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Taking Care, Taking Charge

How we recognize and handle stress in our lives is the key to unlocking the door to quality health and vitality. The mind and body respond to each other in remarkable ways. Emotional states, can alter responses in the immune system, organs, glands, and cells that will physically affect the body's function. In alternative and holistic healthcare the body is seen as a whole unit. Body, mind, emotion and spirit are totally integrated. Stress or injury to one part weakens the entire body.

Realistically making ourselves aware of the symptoms of stress is a must. We discard signals from our body and mind that we are approaching danger. Often we run the red lights of life.

Do you experience: lack of concentration, jaw aches, persistent irritability, inability to catch your breath, difficulty in sitting still, and digestive problems. When you are experiencing stress your breath rate may double, you may get flushed and feel gas pains. How often we complain that we have no energy is a main clue to the state of your health. Illness often starts as a problem with one's energy level!

Being aware of our own "self-talk" is another barometer of stress. Make a check list to see if the following apply: being critical of yourself, feeling powerless, not having choices, nothing feels right, and expecting the worst from people.

Identifying stress patterns is also useful. Do you recognize any of the following patterns: rushing in the mornings to get where you need to go, being late for everything, drinking or eating in the car, no quiet alone time, addicted to the telephone - carrying your cellular telephone in your pocket, working on vacation, not taking time to exercise or being pre-occupied with over-exercising, and eventually feeling you never have time for family and friends.

Environmental stress also plays a critical role in our healthcare. Research is now linking many illnesses to environmental toxins and pollution. The National Institute for Health reports that there is a strong link between environmental pollutants and cancer. There is evidence to link pesticides in our foods, excessive hormones in our dairy products, high quantities of chemicals in our drinking water, and unclean air to cancer.

When we add up the stresses in our lives and couple it with environmental conditions, we have a serious health threat. We are all faced with the challenge of being aware of our patterns that contribute to the disease of stress, and learning how we can change the situation. Taking Care - Taking Charge!

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. One solution is to identify early where we are holding stress in our body. Individuals have a difficult time recognizing stress in the body, until it becomes a problem such as: severe backache, chronic indigestion, headaches, lack of energy and often depression. When it reaches the stage of physical and mental imbalances, it has become a problem. Bodywork is a factor in helping us identify where stress is located. It will not only identify stress holding patterns, it will educate the body in returning to balance.

Research has shown that bodywork: 1) helps movement of fluids through the system including lymph, blood in the arteries and veins, and removal of toxic waste, 2) increases muscle response, diminishes muscles fatigue, and increases muscle energy, 3) restores vital organ function including respiration and circulation, 4) increases neural activity benefiting balance in reflex patterns, and 5) restores energy to balance stress. It works!!

Bodywork restores our coping mechanisms and allows for physical and emotional balance to occur before it becomes a major problem.

There are manual therapies, holistic bodywork and energy alternatives that are available to us. The 1995 Holistic Health Directory listed over 135 healing practices. A few of these therapies are:

ACCUPRESSURE - An ancient Chinese technique using finger pressure on specific points along the body. Useful for body tension, muscular stress pain, or arthritis.

CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY - A procedure balancing the structure and function of the craniosacral mechanism. Very non-invasive, cranial work, used to treat chronic pain, stress headaches and general well being.

MASSAGE THERAPY - A term for a range of therapeutic approaches. Involves full-body treatment which manipulates muscles and other tissue to restore health.

POLARITY THERPAY - An energy based system of restoring the body's vital energy and reducing stress. Through various bi-polar contact points, reflex points and rocking movements an over active system will calm and stress will be reduced.

As we continue on with our journey of understanding holistic healthcare we will explore various types of bodywork. Learning to take care and take charge can be a total process with positive results.

A thought from Shakti Gawain, "In harmony with the whole, we find individual freedom." May the long time sun shine upon you.

Mary Jo Ruggieri
Director,
Columbus Polarity Center

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