Going With The Flow

Tags

Acupressure, Acupuncture, Energy, MS, Qi Gong, Tapping

A funny thing happened to me on the way to acupuncture. I discovered a strange phenomenon that I had never before heard of, much less expected to be doing that morning and for many mornings since. A few months ago I went to an acupuncturist to begin treatment in hopes of relieving symptoms related to my MS. I don’t have many symptoms to speak of; just numb toes that tend to ache a bit, tingly legs, occasional fatigue and forgetfulness, with the latter two likely attributed to my peri-menopausal state. I didn’t exactly know what my expectations were in getting acupuncture. My symptoms don’t even really bother me all that much. At that time, my last MRI had shown more active lesions even though I had not had an increase in symptoms and I didn’t want to change medications. I decided to explore alternatives to western medicine. I was told by my MS specialist that acupuncture could help to alleviate symptoms but certainly wasn’t a cure. I went with the idea that my MS specialist was wrong; I was hopeful for a cure or at least a clean, healthy MRI to match the way I actually felt. So I went to my 11:00 appointment dressed in yoga pants, having come straight from my 9:00 class. When I walked in, a petite Chinese woman who looked to be in her mid to late 50’s greeted me and said she would be with me shortly. In the mean time she had been collecting money from a few women who trickled in as I waited in the small foyer. I looked around the room and likened it to a sparsely decorated Chinese Restaurant, complete with a palm tree mural and oddly placed cherry wood furnishings. There as also a cello in the corner, which I found interesting. I didn’t want to judge a book by its somewhat tacky cover and so I instead focused on the warm way the people related to the woman who I later learned was Dr. K, the MD who was to perform my acupuncture. When Dr. K was finally able to get back to me, she asked if I was in a hurry, to which I replied that I was not. She then said that she had to teach a class before my appointment because the instructor had called in with a headache. She invited me to join the class free of charge and said it would last about 30 minutes. My first thought was, “Can’t she cure that girl’s headache with some needles or herbs?” But once I got passed my usual skeptical sarcasm, I said, “Sure, why not?” I was quickly cognizant to the fact that I had not the slightest idea as to what kind of class I had agreed to. I had read about the acupuncture on the facility’s website, but not about the other services available and I surmised from some literature on the wall that Dr. K was a Tai Chi enthusiast. I took my place near the other women who were in stocking feet facing a wall of mirrors. Yoga? No mats. Tai Chi? Maybe though I knew nothing about that either. I turned to the woman on the side of me and asked her what class I was in. She must have thought I was strange, standing there, ready to begin a class, yet unsure about what it even was. She said it was Qi Gong, pronounced Chee Gong. I looked puzzled and repeated the words and she confirmed that I heard correctly. Before I could explain to her that I wasn’t a lunatic who had just wandered in, out popped Dr. K in her sweats and on went the Chinese music. The music was punctuated by a loud man’s voice, which sounded like he was grunting words in a rhythmic pattern. I couldn’t understand what he was saying but guessed that the words corresponded with a count that seemed to follow the movements. I kept thinking in my mind how strange it was that I came for acupuncture and yet suddenly found myself in this class, just going with the flow. Thus I was introduced to the ancient Chinese art of energy cultivation and healing, Qi Gong.

After the class Dr. K came around and placed her hand a few inches away from each of the participant’s hands and proclaimed how she could “feel it”. Everyone agreed. She then came to me with her hand test and said, “You, we gotta work on!” and that is exactly what I’ve been striving to do ever since because apparently my blocked energy hadn’t been released in that first attempt. After my acupuncture appointment that day, I was instructed to do Qi Gong every day. I was sold a DVD that featured Dr. K and I made my next appointment. I felt really relaxed from the acupuncture, but felt like perhaps my relaxed state made me vulnerable to any suggestion. I was persuaded into spending money on a DVD that I thought I likely would never even watch, but one day after having the DVD for a couple of weeks I decided to try it. I kind of enjoyed it. I then played it on a weekend away with some of my friends and invited them to participate. The group dynamic seemed to increase the effect; the effect being a general feeling of well being. Since then I’ve explored ways of getting my energy flowing thereby improving my Qi from Qi Gong, to acupressure, to tapping. There is a lot involved when you start to read about Qi and Qi Gong, but it all seems to come down to the basic premise of unblocking blockages in order to allow energy to flow, thereby promoting healing. I didn’t know it at the time but the “feeling” Dr. K spoke of was the feeling of energy exuding from the palms of the hands of the participants. I have since experienced the “feeling” and it’s almost like a magnetic force field. Apparently acupuncture and acupressure work on the same principal of energy. I strive to do Qi Gong everyday, though I don’t seem to find the time. I do know that the more I do it the better I feel. It’s not strenuous and in the various exercises, there is something for everyone. I’ve seen DVD’s for seated Qi Gong, Therapeutic Qi Gong, Qi Gong for back and shoulder injuries; the list goes on. It’s best done in conjunction with meditation and visualization and the web is full of articles about it. Whether you have been diagnosed with a disease or not, everyone can benefit from good energy, so go with the flow!

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Please Don’t Make Me Om

Tags

balance, MS, Yoga

The Yoga Paintings of Jan Hyde

I had always disliked yoga. I actually really loathed yoga. I just didn’t have the yoga personality. I had things to do, people to see, places to go and you mean to tell me I need to cover myself in a blanket and do Shavasana?  If you have never practiced yoga, Google it. It’s the corpse pose. I guess I didn’t have an appreciation for lying still in a corpse-like posture while listening to meditation music and seagulls.  And the mere thought of oming in a room full of people made me want to snicker because it just seemed so silly.

I first tried yoga in a class that was held above the garage of a woman my sister knew. It was a nice studio and Mary seemed like a nice person, but each week when my mom, sister and I went, I felt more and more stressed. I found that I just couldn’t stand the slow pace; the quieting of the mind. I did the 6 week session and declared that yoga just wasn’t my sport. I tried it one more time at the local Y and the instructor showed up wearing jeans to teach the class and she would actually fall asleep, complete with loud snoring, during Shavasana. The only time she seemed like a yoga “teacher” was the time that I sat silently while everyone else omed their three oms; one to the room, one to the earth and one to the universe. She would look at me and sternly say, “let’s try that one more time.”  Please don’t make me om!

That was about 8 years ago and I had the idea in my head that yoga actually made me angry.  When my MS specialist told me that yoga was a very good exercise for people with MS, I still avoided it for several months. On one of my last rides home from Pilates, I happened to drive by a studio that just caught my eye.  It was an old mill building with a brook running beneath it.  I went online, found the website and saw that the schedule was very flexible. There was no commitment to take a set amount of classes. My friend S had been trying to get me to revisit yoga and when I told her about this studio she tried a free class. She loved the place and assured me that there was no oming involved.  I decided to give it a go.  It was a large, but not too large, stylishly Zen studio, comfortably warm and dimly lit.  I immediately felt comfortable there.  The first class I tried was a Vinyasa Sundown Flow and it was very physical.  I felt challenged in that it required a lot of upper body strength and the instructor moved rather quickly from one pose to the next, thus the flow aspect.   It was nothing like any yoga class I had ever done and while maybe that class was too physical for a beginner, I bought a five class pass and started trying different classes twice a week.

One of my favorite classes is the beginner class on Monday mornings and I find it to be a fantastic way to begin the week.  On sunny days, the large windows that wrap around three sides of the studio, provide yoga mat sized sunny patches that make me feel like a cat in the sunshine.  The instructor is so warm and engaging, I would probably om while standing on my head if that is what she asked of me.  While that was probably an exaggeration,  I have been known to now om on occasion and it no longer feels wrong to me.  Shavasana has become my favorite part of class.  Last night I went to a gentle yoga with mediation class and the instructor went around the class during this quiet time, massaging each students head and using aromatherapy oil to give a blessing on our foreheads.  It felt amazing to have my MS rattled head pampered in such a way.  I have also participated in a work shop that was 3 hours of restorative poses, which essentially was an afternoon of creative Shavasana and was simply amazing.

I have caught yoga fever and I’m not looking for a cure.  Whether or not you have a specific health issue, yoga seems to be an all around whole body fitness routine that not only engages your physicality, but also your mind.  As anyone with MS has experienced, closing your eyes while standing straight with arms at your side results in an automatic swaying of the body, but yoga has improved this for me personally as it is excellent for challenging your balance.  I highly recommend it and suggest that you don’t give up before trying it at several studios to find your comfort zone. May the pure light of your spirit shine and guide you through each day… Namaste.

Food As Medicine

Tags

Copaxone, Mark's Daily Apple, MS, Paleo Diet, Terry Wahls

Grilled Salmon, Roasted Cauliflower, Roasted Carrots, with Spinach and Kale Salad

I wish my Whole Foods bill could be covered by insurance.  Then again, that has been my sentiment about a lot of things that I believe can help my medical condition, including a lovely restorative spa vacation.  In early December, I received the disturbing news that my medication, which is covered,  wasn’t working as well as my MS specialist felt that it should be.  This was very disheartening because I had put so much trust in the Copaxone.  From the day of my first injection, I really thought everything would be fine.  I had been on it for 9 months already and hadn’t experienced any symptoms, but my MRI showed new lesions. I suppose all good things must come to an end and now a seed of doubt had been planted.

As I’ve said before, timing really is everything.  Just days before that dreadful call, my daughter had sent me an email, asking if I had ever heard of Terry Wahls and if I would consider altering my diet to help prevent MS relapses.  I told her I hadn’t heard of her and that I really had pretty good eating habits already.  It had only been a couple of days and I hadn’t yet looked into her suggestion, but after receiving the call, I needed a new plan. I Googled The Terry Wahls Foundation.  I found several snippets of videos at first, and books for sale.  I wanted free information, I didn’t want a scam.  Why I blindly bought into $50,000 worth of Copaxone, but resisted spending $38.00 on a book is truly a mystery to me and I’ve since splurged on a couple of great books.  One of the video snippets mentioned eliminating grains, refined sugar and processed foods completely.  So that is where I began, no grains or sugar, to the extent of reading labels on everything, which is pretty simple when you eliminate the next thing, processed foods.  When is the last time you had to read a label on a carrot?

I traded my coffee, with its no fat half and half, which is loaded with hidden sugar, to yummy chai which is delicious black. Both contain caffeine so there was no withdrawal. It wasn’t very difficult even with the holidays fast approaching.  My husband’s work party was days away and I had already ordered the stuffed chicken, but my plan was to eat around the stuffing, skip the tortellini in the soup and eschew the bread basket.  The party was a piece of cake (grainless of course).  When the appetizers came around I chose only the skewered chicken and the shrimp; I passed on the stuffed mushrooms and fried breaded zucchini.  The woman beside me was sorry she ordered the vegetarian meal as soon as she saw my chicken; we traded and I fell in love with the healthy alternative.  It was a beautiful portabello mushroom stuffed with butternut squash, walnuts and cranberries.  I wasn’t missing anything and I danced all night in my heels!

Beet Salad

Within the first 5 days after eliminating grains, sugar and processed food, I dropped 6 pounds.  I didn’t change my diet as a means to lose weight, but I must say, knowing that I previously carried 6 pounds of  grain induced bloat gave me the feeling that I was onto something.  That weekend I found the Terry Wahls TEDxIowaCity YouTube lecture,  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLjgBLwH3Wc, which describes in detail her nutrition plan. That video has since gone viral.  I watched it twice and took notes about the food that Dr, Wahls used as medicine to feed her mitochondria. She went from being wheel chair bound, to riding her bike to work everyday after researching and putting into practice the nutrients involved in sustaining a healthy brain.  I have already posted the lecture link on this site, and if you haven’t watched it in its entirety now is the time to do so. Where I had previously focused on only eliminating, I was now learning what I needed to add and I was seeing that it was even more important than what you take away.  The concept of focusing on what you are gaining, rather than what you are giving up began to become embedded in my mind and really motivated me.  That and the prospect of preventing my lesioned, black hole ridden brain from shrinking away was all the motivation I needed to go straight to the nearest produce department.  In a nutshell, Dr. Wahls suggests adding 9 cups, though I have heard it can be 6 for women, of a combination of leafy greens, sulfur rich vegetables and brightly colored fruits and vegetables.  She also added grass fed meats, wild caught salmon, seaweed, and organ meats.  I have adhered to all but the organ meats and seaweed, which is proving to be more difficult to enjoy than I expected.  While the 9 cups of greens and colorful vegetables are a daily need, and one in which I have come to really enjoy, the organ meat and seaweed is supposed to be once a week, seaweed for its iodine and organ meats for the many nutrients they provide. I am not a nutritionist, I still need to research either a way to make these last two things palatable, or supplementally available to me.  I buy grass fed meats when the stores I shop carry them, but am not a purist at this point.  And wild caught salmon seems to always have bones, where the farm raised do not, but I’m a work in progress.   All I can say is that I have never eaten better.  Recipes are not really necessary because I eat whole food, unadulterated beautiful whole foods seasoned with fresh herbs and olive oil.  My salads are amazing and the combinations I make are limited only to your imagination or produce drawer.  I have lost a total of 15 pounds and as bratty as it may sound, I am feeling a little too skinny, but it’s not for lack of eating as I definitely get my 9 cups and then some, every single day.  If it sounds like a lot of food, well that’s because it is.  Most people say that breakfast is the hardest habit to change, but I have come to enjoy my giant bowl of raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and blackberries, accompanied usually by an egg.  We are all creatures of habit; just make the change and it will become your habit.  There are many sites that are dedicated to grain free diets.  Modern Hunter Gatherer, Paleo, Caveman, they are all based on the same principals and a quick Google search will give you access to recipes for grainless muffins, and breads if you need a fix. My husband has learned to make the most delicious pancakes using almond flour and buckwheat flour, all grainless, and when he releases that recipe, I will share.   A really great resource for health in general and grainless diet in particular is http://www.marksdailyapple.com/.  When I came upon this site, one of the first thing I saw in its archives was a link to the Terry Wahls lecture; I had come full circle. I don’t feel deprived in any way, although on occasion I think about pizza. The idea of preventing MS relapses surely outweigh any craving I may have, so staying the coarse hasn’t been too much of a chore. Grainless or brainless…

Please Accept This Gift

Tags

Acupuncture, Carl Honore, Relaxation, Yoga

“Always remember to slow down in life; live, breathe, and learn; take a look around you whenever you have time and never forget everything and every person that has the least place within your heart.”  ~ Unknown

The other day while leaving Yoga, I noticed I was, once again, the last to leave the class. I told my teacher that it was a gift of MS that has caused me to take my time and relax.  It’s not that I am physically incapable of moving quickly.  I was always a darter, always rushed around and still could if I chose to.  I know that after Yoga I am very relaxed, I can just meander my way through the act of refolding my blanket, replacing my blocks, rolling my mat.  For some, moving quickly may no longer be an option, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.  My very wise daughter shared this video lecture with me, and I feel compelled to share it with all of you.  I wanted to post it this morning but I had an acupuncture appointment, so I didn’t have time; how ironic.  My Chinese acupuncturist, Dr. K, was talking about her upcoming Tai Chi conference, and said something so strangely coincidental, I couldn’t wait to come home and write it all down.  She told me that she starts her conference lecture by posing this question, “How long is the life span of a dog? How long is the life span of a tortoise?  We can learn a lot from a tortoise.” Please accept this gift.

Getting to the Core

Tags

Fitness, MS, MS Health, Pilates

As fall approached, I was debating whether or not to join a gym.  I thought maybe I could try spin classes seeing that I had been biking all summer with relative ease.  I was a little bit intimidated with going to a gym in my “condition.” It’s not that I was self conscious about my appearance;  I appear fit.  It’s just that I was feeling self conscious about going to a gym while having MS.  I had always been a regular participant in group fitness classes such as step aerobics and Zumba, but I was used to being in the front row.  I now felt as though I needed to be relegated to the back of the room, perhaps near the exit, or at least the rest room, should I suddenly need to step out.  I didn’t want to be the kind of person who “steps out.”  In researching my options, I came across what looked to be just the thing for me;  Pilates with a personal trainer.  It sounded expensive because, well, it was expensive.  But I found the least expensive of the expensive trainers and boldly made an appointment.  I was very excited at the prospect of exercising like the stars!  Core fitness sounded very appealing. Maybe I could wear a bikini this summer. I figured that this might be the last opportunity to really get a Jennifer Aniston body, not just because of my MS, but also because of my age.
I loved Pilates and the personal trainer immediately.  I could do this. I wasn’t the strongest I had ever been when I started, but everyone has to start somewhere.  The Pilates machine looked like a torture device, with all it’s pulleys and straps, but it wasn’t torturous at all.  Having a personal trainer was great too, because she encouraged me to keep going when I may have otherwise wanted to stop.  At the same time, she was always mindful of my personal abilities, to be sure I wouldn’t injure myself.

On my first day I scheduled twice weekly appointments straight through the next three months and I kept them all.  I would prepay for both days on Mondays (my idea, not hers) so that I would feel obligated not to blow off my next scheduled appointment.  It was all my own personal strategy to stay the course and it seemed to work.  I stuck with it for the full three months, and felt really strong and energized. Sadly, as December approached, the well was running dry and I felt compelled to take a break.  It’s February and I still haven’t gone back, but maybe that wasn’t my last opportunity.