Have you heard the term “glimmers?” In books I’ve been reading about trauma, it is the opposite of triggers – those instances when we feel anxious and afraid. Our brains are wired to look for and remember those moments as a way to keep us safe. We learn pretty early in life not to touch a hot stove and to look both ways when crossing the street. We also remember the highlights of our lives – things like weddings and graduations, travel to faraway places and professional successes. But what about the smaller moments when the world seems to align and we feel safe and well-regulated? Deb Dana, a licensed social worker, called these moments glimmers. Though she specializes in complex trauma, the idea of glimmers can be used in the treatment of chronic pain. What if we brought increased attention to the times when we’re feeling physically good? Moments during the day when pain subsides. And what if we wrote down how we were feeling in those moments? To help you do this, I’ve created a file called “Tracking Glimmers.” You can download it by scrolling down on my forms page located here. Try using it for a week. Does anything shift for you? Feel free to send me an email and let me know what your experience is like. May you have more glimmers as you go through your day!
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One of the real gifts of going through a kidney transplant, aside from the obvious, was being told that healing would take time.
No one expected that I would feel fine right away. They told me that I would have medical appointments and blood work each week for a month and physical therapy twice a week. After that initial month, PT would end and appointments would be every other week, then monthly. Because I was given this information, I was able to have reasonable expectations while I was going through the healing process. I could plan on taking time off from my practice to heal. When I felt like crap, I could tell myself that in a week or two, I would feel better. Having time was a real luxury. It’s one that I encourage you to lean into if you are struggling with illness, pain or distress. But how to do this in a 24/7 fast-paced world with all kinds of obligations? Here are my recommendations: -Make realistic expectations about the amount of time it will take to recover Begin by letting go of the need to recover immediately. Talk to your healthcare providers for some guidance. If no one knows the timeframe, begin by giving yourself a few weeks if you’ve suffered a minor injury and a few months for something more severe. -Get curious about what’s actually going on in your body It’s helpful to take stock. Write down a list of what symptoms are bothering you. If you’re more of a visual creative type, make a drawing of the areas where you feel pain. -Spend time each day engaged in something that leads towards your health Many injuries and bugs heal on their own. Initially, rest may be what your body needs most. Give yourself time for that. If you’re still not feeling better, there is a good chance that you’ll need to do something – contact a nurse or doctor, reach out to a complementary practitioner, do some gentle stretches, make some changes to your diet. In addition to these practical steps, it’s important to be in the right mindset. Set aside 5 minutes every day to imagine yourself feeling better. Before my transplant surgery, every time I was exercising on my bicycle trainer, I would imagine doing this post transplant. (I felt so great when that actually happened!) The brain and nervous system want you to befriend them. They function better when you give them care and support. -Add comfort to your life. Do something that brings you joy. Listen to a favorite song. Light a candle. Take a warm bath. It’s important to have moments where you feel good even in the midst of illness. -Prioritize your obligations. While your recovering, there will be many things that will go by the wayside. It’s important to choose what you absolutely need to do and what you can put aside for when you’re feeling better. When you consciously do this, you’ll feel more in control and less overwhelmed. -Track your progress Your body is always giving you information. Pay attention to what it is telling you. The easiest way to do this is to write down what you are experiencing. In my practice, I offer a booklet that I call “Roadmap to Health,” which contains monthly and weekly calendars. It’s helpful to have something that tells you your progress in a glance. Here’s a link to my booklet. Your favorite journal will also work. Feel free to share with me a time that you recovered from an illness or injury. And if you are still struggling, know that you can reach out. With you on the journey… Bonnie Sometimes our lives need a little reset. I realized the importance of this when I took a day trip to Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. I left my house a bit frazzled. I was in a hurry and had just enough gas in the car to make it most of the way to Lenox.
Fortunately, after a pit stop in Lee, I arrived. Once I got there, my whole frame of mind shifted. I parked the car, put my phone in a locker and had a full day to do whatever I wanted to with no responsibilities. I took a dance yoga class, went on a mindfulness kayak ride and had a delicious lunch and dinner. The weather was beautiful and for that day life was easy and effortless. I truly felt cared for. When we’re busy and stressed out, it may seem counterintuitive to slow down. With so much to do, we tend to hurry and check off one more thing on our to-do list. But slowing down really helps us focus on what is most important. It helps us gain clarity. It resets our nervous system. We can then face our lives with more wisdom and grace. It’s summer and the world feels a little slower. I encourage you to take time off –several days or a week if you can. But even a day or an hour in a different setting can offer the benefits of rest and relaxation. That’s one of the reasons that acupuncture and craniosacral therapy can be so helpful. They give the body and mind time to relax, reset and rejuvenate. If you’re feeling like you could use some TLC, take a moment to schedule a free consultation or an acupuncture or craniosacral therapy appointment. It could be the first step to a life of more ease. With you on the journey… Bonnie This is a follow-up to last week's blog. Here’s why something as simple as walking outdoors for 20 minutes each morning can radically improve your health.
If you’ve tried to start walking or exercising and haven’t been able to continue with a steady practice there are some tricks to keep you motivated. Take a look at my blog, "Creating One New Habit." . If you aren’t able to walk because it causes pain, consider scheduling a free ½ hour consultation with me. We can talk about ways that treatments can help reduce inflammation, lower pain levels and get you more relaxed and on track to achieve your treatment goals. Know that I’m here to support and guide you on your journey to health! Sending healing energy… Bonnie A patient of mine inspired me to send you write this blog. She agreed to allow me to share some of her story.
We’ve been working together for just under 6 months focusing on stress management and better sleep. In addition to treatments, this patient decided to make 2 simple lifestyle changes. She began walking outdoors for 20 minutes each morning and gave up caffeine. She reported feeling better overall and experiencing less stress. She particularly noticed this on her drive to work in the morning. Wondering why this is? In this email I’ll talk about the role caffeine plays in the body. Next week I’ll send an email describing the benefits of walking. Caffeine is a stimulant. Some people can drink it without any ill effects and studies show that it has health benefits. However, for other people caffeine Interferes with sleep and can cause high blood pressure. For people who have sleep issues, anxiety, heart problems adrenal fatigue, or diabetes; coffee can be problematic. It triggers the release of adrenaline and may impact hormones and disrupt neurotransmitters. Also, coffee is often used as a substitute for a good night’s sleep and can be addictive. The best way to know if coffee is having an adverse effect on you is to take a three week break from drinking it. You may want to take five days to do this to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Each day drink 25% less caffeinated coffee than you did before. Then spend three weeks drinking only decaf and herbal teas. During this time, track your sleep, level of anxiety and energy. If your feeling sluggish, stressed out or generally unhappy, I offer treatments that help you relax in addition to recommending simple lifestyle hacks that will have you feeling better, more confident and empowered. Feel free to schedule a free half hour consultation or check out my website for information on insomnia and suggestions on how to get a better night’s sleep. Here’s to your good health and happiness!! Bonnie Has cold and flu season been running rampant in your family? It seems like every day someone I know has come down with a bug. It happened to me a few weeks ago, giving me the opportunity to practice the kind of self-care I'm always talking about.
You see the body wants to heal. It's something each of us is doing all the time. We recover from cuts, scrapes, colds, broken bones, headaches, the flu all the time. And we don't always acknowledge it. So even if you're feeling crappy at the moment, most likely a week from now that feeling will just be a distant memory. But probably you want to do something to feel better today. I'm going to share with you my favorite at-home cold and flu remedies to help you and the ones you love to get healthy, naturally! 1) Rest You may think you're not doing anything when you're in bed resting from a bug. Nothing can be further from the truth—in fact, rest is perhaps the most important at-home cold and flu remedy! Your immune system is hard at work getting rid of germs that have invaded your bodies. Your cells are building energy. 2) Drink Tea Cold Season Tea is one of my favorite natural remedies for a cold. It contains herbs that warm the body and get rid of those pesky germs. As soon as I feel myself coming down with a cold, I start drinking cup after cup of this. I feel the bug moving out. It's kind of magical. Ginger lemon tea is another favorite of mine if you're feeling down and out with a cold or flu. Simply buy fresh ginger root at the supermarket. Wash it and cut it into thin slices. Then put them in the freezer. When you're ready for a cup of tea, put a few of the frozen slices in a cup, then add boiling water and some lemon juice. Also, add a little honey if you have a sore throat. 2) Use a Saline Rinse I do a nasal saline rinse every day, regardless of the season. I like the squeeze bottle by Neilmed. Fill it with distilled or boiling water (important) and a packet of saline. I microwave it for 22 seconds. The salt kills bacteria from infections in the nasal cavity. 3) Try Homeopathic Remedies. Homeopathic remedies are made by taking minuscule amounts of something that brings on symptoms in a healthy person, diluting these, and treating an illness in a person with similar symptoms. I like Oscillococcinum for colds and flus. You can purchase this at CVS or your local pharmacy. 4) Elderberry Syrup This works great for coughs and can be purchased at Vitacost. 5) Eucalyptus oil in a pot of boiling water Add a few drops of eucalyptus oil to a pot of boiling water and breathe in the steam. These natural cold and flu remedies are all easy to buy and prepare, and they are all good for the body. Pick 2 or 3 of your favorites, and you'll be feeling healthy in no time. Your immune system just needs a little TLC to get rid of and keep you from catching colds and flus. I'm truly on a mission to help you live healthier. I keep sharing things that have worked in my own life. Some of you know how jazzed I've been about my "miracle breakfast." I started eating this when I realized that I wasn't getting enough fiber in my diet, even with eating whole grains and lots of veggies. (We should be getting between 30 to 50 grams of fiber a day. Average Americans only get 8-15 grams.) I knew I had to make some changes. I realized that I was often leaving the house with a Kashi bar and not eating a full breakfast. So I switched to a really healthy bowl of oatmeal with lots of yummy stuff. Why oatmeal? From a Chinese medicine perspective it's a food that strengthens the digestive and nervous systems, removes cholesterol from the body, and renews bone and connective tissue. From a sense of ease perspective, it's something that can be prepared in minutes and available wherever you are. (Just be sure that it's the kind with no added sugar.) I often bring packages of instant oatmeal and a mix of almonds, flaxseed and fiber when I'm traveling. Here's my miracle breakfast with amounts of fiber. 1 package instant organic oatmeal 4 grams 1/4 cup almonds 3 grams 4 TBS ground flaxseed 6 grams 1/3 cup Trader Joes Frozen Berry Medley 3 grams 1 TBS Great Shape Natural Fiber Supplement* 5 grams ________ 24 grams *You might want to add this slowly to avoid gas and bloating. If I still haven't convinced you, take the challenge. Try starting everyday for 3 weeks with my miracle breakfast. Let me know how you feel. Interested in learning more about how to live a healthy life with ease? Find out about my Roadmap to Health 6 Week Class. Wishing you health and well-being, Bonnie If you’re part of the over 60% of people who make New Years resolutions with good intentions but are unable to keep them, this newsletter is for you. You mean well, you try hard, but life gets in the way. Think of a resolution as a seed that gets planted. We have an idea. We want to make a change in our life. We’re excited. We set goals, make promises, tell ourselves this year we’ll eat our vegetables, exercise more, be kinder. We truly mean these things. Yet for many of us by April we’re back to our same old habits. What has happened? I think that we have forgotten to nurture the seed. No one expects a seed to grow without water and sun. And no one expects the seed we plant today to turn into a full grown tree tomorrow. Growth and change take time. When you make a resolution, ask yourself these questions:
Take time to answer these questions. It may require many hours. Pay attention to how easy or difficult this process is. Write your answers down. If you’re not able to do this, you might want to pick a new year’s resolution that is easier to implement. With nurturing and care and love our dreams will take form. Do get in touch with me if you need help in this process. Wishing you a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year! Bonnie "With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown" ~Chinese Proverb I traveled to New Orleans a few weeks ago. I knew I had truly arrived when our Lyft driver said "How ya doing, Miss Bonnie?" I had made a lunch reservation and when we arrived I was greeted with "Welcome, Miss Bonnie." On a shuttle bus to Mardi Gras World the driver asked if this was my first time in New Orleans. When I said it was my second, he replied "Welcome Home." New Orleans is a great place to travel to. The food, music, warm weather, welcoming people make it so special. Being there feels like getting a big hug. But I want to tap into something deeper. The importance of social connection. Not just because it makes us feel good -- although this is important. But because it makes us healthier. Here's what the experts have to say:
Here is "Miss Bonnie's" take on all this:
One of the reasons that I love Eastern Medicine is because of its emphasis on connection. In the 5 element/5 organ system that we use no one organ/element exists on its own. The energy of the liver feeds the heart, the heart energy feeds the spleen, the spleen energy feeds the lungs, the lung energy feeds the kidneys, the kidney energy feeds the liver. The cycle is completed and begins again. As people we may feel isolated, but we never exist in true isolation. With you in spirit… Bonnie Sources: www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/well/mind/how-loneliness-affects-our-health.html https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/shaking-off-loneliness/ www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/08/lonely-die.aspx www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/upshot/how-social-isolation-is-killing-us.html I love this article from my colleague, Katherine Golub, career / business / leadership coach and consultant in Western Mass. She teaches us how to focus on the postitive! To learn more about her work, visit www.CoreBrillianceAcademy.com What are you dreaming of for the new year? Did you make a resolution, set an intention, choose a word? At the beginning of every year, I like to choose one word to focus my attention for the year. This year, my word is "Foundation." No matter how you set your intentions, January is a time of fresh starts and new beginnings for many people. Do you want to learn how to be more confident, more present, or more creative? Perhaps you want to take better care of yourself. Whatever it is, if you’re like most people, I'm guessing that there's probably some new habit that you’d like to develop this year. Most of us aren’t taught how we form habits or how we can change them, and because of that, developing new habits can feel daunting. I'm happy to tell you that, in fact, developing new habits and strengths can be simple. Instead of working super hard to fight against old behaviors, it can be much more useful to just take in the good. What do I mean by “taking in the good?” In Hardwiring Happiness, Rick Hanson writes that the most effective path to developing emotional habits or strengths such as gratitude, presence, and confidence is to notice when you're already engaged in these habits and then to feel how you feel in your body. He calls this process “taking in the good.” With repeated, intense, and prolonged mental focus on what’s working, you grow new synapses and change how your DNA functions so that you literally experience more of what works. For example, by noticing when you feel confident, you strengthen your ability to feel confident. When you notice yourself feeling focused, you increase your ability to focus. When you allow yourself to feel really good when you practice self-care (even if it’s just for five minutes), you increase the likelihood that you'll practice self-care again soon. As human beings, we too often focus on what we don’t want to do or to feel. Unfortunately, focusing on what you don’t want makes it harder to develop the habits you do want. For example, trying to figure out how to be "not stressed" can stress you out, even more. The brain can't think in negatives. Don't think of a pink elephant. You can't do it, right? Every time you think about what you don't want, your focus goes to the negative, and you're more likely to replicate that. Instead, when you think about what you do want, you send your energy in that new, more generative direction. So, what are the steps to taking in the good and building new habits? Your first step to cultivating new habits or strengths is to choose one or two to focus on. Rather than focusing on the habit you want to let go of, focus on the habit you want to cultivate. Keep in mind that your problem requires a matched solution. For example, if you struggle with the state in the left column, consider focusing on the habit or strength in the right column-- • Exhaustion… Energy • Stagnation… Movement • Anxiety… Ease • Fear… Courage • Shame… Self-Compassion • Resistance… Curiosity • Withdrawal… Engagement • Scarcity… Gratitude • Frustration… Fulfillment • Stuckness… Forward Movement • Drivenness… Pleasure • Rejection… Belonging • Isolation… Connection • Grief… Love Your next step is to notice moments in which you experience the habit or strength you desire. To develop the habits and strengths we desire—such as trust, humor, and ease—we need to notice when we experience these positive states. Often, we’re already engaging in the actions or experiencing the states that we want to make habitual, but we’re not paying attention. By paying attention to when we are acting and feeling the ways we want, we strengthen our ability to act or feel this way even more. If you don’t naturally find yourself experiencing your desired emotions, you can remember past experiences, imagine the future you desire, or celebrate the good in the lives of others. Once you create a positive experience, allow yourself to really savor the moment and experience it in your body. Sense the experience fully in your body, taking in as many sensory aspects as possible—sight, sound, touch, smell, taste, feeling, and thinking. Feeling the experience in your body helps it to sink in and create new connections in your brain. Like any new strength, your ability to focus your attention is like a muscle. It gets stronger the more you exercise it. Taking in positive experiences makes your brain “stickier” for them, which in turn increases the likelihood that you'll notice more positive experiences. That makes your brain even more sticky so that you notice positive experiences more. It's a feedback loop of positivity. This cycle makes it less and less likely for negative experiences to slip into your mind and affect your brain. From now on, any time you experience a small win, seize the opportunity to celebrate. When you receive a compliment, take a deep breath, let it really soak in, and say thank you. Or cross off items off your to-do list as you complete them so that you have a picture of accomplishment. Or, at the beginning or end of each day, think of three things that you’re proud of, that you appreciate about yourself, or that brought you joy. Focusing on what brings you joy ten times a day, fifteen seconds at a time only, takes a total of two and a half minutes. But it's one of the most powerful ways to change your brain and your life. Whatever your hopes for the new year may be, I encourage you to gift yourself a few moments each day to take in the good. Not only is this a very effective way to cultivate new habits, but it’s also fun. I wish you all the best on your journey to building the habits you want! |
AuthorIn practice for over 20 years, Bonnie Diamond offers individualized, heart-centered care using a pain-free, Japanese style of acupuncture. Her work is influenced by her nine year struggle with and complete recovery from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Archives
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