Posted on CBC News February 1, 2012

Massage helps relieve pain in damaged muscles by sending anti-inflammation messages to muscle cells, Canadian researchers have found.

Athletes have long sought massages to relieve pain and promote recovery. Despite reports that long-term massage therapy reduces chronic pain such as back pain, the biological effects of massage on muscles weren't known.

Now scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton have found evidence at the cellular level that massage blunts muscle pain in a similar way to anti-inflammatory pills.

The study in Wednesday's issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine examined the effects of massage therapy versus no treatment on the quadricep muscles of 11 young men who were recreationally active.

Scientists studied samples from the men before they exercised to the point of exhaustion, just after and then 2½ hours afterwards.

Massage could also help the elderly, those suffering from musculoskeletal injuries and people with chronic inflammatory disease, although that idea still needs to be tested, cautioned the study's lead author, Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky of the pediatrics department at McMaster.

Massage seemed to blunt muscle pain using the same route that anti-inflammatory pain relievers do. (Jack Dempsey/Associated Press)

The study does offer evidence that massage is a safe and viable option to use in medical practice, he said.

"We know that exercise is a panacea of goodness," Tarnopolsky said in an interview. "Massage might enhance some of the favourable benefits that we get from exercise."

This article can be found in its entirety at http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2012/02/01/massage-muscle-repair.html

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 10:01

Dissolving Pain Body

A New Earth

Eckhart Tolle

 

What is the pain body:It is an accumulation of all our hurts, the ones we replay in our mind. In fact, the human mind is hooked on mind chatter and keeping negative emotions alive. These negative thoughts are the story you have told yourself about you. Sometimes we have derived a sense of ourselves and are conditioned by past events. These thoughts which evolve as negative and repetitive thought patterns are not accurate.  They are not who we are.

 

The Pain Body, not fully faced, stays alive.

 

These are the steps for dissolving the Pain Body

 

Watch for any sign of unhappiness in yourself in whatever form…it may be awakening the pain body. This can take the form of irritation, impatience, somber mood, a desire to hurt, anger, rage, depression, a need to have some drama in your relationship and so on. Catch the pain body the moment it awakes from its dormant stage.

 

Observe the resistance within yourself. Observe the attachment to your pain. Be very alert. Observe the peculiar pleasure you derive from being unhappy. Observe the compulsion to talk or think about it. The resistance will cease if you make it conscious.

 

Focus attention on the negative feeling inside of you. Know that it is the pain body. Accept that it is there. Don’t think about it---don’t let the feeling turn into thinking. Don’t judge yourself out of it. Stay present and continue to be the observer of what is happening to you.

 

 

Tuesday, October 25, 2011 - 12:49

Understanding and Cultivating a Positive Mental Attitude

Based on Book by Norman Vincent Peale

 

Believing in Yourself

1.       Five Qualities you do believe you possess

2.       Five areas where you question your skills/abilities

3.       How are your insecure feelings acted out everyday?

4.       What is getting in the way of your happiness and success?

What is in Your Mind

1.       What are your fears? Hates? Worries?

2.       What images pacify you? Describe the image.

3.       What words conjure up peaceful thoughts and images? Describe them here.

Creating an Easy Mind

-          The mind responds to teaching and discipline

-          Saturate your mind with Peaceful thoughts. Take 5 minutes. Whenever negative thoughts enter into your images, just say negative thoughts and go back to creating and describing in great detail your ultimate peaceful place.

-          Recognize and write down what fears, worries or hates have entered

-          Everyday take 15 minutes to empty your mind of all thoughts except those that are beautiful and peaceful.

Self Punishment

1.       Is there any area where you have not forgiven yourself?

2.       Childhood insecurities or guilty experiences. What are you blaming yourself for? Why?

3.       These unconscious images create inflamed states of nerves

4.       Imagine that you are with a circle of angels and they are telling you that you are forgiven. You should no longer hang onto the guilt

Energy

-          In our consciousness we tap a reservoir of boundless energy

-          To access this energy we need to be emotionally well integrated and have emotional self mastery

-          Our physical condition is determined largely by our emotional condition.

-          Our emotional life is regulated by our thoughts

-          Are your thoughts zapping you of energy?

-          Are you stewing about inconsequential things? Are you angry and resentful?

-          You don’t have power over others…..are you trying to influence decisions that others are making? Are you trying to influence thoughts? Feelings and behaviours of others?

-          Remember resentment is the # 1 Block to Physical, emotional, spiritual wellness

-          To live with Constant Energy it is important to get the emotional faults corrected

-          Do you have a plan?

-          Meditate. Picture the Outcome? Actualize?

Creating Your Own Happiness

1.       Keep your heart free from Hate, your mind free from worry

2.       Live simply expect little/give much

3.       Fill Your Life with Love. Scatter sunshine

4.       Forget self. Think of others

5.       Do as you would be done by

6.       Try it for a week

If happiness is determined by our thoughts- it is necessary to drive off the thoughts which make for depression/discouragement

Stop Fuming/Fretting

1.       Sit relaxed in a chair

2.       Progressive relaxation: toes to head

3.       Think of your mind as the surface of a lake in a storm…tossed by waves and tumult.

4.       But now the waves have subsided..the lake is placid and unruffled

5.       Spend 2 minutes visualizing the most beautiful/peaceful scene

6.       Repeat the words that accompany this visualization (sun kissed/serene sky/majestic mountains

7.       Think of life when you felt truly blessed

Expect the Best and Get It

The Story of the Blessed Bats: Hugh Fullerton sports writer of a bygone era

He told the story of Josh O’Reilly, manager of San Antonio Club of the Texas baseball league

Club was in a slump Lost 17 of the 20 games

Josh felt team was thinking wrong. They expected to be defeated

Mental Pattern was not one of Expectation but of Doubt

No Free flow of power in the team

O’Reilly asked for 2 Bats

Went to neighborhood Minister Schlater asked him to bless the bats

Expecting the best means you put your whole heart into it-people are defeated not because of lack of ability but lack of heartedness

Teaching a Boy to High Jump

Throw your heart over the bar—your body will follow

Heart is the symbol of creative activity

Throw your faith over the difficulty

Throw your affirmation over the barrier

Throw your visualization over the obstacle

Expect the Best..not the worst

God runs a beauty parlor…visiting grads 30 years later. Beauty of inner contentment and peace are written all over their faces

Worry..a bad mental habit

1.       You become a worrier by practicing worry

2.       How do you practice Faith?  I believe…3 times every time you interrupt a worry phase.

3.       Practice saying something positive about which you have been talking negatively.

4.       Never participate in a worry conversation

5.       One reason you are a worrier is because your mind is saturated with apprehension thoughts, defeat thoughts and gloomy thoughts…success in this word depends on faith, hope, happiness, glory and radiance!!!

6.       Cultivate friendships with hopeful people.

Solving Life’s Problems

1.       Believe that every problem has a solution

2.       Keep calm

3.       Don’t force an answer

4.       Assemble all facts

5.       Lists facts on paper and your feelings

6.       Meditate/pray on a solution

7.       Trust in the faculty of insight and intuition

8.       Let you subconscious work on the problem as you attune to a mood of hopefulness

When Vitality sags

1.Anger is an emotion and an emotion is always warm, even hot. To reduce emotion..cool it. Control voice, tone, clenching hands, aggressive body language.

Reduce your Volume. Flatten your tone. Slow you speech.

2. Say aloud, my anger will not solve this problem.

3. Under anger is sadness…what am I really sad about?

4. Count to ten

5. Anger accumulates so make a list of all the things bothering you. Deal with them individually.

6. When I am angry I am making a fool out of myself and I am losing friends.

7. Don’t brood over hurt feelings.

8. You and your feelings are important…restore yourself to a peaceful place. Focus on yourself, what you want to feel, meditate on it.

9.  An inflow of new thoughts can remake you.

10. Practice the easy does it .  “I am practicing the art of just sitting in the sun”

11. Never try and restain grief…holding it in means it emerges in some other form.

 

Be memorable

1.       Learn to remember names.

2.       Be a comfortable person

3.       Don’t let things ruffle you..withhold judgement

4.       Don’t be egotistical..guard against knowing it all.

5.       Know the scratchy parts of your personality. Soften them.

6.       I never met a man I didn’t like.

7.       Never miss a chance to say a kind word, a thank you, congratulations

 

 

 

 


 

Understanding and Developing a Positive Mental Attitude

A Two day Workshop with

Joanne Ronan Moore MA

Certified Canadian Counsellor, Executive Coach and Author

 

This dynamic two day workshop is a must for men or women of all ages who feel frustrated with the life circumstances in which they find themselves. A candidate for this workshop may be a person facing a change in their health or that of a loved one,  a loss of a job or a significant relationship. Along with a feeling of frustration or feeling overwhelmed, you may feel sad, anger, disappointed or depressed. You may feel that changing things for the better is not possible.

Joanne will guide you step by step through a process to identify your thought processes, the feelings attached to them and a methodology to turn things around. The two days will be a nice balance between teaching sessions, experiential activities and personal journal time. Joanne creates a safe and warm atmosphere in which to work. Participants are encouraged to be resources to each other.

Call 613.290.3304 to learn more about the two days, to talk to Joanne about your personal circumstances. Messages can be left. This is a private and confidential line.

Please Join Us:

Date:     Saturday and Sunday ….DATES

Time:    9:30-4:30  Bring your Lunch / Snacks and Beverages provided

Place:

Directions:

 

Joanne’s Background:

A former leader in education of 20 years, Joanne graduated in the Pastoral Counselling program at St. Pauls’s University in 2004. She works in private practice as a counsellor and coach. She works with MBA students at Queen’s  and Cornell Universities and runs a vibrant private practice helping clients deal with life’s  stresses in such a way as to enable them to go on to reach their full potential. An experienced team facilitator, Joanne enjoys leading workshops on topics that she feels are fundamental to a person’s well being and success.

 

Wednesday, October 12, 2011 - 15:28

Carl Jung believed that in order to be complete a human being needs to be involved in the process of individuation which is “a life long process of becoming more fully and wholly oneself.”  We all have an outward Persona which may be a mask we have chosen to wear to be in the world.  The question we need to ask ourselves regularly is, “does this persona reflect who I really am and wish to be?” 

We may have shadow aspects that are not developed or suppressed because we have deemed them unacceptable to our belief systems or those of society. We also may have hidden talents and strengths we do not realize. Sometimes, the strength, the gift, the way of finding new energy and transcendence involves confronting the shadow and dialoguing with it.  

Where is this shadow?  In the unconscious.  How is it accessed?  By connecting with symbols with great emotion through art, fantasy, myths, movement, dreams, or expressive sand play therapy. Conscious and unconscious processes are united in symbols. When there is eventually a union of opposite energies, love, wholeness and something beyond, the Self, which is the core of the human being, becomes constellated.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 - 17:55

          Having worked in the health care industry since 1975, I am often at a loss as to what really is in our best interests. Cancer, diabetes and heart issues are increasing at epidemic rates. Depression is rampant. The media, pharmaceutical companies, vaccine producers, and our trusted medical personnel constantly bombard us with statistics; launching massive fear based campaigns to help us, the suffering masses, make “healthy” choices. It seems to me that our society, in general, is engaged in an all out war against “pain” of any kind. There are pills for aches, arthritis and muscle strain. Under the tongue melting pharmaceuticals to ease anxiety; any unwanted or uncomfortable emotion in fact. Vaccines abound for just about every childhood malady known to the western world. Pain avoidance is a multimillion dollar industry. In fact it seems to be the grease that keeps much of our society moving.

          I'm not suggesting that pain is in anyway comfortable or that it is acceptable to  purposely create or inflict it on oneanother. But imagine for a moment what life would be like if you were to embrace your pain. That really is what I said.  In a supportive and loving environment, embrace the pain. Examine it's source; let it be for a time; give it space to breathe; room to heal. There would be much less scrambling, tearing, grasping; much more serenity, acceptance, releasing, and growth.

          At this point you are probably wondering what on earth all of this talk of loving your pain has to do with Breast Care. There is a growing sector of light-workers in our world that has come to understand that covering up our pain with what have come to be viewed as “conventional” medical practices, leads to furtherance of suffering in the form of dis-ease. Depression, for example, is the expression of suppressed “painful” emotion. Our physical bodies find many places to store these unwanted, unloved, unresolved, causes of pain; pain that is both physical and emotional. 

          Breast tissue is no exception. Breast cancer rates are phenomenal. One in eight women can “expect” to develop breast cancer. More statistics. Imagine for a moment that the cancer is encapsulating some painful, suppressed experience. It embraces and loves this ”pain”; gives it a place to heal, if we have the awareness to allow that to happen. So what would happen if one was to love and embrace the painful experience before it became entrenched in the body's tissues?  Would there be a need for cancerous growths?

          When women come to me for Breast Care, we work not only with the breast tissue, but also with the lymphatic system The lymphatic system is the transport medium for toxic waste cleanup, as well as the medium for building immune boosting cells It is the “water” of the body. Water is an excellent transport medium for emotions. The breasts are made to nourish and nurture. Emotions are closely associated with both of these acts. Unexpressed, unexplored, unaccepted, emotions will fester and cause cysts, tumours, congestion and dis-ease in the breast tissues.  Re Joyce! Breast Care helps to heal these breast discomforts and dis-eases.

          It is a common occurrence for women to revisit emotional issues while receiving breast care. Issues arise and are released, as the fluids of the breast are freed to move optimally. During these sessions I  hold a space for women to safely examine, express, and release any emotions that arise.

          The physical aspect of the treatment is gentle and never forceful. Rhythmic stretching and releasing of the skin encourages the breast tissue to release it's toxic build up into the lymphatic system, which in turn delivers it's load to the kidneys for disposal as urine. 

          Breast care provides space for both physical and emotional healing to take place. Talk with someone who has experienced a breast care session. Find out how they felt; what moved for them. Weigh your options. You are at choice.

 

Christine Joyce RN

Friday, April 1, 2011 - 10:00
Please join us in congratulating Denise!

You are invited to join Denise Carpenter of Reiki Associates as she launches her first book; Reiki Wings, Usui Reiki Teacher's Handbook.

 

The Teacher's Handbook offers a complete set of teaching outlines for all levels of traditional Usui Reiki. 

It includes suggestions for class structure, scheduling, and content. 

Denise presents the fundamentals Reiki teachings while encouraging the reader to create their personal style for passing on this information. 

The set of  comprehensive student notes included in this book are also available individually.

 

The launch will be from 1pm to 5pm on March 19, 2011 at the Lotus Wings Centre, 30 North Street, Perth.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 15:04

Welcome to the Lotus Wings Blog.  Our intent is to present a weekly article written by our Practitioner of the Month.  If you would like to comment or dialogue with that particular practitioner, their information is available at the end of their article or on the home page. If there are topics you would like to explore, please email either Denise or Catherine with your suggestions.Enjoy and Be Well...                Denise and Catherine

Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 14:25