If you have some experience with yoga and want an excellent yoga DVD to practice with at home on your own schedule and at your own pace, I highly recommend the DVD Yoga Shakti by Shiva Rea. The back drop of the ocean is stunning, the music is great, plus allows you to create your own sequence by picking and choosing from over 30 different ones.
You can also choose from four different pre-set sequences which range from 30 minutes to 90 minutes. I love the Lunar Flow sequence and find it’s excellent for warming up and increasing flexibility in the spine. It also offers some simple yet profoundly relaxing breathing techniques and meditations.
Borrow the DVD from the Santa Fe Public Library, or get it on Amazon.com if you want to purchase it. Some background with yoga is helpful. If you are completely new to yoga, this might not be the DVD for you.
4 Tips to Beat the Heat
1. Electrolytes
Drinking lots of water is almost too obvious to mention, but don’t forget to add a little juice or electrolytes sometimes to make sure it doesn’t go straight through and leave you depleted of necessary minerals.
2. Humidifier
Using a cool mist humidifier at night really helps those poor little sinuses. I recently bought a really great one from a company called Crane at Pharmaca.It’s tear drop shaped and comes in cool colors.
3. Cool Showers
Take cool showers. It’s energizing and less dehydrating for your skin than hot showers.
4. Lotion
Lock in moisture with a good lotion applied to your whole body every day after a shower. I like Alba Botanica or Every Day Shea.
Tips for Maximizing the Benefits of Massage
Stay hydrated!!
There are so many reasons that this is important–especially if you want to benefit from massage. One of the main benefits of massage is increased circulation, which brings fresh blood to tense muscles helping them to relax and carry away toxins like stress hormones and lactic acid. The problem is…this can’t happen effectively if you are dehydrated. Our bodies are approximately 60% water by weight, with our lean muscle tissue containing up to 75% percent water by weight!! So, do yourself a favor and drink plenty of water the day before and after a massage. In fact, keeping hydrated in the first place can greatly decrease the stress and muscle tension in your body. Massage will feel better and BE better for you if you are hydrated!
Breathe…..
This may seem like a no-brainer, and in a sense it should be. Unfortunately, we get so stuck in the stress response that we start breathing all wrong. It’s called paradoxical breathing. To figure out if you are doing this…take a deep breath NOW. If your shoulders went up, your belly sucked in, and your upper chest expanded –you are doing paradoxical breathing.
The kind of breathing that will help you be present in your body and release the most tension, both during massage and throughout your day, is called diaphragmatic breathing. The diaphragm is a large muscle that’s shaped like a parachute and the lungs sit on top of it. You can use this parachute to help you slow down and relax. Place one hand on your belly, and one on your chest. Keeping your mouth closed, slowly expand your belly, drawing air down into your lower lungs and gradually into your upper chest. This should feel rhythmic, like an ocean wave, and you should feel your whole rib cage expanding both side to side and front to back.
Once you get the hang of diaphragmatic breathing, you can practice alternate nostril breathing to calm yourself further and balance your nervous system. To do this, use the thumb and ring finger of your left hand and start by holding your left nostril closed with your thumb. Breathe in slowly through your right nostril…switch to holding your right nostril closed with your ring finger…and breathe slowly out your left nostril. Keeping your R nostril closed, breathe in your left nostril…switch…and breathe out your right. Right IN, Left OUT, Left IN, Right OUT.
Take an Epsom salt bath
I have become a big fan of Epsom salt baths. I’ve known for a long time that they are a good thing for relieving muscle soreness, bruising, etc., but I didn’t start actually taking them until recently. Just the other day I was feeling like a lot got stirred up by a recent massage I received, but wasn’t moving out fast enough (I was probably not fully hydrated). I was amazed at how good I felt after taking an Epsom salt bath that evening. Somehow it felt so much more relaxing than just a regular bath. The lavender essential oil I added also helped.
5 Simple Ways to Boost Your Immune System
I don’t know about you, but the changing of the seasons always seems to slap my immune system upside the head. In the fall, the weather starts to cool down and oops!, I forgot to pack a light jacket or sweater and end up shivering on an evening walk. It’s also easy to get caught in the whirlwind of back-to-school activities and changing schedules and forget to take care of ourselves. Here are 5 simple ways to boost your immune system so it can support whatever change or challenge that comes its way.
1. Drink lots of water
Yeah, yeah. OK. What does that actually mean? You’ve probably heard that we need 8-10 glasses a day, but that it not necessarily true for everyone. A better way to figure out what YOUR body needs is to take your weight and divide it in 1/2. This is the number of ounces of water your body needs just to function properly. For example, a 150 pound person needs 75 ounces (about nine 8 oz glasses or six 16 oz pint glasses). If your body is fighting off a cold, you drink coffee, alcohol or green tea, or you are exercising more than normal, you probably need more than this. Yup, sorry folks, coffee, alcohol and tea are dehydrating so they actually create water debt in the body. Oh, and juice and soda don’t really count toward the water intake goal.
Also keep in mind that when you drink water matters. Try knocking down a 16-20 oz pint glass first thing in the morning when you get up, and you’ll be off to a good start. Drink another pint glass right before lunch and dinner and you will already be up to 50 ounces of your intake goal. The rest should be easy to drink throughout the day. Always carry a reusable water bottle with you. Be sure it is BPA free if it is plastic, or just be on the safe side and drink out of glass or stainless steel. Most reusable bottles hold about 20-25 ounces of water.
2. Take a 20 minute walk every day
How does walking boost your immune system? Well, your lymph system (basically the garbage transport system of your body) depends on the movement of your muscles to “pump” its contents from lymph node to lymph node. All the worn out cells, bacteria, viruses, and toxins in your body are deactivated or broken down in the lymph nodes. This is obviously a key component of keeping you healthy.
Getting outside and walking also connects you with what is going on in your neighborhood–giving you an opportunity to feel the rhythms of the seasons, notice what plants and animals are getting busy, and meet the people who live around you. Cultivating a connection to the place you live and to the people around you reduces stress levels and reduced stress=increased immunity.
3. Get at least 15-30 minutes of sun exposure every day
Get your free vitamins!! Our bodies need sunlight in order to produce and utilize vitamin D, which actually acts more like a hormone in the body than a vitamin. Vitamin D is apparently critical to a healthy immune response and especially in preventing cancer. Not to mention it is necessary for the absorption of calcium.
Symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency can include depression, fatigue, muscle weakness, etc. You’ve probably heard about how vitamin D deficiency is epidemic in our culture, but often this news is drowned out by the warnings to stay out of the sun and use lots of sunscreen to avoid skin cancer. The whole sunscreen safety debate is another blog in itself, but you can check out the Environmental Working Group’s 2010 Sunscreen Guide to see how your sunscreen rates.
The key is not to overdo it, especially because you need to expose your skin sans sunscreen to reap the benefits of the sun. Try to avoid getting too much exposure in the middle of the day when the sun’s rays are most intense. Some experts recommend staying out of the sun from 10am-3pm.
4. Go to bed before 10:30 pm
OK Mom! But really. Hitting the sack early can make a huge difference in your energy level. Plus, it means more time for your body to do its critical repair and renew work while you sleep. Some experts believe that the hours before midnight are most critical when it comes to detoxification and rejuvenation. Plus, you gotta ask yourself, is staying up late to watch some movie that is probably a waste of 2 hours of your life, or getting stuck in the Facebook vortex REALLY worth it?
5. Learn the art of body brushing and make it a habit like tooth brushing.
Body what? Body brushing is quite simple and has multiple benefits. First, what is it? It’s brushing your skin with a natural bristle brush to exfoliate the skin and stimulate the lymph system which supports your immune function. These are the two main benefits.
Next-how do you do it? Basically you get a soft natural bristle brush and start by gently brushing from your shoulder to your collarbone at the base of the neck to stimulate the flow of lymph into the major lymphatic ducts. Then you move to the wrist/s and use brisk and light brush strokes toward the heart up the entire length of the arm/s. Brush the belly and chest area then the back. Finally, move to the legs using the same technique as the arms by brushing from the ankle or top of the foot up the leg/s. You will notice that some areas of the body can handle more vigorous brushing, but keep it light to stimulate the lymph.
If this is too confusing to follow, check out this article on eHow for more info. However, I want to point out that even though this article says to body brush with soap in the shower, I was always told that doin’ it dry is more effective.
Keep in mind that you do not want to do this every day. A couple times a week is good. Or, if you want to get a professional treatment with tips on self-care and a brush to take home, I offer a body brush and massage treatment called the Healthy Skin Balancing Treatment.
I hope you found some value in these five simple suggestions to boost your immunity. If you have any suggestions or additions, please feel free to share.
Welcome!
Welcome to the Body Awareness Blog! This will be a place to explore ways to live a healthier and more fulfilling life by slowing down and tuning into all 5 senses, and connecting to all 5 Elements. We will explore the richness and healing that the senses of touch, sound and smell offer us. We will share ways to savor the flavors of life and become consciously selective about the quality of light that enters our windows to the soul.
If you find yourself seeking opportunities to tune out because life is so overwhelming, I invite you to tune in instead and walk the winding path of wellness with me.
~Maria Rhodes, LMT
Wellness: the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal
Aware: implies vigilance in observing or alertness in drawing inferences from what one experiences
Body Awareness Blog 