Yoga IS Snake Oil!

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.

1. 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!

2. 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.

3. 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!

4. 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!

5. 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.

6. Yoga is Movement Magic!  In a world where much sitting happens, Yoga is a gift of movement, flexibility, and balance.

7. 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'

De-Mystifying Detox Diets

Information on detox diets, detoxing the body, and all the lingo and hoop-la around this issue tends to be confusing as well as misconstrued; depending on who is sharing the information. But seriously, is that not the case with anything? Everything?

The biggest confusion, in my eyes, lies in the modern medicine vs. traditional - holistic healing's views around detoxing.

Teaching people the power of supporting their body's detox process is teaching them to take their healing into their own hands; creating an independence from the health care industry. Which please, do not be misled. Our country predominantly has a disease care system. It is a system that flourishes if your disease symptoms are only suppressed not healed. This means you are a patient, a customer, in this system for life; dependent on the health care professionals and their prescription drugs.

Understanding detox efforts in healing requires a quick look at human biology. Our bodies are built for detoxing. We are detoxing every minute of every day. Your liver is the main organ of detox; constantly filtering your blood and eliminating the "toxins" via the colon. Your colon, obviously, is an organ of detox as it eliminates solid wastes and the products of metabolic breakdown (liver) from the body. Your kidneys keep themselves busy filtering the blood and eliminating waste products down through the ureters, into your bladder, and out through the urethra.

Your lungs eliminate waste, toxins, through your breath. Your skin eliminates waste through the process of sweating. Your lymphatic system moves fluids around your body and helps to eliminate waste, toxins, as well.

Gratefully borrowed from: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/273241902367567074/

So what does "detox dieting" do for all these bodily processes?

The medical profession, our health care system, debunks detox diets from many angles and for many reasons. For example: Detox is a term used by medical personnel to label the process of cleansing drugs or alcohol from a person's system that has been imbibing in excess and/or for long periods of time. For western medicine trained professional to think about detox in different terms means stepping into a realm they were not trained in, natural healing, and thinking from a space that most western medical training scoffs at and actually teaches practitioners is quackery. This is not the important thing here; so let us not focus on it any longer. (For a little history lesson, scroll down to "suppression and decline:" http://www.mygenerationsclinic.com/about-naturopathic-medicine.htm. Another history lesson: http://www.healingmountainpublishing.com/articles/NPmedicine.html )

Instead, lets us focus on what natural, holistic detox is! It is simply assisting and supporting your body in what it does every minute of everyday: detoxes itself and heals itself. When a natural healer (Naturopathic Physician, Herbalist, Holistic Nutrition Professional, etc.) prescribes a detox plan, the detox foods and herbs are simply to nourish and support the organs that do the detox work in the body. 

The misconception lies in that people think these herbs and foods are doing something detox special... like scrubbing dirt from the body. These foods and herbs are not a dust buster, vacuum cleaner, or scrubbing bubbles of any type. They are simply foods (herbs are whole foods too!) that are high in nutrients that build cellular health and support healthy body organs. If your body organs are well nourished from whole food eating; they do their jobs better. This is truly simple nutritional physiology. The body is beautiful; poetry in motion in every way.

Now, I will admit, any opportunity some people and corporations have to market and profit from an idea, they will. If there are profits to be made, someone(s) will create scams to go along with it. This happens with everything around health. Let me give you several examples of the recent over marketing of reasonably healthy concepts but the concepts get taken to an extreme or used out of context for someone's profit:

• kale being made into every marketable food possible. I am not against kale chips but seriously... they are now the national health food?
• coconut in everything... we need to eat it, drink it in milk and water form, slather it on our bodies, etc.
• blueberries as the amazing superfood... do NOT go a day without eating them or your health will be in jeopardy.
• quinoa... we just cannot survive, nutritionally speaking without it. What did we do for 100s of years without this powerhouse of food from the Andes Mountains?
• any food, spice, or herb that is shown to up the metabolic rate and it is quickly slapped into capsule forms and sold as the latest "get skinny quickly" scheme.

My point? Plenty of health claims out there for all sorts of supposed healing products.

The wise thing to do is use your common sense in these situations. Products, especially expensive and exclusive products, are not needed!

Human beings have been supporting and assisting their organs of detox from time beginning. The natural cycles of life support this detox action: wild leeks and dandelion greens in the spring open our winter congested digestive tract and get things moving. The liver is stimulated more than it has been all winter, from these traditional spring foods, and aids in moving shit out of the body, literally and figuratively! Traditionally what did people do in the spring? Why they reveled in the wild leeks and dandelion greens, waiting anxiously and happily for their arrival in the spring. Time to dig wild leeks, time to gather dandelion greens and guess what... you are naturally, with the cycles of life, supporting your organs of detox.

Next in the seasonal flow of plants comes stinging nettles; another fine green plant that supports the body's natural detox systems and contributes amazing nutritional support to each and every body cell.

We can follow the seasonal appearance and growth of plants all growing season to discover the very plants people have traditionally used for supporting their organs of detox. In the winter, non-growing seasons, people prepared for this. Roots, barks, leaves, and berries of medicinal plants were gathered and dried for the long winter months. These foods were used when needed to support detox: when ill health symptoms arise or true microbial sicknesses.

Have you ever been constipated for 3 or 4 days in a row? How about a week or more? Remember how you felt? The colon is an organ of detox. Supporting detox (in just one example) is supporting colon health. Who wouldn't want this? Sure beats chronic constipation and the yucky, whole body feelings of ill health that result. Use this "constipated" thought process for all your pathways of detox: sweating, urinating, exhaling respiratory waste, lymphatic movement, and bile production and release into the small intestine. All of these detox mechanisms work more smoothly and efficiently when we support whole body detox.

Detox is not a hoax. Your body is doing it in every second of your life! How it is presented, promoted, and sold for profit may be what can get a bit shaky. Your body has always detoxed and will continue to do so until your life force energy is finished in your physical body. That is life and death here on this planet.

I am, right now whipping up a pot of nettle, peppermint, and rosemary tea. All of these herbs support circulation, cell nourishment, and ultimately detoxification. Simple 'lil pot 'O tea!  

Cream of Spinach Soup:

This was an easy pot of soup to whip up last eve. Then I let it sit in the refrigerator for the next day's dinner; all the flavors meld together better this way.  All veggies came from the Kent Family Farm and the milk is from local, loved, and well cared for goats.

1. Saute' a medium purple onion.
2. Add a medium potato and carrot or two to this saute'. Cook them just long enough to slightly soften but still have some crispness. They will cook a bit more when you re-heat the soup the next day so you do not want to create mushy veggies.
3. Clean up spinach and steam in a tiny bit of water. I had about a pound of fresh, local spinach  and it only takes a few minutes to steam it gently.
4. Put spinach and 2 1/2 to 3 cups milk into your blender.
5. Add a clove or two of garlic.
6. Blend well and pour back into the steam pot. Add the saute' veggies.
7. Add any herbs you like the taste of (rosemary, parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, curry mix, etc.) or not!
8. Voila' a pot of soup that is loaded with whole foods for detoxing!

A 100% whole food diet IS a detox diet.

You are always supporting your organs of detox, your each and every body cell, when you eat 100% nourishing whole foods. 

It really is that easy!  

BUT...If you have lived less than a whole food diet...   

Join me for my Liver-Colon Detox Nourishment online class 

    We start our liver healing journey with all new class materials June 1st, 2016. 

Class materials are yours for life.

REGISTER HERE: 

Healing Begins At Home

We are all healers. Healing energy is a natural part of every one of us. Cut your finger; it heals without intervention. Healing is biologically innate in living beings.

Some people are deeply in tune with this healing energy and can act to support others on their healing journey. 

When I say healing begins at home, this statement is something I mean from two perspectives. The perspective show cased above; that the body is a healing organism. Healing just happens in your body, your physical home. Also, healing begins in your home; the structure, building, your physical body dwells in. The space where your habits were born and continue to be nurtured in.

We are 100% capable of organizing our lives to create healing. The choices we make in our lives: what we eat and how we interact in the world all start at home. We learned our lifestyle habits from watching, interacting with, and repeating the lifestyle habits we observed family members engaging in . We can alter our lifestyle habits depending on the healing capacity of the way we live our daily lives. Is this habit best for my wellness?

Most people, when asked and given time to contemplate the question, can tell you exactly why they have the disease symptoms they have. Some people can get to the heart of the matter faster and more efficiently than others; they can tell you the emotional, spiritual, and the physical reasons they are wrestling with ill health and disease.

Bringing this question to people's awareness is the beginning of healing. When we can shine the light on why the disease symptoms are present in our physical health, we can start to address the underlying issues and set the healing energy back into action. 

Find a quiet spot. Sit. Ground yourself. Breathe deeply, focusing on the breath for several minutes. Ask yourself: "why do I have these ill-health symptoms." Continue to breathe deeply for several more minutes. Allow the answer to arise; maybe right now, maybe tomorrow or next week.

My 2015 healing wish for you: Discovery of personal blocks to healing and putting healing action to work in your life.

Namaste.

Creating Inner SunShine!

Sunshine is a body, mind, and soul soothing ray of warmth. We smile more and laugh more when the sun shines. The warm sun on our skin just feels good. The bright light entering our eyes triggers good feelings.

The sun's rays create physiological responses in our bodies. One does not need the scientific reasons behind this. Common sense tells us the sun is just good. Plants starved of sunlight wither and die. Animals locked away from the sun wither and die. The logical conclusion is that sun is good for hum-animal!

Sun on your skin is what produces vitamin D (remember that Vit D is a hormone not a vitamin). Sun light to your eyes regulates many hormonal processes in the human body: serotonin, melatonin, endorphins of all sorts, regulate the cycles of night and day (this is apparent in the cycling of a female's reproductive functions), and so many other hormonal functions necessary for life on this Earth. Worshipping the sun is a fine thing to do. Without the sun life would not exist.

Here I sit in Northern NY State. I have to say it has been a gloomy late fall and early winter. I can count the sunny days in the last month on about 1 hand (with fingers left over!). Clouds, I have seen many clouds these past 4 weeks. 

Now today was sunny.  Wow, what a gift to body, mind, and soul. I hope everyone took advantage and soaked up and soaked in a bit of sunshine; even 10 minutes outside in the deliciously cold and yummy sunshine.

What is a person to do when we have days and days, weeks and weeks of very little sunshine? My first answer would be the obvious: get out of here.  Head south, friend, head south!  For most of us that is not a possibility. The trick is to learn how to create inner sunshine; how to raise our feel good hormones despite the lack of obvious sunshine in our days and life.

When my youngest son was 8 years old, his wise 'lil self said these words to me:  

"When you lift the corner of the clouds, the sun is always shining."  Eli 

I was taken aback by his wisdom. He was speaking more of human sadness but the words hold true here...

1. Get outside and get as much natural light as you can, every single day in every season. Even if it is cloudy, the sun is still there working magic with your hormones and health. Think about it... a solar panel still makes electricity on a cloudy day and a sun flower still follows the sun on a cloudy day. Get out there and create your own electricity (life force energy) with the sun's rays... even when they are behind a cloud. Be a sun flower and follow the sun's rays. Lift the corner of that cloud in your little world, metaphorically speaking, and get some natural light.
2. You will get fresh air too. Again, this is life force enhancing. Get outside; you will be glad you did. Ditch the stationary bikes and XC Ski machines in the winter. Put on some Yak Traks, or similar boot sole (soul) enhancement, and go say hello to Old Man Winter. 
3. 100% Whole food diet. Seriously, do I need to say more about this?
4. Pets: Having a pet to love and care for (and love you right back) is a huge creator of inner sunshine. Don't believe me? Try it. But only if you genuinely want to pour some love into a friend and have it come back to you 10 fold.
5. Plants: Yes, get a plant and talk to it. Water it. Having a green plant growing in your home is something that you can love and care for. Grow an indoor herb garden that you can take little bites of to improve your mood: peppermint, rosemary, parsley, sage, lavender, oregano, basil... just have a window handy that gets plenty of light (even if the sun is not shining).
6. Whole Health Lifestyle Choices. Another area I rant on about... Is anyone listening to me?
7. Yoga... Yes, I love Yoga and all it has invited into my life: body, mind, & spirit healing.
8. Acupuncture: I have extolled the virtues of acupuncture many, many, many times and I will again, over and over. Want a happy sunshine lift? Go get acupuncture.
9. Massage: Massage is a great way to increase your endorphins.  It is sunshine rubbing your muscles, energy transfer from another human being who is a storehouse of solar energy. Think about it: all of the food we eat is stored solar energy. A human is stored solar energy. 
10. Reiki or any other kind of healing energy work that speaks to you and your personal needs. Just do it; you will feel lighter, brighter, sunnier, and happier. Learn to do self-Reiki. 
11. Have FUN.  Laughter and fun ups the feel good hormones.
12. Volunteer and make someone else's day, or life, better - brighter - sunnier.

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/

http://www.paulayoumellrn.com/online-classes-1/

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/

• Whole Health Lifestyle Choices

• Whole Food Eating

• Movement Magic

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.