I WAS SITTING AT A POOL WITH A FRIEND RECENTLY. WE WERE DISCUSSING HEALTH AND AGING. HE MADE A COMMENT ‘AGING IS A DISEASE’ WHICH STRUCK ME AS FATALISTIC. ‘NO ITS REALITY’, HE SAID. ‘AT ABOUT 26 YEARS OF AGE OUR CELLS STOP GROWING AND PRODUCING AND START TO DECLINE’.

I WAS RECENTLY INSPIRED AND RE-INSPIRED WHILE READING CURRENT RESEARCH ON MIND BODY PSYCHOLOGY AND RECENTLY TAUGHT   A COLLEGE COURSE CALLED MIND BODY PSYCHOLOGY FOR THE SECOND TIME.

THE NEW RESEARCH ABOUT AGING AND HEALTH IS EXCITING AND ENCOURAGING. THERE ARE WAYS TO FACILITATE MORE CREATIVITY, HEALTH AND BUILD A BETTER BRAIN. GENETICS OF THE BRAIN AND BODY ARE BEING  UNLOCKED REVEALING  THAT WE CAN NOT JUST LIVE LONGER BUT LIVE A HIGH QUALITY OF LIFE AS WE AGE.  ‘BUT AGING IS A DISEASE AND WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE’ MY FRIEND REPEATED’. I COULDNT BELIEVE WHAT I WAS HEARING. HAS OUR CULTURE BEEN SO BRAIN WASHED BY THE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES’ COMMERCIALS ON TV THAT WE NOW BELIEVE THAT EVERYTHING IS A DISEASE, INCLUDING AGING? THINK ABOUT IT…..HOW MANY NEW DISEASES ARE CREATED EVERY WEEK? WHY ARE THEY CREATED?  SO THAT MEDICATION CAN BE PRESCRIBED FOR THEM. IT’S A BIG PROFIT INDUSTRY AND WE ARE BUYING INTO IT. IT’S BRAINWASHING. IF YOU ARE TIRED, OVERWEIGHT, TOO HUNGRY, NOT HUNGRY ENOUGH, SLEEPING OR NOT SLEEPING AT NIGHT, STRESSED, OVERWHELMED, ADDICTED TO FOOD, DRUGS, SEX,SHOPPING, OR CIGARETTES, DEPRESSED WHATEVER! THERE IS A PILL FOR IT.

ARE WE BECOMING NUMB OR UNMOTIVATED TO MAKE HEALTHY DECISIONS FOR OURSELVES? HAVE WE GIVEN OUR HEALTH AND WELLNESS OVER TO PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES AND DOCTORS WHO DOLE OUT THE RX SAMPLES LIKE FREE CANDY?  THEN WE GET ‘HOOKED’ ON OR HAVE SIDE EFFECTS FROM THE MEDICATION AND GUESS WHAT? THERE IS ANOTHER PILL FOR THAT! WE ARE NOT A DISEASE PROCESS AS THE PHARMACEUTICAL ADS WOULD LIKE US TO BELIEVE.

AGING IS PART OF THE CONTINUUM OF LIFE. THE CONTINUUM IS FROM OPTIMAL WELLNESS TO DEATH. IT IS NOT A DISEASE AND THERE IS NO PILL TO CURE IT. AGING IS PART OF LIFE JUST AS TODDLERHOOD, ADOLESCENCE AND ADULTHOOD ARE PART OF THE CONTINUUM. HERE IS A METAPHOR I USE TO EXPLAIN THE CONTINUUM AND HOW MANY FACTORS AFFECT GROWTH, HEALTH, VITALITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE.
IF YOU PLANT TWO FRUIT TREES, ONE IN THE SHADE, IN A SHALLOW HOLE, NO ROOM FOR THE ROOTS TO GROW, AND IT RECEIVES NO NUTRIENTS, NOT MUCH SUN AND THERE ARE OTHER BUSHES AROUND IT THAT CROWD IT; IT’S GROWTH AND HEALTH ARE STUNTED AND IT PRODUCES LITTLE IF ANY FRUIT. THE OTHER TREE IS PLANTED IN FERTILE SOIL WITH PLENTY OF ROOM FOR THE ROOTS. IT RECEIVES SUNLIGHT DURING THE DAYTIME AND IS WATERED AS NEEDED. IT HAS PLENTY OF SPACE TO GROW AND IT GROWS STRONG AND FULL AND PRODUCES ALOT OF FRUIT.

OUR BODIES, LIKE THE TREES HAVE GENETIC MATERIAL ENCODED BUT THERE ARE MANY OTHER FACTORS THAT AFFECT GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND HEALTH. RECENT STUDIES IN MIND BODY PSYCHOLOGY INDICATE THAT ENRICHING LIFE EXPERIENCES THAT EVOKE NEWNESS, AND STIMULATION OF NEW BRAIN PATTERNS OCCUR DURING CREATIVE MOMENTS OF ART, MUSIC DANCE, DRAMA HUMOR LITERATURE SPIRITUALITY, AWE, JOY AND CULTURAL RITUALS AND THESE CAN POSITIVELY AFFECT HEALING AND THE AGING PROCESS.

STUDIES SHOW THAT A MOTHER’S TOUCH CREATES STIMULATION OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM, GROWTH HORMONES AND NEURAL GROWTH IN HER BABY’S BRAIN. YES, WE MAY BE LIVING LONGER BUT QUALITY OF LIFE BEGINS EVERY DAY WITH MAKING A CHOICE TO PROMOTE HEALTH, CREATIVITY, NEUROGENESIS OR NEW BRAIN NEURAL PATHWAYS AND A STRONG IMMUNE SYSTEM. HOW? I TEACH A WEBINAR COURSE FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MAKE A CHOICE TO LIVE A MORE CREATIVE, HEALTHY, HAPPY AND STIMULATING LIFE NO MATTER WHAT AGE YOU ARE! See Six Steps to Choreograph Your Life

When you pace yourself with creativity, activity and rest throughout the day, you will not be resisting the natural rhythm and will be less stressed. I teach  Mind Body Psychology and use it with my clients in therapy and during our Life Coaching Sessions.

According to recent research:

There is an individualized natural pacing of rhythm or creativity and rest throughout the day. If you learn to ‘catch the wave’  of the natural rhythms that occur, you will discover many hidden connections between your daily rhythm (circadian) and your ultradian (occurring many times throughout the day) rhythm and your level of stress and health. How will this help you? It will help you to increase your energy levels, mood, decrease your stress level, reduce addictions and will positively effect  your sexuality and relationships. You will learn to work WITH your natural rhythm instead of working AGAINST  your natural rhythm. (Rossi, Ernest, Psychobiology of Gene Expression, WW Norton and Company, New York)

For example, from midnight to 2 a.m. is the time when deep sleep and the stimulation of growth hormones occur.

Learn more in my mind body webinar course .

There is a lot of controversy about the physical and psychological aspects of fibromyalgia. My clients come to me with real pain and I treat them with a  combination of EMDR therapy and body work which is done simultaneously with a massage therapist.  The mind and body are treated as one.

During the protocol we process the physical and emotional pain with slow bilateral stimulation to facilitate “parasympathetic processing”.  The bilateral movement is a soft beeping sound produced through a headset that the patient wears.  The bilateral stimulation (beeping) can help to prevent the hyper-activated abreactions and dissociative numbness and can make  processing possible.

 Many times  as we begin to work deeply, clients will deny their feelings that are related to the pain. There is a resistance in the body. They are used to the pain and it’s presence. When they are encouraged to continue they describe the visual experience, feelings emerge  and the massage therapist assists the body memories to release by relaxing the ends of the muscles which are holding the tension.

 Since the body sensations hold vulnerability and contact with the dissociative process, we move slowly and start with as much preparation time as needed so that a safe place is established. During our first sessions we work slowly. I have found that many chronic pain sufferers aren’t always ready to give up their pain, even though they think they are (one woman recently told me that  she didn’t know who she’d be w/o her pain) and others have secondary issues underlying the pain or they just want the pain to go away and don’t want to explore the pain around it. Some of my  clients tell me that they want to let go but there is resistance. We start with the  most recent memories and I suggest ‘paint a picture of the memory with every sensory detail’.  We continue with  slow bilateral stimulation to facilitate “parasympathetic processing”. Visualization continues and at times scary, angry painful memories emerge. These can appear as parts that have been unconsciously functioning to protect  but in protecting they hold the pain and memory. Allowing communication and compromise for a  less painful way of protecting is offered and is processed with EMDR. The emotions and pain are released emotionally and  further through the release of their body muscles.  EMDR and body work are done simultaneously. I help my clients to identify their current strengths which helps them to stay in the present and allow the release of old protective mechanisms that are no longer helpful and in fact are causing pain. Any unfinished emotions are reviewed and released or contained until the next session. 

 Our beliefs can hold conflict and unconscious stress in our bodies. I have used EMDR with Therapeutic Massage on clients with fibromyalgia pain and find it to be more helpful than EMDR  or body work alone. When the muscle is constricted bilateral stimulation has a positive effect of bypassing the resistance. It also seems to deepen the verbal work by releasing body resistance and memories during our EMDR / talk  sessions in the office.  I welcome your questions and comments.