Tag Archives: healing

SMOKING – follow up

Posted on November 6, 2009 | 6 Comments

before and after

actually it is the other way around in the before and after…just loved the picture

Now almost 22 months have passed since I quit smoking. I feel a lot better and like I am finally on the other side of the tunnel – healing as it were. About a month ago I felt up-building healing processes start. My body is getting more shapely and I am – oh so slowly – loosing body-fat (the swelling sensation). My energy-levels are up and I am getting really fit. I stopped the heavy-duty training I did with my trainer and have started creating my own programs with the help of diverse training-gurus around the world.

My digestive-system is almost back to normal, which is like such a high! My diet has changed since I noticed that certain foods don’t fit me. It is not always so easy, since one of the foods is bread and I love bread! But I eat with care and then it’s okay. I detox every month which always makes me feel really good and free.

spices / medicines

I am still waiting to loose the extra body-fat, but even in a bigger size I am looking great! I am so proud of myself for doing this, for finding the strength and the motivation to go through it, this in itself has given me a huge boost in self-confidence. I am also very grateful to myself for finally quitting smoking – the hardest, most awful and painful thing I have ever done. And I have grown as a person and therapist. All that I learned on this journey is invaluable knowledge on many levels; self-assurance, nutrition, exercise, toxicology, physiology and psychology. Everything is a learning experience.

Zen

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Posted in Lifestyle, Smoking

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KNOWLEDGE AND INFORMATION about essential oils

Posted on September 10, 2009 | Leave a comment

lemon_pepper_oilOne thing I keep coming across is the ignorance about aromatherapy and essential oils.  On top of this, essential oils are very easy to find and actually not too expensive. Everybody has heard of aromatherapy and essential oils, many are using them in a vague fashion to scent their homes or help with minor problems, which is okay if you know what you are doing, but if you don’t know, you might be creating all kinds of problems.

To start at the top:

  • Essential oils are mainly used by the food- cosmetics- and perfume industry. Therefore they are easily found on the market. There are no limitations or regulations on producing and selling essential oils, since they are so widely used, except for some oils that are obviously hazardous to health and prohibited for all use.
  • Essential oils are also used by the pharmaceutical industry since they are pharmaceutically active agents. (Vicks vaporub & other cold-remedies)

Here starts the first problem: Since essential oils are pharmaceutically active, they should be marked as medicine, and regulated as such (as is the case with all other pharmaceutically active substances), making them unavailable for any other use. This would mean that the food- and perfume-industry (and toiletries and…) could not use essential oils in any way. Since this would lead to political and economical upheaval, it is putting the essential oils in a kind of “nowhere-land” where it is best not to create too much discussion.

So anybody can buy essential oils everywhere. The manufacturers and distributors of essential oils can claim anything they want and give advice on how to use essential oils. (Sometimes the advice is on a clinical level and the essential oil should not be used in this way without extensive knowledge.)

Essential oil components

do you understand above list?

Next problem is this: In England, America, Scandinavia and Australia you can train exclusively to become an aromatherapist. This education is a state-approved professional training. In these countries there is much more information pertaining essential oils and how to use them, since there are professional therapists that can advice you. As a professional therapist you study basic medicine, biology, chemistry and botany to understand essential oils and what they can do (or not do.).

In Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and other countries in Europe you need to be a Heilpraktiker or a doctor before you are allowed to work with essential oils in a pharmaceutical way. If you are a Heilpraktiker, that means adding  a year of aromatherapy and essential oil studies to your existing diploma.  Since very few people want to do this, only doctors are really allowed to use essential oils for medical (healing) purposes. There are some doctors who do this in France. For the rest, aromatherapy is used for beauty or Spa-treatments, and the therapist has no right to claim any healing attributes to the oils.

essential-oil

This means that the overall knowledge about essential oils in much lower in most of mainland Europe creating all kinds of problems. Essential oils and aromatherapy is widely talked about and people use more essential oils here than in informed countries. There are hardly any warnings or advice. For example: Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) became all the rave a few years ago because it was said to be good against acne. People started using it indiscriminately, causing all kinds of skin-problems. In Germany and France the oil was banned for a couple of years. All because of ignorance.

tea-tree

Since I started working with aromatherapy I have worked on spreading information and trying to get past all the red tape around what is allowed to be said or not. Sometimes lack of information is the very source of the problem. At the end of the day the essential oils will continue to be accessible to everybody and the information about these substances need to be up-to-date as with any other available substance.

Essential oils can heal and provide well-being. But they can also cause harm when used wrongly.

As I said before; quality is what differentiates essential oils used for aromatherapy as opposed to industrial uses. Quality is also about re-planting, fair trade and cooperation.

handshake

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Posted in Aromatherapy

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AROMATHERAPY AND HORSES

Posted on July 13, 2009 | Leave a comment

Jade headThis is Jade. She is 34 years old and she did her last mounted-game competition when she was 30.

I told you in my last post that I work with horses. Apart from basic groundwork, natural horsemanship style, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_horsemanship I also work with essential oils. Sometimes in combination with training to help keep the horse focused and/or calm if there is nervousness. Most often I use essential oils with horses who suffer from some kind of trauma. Horses have an average life-span of about 15 years, a pony can get as old as 40. They are incredibly sensitive with an amazing memory – they remember everything. Very few horses stay with one owner for the full duration of their lives, some change owners very very often and the new owners rarely know anything about the past of the horse they just bought. If there is trauma it will make itself known in different ways and this is where I am called in.

This next picture is of a pony that belongs to a friend of mine. She was caught, with her foal,  in a very bad flood a few years ago and the foal drowned. She is a wonderful pony but she tunes out and goes into flight mode when pushed. I have done some ground-work with her and she always ends up going into a slight panic; breathing hard, sweating, rushing and becoming non-communicable. This weekend I brought my oils and she answered very well. We did some groundwork and she could stay calm, which is a good start, but there is still more work to be done. The oils she chose will be used for some time until progress is noticeable, then maybe she will need another oil/oils. Once her trauma is healed she will be an amazing pony.

DSCF0172

I have, through the years, also worked with a variety of different animals; dogs, cats, sheep, cows, lamas, snakes, birds, lizards, turtles, frogs etc with fantastic results. With animals there is no doubt, they instinctively know what they need to heal, and they seem to have a need to be whole. For this kind of work only top quality essential oils will suffice and then in very small quantities.

In England, Caroline Ingraham  works professionally with aromatherapy and animals. When I met her some years ago she was about to work with saving orangutans with severe trauma. She has done amazing work in this area and is the pioneer of animal aromatherapy. If this is interesting to you, you need to check out her home-page.

http://www.ingraham.co.uk/

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Posted in Animals, Aromatherapy

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MASSAGE

Posted on June 28, 2009 | 5 Comments

Fin Elsa ansikteMassage must be one of the most contraversial topics around; everybody seems to have some kind of thought or emotion about massage, be it positive or negative. A big part of my work is massage; not only doing it, but training others and spreading the knowledge about the benefits of using massage in many places, especially institutions.

Coming from Sweden I am used to massage being a household word. Massage is being used in most institutions and hospitals, it is part of the teacher-training today and every pre- and primary school has massage on the schedule. I have worked with old, sick, handicapped, mentally disabled, children, pregnant women, teenagers with abuse-problems…etc, etc…the list is endless. I have also worked with psychologists and psychotherapists with wonderful results.

Since coming to Luxembourg I am meeting with so much resistance which is surprising and shocking. Massage is accepted when it comes to anti-stress, beauty enhancement and relaxation – the idea of the Spa. But on all other levels – nil. My work here has become the introduction of massage as a normal part of society. I talk to schools, ministries, teachers, nurses etc. I have plenty of clients who come to me privately, and I go to nursing-homes to massage the ones who have family that hire me. The demand is great, so what is the problem? Why is it so difficult for society to accept the need?  Old ingrained programming of religion and sexuality? And still, massage is one of the oldest practices existing today.

Massage opens doors in us. Every individual will experience massage differently because it is an individual experience. Massage can be a relaxing and pleasurable experience and it can also be a concentrated effort to heal, it all depends on the situation. After the war in former Yugoslavia, massage-therapists and aromatherapists from all over the world worked in organized help-centers to help with the psychological effects of war-time. I trained some of them. Even if people are not physically harmed in the war, there is tremendous psychological and emotional trauma that is never adressed. Massage adresses these problems.

SO WHAT IS MASSAGE?

“Massage is the practice of soft tissue manipulation with physical, functional, and in some cases psychological purposes and goals.[1] The word comes from the French massage “friction of kneading”, or from Arabic massa meaning “to touch, feel or handle” or from Latin massa meaning “mass, dough”.[2][3] An older etymology may even have been the Hebrew me-sakj “to anoint with oil”. In distinction the ancient Greek word for massage was anatripsis,[4] and the Latin was frictio.” (Wikipedia)

Massage is a purposeful positive touch

Massagetherapists work with different forms of massage to help individuals:

  • Deep tissue massage for athletes and/or  muscular problems.
  • Soft relaxing massage for emotional reasons or for deep relaxation.
  • Localized massage for disabled persons or aged people to help with pain, stiffnes and circulation.
  • Peer massage for children and in schools to alleviate stress and create a harmonious connection between children; positive touch.
  • Baby massage to strengthen connection between parent/child, help with minor ailments and sleep. For premature babies to help them to strengthen.
  • Harmonizing and balancing massage for mentally handicapped persons.
  • Massaging animals (for all the above reasons)

Massage transgresses all barriers; language, religion, politics, race, colour…Nothing is needed for massage except hands and a good intent. And when trauma is deeper than words, touch will heal.

“The touch research institute” in Miami is dedicated to studying and researching the effects of massage since 1992. Below is their web-address, please have a look at the amazing work they have done.

“The power of touch cannot be underestimated,” says Tiffany Field, PhD, the director of the Touch Research Institute.

http://www6.miami.edu/touch-research/

massage 2x åk 6

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