Month: October 2017

Holistic Healing.

| onmyway44

Last week i had my very first session of acupuncture. It’s something i had wanted to try for a really long time i had just never gotten round to it. Because of the pain in my joints the past few months and i am missing an awful lot of training i decided to finally give it a go. The meds the Dr has gave me don’t seem to be helping much and i’ve tried every herbal remedy i can think of so now it’s time to consult the holistic healing methods.

Holistic healing is characterized by the belief that the parts of something are intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. In other words our emotional, mental, spiritual & physical bodies are all interconnected and all effect each other, therefore if the body is sick we need to work on the spiritual/mental/emotional level in order to heal the body. Western medicine focuses solely on treating the symptoms of the body and not actually getting to the root of the problem or healing it.

I have tried a lot of other holistic methods in the past such as floatation therapy, reiki, meditation & ayahuasca, all of which have worked absolute wonders for me. No medicine or treatment i have ever been given by my Doctor can ever compare to the healing i have acquired through holistics. This is why when the meds and physio failed me with my joint pain i decided to turn to Acupuncture.

I was a little but nervous about getting it as i’m not to fond of needles and so was feeling a little queezy but by the time i walked out of that 1 hour treatment i really did feel completely different and was so glad that i decided to try it.

When i went in Lena who going to be my therapist asked me a few questions about the pain i was experiencing and what kind of symptoms i had been having / how long i had been having them that sort of thing. She then lay me down on the bed and got to work. She explained to me that even though the pain was in all of my joints she would be placing the needles in various points on my abdomen and by doing this she could treat the whole body.

Right throughout our bodies we have lines and points called meridians. These points are like pathways that allow the life force energy to flow through us. In Chinese medicine they call this energy ‘qi’,  but where i come from it is known as ‘prana’. Something that  i practice in Kundalini yoga is learning to remove blockages and balance our chakras in order to allow this life force energy to flow freely through us. Unfortunately sometimes we need a little additional help as we can get stuck and we cannot clearly see ourselves to recognize where or why we have a blockage. This is when a little extra help from a reiki healer or acupuncturist can work wonders.

By placing needles in certain points on my abdomen and rolling them about Lena was working on any blockages and unbalanced areas within my energy center in order to bring my body back to homeostasis and allow the prana to flow through freely. After placing roughly 50 needles in different points she then put a heat lamp over me and left me to heal and relax for half an hour. During that half hour i could really feel the needles working on my energy centers, my whole body felt like it was buzzing and tingling everywhere and i kept getting little jerks in certain areas (a bit like when your falling asleep and your leg jerks and wakes you). This is a feeling i am already used to from other methods of holistics i have used, so even though it felt very weird i knew it was a good sign and that it was working.

When i went in to the treatment i had terrible pain between my shoulders, in my wrist and especially in my knees. When i came out of the treatment i had not a single bit of pain anywhere in my body. Now i don’t know if it was adrenaline from having 50 needles stuck into me, if it was a placebo effect, or if it was because Lena really knew her stuff, but whichever one it was does it really matter? For the first time in months i could walk without experiencing pain in both knees, whatever it was it worked.

Lena also told me a few foods that i should try and avoid, bananas, dairy & coffee to name a few. She was actually the second person to tell me i should stay away from dairy as i was also advised the same at an ayahuasca ceremony a few months back. So that was it decided, i went home and drank a huge final glass of milk and then decided that was it no more dairy after this.

Almost a week later now and i’m still feeling so much better. Not 100% better but much better than i have in months and a lot less pain. I have booked in again to see Lena and have decided i’m going to keep up with the Acupuncture as well as daily energy work at home and stick to what i know best – spirit science.

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To blessed to be stressed.

| onmyway44

If you follow my instagram & snapchat you will know already that the past few months i have been really struggling with joint pain. I don’t know where it came from but it started back in July, it came on so suddenly and very quickly spread throughout all of my joints and has continued to get worse and worse.

For the first few weeks i thought i had just very coincidentally injured both of my knees at exactly the same time. I stopped squatting & deadlifting immediately thinking that i maybe had runners knee or something like that and i just carried on with some light stretches and mobility exercises for my knees for a few weeks. I was so confused as to how i could have injured them both in the first place as my squat/deadlift form is always spot on and i couldn’t remember any incident where i might have hurt them both but if i hadn’t injured them then why could i barely walk?

A few weeks in and unable to train legs i was just focusing on my upper body exercises. I didn’t want to go crazy and over train upper body so i was just sticking to my usual exercises and one day in the gym when doing tricep dips i started getting such bad elbow pain. I stopped the exercise straight away as i know tricep dips can be quite notorious for elbow pain. I did think it was a bit weird though as i have been doing tricep dips for years with no pain. Never mind i’d just pick another exercise for a few weeks instead.

Well that was it, from that point on i was like an old woman. I can’t believe how fast something like this can spread but from the first bout of knee pain it only took about 8 weeks until all of my joints were in constant agony. I started having to get the bus in the mornings as i was unable to walk my usual 15km a day, the pain and stiffness in my knees and ankles was so unbearable. Going to the gym i was doing my best to keep the muscles firing and keep my strength but its so disheartening having to use machine weights all the time instead of being able to squat/bench/deadlift etc.

Some days it would be so bad that i couldn’t even hold my phone or a book in front of me as my wrist would be to sore to hold it. Waking up in the morning my joints would be so stiff and painful that i would have to spend 20 minutes just moving about and doing some light stretching before i could even get down the stairs.

It’s so weird because the pain seems to move around the joints and the pain doesn’t always feel the same.  Sometimes it feels like a pulling pain, sometimes it feels like burning, sometimes my hands or fingers will go completely numb, pins and needles, shooting pains, throbbing sensations. Some days is worse than others. On the days where the pain feels a little less i have been trying to get some light workouts in just to keep active and keep the muscles firing but at this stage i’m just fed up of not being able to exercise properly without being in extreme pain.

Anyway the Dr doesn’t seem to have a clue what can be going on. My blood tests came back absolutely fine. I know finding out your bloods are fine should be good news but for me i was  upset as it meant i was no further forward with finding out what is causing this. I was hoping something would come back in the bloods and the Dr would just say ok take this or do this and in a few weeks you’ll be grand. But no such luck. I’m back at the Drs tomorrow and i’m also waiting on an appointment to see a rheumatologist so i’m crossing my fingers that we get somewhere.

This post might come across as me having a bit of a moan but i promise it’s the opposite. The reason i’m writing this is because what is the point in being a blogger if your not going to be honest and share the bad times as well as the good? This past few months have been very tough on me physically, but mentally i am still in top form. I learned a long time ago that there’s no point stressing about things you have no control over. This is one of those things. It is what it is, i just have to take it on the chin and work through it whatever it may be. Luckily i have amazing friends around me who have been keeping me positive and looking after me when i need minding. To blessed to be stressed.

 

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Unconditional Love.

| onmyway44

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Why does God allow people to do bad things?

I believe it’s because to allow us the freedom to choose – is his love for us. That he allows your choice to ignore, to refuse the right choices, to create your own life and bear the consequences of your choices.

Then like a loving parent, he gathers you up again to give you another chance, and another, and another. All the while loving you unconditionally.

Nadi Shodhana : Alternate nostril breathing.

| onmyway44

Pranayama is the practice of controlling the breath. There are many different pranayama techniques but the one I want to share with you today is a very simple practice called Nadi Shodhana used to calm and settle the mind & body, restore balance, clear blockages, deactivate our fight our flight response and improve focus.

This is a short and easy practice that is suitable any time any place. I personally use this technique first thing in the morning before starting the day to bring clarity and focus and to balance my energy. I also use it last thing every night before bed to clear any blockages that might have started to form during the day, to shake off any stress and to calm and relax my mind and body ready for a peaceful sleep.

The technique is easy enough to follow so I hope I can explain it well enough..

1. Start by holding your right hand with the palm over the centre of your face (with the palm of your hand over your nose) and your middle & index fingers resting between your brows.

2. Keeping those two fingers between your brows now place your thumb on one nostril and your ring finger over your other nostril and just rest them there gently.

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3. Now clamp the ring finger down over your nostril completely blocking one side and through the opposite open nostril take a deep inhale.

4. At the top of the inhale you now clamp the thumb down as well so that both nostrils are blocked and hold for one second.

5. Now release the ring finger off your nostril (keep the thumb clamped down on the other one) and exhale fully through the unblocked nostril.

6. Now immediately breath back in through same unblocked nostril (ring finger side), and repeat the steps back to front.

So basically breath in through the right nostril, hold, breath out through the left nostril, breath in through the left nostril, hold, breath out through the right nostril, breath in through the right nostril, hold, out through the left nostril. Repeat repeat repeat.

I hope i explained this well enough it’s actually so simple but sounds a little complicated when I’m trying to explain it in words. It is such an effective technique and by controlling the breath you are controlling the prana (life force energy) within you. You don’t need to practice this for excessive amounts of time for it to be effective, even 1-2 minutes at a time would be more than sufficient. I like to do a quick 2 minutes in the morning and a quick 2 minutes before bed. What better way to start the day than with some conscious breathing with the intention of balance and harmony within the body and mind?

I hope this technique serves you as well as it has served me I’d love to hear from anyone who decides to try it so feel free to comment or send me a message.

Hope you all have a wonderful day. Highest blessings.