August 2006 Archives

Its back to school time, and you are forgiven for having entirely mixed feelings about whether you are happier or sadder that your child, or children are finally done with the holidays. Does it feel better not to be worrying about what they are getting up to at home every time you leave the house and drive to work, or run an errand? Or are you now dreading the times you will have to meet your toddler or teenager's teacher, with fresh evidence of your child's non-compliance with school rules? 

Parental stress is a fact of life, and whether yours is peaking during vacations, or coming up in a surge when its time to go back to school is a matter of individual experience. If you are stressing yourself out, perhaps its time to review the expectations you have from both, the kid and yourself, and cut out unrealistic demands. Besides, stress in school time is also related to the amount of scheduling it is necessary to do to meet children's needs in addition to what you must do in your own working day. Little wonder that you need more information to deal with such stress.

The start of a fresh year at school is a time to unlock dreams, limber up for learning, and get ready to face the school bully on the bus or in class. Your child needs your help in doing any or all of these things.

Why not get ready for school by having your own emotions and stress factors well in control? More than what you owe your kid, its what you owe yourself. So take some help in getting your perspective, and wish you happy back-to-school days!

What happens on journeys to healing environments? When you sink deep into a cool mountain spring, and the dirt and artifice of the city just seems to be slipping away? When you look up at the sky full of stars and the petty worries of your life become so minor? When you take breath after deep breath of pure, cool, mountain air, scented with flowers and herbs...

Take some time to savor these beautiful poems capturing the inner world of journeys and seekers. You may just be tempted to spend the next few days on your own special riverside or mountain journey.

Because journeys are so significant for us in how they enable us to achieve a psychic shift - connecting to deeper thoughts, feelings and memories, some journeys are undertaken just for healing. With a journey, one is encountering a changed exterior landscape, one that may contain awesome natural sights producing a sense of wonder. How the sight of this landscape works to bring changes in our interior landscape is one part of the 'journey' we undertake.

Some healers offer journeys to special sacred and evocative lands, such as author Josie RavenWing offers to Fulnio Indian lands in Brazil, and Clay Miller offers to Greater Sedona Arizona and the Verde Valley. Such healing opportunities contain the double advantage of connecting us to very powerful and inspiring environments at the same time as they put us more in touch with the deepest recesses of ourselves.

Making the most of these last days of summer, I journeyed to a river recently. The very fact of leaving the city behind, and traveling by train and road to where I would spend some days of active reflection helped me to unlock many inner resources

In the tumult of the river, I seemed to find what I needed to feel at peace! Journeys are often like that. Whether we take a short or long journey, it represents a departure that is giving us the opportunity to go outside ourselves, and see life anew.   

Here's a beautiful poem about what a journey can mean.

Like many other Eastern forms, QiGong represents a harmonious balance of body and mind, and is applied differently for different results.  Healing QiGong covers the preventive and self-healing aspect of Chinese medicine. This is especially important for the contemporary management of stress. QiGong can help us see how to control our reactions to stress so that the business of living does not cause us to experience such symptoms as high blood pressure, frustration, or anxiety. While QiGong can help healthy people become even healthier,  healers use it to balance 'qi' or 'chi' in their patients, and prevent burn-out and exhaustion.

What is more intriguing is that QiGong enables the healer to tap into a well of healing energy in nature and "funnel" it through his or her body. QiGong exercises increase sensitivity to energy fields and efficacy of treatment. These healing exercises and meditations can be practised alongside the regular treatment you are receiving, , and they make it more effective. These techniques are offered at a distance from the body by trained healers, and may be used alone, or combined with massage, acupuncture,  osteopathy, and other forms of body-work.

Sportspersons use QiGong to improve strength, stamina, coordination, speed, flexibility, balance, and resistance to injury. Since self-awareness, tranquillity, and harmony with nature are natural side effects of QiGong, it is also sought after by spiritual seekers. This aspect of QiGong has evolved from Taoism and Buddhism. Aesthetic sensitivity is considerably enhanced with QiGong.  This is one practice that makes us feel such oneness with nature that it becomes natural to express ourselves through poetry or painting, dance, mime or other expressive arts.

Perhaps what makes QiGong particularly suited to the modern world is how it can bring greater integrity, resistance to stress, better decision-making, and  encourage credibility, confidence and team spirit. The implications this has for business are fairly staggering and have brought QiGong recognition as a training strategy for business professionals.

The great majority of us exercise as clock-watchers and time-keepers. Jogging for forty-five minutes, or counting the strokes on the gym machine may be the way we get our daily or weekly dose of exercise. While this is undoubtedly working to make us fit, and the 'feel-good' rush of endorphins after particularly strenuous exercise makes us stay with the discipline, rarely do we think of exercise as a way to achieve wholeness and vitality, a sense of oneness with nature, and an ability to withstand stress in any form.

The mechanical way in which we exercise is partly the reason this happens. When our thinking process converges with the physical activity we are performing, we achieve much better results. This is illustrated by the tremendous importance sportspersons and their trainers place on psychological factors.

Forms of physical expression that have developed in the East generally emphasize the mind-body-spirit connection. This is particularly evident in QiGong. A distinguishing feature of the practice is the slow and unhurried nature of its movements. It is this that makes QiGong the ideal therapy for "hurry sickness", a habitual sense of time urgency, which is  a major risk factor for heart disease and accelerated aging, and a major distinguishing feature of modern lifestyles.

Learn more about QiGong techniques and methods to find the approach most suited to your own needs.

QiGong is suitable for all kinds or practitioners, young and old, because it includes both dynamic and gentle techniques that can be practiced from standing, seated, or supine postures. Moreover, you can tailor your practice to address your own particular requirement, including recovery from illness or injury. It should be remembered however, that this is a form of complementary medicine. It works well with other forms of therapy and should never be used as a substitute for necessary treatment by a physician.

As twenty first century beings subject to our share of stress and pollution, we often struggle to achieve that balance with the universe that marked the lives of our ancestors. Lunar cycles, seasons, and the very air we breathe may be viewed as external factors by us, instead of helpful components in an enriched existence. However, harnessing the energy that seems to permeate all living things around us, and achieving a state of wellness through this, is taught in many ancient systems of medicine and healing.

Qigong, normally pronounced 'chi kung', is a practice that uses  “Qi”, or air, breath of life, the vital energy of the body, with  “gong” that is the skill of working with, or cultivating, self-discipline and achievement. Meditation, relaxation, physical movement, mind-body integration, and breathing exercises are all part of Qigong. Practice of Qigong helps people develop an awareness of qi sensations (energy) in their body and use their mind to guide the Qi. When this practice has become sufficiently advanced, practitioners can direct or emit external Qi for the purpose of healing others.

In fact, Qigong is sometimes classified as Medical, Martial and Spiritual, depending on the focus and use it is put to. Find out more about this ancient Chinese art of healing that has taken hold all over the world, with European countries like Germany and Denmark embracing it with enthusiasm.

One way in which every one of us is close to silver is through the mirrors we gaze in to every morning,  noon or night. Mirrors have traditionally been made with silver being used to coat the looking-glass. Chrome and other alloys are also used in reflectors and auto mirrors, but the traditional home mirror is still painted with silver.

There is no reason to throw away mirrors whose silver backs have got scratched and damaged. Do you have grandma's oval hand mirror that you can't bear to throw away? What about the beautiful framed mirror you found in a garage sale that has had it's reflection dimmed? Resilvering is a process that uses traditional techniques to give old and antique mirrors their lost lustre.

Our reflections are intrinsically linked to our ideas of self-worth. Silver helps us take a good and long look at ourselves!

Silver's connection to spirituality is seen most strongly in traditional cultures where prayer and meditation, harmonious co-existence with nature and strong beliefs in a benevolent power guiding the universe are very much in evidence.

The Tibetans are one such community where silver is given a lot of importance. Tibetans are also famous as practitioners of medicine, Tantric meditation, and their own distinct, unique Buddhism. Tibetan silver jewelry is often combined with turquoise and coral, which resonate with healing properties of their own.

Another culture that venerates silver and crafts beautiful ornaments from it is the Navajo, and that of other American Indian communities such as the Hopi and Zuni. Such jewelry may have tempted you often on a holiday, along with the striking Navajo rugs. What makes these pieces special is that they have been created not just to look pretty, but to bring the wearer more in tune with natural rhythms and the ceaseless flow of the universe.

Silver is ruled by the moon in astrology - its lustrous white appearance does bring the moon to mind. With its connection to the ebb and flow of tides, to the growing patterns of plants and living beings, the moon is a powerful source of symbolism and strength for healers and mystics.

That is why you will see your Tarot reader, astrologer, or even acupuncturist and masseuse, wearing silver jewelry and accessories. If the moon is going to cast her gently protective rays on you as a result of wearing silver, which healer will want to say 'No'?

When silver is combined with gemstones also associated with mysticism and spirituality, it could produce jewelry with a high ritual and symbolic significance. In fact, from as far back as the 4th millennium BC, silver is being crafted into items for human use, many of these of ritual significance.

A marriage of moonstone and silver to create jewelry especially crafted to resemble the waxing and waning phases of the moon has been created by an artist for contemporary seekers of lunar magic. Check it out!

Out of the metals used to make jewelry for us to wear, few are as attractive as silver. While platinum and the trendy alloy called white gold may have caught the fancy of designers and fashion's victims, silver has been twisted and carved into wearable jewels since ancient times.

The metals we wear next to our skin have the power to give us protection, or so it has been believed down the millennia in many different societies. What is in constant contact with us also has the potential to cause allergies or unpleasant reactions. Gold wins on this count because it rarely produces a reaction even on the most sensitive skin. Silver, although it has the tendency to tarnish or oxidize, unlike gold, is also a metal well-tolerated by most.

What makes silver different from other metals is the amount of emphasis placed on it by astrologers, healers, and yes, even people into witchcraft and the occult arts.

Silver is believed to give protection against such creatures as vampires and werewolves! All the more reason for you to flaunt that charm bracelet your boyfriend gave you in High School. But what is more intriguing is the belief in some cultures that ingesting silver is good for health. In India for instance, some Ayurvedic preparations for longevity supposedly contain silver and gold, and silver is beaten very thin into a film that is used to cover and decorate sweets.

Some preparations containing silver, for its properties as an anti-microbial are sold as alternative medicine. Silver was also considered beneficial by none other than Hippocrates. But the intake of any metal can prove devastating to the human body, particularly the circulatory system and the kidneys. While silver is not as toxic as metals like lead, mercury or nickel, the utmost precaution needs to be taken in its consumption in any form. Never consume any medicines containing silver without informing your physician.

If nuts were allowed a pageant, the consistent winner would surely be the almond, that endearing eye-shaped nut we are so fond of eating - either by itself, or as glazed candy, or in recipes from around the world. While eating nuts is often avoided by the calorie conscious, almonds have been endorsed by growers and health authorities alike.

Almonds are indeed special. Mostly because they are especially high in calcium, besides being rich in minerals, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. The mono-unsaturated fat in almonds helps to lower cholesterol, especially the bad cholesterol (LDL). Almonds also contain a high degree of oleic acid, which is believed to be the ingredient in olive oil that protects against heart disease.

Apart from the ingredients in almonds that have their own importance for nutrition, even the brown, sturdy peel of this nut is considered valuable from the point of view of possessing anti-oxidant properties. So eating whole almonds makes more sense than eating peeled ones.

Soaking almonds before eating is a traditional method of rendering them more palatable. In traditional societies like India and the Middle East, parents consider almonds 'brain food' and regularly soak almonds for children studying for exams! The beautiful pink and white almond blossoms that were native to the Mediterranean countries are now grown widely in many areas of the world and in California in the US.

You can find many delicious reasons for a regular diet of almonds, not the least of which are increased protection against heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis. Look for almond recipes that do your taste buds most justice. Or just take the best route of all - chewing on tasty, full-bodied almonds every single day.

Looks like the more one looks, the more evidence there is of joy and satisfaction from cycling, and here's one particularly persuasive poem, the 'Rhyme of the Angry Commuter'. If you are one such stressed soul, cursing your way to work behind the strains of the car radio, you might find the compelling imagery of this poet a fit recipe to follow!

Approaching menopause is often the time women find it easy to be indulgent about some of the things younger women are going through, and irritated by others. While some experiences of womanhood appear very close, others have receded so far into their consciousness as women have acquired maturity, that they need to make a real effort to connect with such feelings.

The feelings and desires associated with sex do not have to become less important after reaching menopause. In fact, menopause may be the time when intrusions by children, fear of pregnancy, and an obsessive preoccupation with mundane tasks may have finally given way to a more spontaneous enjoyment of sex. How menopause affects our sex lives is something many woman want to know about even before they arrive at this particular milestone.

While hormone replacement therapy has really made a difference to post-menopausal sex, positive images of older woman in films and mainstream media provide a great deal of reassurance. 2003 saw the release of two very good films about post-menopausal sexuality. Something's Gotta Give starring Diane Keaton, and Calendar Girls starring Helen Mirren and others, gave an audience of older women lots to cheer about.

How women experience sex after menopause is really only one element in the larger questions of physical and emotional fitness. Exercise and a sufficient intake of calcium are often emphasized to prevent arthritis and osteoporosis in older women. Exercise and shared laughter, satisfaction from relationships, and a feeling of being recognized for their best qualities by the people they love are definitely some of the things that can enhance the enjoyment of lovemaking for older women.

The see-saw of emotions that women may be going through during menopause complicates many areas of their lives, and additional information about others' experiences is helpful at such a time. While much attention is paid to how men experience a decline in libido by a Viagra obsessed media and culture, not enough attention is paid to women - and such topics as  the effects of Viagra on women!

Loving partners are definitely one of the ingredients for a more satisfying sex life after menopause. The other, equally important factor is confidence in our femininity and the sheer love of living.

Recurring images of the fighting in Lebanon bring the Middle East crisis squarely home to us. While war and the anguish it produces affects the whole of humanity wherever it happens, there are also rays of light all around us, if we only choose to look.

What is remarkable about the conflict in the Middle East is the number of cyclists  it has inspired to do their bit for peace! Unlike the platitudes about world peace that are routinely mouthed by beauty pageant contestants, these men and women  show grit, determination, and a burning desire for the common good.

Find out about such heartwarming attempts as that by two Iranian young men, the courageous journey through the Golan Heights by American women, and what the Jewish community is doing to inspire its own young and old cyclists.

Wonder if the inventors of the bicycle knew how often their vehicle was going to be used to make a statement for peace?

Aromatherapy is used as an adjunct to treatment for serious diseases even though it cannot be classified as a distinct cure on its own. What does the administration of healing aromas do for the ill? Here's a physician's take on aromatherapy that may interest you to take a sniff!

With aromatherapy, we are developing a special relationship with the flowers and fruits and vegetables that we may have taken for granted for years in our environment.

The thrilling victory of Floyd Landis in the 2006 Tour de France may be under a cloud at present, but it seems like the right moment to consider the awesome amount of good that cycling can do for us both in terms of our personal health, and the health of the community through use of environment-friendly transport.

Cycling is, undoubtedly, one of those skills that it behoves one to learn at some point in life. I learnt it at the ripe age of 27, after my daughter was two years old. As I wobbled ahead, absolutely petrified that I might fall off any second, she followed me resolutely on her tricycle, shouting 'Wait for me!'.  

The reason I had left it so late to learn cycling is because my childhood and adolescence was spent in tightly packed big city streets. Children who grow up in smaller towns and for whom cycling is a natural activity from age five upwards, are lucky indeed. But living in the big city need not be a deterrent for learning to ride a bike. In fact,  office commuters are being urged to bike to work by city governments across Britain.

So what does cycling really do for our health?

Cycling halves our risk of getting coronary disease and protects us against strokes, reduces weight, cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Besides, it helps to increase self esteem and well-being - the sheer pleasure of cycling in the open air reinforces a sense of personal freedom. Maintaining fitness levels comes easily with cycling.  If you are looking to getting half an hour of moderate exercise 5 days a week, then cycling and walking are effective forms of aerobic exercise.  In fact cycling 4 miles daily reduces the risk of coronary heart diseases by 50%. And if your target is weight loss,  cycling for half an hour burns around 150 calories.

There's plenty of reasons to ride your bike to work or school or other commitments. And don't let the fear of risks associated with biking put you off. There are ways around everything. And if you become an accomplished cyclist, you might just learn to dive and swoop and swerve around things the way some really graceful riders do.

Look again at that wonder machine with two wheels.

Isn't is just perfect for your own ride to fresh vistas?

If massage is so good for humans, can any one dispute its huge significance for cats, those supremely sensuous creatures? Incurable cat lover that I am, I could not resist sharing this charming recipe for getting a cat on your side by giving him a gentle massage.

Well, I've had plenty of opportunity to try this particular technique. Even some pretty hard-bitten felines in my friend's home melted under the massage-for-free approach. As for my own cats, they are always game for a quick one.

What about you? Feel like trying out your massage skills on Thomas here?

Even a quick massage of his neck and shoulders, or a gentle rubbing of his forehead, scalp and temples was a great pick-me-up for my husband in the early days of our marriage. His response to massage of any kind was so gratifying that I took the trouble to learn some basic massage techniques, and when we had more time at our disposal, would work on his back, arms and hands with moderate success. Needless to say, this form of touch helped us to feel very close, and took away some of the sting of the arguments we had plenty of, in the first year we were married.

Massage is not only great between lovers or partners, but has always occupied an important place in healing and restoring the human body. The benefits of massage undoubtedly have a lot to do with circulation - the massage of soft tissue improves the flow of blood and the supply of oxygen to each cell of the massaged area. How massage invigorates our bodies can be understood and applied at any stage, not just when we are feeling low or depleted.

However, at such times massage can work to even better effect. The basic techniques of Swedish massage can be learnt by most of us, and the great part is that recipes for making oils to be used in Swedish massage are also available online.

What has made the application of massage more exciting in recent times is the use of  different techniques such as Thai massage and Native American massage using basalt stones that have been heated and cooled. With so much variety, there is a better chance of finding a particular kind of massage that suits you and helps you re-balance.

However, what leads many people to massage is undoubtedly the desire to shed some weight, since many forms of massage, specially Indian Ayurvedic massage, promise the streamlining of the body with the help of massage done with medicinal oils.   

Does massage really help to lose weight? It would appear it helps to squeeze fat cells and redistribute it under the skin, leading to a disappearance of 'dimples'. By toning the soft tissue, and improving circulation, it is also imparting some of the benefits of exercise.

If this aspect of massage really appeals to you, and you are interested in learning more about Ayurvedic massage oils and techniques, you might consider a course that makes you understand the principles on which Ayurvedic massage is based and how it helps to balance the body's energies.

Perhaps what makes massage so attractive among different therapies for well-being is that it centers on touch - so important for us humans and often difficult to find because it is loaded with so much baggage. All of us need to touch, and be touched.

Is it really surprising that the humongous work by which the French writer Marcel Proust is most remembered, 'Remembrance of Things Past', (now called In Search of Lost Time) begins with a memory triggered by an olfactory stimulus? What begins with the nose goes on to seven volumes, and led to Proust being called the 'greatest novelist of the 20th century' by Graham Greene.

To most of us, the frangrance associated with a particular memory brings much of the original sensation come flooding back, whether it's grandmother's pecan pie we are re-experiencing, or the cologne worn by our first crush in high school. There are other, more universal scents that can be enjoyed by nearly everybody, like the smell of parched earth after a shower, or buttered popcorn. Its because the scent of things is so important in our experience of reality that we lose our enjoyment of food when we have a bad cold that temporarily takes away our sense of smell. Food doesn't taste the same when it doesn't smell the same. 

Aromatherapy relies on just this powerful connection between our brain and the olfactory nerve hidden in our noses. Using 40 essential oils derived from vegetables, fruits, flowers and other organic sources, this method of healing helps to balance feelings, restore a sense of well-being, and strengthen the body's immune system.

How aromatherapy works to nurture and revive the spirit, and bring us to a state of emotional well-being has been the subject of study, but more than research or analysis, it can be best understood by direct experience.

After all, even if you have never tried aromatherapy before, you will probably vouch for the wonderful feeling of a warm bath in which you soaked for close to an hour in wonderful smelling bath salts. In fact, a lot of aromatherapy is through tactile applications of healing 'essential oils' in the medium of 'carrier oils' directly on the skin. While the pure aromas of essential oils are also inhaled through nebulizers, or diffused in a room over a flame, or smelt through handkerchiefs, the touch of oil on skin has its own potency.

Find out more about how to make aromatherapy work for you and what oils to buy for your own route to relaxation and relief from stress.

In fact, after discovering the benefits of aromatherapy, you may just develop a little more respect for all the scents that surround you - and the moods they seem to bring on.