Category: WELLBEING | HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

Exercise and My Body

by Nicole Serafin (40 yrs old), Nutritionist / Dietician

In my mid twenties, after having a lower back and shoulder injury, my physiotherapist suggested some gentle stretching and Pilates exercises to rebuild the muscles and tissues – to strengthen those areas. I began first at home with the exercises she gave me, and then looked into doing a few yoga and Pilates classes.

My body became strong and my core strength was amazing, but I had become so obsessed with strengthening myself that I had stopped feeling what all of this exercise was doing to me – I had totally lost touch with how my body was really feeling. My body had become so hard and disconnected that I was unable to feel when it was time to stop or when I was pushing it too far. Continue reading “Exercise and My Body” →

I Found Observing My Body is a Great Support

by Rosanna Bianchini, Gloucestershire, UK 

A few years ago my body was much harder and more rigid than it is today. I had tightness in the muscles in my neck, shoulders and chest, which was causing both aches and a stiffness of movement in my upper body. My body felt hard and unyielding. As a result I could say that any movement took more effort than would naturally be needed, and the demands on my muscles and my energy were therefore greater.

I had begun to understand that if my body was as tight and as toughened as it was, how could I possibly feel or know what felt right for it and what did not? – just like calloused, leathery hands with their thickened skin cannot allow full sensitivity to feel what is there to be felt. I also noticed that with this hardened and stiffer state the sensitivity and movement-flow through the muscles was being affected, and it was more difficult to be gentle just doing simple everyday things because of this. Continue reading “I Found Observing My Body is a Great Support” →

Sleep

by Anne Malatt, Australia

“Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care.” (William Shakespeare, Macbeth)

I have always struggled with sleep.

Ever since I was very young, I remember not wanting to go to sleep, having trouble falling asleep, waking during the night and not being able to go back to sleep, and waking in the morning feeling more tired than I was the night before. I used to stay up late, trying to avoid sleep. When I was in my teens, I began drinking to try and help me sleep, which only made the problem worse. I tried everything, and nothing helped (except chamomile tea, which left a strange taste in my mouth). Continue reading “Sleep” →

Weight Loss

Anonymous,  NSW, Australia

Since regularly attending Universal Medicine events my body has gone through the following changes:

My weight has gone from 91.5kg to 69.5kg, or from a BMI of 27 to 21. The first 10kg through dieting (I was in a hurry and decided off my own bat to do something), the next 12kg happened by themselves.

I drank almost daily until five years ago and have never had any alcohol since. The interesting thing is that I don’t miss alcohol at all.

I drank my last decaf coffee two years ago because drinking a cup was like being kicked and I was unpleasantly racy for two hours afterwards. I love the taste of coffee but even decaf (let alone caffeinated) coffee is no fun.

The upside is that I have no problem working eight hours a day, six days a week, sometimes longer, and I don’t fade at all after lunch and am only pleasantly tired in the evening.

My blood pressure has gone from 125 to 109 and sometimes as low as 98, which is pretty good for a male aged 53. I had elevated cholesterol 10 years ago and my cholesterol is now deep in the healthy zone.

I regularly took multi vitamin pills in the past but gradually reduced it to one a week, one a fortnight, one a month and now no pills at all. When I took a vitamin pill during a very stressful time two years ago my urine turned a very bright orange which in the past only happened when I took too many vitamin pills, so I didn’t take any more.

Supporting the Elderly… and the Ripple Effect

by Mary-Louise Myers, Esoteric Practitioner, Goonallabah NSW

From 2003 through 2009 I worked in a program designed to ‘Care for Carers’. This was an innovative program whereby elderly full-time carers who looked after partners with dementia were brought together in a holiday setting to have a rest, obtain support in the way of legal and financial advice, be updated on what assistance was available through different government agencies, and receive support for their wellbeing. I ran groups that offered them support for their general wellbeing and I also offered them individual ‘hands on’ Esoteric Healing sessions. I would present a two hour group when they first arrived, and another at the end of their stay. The second group  gave them an opportunity to share the changes that they had already put in place and get any further support if needed before they went back home. Continue reading “Supporting the Elderly… and the Ripple Effect” →

No Longer The Black Sheep

by J McFadden, born in Scotland, living in the Netherlands

My trip to Scotland: it was the first time in as long as I could remember that I was looking forward to going – I always visited in the years past as a sense of duty. I would always come back (to Holland) in no hurry to visit Scotland again. My mother would always say something that would hurt me deeply – she always was an insensitive and cold woman in my eyes, and I can remember feeling the distance between us as a small child. I was the third girl in the family and also a twin; I had a twin brother who was the first son born.

My parents, being of Irish descent, grew up with the belief that boys were the most important – more important than girls. This is an old, old belief that is handed down from generation to generation in Ireland, or certainly it is in my family. I remember when my son and daughter were age three and five, my grandmother was leaving after a holiday in Scotland, and the very last words she said to me were – “look after the boy”. She said this to me as if it was the most natural thing to say. I was stunned at the time, but in no way then could I fully understand the enormity or significance of those four words, and for how many decades this belief had been handed down through the generations in our family. Continue reading “No Longer The Black Sheep” →