Jan
28
Self-care Is Health Care
I spent a good part of this afternoon using an ice cup on my cheek to relieve the pain of an extensive dental appointment. Within a very short time the miracle of the therapeutic value of ice kicked in. As I write this, I no longer am experiencing any pain. My jaw and cheek are still stiff and the pain is gone. As many of you know, I taught Hydrotherapy for over 20 years. Using heat, cold and the combination of the two (contrast treatments) has been a very large part of my own self-care over these many years. Having this knowledge and ability to tend to myself makes me feel so very grateful. Knowing how to stretch the tight places, to strengthen the weak places, to cool down the inflamed places, to heat up the contracted places has given me a sense of empowerment and a feeling of inspiration. I love to speak, teach and write about all of our own abilities to live a life of greater self-care thus lessening our dependence on a health care system that is deeply flawed and unreliable.
Our bodies are programmed to heal. Whether small or large, major or minor, terminal or temporary all challenges to our optimal health are met with a mindboggling precision of strategies from our very bodies to ensure our survival. This protection starts in the womb and accompanies us to our final breath. Day in and day out an intelligence coordinates our functions so we can go on our merry ways. WOW. What a miracle, what a spaceship, what a great place to live in, our bodies. Bottom line is we cannot be here on the earth without one. And then, of course, there are those times when it does not feel like any of the above!
Some spiritual belief systems diminish the body. They emphasize the inner life and devalue the “temple of our abode.” Yet we all know how different life can be when the temple feels like a shack in need of repair. When I was 20 years old I had an ephiphany. I understood that health truly is one of the greatest wealths and I started down the path of becoming my very own medicine woman (so to speak.) It is now 36 years later. My life and my self-care includes massage, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, various types of exercises, stretching, movement and physical play. My “medicines” are the plants in the form of herbal tinctures, infusions, salves and oils. Common sense in nutrition is my meal plan. And a visit to an emergency room once stitched up my knee.
Natural healin
1000
g has worked well for me over all of these years. I do think one of the “secrets” to all of this is to cultivate a true enjoyment of taking care of oneself. After all, who could possibly know our body, mind and heart better than our own self?!
Self-care is the ticket to health care. No amount of money can buy our health. Money can buy policies that enable us to have tests, drugs and surgeries. Sometimes these things are helpful, even life saving. Yet let’s not confuse ourselves. With an investment in ourselves day to day as a lifestyle, over the years we just may become the best doctor, medicine man or medicine woman you could ever imagine. Our bodies are programmed to heal. Look in the mirror. Perhaps you are the healer you have been looking for.
By: Robert Palmer
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Cate Miller has been a massage therapist and teacher since 1982 and a teacher at FSM since 1986. Her specialty combines Neuromuscular Therapy with communication and perceptual awareness skills.
She currently teaches and works at the Florida School of Massage in Gainesville, FL.
After my beautiful “Benji-looking” stray nearly died at age 12 around 1998, I began learning a great deal about alternative treatment and nutrition for animals, particular dogs and cats. Thor was one of those special kinds of dogs that everyone just had to play with and he loved to play back. His love of humans was uncanny, considering (the vet told me) he had been abused most of his life until he escaped (or was abandoned and I found him, or he found me).
This will be my first Thanksgiving without Thor. He is buried less than a mile from here on his favorite mountain where he endlessly chased squirrels, rabbits, and anything that moved. Every Thanksgiving I used to pull his bed next to the table, as he was family, and fill his plate next to the table. He was the most well-mannered at the table, and always imbibed the least. He was my hero but I could tell, he thought I was his. I miss him greatly and tend to remember him more on holidays like today, this Thanksgiving. I am grateful of the wonderful life I had with him. Sometimes it is important for me to share how that came to be, since it was not supposed to happen.
After what my local vet diagnosed as “juvenile seizures” and that he’s have to be on barbiturates the rest of his life, and probably put down within a year, I said “No thank you, and begin to study on the Internet. I read all kinds of controversy, must of which I was not aware was happening such as attacks on the pet food industry for ingredients not much better than arsenic and vitamins. The dire warnings turned out sadly to be correct. But the dog food lobby is a most powerful one and we will probably never hear about it in our lifetime unless we live down under or in Europe where the lobby does not have a stranglehold on the veterinary community.
Within a few weeks, or Thor barely moving and my having to get water down him with a dropper, I learned of the b.a.r.f diet (barf = biologically appropriate raw foods) or (bones and raw foods). It took me awhile to become accustomed to it, and I knew I would have a difficult time feeding Thor raw chicken bones and all. After all, for my lifetime of owning pets I was always taught the fastest way to kill or choke a dog was with a raw chicken bone. Later I found that was both true and false. It is cooked chicken bones which do not bend and are not flexible that choke an animal; same as any other cooked bones. All my life I had given my dogs leftover rib or steak bones, and just lucky none choked or died.
Thor learned to love fruit and vegetables and I was learning his favorite blends and bought a food processor. Within a month, he had more energy than when I had found him as a puppy. I introduced herbal tinctures; and learned tinctures (from western nations with strict growing guidelines which did not include dysentery etc were the way to go). I also learned pills and capsules have virtually no medicinal value (Even 60 Minutes did a story on that one). By the time Thor reached 18, he was walking five miles a day with me and even mountain climbing. Nothing could slow him down.
He already had phase 2 CHF (congestive heart failure) for years of abuse, bad eating habits, little or no exercise, etc. But heart conditions in dogs is very different than humans. They do not feel the “freight train” pain, but their nervous system simply begins to go numb. Fortunately his new diet turned that around. He lived another four beautiful years of which three of them he acted like a 6 week old puppy. I’d never seen anything like it. Because I also had become disabled due to congestive heart failure, put on the sidelines of corporate America, and went back to school, mostly online at home, I actually got to truly know my dog for the first time ever. I mean really get to know him. I had had dogs all my life, but this was very different. He had a personality like a mature adult and the temperament of the best of the best border collies, though he was mostly Polish Lowland Sheepdog and bearded collie. He looked like Benji but about 15 pounds heavier.
Thor because my shadow. He stayed right by my feet while I worked and studied at my desk fortunately five years and walked with me at the end of the day. He loved his life, the attention of the shopkeepers during the walk, the kids who all wanted to pet him. He taught me how to love life and love people unconditionally. He was certified and worked in nursing homes, with shut ins, and all kinds of people who when they even just touched him, you could see their own healing begin to take place. Every elderly person with whom we worked felt compelled to tell me stories of all their dogs and experiences with them growing up Thor would listen as attentively as I did, actually more so, with his head right next to them; they would end up telling their dogs about Thor and seeming to forget that I was in the room
In late 2006, Thor finally succumbed to his heart disease at age 22. He died peacefully at home in my arms. He is now buried on atop his favorite mountains where I took him for daily walks to chase every kind of animal under the sun. I know now without a doubt, if it had not been the work of a world renowned veterinarian surgeon from a small town in Australia and a pet nutrition researcher name Shirley Shirleys-Wellness-Cafe.com, he would not be here to help me too help me tell you his magnificent story, and, it truly is nothing less than spectacular.
Rick London is a writer/designer/entrepreneur and founder of Google’s #1 ranked offbeat cartoon funny gifts [http://www.ricklondongiftsandcollectibles.com] where he sells tees, mugs, greeting cards, etc. bearing his Londons Times Cartoon images, and his over 8000 offbeat cartoons London’s Times which have remained #1 on the Internet since 2005. A large portion of London’s gift sales benefits various animal charities.
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