Tree Hugging & Brain Tides

"Within that cerebrospinal fluid 

there is an invisible element

 that I refer to as the ‘Breath of Life...’ 

You will have observed its potency and also its Intelligence,' spelled with a capital 'I'.

It is something that you can depend upon 

to do the work for you.

 In other words, don't try to drive the (body) through any 

external force. 

Rely upon the tide."                       

                                                                                                                                              William Garner Sutherland, D.O.

     My last post was about water. This one is, too, only it deals with learning to feel the tidal waves that exist within other people and within myself.

In May, I took a Biodynamic Craniosacral course in Manhattan at The Open Center. It was taught by Michael Shea. 

Our Class (minus Mark--photographer)

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy began with Osteopath, Dr. William Garner Sutherland (1873-1954). "William, a student of Andrew Still, the founder of Osteopathy, made an unusual discovery during medical school. Upon closely studying the bones of the cranium, the thought, 'beveled like the gills of a fish, for primary respiration,' came to him. Eureka.

This powerful insight began 50 years of exploring and developing skills in relation to the human body and health.  Through his continued research and practice, he observed subtle rhythmic pulsations that would ebb and flow in and around the body that caused all the tissues of the body to respond with functional changes. 


He called this motion the “Tide”.  

The brain and spinal cord are enclosed in a sac of water. The sac is called the Dura. Here is an illustration by the one and only, Dr. Netter :

Here we can see the fluid that surrounds and 

flows through the brain:

Check out these two amazing videos showing 

the tidal movement of the cerebrospinal fluid:

Let The Trees Be Your Teachers

Different tides can be palpated or sensed not only in the human system, but also in other living systems such as animals and plants. As practitioners, we are trained to sense different levels of stillness and thus palpate the expression/movement of the system as the treatment unfolds--according to its own innate intelligence.

This work is about deep listening through stillness
and letting go of resistance...

We were told to practice on trees, houseplants, and pets. 

I caught my kitten, Barnaby, doing a Craniosacral hold on Arthur.

     Through the practicing I have done, I have noticed the powerful potential within stillness and its paradoxical ability to move tissue that has long been hardened. Through becoming familiar with this work, I am reminded that it's in quiet patience that health is able to spontaneously arise. To open up and know thyself requires the release of expectations, mental chatter, and any resistance to the flow of life.

"Know Thyself", as inscripted above the entrance of the Oracle at Delphi.

Be The Water That You Are

 The best way to live

                    is to be like water

 For water benefits all things

                    and goes against none of them

 It provides for all people

                    and even cleanses those places

                    a man is loath to go

 In this way it is just like Tao.

 Live in accordance with the nature of things:

 Build your house on solid ground

 Keep your mind still

 When giving, be kind

 When speaking, be truthful

 When ruling, be just

 When working, be one-pointed

 When acting, remember--timing is everything.

 One who lives in accordance with nature

             does not go against the way of things

 He moves in harmony with the present moment

              always knowing the truth of just what to do

-Verse 8, Tao Te Ching

  Lao Tzu, translation by Jonathan Star

Honey Be Well

Honey falls in spiral patterns

 "If the dew is warmed by rays of the sun, not honey

but drugs are produced, heavenly gifts for the eyes,

for ulcers and the internal organs."

-Pliny the Elder, 79 AD

"The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth."

-Ecclesiasticus, 38:4

There proceedeth from their bellies a liquor of

various color, wherein is medicine for man."

-Qu'ran, 16:69 on bees

Let's give it up for the BEES!

Bees make powerful medicines. 

They provide not only honey, but propolis, pollen, royal jelly and venom--all of which are known for their healing properties. 

Honey through History

The oldest known intact book of medicine, the Papyrus Ebers (15 BC), houses over 800 remedies--over HALF of which call for honey. Hippocrates employed honey in many of his treatments and once said, "Wine and Honey are held to be the best things for human beings, so long as they are administered appropriately and with moderation to both the well and the sick in accordance with their constitution; they are beneficial both alone and mixed." In Chinese medicine, Shen Nong (2 BC) wrote that honey "helps to kill pain and relieves internal heat and fever and is useful to many diseases. It may be mixed with many herbal medicines. If taken regularly, one's memory may be improved, good health ensues, and one may feel neither too hungry nor decrepit." 

What Is It about Honey 
That Makes It So Good? 

Bees add an enzyme (glucose oxidase) to their honey that breaks down into hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide kills bacteria.  Like tiny flying apothecaries, bees choose they plants with which they interact. Different flowers contribute additional antibacterial properties to the honey. Manuka honey from the Tea Tree plant is known to be one of the most potent honeys available.

Manuka honey contains another antibacterial agent (called the "Unique Manuka Factor") that is non-hydrogen peroxide based--killing even more invading bacteria.

"Active Manuka Honey" is the only honey that has been tested for its antibacterial properties. 

You can read more about Manuka Honey by clicking here and here. Very interesting stuff.

When applied topically, the sugar in honey creates osmotic pressure within certain foreign cell bodies and shrivels them to death. The sugar also feeds the hardworking white blood cells. Goop it on-- the honey creates a thick, sterile bandage.

Why Keep Honey in Your Medicine Cabinet?

•  Sore Throat/Cough -gargle with warm water, Manuka honey, and Himalayan salt
• Open Wounds, Skin Infections, Burns -apply to cleaned wound as a salve. Change up to 3x/day. Read this for clinical studies on wounds.
• Less Wrinkles -Apply as a mask and leave on for 20 mins. Humectant and draws out impurities
• Dry/Tired Eyes/Night Blindness -Sounds scary, right? But it's supposed to work. Apply a lil honey under lid.
• Anemia -Eat some.
• Stomach Ulcers -Kills H. Pylori bacteria. Take internally.
• Staph infections -kills staphylococcus
• Allergies -eat local honey to adapt to pollen

The list goes on and on...

When buying honey, buy raw and local.

Manuka is imported from New Zealand and more expensive, but I think it's worth it. Click here to see example. 

"It's as if the bees have caught the flu..."

 30% of the world's bee colonies 
were lost last year.

Albert Einstein is attributed with saying, 
"If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left."

Here's a fascinating TED talk about the decline of the bee population on earth and the detrimental effect that will have on us. Support local bee farming!

The Feet Have to Understand The Pelvis -Ida Rolf

 A good background to this article would be the one I shared about one of my heroes, Ida P. Rolf. You can click on her name to read it, if you like. Dr. Rolf came up with ideas surrounding a tensegrity model, as applied to the body's fascia (sinews). 

Dr. Rolf getting down and dirty with her elbow

Her ideas have been expanded upon by some of the great thinkers in the bodywork movement, including Thomas Myers, founder of Anatomy Trains.

     I was lucky enough to take an Anatomy Trains Myofascial Meridians workshop for manual therapists in New Jersey, this past October. It was a phenomenal experience. I was able to put to words ideas that I have only experienced in my own practice, but never had explained to me. 

Vesalius (c. 1550) shows us the deep front line

Listening to the instructor, Simone Lindner, was inspiring. Her vast knowedge and passion about this work was contagious. I returned to Jacksonville full of excitement to share with you all that I learned.

Me, Simone, and a Skeleton

 According to the KMI website, 
"Anatomy Trains® maps the 'anatomy of connection' - the whole-body fascial and myofascial linkages. Anatomy Trains links the individual muscles into functional complexes, each with a specific anatomy and 'meaning'. Anatomy Trains leads to new holistic strategies for health professionals, movement teachers, and athletes to resolve complex postural and movement patterns. "

 More simply put, it's a map of how the muscles connect through the fascial networks of the body. This video helps:

To dig deeper into Anatomy Trains, click here or come get a session and let the work speak for itself.

You can study about your own body at your leisure, too. 
Click here to buy the book (I highly recommend it).

Your Magnificent 7 Layer Liquid Crystal Oscillator: Your Heart

The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart. -The Buddha

Heart Nebula

     Your heart is home to your vital energy and spirit. The primary function of the heart team is the development of blood and its transportation. The heart controls life and movement. According to eastern medicine, the heart is also the center or "king" of our emotional existence, so that any extreme emotion injures and afflicts the heart and its mate (the small intestine). A person who has no spirit, no zest for being alive, is said to be, in part, suffering from a malfunction of the heart team.The heart is also the supreme governor of thought and rational behavior. Feeling irrational or lackluster? Maybe your heart is out of balance.

Here is a 3 min. video of Anatomist Dr. Gil Hedley showing a heart in an unembalmed cadaver. He gets pretty emotional about it. Every time I watch it, I do, too. This fist-sized ball of muscle is so enigmatic, can you blame us?

The Heart produces the strongest electromagnetic fields of the body. Recent studies have shown that when people touch or are in proximity, one person's heartbeat signal is registered in the other person's brainwaves (EEG). Could it be the intermingling of these waves?

The above picture illustrates the electromagnetic fields that are produced by the life force/electricity generated by the heart in the chest.

Here is the magnetic field of the Earth. (Look familiar?)

The magnetic fields surrounding a bar magnet. 

And here are the magnetic fields generated by the heart, seen expanding outside the physical body (some believe that this field extends up to several miles outside the body, possibly ad infinitum).

"I was given a young man's heart--

and started craving beer."

     Ever heard of a heart transplant recipient who begins to crave the favorite foods of the donor or be moved to tears by songs the donor once loved? There are countless stories of this happening. Click here to read an article about it. This phenomenon is amazing and mysterious. Does the heart have memory? Which memories does your heart hold?

Separate studies show that the risk of developing heart disease is significantly increased for people who impulsively vent their anger as well as for those who tend to repress angry feelings.

An Exercise For Your Heart 
(that you can do on the couch):

"There are moments when we feel very grateful for the other person in our life...Withdraw yourself to a quiet room and write down your feeling of gratitude. [This is your Heart Sutra.] This moment of gratitude is a moment of enlightenment, of mindfulness, of intelligence. It is a manifestation from the depths of your consciousness...Keep your Heart Sutra in a sacred place. Try to chant your sutra often." -Thich Nhat Hanh

"A wise person nurtures and guards his heart energy with greater attention than he would show for all his physical possessions and wealth." 

Keep in mind that according to eastern medicine, the heart is injured by:

-excess walking, running, jogging, etc.

-anger/rage

-"dark" or evil thoughts

-sudden fright or terror

-being too exuberant or dramatic

-excessive emotion of any sort

-hot clothing/drinks/foods/weather

-boozin' and usin'

-excess salt

-eggs (esp. whites) and dairy products

Nurture your heart with laughter, joy, moderate exercise, electrolytes (see ConcenTrace here), MASSAGE, and COMPASSION. Your heart has been working non-stop for you. Isn't it time to give it some attention?

I'll end with this funny video from a Happy Days episode--it's a good anatomy review of the heart and if it gets you to laugh just a little, is good for your, well, you know. 

"My boy don't cheat"-Fonzie

Enough Said

(snapped this today at Delicomb!)

An Apple A Day

I recently returned from a wonderful trip to New York & New Jersey. I  enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and attending an Anatomy Trains workshop. Here are a couple cool pictures that I snapped at my favorite store, Evolution. 

Here is a human skull that has been disarticulated and displayed under this shiny glass dome. Notice how the upper palate of your mouth, the maxilla, is a fusion of two bones and that your brain is sitting on boney pockets of air.  If we know that the human body is basically just a sack of sea water walking around and that living bone is flexible and spongey, do you think that there is any movement among the sutures of a living skull? That which isn't flexible breaks easily under pressure, right?

As a burgeoning anatomist, have I died and gone to heaven? Here is a collection of actual human skeletons--from a tiny baby up to a full grown adult. (Too bad there isn't a scoliotic 80+ skeleton.) Notice the head/body size ratio in the baby vs. the adult. Can you tell the sex of a body, just by studying its skeleton?

The human structure is an artistic, engineering marvel!

We Are One!

We are experiencing an illusion when we believe ourselves to be separate from others and the rest of the world. 

 It is time to realize that if you are kind to someone else, you are being kind to yourself. If you reach out and help someone, you are helping yourself. If you are peaceful towards others, it becomes difficult to be hard on yourself. Loving yourself and loving others are one in the same.

I invite you to enjoy this incredible video where two dogs demonstrate interbeing.

10 Facts about Wax

  

     I'll admit it. Last Saturday night, I cleaned my ears with a Q-tip. 

    My entire life I've always heard to never stick anything inside my ear canal that is smaller than my elbow but I had an itch that 
I couldn't scratch otherwise.

     And now I know why that old saying exists. 

     The next day, I felt something become lodged inside my right ear. I could barely hear anything, until a physician scraped out huge clumps of 
black wax .
What exactly is ear wax and was it normal that mine was black? 

Here are 10 interesting facts that I found in the process of my cerumenal exploration. 

1)  Ear wax (Cerumen) is mainly made of dead skin.

2)  Fear, Anxiety, and Stress increase production of ear wax.

3)  There are two genetically different types of 

ear wax--wet (found in people of Caucasian

 and African decent) and dry (found in people

of East Asian and Native American decent ).

Anthropologists have used ear wax to track human migratory patterns.

4)  Wet Ear wax (containing more fat) is golden orange, brown and black. It glows in a black light:

Dry Ear wax 

is white and flakey.

Dry Ear Wax

5)  Every time you chew, the movement of your jaw bone, or mandible, helps to push the wax up and out of your ear.

6)  Recent research has found that  wax has antibacterial/antifungal properties.

Ear Wax under Electron Microscope

7)  Ear wax has a slightly acidic pH (6.1).

8)  A 1938 article in a women's magazine suggested ear wax to be applied as a form of chapstick.

9)  In medieval times ear wax, and other substances such as urine, were used to prepare pigments used by scribes.

10)  Be thankful for your ear wax! It keeps your ear canal lubricated and clean.