Wait! Autumn can be good for my health?

Wait! Autumn can be good for my health?

by | Mar 30, 2023 | Headaches, Healthcare & Wellbeing Tips, Men's Health, Mindset, Pain, Womens Health

It’s Autumn, and the festivals of Easter and Passover coming up too. At this time of year, many people do a thorough “spring” cleaning. And it becomes a focused time to release things from our home, office and our life.

We can do the same with our bodies!

Autumn is also a great time to release the tightness f our bodies. To ease our aches and pains and other issues.

Watch this video to hear about 2 acupressure points you can use to help shift your energy, to start helping your aches and pains to release.

Rather read the transcript of the interview on Revitalise and Renu?

Here it is…

Fiona: Welcome back to Alive 90.5. We’ve been talking about massage with our beautiful guest, Sarah Gowans. We just listened to that song, which is about depression and the blues, because, you don’t just do massage, you also do acupressure, correct? 

Sarah: As part of the massage treatment that I do, yes, acupressure is one of the tools I have, correct.

Fiona: Can you tell our audience a little bit about what acupressure is, and how it can help, in massage, but also how it can help factors around depression or sadness?

Sarah: Beautiful question Fiona! 

So acupressure, like acupuncture is based on the Meridian channels in Traditional Chinese medicine. Rather than using needles in acupuncture, acupressure is just using finger pressure. So it’s the sort of thing that you can even do on your own body. 

Each of the meridian channels are associated with certain emotions. So kidney and bladder meridians, for example, are about fear. 

While the Lung and Large Intestine meridians are about the emotion of grief and the energy of releasing. So they are great to use especially if you’re either trying to spring clean, or if you’re trying to spring clean your body. Particularly when it’s in its element, and that’s in the season of Autumn.

Fiona: Tell me a bit more. When you say spring cleaning, what do you mean? Because obviously, you’re talking about spring cleaning negative emotions out of the body.

Sarah: Yes, you can release lots of things and it’s a great time to physically spring clean your house, just as much as you’re spring cleaning yourself. And in Chinese medicine, the best time to do that, to release stuff is actually Autumn rather than spring. Just to have it a little backward. But, yes, it can be really powerful to clear out and just let go of things that you no longer need, correct.

Fiona: Yes okay. That’s very good, very good. 

And so let’s have a look at this acupressure. Obviously, we were talking earlier in the other session, about self-care. Is there any acupressure that you can show me, that I could do, or you could help me do, now, on the radio? One that I can use on a particular Meridian?

Sarah: Absolutely, yes! We have a few things that we can do. After today’s show, I can send you a picture and if you’d like. You can even pop it on your Facebook page so that your listeners can see to it as well. 

Fiona: Okay, so talk me through it so we can verbally tell the audience what we’re doing.

Sarah: Perfect! Excellent. 

So on your pointer finger, on the side of the nail, at the base of the nail bed, on the thumb side of your pointer finger, that is a Large Intestine point. Large Intestine point number one. If you press it, you might find that it’s tender. You don’t need to press it so hard that it really hurts. Just a little press, with the nail of your other thumb, is enough to activate it.

If it’s not tender, well it probably isn’t an issue for you.

Fiona: Okay, maybe Christmas dinner, it might be!

Sarah: Quite so, absolutely

And there are some great acupressure points that you can do to support your body through constipation, and that sort of thing as well. Don’t do those, if you are pregnant. Not an issue personally, but for any listeners out there you don’t want to be bringing the energy downwards when you are pregnant. So that’s a good one to avoid in that instance.

But Lung energy is another meridian whose energy is about grief. That’s on the inside of your arm on the thumb side of the wrist. About a finger width away from the crease in your wrist you’ll find a spot that also might be tender. It’s quite close to the wrist itself.

Fiona: That’s it. Yes, now I can feel a little bit, yep I can feel something there yes.

Sarah: Right, so that’s Lung #8.

Fiona: Lung #8, yes? And that’s where you store any sad energies? Is that what you’re saying?

Sarah: So, Lung and Large Intestine meridians are both connected to the emotion of grief, yes.  They can be great spots, both of these, to help your body support you to let go of that grief energy.

Fiona: Now there we go, we learn something new all the time, don’t we guys? I do love having our guests on the show. Sarah, you’re a wealth of knowledge absolute wealth of knowledge. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing everything else. Thank you very much also for being a member of Alive nine of five absolutely love it.

Now Sarah’s going to stay and join me in my second half and we’re going to be talking about birthdays. Yes we’ll come back to that very soon. But thank you for this first hour Sarah 

Sarah: You’re very welcome Fiona

Fiona: I really appreciate that so yes so acupuncture, and lots of other things. I really love it you’re a superstar!

So, let’s have a look at what we’ve got coming up. Because we’re on the topic of grief, and how acupuncture and massage can help you, I’m going to play a beautiful single. I think she’s a beautiful singer, she was remarkably good at what she did. Called Amy Winehouse, and I’m going to play “You know I’m no good”. But of course, if you’re out there guys, we know you’re very good!

I just wanted to say thank you Sarah for coming on board to a live 90.5 we’ve loved having you on here.

Sarah:  Thanks Fiona Mary Berry, and thank you Alive 90.5 FM for having me here it’s been a pleasure.

Final Thoughts:

Body tension, aches, and pains can drive you to … (fill in your blank). But there are things that you can do to help release and ease them. Sometimes even before you get to professional care. I hope you have found these tips for reducing the mental and physical pain in your body, helpful.

Please remember that it is always best to have persistent aches properly assessed by a health professional, to ensure that there is no serious cause that needs to be addressed. If you have pain that you want to be cleared out of your life…

Book today and we can do a full assessment, and treatment plan, and help you back to enjoying your life to the full.

Please Help Release My Pain

Hungry for more?

If you’d like to learn a bit more about how you can use the energy and the season of Autumn, to positively impact your mood, check out this blog “Autumn Energy Cleanse; Clear Your Blocked Energy”

The surprising power of the Gentle

The surprising power of the Gentle

by | Mar 22, 2023 | Headaches, Healthcare & Wellbeing Tips, Men's Health, Mindset, Pain, Womens Health

Rather read the Interview transcript?

Fiona: So guys we’re back here it’s 29 minutes to three on Alive 90.5 on Revitalise and Renu, your health and wellness show.

What we’re going to be talking about, is: Why massage Why is massage so important to each of us? And what does it do?

So we talked earlier about how it helps alleviate some of those emotions that you keep inside you, especially over Christmas We all realize it’s the most stressful time. It really can be.

Although, it cannot be too, I mean you know, you can choose. But most of the time there’s something around Christmas that stresses you out. It could be the shopping, could be meeting with people you don’t want to meet, could be doing all the preparation work and nobody else is helping you. Could be a whole heap of things.

So Sarah, tell me a little bit about what people can do out there. What our community can do for self-care? A great massage?

Sarah: Great question Fiona!

Yes, self-care at this time of the year is really important. To help people as you say, cope with all the challenges that are going on right now even just their only expectations of what they want Christmas to be and the pressure that we put on ourselves in, creating that. So yes self-care is really really valuable and it helps, not only your physical health your immunity, your mindset, and attitude. I know they’re passions of yours as well. And yes, it can just empower all areas of your life. Even your relationships. So that you don’t let things get to you as they might otherwise have done. 

And massage is just one form of self-care. Whether you have it done to you, or you do it for yourself. But you can do things like the Epsom salt baths that we were speaking about a moment ago. You can do things like acupressure points. That’s one that you and I had a quick chat about in the break. 

Fiona: And the next break I’m going to get her to show me some acupressure points. but hold on I’ll tell you about that and the second and the third half.  Keep going. Fabulous!

Sarah: So even simple things like deep breathing just taking a moment to be grateful and having an attitude of gratitude of real appreciation for what you do have in your life. Whether it’s your own two feet that can walk you down the road or a fabulous family around you, surrounding you with love. 

Fiona: I think that’s so important, absolutely. I have a gratitude book, and sometimes I’m very good in writing the Gratitude book, and sometimes I’m not. But even if I don’t write in it, I regularly say “I am the luckiest person out there” and almost all my friends will go yep that’s exactly what she says. I’ll tell my hubby “I’m the luckiest woman! You know I got the jackpot I married you.” I’ll tell my friends I’m so lucky I’ve got you as my friends, because I genuinely believe it’s great to have a group of friends around you. I will go shopping and go I’m the luckiest person out. Someone’s going to move out of a car spot, and you know what, the universe tends to give it to us. It’s just amazing that this expectation of being lucky gives you. 

And some more ideas of self-care? 

Sarah: Things that also will be close to your heart Fiona, exercise. So with exercise, anything that you like to do, is a good thing good form of exercise. So whether that’s walking whether that’s a Tai Chi class or yoga a class whatever that is for you. Anything that gets your body moving is amazingly wonderful to help shift that stuck energy. 

Fiona: In fact the guests I’ve got on next week is I’ve got some are quite aerobic ladies and gentlemen that are going to be invited onto the show just sharing the benefits of water. Water around your body when you’re exercising and that’s a great self-care one. Isn’t it?

Sarah: Absolutely, absolutely!

And the other ones you may have, that I haven’t thought of, if you’ve got pets at home. We’ve got cats. I know you’ve got dogs 

Fiona: Oh absolutely! Therapy they are. 

Sarah: The most gorgeous things and they’re full of love and they give that love to you. So playing with pets, talking to a friend, picking up the telephone, sending an email. Anything like that, It taps into that whole appreciation mode, and helps you to stay in that positive mindset. So those things can be wonderful. If you’re into meditation, or prayer even. These can be fabulous to help bring you back to a centered space 

Fiona: And while we’re talking about that, one of the reasons I got into Tai Chi, was I once went to a lady that did sound bath meditations because it was the one thing that enabled this now 58-year-old, then 57, to be able to understand how to meditate. When you’re constantly on the go, is that you are you? Someone who’s constantly on the go? You may be you’re a business executive, you’re always moving. Maybe you’re a mother. Maybe you just constantly have lots of activity going on and you never stop. And you feel that when people tell you to meditate five, ten minutes I can’t do this? Well I found this sound bath meditation and it was just awesome. Absolutely awesome. So for now guys, I just wanted to say thank you Sarah for coming on board to a live 90.5. We’ve loved having you on here!

Sarah: Thanks Fiona Mary Berry and thank you Alive 90.5 FM for having me here it’s been a pleasure.

Final Thoughts:

Self-care can help you to lift your energy, shift and release aches, and pains. Self-care can be a powerful way to assist our physical healing as well as build our mental and emotional resilience.

If you also want your healing to progress and flow as well as possible. To relieve your pain and build your strength, while balancing and supporting your body’s healing.
So you to feel amazing, vibrant, and full of energy!

If you would like assistance to achieve that… Book today and we can do a full assessment, and treatment plan, and help you back to enjoying your life to the full.

Please Help with my Neck Pain

Hungry for more?

You might also find it interesting to learn a bit more about how your neck pain can impact your mood. If so, check out this blog “Your Teacher was Right”.

Strategies to Assist Your Neck Pain At Home

Strategies to Assist Your Neck Pain At Home

by | Mar 3, 2023 | Headaches, Healthcare & Wellbeing Tips, Massage, Men's Health, Mindset, Pain, Posture, Womens Health

Rather read the transcript?

Good morning and welcome to Blossoming Me. I’m Sarah Gowans, massage therapist at Blossoming Me.

Today I wanted to continue our chat about neck pain. Talking particularly about ways to prevent it, and what actually causes it in the first place. Things you can do to look after yourself, not only with hope clear your pain but help boost your energy and clarity of mind.

So welcome to BlossomingMe.

Allied Health Worker Repetitive Strain Neck Pain

Common Causes of Neck Pain

You know, it’s easy to ignore your neck, to take it for granted when you don’t have pain. But goodness me don’t we know about it when it gets tight, we can’t move it or it gets painful.

If you’ve had it you know what I mean. So, the three main causes of neck pain are things like: repetitive motions, posture, and our mental and emotional health (stress basically). 

So, according to the Mount Sinai organisation, the most common cause rather of neck pain is repetitive motions that cause strain. So you are overusing those muscles in your neck, which is causing problems, so the muscle gets tight. Now when that muscle gets tight, it can start recruiting other muscles, and we’ll come to that in just a moment. But things like if you’re swimming, freestyle for example, and constantly turning your head in one direction, that can overwork your neck. If you’re doing dance moves, and continually moving your head in some interesting position. Any strain in this position will then be exacerbated, simply by practising that dance. Doing that over and over again, your body is going to get stressed by that, which can cause, and lead to neck pain and tightness. 

In our society commonly what we do is work with what’s in front of us. Whether it’s a computer, on an operating table, working with your hands in some fashion, it’s always in front of us. 

Why? Because that’s where our eyes are. You know not only do we work with what is in front of us, because that’s where our eyes are our whole body is geared to be a Steadicam for our eyes. So it (our body) is busy focusing, steadying us, and our neck is crucial in that. So it’s all about keeping our eyes level. Steady so that we don’t get dizzy so that we know where the horizon is. So that we aren’t put off when we’re running from a predator, back in you know, a long time ago. 

Repetitive movements may create neck pain

But all these aspects can stress your neck and body, because you use it constantly to keep your eyes level. Not only are you using your neck, but you are constantly adjusting those muscles, ligaments and tendons. Continually adjusting those vertebrae through your neck and your whole spine, to keep your eyes level and steady. So when they go out of whack, in some continuously [used] position, because you’re swimming or doing some funky dance move, and straining it, that can have a taxing effect on the body, an overload.

Neck-pain-repetitive-movements-bad-posture

When doing these motions and movements in a repetitive fashion, that can actually become an unconscious pattern… Once they’re an unconscious pattern, that actually becomes your posturem, and if we aren’t focused on creating a great posture, how you’re standing, how you’re sitting, being aware of factors that create a good posture, then you can end up with a bad posture. 

So things like sitting for a long period of time, whether that’s relaxing on the couch, watching TV in a not-so-helpful position, or whether that’s stressing because you’ve got a lot of work on, and you’re leaning forward, into the computer and watching, with a whole lot of pressure, because the world is sitting on your shoulders, and that’s tugging at those muscles and ligaments in your neck. Whether that’s sleeping in an awkward or uncomfortable position. All these things can be leading to a not-so-helpful posture, a poor posture, and that can create neck pain. 

You can wake up in the morning, “Oh my goodness how did this happen? I’ve got a “Rye Neck”, a neck that feels [seriously] painful. It can lead to headaches, and all sorts of other challenges as well. But why? Because you’ve had a bad night’s sleep! Sometimes that can just be on one night, sometimes it’s because it’s happened repetitively, on multiple nights, but the position that you are in for any length of time can affect your neck. What a surprise!

Male-stressed-in-neck-pain

Is your stress levels impacting your neck?

Finally, mental and emotional health, things like stress, because you’re involved in what you’re doing, feeling the pressure, and that can stress you out. When you’re stressed, your shoulders tighten up, your whole spine can tighten up, and that can put your hips out, your shoulders out, and that of course has a run-on effect into your neck.

Sometimes it actually starts by sitting badly in that chair at work, with high pressure, and all those emotional things. You’ve got your hips out, (in your body’s continual process of adjusting your whole back again), to keep your eyes level. And what happens is that your neck is the last thing that has to adjust in order to compensate for all that is going on in the rest of your spine. It’s trying to do that last adjustment, to keep your eyes level, and that’s where you feel the pain in that final point. The stress, the anxiety, the lack of social support, all come into your body. Your body can’t help but respond to that mental and emotional situation of where you have got yourselves into. 

Preventative neck pain strategies

So how can you prevent all these things? Simply by having good posture, taking breaks, and staying active. If you have a lot of activity in your life, you [likely] know how beneficial that can be, in keeping you fit, active, energised, and keeping your muscles loose, limber, and functioning well.

Maintain good posture

Having a great posture is a good place to start. So making sure that when you are sitting at your desk, it is at the right height. The keyboard is at a comfortable height for you to be typing at, the monitor is at a good height for your eyes, so that you’re not tilting up or tilting down, or sideways. Some people have meetings, I heard this from a friend the other day. She had a meeting, and the person was talking with her, and she was typing over here, [directly in front of her body] and looking over there, [turning her head fully to the right] wondering why she had a sore neck. So these things that we don’t even think about, become an unconscious pattern and affect our posture.

Making sure that your chair is at a good height, as well, so that your feet are comfortably flat on the floor, supporting the rest of you Your knees lower than your hips, so that that, encourages your spine to be naturally straight. 

prevent-neck-pain-exercise-at-home
Woman relaxing by tree take regular breaks neck pain

Take regular breaks

As well as a good posture, make sure you take breaks. Go and get yourself a glass of water, go and get yourself a coffee. Go for a walk around the room. If you’re on the phone maybe you can have a conversation with somebody while you are walking around the office or the house or wherever it is that you happen to be working from. But movement and taking breaks away from that seated position can be really powerful. The stand-sit desks are awesome, but only if you use both functions. Standing and sitting, so that your body is constantly moving, adjusting, and not getting into a bad posture and staying there for hours on end, because you’re engrossed in what you’re doing. Or even worse feeling pressure about what you’re doing

Stay active

Staying active as I said, is really, really important. Doing those things on a regular basis, so that you can keep your body moving well, in different directions. And knowing just how important that is to keep your mind active, because when you’re moving and your body is active, your mind is also [more] active. When you’re moving and your body is active, the muscles are flowing, and when the muscles, and the blood, the circulation is flowing, well that helps the whole system to just feel much freer, and support you to clear that whole neck pain, even though you’re not necessarily just moving your neck.

Emotional Support

And finally as a bonus point on how to prevent neck pain, make sure you do things to support yourself emotionally. Make sure that you get support from your friends. Make sure that you are taking time out for yourself. You might be an active parent, who’s busy looking out for your kids all the time, make sure that you take time to look after number one. Put that oxygen mask on you, first. Remember that doing the exercise classes and that sort of thing, can be a fabulous way to nurture and look after you. Doing meditations, visualisations, hypnosis, or anything like that can be another way of looking after you. 

yoga class

I’ve seen some fabulous photographs on Facebook recently, of a beautiful group photo, with a dear friend who’s in a wheelchair with friends gathered around. A fantastic shot, of just the emotional support that these friends are giving each other, as well as their dear friend who’s been in a wheelchair for many years. It’s a stunning photograph and a great example of how much we need that emotional support. And all of this has an effect on our body. It takes the pressure off. It reduces our stress, and it supports our neck, helping to ease that pain.

So thank you for joining me here this morning at Blossoming Me, to find ways to help support your body continue on that journey to nurture yourself. To clear that neck pain, and prevent it from coming back.

I look forward to seeing you at our next one.

Have an awesome day!

Final Thoughts:

Neck pain can be excruciating, but there are things that you can do to help prevent it. I hope you have found these tips useful to support your whole body, and assist you in avoiding neck pain.

If you have neck pain that you want to be cleared out of your life… Book today and we can do a full assessment, and treatment plan, and help you back to enjoying your life to the full.

Please Help with my Neck Pain

Hungry for more?

You might also find it interesting to learn a bit more about how your neck pain can impact your mood. If so, check out this blog “Your Teacher was Right”.

Author: Sarah Gowans

About Blossoming Me

BlossomingMe offers a fully integrated approach to your wellbeing. Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. Sarah is our Craniosacral and Remedial Massage Therapist and health and lifestyle coach. She can help relieve those problematic knots, tightness and other specific ailments to promote a healthy recovery. These complementary massage therapies can be combined to suit your needs, and include: craniosacral therapy, shiatsu, acupressure, reiki, remedial, swedish, and body-mind-massage. 

Our qualified Osteopath, Alexis, offers a drug free, minimally invasive, “hands on” treatment focusing on the musculoskeletal system with its associated muscles, tendons, ligaments, membranes, bones and joints. Alexis takes a functional approach. This means that she focuses on the way a component (body part, tissue or group of tissues) performs its role, as well as the way the body works, performs and integrates as a whole. Our team can support you to improve your posture and therefore your overall health.

**Disclaimer** The information provided by BlossomingMe, on our website, in our courses, and in our blogs and posts, is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided on this site and social outlets is not, nor intended to be, a substitute for profess

ional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health professional before you make any changes to your health regime, before dealing with new symptoms, and, if something you have read here has raised any questions or concerns regarding your situation.

Could A Relaxed Neck Really Improve your Energy?

Could A Relaxed Neck Really Improve your Energy?

by | Feb 24, 2023 | Headaches, Healthcare & Wellbeing Tips, Men's Health, Pain, Womens Health

Rather read the transcript?

Here it is…

Hi guys and welcome to blossoming me.

Today is a beautiful sunny day, not. Okay so in that light you woke up this morning and your neck was on fire. You just move your head and it absolutely excruciating pain.

Oh my goodness what are you going to do for your day?

Everything is in question and after a couple of hours of work you’re completely exhausted as well!

Can you relate?

Well at blossoming me this is something that we see quite often, so in this video I’d really like to share some ideas with things that you can do at home to help you through those real tough times. So we’re wanting to reduce the impact on your energy. We want to reduce that pain itself so that you can actually get through your day, because it can be tough. Making things like even getting dressed a challenge. Getting to work in your car a challenge. Imagine reversing the car. You can’t turn your neck. You can’t turn your head, you can’t see.  So how are you going to cope?

It’s amazing what happens with our neck. How much we take it for granted until we actually get to these points in time. And so today I wanted to discuss with you, things that you can do to really help you get through a tough time like that.

Neck pain can vary in intensity it can be fairly mild and just restricted in movement, all the way through to that excruciating, on fire sensation. 

So what we want to do is firstly take a breath. Calm yourself. That will help your body to cope. That will help bring you back into your body and that’s pretty crucial. When it comes to dealing with pain it’s a scary place to be, when your body is feeling on fire. So we want to take it slow. Maybe to be gentle with ourselves and that’s really important.

But things that you can do …

Now if you’ve seen as a blossoming me, you know heat is your friend. I talk to clients all the time about heat being your best friend.

Unless there is actually swelling going on, one of the best things you can do when you’re in this predicament, whether it’s just a little bit of movement that you’re having trouble with or real pain. Heat is your very best friend. 

Hot showers, let that hot water really sink into those muscles. All the way from your occiput, in the top of your neck, all the way down your back. It’s all of those muscles not just the actual neck, from our chin to our shoulders that we’re worried about. All of the back and up, into the bottom of the head is going to be related to what’s going on in your neck. Especially if there’s a lot of pain. So let that hot water really soak in, gently but definitely over a few minutes, let it just pound. 

So, hot showers, an nice warm baths. Doesn’t have to be excruciatingly hot, but an Epsom salt bath can do more than just reduce the pain in your nerves and muscles if you’re having a bad day. It’s such a powerful thing Epsom salts. What we’re wanting to do here though, is let it settle the nerves, reduce the tension in the muscles. And so if you can manage a whole bath, that can relax, not just your lower back, but right up, into your ribs, right into your mid back, upper back, and into the shoulders where you’re going to start getting that maximum effect into the neck. 

So again nice, warm baths with epsom salts. Heat packs are another heat treat. Nurturing and nourishing your body. Make sure when you’re using heat packs that they go across both shoulders otherwise you end up lifting the one shoulder, in order to balance the heat pack, which is defeating the whole purpose of trying to relax your shoulders, so that your neck can also become much easier. So, along with the Epsom salts, the heat pack and the bath really, really, really powerful stuff, heat! 

Then we jump into other things that you can do for yourself. Being a massage therapist, I tend to go for the self-massage. So gently but deeply, squeezing between your thumb and your fingers squeezing along this bone here which is the clavicle or the collarbone. It’s right in the middle of your shoulder, as in, between the front and the back. And it goes along from your neck out to your shoulder. These can be really, really tight when your neck is in agony, so just be gentle.

It’s likely going to hurt. It can be a real problem area. So you want to go slow. You’ll find that less pressure done more often, repeated more times, will be better for you, rather than really getting in deep the first go. Just take it easy. So gentle pressure all the way along. Finger to thumb, from your neck out to the edge of your shoulder.

Also, circles. Grab your two middle fingers. Work gently down the side of your neck. You can go anywhere along your neck, that your body can handle. Remember, you want to stay in your comfort zone, so work your way gently down the neck, and around the neck. Going in lines down the neck, and that will help to ease those muscles. So self-massage can be a really powerful thing to do. 

It can also lift your energy. So as we find with neck pain, it can really be dropping that head and neck and shoulders, which can compromise your breathing and that can also compromise your attitude. When you’re starting to look down, your mood can drop as well. And so by easing the pain, you’ll find that your body will lift, and that will lift your mood.

You may start to really feel the sense that you can actually do something. That you’re having an effect. And that can be a really powerful sense, as well as help you really believe that you can make a difference for yourself. Which of course you can. Self-healing is all healing. So you healing yourself is one of the best things that you can do, between sessions if you’re seeing a therapist, like a chiropractor, osteopath, massage therapist, or physio. If you’re seeing anybody like that, this can help in between sessions or possibly before you get to a professional.

Okay, my last tip and trick, is one of my favourites. This is going to sound really bizarre, but in Shiatsu, we look at the neck, which moves your head in all directions, as being just like your wrists and your ankles.

So, with your wrist, moving your hand in a figure of eight, so in all directions. Holding firmly at the wrist end of your forearm, and moving your hand into a figure of eight, that will release and relax those muscles. And that can have an effect on your neck. It sounds bizarre, but in Shiatsu, that’s how it works. So if your neck is too sore to touch, you might like to play with your wrists and your ankles. When you’re doing that, you may very well find that one side is more creaky and crunchy, or more painful in the wrist or ankle than the other side. Chances are, your neck is going to mirror that. 

Also, you’ll find very often our body is a mirror for what’s going on in our mind. For example, if you’re having trouble with your neck, a stiff neck, as it’s often called, you may also be having trouble looking at different issues in your life, from more than one perspective. If you’re wanting to be able to empower your mind to look at these things from different perspectives, try resolving any neck issues. Amazing as it sounds, our body mirrors our mind, our mind mirrors our body. They are strongly connected. So have a play with that and see if it loosens up your mind, as well.

So thank you for being here with us today. I hope one of these three things, the self-massage, the heat, or the Shiatsu technique of rotating the wrists and the ankles has helped you today, to loosen your neck pain, and to ease it, with any luck. I hope you’re feeling better quickly.

I Really hope that this was helpful. And if you liked the video,  please “like it”. And if you think that someone could benefit from this information, please share it for us… and for them. And if you have any questions please ask them, as well. We’d love to help you out, personally.

Thank you for watching today and we look forward to seeing you next time.

Final Thoughts:

Neck pain can be excruciating, but there are things that you can do to help relieve it, potentially even before you get to professional care, that don’t include painkillers. I hope you have found these three tips for reducing your neck pain helpful. Please remember that it is always best for neck pain to be properly assessed by a health professional, to ensure that there is no serious cause that needs to be addressed.

If you have neck pain that you want to be cleared out of your life… Book today and we can do a full assessment, and treatment plan, and help you back to enjoying your life to the full.

Please Help with my Neck Pain

Hungry for more?

You might also find it interesting to learn a bit more about how your neck pain can impact your mood. If so, check out this blog “Your Teacher was Right”.

Three Techniques for Headaches

Three Techniques for Headaches

by | Feb 16, 2023 | Headaches, Healthcare & Wellbeing Tips, Men's Health, Pain, Womens Health

Rather read the transcript?

Here it is…

So today I want to give you three techniques for headaches, while you’re in pain. So in Chinese medicine, body balance is achieved by activating energy points associated with different channels of energy flow. If energy, blood or fluid is blocked, then disease, stagnation, or pain can occur.

So in one part of your body, you might get stagnation and pressure. And in another area, you’ll get a lack of energy, fluid and blood. So in any of those areas, whether there’s too much or too little, you could get dysfunction, disease and pain. So three meridians that are useful when you have headache are the liver, gallbladder and large intestine.

Next time you have a headache, maybe you want to try these three points. And also you could take notice.

Overcome headaches caused by frustration and resentment

If you’re feeling frustrated or resentment, you can focus first on the liver three point.

 

Supporting yourself through grief and sadness

If you’re noticing you have grief or sadness, or you’re fighting a bug, then you could try the large intestine point.

How to clear your mind and tackle decision-making challenges

And if you feel like you’re having trouble making decisions or clearing your mind, then you could start with the gallbladder point. So just a note that with gallbladder 41, you want to not use it during pregnancy, especially in the first trimester, because it could potentially induce labour.

 

Apply these techniques for headaches

Okay, so all these techniques are about finding the point and then adding a little bit of gentle firm pressure. And holding that for somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.

You want to notice what you’re feeling. Sometimes there’ll be pain. Sometimes odd sensations. And sometimes you don’t notice anything. But if you’re feeling pain or an odd sensation, wait until that sensation starts to subside before you stop.

So the first one is liver three. This one is between the big toe and the second toe on the metatarsal, just sort of almost in the middle of the foot.

Gallbladder forty… forty-one is on the outside of the foot, but very similar. So between the fifth and the fourth metatarsals, just before the middle of the foot.

And the large intestine is on the back of the hand between the thumb and the first finger, in that webbing.

And all of them, you might feel a tender spot or a nodule. On those spots, you just want to hold pressure or gently rub it. Take some deep breaths to help relax through the process, and when you’re done, have a large glass of water to help flush your system.

I really hope this was helpful? If you have any questions, please leave those in the comments below.

If you give it a try, also let us know how it goes. And if you think someone could benefit from this information, please share it for us… Share it for them.

Thank you so much, and I look forward to any feedback.

Final Thoughts:

Headaches can be debilitating but, there are things that you can do to help relieve the pain that don’t include pain killers. I hope you have found these three techniques for reducing pain during a headache, useful. Please remember that all headaches should be properly assessed and diagnosed by a health professional, to ensure that there is no serious cause that needs to be addressed. 

If you have headaches that you want out of your life… Book today and we can do a full assessment, treatment plan and help you enjoy your life, pain-free.   

Please Help with my Headaches

Hungry for more?

You might also find it interesting to learn about how your feet can contribute to your headaches. If so, here is the video-blog where I discuss the foot headache connection.

Author: Alexis Weidland

About Blossoming Me

BlossomingMe offers a fully integrated approach to your wellbeing. Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. Sarah is our Craniosacral and Remedial Massage Therapist and health and lifestyle coach. She can help relieve those problematic knots, tightness and other specific ailments to promote a healthy recovery. These complementary massage therapies can be combined to suit your needs, and include: craniosacral therapy, shiatsu, acupressure, reiki, remedial, swedish, and body-mind-massage. 

Our qualified Osteopath, Alexis, offers a drug free, minimally invasive, “hands on” treatment focusing on the musculoskeletal system with its associated muscles, tendons, ligaments, membranes, bones and joints. Alexis takes a functional approach. This means that she focuses on the way a component (body part, tissue or group of tissues) performs its role, as well as the way the body works, performs and integrates as a whole. Our team can support you to improve your posture and therefore your overall health.

**Disclaimer** The information provided by BlossomingMe, on our website, in our courses, and in our blogs and posts, is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided on this site and social outlets is not, nor intended to be, a substitute for profess

ional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health professional before you make any changes to your health regime, before dealing with new symptoms, and, if something you have read here has raised any questions or concerns regarding your situation.

The Foot Headache Connection

The Foot Headache Connection

by | Feb 10, 2023 | Foot Care, Headaches, Healthcare & Wellbeing Tips, Pain, Posture, TMJ

Rather read the transcript?

Here it is…

So, this afternoon I am just having a quick chat about the foot and headache connection. Foot health may reduce headaches. I’d like to start with understanding a little bit about how the feet work and what they do. So obviously our feet are involved in our walking.

The function of feet

One of their major functions is to make sure that they act as a shock absorber. And in that process of acting as a shock absorber, they also allow the energy that movement creates to be propelled up through the body to support active movement, with as little energy from us as possible. So when our feet function correctly, they do this sort of a movement as we walk. This is a kind of supination and this is a sort of pronation, the flat foot and the high arch.

And when they do that, hopefully you can see that that would allow the pressure of moving to dissipate through the feet and not go up the foot. So when our feet are functioning properly, that pressure moves comfortably. But when our arch isn’t moving very well, then with every step it just goes nice and hard. Which means the pressure doesn’t dissipate through the foot, and instead moves up our body chain to wherever our weakest point is, and causes extra pressure in that spot. And over time, will create muscle tension and pain.

So if our legs are different lengths; if our spine has a twist in it; or if our feet don’t pronate or supinate the same amount.  If you’ve got one going like this, which causes a twist in your body, then that will cause a twist all the way up through your pelvis and then further up. I’m just going to give you a look at my feet. So here we’ve got my feet. When we pronate, you can see how you get a bend in the knees, when I pronate. It’s hard to see, without hyper-accentuating. It causes my bottom to stick out and my body to go forwards, it also causes my knee to extend further.

When our pelvis twists, that then creates another twist and then another, etc… Probably another twist in the middle and one at the top. So when it’s uneven, you end up with extra pressure in one side of the top of your neck.

 

Twisting leads to nerve irritation, which leads to headaches

The aim of that twist is to keep our eyes balanced and equal parallel to the floor, so that we have good distance vision and perception of depth.

However, when we twist, we get extra use of muscles and extra energy used. We get tight muscles, tight ligaments, restriction in our joints, which causes trigger points. They all can cause nerve irritation. And then the nerve irritation, the trigger points, and the tight muscles and ligaments themselves can all refer pain up into the head, causing our headaches. That’s all on top of if you’re standing incorrectly.

It also affects the way you breathe, which can worsen our stress levels. When our stress levels are higher, we’re also more likely to get a headache. I’m hoping that gives a little bit of clarity about how our feet function or lack of, will affect the muscles, joints, ligaments and nerves all the way through our body and actually create a headache.

 

Supporting your feet

So what that all means is that we can work with the feet to improve the joint function ability, so that they start to move more effectively. and so there’s no pressure in one specific spot that shouldn’t be there. We can also support them by using a specific inner sole that still allows the feet to move. And these inner soles also activate the cerebellum, which is in the bottom of our brain. And that is our natural posture and walking pattern organiser. So when we activate the brain, the brain becomes more aware of our feet. And our function becomes much more subconscious and much more effective, using less muscles and energy, while creating less tension and less likelihood of headaches.

I hope that made sense and that it was useful for you?

If you have any questions, please pop them in the comments, and I will definitely get back to them. And I look forward to seeing you next time. Thanks for joining.

Final Thoughts:

Our feet are often taken for granted. When was the last time you focused on having healthy feet? Foot function may be complex, but most of us understand that our feet support us.

The connection to headaches is rarely thought of, and yet, in some cases, treating the feet can be the key to improving the way your body works, and reducing and sometimes even removing your headaches.

Now that you are aware of the foot headache connection, take action and support your feet… You won’t regret it.

Are your feet affecting your headaches?

If this has helped you realise that your feet may be part of your issue, and you would like help with them, or if you have headaches that you want out of your life. Book a consultation today, we can provide a full assessment, treatment plan, and help you enjoy your life, pain-free.

 

Author: Alexis Weidland

Please Help with my Headaches

About Blossoming Me

BlossomingMe offers a fully integrated approach to your wellbeing. Located on Sydney’s Upper North Shore. Sarah is our Craniosacral and Remedial Massage Therapist and health and lifestyle coach. She can help relieve those problematic knots, tightness and other specific ailments to promote a healthy recovery. These complementary massage therapies can be combined to suit your needs, and include: craniosacral therapy, shiatsu, acupressure, reiki, remedial, swedish, and body-mind-massage. 

Our qualified Osteopath, Alexis, offers a drug free, minimally invasive, “hands on” treatment focusing on the musculoskeletal system with its associated muscles, tendons, ligaments, membranes, bones and joints. Alexis takes a functional approach. This means that she focuses on the way a component (body part, tissue or group of tissues) performs its role, as well as the way the body works, performs and integrates as a whole. Our team can support you to improve your posture and therefore your overall health.

**Disclaimer** The information provided by BlossomingMe, on our website, in our courses, and in our blogs and posts, is for educational and informational purposes only. The information provided on this site and social outlets is not, nor intended to be, a substitute for professional advice or care. Please seek the advice of a qualified health professional before you make any changes to your health regime, before dealing with new symptoms, and if something you have read here has raised any questions or concerns regarding your situation.