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HEALTHY HAPPENINGS September 2015

Herbalist: Emily Stock
by Cactus Moloney

Herbalist Emily Stock gave her audience plenty to digest while teaching her “Tuning In” class at Moonflower Co-op.
Raised in Castle Valley, Stock followed in her grandmother’s footsteps and became herbalist 10-years ago. “It makes my heart happy,” she said.

Stock served her own herbal tea blend and told the audience to take a moment and “tune in.”

A key point during class was how the stomach and intestines are directly connected to nerves, emotions and instincts. The gut can even be considered a second brain. Emotional problems can directly affect the stomach’s health.

Stock explains the importance taking time, making space and setting intentions before eating. Change the eating ritual to include, tuning into what your body wants, slowing down, chewing your food and choosing topics at the dinner table that are not overly emotional.

The elimination diet is a good way to rid the body of both allergies and intolerance to foods, which manifest in different ways. Allergies come with much more extreme symptoms; a person will have immediate reactions to the food. Intolerance will be subtler; possibly with stomach irritation, a rash or mucus buildup.

With the elimination diet it is important to cut the food you are concerned might be causing the physical manifestations for up to 6 weeks, then reintroduce the food into your diet. The best foods to start eliminating first are glutens and dairies. If nothing changed, try again with another food.

Stock said a good tip is to eat nothing out of a box or can, as many fresh vegetables as you can and to eat fish.
Different enzymes are required in the digestion of different foods. Eating fruit in the morning and not mixing it with other food groups will keep it from putrefying in the stomach. Don’t eat carbohydrates and meats together because again they need different enzymes to break down for proper digestion.

Promote a healthy gut by adding Omega 3 to the diet, through fish oil, or “eat a can of sardines every other day,” Stock said, don’t forget to eat the bones. Add vitamin D, which is correlated to emotions that directly affect the gut. Add minerals by drinking herbal teas and eat more turmeric, an excellent anti-inflammatory.
“It is a journey,’ Stock said. “If you are ready to embark, just come talk to me.”

Benefits of Massage
by Judith Lee

Massage. Doesn't the word make you crave a relaxing treatment that will melt away your tensions and stresses?

Wouldn't it be wonderful to receive a massage---maybe even right now?

We often think of massage as a luxurious treat, an indulgence---even a splurge. But in fact, massage is a important component of optimal health. It has been used for centuries in a variety of traditional cultures to strengthen well being and vitality. People who receive massage regularly demonstrate greater improvement and notice a reduction in pain, muscular tension, increased flexibility, as well as improvement in posture.

One of the ways which massage and craniosacral therapies can improve our quality of life is by alleviating stress. Experts say more than 90 percent of disease is stress related, and nothing ages us faster ---inside and out--- than the effects of stress. Massage and Craniosacral are great ways to take charge and reverse the situation. In the simplest of terms: "Healing input influences healing output ." The benefits are cumulative and affect every system in the body. This being the case, it only makes sense that those aches and pains might disappear faster, stay away longer or even go away altogether with regular treatment sessions. Stress might never reach those detrimental levels where the immune system is depressed or nervous system is sent into a alarm state. Not only does your body benefit by regularly unleasing its aches and pains instead of adapting to them, but your mind has time to wash away the stresses of life. Both are critical pieces for living life at its fullest.

In so many ways, Massage and Craniosacral Therapies are preventive healthcare. Yes they can address injuries, chronic pain, and scar tissue, as well as provide support and relief for cancer patients, among so many other valuable benefits. But when the healthy and trying to be healthy amoung us seek out massage and craniosacral on a regular basis, it helps us to live a proactively healthier life.

Regular and structured touch stimulus enhances the nervous systems sensory and spatial processing capacity. Assisting us in becoming more aware of our body's movement in space and more aware of tightness or pain long before it reaches a critical point of physical dysfunction.

Quite simply, frequent massage or craniosacral treatments put you more in tune with your body. Ultimately when we feel good, our whole being follows suit on all other levels, decision-making is better, processing life events is better, the mind can learn to live more calmly, more efficiently and being happy is easier when your not in pain or feeling "tight" or "stuck".
Massage is not a luxury, but well deserved self care, necessary to sustain well-being: physically, mentally and spiritually.
Judith is a nationally certified licensed Massage Therapist and Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist. Also, Certified QiGong and Meditation Instructor and student of life.

"Judith is an incredibly talented and gifted practitioner. Of all the practitioners, I can enter the deepest state of relaxation for healing with her." Sarah Cook LMT

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