I find this pretty interesting. The placebo effect is super powerful. And regardless of what western medicine wants to believe, it plays a role in all forms of healing. If it can be combined with actual beneficial treatments, all the better. It’s the same as having “positive intentions”.
Check our what Dr. Andrew Weil says about Rolfing!!
I just found this interesting article about walking the “fox walk”. I haven’t read it fully, but I thought I would link to it. I don’t think bunions are caused by shoes necessarily, but by bad food mechanics (which aren’t really helped by shoes). I found the link via this article about barefoot running on Neatorama.
I personally love the Vibram FiveFingers shoes. I’ve been wearing them for 3 years or since they first came out. And I have gone running with them. It is tricky to walk in a city environment with them though. They don’t provide any padding, so walking on concrete can cause sore feet more quickly than when wearing shoes, even for people who have mobile, well-adapted feet. But it does really allow you feel how you use your feel.
A good, mobile walk does involve a 3-D movement of the hips as well as twisting of the spine at several different depth levels (think of 3 varying length springs within one another).
If you have any shoe questions, send me an email or leave a comment.
But I do have a reason. I’m not a huge fan of divulging personal information on the internet. Personally, I think people who blurt their whole lives out on Facebook/Twitter/etc. are just asking for privacy issues down the line. Criminals are even using it to know when people are out on vacation so they know when no one will be home. Social media can be good and connecting, but it can also go too far in personal disclosure.
Anyway, I digress. I don’t like lots of personal info out there in an uncontrolled area for people to just keep around. So I don’t post much. Plus, I want to make this blog useful to the readers, so I’m not sure what I should be writing about.
Any one have any ideas about what they’d like to see on this blog? Feel free to ask me questions about what you’d like info on.
Thanks.
I’m not the best poster. Sorry to all my readers. I am going to make an effort to have some more posts coming up soon. I’ve been up to a lot of things lately, so I have a bunch to actually post about. Stay tuned.
Happy May Day, Portland. It’s a nice, sunny day out, so make sure to get out there and enjoy some sunshine.
There are a lot of stressful things going on in the world right now, with no real end in sight. Modern society has a problem with stress. Animals deal with stress immediately and show much less long term effects than humans. It’s easy to stop being stressed when the tiger is no longing stressing you. It’s a lot harder to stop being stressed over modern worries–money, jobs, homes, anonymous Wall St. bankers, etc. There is no “real” threat to our bodies, so the stress just continues and so does the bodies response. This leads to cortisol imbalances in the body, which over time, stresses the adrenal glands.
Since the body is basically stuck in a flight-or-flight response for essentially and never ending period of time, we just get worn out. Our immune system is also on a state of alert this whole time looking for potential wounds and invaders to heal, which may or may not be there (no tiger bites, after all). It will eventually run out of energy to be so vigilant and SOMETHING will slip through whether that be a cold, flu, or even something as challenging as cancer.
Now is the best time to do something for yourself and your body. Go meditate, sing, take a walk, etc. Do something that relaxes you and gets out of the daily grind to give your whole being a chance to relax. For me, I know I’m most relaxes when I’m spending time in a nice, mossy forest. The Columbia River Gorge is one my favorite places to be in the Portland area. Of course, if you can’t manage a whole day out in nature, maybe just take a few minutes in your local park or just walk around the block. Your body and immune system will thank you.
Why do I love Portland? Because it’s February, and even though the weather is still cold, things are springing to life.
I am originally from Chicago, and grass starts to turn green around April. Grass (what little there is) barely turns brown here if at all, and it starts to grow again in January.
I mean, come on people…it’s February and trees and bushes are all ready starting to bloom….that’s AMAZING.
Feel free to insert any action if you want, and the answer is still the same. NO.
If you have an underlying pathology (i.e., disease), then there is something that can benefit from “fixing”. But other than that, there is nothing wrong with anything you move with your body. And if anyone (Rolfer or otherwise) tells you that, stop, turn around, and run out the door.
Rolfing looks to help free your body and give you options of moving differently. We want you to be able to choose what feels “right” for you in the moment to be able to do. Sometimes, having a slouched, hunched posture is really beneficial (think dark alley and not wanting to be noticed, or hide-and-seek)–it can make you smaller and harder to notice. If you’re getting yelled at by your boss or significant other, standing tall and proud may not help that situation. On the other hand, if you’re talking about how great your weekend was or something inspiring to you, that same posture isn’t really appropriate anymore.
I sometimes want to giggle on the inside when I hear “Is my breathing wrong?”. Are you breathing? Then it’s not wrong!! Now, there might be a more efficient and easier ways to breathe, but they aren’t “better” in a judgement way, just different. Unfortunately, I find the English language limiting in this way–better/worse shouldn’t be linked to right/wrong, but they often are.
Scoliosis provides a wonderful example. Everyone has some level of scoliosis–if you didn’t, you’d find it very hard to walk since your spine wouldn’t move very well. But some people develop clinical scoliosis. Are Rolfers looking to straighten that spine out? Nope. We want the spine to still be able to move functionally with no restrictions. Now of course, as you remove the restrictions, the spine tends to become straighter, but the motion is the real goal.
Basically, Rolfing helps you to find about the way to move that best suits you and your individual structure.
Well, it’s that time of year—cold and flu season. So, today’s post will be about your sinus health.
Anatomy lesson of the day: you have way more sinus space than you think you do. Most people just think that the sinuses are the space inside your nose. That is true, but the bones also have air-filled spaces that are part of the sinus complex as well. Basically, you have sinuses in all of the bones that make up the front of your face and even some deeper bones. The frontal (forehead), maxilla (cheeks by the nose), ethmoid (upper portion of the nose), and the sphenoid (central bone of the skull) bones ALL have sinuses in them–on both sides of your face. All of these sinuses drain into the nasal cavity at some point. That congestion you feel could be coming from any of those points.
Rolfing also deals with sinuses a fair amount. Because of the fascial connection, your sinuses are affected by the fascia and muscles in your nose, face, jaw, cranium, and neck. Tightness in any of those places can end up causing some congestion. As part of the 10-Series, those areas definitely get addressed. However, work can also be done in the nasal cavity itself to help open up those passages and get things flowing again.
One self-care tip is to use a neti pot for some sinus irrigation. If you haven’t heard of them, basically, it’s a little pot you put some lukewarm salt water in and pour it into one nostril….until it runs out of the other nostril. Yep, you read that right. It derives out of Ayurvedic medicine. Basically, it helps to flush nasal irritants out and clean out those sinuses.
Tips for the wise–if you use a neti pot, make sure you use the recommended salt level. Too much or too little salt can cause a burning sensation. Also, you want to use lukewarm water. If it is too hot, you can scald yourself and your sinus linings (not fun, I’m sure), and if it is too cold, it won’t be comfortable.
I just recently starting using a neti pot to work on some deep congestion issues I’ve been having. It sort of feels like I’m drowning a bit, and feels a bit uncomfortable. This is mainly because I hate breathing through my mouth. But, I can definitely tell that it helps to clean out a lot of mucus from the nooks and crannies up there.
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