Inspirational Quote
“Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you.”
Wayne Dyer
Recently I was at a seminar in California where one of the main presenters was raving about her recent business success.
She had increased her business, she said, by about 850 percent over the past three years. I watched her carefully because she did not appear to be brimming with joy, despite the words coming out of her mouth. During an offhand comment, she mentioned she had gained 85 pounds during the same period.
Managing your stress on a daily basis can be the critical difference between being a partial success in one area of your life to experiencing deep personal rewards.
Doing something every day to keep your stress under control can also make or break your health and fitness program.
You can exercise every day, eat organic food and drink tons of water but may end up looking and feeling exactly the same as you did the year before because you did not address the root causes of why you became sick or fat in the first place.
Clues that you may not be managing your stress well include:
Anxiety
Depression (chronic stress depletes your neurotransmitters)
Excess fat around your midsection (this is crucial to understand – the stress hormone cortisol makes you gather fat in your belly area no matter how many ab workouts you do)
Digestive disorders (the neurotransmitter serotonin keeps your GI tract moving)
Chronic fatigue (which happens when you go for years with unchecked stress hormones)
Fibromyalgia (your body holds trigger points from unresolved stress)
Chronic low back pain (a side effect of adrenal burnout)
Eating disorders
Alcoholism
Rapid aging of your face and body
Inability to lose body fat despite regular exercise and healthy eating
Most of my many years of study have included learning how and why stress affects the body, the metabolism, the muscles, the psyche and how to deal with it more effectively.
Some of the ways I may assist you include:
Fitness:
Regular exercise sessions. If exercise were a pill, it would be one of the best selling drugs on the market. Regular exercise alone has been proven more effective for combating depression than psychiatric drugs alone or even drugs and exercise. Even if you are experiencing severe pain, you may be surprised to learn that therapeutic exercise may heal you faster than anything. Many ways that people think of exercising – running, jogging, bootcamps, spinning, marathons and triathlons – are in fact stress inducing and not stress-relieving. One of my regular exercise clients told me recently that I was the first person who has shown her how to exercise in a way that she can keep up the rest of her life. You do not need to kill yourself in order to look good. Wrapping your head around this fact can make the difference between you being a regular, life-long exerciser and someone who tries for awhile and gives up in frustration.
Yoga classes and private yoga instruction. I am always thanking God that I have taught yoga for 15 years. Yoga is truly a deep well. I continue to read and study and just signed up for my sixth 200-hour yoga teacher training next year. Yoga will change your life if you practice regularly.
Qi gong. Not as many people know about qi gong, but qi gong will build your energy faster than anything I know about. So many of my highly stressed clients come to me exhausted – often too exhausted to exercise. You can come and practice qi gong with me and arrive exhausted, anxious or depressed and I promise you by the end of one hour of qi gong you will feel like a totally different person. Qi gong balances your acupuncture system, but to me it is better than acupuncture because it’s a twofer. You get to balance your entire acupuncture system while getting a great workout at the same time.
Therapeutic exercise. Part of the reason many people feel stressed is that they feel hopeless about ever getting better. I have helped countless clients overcome pain and suffering that they have had for years – back pain, shoulder pain, wrist pain, hand pain, knee pain, hip pain – you name it. I know how to analyze your posture and your muscles and develop a program to help you feel better.
Nutrition
I am a big believer in personalized nutrition. I accomplish this either of two ways – with kinesiology or lab test analysis. Recently, I ran a lab test on one of my highly stressed, depressed and exhausted clients and found her body was struggling with high levels of xylene, a toxic chemical. Then I did kinesiology and found she was also being affected by high levels of heavy metals. We began to use targeted supplements, and her grief, depression and exhaustion have lifted. Before coming to me, she had worked with a traditional therapist, which helped, but was still feeling so bad she had wanted to quit her job. Many people have no idea how much better they could feel if they were on the right supplements.
Healthy eating and nutritional coaching. So we all know that healthy eating is a good idea, but what does that mean exactly? I am able to identify food sensitivities that affect a person’s mood and energy levels. You are biochemically unique. Although there are general guidelines that we can all follow, the truth is that you can fine tune your eating to feel your absolute best if you know what to avoid and what to eat to make your unique body work best. One person, for example, may need a low-fat diet and another person may actually gain weight on a low-fat diet. I do body-type dieting, metabolic assessments and teach you what will work for you.
Healing
Kinesiology balances. This is one of my major tools. Using kinesiology and/or medical intuitive readings, I get to the root cause of why you are not feeling, looking or being your very best. I have studied and practiced kinesiology now for 18 years.
Flower essences. Many people are familiar with Bach flower remedies that are found at all the health food stores. I use more up to date remedies from companies all over the world. I have flower essences from Scotland, Holland, Australia, the Himalayas, England, Canada and the U.S. Because flower essences are vibrational remedies, it is important to me to use current vibration. Someone asked me recently what I thought was the most powerful healing tool I use, and I replied flower essences. You can use them on animals and babies, who are generally immune to the placebo effect as they have no idea what is happening, and see dramatic shifts in health, personality and behavior. I recently recommended an essence to one of my baby clients who was experiencing severe eczema. His mother told me that the more she gave him the flower essence, the faster his skin rash went away.
Reiki. This hands on healing is a profoundly relaxing and deeply healing treatment. You lie on my table and about an hour and a half later your pain is gone, you feel lighter and happier.
Thai yoga body therapy. You lie on a mat in my studio and I use a combination of yoga stretches and gentle body massage to release the tension in your muscles, back, hands and feet.
Reflexology for the hands and feet. Reflexology helps the entire body because it works the reflex points for all the glands and organs.
Life coaching. Recently, some of the major issues I have been working with many clients to resolve include their long-standing personal relationships with money.
Medical intuitive readings. Many people do not understand why, despite all their efforts, they are still sick, tired, fat or discouraged. I am able to use critical point analysis to determine the key issues that need to be addressed in your life and use holistic healing techniques to resolve them.
Meditation. Most of my new clients do not know how to meditate. The trick to meditation, just like the trick to exercise, is to make it easy and accessible. I am a long-time meditator, I have created a meditation CD to help you learn how and I offer instruction in meditation.
Breathing exercises. In yoga, we call this pranayama. You can not stop the chronic over production of stress hormones if you are not breathing properly. This is an area that is commonly overlooked, as most people do not realize that they are holding their breath.
Natural vision improvement exercises. In yoga, we say you can stretch every muscle in your body but you can’t fully relax until and unless you release the tension around your eyes.
Your first step is to realize that you do not need to accept misery as a way of life. As you take steps every day to relieve your stress, you can reset your happiness set point. You will find your belly fat melting away, your muscle aches diminishing and your energy level increasing.
If you are a new client, send me an email and say, “I am ready to release my stress,” and I will give you 10 percent off your first session if you act now and sign up within the next 30 days.