Body Wisdom

Body Wise Awareness

         We live in a world where our senses are routinely bombarded by new stimuli morning to night so it may feel foreign to lay upon a table and remain quiet and still. It is not uncommon to feel anxious, irritated, or resigned to the problem of pain, wanting it to to go away. Conscious connection to your breath can mitigate this and enhance your healing experience on the table.

         If you have been experiencing a condition of muscular pain, restricted range of motion, or postural deficits for a while, you can expect these challenges to decrease over a course of time because myofascial treatments are a process.

         Long, slow work equals expanded body awareness, awakening your relationship to your body, your alignment, and your respiration.  I encourage you to become aware of habits that may not be serving you and applaud your motivation to make adjustments; this is Body Wise Awareness!  Next time you lie on a massage table for a treatment, be guided by your breath, focus on the exhale without judgement just experience and remember that relaxation is a Passive practice, not an active one.

                      www.karenvasilbusch.com or bodywise.info

                                     

Put your oxygen mask on first!

Listening to  the flight attendant's safety talk right before take off, I was reminded that this advice has practical implications for many areas of living that do not partake of an emergency.  Both for myself and for clients who seek out my Ayurvedic services, placing yourself first is not a selfish action, because our vehicle our body is ours to Stewart.  We can expect things to break, degrade and age so maintanence is of great necessity.  Running around as if every day were an emergency is unnecessary!  Put your oxygen mask on first before attending to others.  Take a tool, deep breathing, yoga, meditation, helpful nutrition and USE IT.  Try it out for a couple of weeks and report back to yourself, what worked?  what didn't?  Refine your sensibilities  develop a discriminating mind, open up to new possibilities, it's like a "breath of fresh air".

To cleanse or not?

​

 

​Ayurveda comes from two words; Ayus or Life and Vid, to Know.  Therefore Ayurveda means to know life.   In this context, Ayurvedic treatments create  internal harmony, the result of which is vibrant health.  This is called Ojas in Ayurveda; that which creates sustained enthusiasm for life; felt in our emotions as inspiration, witnessed as longevity in our bodies and experienced as tranquility in our minds.

​The wise men and women who created the system of Ayurveda understood that we could become out of balance from poor diet and a toxic environment.  These imbalances start manifesting as symptoms that we see every day in our modern world; chronic muscle pain,  mental dullness and emotional instability, to name a few.  The beauty of this “medicine of consciousness” is that there are ways to bring back balance that are simple, effective and of gentle means.  

​Purvakarma Therapies are treatments that calm (purva) the action (karma) of the body,mind,spirit.  These therapies involve oileation and heat in order to liquify toxins and move them into the hollow organs of the body for further cleansing. Pachakarma  Therapies are treatments that involve five actions to expel toxins from the body are are usually done under the supervision of a trained Ayurvedic specialist.  

​Usually Purvakarma therapies are performed prior to Pachakarma.  Seasonal treatments to expel toxins from our bodies is recommended much like seasonal cleaning of our homes.  

​The shoulder seasons, Spring and Fall are times of great change in the weather and are reflected in our body as well.  

​When bacteria or toxic elements invade the tissues there is a build up of AMA which clogs our body and if it is not addressed, manifest in what is commonly thought of as seasonal complaints; colds and allergies. The tonsils and adenoids are the first line of defense in our body, their purpose is to encapsulate and destroy invading micro-phages, if they have been removed this first line of defense is absent, making us vulnerable.    If the natural tissue tolerance has been disturbed the cells may become damaged causing  hypersensitivity in our tissues. The resulting intolerance of certain foods or allergies of environmental causes causes unpleasant symptoms, often quite severe.

​

​One of the easiest signs that a cleansing is needed is seen through  observation of your tongue.  The tongue in Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine is considered an internal organ that can be seen externally.  The state of our internal organs can be seen through mapping our tongue.   Considering the shape, color, various markings provide information about our organs.  Facial markings provide further clues.  For example, if you observe dark shadows underneath your eyes it is an invitation to consider that your kidney function may be impaired.  This is not a diagnosis in the Western sense of kidney failure but is a precursor that is letting you know that you may want to consider a seasonal cleanse.  

Follow the Path of Ayurveda and Discover your True Self

Ayurveda comes from two words; Ayus or Life and Vid, to Know. Therefore Ayurveda means to know life. In this context, Ayurvedic treatments create internal harmony, the result of which is vibrant health. This is called Ojas in Ayurveda; that which creates sustained enthusiasm for life; felt in our emotions as inspiration, witnessed as longevity in our bodies and experienced as tranquility in our minds.

The wise men and women who created the system of Ayurveda understood that we could become out of balance from poor diet and a toxic environment. These imbalances start manifesting as symptoms that we see every day in our modern world; chronic muscle pain, mental dullness and emotional instability, to name a few. The beauty of this “medicine of consciousness” is that there are ways to bring back balance that are simple, effective and of gentle means.

Purvakarma Therapies are treatments that calm (purva) the action (karma) of the body,mind,spirit. These therapies involve oileation and heat in order to liquify toxins and move them into the hollow organs of the body for further cleansing. Pachakarma Therapies are treatments that involve five actions to expel toxins from the body are are usually done under the supervision of a trained Ayurvedic specialist.

I perform Purvakarma treatments at my office and have knowledge of Pachakarma therapies for you to observe at home.

In addition to this, I specialize in Restorative Yoga and often recommend these sessions as well because in the face of stillness our true self is often revealed.

Brain Food

This past Septmber I signed up for Rick Hanson's Foundations of Well Being year long Internet course that's based upon the neuroscience of Happiness. My motivation was two fold in that I was wanting to fill my own cup of Happiness, as it were, plus working in the service industry I suspected that my clients would benefit as well. So far I have NOT been Dissapointed!  Hanson's teaching techniques and the way that the classes are divided up into pillars that address our core needs of Safety, Satisfaction and Connection really address mallees of living in modern society. based upon thousand year old practice of mindfulness combined with modern neuropsychology packs a powerful punch!  I recommend that you seek out this course if you are looking for ways to enrich your live and the lives of those around you.

Stewardship

​There is more wisdom in your body than your deepest philosophy – F. Nietzsche

 

​The origin of the word stewardship is from Old English, stig or hall and weard, keeper, over time this word  progressing into ste ward or steward.  Conventionally used to mean someone who manages another's  property or affairs, an attendant on a  ship or airplane, shop steward, the word steward  has been used in our day to define a broad scope of keeper, as in becoming a steward of the Earth.  

​It follows then,  that if we are planning to take care of the environment around us in a steward like  fashion, our inner ecology should follow as well.  Because of the environmental movement that we can say, for the sake of argument was birthed from the loins of Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, we now recognize that to take care of the Earth, is to take care of ourselves.  Our body's health and vitality  depend upon fresh water, clean air and sunlight, as well as nutritive food.  Taking care of our body, much like a steward takes care of the land, is the natural order of things.  Indigenous societies know this. We, in the 21st Century, living in what is referred to as modern society need to re-learn this.  

When we practice forms of stewardship towards ourselves it naturally follows that we want to extend this practice towards others, be they of the animal, plant or mineral family.  Why?  

​We are permeable beings, capable of evolving.   I experienced this, quite unexpectedly one day,  when.  I was returning from attending a week long training in Aurvedic Bodywork at Kripalu's Center for Yoga and Health.  I had experienced the great, good fortune staying at the center where there was wonderful natural food, prepared for each meal; morning and evening yoga and meditation;  plus because this was a hands-on training, I  received some traditional Aurvedic bodywork treatments. I felt that I had been a good steward of my body, time well spent at Kripalu.  When I left, I was very clear in my thought processes and my vitality, or in Ayurveda Ojas, was at an all time high.  Driving back home I choose the leisurely Route 2, that I have always been fond of, partly because it parallels the Wild River, a beautiful spot.  Meandering through small New England towns, I felt at one with the earth and the river, when, WHAM, the sound of several motorcycles,  tore past at breakneck speed.  Normally this sort of thing would have produced a mild annoyance in my mind, or even fright, but on that sunny day, in that particular slice of space and time, as  the Harleys  drove past, the vibration moved through me as if I were permeable not flesh and bones, leaving me quite undisturbed.   I felt permeable but not perturbed by their loud  passing and  my equilibrium was not disturbed, not one iota.  The only other time I experienced this sort of extended aura effect was leaving Gillette Stadium after attending a dharma talk delivered by  HH  The Daili Lama.   For miles and miles after we left the stadium we could feel the extended aura of  peace and love from a thousand Tibetans and their beloved teacher.  

Why practice yoga?

In the 1920’s the first wave of yogic teachings to arrive on our shores was in the form of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose mission in life was to live and teach yoga in the West. His teachings are captured in the classic; Autobiography of a Yogi that gifted the West with profound lessons of Love, Discipline and Faith in things unseen. 

            Fast forward to the 21^st Century; yoga has exploded onto the scene in a myriad of shapes, forms and colours. The influence of yoga in my life began at an early age.  As a teenager, I would go through different yoga asanas (postures) in my room, pondering what it would be like to explore the roots of yoga by going back to where it all came from; the Motherland.   It was not until several years later, 1997, and for similar reasons that I found myself on a Lufthansa Flight to New Deli.    A little older and wiser, these thoughts were swirling around in my head; “What can one very old culture that was colonized by the British tell me, a middle age Westerner? “, I mused,   “Guru?”  “No Thanks!  After all wasn’t our country founded upon values of strong individualism as echoed in the Declaration of Independence?”  “But, no Man (or Woman) is an island,’  so somehow we must be inextricably connected,” What I discovered during my travels in   India moved me forward, in my thinking, to embrace a belief that everything is virtually all connected through the conduit of Divine Love.  Too many incidences that could only have been view as “coincidences” kept happening to me, so much so that my travel companion and I used to joke about it.  When we stepped out of our apartment everyday, we would exclaim, “you never know what’s going to happen today”, referring to the serendipity of events that surprised and delighted us. 

            Looking back over the 40 plus year relationship I have had with yoga, I could ask myself “why would the practice matter?  What has yoga brought to me?  My experience of the regular, sustained practice of yoga is that it’s an inside job, that’s reflected outside of you! So it is a great Discipline that has sustained my physically with these benefits:  increased flexibility and strength, probably a stronger immune system too!

 

            However, lately it’s the Faith that I am achieving calmness and equanimity of my mind that grabs my attention.    This trinity, Love, Discipline and Faith are my guiding light that reinforces me to keep getting back onto the mat.  My yoga practice reflects back to me the meaning of yoga; Union.

            Yoga means to Yoke or Union, so no matter what yoga you wish to try or may already be practicing, you know you have hit pay dirt if you feel that union going on while you are on and off your mat. 

Flying Lessons

I just attended  a Feldenkrais class at The Maine Yoga Center.  The awareness of freedom in my shoulders  is medicine for me. If you have shoulder or neck pain this may be your medicine too.