Yoga for Scoliosis

Yoga for scoliosis can be controversial due to the fact that traditional yoga classes tend to treat the left and the right sides of the body equally. With scoliosis, the body balances itself three dimensionally but in doing so, creates tensions that are different on one side of the body compared to the other. The balance the body performs for each person is varied but this video with educate and instruct on how to do find length in the muscles related to the most common presentation of idiopathic scoliosis.

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Yoga Jellies: Purchase Here

Yoga Bolster: Purchase Here

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to HEAL Wellness and Therapy.

5 Minute Yoga - Hands and Stress Relief

Enjoy this quick video for a 5-minute stress relief break and get some good flexibility back in your hands! Our wrist and hands are overused daily with smart phones and technology while our minds are constantly on overloaded and in stress-mode. This video combines a simple breathing technique along with stretches for the hands and wrists to alleviate tension from excessive use with cell phones or other repetitive activities. Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe!

Essential Oils for Stress

A great way to relax and combat symptoms of depression and anxiety is through the use of an essential oil inhaler. By introducing calming smells through inhalation and using a specific breathing technique, it will encourage the cranial nerves that are part of the parasympathetic nervous system to be stimulated and relax both your body and mind. This video will instruct you in how to make an aromatherapy inhaler with therapeutic and evidence-based effective essential oils.

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DoTerra Oils:

1. Lavender

2. Lemon

3. Bergamot

4. Sandalwood

Other Products:

• Essential Oil Inhaler Sticks

• The Healing Power of Essential Oils by Eric Zielinski

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to HEAL Wellness and Therapy.

For More Information: https://www.consumersadvocate.org/essential-oils

HEAL Wellness And Therapy - December 2019 Newsletter

Sitting… The New Disease HAPPY HOLIDAYS to you and your family from HEAL Wellness and Therapy!  Desk workers listen up! Did you know that you use less energy when sitting versus standing? According to juststand.org, the average person sits for 12 hours daily and physical inactivity has become the 4th leading risk factor for global mortality. Most of us understand that the human body is designed to move, but newer research has linked sitting to something called “metabolic syndrome”. This is a condition that includes the trifecta of increased blood pressure/hypertension, cholesterol levels and blood sugar levels - which lead to obesity. The cause of this syndrome has been coined “Sitting Disease” - which is associated with an inactive lifestyle. The Mayo Clinic analyzed 13 medical studies researching over 1 million people. It was determined that prolonged sitting, defined as more than 8 hours a day with no physical activity, carries a risk of dying similar to smoking one pack of cigarettes per day. While quitting smoking can increase your likelihood of a longer life, these studies showed when prolonged sitting for work was combined with 60-75 minutes of moderate activity daily, the mortality risk was countered. So, the evidence shows that more physical activity improves health but we have to sit to work…or do we??? You might start improving your health by simply standing more and sitting less. Check out this video to get ideas of how to stand better while working. Desk workers often struggle to get enough movement in their life and therefore prolonged sitting or prolonged standing at a desk can be and issue for the body. This video will help you determine if you should sit, stand or vary both at your desk and also teach you techniques to do it most efficiently. The research is clear. We need to sit less and stand and move more! Start to think about the activities you do while seated every day that you could perform while standing or walking. For example: Stand or walk while on the phone Walk while “meeting” with a friend for coffee Walk with colleagues rather than sitting for a work conference Stand while watching TV or leisurely reading on your smartphone or mobile device At a desk all day, alternate between sitting and standing every 30 minutes - there are so many options out there for sit-stand work stations and many won’t break the bank If you work at a desk daily, check out these tips to improve your efficiency of sitting…and maybe even get an idea or two for a friend or family member gift for the holidays! These 10 tips will teach you how to sit more efficiently at your desk improving your posture and help in preventing common repetitive strain injuries that cause tension and pain to the body. It will not take long to change a few habits. Start now by moving more and sitting less. Improve your chances of avoiding metabolic syndrome due to the “sitting dis-ease”. Please connect, follow and have a conversation with us on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and Therapy! Please join me any Tuesday or Thursday @ 10am at Dance Theatre of Greenville located at 1791 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC 29607 for a Therapeutic Yoga class. Namaste, Trudy Messer Founder, HEAL Wellness and Therapy, LLC

Morning Sun Salutation - King's Point NL, Canada

Morning Sun Salutation in beautiful King’s Point Newfoundland Canada!

Music: https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/

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Essential Oils for Pain and Inflammation

There are many ways to treat pain and inflammation in our body and the research available to make sound evidence-based choices is increasingly telling us that the usage of essential oils is an excellent answer! Copaiba, Frankincense and Wild Orange are three great options that treat both pain and inflammation and this video will teach you how to make a roll-on to apply to muscles and joints to ease symptoms. Enjoy!

Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe!

DoTerra Oils:

1. Fractionated Coconut Oil: Buy Here

2. Copaiba: Buy Here

3. Frankincense: Buy Here

4. Wild Orange: Buy Here

Roll-on kit: Buy On Amazon

The Healing Power of Essential Oils by Eric Zielinski: Buy On Amazon

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to HEAL Wellness and Therapy.

For More Information: https://www.consumersadvocate.org/essential-oils

Top 10 Tips For Office Workers

A Huge Thanks To: https://stores.relaxtheback.com/greenville

These 10 tips will teach you how to sit more efficiently at your desk improving your posture and help in preventing common repetitive strain injuries that cause tension and pain to the body.

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Anatomy of a Shoe

A Huge Thanks To: http://www.fleetfeetgreenville.com/

This video will review the 5 components of any exercise or running shoe.

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October 2019 Newsletter - Are You Stressed?

Are you Stressed? Definition of Stress Lazarus and Folkman, researchers in the study of stress, define it in their book Stress, Appraisal, and Coping as: “a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his/her resources and endangering his/her well-being”. Check Out "Stress, Appraisal, and Coping" on Amazon WARNING: THIS INFORMATION IS VERY IMPORTANT BUT HAS SOME BIG WORDS…DON’T BE SCARED EVEN THOUGH IT IS ALMOST HALLOWEEN!!! Acute stress from a threat, such as avoiding a motor vehicle accident or physical injury to your body, results in your nervous system responding by triggering the “STRESS RESPONSE”. The stress response involves both the central (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral (anything beyond brain and spinal cord) nervous systems. The main parts of the brain that respond to stress include the amygdala, hypothalamus, pituitary and prefrontal cortex. The parts of the peripheral nervous system that respond to stress include the autonomic nervous system and somatic nervous system (organs and muscles).  The autonomic nervous system is the autonomous control center of physical responses to stress and is driven by the hypothalamus as well as the adrenal glands (that sit just on top of our kidneys in our abdomen and release epinephrine and cortisol). There are two parts to the autonomic nervous system: the sympathetic nervous system or “Fight, Flight, or Freeze” response, and the parasympathetic nervous system or “Rest, Relax, Digest and HEAL” response. The amygdala regulates the  autonomic nervous system and interprets contexts as potentially threatening (like the pumpkin in this picture) and then send a distress signal to the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is the communication center with the rest of the body in times of stress and gets the autonomic nervous system activated to respond with the fight or flight response. BOO!!!….were you scared?? Here is the issue with the human body - if stress persists, then the same response that is healthy in times of acute threat happen over and over giving an altered stress response - defined as chronic stress!  With chronic stress, regulatory mechanisms in the brain and body become dysfunctional. The central nervous system stops regulating the responses as efficiently. Specific brain areas start having issues like anxiety and depression symptoms. Finally, there are systemic effects like dysfunction of the organs and muscular systems also causing physical pain. Worse yet, the more chronic stress lasts, the amygdala gets larger in size and becomes more reactive to stress responses while the prefrontal cortex (the front of the brain) actually shrinks in size and the result is decreased reasoning to stress responses and limited higher brain function. In fact, the American Medical Association reports chronic stress as the #1 proxy killer disease - very scary! How do you know if you are stressed? A great book by Stanley Rosenberg called Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve explains ways to determine if the physical body is stressed with great self-help exercises for anxiety, depression, trauma and autism - really an excellent read. Check Out "Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve" on Amazon You can simply determine if your body is in chronic stress-mode by evaluating your breath. Watch the video below to evaluate this. Breath Awareness can be used to determine if we are in “Flight or Fight” mode or “Relax and Renew” mode of our autonomic nervous system. Follow along with this video to evaluate your breath awareness to determine if your body is “stressed” and then learn a controlled breathing exercise to relax your body and calm your nervous system. What can we do about this? The simple answer is to manage stress, but that is easier said than done in most cases. HEAL Wellness and Therapy designed and follows the Five Pillars to Stress Management: Mindfulness is so important that it deserves the 1st pillar job. What is Mindfulness? According to Dan Harris, writer of 10% Happier, it is “to know what is happening in your head at any given moment without being carried away by it and it is definitely the next health revolution”! Research on mindfulness is growing every year and what we definitely know at this point is that the brain is positively affected with a regular practice of mindfulness. The more mindful a person is, the less active the amygdala’s response to stress (research: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/11/meditations-positive-residual-effects/) So, where to start? Try this short video on Alternate Nostril Breathing to learn to relax the autonomic nervous system and gain some control of stress! Nadi Shodhana pranayama or alternate nostril breathing is a breathing yoga practice that uses balancing the breath on the left and right sides of the body to create focus of the mind, relax the body and calm the autonomic nervous system. “Nadi” is a Sanskrit word meaning “channel” or “flow” relating to the energy channels in the subtle body and Shodhana means “to purify”. This breathing practice can be performed anywhere and anytime with no contraindications. The main benefits of the practice of alternate nostril breathing include infusing the body with oxygen, supporting clear and balanced respiratory channels, clearing and releasing toxins (don’t be surprised if your nose is runny after performing this), reducing stress and anxiety, calming and rejuvenating the nervous system, improving mental clarity, enhancing the ability to concentrate, and bringing balance to the left and right hemispheres of the brain Please connect, follow and have a conversation with us on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and Therapy! Please join me any Tuesday or Thursday @ 10am at Dance Theatre of Greenville located at 1791 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC 29607 for a Therapeutic Yoga class. Namaste, Trudy Messer Founder, HEAL Wellness and Therapy, LLC Read More YouTube Paul Quilty 10/3/19 YouTube Paul Quilty 10/3/19 Stress Better: Alternate Nostril Breathing Nadi Shodhana pranayama or alternate nostril breathing is a breathing yoga practice that uses balancing the breath on the left and right sides of the body to create focus of the mind, relax the body and calm the autonomic nervous system. “Nadi” is a Sanskrit word meaning “channel” or “flow” relating to the energy channels in the subtle body and Shodhana means “to purify”. This breathing practice can be performed anywhere and anytime with no contraindications. The main benefits of the practice of alternate nostril breathing include infusing the body with oxygen, supporting clear and balanced respiratory channels, clearing and releasing toxins (don’t be surprised if your nose is runny after performing this), reducing stress and anxiety, calming and rejuvenating the nervous system, improving mental clarity, enhancing the ability to concentrate, and bringing balance to the left and right hemispheres of the brain Nadi Shodhana pranayama or alternate nostril breathing is a breathing yoga practice that uses balancing the breath on the left and right sides of the body to create focus of the mind, relax the body and calm the autonomic nervous system. “Nadi” is a Sanskrit word meaning “channel” or “flow” relating to the energy channels in the subtle body and Shodhana means “to purify”. This breathing practice can be performed anywhere and anytime with no contraindications. The main benefits of the practice of alternate nostril breathing include infusing the body with oxygen, supporting clear and balanced respiratory channels, clearing and releasing toxins (don’t be surprised if your nose is runny after performing this), reducing stress and anxiety, calming and rejuvenating the nervous system, improving mental clarity, enhancing the ability to concentrate, and bringing balance to the left and right hemispheres of the brain Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe! Read More YouTube Paul Quilty 10/3/19 YouTube Paul Quilty 10/3/19 Stress Better: Are You Stressed? Breath Awareness can be used to determine if we are in “Flight or Fight” mode or “Relax and Renew” mode of our autonomic nervous system. Follow along with this video to evaluate your breath awareness to determine if your body is “stressed” and then learn a controlled breathing exercise to relax your body and calm your nervous system. Breath Awareness can be used to determine if we are in “Flight or Fight” mode or “Relax and Renew” mode of our autonomic nervous system. Follow along with this video to evaluate your breath awareness to determine if your body is “stressed” and then learn a controlled breathing exercise to relax your body and calm your nervous system. Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism (Affiliate Link): https://amzn.to/2MagEel Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe! Read More YouTube Paul Quilty 9/9/19 YouTube Paul Quilty 9/9/19 Self Care for the Pelvis and Hips Sitting is a function we all do every day and is often a position that causes discomfort for the low back, pelvis and hips. In this video introduction, ideas on how to sit with an “open hip angle” are shown, followed by a 25 minute therapeutic yoga session to focus on opening up through the hips and pelvis to ease discomfort in sitting. Enjoy! Sitting is a function we all do every day and is often a position that causes discomfort for the low back, pelvis and hips. In this video introduction, ideas on how to sit with an “open hip angle” are shown, followed by a 25 minute therapeutic yoga session to focus on opening up through the hips and pelvis to ease discomfort in sitting. Enjoy! Thanks for watching and please remember to Like and Subscribe! Read More YouTube Paul Quilty 8/22/19 YouTube Paul Quilty 8/22/19 Yoga for Neck and Back Pain With neck and low back pain, often the part of the body that is the stiffest is the rib cage and middle back. The neck and back hurt mostly because they are over-used due to the in between part of the body not moving enough. This video will instruct you on exercises in sitting and laying down to help increase the mobility or range of movement of the rib cage and thoracic spine (middle back) to help ease pain, tension and tightness in the neck and low back. Thanks for watching and please remember to Like and Subscribe! Read More YouTube Paul Quilty 8/12/19 YouTube Paul Quilty 8/12/19 Yoga for the Piriformis Hip Muscle The Piriformis muscle is a muscle in the buttock region that is very prone to problems because it has the ability to be tight and tense when the hip is straight (think standing or sleeping) OR bent (think sitting or sleeping) - it is the ONLY muscle in the region that has this feature. Because of this, individuals have issues with this muscle if they sleep, sit, and/or stand improperly and it is so special it often gets the diagnosis of “Piriformis Syndrome”. This is a problem when tension and tightness places compression or irritation on the sciatic nerve and causes symptoms in the leg. This video will teach you different exercises to lengthen and reduce the tension in this often dysfunctional muscle. The Piriformis muscle is a muscle in the buttock region that is very prone to problems because it has the ability to be tight and tense when the hip is straight (think standing or sleeping) OR bent (think sitting or sleeping) - it is the ONLY muscle in the region that has this feature. Because of this, individuals have issues with this muscle if they sleep, sit, and/or stand improperly and it is so special it often gets the diagnosis of “Piriformis Syndrome”. This is a problem when tension and tightness places compression or irritation on the sciatic nerve and causes symptoms in the leg. This video will teach you different exercises to lengthen and reduce the tension in this often dysfunctional muscle. Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe to our Youtube Channel! Read More Paul Quilty 7/29/19 Paul Quilty 7/29/19 July 2019 Newsletter - WHY YOGA? WHY YOGA? Why not another fitness routine or sport to aid health? Are you a young adult striving to change your fitness level or lose weight? Perhaps you are an aging adult trying to stay healthy or reduce the effects of age. The research is clear: Yoga is one of the few movement activities (Tai Chi and Qigong are the others) that combines strength AND flexibility and can be performed regardless of age.  Yoga “dynamically” stretches the body, strengthens muscles and stabilizes joints to reduce the risk of injury - truly doing “triple-duty" for your physical body and health. In addition, yoga also has positive effects on the health of the mind. A research review1 informs us that “static” stretching - meaning putting tension into your body and holding it for a period of time without movement - actually reduces performance in strength by about 30%. It also decreases speed and power of an activity, and does NOT reduce the risk of injury. Meanwhile, a research article by Iwata and fellow researchers2, tells us that “dynamic” stretching (yoga falls into this category) has long term effects on avoiding muscle injuries, increasing joint flexibility and optimizing performance of sport and life. Yoga is considered a “functional” exercise. This means that it trains the muscles of the body to work together to prepare them for daily tasks by simulating common movements one might do at home, at work or in sport. It combines usage of strengthening muscles of the upper and lower body together and emphasizes stability of the trunk, while at the same time balancing the body and creating flexibility in other muscles. One could say that running or doing weight lifting definitely falls into the category of functional exercise. However, both put specific tensions into the body and do not involve flexibility to balance those tensions. Therefore are they as efficient as yoga in keeping the health of our body?  Yoga is very different than traditional stretching. Yoga increases body awareness while also using movement patterns that are very different than the poor habitual postures we use in daily life. Examples include inefficient sitting and standing. Yoga uses different directions (multi-planar) and multi-joint movements to enhance “neurogenesis” or the growth and development of your nervous system. Our nervous system is definitely KEY to the overall wellness of our bodies since it is the guiding system to all of our function!  This month, HEAL’s newsletter includes links to some videos to help you learn how to use yoga to balance the flexibility and strength of your body. This video below is a great place to begin! A gentle and easy class to begin your morning to get those muscles moving, flexible and strong for all that the day has to offer you! 1 Kovacs M, The Argument Against Static Stretching Before Sport and Physical Activity. Human Kinetics. Athletic Therapy Today (2016) 11(3), 6-8. 2 Iwato M, Yamamoto A et al., Dynamic Stretching Has Sustained Effects on Range of Motion and Passive Stiffness of the Hamstring Muscles. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2019) 18, 13-20. This video is a great way to start your day! A therapeutic yoga class with a guided breathing exercise to get your spine moving and wake up your diaphragm, a modified Sun Salutation starting in kneeling to focus on control of the hamstrings and trunk without the worry of balance in standing, gentle hip opening and ending with a guided loving kindness meditation. Flexibility Muscle - HAMSTRINGS!  The hamstrings are definitely one of the muscle groups of the lower body that contributes to discomfort and injury related to the low back area. This video will help you understand how to use yoga to create flexibility AND strength in your hamstrings to balance your body and protect your low back from injury. The hamstrings muscles, located on the back of your thighs, are often the chief culprit to low back pain. This is caused when they are too tight or if they are too activated or turned on. This therapeutic yoga video will help you learn not only efficient ways to lengthen your hamstrings but also movements to stop over-using the hamstrings when you shouldn’t be using them in the first place!  Strengthening - The CORE!  Finally, the best way to strengthen our body is to begin at the “core”, the center of the trunk. Think of an apple and how the “core” of the apple is the center and strongest component of the fruit. Just like an apple, our body has a “core” that is often not only weak but disconnected to the nervous system and therefore unable to know how and when it should work. To improve the “neurogenesis” of the “core”, watch this video…and maybe take a quick moment to have a laugh! The concept of the CORE is very confusing and often incorrectly described as just the abdominals. This therapeutic yoga class will allow you to not only learn what constitutes the “core” but also how to get these muscles to efficiently fire up to be used and then strengthen them. Included in this video is a short laughter yoga session and a guided meditation to help further understand the concepts of the “core”. Please connect, follow and have a conversation with us on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and Therapy! Take care, I care, Trudy Messer Founder, HEAL Wellness and Therapy, LLC Read More YouTube Paul Quilty 7/10/19 YouTube Paul Quilty 7/10/19 Yoga for the Psoas Hip Muscle One of the key muscles of the hip that moves are back, pelvis and hip and stabilizes our spine is the PSOAS muscle. This muscle is often very short and tight, especially with individuals that are very active but do not perform any sort of flexibility exercises or for those that suffer from back pain due to sitting too long from work or leisure. This video will help you understand why the psoas needs efficient length and offer you various yoga/flexibility options to achieve that. Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe to our Youtube Channel! Read More YouTube Paul Quilty 6/28/19 YouTube Paul Quilty 6/28/19 Yoga for the CORE The concept of the CORE is very confusing and often incorrectly described as just the abdominals. This therapeutic yoga class will allow you to not only learn what constitutes the “core” but also how to get these muscles to efficiently fire up to be used and then strengthen them. Included in this video is a short laughter yoga session and a guided meditation to help further understand the concepts of the “core”. Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe to our Youtube Channel! Read More YouTube Paul Quilty 6/13/19 YouTube Paul Quilty 6/13/19 Therapeutic Yoga - Morning Sun Salutation This video is a great way to start your day! A therapeutic yoga class with a guided breathing exercise to get your spine moving and wake up your diaphragm, a modified Sun Salutation starting in kneeling to focus on control of the hamstrings and trunk without the worry of balance in standing, gentle hip opening and ending with a guided loving kindness meditation. Enjoy! Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe to our Youtube Channel! Read More YouTube Paul Quilty 6/3/19 YouTube Paul Quilty 6/3/19 Yoga for Hamstrings The hamstrings muscles, located on the back of your thighs, are often the chief culprit to low back pain. This is caused when they are too tight or if they are too activated or turned on. This therapeutic yoga video will help you learn not only efficient ways to lengthen your hamstrings but also movements to stop over-using the hamstrings when you shouldn’t be using them in the first place! Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe! Read More Paul Quilty 6/3/19 Paul Quilty 6/3/19 June 2019 Newsletter - So What's the big deal with sleep? *|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|* So what’s the big deal with sleep? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to just live a long life. I want to live a long, happy, healthy and present life where I enjoy every minute! I think most people understand that there is no magical fountain of youth and there is no perfect recipe to avoid all illness and disease. What we do know through research is that sleeping, or rather lack of sleep, is strongly associated with many chronic diseases. Sleep dysfunction affects over half of our population with conditions such as: sleep deprivation, obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia. So think about this…humans are the ONLY species that voluntarily deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent reason! According to Dr. Matthew Walker, PhD, and author of Why We Sleep - Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubles your risk of cancer, and profoundly disrupts your blood sugar levels. This contributes to our current epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Sleep deprivation is THE key lifestyle factor to the development of memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease. It also contributes to many major psychiatric conditions, including depression and anxiety. If we were to just think about how much money it takes our health care systems to treat the above conditions and epidemics, I think it is fair to say that billions are being spent.  What if you could change that? What if you changed your habits of sleeping and took control of your health rather than rolling the dice and hoping for the best when you have the “golden ticket” in your body…the ability to sleep well! And it’s free…no deductible, co-insurance or paying for a prescription!  So, that’s the big deal with sleep. Now, here is one of the challenges we face: No one ever taught us HOW to sleep. The only “how” about sleep that most of us know is that we need it to survive. If we’re lucky, maybe someone told you not to sleep on your stomach, but that’s it! If you think of the many things that we do every day like brushing our teeth, typing on a keyboard, or driving a car, my guess is someone taught you something about HOW to do these things. With sleep, you “just do it” like the Nike slogan says. Well, not so quick! If you want to unlock the power of sleep as an agent of healing your body, you need to know how to sleep. HEAL Wellness and Therapy is here to help! Check out our YouTube video on 10 Tips for Sleep to begin working on your habits of sleep and improve your sleep hygiene. Ideas on how to take the habit of sleep and change it to create the best healing environment for your body to get the most efficient sleep. If you’re tossing and turning and have no idea HOW to position yourself for sleep, check out our two videos below to teach you how to sleep on your side and back efficiently. Yes, it requires more than one pillow! Beds are flat but our bodies are not boards but beautiful shapes that require support! Instruction/education on how to efficiently sleep on your side to have a restful and healing night’s sleep. Instruction/education on how to efficiently sleep on your back to have a restful and healing night’s sleep. If you are having difficulty falling asleep at night, watch our therapeutic yoga video to aid you in falling asleep. You can do this right in your bed before closing those eyes and heading into the best slumber of your life!  A guided yoga class that you can be perform before bedtime to help encourage your body to be relaxed and restful. Dr. Walker reports that sleep is a superpower and also the greatest public health challenge in the 21st century. Sleep is NOT an optional lifestyle luxury, it is a non-negotiable biologic necessity or rather your life support system!  Watch Dr. Walker’s TED Talk here There is so much to say about sleep but I think that’s a good start. Stay tuned for more videos and education from HEAL Wellness and Therapy on ways to test your sleep and how to know if you are getting a “good night’s sleep”. We’ll also discuss nutritional sleep aides and the difference in mattresses/pillows for sleep - so much to learn! Final thoughts for this month…we have established social media accounts! Please connect, follow and have a conversation with us on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and Therapy! Take care, I care, Trudy Messer Founder, HEAL Wellness and Therapy, LLC Read More Newer Posts Older Posts Contact Us healwellnessandtherapy@gmail.com Copyright © 2021 Heal Wellness and Therapy, LLC. All rights reserved.

Stress Better: Alternate Nostril Breathing

Nadi Shodhana pranayama or alternate nostril breathing is a breathing yoga practice that uses balancing the breath on the left and right sides of the body to create focus of the mind, relax the body and calm the autonomic nervous system. “Nadi” is a Sanskrit word meaning “channel” or “flow” relating to the energy channels in the subtle body and Shodhana means “to purify”. This breathing practice can be performed anywhere and anytime with no contraindications. The main benefits of the practice of alternate nostril breathing include infusing the body with oxygen, supporting clear and balanced respiratory channels, clearing and releasing toxins (don’t be surprised if your nose is runny after performing this), reducing stress and anxiety, calming and rejuvenating the nervous system, improving mental clarity, enhancing the ability to concentrate, and bringing balance to the left and right hemispheres of the brain

Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe!

Stress Better: Are You Stressed?

Breath Awareness can be used to determine if we are in “Flight or Fight” mode or “Relax and Renew” mode of our autonomic nervous system. Follow along with this video to evaluate your breath awareness to determine if your body is “stressed” and then learn a controlled breathing exercise to relax your body and calm your nervous system.

Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve: Self-Help Exercises for Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, and Autism (Affiliate Link): https://amzn.to/2MagEel

Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe!

Self Care for the Pelvis and Hips

Sitting is a function we all do every day and is often a position that causes discomfort for the low back, pelvis and hips. In this video introduction, ideas on how to sit with an “open hip angle” are shown, followed by a 25 minute therapeutic yoga session to focus on opening up through the hips and pelvis to ease discomfort in sitting. Enjoy!

Thanks for watching and please remember to Like and Subscribe!

Yoga for Neck and Back Pain

With neck and low back pain, often the part of the body that is the stiffest is the rib cage and middle back. The neck and back hurt mostly because they are over-used due to the in between part of the body not moving enough. This video will instruct you on exercises in sitting and laying down to help increase the mobility or range of movement of the rib cage and thoracic spine (middle back) to help ease pain, tension and tightness in the neck and low back.

Thanks for watching and please remember to Like and Subscribe!

Yoga for the Piriformis Hip Muscle

The Piriformis muscle is a muscle in the buttock region that is very prone to problems because it has the ability to be tight and tense when the hip is straight (think standing or sleeping) OR bent (think sitting or sleeping) - it is the ONLY muscle in the region that has this feature. Because of this, individuals have issues with this muscle if they sleep, sit, and/or stand improperly and it is so special it often gets the diagnosis of “Piriformis Syndrome”. This is a problem when tension and tightness places compression or irritation on the sciatic nerve and causes symptoms in the leg. This video will teach you different exercises to lengthen and reduce the tension in this often dysfunctional muscle.

Thanks for watching and please remember to subscribe to our Youtube Channel!

July 2019 Newsletter - WHY YOGA?

WHY YOGA? Why not another fitness routine or sport to aid health? Are you a young adult striving to change your fitness level or lose weight? Perhaps you are an aging adult trying to stay healthy or reduce the effects of age. The research is clear: Yoga is one of the few movement activities (Tai Chi and Qigong are the others) that combines strength AND flexibility and can be performed regardless of age.  Yoga “dynamically” stretches the body, strengthens muscles and stabilizes joints to reduce the risk of injury - truly doing “triple-duty" for your physical body and health. In addition, yoga also has positive effects on the health of the mind. A research review1 informs us that “static” stretching - meaning putting tension into your body and holding it for a period of time without movement - actually reduces performance in strength by about 30%. It also decreases speed and power of an activity, and does NOT reduce the risk of injury. Meanwhile, a research article by Iwata and fellow researchers2, tells us that “dynamic” stretching (yoga falls into this category) has long term effects on avoiding muscle injuries, increasing joint flexibility and optimizing performance of sport and life. Yoga is considered a “functional” exercise. This means that it trains the muscles of the body to work together to prepare them for daily tasks by simulating common movements one might do at home, at work or in sport. It combines usage of strengthening muscles of the upper and lower body together and emphasizes stability of the trunk, while at the same time balancing the body and creating flexibility in other muscles. One could say that running or doing weight lifting definitely falls into the category of functional exercise. However, both put specific tensions into the body and do not involve flexibility to balance those tensions. Therefore are they as efficient as yoga in keeping the health of our body?  Yoga is very different than traditional stretching. Yoga increases body awareness while also using movement patterns that are very different than the poor habitual postures we use in daily life. Examples include inefficient sitting and standing. Yoga uses different directions (multi-planar) and multi-joint movements to enhance “neurogenesis” or the growth and development of your nervous system. Our nervous system is definitely KEY to the overall wellness of our bodies since it is the guiding system to all of our function!  This month, HEAL’s newsletter includes links to some videos to help you learn how to use yoga to balance the flexibility and strength of your body. This video below is a great place to begin! A gentle and easy class to begin your morning to get those muscles moving, flexible and strong for all that the day has to offer you! 1 Kovacs M, The Argument Against Static Stretching Before Sport and Physical Activity. Human Kinetics. Athletic Therapy Today (2016) 11(3), 6-8. 2 Iwato M, Yamamoto A et al., Dynamic Stretching Has Sustained Effects on Range of Motion and Passive Stiffness of the Hamstring Muscles. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2019) 18, 13-20. This video is a great way to start your day! A therapeutic yoga class with a guided breathing exercise to get your spine moving and wake up your diaphragm, a modified Sun Salutation starting in kneeling to focus on control of the hamstrings and trunk without the worry of balance in standing, gentle hip opening and ending with a guided loving kindness meditation. Flexibility Muscle - HAMSTRINGS!  The hamstrings are definitely one of the muscle groups of the lower body that contributes to discomfort and injury related to the low back area. This video will help you understand how to use yoga to create flexibility AND strength in your hamstrings to balance your body and protect your low back from injury. The hamstrings muscles, located on the back of your thighs, are often the chief culprit to low back pain. This is caused when they are too tight or if they are too activated or turned on. This therapeutic yoga video will help you learn not only efficient ways to lengthen your hamstrings but also movements to stop over-using the hamstrings when you shouldn’t be using them in the first place!  Strengthening - The CORE!  Finally, the best way to strengthen our body is to begin at the “core”, the center of the trunk. Think of an apple and how the “core” of the apple is the center and strongest component of the fruit. Just like an apple, our body has a “core” that is often not only weak but disconnected to the nervous system and therefore unable to know how and when it should work. To improve the “neurogenesis” of the “core”, watch this video…and maybe take a quick moment to have a laugh! The concept of the CORE is very confusing and often incorrectly described as just the abdominals. This therapeutic yoga class will allow you to not only learn what constitutes the “core” but also how to get these muscles to efficiently fire up to be used and then strengthen them. Included in this video is a short laughter yoga session and a guided meditation to help further understand the concepts of the “core”. Please connect, follow and have a conversation with us on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and Therapy! Take care, I care, Trudy Messer Founder, HEAL Wellness and Therapy, LLC

Yoga for the Psoas Hip Muscle

One of the key muscles of the hip that moves are back, pelvis and hip and stabilizes our spine is the PSOAS muscle. This muscle is often very short and tight, especially with individuals that are very active but do not perform any sort of flexibility exercises or for those that suffer from back pain due to sitting too long from work or leisure. This video will help you understand why the psoas needs efficient length and offer you various yoga/flexibility options to achieve that.

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Yoga for the CORE

The concept of the CORE is very confusing and often incorrectly described as just the abdominals. This therapeutic yoga class will allow you to not only learn what constitutes the “core” but also how to get these muscles to efficiently fire up to be used and then strengthen them. Included in this video is a short laughter yoga session and a guided meditation to help further understand the concepts of the “core”.

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Therapeutic Yoga - Morning Sun Salutation

This video is a great way to start your day! A therapeutic yoga class with a guided breathing exercise to get your spine moving and wake up your diaphragm, a modified Sun Salutation starting in kneeling to focus on control of the hamstrings and trunk without the worry of balance in standing, gentle hip opening and ending with a guided loving kindness meditation. Enjoy!

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Yoga for Hamstrings

The hamstrings muscles, located on the back of your thighs, are often the chief culprit to low back pain. This is caused when they are too tight or if they are too activated or turned on. This therapeutic yoga video will help you learn not only efficient ways to lengthen your hamstrings but also movements to stop over-using the hamstrings when you shouldn’t be using them in the first place!

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June 2019 Newsletter - So What's the big deal with sleep?

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So what’s the big deal with sleep? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to just live a long life. I want to live a long, happy, healthy and present life where I enjoy every minute! I think most people understand that there is no magical fountain of youth and there is no perfect recipe to avoid all illness and disease. What we do know through research is that sleeping, or rather lack of sleep, is strongly associated with many chronic diseases. Sleep dysfunction affects over half of our population with conditions such as: sleep deprivation, obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia. So think about this…humans are the ONLY species that voluntarily deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent reason! According to Dr. Matthew Walker, PhD, and author of Why We Sleep - Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubles your risk of cancer, and profoundly disrupts your blood sugar levels. This contributes to our current epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Sleep deprivation is THE key lifestyle factor to the development of memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease. It also contributes to many major psychiatric conditions, including depression and anxiety. If we were to just think about how much money it takes our health care systems to treat the above conditions and epidemics, I think it is fair to say that billions are being spent.  What if you could change that? What if you changed your habits of sleeping and took control of your health rather than rolling the dice and hoping for the best when you have the “golden ticket” in your body…the ability to sleep well! And it’s free…no deductible, co-insurance or paying for a prescription!  So, that’s the big deal with sleep. Now, here is one of the challenges we face: No one ever taught us HOW to sleep. The only “how” about sleep that most of us know is that we need it to survive. If we’re lucky, maybe someone told you not to sleep on your stomach, but that’s it! If you think of the many things that we do every day like brushing our teeth, typing on a keyboard, or driving a car, my guess is someone taught you something about HOW to do these things. With sleep, you “just do it” like the Nike slogan says. Well, not so quick! If you want to unlock the power of sleep as an agent of healing your body, you need to know how to sleep. HEAL Wellness and Therapy is here to help! Check out our YouTube video on 10 Tips for Sleep to begin working on your habits of sleep and improve your sleep hygiene. Ideas on how to take the habit of sleep and change it to create the best healing environment for your body to get the most efficient sleep. If you’re tossing and turning and have no idea HOW to position yourself for sleep, check out our two videos below to teach you how to sleep on your side and back efficiently. Yes, it requires more than one pillow! Beds are flat but our bodies are not boards but beautiful shapes that require support! Instruction/education on how to efficiently sleep on your side to have a restful and healing night’s sleep. Instruction/education on how to efficiently sleep on your back to have a restful and healing night’s sleep. If you are having difficulty falling asleep at night, watch our therapeutic yoga video to aid you in falling asleep. You can do this right in your bed before closing those eyes and heading into the best slumber of your life!  A guided yoga class that you can be perform before bedtime to help encourage your body to be relaxed and restful. Dr. Walker reports that sleep is a superpower and also the greatest public health challenge in the 21st century. Sleep is NOT an optional lifestyle luxury, it is a non-negotiable biologic necessity or rather your life support system!  Watch Dr. Walker’s TED Talk here There is so much to say about sleep but I think that’s a good start. Stay tuned for more videos and education from HEAL Wellness and Therapy on ways to test your sleep and how to know if you are getting a “good night’s sleep”. We’ll also discuss nutritional sleep aides and the difference in mattresses/pillows for sleep - so much to learn! Final thoughts for this month…we have established social media accounts! Please connect, follow and have a conversation with us on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and Therapy! Take care, I care, Trudy Messer Founder, HEAL Wellness and Therapy, LLC