Your health is your responsibility.

80% of all illnesses are related to stress. The World Health Organization declared professional stress as one of the biggest dangers of the 21^st century. In 2008 insurance companies spent 5,2 billion euro for the treatment of depression and this figure is rising yearly. 

Time for change! It is time for taking up the responsibility for our own health. This doesn’t mean that doctors and therapists shouldn’t be consulted anymore when it is necessary. Interaction with others is the basis of our society and part of that is seeking professional medical care when needed, going to the garage when our car is broken and going to the shops to get food. 

Taking up the responsibility for our own health means that we start implementing what we already know, instead of simply knowing it. For example, smoking is bad for you, we all know it and so do smokers. This is what I’m talking about: we know, but some are not taking the step to stop smoking. It is the same with drinking enough water, having regular exercise, eating healthy food etc. but the same counts for thoughts, positive thoughts do have a positive impact on us, negative thoughts take us down. The list is endless and different for each person.

Stress refers to the consequence of the failure of an organism to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined. Stress is the consequence of inaction because if we were more active and implemented that what we know is good for us, then our organism would be far more resilient. 

We can help our bodies to cope better if we want to. We can lower stress levels easily. We can take the responsibility for our health into our own hands. It only needs a shift from an external solution driven mindset to an internal one. What can I do to improve my health? What can I implement into my daily practice to cope better? These internal questionings do not exclude the outside interaction. Who can I go and see to help me on my path to bring back balance in my body? Who can teach me tools that I can apply to improve my health?  

Did you know that a simple breathing exercise that does not take you more than 9 minutes (3 x 3 minutes) in a whole day can make a difference? 

So what’s your excuse? 

Tom Meyers

Osteopath & BioMotions^® Body-Coach

www.elementaryhealthcare.com

Elementary healthcare and training for the promotion of health from within

The Being in my Body

Today I received an email with the following message: “I’ve decided to develop my ‘being in my body’ - what can you suggest?”

A short sentence that can be answered with a few words (see below), but I think the person would like a bit more insight. Therefore I thought it an idea to write out my ideas - in more general terms to answer his request.  At the same time I want to include you, the readers of my blog, as I think the question is (really) one that concerns us all. We might phrase the question differently, but at the end of the day we’re feeling the need for change and this is what I think is the essence here.

Did you know that 80% of all illnesses are due to stress? You might think it has nothing to do with the initial question, yet I think it does. Stress is a consequence of a failing organism. Stress is a result of a body which is not coping with the demands we put on it. These demands can be emotional, physical, behavioural, energetic... 

Not coping can be translated physiologically as a continuous activation of the fight & flight mode (increasing sympathetic neuronal activity, adrenaline, cortisol, breath rate,...) which in turn lowers the immune system, has a negative impact on the parts of the brain that are regulating our emotions, memory, cognitive functions,... A continuously activated physiological stress response will detach us from our being, from being conscious, as all our regulatory system will go on 'automatic pilot'.

So, ‘being in the body’ requires a body that can cope with the demands put on it. This coping level can be achieved, but it requires a conscious effort of ourselves and I would go even further -  it requires a conscious effort of those around us, too. Like my body where a trillion cells are working together, so do we need to start working as a team. 

So how can we help ourselves? By implementing ‘down-time’ or in neuro-language, by increasing parasympathetic activity (relaxation) which must be followed by sympathetic activity  (activates) but (doesn’t ) this is not always the case  these days. 

This can be done by various means  for example, certain breathing exercises, reading a book, just taking a stroll (more suggestions: https://sites.google.com/site/biomotionsbodycoaching/self-help-tools). Going for a massage can do the trick but more so the BioMotions Body-Coaching approach as it works directly on the regulation of the physiological stress response. Seeking help is helping ourselves. One can also apply body-coaching or a massage to oneself - depending on the situation.

Helping oneself is going into partnership with the body and taking up the responsibility of our own wellbeing (as mentioned before this also includes seeking help from others) instead of leaving it to its own devices which we have the tendency to do. This is a conscious act and thus part of developing consciousness in general. Consciousness by applying precautionary measures that allow for the physiological stress response to regulate itself after activation and thus allowing the immune system to function normally, the limbic system (emotion and memory) and cortex to be fully engaged (chronic stress among other things creates vasoconstriction of the tiny blood vessels in these areas of the brain which decrease blood flow, which lower oxygen and glucose to be delivered to the cells thus we become less cognitive). 

A word about why others need to implemented in our wellbeing or why we need to help others. Downshifting is the term that is used when we are becoming more 'primitive' (eg in our behaviours, responses) as a result of chronic stress. When we’re downshifting we’re also becoming less cognitive. It can be even so bad that we become so unconscious that we don’t even realise we’re downshifting. Look around, at your colleagues, at work, the downshifters are those that suddenly make mistakes, are short tempered, look edgy, are overloaded (even though the workload hasn’t changed),... Most of them don’t even realise the trouble they are in, but it has an impact an all the people around them. This is the time when it is essential that others are involved to help. I would say don’t wait till it gets that far out of hand. We have to start helping each other as soon as we see that people are having  a difficult moment. Again there are many ways to do this and Body-Coaching is one such extremely efficient tool for this purpose. The great part about learning and applying body-coaching is that you learn also to detect these signs with yourself, you become more conscious and thus become closer to the being in the body. 

By helping others you help yourself.

This brings me to another aspect that isn’t to be underestimated in the quest to the development of being in the body.  This aspect relates to soulpurpose. What are you here for? What are your talents? What have you got the world to offer? Are you taking up your unique place in the universal matrix? I’m not a coach  who offers this kind of support  yet  if you feel the need for this then don’t hesitate to send me an email and I’ll see who I can recommend to you.

Another part of this aspect, however, is the personal Reconnection. To really take your place on the universal grid it requires that you have access to your full potential. This potential can be empowered by the activation of a dormant meridian system. Activation  of this system will also realign you with the Ley lines and the universal energy matrix. 

This is important in the quest to 'being in the body, as the being needs these new frequencies to evolve. Evolving in consciousness is becoming LIGHTer... 

The being in the body is not from the physical realm.  The being houses within a physical shell but that shell needs to have its frequency increased so that the being can shine and take its proper élan to help us becoming who we were meant to be. It is a process of ‘consciousness’ to becoming the lightbeing that we are.

So the process I can offer (out of the myriad of options) is twofold, the personal Reconnection and Body-Coaching sessions.  I would, however, recommend to add the 2 day workshop to the process. Working with the body-coaching tool will give you other  insight into your own consciousness process. And by helping others you help yourself.

I hope that answers the question.

PS next workshop is planned on 12 -13 February 2010. More info on 

https://sites.google.com/site/biomotionsbodycoaching/info-workshops

Healing Touch

When a kid is in distress the mother or father comforts it with a hug. What is so typical about the way the mother or father hugs? 

One hand on the back the other holding the head. Maybe you don't think there is anything special about but I think it is significant. I'm sure you will get this embrace cross-cultural therefore it is imbedded in human instinct. If it is human instinct it has a purpose.

The purpose being the result, the child calms down.  

Touch calms us down, it is healing in the most primitive form. Touch can activate parasympathetic activity which is calming (compared to sympathetic activity it activates)

BioMotions Body-Coaching is using this touch therapeutically. It helps to unwind the neuropsycho-immunology and thus activates self-healing / regulation.

First Aid in times of stress and trauma

A plaster on a wound is first aid for injury. What first aid tool do you use in times of stress and trauma? I've asked around and not many people were able to give me an answer. Maybe no-one thought about putting it in the first aid box or first aid training. Maybe until now there weren't many tools that could be used for this purpose.

With more and more people suffering from the effects of stress and trauma isn't it time that we start to look into this?

I came to ask the question while doing my research on the BioMotions Body-Coaching approach that I've developed and teach. One day it dawned on me what I was teaching was just that. I was teaching people to become stress and trauma 'first aiders'. Since I've been looking at the BioMotions Body-Coaching method and viewing it in this light.

What does it mean First aid? In Wikipedia I found

First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by a non-expert person to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care past the first aid intervention. It generally consists of a series of simple and in some cases, potentially life-saving techniques that an individual can be trained to perform with minimal equipment.

When I look then at Body-Coaching, it:

• Facilitates Self healing mechanism ≃Provides care
• Can be learned by everyone also children ≃ no need to be an expert
• Is a series of facilitating micro-movements based on a single principle ≃ simple
• Is a tool that can provide help but when the condition is serious further professional help is required ≃ idem for first aid
• Works without external tools only your hands and attention are needed ≃ minimal equipment

I can only observe but let me know what you think?

Wouldn't you be interested to learn something that helps you but also others?

Times are changing and everything is speeding up. Stress is the result of our resources to be overstretched. We're not coping so well anymore but what if there is a solution? What if you could learn an easy to learn tool to help you your family, friends or that can be used in a professional environment.

Writing this I'm confronted with the idea can we all do it by ourselves? NO! Partly yes but don't we live in a society? Is our body not made of trillions of cells working as ONE. I think this is a key insight. We are one and we need to start helping others as we do ourselves only then shall we be able to evolve and thus cope better. But first we have to learn new tools...

Body-Coaching is one such tool. It helps us but also it brings us all together. It's an approach that will help us all be better in what we do as we will be empowered to thrive in the ever changing ever increasing moment.

More information on https://sites.google.com/site/biomotionsbodycoaching/

Next Workshops:

12 and 13 February (English) Brussels

5 and 6 March (French) Brussels

9 and 10 April (German) Vienna with a presentation on Friday the 8th

Life Change Units

Have you ever had the feeling that you’re body was holding you back in achieving your goals? I see frequently patients that although they do not voice it in this way when I bring this question up it strikes a chord. It resonates with how they have been feeling lately.

When I start working with them I can also feel it. The body feels dens and compressed immobilized.

I think that a possibly explanation is that our body is just saturated. Imagine what your body has to deal with on a daily - yearly basis and compare this how it was 50 to 100 years ago. Everything goes faster, we need to do more in a shorter period of time but do we allow ourselves to adjust? The life-changes we go through are sometimes so densely packed in a short period of time : changing country, home, job, making new friends...

Can you imagine that change even positive has an impact on your physical wellbeing? If you’re not convinced have a look on the following link where you’ll find the Holmes and Rahe social readjustment scale and count your LCU’s (Life Change Units). This scale is over a 1 year period.

http://www.cop.ufl.edu/safezone/doty/dotyhome/wellness/HolRah.htm

We haven’t learned to think about the body as a vehicle that needs time to adjust to change. We haven’t learned that our body is limited in what it can deal with. We never had to think about it change was something sporadic. But now we’ve well passed the threshold of what our physical body can cope with.

Business people that travel a lot have subconsciously understood this. They go frequently for a massage when they are on a business trip and from the perspective given here above I can only say that they are right to do so.

Bodywork helps the body to deal with the change process. Osteopathic Body-Coaching goes a step further it makes you light again and allows the normalisation of the biophysiological interferences (Body’s survival mode / Fight - Flight - Freeze mechanism that is over active when chronically over-stimulated) so that body and mind are again realigned and reconnect with each other.

So how are you feeling today? Are you still performing as well as you know you can or is something holding you back?

If you like more information how Osteopathic Body-Coaching can help you please send an email to info@biomotions.com or make an appointment on 0472 399 779 (Brussels, Belgium)

Unwinding the Matrix

BioMotions^®

Body-Coaching

Unwinding the Matrix

How do we feel when we’re healthy?

Free, light, aligned, connected... in body, mind and spirit.

BioMotions^® Body-Coaching (B^®B-C) is a healing¹ approach that unwinds the tangled body matrix to return to that feeling of freedom on a body, mind and spirit level.

The B^®B-C facilitator interacts with the movements of life that are forthcoming in the physical body and body field. He/she follows this flow actively without interfering until a point of equilibrium is reached. Equilibrium is attained when the physical body or body field is in a state of dynamic stillness. This balance point is where a metabolic and energetic change takes place, a moment where the body engages to “reset” & “reconnect” itself with the innate healing mechanism. The unwinding process or disengagement is the natural consequence that follows.

This procedure is repeated several times on different parts of the body and in the body field, wherever is required to return the body matrix to a maximum - as it allows - unwound state.

The body is the sole keeper and provider of health. B^®B-C does’t cure, the facilitator that uses the B^®B-C approach in his / her therapy work applies it to catalyze a process that needed a little push to realign itself with its inherent knowing.

B^®B-C is simple and as close to nature as you can get. You can compare it with breathing where there is an active participation of muscles during the breathing in phase. What follows is a dynamic stillness before the exhalation sets in. Exhalation itself is without effort a natural return and outcome of the inhalation phase.

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

Albert Einstein

B^®B-C increases the inherent healing mechanism and therefore offers a wide range of benefits. It can be used to promote recovery after an injury but also a part of a wellness program to keep you healthy¹.

B^®B-C is recommended to accompany all forms of therapy wellbeing techniques including psychotherapy and coaching. B^®B-C has proved to have a big influence on trauma related experiences that have triggered the Fight-Flight response (survival mode)².

For more information or upcoming workshops please visit the website: www.biomotions.com

¹ The root meaning of health is “wholeness.” The word comes from the same Anglo-Saxon root that gives us whole, hale, and holy. http://www.amibes.info/med_int/perfection.htm

² Read more about this topic on http://biomotions.blogspot.com/2009/02/does-our-body-need-coaching.html

All is contingent and not arbitrary

I believe that we all came into this world with a mission, a purpose for which we are given tools, more dominant potentials (qualities) to be able to fulfill this objective. More dominant in the sense that we can be anything we want to be, do anything we want to do but just like our DNA has all the blueprint to be everything but only a part of this potential stands out, is in this life switched on. These switched on potentials are there to be activated, nourished and developed so that the master plan can be executed. These “potentialights” are part of the non-arbitrary way of life? Therefore although things seem to happen accidentally there is a predetermined possibility / probability.

Body Mind Spirit Coaching

I heard it numerous times when giving someone some suggestions on issues that involve change: “ I know but I can’t seem to do anything about it, I want to but feel I’m hitting a brick wall all the time!”

What I also get to hear is: “ I want to do something but don’t know where to start!”

In the first example the people know but can’t move the second they don’t know but are able to move. So we’re talking about two opposites with the common denominator of being stuck of standing still and they might even feel to be going backwards.

These are situations straight out of my osteopathy practice, you may ask yourself what are they doing in an osteopathic practice in the first place. Isn’t osteopathy something to do with cracking bones?

Osteopathy isn’t just about cracking bones, it is about bringing a person back to himself, to bringing balance to body, mind and spirit. Or in other words to restore the healing mechanism so that the person becomes whole again. Osteopathy is a holistic approach and that means that we try to look at the whole of the person and therefore not only the bones.

The people who are in a situation mentioned above they do come with ailments like headaches, back problems, low energy feeling, general malaises etc, and as an osteopath I help to facilitate these symptoms but these can be symptoms of some underlying mechanism that is out of balance. An imbalance of the BMS mechanism where one or more parts are blocked.

The BMS or Body Mind Spirit mechanism is in a few words explained as follows. The Body part is the structural, physical part of the human being: Bones, muscles, organs… Spirit and not spiritual, is our Life Force which contains the mechanism of healing, but it is also the animated part in us, what makes us move. Body and Spirit are part of the basis of the BMS triangle, they are part of the earthly structural – functional component. Mind on the other hand is the pinnacle of the triangle and part of the celestial, non-existant realm of knowledge and wisdom. In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medcin) Body and Spirit are Yin and Mind Yang. In Taoism Mind is Wu Ji (non-existance) and Body and Spirit are You-Ji (existence) from where man is created.

The BMS mechanism is a holistic system where all parts have an influence on each other. So in my first example where lies the imbalance? They know but can’t act? Knowing is Mind so it must be part of the Spirit or Body level. In the second example they don’t know… so a sort of disconnection has occurred between the Mind and the Body and Spirit.

As an osteopath I work on the three parts but my approach is via the functional structural levels, Body and Spirit. But what if the underlying problem is of Mind level? Then off-course I’ll be only able to help these people part of the way and advise to go and see someone who has a Mind approach like a coach or a psychotherapist if the problem is a medical condition.

An example of the need for a mind approach is people who are looking for change. They feel they need to do something different with their life or are in front of change with many options but they don’t know what to choose. This I don’t know where to go, what to do, who am I, what am I doing here mental activity is very stressful for the body and can lead to many aches and pains like a blocked back (lumbago) or neck (torticolli)… being stuck physically. I’m not saying that all back or neck pain is related to this but a lot of people are struggling with these issues when you probe a little deeper.

So you are with an osteopath and he becomes aware that you could do with a Mind approach but what also can happen is that you’re with a Coach and the client says I know what I need to do but it’s like I’m paralyzed… Then something in the Structural, functional level might indeed be in need of freeing through an osteopathic session.

From whatever aspect you look at it man can only function to his or her full potential when there is a free flow between all three levels. So therefore in wanting to give a full service and knowing that combining forces is sometimes essential to get the best result: Osteopathy & Coaching or “BMS Design Coaching” which will be available at the BioMotions Osteopathy & massage Practice soon.

My Ecological Footprint

I attended last week a conference by Guibert de Marmol with as a theme: “Seul la metamorphose de l’homme peut engendrer la metamorphose du monde.” A very interesting and direct message was given to the 150 or so business men... ‘You have a ecological responsibility’ and it is NOW that you must act. That was clear... Now, I’m only running a small practice but still I too have a responsibility... so where is it that I leave my trace, what is my professional CO2 footprint? I don’t use that many products except for towels. Cotton towels... and didn’t I read somewhere:

When produced with conventional agricultural practices, cotton generally requires the use of substantial amounts of fertilisers and pesticides.

Globally, cotton accounts for 11% of all pesticides used each year, even though the area of production is only 2.4% of the world’s arable land.

With regard to the subset of insecticides, cotton producers use 25% of all insecticides used each year. In developing countries, estimates suggest that half of the total pesticides used on all crops are applied to cotton.

Forty-six insecticides and acaricides (compounds used to control mites and ticks) comprise 90% of the total volume of all pesticides used on cotton. Five of these are classified as extremely hazardous, 8 as highly hazardous, and 20 are moderately hazardous (Soth 1999).

http://www.organiccotton.com.au

So what are the alternatives... Bamboo! Time to get in contact with Nick from Mobboa. A Belgian bases online shop which sells Bamboo bassed textiles. I had his details from Simone ( http://thehubbrussels.pbwiki.com/ ) and always wanted to contact him to get some more information but had pushed it always forward and eventually forgotten... the conference however said act now... so I did.

Very interesting... and no the textiles aren’t made of 100% bamboo... but at least most of it is... this is a start... and no the cotton isn’t bio-cotton... and some of the processes needed to liberate the bamboo fibers still needs chemicals but it is a start and has in the long run an positive impact (read his website). Also the more we change towards the better alternative... the more funds are available to develop new techniques to do even better (enzymatic approaches to get to the bamboo fibers exist but are still too expensive) ... So my resolution the next towels I need will be from bamboo... which are also softer and more water absorbable then cotton... great!

http://www.mobboa.be