The recent article by NPR, Flattening The 'Mummy Tummy' With 1 Exercise, 10 Minutes A Day, starts off with a sensational, grabbing title. A click bait title that we wouldn't expect from a trusted news source like NPR. But it certainly got your attention, especially if you recently had a baby and now are feeling a little weak around the core. And since this is NPR this should be safer than something random you pull off the internet, right? Well, yes and no.
With addiction, deep fractures are drawn between our mind and our body, our needs and our habits, our emotions and our actions, and in the relationships that we have to ourselves and to others. Yoga, on the other hand, is connection.
It's a great time to pay attention to how stress is affecting you. Common stressors include work, family, money, children, illness and more. Stress can impact both your body and your mind causing symptoms such as muscular pain, irritability, fatigue, and headaches. Here's how we can help...
According to CDC data, 32% of women delivering a baby did so via C-section in 2015. Some of these are elective (planned) & others unplanned or emergent. If you are one of the 32%, what can you expect following a C-section?
Do you feel like your insurance coverage gets more confusing each year? That’s probably because it does! It seems like each year there is another rule or exception to your plan but the cost keeps going up. Here at Jade, we are often asked, “how much will this cost?” The answer isn’t as easy at it seems.
Goodbye winter, hello spring! The warmth of the sun on our skin has been long over due however transitioning into the warmer months isn't always a walk in the flower emerging park. Here are 5 yoga poses to clear out those winter blues and ready your body and mind for the warmer months in front of us!
For some time now I have been practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine. Many times I wondered what the greatest impact I could possibly make as a Licensed Acupuncturist in the State of Maine. Katie Thomas’ article in The New York Times, Patients Prescribed Narcotic Painkillers Use More of Them for Longer, Study Finds, brought that need to a crisp reality. Maine was #1 in the country for Opiate pain medication prescribing three years ago and Ms. Thomas’ article gave stunning facts of what those prescriptions make possible in the lives of Mainers. In The Times article, it is said that nearly half of the people who used their pain med prescription for thirty days are still using their meds three years later. Conversely, my fifteen years of experience with reducing pain, few see me in terms of years and acupuncture is not habit forming. Prescription med overdose is the leading accidental cause of death with 16,000 deaths nationwide in 2012. In chronic situations, one third of those prescribed pain meds had concurrent prescriptions for anti-anxiety drugs & muscle relaxants. If susceptible, addiction seems likely for those just trying to get beyond their injury or surgery. Other tools to reduce pain medicine prescriptions must be used.
America’s National Institute for Health support the use of acupuncture for the relief of pain. At Jade Integrated Health we ask doctors directly if there is a way to integrate the use of acupuncture to reduce pain and minimize the use of potentially addictive meds. Much of the time the visits are from folks in the chronic pain med use category and have additional sleep problems, anxiety or depression. All those additional symptoms are treatable with acupuncture, often times providing an opportunity to reduce or eliminate prescriptions for those additional imbalances.
Our dream here at Jade is providing Physicians a choice for their patients chronic or acute pain. We offer a well balance array of services provided by expert level clinicians. Pain will always be a part of living and currently medications are the most common solution used. When offered that solution please consider potential consequence for addiction as mentioned above. Ask your Medical Provider for non-addictive choices like Acupuncture, Yoga, Massage and Meditation.
How do you find the right doctor? Physical therapist? Acupuncturist? Most patients are finding time with their healthcare providers shrinking. The time spent with your healthcare provider is important so that all your questions and concerns are heard, not to mention thoughtful discussion about the best treatment or wellness plan for you. Here are some questions that you may want to ask a potential health care provider:
As a physical therapist, I see how healthcare time is spent, both as a patient and a provider. From my perspective, not having enough time with patients leads to sub-standard care. I feel fortunate to be a part of a model that is truly patient centered and really meets the quality standards that many espouse, but do not actually deliver. I encourage you all to look closely and make sure that you are not a “number” in your healthcare provider's office. The greatest compliments we receive at Jade, from both employees and patients, is that they feel listened to, are in a cheerful office, receive high quality care and are grateful for the TIME we spend with them.
This is how Jade answers the above questions:
We’re sure that you have questions of your own, so we look forward to spending time answering them!
Give us a call today for a 30 Minute Free Consultation! (207) 773-5778
Nancy Charlebois is a licensed physical therapist and massage therapist. She graduated in 1996 from Springfield College with her Master’s Degree in Physical Therapy. Nancy has worked in a variety of treatment settings, from a neonatal intensive care unit to nursing homes during her 14 year career. Since moving to Maine, she has developed a strong outpatient orthopedic focus working with patients experiencing pain. She also specializes in women’s health physical therapy.
Inhale new, exhale old! 2015 is here and it is time to cleanse yourself of anything that did not serve you in 2014 and welcome in new opportunities in the new year.
I have recently seen numerous articles about creating "a new you" in the new year, and started wondering: do we always need to have this feeling of starting over from square one to find balance and happiness in our lives? Aren't there things we like about ourselves and our lives that we have cultivated over the years?
In yoga class the other day, the teacher invited us to welcome a "refined you" in this year. A Refined You. I swished it around in my mind a few times and liked how it sounded. A Refined You allows you to reflect on aspects of your life that are not working and make steps towards changing them, while growing the facets of your life that are positive and working well.
I invite you to join me this new year in taking steps towards a Refined You and leave you with these 7 Yoga Poses to Detox & Cleanse Your Body to help you get started!
Namaste!
Benefits: Massages the spine and belly organs.
Instruction: Starting from table top, inhale press into the hands as you arch the back drawing the chest forward while gazing straight ahead or toward the ceiling. Exhale as you round the back, spreading across the shoulder blades as you tuck the chin and tailbone.
Benefits: Numerous benefits including improving digestion, relieving headaches, insomnia, back pain, and fatigue.
Instructions: Starting at table top reach through the hands as you lift the hips back and towards the ceiling. Rotate the outer upper arms in as you spread across the shoulder blades and pull the belly into the spine. If the hamstrings are tight take the feet to the outer part of the mat.
Benefits: Stimulates and massages the abdominal organs, improves and relieves digestion issues, as well as tones the abdominal wall.
Instruction: Step the feet 4-5 feet apart, feet parallel with toes slightly angled in. Bring the hands to the hips elbows pointing back. Inhale, lift the chest, exhale forward fold. Bring the hands underneath the shoulders. Walk the left hand to the center as you draw the right hand to the right hip. Slowly begin to revolve open to the right, twisting from the belly. Take a few breaths here and if comfortable, reach the right hand towards the ceiling, fingers spread. Switch Sides.
Benefits: Tones the liver and spleen and stimulates the intestines.
Instructions: Draw the right knee in. Reach the right hand to the floor behind you as you lift the left hand toward the ceiling and hook the elbow on the outside of the knee. Inhale to find length in the spine, exhale to twist towards the back of the room. Take a bind (shown below) for a more advanced option if you can maintain length in the spine and the breath does not become staggered.
Benefits: Cooling, calming and soothing to the nervous system. Helps to balance the functioning of the endocrine system. Regulates elimination.
Alternate postures: Legs up the wall, Supported bridge with legs extended towards ceiling.
Instructions: Start by laying down on the floor. Draw the legs back over head coming into plow pose. Pressing into the low back with the hands slowly bring one leg at a time overhead. Reach the toes towards the ceiling as you lift the knee caps and draw the belly towards the spine. Gaze towards the toes and avoid looking side to side. Stay for 10 deep breaths. Lower to plow before rolling out back to a supine position.
Benefits: Stimulates large intestine and improves elimination. Tones the core and releases muscles in the back, spine and shoulders.
Instructions: Start laying down on the back and lift the knees up to 90 degrees. Draw the arms out to the sides to a T and lower the legs to the right. Allow the head to gently fall the the left as you draw the left shoulder down. To deepen the pose extend the legs to straight. Switch sides.
Benefits: Calms the mind and relaxes the body. Also helps relieve stress, mild depression, headache, fatigue, and insomnia.
Instructions: Spread your feet a little wider than hip distance apart and allow the feet to splay open. Slide your arms a few inches from your body, palms facing up. Close your eyes and allow your breath to be soft and natural. Slowly begin to work your attention up your body, relaxing each muscle from the tips of your toes all the way to the top of your head, ultimately allowing your body to slowly melt into the floor. Stay for 5-10 minutes.
Carolyn Pereira
Carolyn is a RYT (Registered Yoga Teacher) at Jade Integrated Health. Her classes focus on building strength and flexibility through the fluidity of breath and movement as well as the instruction of proper alignment.
I started practicing yoga as a college student while pursuing my degree in Philosophy and Religion at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. As a college student, I found myself fascinated with Eastern Religion in particular. I also had many opportunities to study at a local Zen monastery, which is where I first practiced meditation and yoga. At first I liked meditation better than yoga, but over time things evened out.
I finished my 200-hour Vinyasa training in the Spring of 2013, and completed my Pre- and Post-Natal certifications that summer. After my son Cooper’s birth in the fall, I committed to teaching yoga full time, leaving behind my job as a preschool teacher for children with special needs. Since then, I have taken additional trainings in Baby and Me and Children’s Yoga.
I work with a lot of different kinds of people, my students range from 3 weeks to 75 years old- and yoga has something for everyone, regardless of age. It can be energizing or relaxing, stretching or strengthening. At different times in our lives, sometimes even our days, we need different aspects of the practice, and I really love being able to cater each practice to the needs of my students.
Mom & Baby Yoga is all about building connections. Connecting new moms with other moms is hugely important in those first months, not only for the emotional support and understanding, but also to ask questions and share ideas. Meanwhile, we sing songs, do exercises, and the bond with mothers and their new babies. And of course, it wouldn't be yoga without helping moms connect with themselves! Caring for one’s self is also crucial, and as we work with breathing, stretching, and gently re-toning muscles affected by pregnancy, Moms can do just that.
I really like to give a lot of options in my classes, offering modifications to make things more nurturing, gentle, and comfortable for moms (regardless of their physical abilities), but also options to make things a little more challenging. I think one of the best things new Moms can do for themselves is to find ways to feel good about their bodies. Pregnancy and labor greatly impact the relationship women have with their bodies, and so I hope that all women who participate in my classes find a way to feel positive about that relationship. Part of that is nurturing and taking it easy when it's that kind of day, and pushing yourself when you feel up to it.
I have always really liked the idea that these classes give women an opportunity to "find a tribe." Having a baby is hard work, and being in a room with other women who get it- like really, Get it- helps so much. Plus, the babies get to meet their first friends!! When I first had my son, I was surprised at how lonely life as a new mom could be. When I started going to Baby and Me classes, I found other women who could relate to that, which was really helpful. It was also a safe environment to ask questions, vent, and sometimes even laugh!
Traditional Chinese Medicine is a healthy guide for balance in anyone's life. Imbalances lead to disharmony in the body or emotions or perceptions. If allowed unchecked disharmony can become disease. Life exposes us to imbalanced conditions. Last week's 11 degree temperatures are a prime example of the kinds of extremes our pursuits of balance must overcome. The yin yang symbol is the fluid representation of extremes and their relationship to one another and ways to balance their existence.
If I wake and find it to be a cold (Yin) 11 degrees outside my desire for balance will compel me to seek fire (Yang). Conversely in July on a 98 degree day (Yang) I will wish to jump in the cool ocean surf (Yin) and will be refreshed. Balance is found in both occasions and the extremes of hypothermia or heat exhaustion are avoided. These two examples are very obvious physical situations with very linear solutions but human mental & emotional balance is not always so simple.
In a short time the longest night of the year will occur with the Winter Solstice. Daylight (Yang) will be at its lowest amount while darkness (Yin) will be at its greatest extreme. So this time of the year Yin is dominate in the form of cold, darkness, and a predominate tendency to seek the indoors that may isolate us a bit more from other people. Many become more sedentary (Yin, fat is Yin too) and the emotional/mental blahs begin to creep in. At this point the season seems to be living up to its reputation and balance seems to be far away.
Many holiday activities integrate many of the Yang items and situations that can bring balance in this most Yin of times. Contact me with your favorite Yang contribution to the season or any questions about balanced living.
John Charlebois
It's 1 a.m. and you are awake. Your mind is racing, your body can't seem to get comfortable and you have to wake up in 5 hours...sound familiar? Don't worry, you're not alone. Instead of staying in bed praying to every possible Hindu god you can recall for sleep to come, roll out your mat and practice these 5 calming yoga poses to help lull you back to sleep.
Come into table top position (hands and knees on the floor). Close your eyes. Inhale, arch your back as your head gently tilts upward towards the ceiling. Exhale, round your back, tucking your chin and pelvis as your spread across your shoulder blades. Repeat for 10 breaths.
Benefits: Gently massages the spine and belly organs.
From table top, widen the knees and bring the toes together as you slowly lower the hips down towards the heals.* Stretch the arms out in front resting the elbows on the floor. Stay here for 1-3 minutes.
* For tight hips or sensitive knees, place a folded blanket behind the knees or a block between the feet.
Benefits: Calms the mind and helps relieve stress and fatigue.
Come to seated with both legs out in front. Draw your right knee in and fold open to the side. Place both hands on either side of the left leg. On your inhale, lift and twist the upper body towards the left foot, on your exhale; slowly fold forward at your hip joints. Stay here for 1-3 minutes and then switch sides.
* For tighter hamstring, come to seated on a blanket for this pose.
Benefits: Calms the mind and helps relieve mild depression, anxiety, fatigue, headache and menstrual discomfort.
For this calming pose, you can flip around in bed and extend the legs up the wall, or find some empty wall space in your room. Come to seated on the floor with your knees in and your right side against the wall. On your next exhale, slowly slide the upper body to the floor pivoting the legs so they rest against the wall with the bottoms of the feet facing the ceiling (see image above). Sit bones should be against the wall (if comfortable). For added comfort under the hips, press the heels into the wall to lift the hips and place a blanket underneath. Stay here for 3-5 minutes.
Benefits: Calms the mind and eases anxiety and reduces stress.
If you're not there already, make your way back to your bed and lay down on your back. Spread your feet a little wider than hip distance apart and slide your arms a few inches from your body, palms facing up. Close your eyes and allow your breath to be soft and natural. Slowly begin to work your attention up your body, relaxing each muscle from the tips of your toes all the way to the top of your head, ultimately allowing your body to slowly melt into the bed. Stay for 5-10 minutes, or until you fall asleep.
Benefits: Calms the mind and relaxes the body. Also helps relieve stress, mild depression, headache, fatigue, and insomnia.
For added relaxation, here is a great Guided Yoga Nidra Audio from Yoga Journal to put on when you are finished with your poses and laying in Savasana.
Food is to be enjoyed is a strong guideline around the world. Here in Portland Maine it is a rule. Enjoying tastes such as bitter, sweet, pungent, salty, or sour alone or in fantastic combinations are a reflection of good balance of the physical need for food and the mental/emotional pleasure eating brings. Blending flavors well has given us dishes like pad Thai, chili con carne, bugoki (Korean BBQ) and ratatouille to name a few. Cravings on the other hand pose a different situation. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) considers cravings to indicate imbalances with each flavors corresponding organ system. Generally, craving sweet, salty, bitter, pungent or sour only gives a Licensed Acupuncturist one small piece of information when looking at the whole person. Strong cravings though provide the practitioner evidence of a greater imbalance. For centuries food therapy has been used to counteract patterns of imbalance. The basic implications in Traditional Chinese Medicine are as follows.
Craving sour has a great deal to do with the Liver(Gan) and Gaul Bladder(Dan) areas of influence. Clinically sour apples are used as part of an effective strategy to reduce the accumulation of silt and stones in the Gaul Bladder. Additionally, “sour minded” people are often treated for Liver disharmonies. The liver and Gaul Bladder are prone to either emotional or physical stagnations so craving sour is seen by the body to resolve the “stuckness”.
Pungent food cravings are associated with the Lungs and Large Intestine. TCM considers the lungs to be responsible for Immunity not only the absorption of air qi(oxygen) into the body. Pungency brings the force of defensive qi(imunity) to the surface therefore expelling the pathogen. This is consistent with the old notion break a sweat break a fever.
Craving Bitter tastes suggests to the TCM practitioner that some cardiovascular imbalances could be present. Further questions about heart health, blood pressure, healthy relationships with others and caffeine intake may be asked. Bitter cravings may also tell the acupuncturist of the digestive systems need for PH regulation or “cooling digestive heat”.
Sweet cravings are easily associated with Spleen/Pancreas and Stomach imbalances. Sugar/flower cravings are strong indicators that the job of the digestion and endocrine functions are insufficient to supply energy to the body. If blood glucose is not entering the cells the body will ask for more. Poor stress management is often a catalyst for digestive weakness and insulin inhibition from the stress hormone cortisol.
Salt cravings may indicate a need for greater focus on kidney and Urinary Bladder health. Fluid regulation and retention of salts may be compromised with poor renal performance. Balance of these substances is very important for health and with craving salt often this dynamic obviously needs treatment.
Stress often stimulates our cravings no matter what the flavor. Long ago stress was understood to be a pathogen and Traditional Chinese medicine continues to be an effective solution. Strong cravings are an indication of a deeper problem often there are other symptoms consistent with patterns of disease. Identifying and treating these patterns offer a solution safe to use without harmful side effects.
In preparation for our big event this weekend at the first ever Maine Yoga Festival, Jade Integrated Health has added an array of new workshops all starting up late summer and into the fall! Offerings range from our popular Parent & Child yoga/massage workshop to advanced workshops for instructors to brush up on Anatomy, as well as Arm Balance Integration. We didn’t forget about our students who love to keep it simple either! Check out our new workshops here and see why yoga at Jade Integrated Health is different…..
See you in the fall!
Jade Integrated Health
