Yoga IS Snake Oil!
Snake Oil, urbandictionary.com, comes from the 19th-century American practice of selling cure-all elixirs in traveling medicine shows. Snake oil salesmen would falsely claim that the potions would cure any ailment.
Snake oil, wikipedia.com, is an expression that originally referred to unproven medicine.
I made this bold statement, the blog post title, with a big chuckle and a twinkle in my eye. Snake oil is such a fun pairing of words!
My making the statement that Yoga is snake oil is only in fun as Yoga IS now being recognized for the amazing healing modality; the healing tool that it is. India has been aware of and using Yoga as a healing tool for somewhere between five and ten thousand years. Yoga has a very long history of healing body, mind, and spirit!
Yoga IS My Drug Of Choice For EVERYTHING.
Snake Oil, urbandictionary.com, comes from the 19th-century American practice of selling cure-all elixirs in traveling medicine shows. Snake oil salesmen would falsely claim that the potions would cure any ailment.
Snake oil, wikipedia.com, is an expression that originally referred to unproven medicine.
I made this bold statement, the blog post title, with a big chuckle and a twinkle in my eye. Snake oil is such a fun pairing of words!
My making the statement that Yoga is snake oil is only in fun as Yoga IS now being recognized for the amazing healing modality; the healing tool that it is. India has been aware of and using Yoga as a healing tool for somewhere between five and ten thousand years. Yoga has a very long history of healing body, mind, and spirit!
I started my yoga practice over 25 years ago. I was not looking for healing; I was looking for change. I had been lifting weights and running for too many years. I was bored of the same old, same old. I wanted something new, something challenging to mind and body. Little did I know I would be challenging my spirit as well!
Yoga builds strength in body, mind, and soul. Yoga is a great way to keep the body physically toned, flexible, and fit. While all of this physical transformation is going on, seeds for deep inner transformation are being planted. The very act of deep breathing through and with your body movements creates a gentle binding of body, mind, and spirit. This creation of the whole is the healing transformation.
My first Yoga pose book. I borrowed it from the Potsdam Library, 17 years ago. This is my library copy; an Amazon purchase of some library's throw away book.
Another book I have used for years to share healing Yoga poses series with clients is:
This book has healing Yoga sequences for every ill health issue you can imagine. There is a lot of prop use. I do the poses as close to the pictures as possible.
A new Yoga book I picked up in the last year has become another favorite of mine:
Tera's pose series are simple and easy to incorporate into a busy life.
Yoga's Effects:
Yoga is a valuable tool to place (and actively use every day) in your holistic toolbox for healing body, mind, and soul.
I will give you 7 simple reasons that yoga IS what you have been looking for, a tool to take you to the next level on your personal path of healing.
Your body will respond physically to the beauty of yoga. Your muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments will become longer, stronger, and physically fit. Stick with yoga; you will see the results in your mirror!
You will intuitively move towards healthier choices in your life. Around food, this is a healing event! Your food choices will become healthier, whole foods. Your body will respond by balancing your weight into a healthy space for you.
Your mind will become calm. The breath awareness, on the mat yoga poses, will follow you off the mat. A calm, centered, grounded life is the benefit. Bonus: you will sleep better and move through your day in bliss!
Your body will be in the flow of life. Your Chi life force energy flows, unimpeded, when you regularly practice yoga. This healing energy, flowing freely through your body, helps to heal ill health symptoms. Your body heals!
Better circulation of blood (not just Chi life force!). This means heightened nourishment of your body’s cells and more efficient removal of cellular waste. Every organ will function better as your cells glow with vibrant health. Results: higher level of thoughts, your intelligence will shine, intuition flows, creativity sparks, and your spirit soars.
Yoga is Movement Magic! In a world where much sitting happens, Yoga is a gift of movement, flexibility, and balance.
Yoga creates inner peace. ☮️ It’s the breath thing and vagus nerve toning. Your vagus nerve is the seat of Chakras & kundalini energy flow. Patience & peacefulness relaxes body-mind-spirit and aids your healing.
When we are stressed, even our DNA gets tight. Peaceful presence relaxes DNA & the healing energy of your being can easily buzz up & down the DNA strands repairing & healing. Healing happens when you sleep 🛌 because you are relaxed. Yoga supports you living in relaxed peace mode. Yoga supports your DNA healing 24-7. 🧬🧘🏽♀️❤️🩹🧘🏻♀️💕🧘♀️🧬
Truly, I could go on and on about the benefits of yoga. My purpose here is to somewhat quickly entice you to engage in a daily yoga practice; even 10 to 15 minutes a day. With a regular yoga practice, the benefits become obvious and you will yearn for more.
Yoga IS an answer to your mind, body, and soul’s healing prayers! Your personal healing snake oil!
Namaste'
Bye Bye Back Pain (cont.)
Last week I wrote a post about kissing back pain goodbye. I was not finished when I finished! I have a few more thoughts and suggestions to offer.
Suggestions #2 and #4 I mentioned previously and I am re-writing; reminding you again of their healing virtues.
1. Stop doing whatever activity is disturbing your back health. This suggestion is sometimes easier said than done. For example, vacuum cleaning can be rough on the low back. Paying attention to body dynamics and how you actually push the vacuum cleaner (whole body push vs. pushing by bending from the waist, waist pushing creates and exacerbates the low back problem.)
2. Acupuncture helps to relieve the inflammation allowing the body to go back into alignment.
3. Yoga is an amazing whole body wellness tool and creates a good "aahhhh" feeling in the back. http://www.yoga-loft.org/ Yoga builds core strength: strength in both your abdominal and back muscles. This strength of core is a gift to your spinal health. Strong muscles support the spine and your whole body has better posture and carries you through life like a dance.
4. Chiropractic care helps to put the body back into alignment. Here in Potsdam, NY we have BodyWorks Chiropractic Care: http://www.potsdambodyworks.com/ Dr. Roy and his wife have a beautiful healing practice.
5. Ma-Roller: The MA Roller is a self-massage tool that gently stretches the spine and deeply massages the anti-gravity paraspinal muscles, like very deep-tissue work.
This tool helps to relieve pressure points and get the kinks out.
How to use the Ma Roller is explained quite well on the website link above.
I have one, I use it, and I love it.
6. Lumbar Extender: This little gem is great for returning the natural curve of the lower back relieving pain and inflammation created from incorrect posture (the low back bulging out instead of curving inward) and poor sitting habits.
The Lumbar Extender is used to help relieve chronic back pain, correct postural imbalances, restore the natural curvature of the back, and improve flexibility in shoulder and back muscles.
I have recommended this "back bender" many times over the years. It has helped relieve disk problems and avoid disk surgery.
Me, draped over my back soothing device.
I confess, I receive zero kickbacks for suggesting these products. You can find them on eBay and Amazon, new and used. Do not buy the knock off version of the Lumbar Extender called the Back Magic. The story is that the less expensive product is made with lower quality materials that have been known to break soon after purchase.
I have had the lumbar extender for 15 years; no damage, wear, or tear!
Cheers to a healthier back in 2015
Join the School of Self Healing to learn more health enhancing skills To place in your own medicine bag & use in your daily life and quest for vibrant health!
Click image above or one of the links below to learn more information and get Self-Healing today!
http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/buy-a-home-study-course-begin-the-self-healing-fun/
http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/school-of-selfhealing-welcome-page/
Kissing Low Back Pain Goodbye
Movement is essential to treat, heal, and prevent low back pain. I want to introduce you to my friend, Lisa Huck. Lisa is a Functional Movement Fitness expert, she lives in LA, California. Lisa's YouTube video explains the anatomy of the low back and essential information about movement and low back pain.
Here is an article from Mercola.com that talks about back pain, movement, and exercise: http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2014/01/31/back-pain-exercise.aspx. If the article seems blank, be not fooled, scroll down and it is there! It is the 2nd video in the article. Lisa huck is a gifted functional movement exercise therapist in California.
This is the above mentioned video. The first 14 minutes gives amazing anatomy & physiology healthy and pained back issues. Go directly to minute #14 and you will see the simple, easy to do, and takes maybe 4 minutes low back relief exercises. They work!
Posture:
Good posture is essential for ridding and preventing back pain. Most people's body alignment, posture, is way off course. Pay attention when you sit and stand. Does your body feel comfortable, natural, bones stacked above bones where they are meant to be.
Some of you may be saying, "What? How am I supposed to know where my bones are supposed to be stacked? I am not an anatomy expert."
To which I will reply, "All wisdom about your body is inherent within you. We have ignored this wisdom for so long that we no longer can find the information, readily, in our heads. We need to look deep into our heart and spirit and the information is there."
Call it up - this wisdom, bring it back into your life. It will help you to heal in so many ways.
When you sit:
Lift your hips up slightly so that your hips are higher than your thighs. This will create a downward slant to your thighs (if you put a wooden dowel on your thighs it would slowly roll down your thighs and off your knees).
Chin up
Lift you heart towards the sky. This simple positional change will pull up your whole body carriage (your skeletal structure) into proper alignment.
Check out the seat in your car. Does the back of the seat (where your butt sits) incline or decline? 99% (my guestimate) of car seats have a decline here. Your butt sinks down in and makes the slant of your thighs run opposite to proper posture alignment.
Easy fix here: put a towel roll in this dent in the seat space so your butt is lifted up higher than your thighs. This single action, on your part, will do wonders for your back on the daily drives.
Spend much time sitting at work? Lift your butt up on this chair as well. (Get up and move every 30 minutes or so. Moving the body helps prevent back pain from sitting, sitting, sitting all day.)
Standing:
Again, lift your chin and lift your heart towards the sky. Feel how your whole spinal column moves into correct alignment, how your whole skeletal alignment changes for the better?
Heels: your heels function best when just slightly lower than the rest of your feet. (Yes, ladies who wear high heels, this does not bode well for the fashion statement!) This is why Anne Kalsø designed the Kalso Earth shoe:
Anne Kalsø 's passion for yoga led her to study in Switzerland and eventually in Santos, Brazil. It was there, in 1957, that she observed the excellent posture of indigenous Brazilians, and the impressions left by their bare footprints as they walked through beach sand. She observed that the footprints laid were deeper in the heels than in the toes. This natural body position resonated with the thoughtful Kalsø. It echoed a formative yoga pose she knew well – Tadasana (the 'Mountain' pose).
As she herself emulated the pose of the native Brazilians, she noticed how her own posture improved, and how her breathing passages opened. She was inspired.
From: http://www.earthbrands.com/kalsoearthshoe/kalso-the-kalso-story
Lifestyle: This is where I say what I always say. No, do not click the x and close me out... listen people, I am trying to help, support, and love you! : )
Your lifestyle is not independent of your aches and pains, health challenges, disease symptoms, and illnesses. If your body is not nourished well with whole foods, your cellular health suffers, you will feel pain eventually from weakened body systems. A wellness lifestyle makes all the difference!
Making changes in your life, choosing whole health lifestyle choices, heals the body. Check out the free health info pages on my web site. http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/free-health-info/
Get moving & eating whole foods, get rid of back pain! Tell me your back pain healing story in the comments section. Do you use chiropractic care? Acupuncture? Massage?
Bye Bye Back Pain (cont.): this is the next part of Kissing Back Pain Goodbye
PS Check out my YouTube video on defining holistic health & healing.
Healing the Collective Mind, Body, & Soul!
Human… Heal thyself!
Healing literally means to make, return yourself, to whole–whole in mind, body, and spirit.
Healing is natural
I write this to remind everyone of their own innate ability to heal. Healing is the norm. If you cut your finger, it heals without intervention. Every part of your body is capable of healing if it is given what it needs to heal and thrive. This is a Vitalist philosophy of healing: healing comes through nature. You are nature; therefore, healing comes from within you and through you.
The responsibility to care for our bodies, to ensure lifelong health, prevent disease, and heal is ours. Healing is not about what you are giving up; it is not about deprivation. It IS about what you are inviting into your life: the choices, changes, and additions that will open doors to healing, health, and happiness in ways you may never have imagined or experienced.
Healing your own body is a supreme act of self-responsibility. It means taking control of aspects of your life that have often been left in the hands of the modern medical professional. “You are in the driver seat, Doc. I will do whatever you say.”
Self-responsibility would change the above statement to, “Thanks for being here to support me, Doc. This is how I plan to handle this health crisis.”
“If you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live?” Unknown
Healing is a simple equation:
Remove the cause(s) of your health issue + add in healing choices = healing, returning to whole!
10 steps to start on your self-healing path:
- Remove the causes of your disease. If you are diabetic, this means removing sugar, in all its forms, from your diet. Lung disease? Stop smoking or exposing your body to the toxins creating the lung challenges. Find a healer who can help you with the task of discovering the causes of your health challenges.
- Add in whole foods. Whole foods heal the body by feeding your body cells with nutrients. Refined, factory made foods deplete the body of nutrients. You want to nourish the body, not deplete it.
- Add in herbs that heal the health challenges you are facing. Every organ system has herbs specific for healing that system. Herbs are whole foods. Herbs feed your body cells.
- Movement. Movement, daily exercise, increases circulation to every body cell. This brings more oxygen and more nutrients to each and every body cell. This IS healing! I call this Movement Magic! Increased circulation also removes the waste products, toxins, from each and every body cell. Again, this is healing!
- Movement Outside! Engaging in your daily movement outside has the added benefit of fresh air and natural light. Fresh air and natural light are amazing healing tools for every body cell. Both help your body to produce the hormones that balance the nervous system and create happy, feel good emotions. Feeling happy and emotionally balanced sends ripple effects of healing throughout your body to every cell.
“Just lift the corner of the clouds and the sun is always shining.” Eli Schechter
- Sleep. When we get to bed, to sleep, before 10 p.m. each night, our bodies work in rhythm with the earth’s circadian rhythm. This is poetry in motion; magic healing energy to your every body cell.
- Get plenty of juiciness in your life! Hydration is a must for keeping body cells working at their optimum levels. The internal structures, organelles, of each and every body cell need proper hydration to do their jobs. If your cellular structures are doing their jobs, your whole body is functioning at optimum performance. Your cells are your building blocks! Get your juiciness from pure water, herbal teas, and fresh produce every day.
- Juiciness in your emotional and spiritual life is also essential for health and healing. When we connect with people we love, who love us, when we have support in our lives, have people to tell “our stories” to, and have people we listen to as they tell their stories, we produce oxytocin. This is the feel good hormone, the hormone of love. Oxytocin is also the antagonist of adrenaline, the stress hormone. Oxytocin helps us to relax, release stress, feel love, and heal mind, body, and soul. Find some juicy friends in your life.
- Kindness. Create and live from a space of a healthy attitude toward yourself, all others on this planet, and life in general. Practice a kind attitude towards all, starting with you. Self-care, and its ripple effects for your health and how you perceive and interact with the world, cannot be emphasized enough.
- Energy Healing. Energy healing helps us to release blockages in our body’s internal energy system, the chakras and meridians. When life force energy flows freely to every body cell, this is healing energy. Find a form of energy healing that works for you and use it regularly to shift the healing, life force energy in your body. Energy healing to try includes acupuncture, acupressure, reiki, yoga, Tai chi, Qi gong, Tae kwon do, prayer, meditation, massage… to name but a few.
Taking one step at a time can create huge changes in your health, happiness, and vibrant longevity. Step up to your plate of health and healing today. Ask a holistic health coach for support on your healing path. This one action could bring some juiciness, oxytocin, into your self-healing equation.
See my bonus pages for more tips on incorporating healing changes into your juicy life!
Every person who self-heals adds one more healed being to the collective mind, body, and soul. These actions, in your personal life, make the world a better place for every living being.
Get healing and, please, tell me your story!
My Happy, Juicy, Life Announcement:
My next book... Early Morning Coffee & Donuts will be out before the end of this year, 2014. OK, so my fingers are crossed that all goes as planned with the publisher!
Are you chuckling yet? A book about coffee and donuts from Paula, seriously? Maybe, just maybe, it is more than you think it is.... read what it IS about here: http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/book-2/
Cheers of good health to you in mind, body, and soul!
Life Force Energy, Healing The Collective Soul
Photo and inspiring words compliments of Ali Hotmer of www.Twin Tree Healing.com, West Chester, PA
Life force energy flows through us. Life force energy flows through all living things.
When we expose our self to life force energy (it is all around us, we breathe in life force energy) our mind, body, and spirit (spirit is life force energy) become more vibrant.
As I was walking through my wood I had thoughts; thoughts I felt compelled to write about and share. A few weeks ago I wrote about the healing powers of the great white pine. This healing power of being in the woods, surrounded by trees and plants, I will expand upon.
I really do hug trees!
The woods are alive and vibrant with life force energy. This energy radiates from every living thing. When we walk in a forest, the emanating energy of one plant or tree overlaps the emanating energy of all the other plants and trees around it.
When you walk in the woods, you are literally bathing your mind, body, and spirit in the life force energy of the woodland plants and trees. This is powerful medicine, powerful healing energy.
This healing energy has the strength to bring peace and serenity to you, the strength to heal from deep inside your being.
To your natural, healing medicine bag I recommend you add a daily walk in the woods (even 5 minutes) and bathe yourself in the life force energy, the collective soul of the world.
Poster available through United Plant Savers
Suggestions to enhance the flow of your life force energy:
- walk in the woods,
- just get outside and walk,
- acupuncture,
- reiki,
- massage, (a new massage therapist in town, Adrea Elizabeth, is looking to grow her clientele)
- yoga, (more yoga in the Canton - Potsdam, NY area),
- any energy healing!
- AND, how about trying this: (You will be glad you did!).
Naturally Simple Ways to Weigh LESS...
Naturally Simple Ways to Weigh Less
and Live More Every Day of your life!
This is all about re-balancing your body, mind, and spirit to create a vibrantly healthy you... inside and out. So much more than the number on the "scales!"
- Feed your soul with primary food. Friends and family, physical activity, spirituality and a satisfying career feed us. Lack of primary food creates over-reliance on secondary, edible food.
- Drink water. Most people are chronically dehydrated. We often mistake thirst for hunger. If you feel hungry between meals, drink a glass of water before giving into cravings. Limit liquid calories from soda, juice, sports drinks and “enhanced” waters. Stick with nature made!
- Eat a plant-rich diet. Plant foods are typically lower in calories and higher in fiber than meat, dairy and processed foods, while providing loads of essential nutrients. Purchase your animal products from farmers who raise the food in a natural manner; healthy and naturally balanced foods make for a healthy, naturally balanced human. Make certain you do get enough fat and protein in your daily diet to satisfy hunger, appetite, and nutritional needs for YOU. Each of our needs is different!
- Chew your food well. Digestion begins in the mouth. By thoroughly chewing your food, your body will better assimilate nutrients; you will also slow down your eating. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that it is full. By slowing your eating, you’ll feel full, satisfied, and better nourished on less food. More nutrients in each cell mean a healthier body!
- Eat real food; avoid processed, packaged foods. Avoid products with high-fructose corn syrup or a long list of unpronounceable ingredients. (Reduce or eliminate refined sugars from your diet; glucose, fructose, any “oses”.) Packaged and convenience foods tend to be highly processed, lacking the nutrients your body needs, and are often loaded with empty calories. Avoid artificial sweeteners. Avoid refined sweeteners, even stevia products.
If you have attended my workshops or been supported by me as a client: Remember the cellular health information from the Whole Food slide show? Feed your cells well! Need to experience this workshop? Join me and the Local Living Venture on Thursday, September 25th for the start of the Whole Health and Healing Academy!
A few more tips for balancing mind, body, and soul weight.
- Eat raw foods: raw fruits & veggies, raw nuts and seeds, raw nut & seed butters. Raw foods are rich in nutrients that are not altered by the heat of cooking and provide natural enzymes needed in the body for many processes including digestion.
- Eating enough healthy fats and protein to satisfy your appetite and your body’s nutritional needs: choose naturally raised animal products for protein and fat and the omega 3's found in naturally raised meat, eggs and dairy products, wild salmon, avocados, walnuts, raw nuts and seeds.
- Eat breakfast. Skipping meals causes your blood sugar levels to peak and dip, affecting your energy and moods. It can also cause overeating later on because you’re so hungry. With this said, listen to your own body and what you know works for you. Some people do much better without breakfast and have no problems with the rebound overeating later in the day. Be conscious of you and your needs. I can personally admit I am not a breakfast eater. I get hungry by 11 AM or so. I listen and follow my body's requests for food.
- Eat mindfully. Turn off the TV. Get away from the computer. Sit down and savor the food you are eating with no distractions. Eat from a space of unconditional self-love!
- Get moving. Do any type of physical activity every day. Find movement or exercise you enjoy.
- Get outside. Your body needs fresh air and natural light. You will create life long health benefits!
- Sleep, rest and relax. Breath work creates relaxation, slow down & breathe deeply. Ask me for my educational handout on breath work. When you are sleep-deprived or stressed, your body will crave energy, causing cravings for sugary snacks and caffeine as an energy boost.
- Schedule fun time. Boredom and stress can lead to overeating. Make sure to take time to laugh, play and participate in activities that bring you joy.
- Find a mindfulness practice and use it every day. (Yoga, Tai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Meditation, Prayer...)
PS Just a reminder about the Whole Health & Healing Academy that starts Thursday, September 25th. Join us to create vibrant health in your life!