Category: Health & Digest

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Cleanse and Detox

Cleanse and Detox.  The words cleanse, detox, diet, for some can be quite emotive, even scary, or a potential joy for remedying digestive issues.  What you eat, drink and inhale, literally forms the building blocks of your body, therefore, it’s important to know how to help your body to swap some of the shady, polluted or diseased blocks with healthy ones to keep the body functioning optimally.  Not a lot of people are aware of how joined up our emotional states are to what we eat; it still surprises me when I talk to people who aren’t nutrition aware about how powerless they believe they are for their own state of health through what they eat and drink, think diabetes, cancer, skin conditions, arthritis to name but a few conditions which can be both caused and remedied using food.  Your body is super intelligent, give it good fuel and it’ll work the rest out!

I’ve tried pretty much every diet going, from the ketogenic to the vegan, paleo, low fat, low sugar, ayurvedic, no carbs, juice, G.A.P.S. (Gut And Psychology Syndrome); I’ve attempted intermittent fasting and dreamt about doing the lemonade, juice, water and a whole host of others cleanses too.  With fasting, I’ve never gotten too far as my BMI is always generally healthy but on the low side and to be honest, with past eating disorders, I don’t think this is something I want to put myself through (again, lol).  Dieting, wow, trying to heal my gut of Crohn’s, IBS, incessant bloating and skin conditions, that’s why I’ve tried a lot of them.  Before I go any further I’d like to acknowledge that we’re all so different and thus if you find something which works for you, go with that, go with your gut.  It’s only when things aren’t working out and your digestive, mental, emotional, skin and joint health aren’t feeling so good that you can be aware it’s time to change what you’re doing around your diet.  Google define for:

diet noun
 the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.  e.g. “a vegetarian diet”

So by me talking about diet, I don’t mean you go on it only to lose weight or with a short term goal, as even if you’re starting out at 20 Stone, there’s going to be a point at which losing weight is no longer a goal.  Therefore, diet in that case isn’t looking long term and is probably unsustainable as starving yourself to get a goal can only lead to HAnger (Hunger Anger) and falling off the wagon due to being hungry, then eating, punishing yourself, crying, trying again, failing and falling into a trap of disempowerment and buggering yourself up.  With any food, aim to get it as close to it’s natural state as possible, and it’ll have less rubbish in which stresses out your body.  Whole grains, real food, produced by decent farms, being wary of big brands where mass production can dramatically decrease the quality of your ingested building blocks.  Just because an ad or packaging tells you something it’s healthy doesn’t mean it is; there’s a lot of advertising loop holes and if it needs someone to advertise it then clearly it’s not selling itself..  Most diet foods are full of chemicals and synthetic fillers, derived of nutrition and shoddy building blocks for your human organism!  So, have a good diet, and the cleanse and detox are a part of it, with less need to starve yourself or drink psyllium husks for a week.

The cleanse and detox I’m on at the moment involves:

  • Cutting the crap.  Phase it out to start, then simply, cutting foods which are processed, containing refined sugar, fake table salt and E numbers.  Also, alcohol, caffeine except a treat green tea if going out.
  • Switching to Fish, Olive, Coconut and flaxseed oils, reducing vegetable, sunflower, canola oils and animal fats.
  • Eating FRESH food everyday, cut up real veggies; make soups, salads, steam things, stirfries.  For animal protein (if you eat it) then eat fresh fish, lean poultry, eggs (if you can tolerate them), minimally so as to not over load your system during this time.  Make soup out of chicken with the bones in.
  • Having a large vegetable juice every day, on an empty stomach, adding wheatgrass powder, incrementing how much each week (up to 20g).
  • Being mindful of portion size, stop eating when full and save left overs for later.  Not being worried to clear the plate.
  • Probiotics, probiotics, probiotics!  In capsule, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, natto, miso, which ever but take a little bit with each meal to aid friendly bacteria and digestion.
  • Drink plenty of water or herbal teas.

So my cleanse and detox is pretty much the diet I hope to continue on, but the forward diet being one which has space for the odd night out with my friend gin, or going out for a curry or tea and cake; it just won’t be every week as the healthier I get, the less I want to go back to eating how I know doesn’t make me feel my best.

The more simple the better with diet and cleansing, in my opinion, you just need to know why you’re doing it and the consequences later on.  Trust your gut and think about your whole picture, not just how you want to look on your next beach holiday.

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The Way ‘back?’ to Health

The way back to health, or is that, the way to health?  As I’m not sure I’ve been at my best yet..

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Having visited the M&S at Westfield recently, I bought up as many carrots, organic cucumber, organic spinach, lemons, ginger and a couple of other veggies as I could carry, and it’s brought up some questions.

I stand at the check out, my shopping all veggies, lemons and some organic milk to make my kefir with and look around to everyone else’s containing bread, cakes, chocolate, sausages, ice-cream, potato salad and it reminds me of my cravings, when I’ve been at my most unwell.  When you’re healthy sure, enjoy these things on the odd occasion (if your taste desired them when you are healthy is another question!) but if these are in your everyday?..  How was I surviving before?  Why is it that I used to eat so much which I now know can cause me pain and discomfort?

About this time last year, I was getting into good health, bone broth, Kefir, juices (some but not done right for me I now realise), but I let this go due to some personal reasons.  Now, I’m bloated, always tired, have a foggy head, and seem to have intolerance to eating a LOT of different foods (I.e. pain from too much citrus or other fruits, eczema and random spots, constipation and bloating from other seemingly healthy eats, bacteria and yeasts having a party on my insides!), enough is enough.

Detoxes are at a plenty out there but to be honest, my gut instinct is that these aren’t all for me (having a super active job).  Now, the words diet and detox can trigger some pretty whacky or scary ideas.  I’ve had issues eating enough and too much, in the past and detoxes seem to send my sensitive system into shut down, so this time I doing things differently.  If you want to read my definition of a cleanse or a detox, clicky here.

Diet is about the way you eat, not a fad you do for a week or two.  Detoxes don’t have to mean starving yourself, but they do mean having discipline to not intoxicate your system with what can cause it to become disrupted in the first place..

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Autumn has come Early for Me this Year

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Autumn has come early for me this year, the summer fun has been overdone..  Yesterday I acknowledged a realisation about the disconnect between head, heart and gut. I recognise this isn’t a issue for some but also that there is a set of us whom find the art of living according to how we feel, that bit harder to hear. Perhaps that’s what I recognise sometimes when there’s a group of ‘yogis’ enter the studio, and I feel a real sense of discord, i.e. some of these people arriving are also feeling such a disconnect..?

The first 4 months of this year seemed to be a constant battle between my head and my heart. I could feel my head trying to get me out of destructive threads, threatening what I’d built at work, home, with friends and in my bank account. Yet my heart wouldn’t let go of wanting to love and be loved, although my gut knew this was all external to myself and therefore somehow still lacking.. I ignored my gut, and went mainly with my heart, until it was that I landed up in hospital; my gut was pissed I’d been disregarding it’s intuitive whispers.

I can hear my heart and it’s fear about stepping out of the romance game for anytime. I can hear my head telling me to keep working for both income and, the physical strength I’ve worked so hard to build up. However, the pleas of my gut (the one I thought I’d ‘fixed’ by probiotics bone broth and healthy eating) now resound louder than ever. Again bloated, inflamed gut and spine, imbalances through out, skin pathologies, intolerant to more and more foods..  It’s time to retreat.

Autumn has come early for me this year. It’s time to retreat and heal from all this head and heart madness.  Those educated in the gut know it rules, from the immune system, the emotions, processing the building blocks of health or rubbish we feed into it to build our cells. Yet, even the word, gut, it’s not sexy, not pretty, makes you think of..? It’s association with defecation and the less attractive traits displayed, generally it’s hidden, vacuum sealed up and shamed..  It’s the most primal and natural part of us, yet why can it be so hard to connect with?

However, in this retreat, the one and only rule is, my gut is allowed to lead the show for the next 6 weeks, I feel with the issues it presents and neglect it’s endured; it’s time I listen and keep the head and the heart on the back burner to rest their voices for a few weeks too. I’ve been juicing for 5 days now (and including regular balanced and nutritious food, just juice and raw doesn’t work for my predominantly vata body type) and including a few extra supplements to really give my body the chance to heal. Thus, if I’m not at festivals, parties, social gatherings please don’t find me rude; I’m on an early drawing in, autumn retreat, some time just for me.

 

xx

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An acknowledgement to kind people

 

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Kindness.  Nothing less..

When I was about 17 I was starting to get closer to a long-time flirting, high school time sweetheart. Within a couple of weeks, I cheated on him with his good friend.  I was drunk and stupid and had no idea what I wanted out of a relationship.  Since then, I’ve done a lot of growing up and much therapy work, and thus realise, there are different end goals you can aim for with relationships, it isn’t about just sex, or enduring a dull, drab monotony.  Yes, I was a pretty, a hem, very, confused teenager (kinda normal huh..?).

He was angry, but in the long run, I remember this high school sweetheart still being kind to me, and at least treating me like a human, despite my error in actions.

This is one story of many about the people who I’ve acted unkind, selfish or in other ways suboptimally when I was younger; and yet, I still received kindness (not to be mistaken for being a pushover, he ditched me there and then, clearly!) from.

It’s funny how now, after having enough of a taste of how that feels, I finally feel like I get the point of being kind… As in, how to and, why one might want to genuinely express kindness. Of course, all spiritual, self-help, religious and other such media profess kindness, but reading about it and consciously acting it feels totally different.

I heard enough times and realised, truly, deeply realised, that you attract what you are and/or what you’re seeking.
Over the years I’ve mostly had great people around me, good energy and such, however, there’s always been that guy and his drama and/or selfishness, or that wild and self-destructive close friend..

I was choosing to have that kind of vibe for my closest relationships, I was being self-destructive, treating guys like shit; being a kind person for the most part (debatable!), but, for the deep and meaningful parts, still being quite unkind.

So what’s changed?

Injury, hurt and a lack of kind; plus the flip side of that, being given enough kindness from others. I’m not sure why I was acting in such an mean way, directed both inwards and outwards..  My last relationship was emotionally abusive, it was with a mental guy who was paranoid and disturbed, mentally controlling and, hearing about his ex’s, if I would’ve stayed around, also physically dangerous too. Although for me, with a tendency to self care too little, the physical damage came all too easily to my sensitive body, through, self neglect.

I was going too fast and kept crashing, not taking time for myself and the more kind, nourishing and nurturing parts and people in my life. But, in hindsight, this was OK. Although yes, of course, it would’ve been nice to not have had to endure so much pain to come to this realisation, but the experiences I’ve gained along the way will hopefully keep me in good stead going forwards. If I wouldn’t have had this experience then I wouldn’t be me, and I wouldn’t perhaps be able to connect so well with all those hurt or hurting individuals I know as friends, clients and colleagues.   A friend once said to me, whilst she was telling me a tale about her hard upbringing in South America, “You know, so many people I meet don’t seem to get it, but I can tell you can feel what I’m talking about”, or something along those lines; and this empathy at least for me, makes it all worth it.

So right now, as I nurse my physical (sacrum out of whack, over tight piriformis and hence not able to walk much so back to writing!) and emotional wounds (felt by my enteric/gut nervous system feels a lot of pain, still recovering from past hurt), I’m keen to reflect on how to keep myself free of this extreme self-inflicted need for rehab again…

It’s been the kindness of friends, family, teachers and strangers who have helped me to see how I can get myself together again.
The glimpses of this over the years, when the actions and words of people have exceeded how I treated myself.. When the people I was attracting were perhaps charming on the surface but deep down really hurting and less than loving…

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Somatic Unwinding

So far, the experience has been profound.  I’m feeling a need on some level to do some crazy exercise to shake it all up and get back into my past default in questing for muscular strength.  However, having just received a second 1:1 hands on session of Body Mind Centering, from the lead trainer Katy Dymoke, I’m just going to continue to lay on the floor and be with the tangled mess which is my inner body..  This beautifully sweet training, and supporting body work is helping me to unwind the world of pain felt in my body which; I had surrendered to needing to endure forever, now I’m not so sure.

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It’s a crying shame that despite the amount of yoga and Pilates sessions I’ve received that there isn’t more of this information present.  I have just 2 teachers in each discipline whom teach from this perspective.  THIS is what it’s all about, not your abs, your yoga selfies or your legs a kimbo!..  I’m so exhausted, in a good way, hence why this is the only thing I’ve managed to publish through out my so far 2 weeks Somatics training, but more is coming!  Watch this space ..

Day 3 Nervous System, 2nd Session with Katy

Dropping in, listening..

Relearning how to hear.

A deep yearning for these pathways to clear!

To sense in(my)sides,

Of course before sensing the other may fully arise..

Organ support, how to purport?

After a life time of neglect,

6 short years means I’m not quite there yet..

So many feelings, mainly in my gut and head,

To hear, implicitly, impartially,

My body craving this in its totality.

I’m sorry, I’m here now..

No wonder it all hurts, for so long working as a disjunct and abstract organism..

It’s not just you dear muscles, ligaments and bones whom need to hold up this being.

It’s not just you dear organs, fluids and glands, whom cope with digestion, procreation and feeling..

As, all together, a synergy can persist,

Allowing ease, strength and harmony to exist.

Crossed messages, fibres and pain,

Never again can I move the same..

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What You Look Like Versus How You Feel

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For many, many years; a lot of my eating and exercising choices have been made on how I presume them to make me look, not always putting the value on how I feel.  Have your ever been more concerned about what you look like versus how you feel?!

Yes, I’ve had to eat and exercise to help the condition of Crohn’s which can sometimes raise it’s head and put me in hospital, or worried I’d need to go there again but still; it’s only just now with some more experiences and therapies that I can see more of the motivation behind many of my basic but essential life choices.

Having had food poisoning, alcohol poisoning, tannin reactions, stress reactions (generally this aggravates the special cells in my intestines the worst) lead to many ill feelings and skin conditions; I would do just enough in the ‘right’ direction to help me to feel better but wasn’t fully getting the WHY of these feelings and reactions from my body.  Call it a blessing or a curse, I seem to have a very fine tuned body which can either work tremendously well or go the other way pretty quickly too.christinerun1crop

Eating too healthily, avoiding this type of food, trying this type of diet (not necessarily one for keeping trim but to be ‘healthy’ for my guts too, which if I’m honest, always wound up with me at least not gaining any weight through fat); do this exercise, run a 10KM to get fit (photo left, 2008, possibly my worst year), do that training plan, this class..  It’s not been easy to regain my energy, full strength and vitality, whilst having my skin and hair express the same clarity but what I’ve learnt recently makes it all seem that much more simple..

The one thing (which was initially driven by my ego too, in order to get stronger than the other people in the class) which I have been consistent with as a way to FEEL good in my body and mind has been yoga.  Since my first class in London (I had done it before but was more into Pilates) about 6 years ago I was hooked; also very close to another hospital stay for my guts but it made me feel about a million times better each time, despite still hobbling out of class in some amount of pains.

Even yoga I’ve used as a tool to look muscular, or slim, or cool doing ‘the’ poses.  Which is probably why it bugs me so much to see all the instagram bollocks with selfies, self-promotion, expensive clothing brands to help you ‘look good’, and basic shameless bastardisation of this amazing science/art which has done so much in the making of me being alive and well today!..

So what’s changed now!? I listen.  I listen to my body, not just my head telling me, don’t have that it’ll make you fat; do that work out it’ll make you look more strong and muscular, train, workout, eat less, eat ‘healthy’; that’s bad for you, you need to do this to sculpt you..  My head, has many threads of pressure to ‘perform’ (work, life, love, play..), but this October (after the excessive tannin induced stint of winding up again with symptoms of system intoxication through ignoring the subtle messages of my body) I’ve gifted myself with enough space and time to sit back and listen.  Not forcing myself to work as much, or keep busy training or something during the quiet times.  Taking education from different diets (like the GAPS, Paleo, low tannin, anti-inflammatory, alkalising) to help give me the tools to understand how to nourish myself based on how I feel, to help clear the cloud of confusion walking into a shop or a cafe and not have to just walk out hungry coz I didn’t know what I felt like..  To not train so much, to let my fast twitch muscle fibres slow down a little bit and LET my body relax; to do more of the movements I can hear my body singing to!  To let myself self-regulate more on this internal compass rather than what I see around me.

I hear and see that for many people, it’s not about taking more time to relax but more time to energise; I see that some people have a different issue to this, but the answer is still the same; is what you’re doing (or not doing) feeling good?  Do you feel good in your body?  If not, change something, try something new which does feel good!..

For some people, this listening in has always been present; for others, we’ve needed to undo or are still undoing a LOT of interfering from the outside world.  Listening in takes time, and out of the confusion is where we can blossom into OUR truest nature, rather than the expectations of our surrounds.. And after all that, when you feel good, it oozes out of you and your face will radiate amazingness!

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Probiotics, are they useful?

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I’ve been recommended to take probiotic supplements for years; ever since I learnt that I had Crohn’s disease, friends and teachers have advised me to take this product or that product to repopulate my flora.  The doctors have never told me to do so, I didn’t really appreciate what my flora is and it all seemed a bit much, so I didn’t bother.  Still having symptoms and issues with digestion a few years ago, I was decided to try them! But, they didn’t seem to do anything (I got a generic Holland and Barretts one, I don’t think this is perhaps a good quality).  People still kept talking about these things to me!  At the start of the year, I bought some more, of a good quality from a health food shop.  It was horrible!  I was more bloated and farty than before so I didn’t take them for many days!..

A few months ago I came across the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) diet, it described my problems, was written by a doctor and thus seemed like my prayers for  improved digestion had finally been answered!!   Except, I had to go on a hugely restrictive diet with a shed load of animal fats included, which seemed counter intuitive to what I had learnt about alkalising and not going too heavy on animal fat (due to it’s inflammatory and acidifying effect on the body).  There was so much science and sense in the ideology of it for the most part that I took the fundamental points, which were easy to apply into my daily life, and carried on being allowed to eat out and with friends!  The main thing I took, ditch grains (even gluten free), unless you NEED that cake or pasta meal for mental health reasons haha, and consume a lot more probiotics.  But note, that’s what’s currently working for me, we are all so different that it may or may not help you to try this.

You’ve possibly seen my post on Kefir, this book got me back into making my own (I flushed my milk mushrooms when I moved home last because EVERYTHING was too much of an effort when you have to move home), but also I started to use Sauerkraut (a live one) and to be able to continue with probiotics without making symptoms of bloating, constipation, gas, etc (all the things which make you want to die or simply NOT have a life in public!).

So, WHY take Probiotics?  Why am I still pursuing and now publically sharing about this?

If you’ve had anti-biotics (i.e. kills bacteria, even those helpful ones in your gut which help digest and absorb the right stuff from your food), steroids, parasites in your gut, some kind of poisoning, constant IBS symptoms (Irritable Bowel Syndrome, i.e. just a shit digestion and the doctors can’t say why, hence it’s a sydrome..), any type of strong cancer or other therapy drug or treatment, wasn’t breast fed, regularly consumed NON-ORGANIC dairy or meat (as these too contain a heap of anti-biotics), been constantly or regularly sick with something it’s possible that your gut is imbalanced.  As literally, you aren’t so much what you eat more than, what your gut is absorbing from what you eat (clearly if you’re living on burgers and chips, there’s not much nutrition there to start with!)..  It’s what gets into your bloodstream through your intestines which is what is powering your body and mind; what gets into your bloodstream is controlled by what bacteria are in your gut, if they produce good nutrients on breaking down your food or, if they produce alcohol, opiates or other things which can plainly cause you to feel mental and not very nourished; it’s going to make a difference to the sensitive biochemistry of your body.  This biochemical ‘fun’ can be expressed as skin problems like spots, rashes, welts, dryness; brain fog, sore joints and muscles, vision issues, and many more mental and physical disturbances.

Basically, bacteria are awesome, they’re on everything too.  This is a good thing, we work in harmony together and help keep each other alive.  It’s just when too many selfish/bad/pathogenic bacteria (rather than the symbiotic/good/healthy ones) end up making residence in our guts, we can feel less than our best and they basically run our show!   IF we have a good amount of healthy bacteria, our guts are healthy, then we are healthy and, these good bacteria help to keep not just the ‘bad’ bacteria in check but also our immune system can stay fully optimal and we have a lot less physical and mental issues and dis-eases.  Simple.

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If any of this resonates with you, yes probiotics might well be helpful, if not then probably not.  Mindset ALWAYS makes an X-factor of difference.

From my own trial and error, you read, I had issues at first but here’s some tips I learnt to make it easier, if you do want to try yourself, to see if they can help you a little (or a lot).  Note, I’m not a doctor, this isn’t cause to bin your GP, don’t be a dickhead, use some common sense, especially if currently taking any medication or suffering from any condition, check with your doctor first!.

  • Consume first thing with some warm (not too hot as it’ll kill the little lovelies) lemon water, as I found if taken with lunch, those little darling just make a party in my guts and I bloated like a balloon (update, now my gut is more balanced I tolerate them at anytime).  Eat something soon enough after to help them to have something to fuel them but go easy.
  • Get a good brand like Bio-Kult, one you know is going to still be alive and well and able to reach your intestines and not just give up half way.
  • To gently try first and support your bacteria day to day, try probiotics like Kefir, miso, kombucha, sauerkraut, kimchi.  ALWAYS look for organic, where possible, especially for the kefir, as if not, you have antibiotics in the milk from the poorly treated cows; so it’s kind of an oxymoron to consume non-organic kefir!
  • Start with less, build up to ‘full dose’ after a few weeks, the packet should have instructions, if not check the manufacturer’s website.
  • Try for a few weeks to cut out refined sugar and minimise grains, this is because the ‘bad’ bacteria thrive on these products, as well as the bi-products of them, if you are imbalanced can just make things feel harder biochemically than they need to be.  I cut out most sugars ages ago, have been a bit more diligent with sugar (added/refined) and sweet fruits (rather than acid ones which seem better on my digestion at least) and notice a massive decrease in bloating symptoms, bloating from gas is usually a bi-product from bacteria processing the foods in your gut.  Apply common sense here.
  • If you’re on a healing drive, add a little miso, sauerkraut or something like that with each meal, keep topping up those symbiotic bacteria, moderately, if it feels good to do so.  If not, then don’t!
  • Pre-biotics like different fibres etc can be useful to feel the bacteria, if you’re diet is a bit rubbish, look it up and balance this too.
  • Go easy.  You can apply this to everything, less stress in your head = less stress in your body = healthier body which is better able to manage itself and balance appropriately.
  • Keep trying things out!  Be consistent with any changes/additions/removals of dietary things for a couple of months to see if it does help but else if it’s not working, “next”!  As I said before, you have a different life, body and needs to me, I can tell you what’s helped me but there’s no saying if it’ll work for you.  Try it and see for yourself!

Happy bloat-free pooping!

 

References:

Gut and Psychology Syndrome (available on Book Depository, Free delivery!)

http://www.bio-kult.com/

 

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Moving In – The Most Important Physical Relationship

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To learn, at least in this physical plane, if something hurts, how does it want to be treated in order to heal?

We know instinctively, intuitively what is good for us, the body is an accessible tool to help find answers within.

Physical manifestations of pain have been said to start in the psyche, i.e. something jabs us emotionally and perhaps it’s felt in the gut, or your shoulder got stuck..

Listen to oneself..  ..DEEPLY..

Listening to how the body responds when making the most simple of movements can be a tool to self-empowered healing.

Learning how a bone rotation of 3 degrees can cause the firing up and lengthening of different strings of your muscles fibres, contrasting to the regular pattern of shapes your body makes..

Being mindful not to just feel the burn, but to learn from the edges of it..  To be where the heat is at its most intense, feeling when there is an internal response to that edge and the burn kicks in, momentarily finding that magic spot..

Re-engage your focus, to enquire How to play curiously with the movement of your structures and to once again move through those fire..

As like fire, those intense places, those edges and spaces within us, are never still.  Constantly shifting and changing, moving and grooving with its constituents and where these input variables each meet their environments..  The only constant is change.  You think you found your magic edge, think you got it, then look again!  ..It changed!..

To stay in one’s zones of comfort.  To always be using the same line of action and enquiry, reinforcing the known and further disempowering the rest…

By mitigating ones usual placement, the resonance points can be heard from where one can strengthen those parts which suffer from less frequent action and engagement..

Being blessed, with such a physical system as this..  The human physical, our complex and epic instrumental tool for this life..  And to only access a fraction of its abilities..?!..  Please..

Working with the body is an amazing way to empower yourself physically but it’s also a stepping stone to something much deeper..

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Rebalancing of the Feminine and Masculine

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I’ve been feeling waves of femininity hitting me over the past few years, wanting to express this softer side of self; not quite sure how but being drawn to beings who are more feminine in themselves seems to have been a part of the pattern.  Feeling this feminine energy much beyond myself, like a pull from the universe; sensing a deep connection with an overtone of sadness for all the pain endured by women and mothers who have been here before me, and who are here even now.  Overwhelmingly so at times..  From the atrocious rape crimes which have gone on through war, and for some, all their lives; to the mothers struggling and fighting, being toughened, and hardening themselves in order to survive for themselves and their children this male dominated world.  It was just last October, during my Ayahuasca retreat that I connected with, and hopefully helped to release some of, the hardship and pain I felt was within my family line; coming from a string of very strong women, I was sensing their strength along with their sorrows (and of course joys entwined in there too), their strength required to live in this male world, resulting in them sacrificing a certain part of themselves, in order to survive..

The fighting of the suffragists and the suffragettes, being force fed by tubes during hunger strikes protesting for women’s rights to have a vote, such a flippant thing even I now take for granted at times.  The suppression of women by and in religion, only male priests, women being seen and not heard; the objectification of women to sell pointless products and insisting that they remove all their body hair, cellulite and blemishes, like it’s a shameful thing to be born or wake out of bed a certain way (I still shave, this isn’t over for me, but it’s interesting if you wanna dig into where it first became normal for the process of hair removal in the West at least).. Projecting the idolisation of the size zero alongside having large breast, which alone maybe natural for a select few, but together will very rarely be achieved without surgery or self-harming in some sense (I see this in the male world too now but that’s a whole other blog about the media and body image..)..

In this auspicious time, we’re coming out of a patriarchal, ego driven curve in the cycle of life; and coming into a space where patriarchy and matriarchy are again finding balance, the inclusion of the feminine, intuitive, softer side of life..  It feels like a trip to be tuning into and hearing among many sources (from astrologers to other far out kind of influences which I appreciate it’s harder for some to relate to) about this shift, whilst relating to my own personal experiences, it totally blows me away..  Of course, our perceptions form our reality, but this femininity is something I never imagined, it was previously a void for me; having never expressed my femininity so fully in this life, I had no expectations of what feminine should look or feel like..  To aliken it to the spiritual awakening I think everyone in my circles, are talking about right now, moving from the realms of the bigger, better, faster, stronger, mind/ego place; into balancing this with intuition, and a one love compassionate connection (quote Bob Marley and many other amazing artists over the past 60 years or so..)..femin2

I have deep thanks for the experiences I’ve gained from having to be so hard, the many many challenges which I’ve needed to be strong in an unrelenting sense, in order to survive, literally at times fighting for life; dominated and yet nearly damned by my own masculine edge..  And now, to have this shift and realisation that- it’s ok to express this divine feminine energy in and through these physical and mental constructs known as, ‘Christine’ is surreal.

This doesn’t mean I’ll turn into a soft puddle of goo on the floor, or crying uncontrollably at puppies or never carrying a shopping bag again; quite the opposite.  To me, now this feeling of femininity has a strength and power all of it’s own.  Deeply strong, the bond within families and circles, being able to hold together that which is felt but yet can’t be touched; by no means an easy feat.

It also doesn’t mean that I want to throw away all my trousers and renounce men; being in touch with both sides of the male-female, yin-yang, dualities in life is important in how we are currently playing this game of life.  Without one there cannot be the other, and right now, we are still in the grips of this ego driven patriarchy.  Therefore, now, more than ever the time seems ripe to bring balance back to these 2 edges of the duality; being a woman, the best way I feel I can do that is to allow this balance to restore within myself; to not suppress my softness and let it blossom as I unfold myself and nurture myself to allow this soft space to grow alongside my well established harder edges..  No longer do I see it necessary to push away feminine aspects in my life, fighting and competing with other girls, always looking to be the strongest; finding a lot of jealously when I looked into those who were more comfortable with this side of themselves.  Instead, softening to my sisters, helping them rather than being scared of them.

Pachamama, mother Earth too is in a great need of love, we need to bring this softness and caring into all spheres of this large floating rock sphere we call home..  It’s only with feminine energy that it seems possible!  Sustain, protect and heal, it’s not about growth and trying to build forever structures on a finite plane..

Clearly, this rebalancing of the feminine and masculine requires a lot of conscious effort; just this morning moving through the London tube system this was soon expressed to me by firstly the 2 ‘hard’ looking guys playing out a TV show loudly on their device in the carriage.  My previous would have been to argue with them, but I sweetly let them know it was bothering me and they turned it off (femininity helping already!).  Next changing trains being hit by a barrage of hard women rushing for their next destination, pushing, barging, with hard glazed stares; feeling this sparking the same disconnected hard edge of energy in myself too..  In London and the cities especially, this fierce competition, women working at the front line of it, fighting tirelessly to get the same breaks and equality as their male counterparts; needing to play this man’s game to get acknowledged for even being human at times!..

We all have this duality within, masculine and feminine, it’s clear as there are many cross overs of hetro, bi and homo and metro sexual people; gender roles are becoming less and less defined based on the individual (thankfully for those who don’t fit into the standard boxes), men who stay at home with the kids, women who don’t want kids, same sex couples..  There’s space enough for everyone and the sooner we can allow the feminine* to be empowered as equal (in ALL of us, not just those who are physically female), the better the balance of harmony for ALL!

*The intuitive, soft, receptive, dark, wet, curvaceous, gentle and lunar side of life 😉

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Pilates for Posture – Upper back and Shoulders

Sunday 13th March 12.00 – 14.30

 

piglates

Do you ever notice yourself or those around you with classic hunched shoulders and neck when checking ones phone or other electronic device?  Even when reading a paper book it seems that we don’t do enough to counter this forward curving position to help the body to find balance again.  There was a time when people would practice walking with books on their head as a means of steady posture when walking, people were more active and there was less back pain in the ‘developed world’.  Thus today, let’s take a step into finding, mobilising and using those long lost muscles; preventing atrophy, frozen shoulder, chronic neck pain, increased risk of issues associated with thoracic osteoporosis and many other things which could be positively impacted by knowing more about your anatomy and how to use it.

How does your ribcage sit?  Do you feel sometimes (or all the time) like the hunchback of Notre Dame?  Keep getting told you need to pull your shoulders back?  Get tight in the neck, shoulders, upper back?  Tension head aches?  Feel a bit lost in your own skin?.

No need to worry, get yourself aware and re-aligned, come see me for part 2 of the Posture workshop where we’ll be focusing on the upper body bones alignment, how this related to your posture and, how you present yourself and how you feel out in the world.  If you didn’t make it to part 1 (although the work we did there does feed into this) you can still make it to part 2, as our focus will be on the upper body with a basic recap on the previous workshop; part 2 contains Pilates and mobility exercises and stretches to help empower you and your ability to move out of excessive kyphosis (i.e. the hunchback look) and it’s associated symptoms.

When we allow our vertebra (bones in the spine) to stack optimally, not only does this allow us to breathe fully, move easily, and promote a sense of balanced confidence; but it also helps us to prevent future injuries, strains and even some diseases.  Thus, also we’ll be looking in more depth on how to breath deeply, maximising mobility of the rib cage, mobilise parts of you which you didn’t know you could mobilise and use Pilates and some other tools to get you more present in your body, moving more as nature intended!


If you want any more information or to book on then contact Christine now (email and phone number below)!  Places are limited to 5, all equipment is provided.

£20 investment with Early Bird booking (book on or before Thursday 3rd March) 
£25 regular investment price* 

If you’re interested but would rather the 1:1 attention and privacy of a private session then get in touch!  1:1 sessions are a great way to also help support you better if you want or need that little extra.

Love and thanks
Christine x

email: christine@core-focus.co.uk


Links for why posture matters:

TED Talks about Posture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljm0ldxgkcE&index=6&list=FL7znEFcqi4uQ88oActfL7Cg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc
Websites on Posture:
http://blog.crew.co/power-postures/
http://jamesclear.com/body-language-how-to-be-confident


* Please note, space only reserved once payment has been made, refund only given if requested 2 weeks or more before course start date, unless you can swap your place with a SUITABLE candidate (suitable down to the discretion of Christine @ Core focus). This is to ensure that you get the best quality sessions from Christine, and that Core-Focus can continue to deliver what you need, on a small scale and at an affordable price.  Thanks 🙂