My Blog is Moving

Dear Followers,

I am so thankful to all of you who follow my blogs regularly.  During these first few months several of you have had some difficulties with the Blogger sight and this concerns me.  I want "tuning in" to be easy and leaving me comments and getting a reply in return to be even easier.  To this end, we have decided to move my blog to Word Press.  

My new Blog address is http://loveinmotionme.wordpress.com/.  When you go to this site, at the top of the page on the right side is a place to type in your email address and click on "Follow".  It is that simple to sign up to follow the new blog!  All of the articles that I have written to date have already been posted here, so you won't miss out on anything you may want to refer back to or read again.  You can also access the new blog from my website at http://loveinmotion.me/, by clicking on the button at the bottom of the home page that says "Follow Suzanne on her Blog".

Thanks again for taking this journey with me.  See you at http://loveinmotionme.wordpress.com/ !

Your Health is in Your Hands

Suzanne

Use It or Lose It

Skiing is a sport that I was introduced to as a child, back when skis were made of wood and boots came just above the ankles and laced up.  As a young teen, my Dad, my sister and I would drive from the San Francisco Bay area where we lived to Sierra Mountain Resorts to ski for the day, several times a year.  After I graduated from college, I moved to Lake Tahoe with the intention of staying for a ski season and ended up staying for 3 years.  I waited tables (so much for a college education) and had a weekday ski pass for Alpine Meadows Ski Resort.  Life was good!  Then I moved to Southern California, got married, had kids, and skied a lot less frequently.  But like riding a bike, once your body has developed the muscle memory, your ability to pick up where you left off stays with you for life—if you stay functional.

Recently, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to do some downhill skiing in Colorado.  I hadn’t been skiing in 17 years!  In my mind’s eye I knew I would remember how to ski, but I was very nervous about how well I would ski, how much endurance I would have, and how badly I would hurt the next day.  After all, I am 58 years old now!  Well, I have to report that I may not have pushed it as hard as I did when I was 25, but my form was as good as it had ever been, my stamina at least as good as it was 17 years ago, and recovery time wasn't even an issue. It was truly amazing to me how well my body engaged, endured, and renewed itself, and testimony to the way I have taken care of myself over the last 12 years.  The same could not be said for my equipment—the plastic heel plate on one of my boots (which were relatively new when I wore them last) broke in the ski shop as they were being fitted to a pair of skis and the elastic strap on my goggles broke as I tried to stretch it over the ski helmet I was renting!

The Egoscue Method® gets most of the credit for my ability to return to skiing with a functional body, although I do not want to minimize the contributions of The Blood Type Diet® or the mental and spiritual advances I have made toward personal serenity and Whole Body Wellness.  I have been a daily devotee to my Egoscue exercise routines for 5 years now.  As I have discussed in several of my earlier blogs, “Dysfunction” is the new “normal” in a culture that views motion as something to eliminate whenever possible.  The latest and greatest laborsaving devices are everywhere.  The only problem is we require motion to continue to live and grow, without it we decline and die. 

  Our bodies were designed with perfect vertical and horizontal alignment of all load-bearing joints to provide strength, resiliency, and minimal wear and tear.  Our “dysfunctions” show up as heads forward, misaligned shoulders, hips tipped too far forward or back, bowed or knock knees, everted (duck) feet, and other deviations from our design form with its perfect vertical and horizontal alignment of all load-bearing joints.  The cause of the dysfunctions—lack of adequate motion to maintain muscular balance.  Without the physical demands faced by our Hunter/Gatherer ancestors or even those who lived 100 years ago, very few of us get enough balanced exercise from our normal daily activities to maintain our design form.

While on the slopes, I saw several injured skiers being tended by ski patrolmen and carried down the mountain on sleds designed for this purpose.  It was a reminder that such events are commonplace; in fact, it would be rare to spend the day skiing and not see someone injured.  Is skiing just a dangerous sport, or did these individuals hurt themselves because a dysfunctional hip prevented them from turning when needed, or their skis separated because their leg muscles were unaccustomed to keeping their knees and feet pointed straight ahead?  One look at the skier’s posture would give you the answer, and I’m betting that the danger lies not with the sport, but with the dysfunction the athlete brings to it.

For more information on The Egoscue Method®, The Blood Type Diet®, or other aspects of Whole Body Wellness, visit my website at http://loveinmotion.me/, or leave me a Comment on the link below and I will get back to you.

Your Health is in Your Hands!

Suzanne

It’s the Position Not the Condition

Today’s blog title is a line you will hear frequently from anyone who teaches the Egoscue Method® of Health Through Motion.  Many of the physical “Conditions” individuals are diagnosed with today are really a result of faulty postural alignment.  Two of the Conditions that have become commonplace in our current cultural environment are Rotator Cuff Tears and Carpel Tunnel Syndrome.  Both are related to the same dysfunctional Position of shoulders locked forward.  Both are also considered “Repetitive Motion” injuries.

Before I address each of these Conditions, I want to challenge the widely adopted view that doing some kind of motion over and over again will somehow wear out the body parts that are involved in that motion.  The problem is not in the repetitive motion itself but in its restrictive nature.  Pete Egoscue says in Pain Free at Your PC, “If you replace the word repetitive with restricted, it’s a more accurate label for these common injuries.  By limiting movement to just a few of the same moves that occur over and over again, we are creating musculoskeletal imbalances.”  The answer is not to further limit the already restricted motion, but to augment it with a variety of motion that supports the otherwise inactive muscles.  We are not born with a certain number of times we can rotate our shoulders, bend our knees, or flex our wrists before they wear out.  It is the resulting imbalance that is the problem, not the motion itself.

Rotator cuff tears are regarded today as an inevitable occurrence for those who play tennis, golf, baseball or any other sport that requires “repetitive” rotational motion of the shoulder.   The most common solutions to this injury are to surgically repair the damage or to shave down the head of the humerus (the upper arm bone).  The problem is that the actual cause of the injury has not been addressed.  The reason the rotator cuff function was impaired is that the shoulder is locked in a forward hinge position.  With the shoulder forward, the rotator cuff muscles cannot rotate the head of the humerus the way they are supposed to.  Without the designed range of motion, the muscles tear as they are forced to try to complete the desired task.  Sadly, the surgery may relieve the pain for a while, but the underlying dysfunction has not been addressed.  The pain will return here or at some other “link” in the kinetic chain, like the elbow or wrist.

Carpel Tunnel Syndrome has become a wide spread “work related injury” for those sitting at a computer for a large part of their day.  The resulting restriction in the wrist and accompanying pain or numbness send thousands of people to surgeons who remove a tendon that was designed to move muscles in the forearms, as well as the wrists and fingers, to make more “space”.  Well it turns out the lack of “space” in the carpel tunnel was caused by faulty positioning of the wrist as a result of guess what—forward rounded shoulders.  Removing the tendon may allow relief for a while, but the pain will return unless the posture is addressed.  And, re-engineering the body is very likely to create a new problem down the road.  Some people try using braces to restrict the motion in the affected wrist.  It may provide relief while worn, but without addressing the underlying dysfunction of the shoulders (and likely the spine), the pain will return when the brace is removed.

Take a look at yourself in a full-length mirror in your normal standing position.  Where are your hands?  Can you see most of your fingers and the backs of your hands, or do you only see your thumbs and a side view of your fingers stacked one in front of the other?  If you see the backs of your hands, your shoulders are locked in a forward position.   The good news is this is correctable with an Egoscue Method® routine that specifically targets the muscles that will realign those shoulders and address any additional dysfunctions. 

Contact me for your evaluation today!  Your Health is in Your Hands!

Suzanne

*Based on Pete Egoscue’s books, The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion and Pain Free at Your PC

Hiking Feeds Body, Mind and Spirit

Deer Springs Trail, Idyllwild

Tenaja Falls

Santa Rosa Plateau at Dusk

Stepping out into nature can provide great exercise, respite from the stresses of daily life and time to reconnect with a friend, a mate, God, the Universe, and your higher self.  Depending on where you live, access to large parks or preserves may or may not be easily reached in a reasonable amount of time.  If not, a local neighborhood park, or any place with some open space and some “living things” can do the trick.  Just stepping out of our everyday environment can give us the chance for some deep breathing and sighs of relief.  Allowing time for these kinds of breaks often provides the opening for creative thought—a new idea, or a solution to a problem you didn’t see before.



Water Holes Canyon



Suicide Rock, Idyllwild

Last summer Dave and I hiked in several locations in Riverside County in Southern California, and in Page AZ near Lake Powell.  We visited the Santa Rosa Plateau on a late afternoon and early evening with a full moon rising, and on another occasion, hiked to Tenaja Falls and sat on the rocks surrounding a pool that collects the cascading water.  

 



Horseshoe Bend

On Labor Day weekend, we hiked Deer Springs Trail to Suicide Rock in Idyllwild, among some magnificent trees and enjoyed stunning views from the edge of the cliffs.  Later in September on a house boating trip to Lake Powell we had the opportunity to visit Antelope Canyon, and to hike in Water Holes Canyon, and to an overlook of Horseshoe Bend in the Grand Canyon.  The red rock formations carved out by moving water over many millenniums are absolutely exquisite!



Ridge Line on Camelback Mountain

Superstition Mountains

Since moving to Arizona almost two months ago, I have had the opportunity to hike in various places around the Phoenix/Mesa area.  I had no idea how many options were available within about a 30 mile radius!  I have now been to the Superstition Mountains to the east, Camelback Mountain to the West, the South Mountains (I think you can guess the direction), and the McDowell Sonoran Preserve to the north.  Each is unique in the type of terrain it offers and there are trails of varying lengths and difficulty, so it is easy to find something that suits your mood, energy levels, and ability.



McDowell Sonoran Preserve

McDowell Sonoran Perserve

In April Dave and I are planning weekend trips to Sedona and the Grand Canyon.  Stay tuned for details and photos!

Make plans to take a hike or a walk in nature and enjoy its many benefits!  Your Health is in Your Hands!

Suzanne

Consumerism At Its Finest

Body Parts for Sale

Medical procedures that should be reserved for last resort situations have become commonplace “solutions” to musculoskeletal pain.  Physicians in a rush to embrace new technology have forgotten what country doctors knew intuitively, that the design of the human body is not flawed; Given the opportunity the body can, in most cases, heal itself.  Patients, in a hurry to eliminate pain, would prefer to take a pill or undergo surgery rather than make necessary lifestyle changes that would allow the body to heal itself.  The shoulder hurts, the knee hurts, the hip hurts:  Remove the appropriate joint and bolt on another.  But what if the source of the pain was not at the site of the pain?  What if the shoulder hurt because the hips were misaligned?  Will the pain return somewhere else?  What body part will you replace next? Pete Egoscue says that of the hundreds of patients he sees in his clinic who have had joint replacements, ALL of them would have been better off with a less traumatic, alternative treatment, with the single exception of accident victims whose joints were DESTROYED.

Loss of cartilage is often the rationale used to justify joint replacement.  Yet the body is not given a fixed amount of cartilage that when used up will not be replaced.  Given a chance, the body will replace the cartilage scraped away by misalignment.  We grow hair and fingernails and replace dead cells throughout our bodies everyday.  “The only reason to think that cartilage is permanently lost is that the dysfunction  that wears away the tissue in the first place is allowed to be permanent.”  The cartilage does not regenerate because it continues to be worn down faster than it is being built up.  Removing the dysfunction, restoring lost functions and maintaining them with prescribed exercises done each day will give the body the chance it needs.  Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it?  But artificial knees and hips and shoulder joints are state-of-the-art medicine with high price tags, so they must be a better solution, right?  Wrong.

So, how did we get here, to this place where the majority of us willingly accept and believe that replacing one of our joints with man-made materials is the only solution?  The answer is not a simple one but if we don’t at least start exploring it, human beings as a species are in serious trouble.  The technological advancements that have taken place in the last 100 years have changed our lives dramatically.  Everywhere you look there are new laborsaving devices, which we welcome as things that will make life “easier”.  What we have failed to notice is that our bodies are crying out to us for more motion, the motion that allowed us to not only survive for a few million years, but to successfully multiply and prosper.  The cries may be fatigue, anxiety, sleeplessness, headaches, leg cramps, stiffness and eventually pain.  Disconnected from our bodies, unable to understand the messages being communicated, we take a pill or look for some immediate way to silence the alarm, rather than solve the real problem, lack of adequate motion.   We have allowed ourselves to be lulled into a belief that the same human design that got us to 2012 is now “too frail to withstand the punishing onslaught of a desk chair without the benefit of drugs, surgery, or machines.”

 

Good health is not a product you can buy.  It requires personal responsibility that begins with learning to listen to your body, and identifying the dysfunctions and compensations that are present.  This knowledge and a daily dose of proper motion provided by Egoscue Method “e-cises” will set you on a path to a pain free, motion filled life.

YOUR HEALTH IS IN YOUR HANDS!

Suzanne

*Based on Pete Egoscue’s book, The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion

The Language of Love

 

Actually, there are 5 primary Love Languages, according to Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, The Secret to Love That Lasts.  My boyfriend, Dave, introduced me to this premise early in our dating relationship.  I must admit quite readily that, if it were not for the information in this book, our relationship might have been a very short one.  As it turns out with us, and I suspect for most couples, our primary Love Languages are not the same.  In fact, my Love Language is Quality Time, the thing most difficult for him to give, as a man whose professional life requires a lot of travel.  His primary Love Language is Words of Affirmation, something that I have never given with ease.  Making this realization and then consciously choosing to learn to speak your partner’s language is not easy, but it is definitely worth it if you want to give and receive love.  I know from experience that love given in a language that is not understood by the receiver “falls on deaf ears”.

Words of Affirmation

   The 5 Love Languages are:

Receiving Gifts

Acts of Service

Physical Touch

Quality Time

There is a quick and easy way to find out which of these Love Languages is your primary.  You can reach the 5 Love Languages website at http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/love/, for a quiz that will help you define your primary Love Language, and of course, you will want your partner to take the quiz too.  You can also simply give some thought to what you generally seek in your relationships and how you usually choose to express love to others.  The book is a valuable tool to help you learn how to speak your loved one’s language.

We all have a deep need for emotional love.  Often, when we give love in our own language and it is not received as it was intended, doubts about the depth of the love connection and about self-worth creep in.  These doubts and the hurt they cause start to erode both our own self-confidence and the quality of the relationship.  What Dave and I have both learned as we embraced the need to speak each other’s Love Language, is that we always get back more than we give.  When you give your partner love in his language, he not only hears you but he knows that you made a conscious decision to do so.  This gesture will create a feeling of love and gratitude that he will return to you as a gift in your language.  The desire to continue to please each other self-perpetuates itself if you remain conscious and CHOOSE LOVE!

Your health AND that of your relationships is in your hands!

 Happy Valentines Day,

Suzanne

Ergonomics:  Solution or Part of the Problem?

ergonomics--info.com

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to sit in on an Ergonomic Evaluation of my boyfriend’s home office setup.  He was required by his new employer to participate in this 30-minute online assessment of his equipment and his physical relationship to it.  They inquired about things like chair height relative to the angle created by his thighs and trunk, whether the inside of his knees touched the front of the seat or if there was space in between, and the shape of the chair back and his seated posture.  They also asked questions about the position of his computer screen related to line of sight and head angle, and the position of his arms and hands in relation to the keyboard, etc.  You get the idea.

My sense is that the employer wants to help its employees remain pain free in their work environment AND it also wants to cover its behind if the employee develops some “work related” syndrome and blames it on the work conditions and, of course, the employer.  It has become a modern cultural assumption that the chair, desk, computer, and phone, if not set up or addressed properly, are to blame for any ensuing discomfort, pain or injury to the individual using them.  The real problem is not the equipment and the way it is used, but the restriction of movement that limits the body’s use of its muscles.  The few active muscles strengthen and the inactive ones weaken, causing musculoskeletal imbalances.  Imbalance, or loss of design form, eventually causes pain and loss of function.

The only thing wrong with restricted movement is that it is restricted.  It should be augmented with a variety of motion that provides stimulus to the muscles that are not being used in the work environment.  The solution is not to restrict the restricted movement even further with Ergonomic reengineering and gadgetry.  This may bring temporary relief, but the pain will return until the underlying problem--lack of motion, and resulting dysfunctions, are addressed.

Most of the discomfort and pain that we experience while sitting at a computer, such as tightness in our shoulders and necks, pain in our wrists, even headaches and eye-strain, are actually symptoms of a improperly positioned hips.  Our spine was designed to be shaped like an “S”, but our lack of sufficient motion has tipped the pelvis backward flattening out the low back and changing the “S” into a “C”.  Because our body works as a unit, the change in the position of the pelvis then moves the shoulders and head forward to compensate.  Now, we have created a condition of “flexion” for our body from the hips on up, which means that the muscles in the low back, upper back, shoulders, and neck are under a lot of tension all day as they try to keep us from falling flat on our face.  The forward position of the shoulders affects the position of the wrists, causing them to flatten out and put strain on the Carpal Tunnel.

One of the things stressed, and rightly so, in the Ergonomics presentation, was maintaining the “S” curve of the spine.  The problem is that if the “C” curve already exists, and it is now prevalent in our sedentary society, a chair cannot fix your posture.  Posture is not voluntary.  To maintain an “S” curve requires functioning postural muscles.  The only way to acquire active, functional postural muscles is to provide them with adequate, functional motion.

In my last blog article, From Design to Dysfunction and Back Again, I pointed out the visible signs of dysfunction and compensation that demonstrate the result of inadequate motion.  The technological “advances” of the last 50 years have changed our environment forever.  At every turn some new piece of equipment removes yet another need for motion.  Our design, however, is hundreds of thousands of years old, and it requires motion to thrive.  Since our environment no longer encourages motion, getting an adequate supply of it requires a conscious decision to add functional movement to our daily routine.  The Egoscue Methodâ identifies dysfunction and provides personalized routines, or menus of “ecises” designed to reawaken the deep postural muscles in as little as 20 minutes a day.  Visit my website http://loveinmotion.me/, and send me an email to suzannelamarche@gmail.com or call me at 951 704-5965 to discuss your needs.  Return your body to its design form and experience well being you thought was gone forever.

YOUR HEALTH IS IN YOUR HANDS!

Suzanne

* Material based on  Pete Egoscue’s book, Pain Free at Your PC

From Design to Dysfunction and Back Again

In my last blog, Designed to Move, I shared with you the important role motion plays in maintaining the health of all of our body’s systems.  Today I want to talk about how failing to move creates a downward spiral that makes it increasingly more and more difficult to adequately move our bodies and stave off dysfunction, pain and illness.  Let’s start with a little perspective.

Our musculoskeletal system is a success story of creatures who for hundreds of thousands of years, could not keep still, or they would perish.  The body’s arrangement of muscles, bones, joints, and nerves enables a hungry man or woman to reach over his/her head to pick apples, or to bend down to dig through snow to unearth edible roots.  He or she can run from danger, climb a tree, and throw a spear made by his/her own hands.  Our ancestors “worked out” constantly in order to stay alive.  Motion is required to sustain muscle.  It is muscles that move our bones.

 

The increasing occurrences today of bodily breakdowns that result in such things as plantar fascitis, knee injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, rotator cuff issues, and hip replacements are not a result of faulty design of the human body but of a flawed environment.  With each labor saving device we incorporate into our daily lives, our motion is restricted more and more.  Without adequate motion, the muscles, designed to walk, run, reach, climb, jump, swing a golf club, and even sit properly, atrophy.  Inactive muscles lose their ability to contract.  An efficient organism (which our human body is) doesn’t waste resources on unused functions.  The more inactivity, the more incapacity.

Standing upright on two feet isn’t easy.  It is a major feat of engineering.  Balance is everything.  To achieve it, the body’s major posture joints or load joints—the ankles, knees, hips and shoulders—are stacked one atop the other, 8 in all, 4 pairs on each side of the body.  Gravity presses down, and there is vertical load-bearing.  To balance the load between two feet, the load joints are in horizontal parallel alignment from left to right.  A functional body has ninety-degree angles between the 2 vertical lines and the four horizontal lines. It is active postural muscles that keep the joints in proper alignment.  When those ninety-degree angles are lost all hell breaks lose.   Gravity is a powerful force that puts tremendous stress and strain on the body when it loses its proper alignment.

Most of us spend our days sedentary and as a result, our posture muscles disengage because they are not being used.  So, when we decide to stand up, the body has to figure our how it will accomplish this.  Being a master at adaptation, it recruits other lesser muscles, usually on the outer periphery of the body, to help out.  The problem is that these muscles are not strong enough or in the right locations to maintain the right angles and parallel lines.  In the interest of moving, the body compensates for the lost or dysfunction and sacrifices alignment.  The problem is that lost alignment, or dysfunction, interferes with proper range of motion, which in turn leads to more lost alignment, compensation and dysfunction.  Eventually there is pain to signal that something isn’t right, and ultimately, if not corrected, the body can no longer stand upright and can’t move.

Look in the mirror, to see if you have one or more of the following conditions: one shoulder higher than the other, one hip higher than the other, one hand appearing closer than the other, your feet and or your knees pointing in any direction other than straight ahead, or, from the side view, your head forward, your shoulders rounded, your back flat or excessively arched, your knees flexed (bent)or hyper-extended.  If any of these are present, your body is violating the 90 degree rule of proper alignment.  What you are witnessing is dysfunction and the compensations your body has created to keep you moving.  Now that you have acknowledged the bad news, here is the good news.  You can return your body to design function by re-introducing proper motion that re-trains the posture muscles!

The Egoscue Method® provides proper motion through a series of e-cises chosen specifically to address your unique alignment issues.  With 20 minutes to an hour daily, you can regain your design function.  For more information on The Egoscue Method® please visit my website at http://loveinmotion.me/, or contact me by email @ suzannelamarche@gmail.com or call me at 951 704-5965.

YOUR HEALTH IS IN YOUR HANDS!

Material based on Pete Egoscue’s book, Pain Free at Your PC

Designed to Move

The human body is a perpetual motion machine.  From birth to death we are in constant motion.  Some motions like the beating of our hearts, the expansion and contraction of our lungs, and cellular activity that enables our digestive, immune and other systems, is involuntary, running on autopilot.  The musculoskeletal structure of our bodies is driven primarily by our voluntary nervous system.  As such, we have a lot to say about the amount and quality of the stimulus we provide to our bodies.  The kicker here is that these two systems interact and are interdependent.  The voluntary side, by enervating the muscles, which move the bones, energizes the involuntary systems; in turn, those sustain the voluntary functions by distributing oxygen and deploying white blood cells and making other vital contributions.  If we eliminate the movement of either the voluntary or involuntary functions, both are imperiled.

We are, in fact, largely eliminating the movement of the musculoskeletal system every time we sit down in front of the TV, get behind the wheel of a car, or spend our work or school day at a desk.  All of our other systems, dependent as they are on musculoskeletal motion, can’t go it alone.  They are not designed that way and the stress on those systems is enormous.  We have got to move the body or we lose it.   Once the body is deprived of the ability to move, extraordinary measures are necessary to keep its systems going.  Sadly, it is a losing battle.  A shriveled body means shriveled and inadequate systems—respiratory, circulatory, digestive, immune, etc.

Let’s take a look at digestion for a minute.  When you ate breakfast this morning, your digestive system went to work.  The egg and toast eventually made their way through the small and large intestines.  But how was this accomplished?  Gravity plays a big part in the digestive process but gravity alone isn’t enough.  When you walk, run, bend, and twist during the course of the day, breakfast is being pushed toward its final destination.  The digestive process is roughly 70% mechanical—dependent on motion, the rest is attributable to chemistry, gravity, and diet.

Nutritionists urge us to eat more fiber to decrease “transit time” between intake and elimination because the quicker the waste products are moved through the body, the less risk there is of toxic residues leaching out into the internal organs.  Decreased transit time reduces the risk of colon cancer.  But fiber, or lack of it, is just one element of the problem.  Transit time increases as the body’s movement decreases.  It is one of the reasons doctors want hospitalized patients out of bed as soon as possible.

There is mounting evidence that the high incidence of colon cancer in the U.S. is not exclusively a matter of diet (a subject for another blog).  People living in other less developed countries consume more animal protein and fats than we do; yet their colon cancer rates are lower.  Is the reason attributable to genetics, other cultural food choices such as onions, garlic, or red wine, OR that they haven’t succumbed completely to the “good life”?  They still walk.  They rake leaves instead of using a blower.  They swing an axe instead of firing up a chain saw.  They wield a shovel, they don’t ride a backhoe.  For our part, we are not moving enough.  As a result, our motion-dependent systems from digestive to circulatory, respiratory to immune are breaking down.

 

Make today the day you decide to improve your health.  My website, http://loveinmotion.me/ is full of information on ways to create mental, physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.  If you have pain or physical limitations that make it difficult for you to “move”, I urge you to review the information found at the “Pain Free Posture” tab on my website.  Let me help you re-learn how to move with renewed energy and ease for a longer, happier, healthier life!

*This material is based on excerpts from The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion, by Pete Egoscue.  

The Labyrinth -- A Metaphor for Life

Labyrinths have been around for thousands of years and can be found today in churches, parks, hospitals, and on private land.  Unlike mazes that have many paths and dead ends, labyrinths have only one way in and one way out.  They are most often circular but come in other geometric shapes as well.   With a circuitous path, it leads you to its center.  Twists and turns that seem to take you away from your desired destination make you feel as though you might be going the wrong direction.  Yet if you keep your faith and keep walking, placing one foot in front of the other, you will reach the center.   The labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey of life and has been used for centuries as a tool for prayer, meditation, problem solving, celebration and just plain fun!

On a recent trip to the Atlanta area over the Christmas Holiday, my boyfriend and I used the website, labyrinthlocator.com to find labyrinths that were within 25 miles of our location.  We chose two in the town of Lilburn, GA that were outside and available to the public.  Both were on church grounds.

One of them, Harmony Grove United Methodist Church, had brochures available that provided a simple and beautiful explanation of how to walk a labyrinth.  Here are some excerpts:

·      There is no right way or wrong way to walk a labyrinth; there are no “rules” to follow and nothing you need to know.”  Very little preparation is needed for walking a labyrinth.  Just gather your thoughts before you walk in.  Take a moment to take a few deep breaths to center yourself, and begin walking.

·      The first time you walk a labyrinth you might want to walk the pattern to enjoy the walk and become familiar with the labyrinth.  On your walk in, just relax, let go, and allow your mind to calm.  At the center spend as long as you want in prayer, reflection, meditation, contemplation, or just in quiet time.  On the walk out, allow yourself to continue to deepen your labyrinth experience and bring your experience with you to the “outside” environment.

·      Different people experience the labyrinth in different ways.  The same person will experience the labyrinth differently on different days at different times.  Sometimes your expectations can actually get in the way of your labyrinth experience.  Suspend your expectations and just enjoy the walk!

“The labyrinth is a spiritual tool that … reduces stress, quiets the mind, and opens the heart.  It is a path of prayer, a walking meditation, a crucible for change, a watering hole for the spirit and a mirror for the soul.” – The Rev. Dr. Lauren Artress, Author, Walking a Sacred Path

Find a labyrinth near you or in the vicinity of a city you will be visiting at labyrinthlocator.com and enjoy!