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The best example is with food; we see food/calories, recognize them as essential for our survival, send this signal to our brain, eat and then we notice that we feel good. This can basically be summed up as; trigger, behavior, reward. When we were out in the wild fighting for survival this loop was great and essential, however, now it has slightly backfired. The circuit has been hijacked by emotions; we see food, and we know that eating that food makes us feel good as well as being key for survival. So the trigger has changed from survival to emotional dependence; we feel bad, stressed, sad, uncomfortable, irritated, we eat food high in sugar and fat and salt and we feel good again. Repeat. Each time we do this pathways are set down in our brain and we develop habits.
How do we break free of this cycle, which is seemingly all consuming and impossible to break? How many times have you tried so hard to avoid the ‘bad’ food only to give in in a moment of weakness, which was usually preceded by stress or tiredness? This is primarily thanks to the frontal part of our brain, called the Prefrontal Cortex and is the youngest part of our brains in terms of evolution. This is the part of the brain that ‘understands’ that we shouldn’t do these self-defeating behaviours such as overeating and smoking, however, it is also the first part of the brain to switch off in moments of high stress! Meaning we have none of that cognitive control we have in hindsight after we have polished off the packet of biscuits in a moment of severe stress or in those calm moments we are outlining our new good intentions.
How do we override this? Simple. We get curious. This seemingly simple action is absolutely key in breaking habits and it is also a central part of mindfulness meditation. When we meditate we are taught to simply become aware of our breath and when our attention wanders bring it back to our breath. There are also exercises taught in the 8 week mindfulness meditation course that teach us to become curious about our bodies – checking in to our bodies to see how they are feeling, not in order to analyze these feelings but simply to observe them and get curious about them.
It is in exactly this same way we can hijack the brain when faced with a craving; we get curious. Ask yourself, how do I feel right now physically; maybe tight in the chest, constrained in the stomach, tight in the shoulders pounding in the head, tight in the jaw… What ever you feel go deeper, become more curious ask yourself where else you are feeling something similar, ask yourself if it goes when you feel it. Just watch and feel with intrigue.
When you have done this you will be stunned that the craving, now, instead of this overwhelming feeling that has to be banished, has been paired down into a series of physical sensations. Your curiosity has just managed to disenchant you to the previous craving, and once this has happened you can joyfully let go of the craving and get on with being amazing!
While this might sound too simply and not very ‘scientific’ it is in fact completely the opposite. At the back of the brain we have something called the Posterior Cingulate Cortex which itself is not activated by cravings however, when we get caught up in the craving and the drama and shame of the craving it lights up and takes us for a ride creating more and more craving and more drama. In contrast when we become curious and look at the craving and mindfully feel its physical presence in our bodies and then let it go this area of the brain is switched off therefore eliminating the craving’s development.
Meditation is such a key in our overall health and thankfully science, with the help of MRI scans and other investigatory procedures, is proving that is really does help heal our mind which in turn has a direct cumulative effect on our overall happiness and ability to be non attached.
For more information and an introduction to meditation check out these apps and websites:
www.deconstructingyourself.com
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Genius! Somerset Maugham was clearly well versed in the power of resistance as well as the no. 1 tool to overcoming it; hard work, discipline and beginning, regardless of how you feel that particular morning.
I believe that resistance is fueled by fear; fear of beginning, fear of creating, fear of being criticized, fear of putting yourself and your art out there in the world…the list goes on. It has taken me so so long to learn that this fear never disappears; however much ‘work’ I do on myself, it will be sitting at the end of my bed every morning waiting to do battle. With time however, I do believe you become more accustomed to its presence and I now accept that I will feel it before doing pretty much anything that involves putting myself out there.
This subject is really close to my heart as I have lived in fear for most of my life; fear of looking like an idiot mainly and fear of getting it wrong. Admitting this is hard, especially as someone who used to chuck herself of mountains in a previous incarnation as a professional skier! My fears at the time were completely different and in many ways far easier to handle.
I was fearful of avalanches, of hurting myself (again), of dying, yet none of these fears were enough to stop me putting my skis on and getting out there day after day.
How is it then that the fear involved in writing and creating is so overwhelming it stops me from sitting in front of my computer and lures me into a myriad of procrastination? I have become a complete sucker to resistance! How is writing a few articles and putting myself out there more scary than facing a designated ‘death zone’ and ‘no fall zone’ in freeride competitions?!
I have recently finished “The War of Art” by Stephen Pressfield and was inspired to kick the resistance at exactly 8.30am every morning by just starting and seeing where that takes me. So here goes!
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However, as we all know, today living mostly in cities, leading work driven lives with numerous responsibilities and pressures from all sides; friends, family, work, this is nearly impossible. We don’t have a culture of changing our lives in order to live more appropriately within the demands of a season – in the Winter our jobs still start and finish at the same time as the rest of the year and we might cut our social life down a little but in the main we tend to live a consistently busy life and all this can strain our kidneys leading to tiredness, thinning hair and nails, lack of drive and motivation and even mild depression
Apart from these obvious drains on our Kidneys we have another new robber of kidney energy; social media and smart phones. While this obsession might seem quite innocent on the surface it is draining our kidneys with every adrenaline hit a post or a like, email, text, whats app message etc gives us. Not only does this act as a constant drain on our Kidney energy in the form of overstimulation it also denies us any moments of peace to stare out the window and daydream accessing our deep innate wisdom that resides in our Kidneys. We need that to nourish our spirit and have ideas and dreams that we can covert to reality in the Spring!
With this in mind here are a few tips as we near the end of the winter to boost your kidneys so you have enough energy to jump into Spring and start giving birth to all those projects you have been dreaming of during the winter!
Tips:
There are many things that are good for the Kindneys health which you can read here, but a simply way to boost them is by drinking Black Sesame Tea:
1. Boil the sesame seeds and dates in some water for 30 minutes
2. Add some homemade almond milk and continue to boil
3. Optional you can strain the liquid removing the sesame seeds and dates or you can whizz them all up together to make a thicker, frothy drink
4. Add honey to taste if the dates aren’t sweet enough for you
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If any of these scenarios sound familiar, then try acupuncture! With our increasingly stressful and demanding 21st Century life sleep disorders are becoming more and more common. A wide range of issues can disrupt sleep patterns, but when sleep becomes an issue it is usually hard to break out of it and get back to a healthy sleep pattern alone.
Acupuncture works to calm our whole system down while nourishing our energy, which, in turn helps us to sleep. If you have ever had acupuncture you will know what I am talking about – patients regularly leave my treatment room feeling as if they have been on a mini holiday! Not only do I see the evidence on a regular basis in my clinic, there are many studies that show that acupuncture does indeed help with sleep issues.
Along with acupuncture treatment there are various other ways that you can help yourself such as:
If you are interested in booking in a consultation to see how I can help with your sleep patterns then please contact me and I look forward to hearing from you!
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To book please call me on 07801813385 or email me on philly@phillygammell.com
]]>“Do you feel sad and don’t know why?
If the answer is yes, you might not think that a rub-down is the answer (Prosecco? Prozac? Both at once?), but you would be wrong. An hour at the hands of Philly will leave you transformed, body and mind. After a career as a professional skier ended in a life-changing accident, she chose to devote herself to healing. In the past 14 years she has studied sports massage, shiatsu, craniosacral therapy, acupuncture, Chinese Medicine and meditation. Session complete, you feel like you’ve had three treatments – a lesson in mindfulness, a thorough massage and some extraordinary craniosacral. You’ll roll out of bed the next day feeling elated, hell-bent on recommending her to every overworked person you know.”
If you are interested and want to book please call me on 07801 813 385 or email on philly@phillygammell.com
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I have been reading all of this from the point of view of Western Medicine and the research that has been done in this field; however, my personal interest comes from linking it to the Chinese Medical understanding of overconsumption of sugar.
The Chinese have known for a long time that the overconsumption of sweet food does, what they term as ‘injuring the Spleen’, which essentially means it damages our digestion and then goes on to cause ‘Damp’ which we can roughly translate as ‘mucous’. Mucous in the system slows everything down; our systems become bog like, sluggish and heavy. On top of this when there is a slowing down of the internal flow stagnation occurs and sometimes heat – if we imagine a part of a river that has been cut off from the flow we see the water becomes thicker, it starts to smell and is generally pretty revolting! Well that is what sugar is doing to us – on a very basic level, which is why we feel so sluggish, lethargic and apathetic when we over indulge…after a possible high – of more below.
Chinese Medicine also understandssugar to have ‘heating’ qualities. Its at this point that I have to admit that I fell off the wagon yesterday! (It was a special occasion although I know that doesn’t mitigate the fact I essentially have cheated – sorry!!) I ate a piece of cake and a little chocolate in the evening at a dinner party when my willpower was at an all time low due to tiredness, and the most fascinating thing happened. After I had eaten the cake and chocolate my face started to burn up – I went bright red and felt as if someone had just turned my internal thermostat up by 10 degrees! As well as this I felt an incredible ‘rush’ – a speeding up of everything, vague mania and a lessened ability to concentrate – which if we think of heat and fire is totally understandable.
I saw first hand what the Chinese talk about when they say that sugar causes “damp heat” – I was boiling hot and I have woken up this morning extremely sluggish, almost as if I have a hang over – the damp.
While one evening isn’t going to cause lasting damage or disease it is easy to see how continual consumption can cause Damp, Heat and Stagnation all of which stop the happy flow of our internal organs and therefore over time result in serious disease.
I am now back ‘on the wagon’ again, and am realizing just how addictive sugar – - wow we have to keep vigilant at first if we are to succeed in packing it in for good!
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