Constructive Rest Position for The Filet Mignon of Muscles
This blog talks about tightness in the Iliopsoas muscles, and how to release them through the Constructive Rest Position.
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Lomilomi- Ohana
Previously, I wrote about my experience first visiting the island of Kaua'i, and receiving Lomilomi from Auntie Angeline's Muʻolaulani. This opened for me the wisdom teachings of Hawai'i, of the loving practice of Lomilomi.
I wanted to go back to Kaua'i the next year, and I wanted to learn lomilomi. I graduated from Healing Spirits Massage School that year, and felt that Lomilomi was a meaningful path to continue to study and practice massage therapy. This instinct was dead on. I began researching programs.
I found a lomilomi training held on the island of Kaua'i. It was a ten day, 40 hour, residential 'retreat' held in the mountainous area north of Anahola. Gloria Coppola led this journey. She studied with students of Kahu Abraham, from the 'Temple' style of Lomilomi. Ten days in Kaua'i, staying in a gorgeous location, living, studying, practicing; this sounded amazing to me.
I had no idea what an excellent choice I had made. The benefits of this retreat were profound, lasting, life altering. I have done many spiritual retreats in the Tibetan Buddhist community, which are considered 'deep' retreats- meditating in a group for a month, a three month long 'seminary', tantric retreats for initiated students in the tradition. Many retreats, I have done. The Lomllomi retreat blew my mind and heart further open.
The basis of this lomilomi retreat was living closely together, learning Ho'oponopono- the art of saying what needs to be said. Another way of understanding Ho'oponopono is forgiveness. We cannot forgive what we haven't yet acknowledged. These skills of Ho'oponopono are part of creating Ohana; family, acknowledging interdependence. As Ohana, a Lomilomi family, we practiced communication/interpersonal skills, part of the Hawaiian lomi tradition. It formed a basis for us to live closely, and to study deeply. Living closely is often a struggle; as it is uncommon to share so closely in our American lifestyle. Even in the spiritual communities, we often forgo the more difficult interpersonal work, and at an enormous cost.
As we know from Disney's Lilo & Stitch movie; Ohana means no one gets left behind. It is a simple, profound statement. Each of us are an important part of a group. When we exclude, we de-moralize, discredit, and disrespect, and society suffers. Inclusivity is a profound contradiction to how many of us grew up. Our American society prides itself in the individual; competition is often taught to be inherent to capitalism and therefor success.
I believe we are seeing the fallout of this exclusivity now; in the school shootings and other forms of violence which have resulted from the profound isolation many feel in their lives. Ohana is the principle that we are stronger, greater as a society when we honor and allow for differences, for everybody to feel part of.
The Ohana principle is a deep journey to take, and not always easy. Many of us have never experienced this belonging. Our own families may have been places where we felt profoundly left out, discredited, unseen, and at times forced to adapt in ways that left us feeling misunderstood and/or neglected. We may have been encouraged to be 'strong'; to excel in everything, to be the best, and yet underneath that we felt emotionally abandoned and bereft.
Ohana implies that we create a society which can value individuals, AND groups. Neither is the sum total and both imply each other. Ohana is a value that America, in particular, I believe, can stand to benefit enormously from. When we take our fierce individualism which we are so proud of, and combine it with acknowledging the very human need to belong without sacrificing our uniqueness, we can create a much stronger society.
Finding Lomi Lomi
I 'came across' Hawaiian Lomilomi during a trip to the island of Kaua'i. I went there with family to spread my father's ashes a year after his death. I had never been to this amazing island, despite having lived on the Big Island of Hawai'i as a young child and in High School. My father had been born on Oahu, at the close of WW2, as his father finished his enlistment to the Navy. My father always felt a special relationship with these islands. He had served there during his own enlistment as a Marine during the Vietnam War, and spent several months in the valley of Kalalau, a very special area to native Hawaiians. My young parents lived on Kaua'i, and were married in a small church in Princeville.
What I didn't expect when I went to Kaua'i that first time, to spread my fathers ashes, was how deeply I would be touched by the gentleness and love of this island. The Hawaiian islands are, famously, beautiful. And yet, many who live or have lived there know, they also have an side which can be quite painful. The Big Island of Hawai'i has an active volcano, which creates an energetic which can be deeply unsettling. In my experience, each island has a unique energy. I was touched by the gentleness, and healing that I felt from the island of Kaua'i.
One of my family's first stops on that visit, was to Auntie Angelines' Lomilomi Hale. We made the trip from the southern area of Poipu, up to Anahola, a community of mostly native Hawaiian people. There we found this wonderful sanctuary of Lomilomi- Auntie Angelines. As we arrived, we were encouraged to shower, change into a sarong, and to take a steam bath.
As we were a party of six, we were encouraged to relax in the lounge chairs on the porch, which had an amazing view of the nearby mountain peaks, which were sacred reliquaries of Hawaiian bones up on the cliffs. There was a truly timeless quality to being there, and Lomilomi has that hallmark of feeling timeless.
When it was my turn to experience Lomilomi, I had the extraordinary pleasure of receiving a 'four hands' massage'; which means that two people worked on me simultaneously. One woman on each side of me, they worked in tandem mostly replicating what the other was doing. This had the effect of completely decimating my ability to track what was being done, and thus my conceptual mind. As a massage therapist myself, it can be tricky sometimes to 'turn off' that part of the brain that is curious about what techniques are being employed, etc. In this case, it was impossible, I was sent to such a blissful and non-conceptual realm. The rhythmic synchronization, impeccable timing, connection between the practitioners, and deep love that I felt there was transcendent and healing.
I had never felt massage that penetrated to such a deep level as Lomilomi. Perhaps it was a combination of the rawness of my father's recent passing, the tenderness with which I met this amazing island of Kaua'i, the spiritual power that I experienced as the land there, and the love emanating from it, along with the skill of these practitioners. I knew the practitioners were family of Auntie Angelique, a Hawaiian woman who began to practice her roots as a healer later in her life; after she had raised her family. And I had some understanding of this indiginous culture, enough to know that Hawaiians are a deeply loving, gentle (and fierce) people.
This massage set a tone of deep relaxation, connection, bonding, and togetherness for my family's stay on Kaua'i. It helped us to 'get on island time'. 'Island time' means more than just late or loose. In Tibetan Buddhism, there is a term 'shinjang'. Shinjang is translated as 'thoroughly processes' or 'pliant'. It often is referring to someone who has done a lot of practice. The result is that you have a profound level of synchronization of mind, body, heart. We are embodied. We are in tune with ourselves. We know what we feel, and that feeling leads the way, not our conceptual mind, which often has us turning in circles.
From Sogyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher:
"The Tibetan word for ‘pliancy’ or ‘flexibility’, shin jang, means that you have some sense of how to ride your own mind. At first, you learn how to tame your mind. Having tamed your mind, you learn how to make friends with it. And having made friends with it, you learn how to make use of it. This is riding your mind. Shin jang is a very important term. It is often referred to as the fruition, or the complete accomplishment of shamatha. At that level you begin to develop what you could call ‘big shin jang’: your mind is soothed, your body is completely relaxed. But here, shin jang as an antidote is what you could call ‘early’ shin jang, not ‘final’ shin jang. Here, you are simply learning to make friends with yourself. You have some sense of relaxation and some sense of trust in yourself. You have become less paranoid about your own mind. You realize that your mind is workable and that there is an end to suffering from your mind, of your mind, with your mind, and by your mind."
As you can see, to feel 'shinjang' is a profound state. And as you can imagine, my experience with this pearl of wisdom from the indigenous people of Hawai'i, Lomilomi, piqued my interest in Hawaiian healing arts. So I became interested in continuing my massage therapy training, begun at Healing Spirits Integrative Massage Therapy School in Boulder. Read on in Part 2.....
If you go to Kaua'i, don't miss the opportunity to have this experience. You can schedule with them ahead:
Changing the Plastic Habit
Since spending time in Kaua'i in the last five years, my awareness of the problem of plastic has grown. Of course, I have long been vaguely aware of how big a problem it is. Being in an amazing tropical environment, the understanding that there is an enormous looming 'patch' of plastic garbage further north of this island became so deeply disturbing. This pollution affects everything, of course. The peaceful endangered Hawaiian monk seals, all of the birds which go to the northern islands to breed and nest, all the fish and sealife, and ultimately us as consumers of the fish are seriously threatened by this growing problem.
We all know our consumer society is the culprit. We have grown used to, and take for granted how quickly, cheaply, and mindlessly we can acquire plastic products of all kinds. These last,... well... forever. Society is slowly coming to terms with the concept that there is no 'away'. And that although 'mother earth can take care of herself' (this was the comment I received as a child from my father about why he wouldn't recycle), we are ultimately the ones who are going to suffer, and already are, from the terrible toxic soup we are creating on our earth.
'The small bits of plastic produced by photodegradation are called mermaid tears or nurdles. These tiny plastic particles can get sucked up by filter feeders and damage their bodies. Other marine animals eat the plastic, which can poison them or lead to deadly blockages. Nurdles also have the insidious property of soaking up toxic chemicals. Over time, even chemicals or poisons that are widely diffused in water can become highly concentrated as they're mopped up by nurdles. These poison-filled masses threaten the entire food chain, especially when eaten by filter feeders that are then consumed by large creatures. -from How Stuff Works website
We all know plastic is creating a highly toxic environment on our planet. It is also toxifiying our bodies. Bisphenol A (BPA) is the hardening agent in plastics, and it is found everywhere. More than 90% of us have BPA in our bodies right now. We get most of it by eating foods that have been in containers made with BPA. It's also possible to pick up BPA through air, dust, and water.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration used to say that BPA was safe. But in 2010 the agency altered its position. The FDA maintains that studies using standardized toxicity tests have shown BPA to be safe at the current low levels of human exposure. But based on other evidence -- largely from animal studies -- the FDA expressed "some concern" about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and glands in fetuses, infants, and young children.
If the FDA hasn't concluded whether BPAs are safe, my erring is on the side of it is not. There are hosts of diseases/disorders, mostly hormonal, that there is reason to believe may be caused by these toxins. There is reason to believe it contributes to cancers. I suspect, along with others, that we will come to understand the plastic problem to be much more wide spread, in terms of human health, than we can conceive of at this point in time. Some have named it 'the smoking' of our era- something people do with rigor, not understanding the tremendous cost to their health and those around them.
Since I have become more aware of these problems, I have looked more deeply at my own habits. In the overwhelm of the problem, I find empowerment in doing my part by not contributing more plastic to the world. Here are some of the habits I have adopted:
1. I buy produce locally. Local produce is so much fresher, and thus, more delicious. This helps me to feel more satisfied from my mainly vegetarian meals, so I eat out less and eat much less meat (healthier for me and for our resources).
2. I buy mainly food in glass jars, and I reuse them for storage. I don't want to keep supporting the plastic industry.
3. I bought produce bags which I take with me to the store. I keep the cloth bags in my car for shopping, or I skip it when I forget.
4. I think deeply about purchases, about the quality of a product, so that I don't end up throwing something out.
5. When I cannot avoid buying something that comes in a plastic bag, I make a special trip to Alfalfa's market, a local store which recycles plastic bags.
These are just a few, relatively easy things to do. There are plenty more, but I find it helpful to start somewhere. For me, my passion for Hawai'i, it's land and the ocean are inspiration for these changes. There is an excellent documentary on the plastic problem, Plastic Paradise, available on Amazon Prime. They are hosting a two week pledge to not use single use plastic products. Whatever ways you can find, for your own health and for the world around us, let's change our plastic obsession.
http://plasticparadisemovie.com/plastic-paradise-pledge/
After the sun....
After getting our healthy and appropriate amount of sunshine vitamin D, Seabuckthorn oil is something that we can use to replenish our skin. This oil will make it super happy with all the nutrients and plant lipids that will create a warm glow, taut skin, and help restore our skin.
Seabuckthorn is a bush that grows in mountainous and coastal areas of Europe, and Asia. The oil is derived from both the seed and the fruit. It is long prized for it's nutrient profile, it's use dating back 5000 years in Ayurvedic medicene.
Sea buckthorn oil is well-known today for its healing and rejuvenating effects on the skin. When used topically, it’s a great natural cleanser and exfoliator. It can also help heal burns, cuts, wounds, sunburn, rashes, and other types of skin damage. Using sea buckthorn oil daily helps slow down the signs of aging by nourishing the tissues in your skin and body.
Sea buckthorn berry is becoming as popular as pomegranate and acai berry because of its very impressive nutritional profile. It contains over 190 nutrients and phytonutrients, including vitamin C, which is 12 times higher than that of an orange. It also contains high amounts of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein, making it a powerful superfood.
This berry also has as much vitamin E as wheat germ, three times more vitamin A than carrots, and four times more superoxide dismutase (SOD), an important enzyme that helps prevent free radical damage, than ginseng. Plus, it’s the only plant source that contains omega 3, 6, 9, and 7.
Both sea buckthorn seed and fruit oil are rich in nutrients such as carotenoids, tocotrienols, and tocopherols. They are loaded with antioxidants like phenols, terpenes, and glucosides; vitamins A, C, and E; beta-carotene; plant sterols; and trace elements such as copper, iron, selenium, and manganese.
Sea buckthorn oil is an important plant food source of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are an important structural component of mucous membranes. However, there is a major difference between the fatty acid composition of the two sea buckthorn oils. The major fatty acids in seed oil are omega 3 and 6, particularly linoleic acid and alpha-linoleic acid (comprising 70 percent). Meanwhile, the fruit oil contains monounsaturated fatty acids and omega 7 (palmitoleic and palmitic acid).
Applied topically to the skin, it is tremendously useful. It promotes skin hydration, elasticity, and skin regeneration, and helps treat and prevent acne. Sea buckthorn oil may also be beneficial for rosacea, a chronic inflammatory condition that causes small red bumps on the face.
Living Libations makes an excellent seabuckthorn oil you can order from the website. I have also found one locally in the Sprouts Market, made by a company called Badger. All of the ingredients are organic. It contains: Jojoba seed oil, Baobab seed oil, Apricot kernel oil, Pomegranate seed oil, Seabuckthorne fruit extract, Lavender flower oil, Sweet orange peel oil, Sunflower Vitamin E, Geranium flower oil, Rosehip fruit extract. Enjoy!
http://www.badgerbalm.com/p-550-organic-seabuckthorn-face-oil.aspx
Staying Cool
15 Tips to Stay Cool & Balanced
1. Massage your whole body with coconut oil or Pitta oil* before you shower.
2. Drink lots of cooling drinks: coconut water, Aloe vera juice, hibiscus, raspberry, mint, nettle and rose.
3. Favor bitter, astringent and healthy sweet tastes. According to Ayurveda, the sense of taste is a natural guide towards proper nutrition. Our taste buds do much more than simply identify tastes; they provide the initial spark to the entire digestive process and unlock the nutritive value of foods.
4. Eat lots of cooling foods: cucumber, water melon, apples, pears, avocado, grapes, peaches, lettuce, arugula, kale, dandelion greens, green beans, burdock, peas, celery, cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, broccoli, summer squash, zucchini.
5. Prepare foods with pitta calming digestive spices: coriander, fennel, cumin, turmeric, cardamom, cilantro, parsley, mint, mustard and nutmeg.
6. Amalaki Tea* This tea is ideal to purify toxins and strengthen your immune system. It neutralizes acidity, improves memory and has antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal properties.
7. Fennel Tea. Simmer 1 tsp seeds in 1 cup hot water for 10 minutes, then strain and drink.
8. Licorice Tea* not to be taken if you have high blood pressure!
9. Enjoy a soothing milk tonic before bed. Boil 1 cup organic cow's milk or almond milk with pinches of turmeric, cardamom, and/or nutmeg.
10. Limit alcohol.
11. Limit hot pungent spicy, sour and salty tastes: chili, garlic, onions, horseradish, vinegar, lemon, kiwi, pineapple, tomatoes, salted chips and soy sauce.
12. Limit inflammatory foods: red meats, wheat, nightshades (mushrooms, eggplant, bell peppers), egg yolks, spinach and citrus.
13. Limit oily fried foods.
14. Avoid excessive exercise, especially during the hottest hours of the day between 11 am - 2 pm.
15. Practice Shitali Pranayama. Curl or roll the sides of your tongue upward into a tube or "straw" for sucking in air. If you are unable to do so, line the upper and lower teeth together, widen your mouth and press the tongue against the lower row of teeth. Inhale slowly through the rolled tongue or teeth (notice the cooler temperature of the air upon inhaling), hold the breath and close the mouth, then exhale through the nose. Repeat at least 20-30 breaths.
This is from a newsletter written by Heidi Nordlund, of Namaskar Healing, a practice of ayurvedic healing and Tibetan Cranial adjustment.
http://www.namaskarhealing.com
And what about the Sun?
“Properly aired and sunlit, skin becomes velvety, supple tissue, absolutely immune from anything of the nature of pimples, acne, and incapable of infection. Sunshine is the finest cosmetic. Skin, well-pigmented in response to sun-bathing, becomes firm and strong, but at the same time delicate and soft. Followed, by a filling out of the exposed skin and a smoothing away of wrinkles results from sunbathing. Increased beauty is the outcome.”
This renegade advice is in Sunlight and Health, written by an English physician in 1929. In contrast, today most doctors and dermatologists wax weary about ultra-violet hazards, while public health campaigns advocate for avoidance of the sun. They tell us to shun the sun and fear exposure from even short jaunts, like walking from the parking lot to the mall. While the sun remains the same, we sure have changed. In pursuit of healthy, beautiful skin, we now avoid the sun and inject fillers into faces, apply chemicals to acne, and spray on fake tans filled with DNA damaging dihydroxyacetone.
This is the beginning of a provacative artice by Nadine Artemis, the founder of a company called Living Libations. She goes on to make these suggestions for healthy skin, which absolutely includes getting some (depending on your individual pigmentation and your base tan/lack thereof) time in the sun, and without the chemical sunscreens the media/'health" establishment/corporations have told us are essential.
(This is a summary, to read the entire article, go here)
1. What we eat absolutely affects how our skin (the part of our bodies directly absorbing the sun) reacts with it. If we eat a lot of poor quality foods, with polyunsaturated fatty acids, most of which are GMOs, mostly rancid, "The transfats, plasticizers, bromide, formaldehyde, coal tar derivatives, color and flavor additives, and fluoride, commonly found in processed foods create reactions in our bodies that trigger collagen breakdown, inflammation, age spots, and hyper-pigmentation. The rampant use of polyunsaturated-fatty-acids found in every processed food item impairs intercellular-communication, suppresses immune functions, damages our DNA, and on top of all of that, is linked to wrinkles and hyperpigmentation. The antidote to this? Eating tons of fresh vegetables, fruits, cold water fish, pasture raised animal/animal products (if we eat them), and WATER- clean, pure, and most life-sustaining if bottled from a fresh spring, locally. In the Boulder/Denver area, I recommend Eldorado Springs water.
2. Protect your skin with healthy fats. Coconut oil, olive oil, and clean, pure products. "Recover your skin's integrity. The skin’s outer layer is a thin coating of oils that provides natural anti-bacterial, anti-wrinkle, and sun-screen protection. The integrity of this layer is damaged by soaps, scrubs, chemical peels, and synthetic moisturizers. (These things also disrupt vitamin D production.) Washing and moisturizing the skin with essential oil serums and botanical oils, as well as dry brushing, regenerates the skin's top layer, supports the collagen, and feeds the skin’s immunity.
3. Sun wisely, but surely. Start early in the spring, slowly exposing your body to enough sun, that it doesn't become hot or red. Expose more and more of your body, for longer periods as it can tolerate it without becoming red or hot to the touch. The best time is in the morning, until solar noon (1pm). But again, moderate based on your skin pigmentation, begin with small exposure times, and be careful not to over-expose. Ms. Artemis says that 'sunscreens' (commercial types) allow our body to override the 'early detection' system, and therefor contribute to overexposure. Not to mention they are filled with chemicals that have been documented to have correlations with skin cancer.
4. Botanical oils are an amazing ally for our skin for sun protection.
"Plants, too, require wise interaction with the sun. Almost all plant oils offer some degree of ultraviolet protection to their own tissue – and ours. Officially, the term SPF can only be used to reference synthetic sunscreen ingredients, but plant oils do offer a range of protection that can gracefully extend our time in the sun. Plant oils of virgin coconut, jojoba, olive, and seabuckthorn applied to the skin provide a measure of sun protection. Raspberry seed oil also has potential use as a broad range sun protectant. Under a spectrometer, raspberry seed oil absorbed both UVB and UVC rays while scattering UVA; it may provide an equivalent of SPF-25.
Essential oils, the distillates of plants, are especially adept at harmonizing the sun’s rays with our skin. Rich in antioxidants and cell regenerative activity, they nourish and heal the skin:
- If you ever burn, aloe mixed with a drop or two of peppermint, lavender, or seabuckthorn offers soothing relief and quickens healing.
- The essential oils of sandalwood, geranium, frankincense, immortelle and rose can fade hyper-pigmentation and prevent abnormal cell growth.
- Scientific studies reveal that the alpha-santol and beta-santol in sandalwood essential oil are also chemo-preventative, reversing the damage of skin lesions and tumors. Other successful studies have been conducted with geranium and frankincense. "
5. Wear sunglasses only when necessary.
" Our eyes need the sunlight, too. Sunlight in the eyes is the most direct path of communication between the sun and our brains, and our good health and good mood hinges on it. When the full spectrum of light rays is intercepted in the retina, it is positively encoded in the brain and sets in motion the juicy hormones and neurochemicals that help us stay happy and healthy. This process works even if we are in the shade, but not if we are wearing shades. "
Read her full article:
Everybody Eats!
Last summer/fall, I joined Nyland Cohousing Community's Farm CSA, North Farm. All summer long, I went to the farm every week to pick up a bag of fresh vegetables. It was so fun to go there, see all the veggies, and Lara even let us pick some fresh flowers from the garden to take home. I loved having the connection to what I was eating; seeing it being grown, and getting vegetables that were fresh out of the earth that morning. It creates a devotion to vegetables that differs from getting them when they are, a week or two or more old. I would plan to make things based on what was harvested, like an AMAZING hungarian paprika/fresh basil tomato soup.
I decided last summer that I wanted to take the next step, and further that connection by working on the farm. Since I moved from Louisville, North Field was a bit further than I wanted to drive. I met a the couple who run Black Cat Farm at the Farmer's Market, and went out there one morning. I auspiciously ended up at another farm, call Everybody Eats!
Oscar Jarquin, the farm's manager, was devoutly working the fields in the substantial rain when I arrived. After helping find where I had intended to go, we chatted about Everybody Eats! farm. He shared their mission, which is quite wonderful. The farm is a working farm, which is training people to start their own farms and community gardens. They see farm work as an important community value, which teaches people self reliance and can help stabilize the food supply.
They are doing fantastically at this. I went out to work on the farm last Thursday, and I met three out of eight farming interns. They showed me how to use the harvesting tools, how to tell when a radish is ready to be harvested, what a garlic scape is (delicious), and how to harvest it. I learned a lot that morning, and it was so good to be in the fields amongst the 50 shades of green.:) I even went home with some lettuces, arugula, garlic scape, and spinach which I immediately made into a meal. Spinach with garlic scape and olive oil, pepper flakes is highly recommended.
I want to spread the word because I believe in the mission of this farm. Dave Georgis and Juliana Wells started this farm eight years ago, because they felt the importance of teaching farming. Interns are taught how to run a farm by doing it. With eight interns, who spend 20 hours a week farming, for a year or two, that is definitely spreading farming knowledge. Oscar Jarquin grew up farming in Nicaragua, and ran his own family's farm there.
You can join Everybody Eats! CSA program. They have several pickup spots in Boulder every week, and offer some gorgeous looking fresh vegetables. Or, if you are feeling inspired, check out the farming internship program. It is a excellent vision for our future; to train future generations of farmers. I saw from my day there the confidence of the interns. Being involved completes a circle, because as we all know, Everybody Eats! And if you have to do it, why not eat food that is fresh, healthy, straight from the earth delicious?
