The Importance of Rest

On Sunday, I had a duvet day.  I'd been in a show last week, so after a busy day on the Saturday and a very late night due to the after show party, I needed a rest.

Now, normally, I'd probably have pushed through and tried to get on with the things piling up on my to-do list.  But I thought I'd try a different tactic this time.  This time, I embraced doing nothing.  And it was wonderfully liberating.

Now, I can hear you saying, "it's alright for you, I don't have the time to do nothing". And I realise I am in a fortunate state, that I can do this. But it does raise the issue of how important rest is.

Firstly, we don't function at full par when we're over tired.  Extreme tiredness is a form of stress for our bodies and stress has a negative effect on brain function.  We make mistakes and things can either take longer, or be of a lower standard.

Secondly, it's hard work being tired.  Life is less pleasant and things we'd normally take in our stride, become difficult to cope with.  We become over sensitive to things and can become emotional or irritable around others. And obviously, we need to mention that overriding desire to go back to bed.

Thirdly, and less obviously, we can become hyper.  Sometimes it's just adrenaline which is keeping us awake, or we can turn to caffeine and sugar.  This will take its toll on our body, and if we keep this up too long it can lead to burnout.

So, on Sunday, I snuggled down under the duvet, read copious amounts of Facebook and ended the day with a dose of Downton Abbey.

And by Monday I was back to normal energy levels.  So it paid off.

Why not try it sometime?

What is Kinesiology - Part 5 - History

People often ask me where kinesiology came from, so I thought I'd address this in the next part of the series.

Although, it draws on some very ancient healing knowledge, it wasn't discovered until the 1960s.  A chiropractor, called Dr George Goodheart, found that when testing the integrity of muscles, the outcome was dependent on the state of the body at that time.  In this way, he realised that this "muscle test" could be used to find out information which could then be used in the treatment.

Before that, the word kinesiology was just used to mean it's literal translation "the study of movement" (from the Greek). It was a science rather than a therapy; you could become qualified in it, but not licensed.  However after Dr Goodheart's discovery, he went on to devise a therapy which he called Applied Kinesiology.  He taught this to medical doctors and chiropractors. Owing to the vast amount of anatomical knowledge required, he didn't feel it was appropriate to teach it to non-medically trained people.

Fast forward several years, and another chap called John Thie realised that this knowledge could be simplified and still be extremely powerful as a therapeutic tool.  He devised a simpler system called Touch For Health, which links 42 muscles to the Chinese meridian system and uses this to rebalance the body.  It is a very effective therapy and forms the foundation level training for kinesiologists.

Since then, various people have taken the therapy further and many branches of kinesiology have been set up, and submitted to professional bodies for accreditation.  These form the advanced part of the practitioner training and continual professional development.  They are all slightly different, with regard to what they focus on. 3-in-1 Concepts, which I practise defuses emotional stress around an issue (see part 3).  Information about some of the other branches can be found here.  Some are more weighted towards the emotional, some more structural and others more nutritional/biochemical.  Each is very powerful, but people will often find some suit them more than others according to the way they like to work.

I will be giving a talk at the Wellbeing Centre this Saturday (22nd September) if you'd like to find out more about kinesiology and how it can help stress.

What is Kineisology - Part 4 - Corrections

"Corrections" are the name given to the parts of the treatment which actually rebalance the person's energy and defuse the stress.  Kinesiologists often don't go into great detail about these because there are a lot of different types and different ones will be used at different sessions.

Basically, they are mini treatments. I'd say, generally, they last from anywhere between a couple of minutes to maybe 10-15 minutes.  The set of corrections each kinesiologist uses will depend on the courses they've done and so will vary between practitioners.

Broadly speaking, they fall into 4 categories:

Electrical corrections - these work on restoring left/right brain connections and correct the stresses that have "blown our circuits". Some of these have been taken on by teachers in schools via the "BrainGym" exercises. Also, in this section are the acupressure corrections which work on rebalancing the meridians.

Emotional corrections - these work directly on the emotions. Some of these will involve gaining awareness through information which comes up.  Many kinesiologists use flower remedies - the most well known being the Bach Flower Remedies. These work very gently on resolving unwanted emotional states.

Nutritional corrections - these correct imbalances by working on the nutritional system. Many kinesiologists do allergy and intolerance testing (although this isn't something I do) and sometimes this is the first thing people think about when hearing the work kinesiology.  It might be appropriate for the client to add or remove certain foods from their diet for a while, or it might be appropriate to work directly on the effect nutrition is having on the body.

Structural corrections - these are the ones that work directly on the muscles of the body.  The kinesiology systems have aligned many of our muscles with the Chinese 5 element and meridian systems. By muscle testing the different muscles, we can correct the energy imbalances. This can make kinesiology very good for treating muscular problems and even postural problems.

Then there could well be other corrections.  3-in-1 Concepts Kinesiology covered a module on Face Reading (how our facial structure relates to our characteristics we inherited genetically).  This can provide a huge insight for people into why they tend to behave and be drawn to certain experiences.  Practitioners may be qualified in other therapies and choose to bring them into their work.

As you might expect if you've been reading the whole of this series of blog entries, the corrections are chosen according to the muscle testing.  Often different ones will come up over several sessions with the same client, although they can seem to "favour" certain ones. For that reason, every session is unique.

What is Kinesiology - Part 3 - Defusing Stress

3-in-1 Concepts is the branch of kinesiology that I practise. It's works by diffusing the emotional stress around an issue.  Any issue.

Stress often comes from situations where we feel our ability to make a choice has been removed or restricted in some way.  Maybe someone else's behaviour is affecting us negatively. Maybe we're in a situation that we don't like but feel we have to stay in.  Whatever the situation, if the stress is ongoing, look for the feeling of lack of choice involved.

So, by helping the client back to a feeling of choice, resolves the stress.  Sounds easy doesn't it. Well, with kinesiology, it is surprisingly easy because the muscle testing guides the session.  Stress which seems in surmountable can suddenly disappear.  There's obviously a bit more too it than waving a magic wand, but actually not a lot.

One of the things we work with is our belief systems.  Things we've put down in our memory banks as facts, when in fact they are just one particular way of looking at a situation.  Often these come from family or friends and we've taken them on subconsciously when they actually don't serve us.  Things like "I'm only a good person if I have a good job" or " I have to make sacrifices to be liked".  We can change these to more empowering ones, thus helping us to make the choices we really want.  So now the above belief systems may become "It's OK to follow my dreams" and "It's OK to put myself first".

The second thing is resolving the past. Our stress often comes from triggering the emotional  memory of past events. We obviously can't change events which have already happened, but we can change our perception of these events.  What impacts on our present lives is how we feel about our past. So by using muscle testing, we can identify the age at which the trigger for our present stress happened and defuse it.  In that way, that particular trigger can't press our buttons any more.  The amazing thing is that we don't have to have any idea of the cause before we defuse it as the session will bring up that information.

The actual defusing is done using "corrections".  More on that next time.