New Year Resolutions

I know that New Year has been and gone over a month ago - but some people are still feeling that the new year is a new start and they are still sticking to their New Year Resolutions.  I know that there are possibly even more people who started out on January 1st with all good intentions and by now those good intentions have been well and truly lost by the wayside and they are long forgotten a 'foolish drunken ideas'.

For those who are still on track - I salute you!

As I have been a therapist for 18 years I have seen hundreds of well meaning new year resolutions come and go and to be perfectly honest I see less than half stick it out to become a permanent change in their lives.

Also as a therapist I know how silly this is particularly when this is dealing with your long term health and wellbeing.  there are far too many people in the western world who do not regard looking after themselves in body, mind and spirit as an important priority.  Many people incredibly see going out socialising and getting their hair coloured as important and when the body starts going wrong and falling apart are all too happy to give responsibility for fixing it to someone else ie their Dr.

Such is the sad sate of the western world today - although it can be argued that as we have been 'nannied' by the governments for so long that many have forgotten how it should be to look after yourself and their is a generation or 2 of younger people who have never done this so they would not know how to if they had to.

So, you can imagine how delighted I am when I hear about young people wanting to learn ancient and old healing arts such as accupuncture, reiki, reflexology and more and more dowsing. 
Using dowsing to discover and explore the unseen energy world around us is a skill that is becoming more and more popular and to be honest one of my favourites.

Massage tends to be the most popular favourite, but often is only called for once there is a problem.  Instead of keeping the muscles in a good state of health and having a regular treatment most people tend to go into fire fighting mode and expect a fast fix when something has gone painfully wrong.  A regular back massage and learning how best to look after your spine is one of the best things you can do for good health.

Natural Pain Relief

Dealing with pain when it hits is something we all want to deal with quickly and effectively.  however, we do not always want to use 'artificial' methods of pain relief and more than ever today we look for different types of natural pain relief.

I have always looked to complementary therapies to help my health and have found some of these to be invaluable for me.  In particular I find that Reflexology is so good for many different complaints that as far as I am concerned it is a totally under rated therapy and should be used far more than it is.

One of the best uses for Reflexology for me is in first aid situations with things like headaches and anxiety attacks and the beauty of using Reflexology is that you can use the hands or feet and in using the hands no one actually has any idea what you are doing.  It can be so very discreet and yet so very effective.

This is a video we found on Youtube that is excellent at showing you how to use reflexology in a headache situation - just watch it and see what we mean.





My Reflexologist recommends that really to get the best out of the treatment it should be done on a regular basis and this means that the body is kept in a permanent state of balance and harmony and because of this there is a much lower chance of problems occurring.  The better we look after ourselves in health the less likely we are to suffer health problems in the future.

What she also recommends is having a good diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables and clean water to drink, plenty of fresh air and exercise and taking an active interest in our structural well being.

By this I mean posture and this means making sure we are standing straight, making sure our furniture supports us properly and making sure we sleep in a good supportive bed that allows us to rest as we should every night.  There is a good site over at www.lookafteryourspine.com that explains very well why we should take more care when choosing our beds.

Taking care of our health should be a high priority and should be ongoing even when we feel we are in tip top health - this way it becomes more difficult to fall ill when we are in the best of health.

A Trip To The Physio

For the last 16 months I have had a hip pain - nothing that makes me cry out but one of those insidious toothache type nagging pains that is always there lurking just under the surface.

My Dr gave me it a fancy name and some painkillers and off I went.  The next stop off point was the Podiatrist who gave me some very nice inserts for my shoes and off I went again.
Of course neither of these worked to any great degree :(  and I kind of lived with the pain for the next few months.

So, eventually (just last night) I visit the physio who agrees with the quacks diagnosis but not with the treatment regime.  You see a good physio has far more working knowledge of joints and muscles than the average GP and as they specialize in just sorting out aches and pains they are rather good at it.

I knew that the physio would spare me no mercy on the painometer and he did not - in fact the first time he 'hit the spot' I very nearly hit the roof.  Talk about a 'trigger point'!

He kept on at the spot for what seemed like forever but as the minutes clicked by the pain was less intense as the muscle gradually gave in to his pressure.  As I left his clinic just last night there was a marked improvement on the last 18 months of discomfort and pain.  There is no way I am not going to do my daily exercises now.

So, what else could I be doing to help this muscle to recover properly?
Well, not damaging it in the first place might be a good starting point I suppose :(
But as it is now a damage limitation exercise ...

• Do my exercises religiously every day
• Make sure I keep my next appointment next week
• Have some massage or even a reflexology treatment
• Even consider investing in a good supportive adjustable bed

Ahh well nature heals and I suppose that I have had it for long enough so a few more weeks should not hurt any more than it already does.  The moral of this particular tale I suppose is get it sorted right from the start.