Integrative Health Blog

How to Heal Your Power of Now

Posted by on Thu, Nov 29, 2018

 

I trust you are familiar with Eckhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now, which has had a tremendous impact on people’s spiritual lives and understanding around the world. From what I understand, from having read, not that book, but a different book by Tolle, the main concept is that we need to be focused on the present moment, because that is what we have.

The past is a memory, the future is a dream, and the present is a gift, that’s why we call it a present.*  We cannot change the past, and the only way to improve the future is by focusing on who we are being in the present moment, and what we are thinking, believing, and doing right now. 

When I work with clients, I often delve into experiences in their past with them, in order to help them in the present and future. Recently, a new client asked me, “But if we focus on the past, won’t that reduce the power of now?”

What a great question!

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Tags: energy therapies, meditation

How To Reduce Stress

Posted by on Tue, May 24, 2016

Stress appears to be endemic in our lives, perhaps even more so in urban areas (yes, I just attempted to ride the metro this morning, and it took three times as long as usual!) 

Stress negatively impacts our health because it constantly activates the adrenal glands and their fight-flight-freeze-or fold response to external events. 

Physical Effects of Stress

Further, stress activates our sympathetic nervous system, which keeps our bodies in a chemical and nervous system state of high alert. This is fine for short sprints away from potential predators, or a climb up a steep cliff, but creates problems for our bodies when we do not allow them to calm down again and remain calm and relaxed for several hours at a time. 

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Tags: energy therapies, stress

Enhance your Quality of Life with Essential Oils

Posted by on Wed, May 04, 2016

The official definition of aromatherapy is the inhalation or bodily application of fragrant essential oils for therapeutic purposes. In layman’s terms, aromatherapy is the study of scent.  

Essential oils are volatile aromatic compounds, extracted using a specialized distillation process, from the leaves, stems, bark, flowers, roots and fruits of a particular plant.  The oils are the essence of the plant; highly concentrated and very powerful.  They provide the plant with protection, defense, healing, communication and help them attract pollinators.  A myriad of benefits is passed on to us when we utilize essential oils.  

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Tags: energy therapies, essential oils

7 Tips for a Happy Marriage or Partnership

Posted by on Tue, Feb 02, 2016

Whether you are an engaged couple, married couple, or partners who have been committed to one another for a long time, there is often more that you can do to enhance your relationship.

Would you like your marriage to become just as perfect as your wedding, or even better? So many couples seem to be a “perfect match,” but what does that really mean? How can you make and keep the very best possible relationship, built to last a lifetime?

Most of us desire things like a really attractive and sexy partner who is independent, reliable, earns a decent living, who gets along with our family and friends, and whose friends and family we really like, as well. Most of all, we desire to be with someone we love and who loves us. But even if you have all those things, how do you know this relationship can really work well and last a lifetime? Here are seven tips to a happy marriage plus four signs you are in fact, a “perfect match.”

Four signs your partner, spouse, or fiancé is the “perfect match” for you.

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Tags: energy therapies, life coaching

What is Subtle Energy and How Does it Affect My Body?

Posted by on Mon, Sep 14, 2015

You are already an expert in subtle energy, but you probably do not yet know it.

Have you ever attended a ball game or sporting event and “felt the excitement in the air?”

Most people have felt that feeling of excitement in the air somewhere. Interestingly, no one had to tell you that what you were feeling was “excitement,” because the energy itself sends the message, and you are intuitively programmed to feel it and to know what that it is “excitement in the air.”

Have you ever been in a room, perhaps at a meeting, in which the tension was so thick, that as the very old saying goes, “You could have cut the tension with a knife?” No one had to tell you that this was tension that you were feeling. No one had to explain the difference between how excitement feels and how tension feels. You just knew it, and could feel it in your body.

Have you ever experienced someone standing in front of you who was so angry, you could literally feel the anger coming from them? Most people have also experienced this feeling of the subtle energy of anger, and again, no one has to explain to anyone “Hey, guess what: this is anger energy – watch out!” The subtle energy of anger (not so subtle, perhaps) actually sends a message that we understand intuitively is anger, and we know to be cautious.

Can you feel the love?

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Tags: reiki, energy therapies, health coach

What is Reiki?

Posted by on Sat, Dec 27, 2014

Reiki is an ancient healing tradition brought to light in the early 1900s by Mikao Usui of Japan.  The word “Reiki” has deep meanings, which can be summed up most simply by the concept “universal life force.”  Everyone benefits from being alive with energy – that is what Reiki is about.

In Asia, for thousands of years, people have understood that these subtle energies of life exist within us and around us.  As a result, spiritual practices were developed long ago to cultivate these life energies within the human body.  Such practices include Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and in yoga, pranayama breathing.  The words “chi,” “qi,” and “prana” all refer to this same life force energy with which all living things are filled and which permeates all levels of being. 

As a practice, Reiki involves the practitioner placing her or his hands on or near the body, and allowing the flow of Reiki energy to come through to fill the person’s body and energy field (aura) with fresh, relaxing, restorative energy.  Reiki usually includes aura clearing and chakra balancing as part of the process. 

A person receiving Reiki usually gets to relax, lying comfortably on a massage table.

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Tags: reiki, energy therapies

Could Unresolved Conflict from Our Ancestors Be Making Us Sick?

Posted by on Fri, Mar 07, 2014

It is well-understood now in some progressive scientific circles that everything that happens to us, and our reactions to whatever happens to us, imprints on our actual DNA.  Wow! 

Think about that for a moment. 

We used to think that our DNA was static, did not basically change, and dictated our life experience in a variety of ways.  But no, as it happens our DNA can be altered significantly, both in a positive sense and in a not-so-positive sense.  This, for the most part, would not present a challenge unless whatever happens to us is traumatic or psycho-emotionally damaging…….and is never resolved. 

These unresolved traumas and conflicts then get passed down to subsequent generations of children and grandchildren, through our DNA, and can show up in our lives as chronic illness (or even a repeat of similar traumas, situations, experiences, characteristics and even the emotional imbalances that our ancestry suffered).  In other words, their unresolved psychic distress can become part of the cellular memory we inherit.  Until the issue has been successfully settled or resolved, it can continue to trigger illness in the generations that follow. 

Ancestral Origins of Disease

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Tags: EFT emotional freedom technique, energy therapies, trauma

Heal Your Heart, and Your Body Will Follow

Posted by on Wed, Feb 12, 2014

One of the first considerations and one of the most important elements of true and long-lasting healing is healing the heart.  Our heart is our body’s ‘power center’ in terms of attempting any kind of healing.  At any given time, as much as 95% of the ‘communication’ throughout our body, is from our heart. Wow!  Think of the implications of that statement and what it means to your personal overall health.

What is Your Heart Saying?

What is your heart communicating to you?  Are there lingering unresolved emotions and blocked energy held in your heart that seek resolution?  Likely.  Most of us don’t get to be of adult age without suffering some kind of emotional pain and/or trauma.  That’s the nature of life.  And because we humans, don’t ‘come with a handbook’, few of us receive the guidance or learn good methods of resolving the slings and arrows that often come our way.  Familial emotional and behavioural patterns get passed down from generation to generation, resulting in a continuation of usually woefully inadequate methods in ‘heart healing’.

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Tags: EFT emotional freedom technique, tapping, energy therapies

Tapping Therapy, Profound Healing At The Tip of Your Fingers

Posted by on Mon, Nov 18, 2013

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the magic of healing from trauma, phobias, fears, negative thought patterns and habits, pain and discomfort, could be at our very fingertips? 

Wouldn’t it be amazing if food cravings and sabotaging behaviors could be controlled and eliminated with ease? 

What if I told you that there are a multitude of profoundly effective and simple, at-home, healing alternative therapies and techniques that can do just that?  Happiness, Health, Abundance and much more, are yours for the taking.

Using the power of your Heart, Mind and fingertips in conjunction with the life force flowing throughout all of us, we now have the power and ability to heal ourselves from a myriad of ills that keep us tethered to a life that merely offers a glimpse of our true magnificent selves. Yes that’s right.  Learn how to uncover the true YOU!  The YOU that is patiently waiting within to shine a bright light and illuminate your true life path.

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Tags: EFT emotional freedom technique, tapping, energy therapies, mind-body

Family Systems Constellation, a Therapy Workshop at NIHA

Posted by on Wed, Jan 09, 2013

How Do Past Generations Influence Your Life?

Can the Past Help Heal the Present?

What if a man’s addiction were really a search for connection with his father?

Suppose a suicidal woman was unconsciously trying to follow the fate of her aunt who had died at age two many years before the woman was born? What if a woman’s breast cancer were rooted in a loss of connection to her mother or her mother’s mother?

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Tags: energy therapies, integrative health