Transitioning Seasons with Yoga

     

     As we feel the season shifting into the colder, calmer weather we can sense a shift in ourselves. It can be one of homeliness as a shield against dropping temperatures or it can inspire us to be outside in the changing weather itself. We can feel the need to set up our defenses as we did surviving amongst the trees, foraging and hunting what is left once the cold became apparent. And we can also find the weather brings a sense of clarity and calm if we choose to embrace the chill in the air. Both of these natural inclinations may be correct, or maybe a mixture of the two, but our yoga practice can help us acclimate to the familiar shift.

     Fall can inspire cravings for rooted foods such as yams and ginger or deep spices such as cinnamon. This is

a physical example of the cravings of our energetic existence. To be rooted. To be grounded. To be plugged into the earth, if not to avoid the gusts of winter winds to come but to prepare for the next big shift that happens with the marking of another calendar year gone. Fall can be about listening to these cravings, whether from the couch with a blanket and a book, from the kitchen while cooking for family or playing football in the yard where no one ever seems to get tired.

     Yoga can help to root ourselves where we are and who we are. Tadasana, or Mountain pose can be a quick way to ground our energy. If you’re not sure what I am talking about then I invite you to try it.

Mountain Pose

     Stand anywhere you’d like. Anywhere you can devote a moment of quiet to yourself. Imagine you are

pressing your feet into whatever you are standing on. It can be the floor of the office elevator or on the grass in your favorite park. Take a slight bend in the knees. This helps to release tension in the joints and forces the muscles of the legs to slightly engage. Now bring the navel in towards the spine. This takes any tension out of the lower back, a part of the body that takes a beating from daily stress and poor posture. Bring your shoulders up towards the ears then slide the shoulder blades down and over the muscles of the back. Bring the chin in towards the neck to elongate the top of the spine. Imagine that you are connected to the ceiling above you by the crown of your head.

Now here is the hard part.

     Stay here. Stay quiet. Stay focused on your breath. Notice the way it moves in the body. Feel warmth radiating from your navel point. You are aware of the changes around you, even the subtle ones. And you are aware of the stillness within your body, growing and comforting vastness that never accelerates, never doubts and never diminishes despite its presence sometimes hidden. There we are rooted.

     In my Yoga for Beginners class on Saturdays from 11-Noon, we will be exploring more on transitioning with fall. We will be working on gentle twists as a way to release our experience of summer, grounding as to not be swayed from who we are as things change and open palmed mudras to stir new experiences in us as life shifts around us. 

By Pam Armendariz

Practicing Stillness

                              

                               If you walked into a restorative yoga class, you may be confused about what exactly you are seeing. Yogis lying on their mats, set up with props, eyes closed with peaceful looks seem way too easy for you. You wanted to feel the burn and check off some muscle points for the week but this class looks like they’re asleep. Active rest is where we allow ourselves to be so comfortable in a physical position that we can explore the uncomfortable process of roping in our mental attention. Often we move from one physical activity to another, the same action over and over like driving or watching TV that we don’t explore anything inside of our emotional and mental states. Restorative yoga gives us that time to think about that thing you’ve been meaning to deal with, to setting into an intention- developing patience, easing angry habits, letting go over embarrassing situations you love to hate to relive. It can be the bridge between moving from our daily automatic states to a place where we become more thoughtful creatures. It is where we learn to practice stillness.

                  When beginning a restorative practice is crucial to use the props around you. Initial set up is important to allow yourself to be focused once you’re comfortable. But if you don’t readjust when discomfort occurs, even if the practice has already started then mental attention is harder to develop. You’ll be thinking about that hip raised slightly higher than the other, that knee that feels stiff and stressed or the ponytail you should’ve removed. Your mind may float away from your intentions or it may float to the person adjusting on the mat in front of you but bringing yourself back to your breath can ease any guilt or anger about the distraction.

·       Adjust yourself before the practice the best you can then readjust yourself once your there if need be.

·       Make eye contact with the teacher and allow them to help.

·       Be patient with yourself and others.

·       Remember:  It’s called practice for a reason.

                  Restorative Yoga has been known to unlock creative blocks, emotional patterns and hidden traumatic experiences. You connect to the inner self that lives within your automatic actions. You learn to explore what motivates and inspires you. It can solve insomnia by putting you in control of your restful states, allowing you to calm your nervous system. It helps resolve or prevent burnout from stress or over exercise. It is a great beginning place for anyone who wants to start a regular meditation practice. Moving physical positions every five minutes can support restlessness without encouraging more of it. It allows you to change position and readjust any physical discomforts and begin sinking your consciousness further into a restful, peaceful state making you more likely to begin and stick with a meditation practice that works for you.

By Pam Armendariz

Yoga in the Workplace

 

    In the aftermath of the past several years being spent on the discussion of healthcare requirements of employees, we are left to ask what the best way to make the most of the money spent on coverage plans. Many companies have adopted wellness programs that have creative methods for illness and injury treatment and prevention. “A study released in April by ADP, Inc., a provider of human resource management, payroll, and benefit administration services, reported that 79 percent of large and 44 percent of midsized companies offer wellness programs.” (Cook). These programs offer things that are unique to the atmosphere of the company itself. Evaluations obtain proof of the employees interest in the program as well as what would help them most. The interests can be non-smoking incentives, weight-loss support, stress management, nutritional informational sessions, and yoga and meditation class. Besides the political influence on the company’s regulations of healthcare, why else do we look to other proactive approaches to caring for America’s employees? “The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that U.S. employers lose $70 billion a year due to absenteeism, lost productivity and disability caused by mental distress” (Lohia). These are significant numbers when looking at profits of sales and its relation to expenditures. Are these wellness programs really the answer?

     Many corporations have turned to yoga as a solution to stress related issues. Some are physical consequences such as elevated blood pressure, immune dysfunction, digestion

complications, headaches, low energy and the list goes on. Then we have the emotional consequence of living and working in stressful environments. Aggression and frustration, tense and unfocused emotional reactions, imbalance of feelings or loss of control, lack of self esteem and self worth and you fail to see the importance you have in the roles you play regularly. It is common for us to experience one or more of these symptoms of stress from time to time but living in a constant state of one or more of these can affect your performance at work. “In a 3-month period, patients with depression miss an average of 4.8 workdays and suffer 11.5 days of reduced productivity” (cdc.gov). Also, Managers and employees who are able to recognize the signs and symptoms of depression such as tardiness, complaints of fatigue, reduction in work output or quality, safety problems or accidents, and changes in attitude may help in the early identification and referral to screening and treatment services for affected employees” (cdc.gov). Yoga brings the fluctuations of the mind and of the body to a calm state by introducing breath control, pose alignment, time for meditative reflection of actions and behaviors. This is where we bring all the roles we step into on a regular basis together in one place and decrease the symptoms of chronic stress.

    As a retail manager myself, I tried hosting meetings where everyone could get together face to face and discuss monthly events. The meetings worked at first but then I noticed the excitement dying out. Connection to one another was important but expecting them to add one more appointment to an already busy day was a difficult task. One way we can keep the excitement going in team building department is creating a wellness program of your own.

• Make special not of productivity trends at work. This could be sale numbers, attendance percentages, patterns of disruptive behavior reports or all of these. File them away to be review the same time next month.
• Ask the employees if they would be interested in attending a yoga class with their coworkers.
• Some studios have discounted group rates. Companies can cover these costs by including it in the monthly budget or paying the discounted rate for the employees and deducting their portion from their paychecks.
• Report comparison of sales, attendance and behavior.

     This last step is critical to the progression and the expansion of wellness programs in the businesses we rely on as either employees or consumers of their products. When we can bring in firm, positive and self sustaining roots in the way we conduct in our personal and professional relationships, we can improve the systems in which we are included.

by Pam Armendariz

Lohia, A. (2014, January 29). Revive Your Wellness Program. Corporate Wellness Magazine.

Cook, J. (2012, July 1). ASAE ® The Center for Association Leadership. Retrieved July 8, 2015, from http://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/ANowDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=182047

2013, October 23). Retrieved July 8, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/implementation/topics/depression.html

The Scent of a Rose

                                        

What do you think about when you see a rose or better yet, smell a rose?

Each person remembers and experiences a particular smell like rose very specifically and individually. Though we seldom think about it, our natural sense of smell is very acute and is an important tool that our body may use for survival and to form deeper experiences with our world. Our fragrant snippets then become memories linked with emotion. 

Many varieties of roses have distinct smells. Some are more pleasing than others just as some wines are more to our liking than others while some varieties have been bred not to have a smell. Who hasn’t stopped to smell a rose that someone has given you and been disappointed when there was little or no smell?

Why do we smell them at all? Are we trying to get to know them? Are we seeking to appreciate them to the fullest?  I would like to believe both are true.  When we slow down and savor the whole experience; the desire of knowing them better, the appreciation of their beauty and the opening of our minds to link their fragrance with a beautiful memory and emotion then we have lived that moment to the fullest.

It is no wonder that memories like that sustain us and that the rose is associated with the heart because it’s not just our noses that do the smelling. The cells that line our gut, kidneys, heart, blood vessels, and more contain olfactory receptors. Recent research has found that these receptors respond to scents and may even help regulate blood pressure. 1

Our attraction to roses may also have much to do with their complexity. Plants have more complex DNA structures than humans, but the rose even exceeds other plants having over 500 fragrance compounds with each variety and individual plant releasing its own unique combination. 2

A rose’s scent compounds also vary by time of day (more fragrant in the morning), weather (stronger when it is sunny and just before a storm), the age of the bloom (the bud and the open flower smell different, and scent dissipates with age), climate, soil, and the time of year. Roses also react to cycles of light and darkness as well as time of day, releasing scent according to a complex biological rhythm. 3

So take a few minutes the next time you smell a rose and create some wonderful positive healing memories. 

·       1.  www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1215927110/-/DCSupplemental.

·       2.  http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00122-010-1268-y#page-1

·       3.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17636322

Can crystals really heal? Take Two and Call Me in the Morning!

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How is it possible that a rock can help in healing the human body? What proof do we have that crystals are not simply inanimate objects that serve no purpose other than their aesthetic appeal?  Is there a science behind the use of crystals and physical healing?

Piezoelectric Energy and Crystals

​Crystals form in the ground through a combination of water, heat and pressure, the latter being the state of piezoelectric energy.  Quartz crystals have a unique ability to convert electrical energy to mechanical energy and vice versa. This is called the piezoelectric effect.  In 1880, scientists Jacque and Pierre Curie first demonstrated this effect that stemmed a revolution of technology using quartz.

They showed that quartz crystals have the ability to receive, process and transmit precise

vibrations which stimulate the energy in many of our modern technological devices.  Computers, digital watches, radios, sonar, cigarette lighters, electric guitars, electrical units in cars and satellites all operate on crystalline energy.

Since then, scientists have also found that quartz crystals are capable of receiving and transmitting energy that can store, amplify, transfer, and transform other vibrational frequencies of energy in the form of precise, periodic pulses.  The US military made the decision to incorporate crystal control into all of their communications systems in 1939, and military historians say this decision contributed greatly to the Allied victory in World War II.

According to Dr. Richard Gerber in his book Vibrational Medicine, “The crystalline structure will respond in unique and precise ways to a wide spectrum of energies including heat, light, pressure, sound, electricity, gamma rays, microwaves, bioelectricity and even the energies of consciousness. In response to these varying energetic inputs, the molecular structure of the crystal will undergo particular modes of oscillation, thereby creating specific vibratory frequencies of energy transmission.”

Crystals and Healing

How does this all translate to healing the human body?  The chemical make-up of crystals is silicon oxide. Our bodies also have a silicon base and it has been shown that the pineal gland (which some people consider to be the master gland) also has a crystalline structure.

Tests have shown that every mineral specimen has a vibratory rate that, when matched to different parts of the human body, will assist in bringing that part of the body back to its natural vibration.  Quartz crystal has the closest vibration to that of the human body of any other mineral which is why it is so effective in healing work.  Renowned IBM scientist and crystal healer Marcel Vogel points out, “The crystal is a neutral object whose inner structure exhibits a state of perfection and balance.”

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The crystal has an almost innate intelligence which helps it to focus on the needs of the physical body for healing.  The crystal amplifies and directs its energy to “unblock” the stagnant energy thereby allowing for balance in the energy system.

When we are not in touch with our feelings, our thoughts, and our spiritual connection, our energy field becomes unaligned causing physical discomfort and even illness.  Because healing is not simply a physical act, the resonance of crystals also works on the mental, emotional, and spiritual levels to assist us in understanding the nature of our dis-ease.  The ability of crystals to assist us with our own awareness is a key factor in how they help us heal.

Marcel Vogel also noted that we can transfer thought forms into crystals.  He states,

“Although the crystal may be used for “mind to mind” communication, its higher purpose…is in the service of humanity for the removal of pain and suffering.  With proper training, a healer can release negative thought forms which have taken shape as disease patterns in a patient's physical body.” 

The key concept which Dr. Vogel has presented is that the quartz crystal is capable of amplifying and directing the natural energies of the healer.  The subtle energies of the healer’s field become focused and coherent in a manner similar to a laser.

(Vibrational Medicine – pages 338 – 339)

How Does This Help You?

I have seen and experienced many examples of crystal healing which have given me the freedom to live with a more open mind, a healthier emotional state and a happier all around existence.  The crystals helped to put me in touch with my “true” nature, allowing me to see life from a different perspective, clearing out many of the old conditionings and beliefs that I once held.  In doing so, not only am I better able to live my life with awareness, but to also restore the connection to my inner and outer spirit.

Healing is not simply about curing a pain or a dis-ease.  True healing unlocks the blocks that prevent us from letting go of the past in order to live in the present moment.  Crystals and stones are a pathway by which we can direct our lives to a more perfect union with the Universal Consciousness.  Crystals are pure thought forms, pure energy that allow us the gift of a joyful, complete existence. 

Diane Bloom established Free Spirit Crystals in 1991 in the Milwaukee area and has been in her current location since 1995. She will be teaching a Numerology class here at Integrative Healing Institute® on May 30-31. Call or go online to sign up! 

Numbers Never Lie!

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The study of numerology has been around since the days of Pythagoras (570 – 495 BC) who taught his students that nothing could exist without the influence of numbers.  He brought to light that the entire universe could be expressed through numbers, that numbers are energy and everything, including our names and birthdays, have a meaning through numbers.

We can chart our entire lives in numbers that can show us the patterns and lessons that we have come here to learn.  Numerology helps us to understand our personality in combination with the path that we are meant to traverse in this lifetime - what did I come here to do, what am I best suited to do, what are my strengths and weaknesses and how might I best go about attaining that information?

Through numerology we can determine our best methods of articulation, discover how to relate to others through our gifts and become the best expressions of ourselves to offer the world. 

Doing the charts of your children, significant others, family and friends assists you in knowing them on a deeper level so that you can relate to your combined likenesses differences on a more compassionate level.  Knowing numerology gives you an immediate advantage when you first meet someone in that it gives you information on how to express yourself to them.

Numerology is becoming one of our most comprehensive tools in gaining knowledge of the self.  If you have a desire to unlock more doors into the workings of your life, then the study of numerology is for you!

Diane Bloom established Free Spirit Crystals in 1991 in the Milwaukee area and has been in her current location since 1995. She will be teaching a Numerology class here at Integrative Healing Institute® on May 30-31. Call or go online to sign up!

Lymphatic Drainage Therapy Part 1

                                               

     The Lymphatic system consists of all organs, glands, lymph nodes and lymph vessels located throughout the entire body. Functions of this immune system include defending the body against disease, cleansing the body of toxins and ridding the body of excess fluid. In addition, the Lymph acts as a secondary circulatory or transportation system carrying crucial information from the endocrine system throughout the body. Lymph fluid, also called interstitial fluid, bathes tissues and helps to deliver nutrients and oxygen to cells. A little known fact is that the lymphatic system is also responsible for absorbing fats and fat solulible substances from the digestive system.

     The Lymphatic system is a vast all encompassing circulatory system that has no pump, instead fluid is moved as a result of respiration and movement of muscles in the body. Challenges to the lymphatic system like: sedientary lifestyles, injury or traumas, surgery, illness, poor diet and issues like diabetes are stressors that may become symptomatic and lead to other problems if left untreated.

                                

     Lymphatic drainage therapy can provide additional support and aid in beneficial circulation and proper elimination of excess fluid. Lymphatic drainage therapy can encourage the immune system to function at a higher level, aid the digestive system in absorption and removal of fats and assists the lymph system as it maintains the volume of tissue fluid in the body keeping edema and swelling from becoming abnormal.     

*Clients are advised to consult their health care provider before beginning any new treatment.

About Kim Krost

Kim Krost is owner of Integrative Healing Institute® in San Antonio Texas. She is a licensed massage therapist and massage therapy instructor teaching a variety of wellness classes including Reflexology and Reiki. In addition to management of the Institute she has maintained a holistic bodywork practice since 1999 using Lymphatic Drainage Therapy, Reflexology, and Natural Reflex Therapy®.