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Over-demand: tip#3

Move your body!

“Liver Qi stagnation” is a major pattern that emerges because of stress and frustration. But it also contributes to these conditions and that’s the cycle that we want to address!. When we are confined emotionally or physically the stored energy builds up and causes dis-ease.

A great way to shift and ease this discomfort is with movement, particularly where the physical experience is blended with an emotionally moving one.

Explore and experiment with different ways of moving your body to find something to which you have a positive emotional response. In Victoria we are blessed with the spectacular beaches and parks that abound.

Try walking in a beautiful area, using a skipping rope, throwing a ball or Frisbee for your dog. Local parks often have basketball or hockey nets where you can practice shooting. Using a DVD or video to inspire you for indoor exercise could be your ideal, the driving range may do it for others. Play on the grass with your children and you all benefit from moving your liver qi. Dance and live music are awesome for taking us to the place where the physical and emotional move together.

The point of this is to move the energy in your body and involve yourself in a pleasurable emotion while you are doing it. Were there things in your past that you did repeatedly, or that you were good at, or that you really enjoyed? Is there something that you always wanted to try? Now’s the time. It’s most effective if you find a minimum of 20 minutes to do this in each session once a day; it can be gentle movement or a bit rigourous.

Again, the goal is an emotionally positive segment of time with physical movement.

In my neighbourhood the YMCA and the Spiral Cafe are great venues for movement.

Acupuncture and Chinese herbology have been effectively and easily treating this imbalance for millenia (just in case you thought this is only a modern affliction). Email or phone for a consultation and treatment!

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Over-demand: tip#2

Rub your ears!

For those of you who are tactile and have the time to make use of a simple Qi Gong exercise: massage you ears. There are many points on our ears that promote a sense of well-being, calm the nervous system, relax tense muscles, strengthen the organs and reduce the side-effects of stress (such as cravings). This is a great technique when you are at your desk and need a little stress- reduction. You can repeat these massages 3-5 times a day.

Use your forefingers and thumbs and gently squeeze and rub all the areas of your ears. Stick your fingers in your ears, turn them. Twist your ears. you’ll want to be firm but gentle. Your cartilage is delicate. Now find the other indented areas of your ears and rub them well. Grab the sides and with minimal pressure pull your ears away from your head a bit. Hold for a minute.

As you massage your ears regularly you may find you like it so much you’ll be doing it more than 5 times a day. Spend 3-10 minutes each time you massage them. Have a friend do them, then do your friend’s. This way you get to relax MORE.

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Over-demand: Tip#1

Take Five

“TAKE FIVE” first thing in the morning before you get out of bed- use the first five to ten moments of the new day to find or develop gratitude for five things. Establishing a focus on what’s going well in your world allows you to nurture and expand it.

If you have trouble starting your list, begin with your fingers and toes and keep going from there. Body parts, personality traits, friends, pets, favourite places, your soft warm bed- anything goes onto your list. Concentrate on FEELING appreciative. Emotion about it creates an environment for it to be retained on a cellular level. This makes it more a part of your way of living and you’ll find it easier to access this calm, creative place when you need to find it again. Gratitude is relaxing and draws more things to be grateful for into your life.

Increase your list as the days go by. Your mind and heart will open to the possibility of more and more great things and you will begin to look for things to add to your list while you are out there living. You’ll remember long-forgotten or momentarily passed-over nourishing and fulfilling experiences or people or situations. With consistent focus and commitment in this short few minutes of the day it will become clearer and ever-closer in the present moment that life is indeed sweet!

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Sick and Tired

I meet so many people that are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

They sometimes feel like the whole world wants a piece of them until there’s nothing left for themselves at the end of the day. These and many other modern day plagues can take the fun out of life and the life out of you. It doesn’t have to be that way or stay that way.

These conditions contain elements of both physical and emotional distress. It’s also called “over-demand”. Over-demand may be lessened or balanced with some simple exercises and self-care techniques. I want to share these with you.

Because stress changes the metabolic and hormonal landscape of the body, it creates a “nesting” environment for itself, making it a stubborn tenant. The key to shifting this is small, simple tactics repeated over and over daily, tactics that will unroot it and evict it from your life.

Over the next month or so, I will share my 10 favourite, simple techniques for uprooting the physiological response habits of over-demand.