Moving Our Bodies Feels Good | Week 5
Every time you dance, you feel awesome. Right?
Every time you get a massage, you feel good. Right?
Every time you take a big long stretch, you think, WOW, that was so nice. Right?
Those awesome sensations are brought to you courtesy of your body’s secondary nervous system, fascia. There’s so much wonderful science around it. I’m kind of obsessed with it.
For this blog I will be referencing points from Dr. Northrup’s article, What is Muscle Fascia?
What is fascia?
“Fascia is made up of densely-packed collagen fibers that wrap around each of your internal organs and connect them to your muscles and bones. It is responsible for stabilizing your entire body and giving you your human form. It is also a fluid system that every cell in your body relies on for proper functioning. It is the crystalline structure that literally holds all the information of your life!
Your fascia has the ability to contract and relax independently of the muscles it surrounds. Because of this, it can respond to stress without you knowing it!”
5 Ways Your Fascia Affect Your Health
- Acts as a secondary nervous system–it is loaded with receptor membranes that communicate with all of the other receptor membranes in your body.
- Protects from injury- It stretches and moves to support your body, and actually protects you from over stretching. But, if you hurt yourself, your fascia adapts to protect your body from further injury. Likewise, if you sit all day slumped over a computer, you put abnormal stress on your fascia.
- Determines the aging process–aging is in part due to dry, tight fascia. This is often at the center of chronic pain, illness, injury, and the limited mobility many people associate with aging.
- Clues you into your emotions–it holds your emotional memories. Sadness, pain and past trauma can get locked deep in your fascia. If you have ever found yourself crying on the massage or acupuncture table, it’s because the therapy has assisted you in releasing emotions, including anxiety, fear and anger, that can take up residence in your fascia. I find this BEYOND AMAZING.
- Tells you how your body is working daily–notice how your hips feel when you sit at a desk for a long time. If they feel tight or you need to rise slowly due to pain in another part of your body, this is your fascia telling you that it needs attention.
One way we can help our bodies and consequently our emotions and mental health is make sure we are participating in activities that help our fascia release.
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Stretching
- Self-massage
- Foam rolling
- Dancing
Incorporating movement into our daily lives, and in particular – a variety of movements, gives us a better shot at body function and consequently more emotional wellness and even JOY! What a wonderful way to HONOR our bodies.
Sounds good, right?
How will you move around this week? Feel good!
-catia
This post was originally featured on Hello My Tribe Blog.
Why Food Tastes Better When Made with Love | Week 4
Okay!
Here we go.
Last week we discussed how our emotions can contribute to our frequencies. This week I am going to give you another way to raise your frequency.
Eat more wholesome, fresher food.
Reminder - our focus is not to lose weight. Our focus is to feed our body what it needs to feel good. Don't you want to feel good? Me too!
This a summary from 5 High Frequency – Vibrational Food Groups For Health And Increased Consciousness
We are far, far more than just tissue, fluid and bone. We are energy, prana, chi or qi. We are energetic beings, and some of us just happen to operate at a higher energetic, vibrational, state than the rest. What enables one to operate at a higher vibrational state depends on many factors. Things like creativity, sun exposure, motion, fun, games, eating high-frequency foods, gratitude, and love all possess a very high vibrational state. The more of this that makes up one’s life, the higher vibrational state he or she will operate at. Youthfulness, health, wellbeing, vitality, and consciousness* is the reward. To the degree that the above factors are absent from one’s life is to the degree that youthfulness, health, wellbeing, vitality, and consciousness will also be absent.
For this post, I will only be focusing on High Frequency – Vibrational Foods (HFF’s). High-Frequency Foods are those left in their native state, unprocessed, with no chemicals or genetic modifications. HFF’s are also grown in abundant sunlight and in nutrient dense soil. A perfect example is a pineapple, which is one of the highest of all HFF’s. It’s grown in volcanic soil, on the highest mountains (Hawaii) in the world, with unimpeded sunlight.
Preparation of High-Frequency Foods is just as important as quality when consuming HFF’s. A meal prepared with love and gratitude not only tastes better it resonates with a higher energy level. A verbal or silent prayer, or giving of thanks, reflecting love and gratitude for the HHF meal you are about to eat, will increase the energy in you and around you even further.
By merely changing your diet to include more HFF’s your consciousness and health will improve. When this occurs you begin to feel and see the difference, within and around you.
High Frequency (best) -> Low Frequency (worst)
- Just picked -> fresh -> frozen -> pasteurized, homogenized or processed -> artificial
- Raw (alive) -> steamed -> boiled -> microwave (beyond dead)
- Biodynamically farmed -> organically farmed -> conventionally farmed, non GMO-> GMO
Organic vs. Non-Organic
Yes, organic food costs more than non-organic food, but it’s worth it! Organic food , especially that grown by conscientious farmers practicing biodynamic principles or at least good stewardship of the land, are better yet. These will be the foods with the highest vibrational energy.
If organic food is not available or if you find it too expensive, then at least avoid the so-called “dirty dozen.” These 12 have been proven to contain the highest levels agricultural chemicals: apples, celery, cucumbers, grapes, leafy greens, nectarines, peaches, peppers (bell and hot), potatoes, strawberries, and tomatoes. My recommendation is to completely avoid them or buy them organically grown.
Food does taste better when it's made with love, and now we know why.
Just amazing.
Wishing you well!!! -catia
Vibrational Frequencies | Week 3
For the past few weeks we have been getting to know the idea of honor and beginning to tune into our bodies.
Today we are going to add another layer and we are going to start diving into vibrational frequencies.
YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE IT.
“Everything in Life is Vibration” – Albert Einstein
The law of nature that states everything has a vibration.
Everything is made of atoms that are in a constant state of motion. Depending on the speed of these atoms, things appear as a solid, liquid, or gas. Sound is also a vibration and so are thoughts.
Everything that manifests itself is there because it matches a vibrational frequency.
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There is agreement among science, medicine and metaphysics that certain frequencies can repel disease, and certain frequencies can destroy disease.
Herein lies the link between frequency (vibration) and health. Everything in nature vibrates at different frequencies.
In fact quantum physics describes the universe as nothing more than vibrating strings of energy!
Scientific research has shown that different parts of our bodies have their own sonic signature. In other words the sound of the cells of your heart differs from the sound of the cells of your lungs. When parts of the body become stressed or dis-eased, they are no longer producing the correct sound wave; in other words they are not vibrating at their prime (optimal) resonant frequency. To re-establish or recalibrate your frequency, you need to understand how lower and higher vibrations affect your energy and health.
WHAT? Have you ever heard of this? I find this FASCINATING.
Continuing on...
So many things contribute to our vibrational frequencies, which determine our physical and emotional wellness. The food we eat, the people we surround ourselves with, our thoughts, medications - the list of things that contribute to our vibrational frequencies goes on and on!
Don't be daunted - all this means is that there are MANY OPPORTUNITIES for us raise our frequencies and live enjoyable lives.
|| PAUSE ||
The goal of this information is to give you the tools to feel great about who you are. The prizes at the end are peace and joy. If at any time this seems like too much - just take a little breather and rest. This is not a TO-DO list. This is me inviting you to love yourself and your life. When you are ready to move into action, you'll know.
Okay, moving on.
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Let's explore how emotions and frequencies are connected and then let's wrap up with some practical action points.
Emotions are actually just energy in motion.
Emotions of enlightenment, peace, joy and love - vibrate at a very high frequency. While emotions like pride, anger, guilt and shame vibrate at low frequencies.
Shame is THE LOWEST frequency. Kick shame to the curb, friend!!!!
The lesson here is that if we want good to surround us, if we want abundance and peace and joy - we first have to rise to that frequency within ourselves and then the universe will match it.
AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here are a few things you can do to raise your vibrations.
- Practice self-love to fuel your energetic transformation
- Aquire knowledge to accelerate your energetic evolution! (You are raising your frequency as you read this!)
- Keep a daily gratitude diary.
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I am so excited for you and for us! Please reply back and let me know what resonates with you and if you'd like to dig a little deeper on a certain subject.
grace and peace, catia
Teshuvah | Week 2
TESHUVAH.
Last week we talked about noticing our bodies. What was hurting? How were our bodies reacting to certain foods, to certain situations? Were we tensing up? Were we ill? Were we stressed?
Here's what I noticed about my body.
- I was bloated.
- The joints in my hands hurt.
- My skin was breaking out.
Some other things I noticed were:
- I was happy in my parent's home.
- I felt at ease with my extended family (we played chalupa and trivia!)
- I had fun dancing with my girls to my Dad's favorite You Tube Music Station.
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Have you ever eaten a slice of cake and thought, Well, I may as well have one more. And pretty soon - the cake is gone? Or, have you ever thought, well, I opened the bottle of wine and I don't want to waste it, so I'll just finish the bottle? (As if you have some duty to the wine?)
Sometimes we consume food and drink unconsciously. Of course, we are awake - but we are not paying attention to why we are eating what we are eating. And IF WE ARE paying attention - sometimes our negative self-talk takes over and we begin/continue to consume things that harm us.
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Enter TESHUVAH.
Rob Bell introduced me (and millions of other folks) to the Hebrew word, TESHUVAH. And I LOVE IT. Teshuvah is translated as “return” and signifies a return to the original state. A return to the divine - if you will.
Inherent in the definition of Teshuvah is that we are divine beings, good beings - and that when we act differently - we are veering away from who we really are.
At the core, we are good, worthy and special. We deserve joy and peace.
Classically, Teshuvah is comprised of three ingredients: regret of misdeed, decision to change, and verbal expression of one’s veering off the path.
When we TESCHUVAH, we are aware that we have gone off the path and that we need to return back to our natural state.
Nowhere in the definition is there mention of negative self-talk, punishment or even self-loathing. Just a gentle return.
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Over the holiday I ate delicious food, but it wasn't so nutritious and that's why I was bloated, and why my joints hurt and probably why my face broke out. So, on Tuesday, instead of weighing myself (which I would have done in years past as a form of punishment) or wearing smaller clothing to prove to myself how much weight I had gained (which I would have also done) -- I ate protein and a salad.
Done.
No self-hatred. No punishment.
Teschuvah.
A gentle return.
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And all the times I felt good, dancing and being with my family - that's who I really am. That's my natural state. What a relief!
--
You and I have so many more interesting things to do than to do berate ourselves.
Sometimes we make mistakes, but we aren't mistakes.
If we can recognize that our "home base," our original state is goodness and wholeness - then we can have a clearer sense of how to make decisions that honor who we really are.
Gently return to treating yourself well.
all my blessings, catia
Basics | Week 1
Let's start with the basics.
Have you ever made a decision that went against your inner voice?
What happens inside your body when you go against your gut?
If you're paying attention to your body - maybe you realize you become queasy, maybe you get a tightness in your chest, maybe you get tense in your shoulders.
If you aren't paying attention to your body - IT WILL LET YOU KNOW. Maybe you start to get sick, maybe you start to get a rash, maybe your anxiety climbs (I'm speaking from experience here.)
In order to start to pave the way for honor - one thing we have to do is become aware of what our bodies are doing.
What are the physical manifestations?
There are so many clues.
Our bodies DO NOT LIE.
They tell the truth of what is going on in our hearts, minds, and in our gut.
Let's just start with something simple.
This week - let's pay attention to one thing.
What hurts on our bodies? Do our joints hurt? Are we nervous? Are we stressed? Do we have pain in our lower back? Do we have a rash that won't go away.
Let's just turn our awareness toward our bodies.
Our bodies are amazing. They are our friends. They are so smart and wise and will carry us through this wonderful life.
Oh, and in case some of you are thinking "She wants me to diet during the holidays?!" Absolutely not. I don't want you to diet at all. Ever. Diets are the pits.
I want you to enjoy your life!!!
Being aware of our bodies and what they are trying to communicate to us is not about weight or image - it's about learning to listen how our bodies are communicating to us.
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I'll give you a quick example.
My youngest is 11 months old and I'm still going through postpartum depression. I am helping myself out in a few ways - extra vitamins, exercise, medication. BUT I noticed that my PPD was getting increasingly worse. So much so that I was WAKING UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WITH COUGH ATTACKS. My body was pulling me out of sleep and coughing like crazy.
After some days of denial (thinking that it was a cold) I started to do a little research- and sure enough. ANXIETY DRIVEN COUGH ATTACKS ARE A THING.
The cough comes because one's brain doesn't think it's going to get enough oxygen so it induces a cough. And it becomes a crazy cycle of anxiousness. One is anxious so one coughs and one continues coughing because they're anxious.
The thing is - had my body not done this. I would have thought "I'm not anxious - I'm totally fine." BUT I WASN'T.
So, I went in to the doctor. They adjusted my medication and bing bang boom. No more cough. (As a side note, meds work for me, not for everyone.)
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Paying attention to our bodies is a skill.
Becoming friends with our bodies and valuing our bodies is going to help us walk the pathway to honor.
Be good to yourself, you deserve it, Catia