clear these "ill vibrations" in our energetic fields is even easier than muttering a mantra again and again.  We use kineseology to test where the negative belief is and if we are ready to release it (similarly to how we create a Total Body Analysis remedy), then direct healing energy to the identified chakra and the emotional blockage is cleared.  This technique complements TBA remedies by relieving emotional stress and allowing the body to shed toxic layers more quickly.  To quit smoking, we energetically locate the dense energy that causes you to smoke, dissolve it, and move on to any other issues you may want to eliminate or improve.  A TBA remedy helps our body detoxify what it can internally, and the energy clearing resolves the emotional ties to the internal problems - it's like we are excavating a mine field and deactivating the mines at the same time.
To realize you are holding yourself back and take the first step toward wellness and prosperity is resolution enough.  Well Vibrations is here when you are ready to train for, and finish, your marathon (read:  Put yourself into positive physical and psychological motion).  New moment, new you.

Who Are You?

There are sick people and well people and some in between.   That's a fairly obvious categorization.
However, to be sick or well is not a real-time descriptor but rather state of being, a mindset.  I am not saying that illness is all in one's head; I am not saying that an individual chooses to have leukemia, AIDS, or cystic fibrosis.  I am stating that there are vastly different ways to approach and heal disease. 
Have you ever known someone diagnosed with a serious or terminal illness who becomes a model for living?  Someone who looks at disease as a life challenge and emerges as a happier, more whole being because of it?  Is that "diseased" person sick or well?  By my definition, he or she is a shining example of a well person.   She might not have begun her journey through illness as a well person, but learned that extracting positive meaning from disease is a path to survival. 
Conversely, maybe you always pass your yearly physical, have normal blood work, and take your vitamins, but are continually waiting for the next sinus infection, dreading a tickle in the throat, or constantly nursing an exercise-related injury (isn't that elliptical supposed to keep you healthy?).  If you're worried about getting sick or give up and chug Nyquil when your nose runs, chances are you are more in the "sick person" category.  Not because you like being sick, but because you haven't realized your body's healing potential - that it wants to be well and can do almost anything to get there.  If you let it.
Some of us can be the terminally-diagnosed patient who learns, grows, and heals beautifully through her own doing, and some of us need a little help just getting out of bed each morning.  That is why I have started this blog and a Total Body Analysis practice, to help your body allow itself to heal through providing the energetic frequencies it needs.  Together, we can learn to be in tune with our bodies and allow ourselves to enter a state of wellbeing.  Sometimes this involves just a remedy, in other cases we need to do more emotional energy therapy in order to release the negative frequencies which bind us to illness.  But the potential is there for each and every one of us.  Who do you want to be?

Call if You're in Trouble

You're driving down the highway alone and skid off the road into a ditch.  You make a quick assessment of the situation and find that you have all of your parts, and your car seems to as well.  Heck, the engine is still on.  Great.  Step on the gas, and...nothing.  You're stuck.  Next steps:  Turn on the heater and end it all in a cloud of carbon monoxide?  Too dramatic.  Call a friend to get you, and leave the car to report it stolen later?  Too risky.  Call a tow truck?  Duh and bingo!  You have roadside assistance, you are safe for the time being, and you'll be out and back on track within an hour.  A simple, economical, straightforward solution to getting stuck.
What about when you're stuck in a health issue?  If your chemotherapy or antidepressants or yoga just aren't doing the trick anymore?  How can you get out of that physical or emotional ditch?  End it all in your manner of choice?  Please, no!  Get referrals for a dozen specialists and spend time and co-pays trying to find the "real" problem?  Who has time for that?
You are reading a blog about a safe, effective, and inexpensive holistic solution to being stuck in a health rut.
Total Body Analysis and the energy therapy that I practice as a complement will gently and safely help your shiny new Mercedes (that's you: your body, mind, and spirit) creep up and out of that muddy ditch in the middle of nowhere.  And you don't need a membership or insurance - just a phone call and an open mind.  If talk therapy is your bag, we can talk as long as you like. If privacy is something you hold dear, just think about your issues and your body will signal what it needs.  It's like the mechanic hooking your car up to a computer at the shop (except we don't use wires and your energy field is way smarter than a computer).
Check out Well Vibrations TBA and energy therapy or research holistic medicine on your own.  I guarantee it'll pick you up.

Decisions, Decisions

My husband is a great guy:  Dedicated father, gifted teacher, hardworking house cleaner, and talented runner.  Sounds ideal, but who cares if he's a runner, right?  Running may not seem like a typical highlight on a husband's resume, but it is a huge part of who Mike is, and running his tenth marathon last weekend (and the week preceding it) illustrates perfectly the topic of this post:  Total Body Analysis works wonders, but we have to do right by ourselves, too.
Put yourself in Mike's (running) shoes.  You have trained well, your wife/TBA Practitioner has helped keep you in top form with remedies, good food, and love, and you are just itching to hear that starting gun blast and then take off for another Boston Marathon-qualifying race time.
Except.
Your second grade students have hacked and sneezed on you all week, your own children are involved in a hundred activities, you had to stay up for those football AND those baseball games, your wife stresses you out with her own regaling of school day challenges, and you really, really like the new drink you've discovered, the maple old fashioned, but unfortunaley bourbon is not exactly a tonic for the immune system.  So, you develop a little cough, spend nine or ten hours in bed the Wednesday through Saturday before your marathon, load up on sprouted wheat pretzels, and hope for the best, really believing Sunday will be your day to shine for 26.2 miles.
The believing part is key; we have to believe we can succeed at something in order to bring it to fruition, but as we shall see here, belief and good holistic medicine can get you to the starting line, but to finish strong, you need to give yourself some TLC.  
But aren't my primary and general remedies detoxing, antidoting, and supporting my system???  They sure are, but any toxic energy that is layered on after we make your remedy will be a factor in how you feel.  So Mike's ever-present work stress got him down, and then staying up late and the occasional weeknight old fashioned knocked him out.  His remedies helped keep him from officially getting sick, but he was not in tip-top health for peak performance in a marathon (he finished in 3:27 - still pretty danged good).
It all boils down to making decisions.  We decide we want to be healthy, but wellness doesn't stop there.  It's an ongoing, active state where we're constantly pitching, catching, swerving, and righting ourselves as the days roll on and life's challenges and rewards unfold.  It is vital to have a supportive circle of friends and family to talk with about being and staying well and to continually think about the consequences of our daily habits.  Then we can make solid decisions about how to tackle what's in front of us with the big picture in mind.  You're reading this, so you have "meta-wellness," or thinking about being well.  Decide to take the next step:  Make a TBA appointment, down a kale smoothie, or just go to bed early, and rock on knowing you're ready for a strong tomorrow.

What's Your Compass?

Wellness is a complex concept.  We know when we have or don't have it, but its definition is more difficult to identify.  Total Body Analysis (TBA) is an integral part of the journey to wellness:  We pinpoint areas of weakness and support or detoxify them with a remedy.  TBA allows toxic layers to be revealed and antidoted, and all we have to do is "take one half-dropperful of the remedy three times a day."  But can a vial of energetic liquid be the answer?  Is it enough to supply ourselves with a spectrum of frequencies and let them do the work?  It can be, depending on how we address the question of why.  Why do we want to be well?  If we don't examine our motives for change and healing, we can't identify a goal.  How will we know we've achieved wellness if we can't visualize its appearance or how we will have changed as a whole human being?
My picture of wellness is continuously transforming, and I am always striving to get to the next level of healing by discovering the why and then following the how.  TBA is the tool that allows me to traverse the path to wellness, but my mind and my heart are the guides.

Only If You're Bleeding

Call me an insensitive mother of small children, but I hate band-aids.  Their physical annoyance of getting wet, coming unstuck, and leaving dirty black glue marks, bleeds, if you will, into their utilitarian menace as a placater for all things boo-boo to children.  I feel like when I need a band-aid, it really can't hold up to the daily grind, and ninety-nine percent of the time that a kid gets to apply one, it's just to make her stop whining.
Metaphorical band-aids can quite literally squeeze my soul until a gaping, ironic wound erupts, oozing my sanity and clouding my judgement with worry over the next spirit-crushing quick fix that might adhere itself to my life.
On a daily basis for me, the most harmful band-aids come in the form of non-solutions to social justice issues in public education.  I teach English as a Second Language full time in an elementary school and I see the ill-effects of data folders, pre- and post-tests, state assessments, and New! Research-Based! language arts programs on our children.  School districts spend millions of dollars on these band-aids while neglecting the goal of a solid education:  A happy, whole child.
What does this have to do with alternative healing, you might ask.  The educational band-aid metaphor is akin to the conditioning we've undergone as a society to buy this, pop this, drive this, or wear this to make us feel - whole?  Not really.  Temporarily satiated?  Maybe.  The cyclical emptiness and emotional longing that ensue from conditioned consumerism leave us with a deep need to heal.  On our healing paths we sometimes try band-aids in an earnest effort for wholeness.  Years ago, my general practitioner, who was conditioned to prescribe antidepressants, wrote me a script for Zoloft to help my symptoms of depression.  I was conditioned to believe that a pill would heal me.  If that were the case I would not be writing this post. But that band-aid, like many, was a learning experience.  We cannot change our past actions, but we can learn to change our attitudes and shift our focus away from consuming to feel better and toward autonomous healing.  We are only human, and sometimes band-aids are necessary to get us through the day or to deal with an unexpected problem.  Those patches (like the beer I had last night - hey, it helped calm my brain to start this post), as long as we recognize their role, are a way to keep us from straying from our healing paths
(sometimes, they plain keep us from going crazy).
Perhaps one day as well, school districts will recognize the difference between a quick fix and plotting a lifelong course, and they'll shift away from programming our children and toward allowing the learners to lead in their educational dance.
For now, readers, may we know when we are truly bleeding, and when to just give our four year old a box of cartoon bandages because he's wailing in a restaurant from bumping his head on our elbow (then maybe we can finish our wine).