Tag: Body

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Fighting with Myself

fighting with myself

I am another you
You are another me

When I fight with you, I’m really just fighting with myself.
I said that this week and I truly meant it.
There was a time that I’d hear such words and wonder about on what drugs someone had to be on to say something so bizarre.

Yesterday, I was on my way home from my 6th and so far, most intense BMC (Body Mind Centering) course and was met with the most surreal realisations. Typing this up the morning after, I’m still with the lingering sense that something big has shifted open..

Seeing in all the people around me, parts of myself..
Those traits and attributes I see in others which can make me feel warm and fluffy, and like want to hug them. Or those traits which make me feel beautiful, as in when I watch someone truly in their body and their experience and move so gracefully and with such mastery and I want to identify with these movers.
However, then there’s witnessing someone being overly expressive or sensitive, which hits my nerves and maybe I become annoyed or frustrated to be close to this. Someone with greasy hair and smelling unwashed (much like me after some 9 days of rolling around in the floor, getting up early and late to bed), and how when I see these traits I try to disown this person from being anywhere near me, so abstract to how I’d like to identify.

Yet still, in a place with an open mind, I realise; they all are me, or is it that I am all of them..

Observing myself on the bus this Monday morning past, petty words exchanged with someone tutting their annoyance of me moving into their space, (as I tried to make more space for others getting on the bus into the then discovered unwidened space I supposed of those who alighted) which I challenged. In reflection, If in that moment, I hadn’t felt petty or feisty in my early morning rattled mind, then I wouldn’t have cared. This man was reflecting back to me that petty argumentative side of myself and if I would have retorted beyond the few words I’d have said, to justify my actions, I’d be calling him the names that I could be called too.

With all those things in people I see which I love, and I loathe, I see those parts in me, and recognise how much and how deeply I can move between loving and loathing myself. After so much ‘work’ and attention been and being paid to be as authentic with myself as possible, it still strikes me when one of these shadows or unseen edges flare-up.

It’s so easy to blame the other, as in, I can’t keep away from them, I love them too much, or I couldn’t help trying to destroy them as I loathe them, (they’re so wrong or different to how I see me – extreme scenarios one can see in more worldly situations too). Hence, I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be working and studying with such a community as I am: Katy, who is the BMC course director in the UK deserves a medal of honour to hold a space so much that shame, pride, ego and fear doesn’t get in the way of truly seeing not just a deeper part of one’s self on the physical (ie the skeletal system) but in all the parts of Mind and experience which we touch in these studies and discoveries.

I’ve heard before, biased against going into yourself, but I don’t mean narcissism, but to unearth the tough shadow parts whilst celebrating our more beautiful points. As it is my opinion that until we SEE and ACCEPT our whole selves, we can’t authentically do that with anyone else either (thinking healthy relationships). I’m surely still travelling a long road but if my physical and emotional health is anything to go by, this is certainly a path worth to travel

Thanks to all my teachers. From the humans to the trees, those little pesky flies that constantly compel me to swat them, and of course, to all those interested to share this journey.

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Hip, Knee, Ankle Pain? Check your feet!

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If you’re sitting or laying down, your knees (and ankles to some degree) aren’t weight baring; generally it won’t be noticeable if there is an imbalance or some damage in the muscles that produce the movement around these joints.  It’s when we translate weight through the legs during standing, walking, that the problems may present.

When you walk, are you aware how you walk?  Do you notice which parts of your feet hit the ground?

Does your shoe always wear out evenly?  As opposed to more on one edge more than another.

Are you pain free from ankle, knee or hip pain when walking/running/exercising?

If answering no to any of the above questions my curiosity as a movement professional would have me watching your feet in static but more particularly in dynamic standing.  It can be a question of the chicken or the egg?  Which came first, the joint pain or having an irregular gait (i.e. the way you walk)?  I watch thousands of pairs of feet, regularly (either in my clients or just people who walk the streets of London in front of me in my day.  For me clients, by also hearing or seeing what issues are present for the body, it no longer surprises me to hear what pains a person has after seeing them move on their feet.  The more I watch, the more I remember how many problems I had before educating myself about the biomechanics of walking.

So, if you have unexplained pain in your hip, knee or ankle (or even in your shoulders and back but that’s too complicated for this simple blog post), try paying a bit more attention to your feet..

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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

2015

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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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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Fighting Monkey (Copenhagen Workshop 2016)

For 4 days I’d had my mind blown
Head fuck extraordinaire..  Fighting Monkey Copenhagen 2016, Monkey Mind doesn’t stand a chance..

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Jozef and Linda share about moving in a way which is not only palatable but accessible and really freaking exiting.  Moving with your whole organism, opening up or enhancing ones ability to respond to oncoming challenge, moving harmoniously within your natural organism and within your environment. Assertive yet open encouragement to break out of preconditioned patterns and models, and providing the space to entice every cell of your being to work at it’s best. To keep moving, using the constant current of life and your universal vibration in order to respond to unknown variables. Coming out of the prefrontal cortex, the analysis part of your mind, and coming into the space of infinite potential; thus allowing a maximal harmonious play with your environment, whatever that may be..

For me, being a mover for a lot less time than most of those who were also attending the workshop, I found it highly demanding but very accommodating and encouraging to allow my mammal organism to move more freely and more ease fully than ever before, with a consciousness beyond the basic mind control, tapping in ever deeper to ones central channel. The principles they use are delivered in a manner such that I believe anyone can gain, whatever their background; however to have a good awareness of ones mechanics beforehand is a must to enable safe and optimal participation.

I trained intensely before this workshop, mainly working on strength and balance; this was a wise impulse for me to follow as you need to have at least a certain amount of balanced perception of strength and flexibility in order to progress through the games architecture offered. My journey with movement clearly started when I was created in the womb, but due to my path in life, movement took a sideline for schooling, university and the inevitable working at a desk for several years; following the path I assumed to be the one I needed to follow..  No matter what your background, if you’re reading this, you have a body (however that has manifested it’s unique and wonderful self) and to have a body means you NEED to move it.  Use it, or lose it.. 😉

Having a few year experience with martial arts (kick boxing mainly) and more recently with Pilates and yoga put me in good stead to keep up, awareness and knowledge of biomechanics has also been fundamental in allowing me to move in way which has reduced the stress on my body and thus increase its desired output. As when you move with poor form, this not only stresses your joints but also your nervous, energetic, emotional, digestive and other biological systems; don’t get me wrong, any movement is better than no movement but let me just drop in the word ‘optimal’ to marinade on one’s brain..  Once an awareness about basic mechanics has been embodied these proposers of fighting monkeys blow all of that out of the water. When I work with people who don’t move enough or don’t have enough awareness of their body and I can see why my other teachers have placed such strong emphasis on ‘correct’ movement; I.e. Offering movement tasks to people which can help them to stabilise and open up joints in a safe manner. This is not the only way. The joints and structures need to be allowed to move in such a way which challenges them, tests them, not only supporting them.  I can see from a general teaching stance how these techniques of basic linear alignment can help in general classes with people who aren’t so interested in movement per se and perhaps, need to first build up their basics and manage general and obvious pathologies; but I’m very happy to redefine, rebuild and reimagine what these blessed bodies can do..

Linda’s smooth and elegant yet super strong movements inspire the sense of grace and ease with the vibration of each and every one of your cells.  Jozef’s apparent background with martial arts often brings in the element of fighting to the games he shared, or I guess this could be put as, the need to respond to irregular happenings in the environment, as it’s generally not the case that our every step and every interaction will only be challenging us in a uniformed way. Therefore our body requires the neural, biochemical and physical ability to adapt constantly. How do we do that if we have only ever moved in a regular fashion?

All weekend, and in the weeks leading up to this I’ve felt energised, waking up early, until my head has been hitting the pillow (sometimes) being alive.  Now I feel I could sleep for the next month, or two..  So much demand on the systems of my organism, finally catching up with me.  But I wouldn’t change this for the world. I can feel those hard to reach areas are now pulsating with life, even if my muscles are intensely aching and my head is heavy.

The most nourishing part for my spine from the games of the fighting monkey was working a lot with moving my head with the balls.  I’ve discovered or reinforced in my brain where it is I have been having less than complete systems of movement, for me.  I can see, even though I live in a city I need not be holding myself in this bracket and boundaries anymore- mindset is of great importance. Confidence in movement is of great importance too.  I’ll admit, I’ve been quite scared of moving in certain ways as the body I have is an amazing tool for learning; the amount of eccentricities it’s shown me to work through can be pretty tiring but it’s been so refreshing to smash the shit out of what I thought it could do and open up my imagination more to what it’s built to do.

Thanks, respect and big up to Jozef and Linda x

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Best. Deo. Ever.

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I used to rely on aerosol deos, I thought it was unnatural how much I sweat..  Over recent years or so there has been publicity about the connection between breast cancer and the lymph nodes (detoxing glands) are under your arm pits; it therefore seems counter intuitive to put something on to such a sensitive place which contains hazardous chemicals (i.e. many mainstream deos).  I tried crystal deos, natural roll ons, making my own, you name it I tried it, but I still had to wash 3-4 times a day to stop smelling like the pits!..  Then, a good friend had visited Lush before a dance party, she gave me one of the new samples she had..

Aromaco, by Lush.  Every time I wear this with no perfume, I get compliments on smelling nice!  Patchouli soft fragrance, easy on the skin but works all day against smell.  I have a very active life, this deo has been spot on even since I first tried it.

A Lot easier on the skin than a previous home made version (bicarb of soda wasn’t the best for my sensitive skin ‘sigh’).  I’ve been using aromaco for over a year and it’s great!  Lush Aromaco

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Technicalities

A bit more below about sweating, and why this deo works for me, without feeling compelled to block up my underarm pours with antiperspirants anymore..

How much you sweat depends on a couple of different factors, sweat, or perspiration (as some would rather call it), is the bodies natural way of cooling when one gets hot, heat from exercise, hormone fluctuations (as happens to most women each month), and stress or anxiety levels and the body being in fight or flight mode (sometimes can be a long term issue). I used to sweat a lot; fortunately these days it has dramatically reduced; I put this down to mediation practices intertwined with yoga, which have helped to lower my stress and anxiety levels dramatically.  I would be sweating profusely, literally sweat dripping from under my arms (especially if in contact with certain people, even just eye contact) and yet my arms would be ice cold!  These days, I can actually wear tops with sleeves and not worry about staining the under arms within 2 minutes!

If your body is hot, i.e. if it’s going through a lot of energy and you’re doing some physical exercise (i.e. running), or fighting off some disease or bacteria, or, if you feel very anxious (then your body is constantly making lots of energy readily available to be able to flight or fight as a response to stresses being felt; imagined stresses through worry, mental stresses trying to meet deadlines or immediate physical threats).  Your body is working harder to pump sweat out so that it can cool down as the sweat evaporates from your skin and take some of your excess heat with it.  This is one branch of homeostasis, and is regulated by the hypothalamus in your brain.

Your body needs to be able to keep it’s baseline temperature, despite all this energy and heat (usually produced as a byproduct); so that it can continue to work optimally.  Enzymes which catalyse reactions in our cells all function at preferred temperatures, if this temperature is too high, it can not only inhibit functioning of certain enzymes and reactions but it can destroy (denature) them too.  You see, anyone with a high enough temperature get’s pretty quick medical assistance, your body has to work even harder to keep doing it’s job in extreme conditions (hot or cold) – hence why we sweat when hot and shiver when cold (among many other homeostatic processes)..

On to smell..  How your sweat smells also has different potential causes, of course, the most common reason is due to natural bacteria under your arms, feeding on the sweat and giving off odor as their byproduct, thus is the type which is generally avoidable (yay) by washing or using certain products which have an antibacterial effect.  Also, for some of the population it can be affected by what you eat.  I happen to be in the minority of the bodies who metabolise foods in such a way that my sweat can take on smells from foods such as garlic, literally, even straight out of the shower, my armpits will have a certain strong odor!  Fortunately I’m happy to leave garlic out except for special occasions and the Aromaco deo seems to keep the underarm bacteria in check so this issue doesn’t stand for me.  However, one must wash ones pits at least once a day – deo cannot be used to simply mask a smell which is already there.

Thanks and InJoy! 🙂

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspiration

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-07-20/health/ct-met-heat-science-20110720_1_extreme-heat-heat-stress-heat-exhaustion

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Do what feels good

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Feel it with your body rather than think it with your mind..  The mind can manipulate to brings in fears or comparisons; but the body doesn’t lie..

Does what you’re doing feel nice with the whole of you?..

 

Have a great weekend

 

xxx