Today Charly and I talked to Lilo Kunz who is a Bodytalk practitioner and BodyTalk Access teacher. BodyTalk is an energy healing modality that bridges the gap between western medical expertise and ancient eastern healing wisdom to effectively help support the body’s own ability to heal itself.

About 1995 Dr. John Veltheim came up with the Bodytalk concept and it has been evolving and growing ever since. BodyTalk Access is a “healthcare package” – 5 powerful energy techniques – to empower everybody, anywhere to help themselves, their families and communities to better health, more clarity and peace of mind.  These techniques are also a tool for emergency situations.

It is very popular in Asia, Europe, the USA and South Africa. In Australia it is just starting to emerge even though Dr. John Veltheim originally came from Brisbane. He now lives in the USA.

To find out more about Dr. John Veltheim and to learn one of the basic and most commonly used techniques called the “Cortices” technique, go to http://bodytalksystem.com and watch the videos on that site. You also can find out about courses. There is a basic course that teaches the most commonly needed techniques to anybody who is interested. Even children can learn these safe and effective techinques and use them on themselves and others as required. (more…)

I love Hildegard von Bingen’s music. In case you haven’t come across it before, here are a couple of youTube videos you might enjoy:

Till Next time

Connie

Your Yoga Partner

from

http://www.yogainahurry.com

Today I was on my own doing our blog talk radio show as Charly was not able to be here.  I am talking about Hildegard von Bingen, a German medieval mystic, artist, author, liguist, scientist, philosopher, abbess, physician, herbalist, poet, composer and activist. Her life and her work has always fascinated me. The gift of her visions, some of the things she wrote and some of her ground rules for a healthy way of life are certainly very similar if not identical with some of the ayurvedic and yogic ideas.

There is a lot of discussion amongst Hildegard scholars whether all the dietary recommendations, the advice on diet and living, the herbal knowledge and her medical writings were also “channelled” as a vision or whether she simply recorded what was known during that time and then added her own ideas and philosophy. Whatever the case, it makes for fascinating reading.

Hildegard (the name meaning “fighting protectress”) lived from 1098 till 17.9.1179. This time in history was marked by lots of changes, crusades, minstrels, the foundation of the first universities and lots of political upheaval. Nobility and Free people were the only ones who had the right to be educated. The rest of the population (90%) worked hard, toiling the fields to feed everybody and the remaining 10% had trades to supply the goods needed for everyday life. (more…)

Recently an article was published that reviewed a number of studies that were done to find out whether aromatherapy would be helpful in easing depression.As you might be aware Aromatherapy can be used in many different ways. All these studies looked at the effect of essential oils when they were used as massage oils.

Remember: essential oils must never be used straight from the bottle, they are very powerful and can be toxic – for massage they must always be mixed with a carrier oil. If you want more information on Aromatherapy in general we recommend you go and get yourself this free book in which we wrote an article about aromatherapy: http://stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog/wonderful-law-of-attraction-in-action

When somebody suffers from depression, the symptoms include depressed mood, loss of interest in everything, appetite and weight start to fluctuate, generally they simply can’t enjoy life. Depression can be more debilitating than heart disease, diabetes or some other chronic illnesses. The individual simply can’t function properly any more and their relationships with family and society as a whole suffer greatly.

Depression is very common – if affects anywhere between 10-15% of the elderly in Western countries. It affects other age groups too – but the high percentage in the older age group is due to a number of factors. Chronic illnesses that are common in elderly people can lead to depression.

In over 50% of cases, people who suffer from depression are using some sort of alternative therapy like meditation, yoga, aromatherapy and massage to – name just a few – in addition to their medication. Often the results they are getting from their medication are not as good as they had hoped or they dislike some of the side effects.

Aromatherapy is the use of essential oils from plants which then affects the body in various ways – either directly through the sense of smell or by being absorbed through the skin. Essential oils are what gives the plant its particular flavour or fragrance (just think about peppermint, for example)

The article goes on to say that all the studies used Swedish Massage (which is a gentle but firm form of massage with soothing strokes). After the oils are applied to the skin they get absorbed into the blood stream. (this is just an aside: whatever you put on your skin ends up in your blood stream – be very selective about what cosmetics you are using!)

Once the oils were in the blood stream they had a significant effect on how the person felt. Especially feelings of depression and anxiety improved markedly in some cases.

Oils that stood out were: Lavender, lemon, jasmine, bergamot and rose. Rose was particularly beneficial for easing the symptoms of anxiety.

Another study showed that chamomile, lavender, spiced apple, eucalyptus, and geranium oil helped to improve moods and decrease anxiety. Chamomile, spiced apple and eucalyptus also had a beneficial effect. One blend that was used in another study consisted of sweet orange, geranium and basil.

The problems that researchers have is the fact that feelings can’t really be measured properly. People might say that they feel better but to capture the level of improvement in scientific terms is really difficult.

Some physical evidence showed that lavender oil relaxed smooth muscles (the ones that are not under our control), can reduce blood pressure and affects the way the signals are passed around the nervous system.

A lot more research needs to be done, but this shouldn’t stop us to enjoy the beneficial effects of the oils in the meantime. They can enhance any other therapy you are receiving and they are a pleasure to use.

Put some oils in a vapouriser while doing your yoga practice or meditation. Use them when you have trouble sleeping or when stress is mounting,

I found that they simply seem to take the “edge” of things and the world starts to look a little bit brighter.

For those of you who want to go to the source, here is the reference:

THE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE AND COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE
Volume 15, Number 2, 2009, pp. 187-195
© Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089/acm.2008.0333
A Review on the Effects of Aromatherapy for Patients
with Depressive Symptoms
V.W.C. Yim, M.Sc., Adelina K.Y. Ng, M.Sc., Hector W.H. Tsang, Ph.D., and Ada Y. Leung, M.A.

Till next time,
Connie
Your Yoga Partner
From
http://www.yogainahurry.com

This week is Naturopathy Awareness Week here in Australia. Lots of people are using natural therapies to look after their health or help them recover from illness. The Naturopathic approach to disesease, health and healing differs from orthodox medicine in a number of ways.

Most naturopaths have a philosophical framework which forms the basis of their work. This framework usually includes body, mind and spirit. True healing cannot occur unless the imbalance between body, mind and spirit is addressed and the true cause of the illness is uncovered. The approach is wholistic taking into account all of the factors that are influencing the client’s health.

The remedies used and the healing methods which are applied vary greatly from practitioner to practitioner. Some of the more common ones are herbs, vitamins and minerals, foods as medicine, nutritional advice, homeopathic remedies, Bach Flower remedies and massage. The basic philosophy is that the remedies should be as close to nature as possible, have no harmful side effects and support the body to heal itself.

Want to find out more? Listen to our blogtalk radio show.

Till next time,

Connie
Your Yoga Partner
from

http://www.yogainahurry.com