Health & Vitality - My Ongoing Search

Several times, a friend of mine has raised the topic of birth order in conversation, both when talking about characteristics of children, as well as couple relationships.  Not long ago, she loaned me a book about the topic.  It is The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Leman, psychologist, and another treatise from the 80's being published in 1985. I've often had this birth order discussion with this friend because, we each have three children, all boys.  Below I will describe typical characteristics of first born, middle and last born.  Of course these are generalizations, but they have frequently been observed. Because first born children are the parenting experiment for first time parents, they tend to get a lot of attention but also have high expectations placed upon them.  In general they fall into two categories:  compliant and wanting to please, or strong willed and aggressive depending on the parenting style.  They tend to be 'little adults' bec...

I would be very remiss if I did not blog on today's topic.  That is because, The World Tapping Summit is now in progress online and, if you are reading this within a day or two of my posting, you can still catch some of the presentations, should you be interested. What is Tapping?  I am not referring to a form of dance, but to yet another therapeutic self-care practice which is both easy to learn and do.  It is said to be a combination of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology.  If you read my recent post about acupressure, this relates to that idea. The practice developed from clinical experimentation by psychologist Dr. Roger Callahan, who stumbled upon it during a therapy session with a client.  She had been having a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach and he remembered that the endpoint for the stomach meridian was under the eye.  He had her tap lightly there during the session and her terrible feeling abated!  He subsequently...

Do you believe in the concept or principle of karma?  We will often flippantly comment on the negative actions of someone, saying that karma will take care of it, in reference to the person receiving their due or punishment at some later point.  The general and common understanding of karma relates to this idea of bad deeds being punished.  But karma is more than that. The definition of karma from the Oxford dictionary says that:  in Hinduism and Buddhism karma is the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.  There are different ways of considering this, ranging from having a fatalistic view that our lives are predetermined to that of karma guiding our spiritual evolution and potential for growth. In the Western world, our cultures have mostly guided us to the belief that God controls our destiny and that we must follow God's laws or reap the consequences.  In the Eastern sys...

The impetus for this post came from my ongoing pursuit of sleeping solutions.  Should I have some success with today's strategy over the next while, I will do another update in my Insomnia Diary posts. Because of another link to understanding why I continue to wake from a fairly good sleep after 3 a.m. but before 5 a.m., I decided to look at the Chinese Medicine Organ clock to see which organ/system is related to that time.  It turns out it is the lung meridian. The book called Energy Medicine by Donna Eden is a very helpful resource for understanding all the subtle and not so subtle energies of our bodies.  I turned to it for her explanation about meridians.  She says, 'Meridians are energy pathways that connect the dots of acupuncture points along the surface of the skin';  and, 'the meridians the acupuncture points open into travel deep into the body and through each of the organs and muscle groups.  Your meridians are your body's energy bloodstream....

Currently, I have 16 cardigan or similar type sweaters hanging in one of the closets where we keep extra and non-seasonal clothes.  My collection now includes four shrugs (the short sleeve type of cardigan you wear with a dress or sleeveless top), and a dozen long sleeve cardigans.  The materials range from synthetic to cotton blends to wool blends.  The color range includes off white, beige, taupe, pink, fuchsia, coral, teal, red, navy and black. In the past, I only owned a few basic cardigans in beige, navy and black.  They were mainly worn over collared shirts with tailored pants for my career days.  Since I have not been working for sometime now, my wardrobe has shifted from business casual to mainly yoga wear, T-shirts, and jeans except for dressy occasions which are few and far between. How did I end up with so many cardigans?  In the past year or so, when friends have purged their closets they were offered to me along with many other items of clo...

I can remember it clearly, even though it was 32 years ago.  We had been living in a small, boxy bungalow for five years.  While there, our third son was born.  With three growing boys, it was time to find a more spacious home. A good opportunity became available to us for a more modern home.  We had always lived in old houses so far.  This was going to be a big change, and a very different type of neighborhood too.  But, the price was right, as were the space in the house and the yard. The house we were looking to purchase was empty, so at some point in the buying process we took our boys with us to see it, before moving day.  They were young enough that the move was not going to be a big upheaval for them. Our youngest son was just about 19 months old.  One of the first things he did on a visit to the house was scope out the connection of the rooms.  In the bungalow, living room, dining room and kitchen were all in a straight line wit...

Our feet are our faithful minions, serving us day in and day out, doing their best to support us and give us mobility.  But, a lot of the time we take them for granted.  Even though it is still winter here, maybe it's time to give your feet some attention.  Maybe you have been jamming them into bulky boots, thick socks, and big slippers all winter, trying to keep them safe and warm. We have had some very cold, dry spells here this winter which is a recipe for dry skin.  This includes our feet, though a lot of us never think to moisturize them.  If you tend towards roughness or callouses, you may have noticed them more as the skin dries out. Some simple practices can help our feet feel and look better.  Consider getting yourself a foot file to keep in your shower or bath.  I have one with a handle, which is comfortable to use.  A few times a week, when your feet are wet, gently file over the rough areas you find.  Doing this will make you ...

Have you ever visited, or seen photos of the interior of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City?  It was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright as a cylindrical building, wider at the top than the bottom.  Access to exhibits is via one long continuous ramp which spirals around the outer edges from the first level to the top.  Because each level of the spiral is slightly wider than the one below, on each floor you can look down to the ones below with different perspective. My singing teacher, Jocelyn, likes to refer to this architectural example in our group classes from time to time.  For those of us who have been attending these classes for some time, she wants to address spoken or unspoken concerns that as individual students we 'always seem to be working on the same thing'.  What she reminds us of with the Guggenheim example is, that we are not really 'stuck' on the same level.  We have actually moved up the spiral of gradual change, and when we thin...

Today I was listening to a little audio teaching from Eric Klein, a yogi and spiritual teacher whose website is called Wisdom Heart.  He began by reading this verse, which I believe is from a Vedic text, though he did not quote the source. "Oh true life giving sun, the radiant generative presence, the seer of all The creative power that gives rise to all Gather the rays of light together, that I might behold thy blessedness." He then went on to talk about the connection of the sun center (third eye ) and the moon center (back of the head).  The sun center represents the radiance, the warmth, the healing presence and pure awareness , in the spiritual sense.  The moon center represents the soul and the memory tracks of Spirit that we bring to this life to awaken, heal and transmute into the gifts we give back into life.  Through meditation, the radiance of the Sun blesses the memories of the Moon in an alchemical union.  It integrates the scattered mind and ...

Today there is a Supermoon full moon, the brightest one we will have this whole year, due to the moon being at a closer point to earth in its orbit.  Since I had read that tides could be much higher than usual, I decided to check details on a couple of websites. The Earth/Sky website was informative at explaining about the tides.  Not on the day of, but in the day or two following the supermoon, there will be higher than usual tides.  This happens because, at the time of both a new moon and a full moon, the sun, earth and moon line up.  Then the gravity of the sun reinforces the moon's gravity and the tide's range is at its maximum.  Since the earth is also closer in its orbit to the sun at this time of year, the combination of the sun and moon effects will very likely cause an increase in the height of high tides.  Risks around this relate mainly to areas where storms may already be occurring, or where there are high winds. Then, what about effects on ...

This morning I read an article online about 'fall prevention classes' geared to seniors.  This brought to mind the whole idea of balance and, doing what we can to prevent falls in the first place.  Many of the people going to these classes, which I think are a great idea, had already experienced injurious falls.  Apparently, broken hips and wrists as well as head injury are the most common injuries from falls.  We certainly want to prevent that if we can. Balance is achieved through coordination of sensory, motor and central nervous system processing.  The sensory input comes from visual, vestibular and proprioceptive cues.  Visual signals map the environment (like depth perception).  Vestibular signals provide information about the position and movement of the head.  Proprioception collects information about joint position and movement (where your body is in space). Muscle strength, especially in the core and legs helps maintain control of bala...

Last night I watched a Chick Flick on Netflix.  It was a popular movie in theatres last year, which many women said was a 'must see'.  The premise was four women who were longtime friends, now in their senior years, facing the typical issues of senior women.  All of them seemed financially secure, well dressed and in very comfortable living situations.  They seemed more or less content, until one of them threw out a challenge to the group via her book club choice of the infamous Fifty Shades of Grey - a book I have not read, nor have any interest in reading. Each of their lives takes on a new spin and a lot of distress as they feel compelled to get themselves back 'out there' and revive their romantic lives.  There were some good points to the story but overall, I was disappointed with it, even irritated.  Frankly, I don't know what all the hype was about. The first thing that bothered me about it was, that senior women were portrayed as somehow 'less t...

Have you ever heard of, or used a Neti Pot?  It is an alternative health tool which has become popular in North America in recent years.  The origin for it is from the Ayurvedic tradition, where it has been used for centuries. So, what is it?  A Neti Pot is a small container with a long spout.  One site I looked at described it as looking a bit like Aladdin's Lamp, which is a good comparison.  It was originally ceramic but now many are plastic. What do you do with it?  A Neti Pot is used to relieve sinus symptoms by rinsing out the nasal passages using a solution of water, non-iodized salt and baking soda.  What is a bit awkward at first, is positioning yourself adequately over your bathroom sink.  You lean forward, tilt your head to one side, then insert the tip of the spout in the upward nostril, and slowly pour.  You keep your head tilted and the fluid drains out the other nostril into the sink.  You need to find just the right an...

I have always loved words, ever since I learned how to read in Grade One.  Likewise, I have always loved reading and writing.  And, I've always been a good student, still enjoying learning in my senior years via reading and online presentations.  I have a decent library of books on a variety of topics of interest to me, several of which I have already referred to in these blog posts.  But, so far today, words failed me. There are a few ideas I have in mind for new posts, but they are not well developed yet.  Today, I found myself without inspiration for my writing.  Most other days, if this happened, I just waited for something that crossed my path that day to prompt me.  My day went on, and on, and on, with no kindling. Finally, late this afternoon, I picked up Martha Beck's Finding Your Way in a Wild New World book again.  The narrative and exercises in this book primarily help you to 'move your basic perceptual and analytical thinking out o...

Perhaps most of us can remember a delightful childhood play experience like my swinging memory. If not, you can certainly remember or imagine the smile that spontaneously appears on the faces of people watching a baby coo and smile, or kittens or puppies playing together. Martha Beck, author of Finding Your Way in a Wild New World, talks about playing your way to wordless action.  This relates to the stretching, enlarging ability and confidence which she says is the underlying motivation of all true play.  Some play is just for fun, like jumping on a bed, or rolling around on the ground.  But, deep play involves mastering something difficult.  Even when we are watching babies, toddlers or young animals play, closer observation shows us that they are learning deeply through their actions and interactions. Real play, in the sense Beck is speaking about for adults, means picking something hard and pushing your edge.  At first it may not be fun.  But, when ...

I don't usually consider myself a playful person, seeing myself more as analytical, task completion and goal oriented.  Fortunately, my self-assessment changed somewhat when exploring this topic of play from the point of view of four different people. Firstly, a blog I read yesterday by Irene Lyon, a nervous system specialist, pointed out that play is not just for fun.  In her blog she pointed readers to a Ted Talk by Dr. Stuart Brown, psychiatrist and founder of the National Institute for Play, in California. Here are some of the points made about play by Lyon and Brown. As humans, we have an inherent tendency called neoteny, which comes from the root words meaning new and stretch.  We never outgrow this quality, but our life choices may dampen it.  As babies, our first play experiences come in the form of early social interaction with parents, smiling, babbling and cooing.  The right brain is engaged. As young children, we learn through play about taki...

It's another stormy winter day here.  I'm keeping cozy indoors.  This morning I was browsing through the current issue of the women's magazine which I receive by mail.  An article which caught my attention was called A Year Without Shopping, a writer's report on her experiment. I wanted to read this article because I had been pondering awhile back, again, about the idea of living more with less.  That was prompted by all the rampant consumerism which is so heavily fostered and advocated, especially around the holiday season.  But, before that, as I think I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I had read a disturbing article about the huge amount of material goods we accumulate which ultimately end up in landfill. The author of the magazine article took on her year-long project because she tended to mindlessly accumulate things, especially 'bargains'.  She hoped her practice would curb her appetite for mindless shopping and make her more mindful in gen...

This last post on this topic, for now anyway, is a recap of this mini-series, as much for me as for you, the reader.  Thank you for hanging in there, on what can be a confusing or even distressing subject. Here is my attempt to summarize. Feelings are experienced as sensations in the body.  We 'move away' from unpleasant feelings as a form of protection.  This can occur physically, more of a brainstem response, or emotionally, more of a mid-brain level response.  We can learn from these sensations if we can explore them.  Staying present to the feelings is a higher level brain activity of integration. If we have experienced significant trauma, the vagal response stores that as a safety threat (dorsal vagus) and the midbrain/limbic area stores the emotion of the occurrence.  In the case of severe trauma, associations we make can activate a shutting down response in connection with an old subconscious memory.  For other less traumatic, yet uncomfort...

A book called Focusing was on my recommended reading list for a program I took several years ago.  It's just a little paperback, originally published in 1978 as a Bantam New Age Book.  :)  The author was Eugene T. Gendlin, Ph.D., who I originally thought was a psychologist, but was actually a philosopher at the University of Chicago.  He studied under Carl Rogers, the founder of client-centered therapy and became a psychotherapist himself. In relation to the discussions of my last few posts about emotions stored in the body, how the nervous system works and what to do with uncomfortable feelings, I want to present here Gendlin's technique, which is simply called Focusing.  It is a tool anyone can learn to use, on their own, with a friend or a therapist. To quote from the book, "Focusing is the next development after getting in touch with feelings.  It concerns a different kind of inward attention to what is at first sensed unclearly.  Then it comes...

When we are in a state of homeostasis or balance, we can access the cortex of the brain for interpretation.  When we feel threatened we tend to be more reactive and are less likely to engage the higher brain.  For example, if we feel safe, we will use facial expression and voice to interact with others and navigate our environment in an intentional way.  If we feel threatened, the more subconscious and involuntary reactions of fight/flight or shutdown may occur.  Then we may misinterpret social cues and feel less trusting of interactions. That prefrontal cortex integrates the input from the other parts of the brain.  When the functions of all the parts are well integrated we are in a state of well being.  When we are primarily reactive, those connections are not integrated.  An integrated brain is a healthier brain.  Learning skills of attending to our bodily cues and underlying feelings, helps us be more responsive than reactive and strength...

I learned another new word this week.  It is abstruse, meaning difficult to comprehend.  Today, as a follow up to yesterday's post, I'm going to attempt to describe some of the evolutionary functions of our human brain and nervous system, so we can better understand the connection between mind, body and emotions.  I realize this can be an abstruse topic. Information for this topic comes from the work of Dr. Dan Siegel, psychiatrist, and his model of the brain.  Further information comes from Dr. Stephen Porges, neuropsychiatry researcher and developer of the polyvagal theory.  The what?  Bear with me and we'll get to it later. When we think of the brain, initially we probably think of the large squiggly walnut shaped surface that is commonly portrayed.  This is actually the more recent evolution of the brain, called the cortex.  We might be familiar with the concept of different areas of the brain being mapped according to our senses, like sig...

Yesterday, I watched an interesting interview with psychologist Joan Rosenberg.  The ideas I'm talking about in this post are based on her work as a clinician.  The context for the interview was topics related to heart disease in women.  This interview was delving more into emotional stresses. Whenever we experience an emotional trauma, regardless of our age, if not processed it stays in the body and can lead to an eventual physical insult.  For more references related to this, you can look up follow up studies about Adverse Childhood Experiences which indicate the likelihood of various kinds of illness in adulthood based on a person's score on the ACE checklist. How we experience feelings is generally through body sensations.  For example, we will find something 'gut wrenching', or feel it as a 'stab in the back'.  Mostly, we tend to move away from pain and unpleasant feelings.  But, once we tolerate the sensation it will tell us about the underly...

Yesterday, I started a new batch of sprouts.  Am I talking about plants?  Technically, yes, but in their earliest edible form.  I've known a little for some time about sprouts being a healthy addition to the diet.  But, I have been slow in adopting a practice of growing my own.  I'm writing about it today to motivate myself again. Sometime last year, I was inspired while visiting a friend who regularly adds home grown sprouts to her daily salad.  I found a reasonably priced starter kit at the health food store. (This is not at all necessary but was a motivator for me.)  Then, I bought myself a little bottle of organic broccoli seeds to start with.  For a lot of the summer I grew my own sprouts and added them to salad, ate them as a snack or garnished other food with them.  Some days I remembered.  Other days I forgot and sometimes the sprouts dried up in the fridge.  Eventually, I stopped doing it. I visited the same friend agai...

Happy Chinese New Year!  Today we begin the year of the Pig.  The Chinese zodiac is based on the elements of water, wood, fire, earth or metal in what are called the ten heavenly stems.  There are ten because the elements are expressed in either active, yang form or passive, yin form.  The other component is the twelve earthly branches, which is the twelve animal signs.  The zodiac cycle runs for sixty years to express in each combination.  This year is Yin Earth Pig, which would last have occurred sixty years ago. The yin earth element of this year is gentle and supportive.  The Pig represents abundance and good fortune.  Pigs enjoy life and have a positive, generous nature which bodes well for a year of more ease. The earth element is grounded and stable, supporting being more present in the here and now.  Success in Pig years is related to activities which make people comfortable in various areas of life. The energy of the year applies...

Almost twenty years ago, I started exploring what I could do to reduce symptoms that were bothering me and becoming more frequent.  This included things like occasional flaring of swelling and pain in some finger joints, an increase in abdominal fat, muscle pain and fatigue.  Something which all of these symptoms have in common is inflammation. Because I suspected that an underlying factor for me was the hormonal changes of perimenopause, I turned to the book called The Hormone Diet by naturopathic doctor Natasha Turner.  From it, I learned the following. "Within a well-balanced immune system, inflammation ebbs and flows as needed.  A certain degree of inflammation is a basic mechanism, but excessive or persistent inflammation leads to tissue destruction and disease.  Chronic activation of the inflammatory response takes a heavy toll on the body and has become recognized as the root cause of most diseases  associated with aging." From that book I also l...

Today I ordered a new kitchen gadget through a big chain store.  It's something I've had my eye on, but for me, was kind of expensive.  It recently went on sale, and with an additional in-store coupon I could save 20% more, which made it a very good deal.  It is one of those powerful small-scale blenders which can be used for multiple purposes. It was sold out in store but they offered to order it for me. I already own a decent brand standard blender, but I rarely use it.  This is in large part due to it being a nuisance to clean.  I will be giving it away to one of my kids if they want it.  The new one I am getting comes all apart and is easy to clean. Because I live in an apartment with a small galley style kitchen, my storage space is limited.  We actually have a decent amount of cupboard space, but counter space is not abundant.  Thus, we can't have many small appliances out at once.  The cupboard space I do have is already full, mean...