Philly Gammell » meditation

Way of the Tao…

Philly Gammell — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 13:41:17 +0000

As we all try to negotiate the hussle of modern life, I know personally there has always been a little voice in my heart asking why, what is beneath and around all this striving and playing the game? I can’t help feeling that what we are searching for is ourselves and a spiritual path that makes sense to our deepest cells of intuition.

In direct opposition to our modern culture where we look outward for validation and guidance and we care for our appearance in order to be accepted, in Taoism the exact opposite is true. We look inside ourselves and we strive for a greater understanding of ourselves in order to understand the world and our place in it; the outer world is only known in relation to our inner point of view.

Self cultivation is the basis for knowing the Tao… Acupuncture, and the healing it enables, is a perfect place to begin this journey. It is only by being in harmony with ourselves that our body can heal itself, which this is the basis of acupuncture. The needles connect to our spirit opening up pathways to access our own well of understanding, knowing and healing. When we truly connected to our spirit we are truly connected to the Tao…

What does healthy really look like?

Philly Gammell — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 13:04:35 +0000

We hear a lot – too much, perhaps – and from many different quarters about how to be healthy. One could almost say we are bombarded with information on what to eat, do, think, change (the list is endless) in order to be healthy but we are not often asked the question ‘what does it mean to be healthy?’ ‘What does healthy look like?’.

We are often swayed by the physical embodiment of healthy; thin, big muscles, glossy hair, clear skin and these can, of course, be evidence of being physically healthy but I am not convinced that these in themselves denote all round health.

In Chinese Medicine health is described as being “embodied to the degree that we accurately perceive life, and illness is embodied to the degree that our interpretations deviate from reality.” (Lonny Jarrett). This means that our health is directly related to our ability to see what is really going on in our life, enabling us to respond accordingly, rather than react based on our perception, which is always tainted by our life experiences, beliefs and attitudes.

When we are living in accordance with the Dao it is said we are therefore able to live spontaneously, by which, I don’t mean impulsively and according to our desires, but rather in a fashion that is not rigid and governed by our subconscious.

By living in accordance with the Dao we live correctly in each season; resting in winter, being more active and sleeping less in the summer, eating cooked seasonal vegetables in the autumn and raw cooler foods in the summer. In doing this we don’t follow one dietary rule all year round regardless of the season but instead, adapt to our surroundings. In the same way, emotionally, when living spontaneously, we respond to life rather than reacting to it; the latter being driven by our subconscious and rarely positive or productive for that very reason.

These examples illustrate two interpretations of the Chinese understanding of health and I can’t help thinking that is it is a fascinating concept to look at and keep in mind when we are trying to evaluate our health and when we are looking for solutions. Health is not simply going to the gym every day and eating salads all year round regardless of how we feel and what season it is. It is far more subtle and dynamic; rather than prescriptive, it is personal and demands conscious thought and action.

Practice and commitment…

Philly Gammell — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 14:37:49 +0000

Practice. Practice makes perfect, yet its important to remember that practice isn’t always perfect, it is often very messy, hard and a struggle. Practice can be boring, something you don’t really want to do everyday and something that we have to force ourselves into… however, it is the only way to mastering anything. I have found combining motherhood and constant practice extremely difficult and I can’t even begin to express my admiration for those who turn up everyday to their mat, their meditation cushion, gym, what ever their personal routine is, I admire the commitment. Practice was something I wasn’t terrible at before my little boy made an appearance, I wasn’t the best, but in the main I had a routine and rhythm to my life that meant I did commit to a practice with a degree of regularity. However, trying to do that now with a little man in my life has been a huge struggle; I can go for a few days and then all I need is a few nights interrupted sleep and I fall off track! It is such a challenge yet I so want to have that commitment and rhythm back in my life… I really endeavour to meet this challenge and to reconnect with my practice and myself in order to become a better mother and practitioner. I feel such a fraud trying to tell my patients to keep up changes in their life when I can’t do the same in mine! So, meeting myself where I am today, I want to commit to a practice that will help me; help me build energy, enhance my clarity and commit to a path of deliberate practice. Here goes! XOX

Kicking habits and hijacking the brain

Philly Gammell — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 12:45:59 +0000

How often do we find our minds wandering, day dreaming when we are meant to be writing our presentation or eating 4 chocolate chip cookies when we set out only to eat one or smoking when we know we shouldn’t be? This is thanks to one of the oldest learning processes known to man, it is prehistoric and all about the relay system of positive and negative reinforcement, which is essentially the most basic of systems that make us, do what we do.

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.headspace.com

www.deconstructingyourself.com

The London Buddhist Centre

Keep dreaming & save our Kidneys from our Smart Phones!

Philly Gammell — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 12:24:07 +0000

In Chinese Medicine our Kidneys are the powerhouses of our system and their proper functioning is fundamental to our overall wellbeing. During the winter they can take a bit of a battering from the cold and over stretching ourselves during this supposedly peaceful hibernation season. The winter is traditionally a time to hunker down, eat less, meditate, reflect on what is going on in our lives and restore our bodies in preparation for the rebirth of the spring.

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:

Cut your social media use to specific times in the morning and evening so as to avoid mindless browsing
Keep your phone in your pocket when on the bus using the time to daydream looking out the window – give your brain a rest!
Eat warm foods; soups, stews and cut out ice and cold raw foods
Make some black sesame tea – recipe here
Look to include red and blue foods; blueberries, blackberries, beetroot etc
BOOK IN FOR SOME ACUPUNCTURE!!!

Trouble catching some zzzz’s? Acupuncture can help with sleepless nights!

Philly Gammell — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 10:44:32 +0000

Do you have trouble getting to sleep? Do you find you can fall asleep but then continue to wake throughout the night and have trouble to get back to sleep? Or do you wake at 5am and then can’t get back to sleep for those last precious two hours before the alarm signals the beginning of the day?

If any of these scenarios sound familiar, then try acupuncture! With our increasingly stressful and demanding 21^st 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:

Keep coffee down to one a day – preferably before 12pm
Keep the bedroom a ‘gadget’ free zone – no iphones, ipads or computers
Log off said ‘gadgets’ at 10pm and dim lights if possible so you can start to adjust to the dark and set off wind down process within your body
Lie with your legs up against a wall for 10 minutes concentrating gently on your breath. (To get into this position put you hips right up against the wall, and gently place your legs stretched upwards against the wall so you make a right angle shape.) This pose is very restorative and calming so can help if you are ‘tired and wired’ which I see in my clinic more and more.

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!

Best Massages in England – Tatler Feb’15

Philly Gammell — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 12:38:03 +0000

I was very honoured to be featured in this month’s Tatler Magazine as one of the top Massage Therapists in England – they featured my Mindfulness Meditation Massage.

“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

Winter and the Water Element – a time for silence & stillness

Philly Gammell — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 21:45:38 +0000

If I were to sum up last year it would be “busy…busy…busy”, and for some reason I feel very ashamed saying that – I left no time to simply ‘be’, I felt a constant need to ‘do’. In hind sight there was a perverse buzz from being so busy in which my ego relished – it was as if all this rushing around and being busy made me somehow important and relevant to the world… What a trap!

After an equally un-relaxing Christmas and countless messages from obscure sources urging me to calm down, I am finally acting and consciously listening to my knowledge of Chinese Medicine and meditation in terms of honoring the tides of the seasons, which prompted me to write this post as I know I am not alone in getting caught up in the whirlwind that surrounds us.

Winter especially calls for us to turn our attention inwards, to nurture ourselves and to face the darkness rather than keeping on searching out the light, i.e distraction of being busy. I always feel its no coincidence many people suffer from melancholy at this time of year; we are running away from ourselves and from the true energy of the season – we are running against the tide, which is never easy or comfortable. Its easy and common to fear turning inwards to face our deepest selves and our potential darkness, so we continue to accept invitations to socialize and are attracted towards the light of distraction in all its seductive forms to take us from listening to what is going on inside.

True peace and happiness is found when we dare to switch off, create silence and listen to the voices within and create stillness that reflects the inertia and hibernation of winter.

In January we are given the most wonderful opportunity to slow down, to rest, and to listen to our inner intuition, however, this in itself takes discipline. Just as nature has frozen in time and has stopped we should do the same – surrendering to the seasons is the most powerful way to keep healthy and in touch with the tides that makes most sense to our being.

Take heed and look within, don’t be afraid – nurture yourself with meditation, self-acceptance and silence.

“SILENCE IS THE SOURCE OF GREAT STRENGTH” LAO TZE

My keys to creating peace and happiness in the winter:

Sleep. The power of rest should never be underestimated but least of all now – we need to recuperate from the previous year and create fertile ground, i.e. stillness of mind for the germination of new ideas that will grow in the spring.

Eat warm nurturing foods: Gone are the crisp salads and cold juices of the summer, keep warm with nourishing soups and stews so that the digestive system has to do as little work as possible.

Meditate: sit for 10-20 minutes in the morning and in the evening to give your whole system, body, mind and spirit an intended break, creating space and stillness from where true power comes.

Evenings in with candles and books: My all time favorite thing has to be lighting a candle and settling down to read a good book! Treat your evenings this January as mini retreats – turn off all electrical devices and the TV, create a clean and tidy space, light a candle and settle down with a book, relishing in the silence and peace. This can’t help but to restore, inspire and calm…

DAY 3 – Enthusiasm…what drives us when it fades?

Philly Gammell — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 12:14:44 +0000

Enthusiasm is a curious thing. We can be full of it at the beginning of a new challenge, getting us out of the start gates…then it starts to decline, some times rapidly! I am interested in discovering what keeps us going with a challenge – what takes over when the enthusiasm dies?

So here I have my top five tips to keep motivated and I will add any more I pick up on the way into my 8 week Sugar Free Challenge!

1. What’s my WHY?

In order to keep going at something the core motivation behind it has to be strong, and I mean bullet proof strong – i.e. a decision made with your heart rather than your head.

This decision to go sugar free for me was all about looking after myself better and doing something kind to myself – so my knees and wrists (arthritis) hurt less (a strong motivation as I love running and yoga and have missed them of late), so I feel a greater clarity and ultimately to be free of this pesky addiction to sugar.

2. Side step the cravings and voices in your head – step into a different energetic frequency

A candle lit warm bath with lavender and Epsom salts
A great book – an indulgent ‘page turner’ that I can retreat to with a cup of tea at the end of the day.
Think of someone else. Reach out to a friend/colleague that might be going through a rough time, to get me out of myself.
Meditate – take a moment to re-connect, and find peace within
Go for a beautiful walk in the park

3. “This too shall pass”

Cravings pass…tough moments in life pass…everything moves on regardless of it being hard or easy. The key therefore is to stick with those feelings of emotional discomfort, sit through them, to actually experience them rather than simply numb with sugar. The feeling when the discomfort has passed without trying to push it down is far more exhilarating that the taste of sugar I promise you!

4. Get excited about cooking again.

I have a wealth of amazing books from which I will be gleaning inspiration over the next 8 weeks: I Quit Sugar Cookbook, Crazy Sexy Kitchen and Honestly Healthy to start with – this will keep me inspired for the long haul…and who knows could make a ‘cook’ (a term I use loosely!) out of me yet!

5. Flowers.

Buy yourself flowers! Flowers – especially roses I find – have the power to calm you down and recalibrate. They can bring the calming spirit of nature into your home which when riding an emotional roller coaster is just what we all need.