The gut and the brain- so interconnected. Check this out:

http://neurosciencestuff.tumblr.com/post/38271759345/gut-instincts-the-secrets-of-your-second-brain

Pain Pain Go Away

Check this out:

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/pain_pain_go_awaythe_7_mistakes_that_are_making_your_pain_persist?sms_ss=facebook

Mens Health Article on Fascia

 This article which appeared in Mens Health was recently brought to my attention. Check it out:

http://www.menshealth.com/men/fitness/muscle-building/understanding-your-muscles/article/6bde7ea369683210VgnVCM10000030281eac

Undulation Exercises

Check out these great undulation exercises published by my Hellerwork colleague Anita Boser. Click on "7 Undulations to Relieve Office Tension" to find a free version of her excellent material.
Here's the link:
http://www.vitalselfinc.com/books.htm

Core Strengthening

New Information - for me -  about core strengthening.
Check this out:

Is Your Ab Workout Hurting Your Back?

By Gretchen Reynolds

Getty Images

The genesis of much of the ab work we do these days probably lies inthe work done in an Australian physiotherapy lab during the mid-1990s.Researchers there, hoping to elucidate the underlying cause of backpain, attached electrodes to people’s midsections and directed them torapidly raise and lower their arms, like the alarmist robot in “Lost inSpace.”

In those with healthy backs, the scientists found, a deep abdominalmuscle tensed several milliseconds before the arms rose. The brainapparently alerted the muscle, the transversus abdominis, to brace thespine in advance of movement. In those with back pain, however, thetransversus abdominis didn’t fire early. The spine wasn’t ready for theflailing. It wobbled and ached. Perhaps, the researchers theorized,increasing abdominal strength could ease back pain. The lab worked withpatients in pain to isolate and strengthen that particular deep muscle,in part by sucking in their guts during exercises. The results, thoughmixed, showed some promise against sore backs.

From that highly technical foray into rehabilitative medicine, abooming industry of fitness classes was born. “The idea leaked” intogyms and Pilates classes that core health was “all about thetransversus abdominis,” Thomas Nesser, an associate professor ofphysical education at Indiana State University who has studied corefitness, told me recently. Personal trainers began directing clients topull in their belly buttons during crunches on Swiss balls or to presstheir backs against the floor during sit-ups, deeply hollowing theirstomachs, then curl up one spinal segment at a time. “People are nowspending hours trying to strengthen” their deep ab muscles, Nesser said.

But there’s growing dissent among sports scientists about whetherall of this attention to the deep abdominal muscles actually gives youa more powerful core and a stronger back and whether it’s even safe. Aprovocative article published in the The British Journal of SportsMedicine last year asserted that some of the key findings from thefirst Australian study of back pain might be wrong. Moreover, even ifthey were true for some people in pain, the results might not apply tothe generally healthy and fit, whose trunk muscles weren’t misfiring inthe first place.

“There’s so much mythology out there about the core,” maintainsStuart McGill, a highly regarded professor of spine biomechanics at theUniversity of Waterloo in Canada and a back-pain clinician who has beencrusading against ab exercises that require hollowing your belly. “Theidea has reached trainers and through them the public that the coremeans only the abs. There’s no science behind that idea.” (McGill’swebsite is backfitpro.com.)

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The “core” remains a somewhat nebulous concept; but most researchersconsider it the corset of muscles and connective tissue that encircleand hold the spine in place. If your core is stable, your spine remainsupright while your body swivels around it. But, McGill says, themuscles forming the core must be balanced to allow the spine to bearlarge loads. If you concentrate on strengthening only one set ofmuscles within the core, you can destabilize your spine by pulling itout of alignment. Think of the spine as a fishing rod supported bymuscular guy wires. If all of the wires are tensed equally, the rodstays straight. “If you pull the wires closer to the spine,” McGillsays, as you do when you pull in your stomach while trying to isolatethe transversus abdominis, “what happens?” The rod buckles. So, too, hesaid, can your spine if you overly focus on the deep abdominal muscles.“In research at our lab,” he went on to say, “the amount of load thatthe spine can bear without injury was greatly reduced when subjectspulled in their belly buttons” during crunches and other exercises.

Instead, he suggests, a core exercise program should emphasize allof the major muscles that girdle the spine, including but notconcentrating on the abs. Side plank (lie on your side and raise yourupper body) and the “bird dog” (in which, from all fours, you raise analternate arm and leg) exercise the important muscles embedded alongthe back and sides of the core. As for the abdominals, no sit-ups,McGill said; they place devastating loads on the disks. An approvedcrunch begins with you lying down, one knee bent, and hands positionedbeneath your lower back for support. “Do not hollow your stomach orpress your back against the floor,” McGill says. Gently lift your headand shoulders, hold briefly and relax back down. These three exercises,done regularly, McGill said, can provide well-rounded, thorough corestability. And they avoid the pitfalls of the all-abs core routine. “Isee too many people,” McGill told me with a sigh, “who have six-packabs and a ruined back.”

Focusing: A Technique for Body Based Emotional and Physical Healing

In service to my on-going interest in the interface between physical and emotional well-being, I’ve recently been exploring a body based emotional practice called Focusing. Focusing was developed by psychologist Eugene Gendlin who was a graduate student of Carl Rogers (famous in humanistic psychological circles for developing person centered therapy).  He was interested in understanding why some clients were more successful than others in the process of psychotherapy. Through some pretty thorough research, what he discovered is that it was not the method of the therapist that mattered as much as it was the ability of the client to pause and look inward. From this, Gendlin developed the “philosophy of the implicit” which suggests that the body implicitly carries more than the brain can process.  Gendlin discovered that if a client was able to bring attention to what is actually happening in this moment in the body, they were freer to access their inner intelligence and experience lasting change.

At last!  Researched substantiation for my belief that interfacing with the mind alone doesn’t produce as much lasting change as when the body is brought into the process (I knew I was in this business for agood reason).

What does it take to access implicit bodily knowing that can be such a powerful source of change? From my perspective? Bodywork received from an attentive practitioner given to a receptive participant can do it. Conscious forms of movement (dance, continuum, yoga  - done with awareness) and many other body based practices can also take us to present moment bodily knowing. Focusing was the process that Gendlin developed to help his clients access this inner intelligence.

But, Focusing isn’t just about success in psychotherapy. There are many uses of Focusing, from decision making to working with addictions to helping heal a physical illness or pain. I’ve found it to be an enlightening meditative practice that allows access to my inner awareness and peace.


It’s useful to have an educated partner present when practicing Focusing.  I enjoy helping to facilitate this process with others and am happy to do this as part of your session. Just ask. But, you can also do this practice by yourself.  I’ve been using the practice regularly on my own and have found it to be a great way to start my day or to bring clarity to nagging or unclear feelings or sensations.

Here are the steps to one of my favored version of the practice:

1.    Decide how much tine you have to spend (it may only be 5 minutes or could be an hour). Get quiet and comfortable. Close your eyes.
2.    Bring you awareness inside and just notice what you feel there - especially in the center of you - in your belly throat and mouth/jaw. Notice the sensations - and they are always there. If you can’t feel anything, then just work with this step before you move on.
3.    Ask yourself, “What wants or needs my attention right now?” and wait for the answer.  It could be a difficulty or happiness.
4.    If it’s not already clear, locate what wants your attention in your body. What for instance is the physical sensation that accompanies that emotional feeling?
5.    Imagine that you are sitting down next to this feeling or physical sensation like you would sit down next to someone who you care about and who you’d really like to know better. Greet the sensation/feeling with interest and patience. Let go of any agenda to get rid of it or change it (as we so commonly tend do with our pains).  Instead, try to get to know it, from it’s perspective. Even, if at first, this seems uncomfortable or ridiculous.
6.    Describe the sensation/feeling the best that you can. Go back and forth to check to see that the description (words or image) fits perfectly. It may for instance be something like “a throbbing pulse” or a “ red searing spot” or “a cortisol drip”.  When you get the description just right you may notice the sensation increases or relaxes.
7.    Sit with it. Or, maybe ask it: What’s so (put description from above- like “red searing”) about this? Maybe ask it what it needs. Wait for the answer and receive the information, feelings or images.
8.    Check to see if it’s okay to stop (there may be something more that wants to come through). You may need to assure a part of you that you’ll be back again.
9.    Acknowledge what came. Don’t skip this part- it’s important!


For more information check out Ann Weiser Cornell’s Book called “The Power of Focusing” or Eugene Gendlin’s “Focusing” .

And, if you try it, I’d love to know how it goes!
  

Sunshine on My Shoulders Makes Me Happy

For those of you that know me well, you know I LOVE THE SUN. In addition to the antidepressant effects of sun exposure, I’ve recently learned that sun exposure is also our primary mechanism for making vitamin D in the body.

So, what's important about Vitamin D? Vitamin D has long been known to be important for bone growth and development in children and for normal bone health in adults.  However, recent evidence is showing that Vitamin D supplementation may be helpful in the prevention of a number of diseases.  If you are interested to know more, read The Scoop below. If not, read the parts in bold.

The Scoop: Nearly a half century ago it was discovered that people living in the northeast U.S. had twice the risk of dying of cancer than Southerners! More recently, strong evidence has emerged for sun exposure to reduce the risk of prostate, breast, colon, ovarian, esophageal, stomach, pancreatic, rectal, kidney, uterine, lung and bladder cancer.  There is also a great deal of evidence that higher D3 levels also combats several types of autoimmune diseases  (Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Type I Diabetes). Moreover, vitamin D seems to regulate immune cell function.  Finally, Type II (classic adult onset diabetes) has also been linked to low levels of Vitamin D in the blood. In short, there is significant evidence that higher levels of vitamin D in the blood protects against most cancers, several autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis and Type II Diabetes.

The only sure way to know if your Vitamin D level is optimal, is with a blood test called 25-OH Vitamin D level. The normal range is 20-100 mg/ml (50ng/ml is recommended). Short of this, I have heard a naturopath friend say that nearly everyone in the northwest who she has tested is deficient in vitamin D. We just don’t’ get  a lot of sun exposure. 

While our primary and best source of vitamin D is sun exposure, supplementation might be an important addition in the winter months. This is especially true for all of us living in the Northwest -  it’s kinda dark around here. And I have to say the obvious, anyone with a history of melanoma, please do not use sun exposure as a means of raising your vitamin D level. For everyone, it's best to use your trunk and legs to make vitamin D (rather than face, hands or other body parts that have often sun exposure).

In short, a little vitamin D supplementation won’t hurt.  Especially
because its so hard to OD on the stuff with oral supplementation while
living in a cloudy climate.  We make 20,000 IUs just from 20 minutes of
summer sun exposure, while high dose supplementation would be
considered only 2,000 IUs. My blood levels were tested and I am low in vitamin D. I’ve been taking 5,000 IUs a day of Pure Encapsulations Vitamin D. I also really like the idea of using plain old cod liver oil to get vitamin D. With this, you also get the benefit of essential fatty acids in a digestible form.