Simply boil it up for 15 minutes and use as an alternative for rice or pasta, and enjoy the unique ‘al dente’ texture, or add to veggy soups and stews to boost the protein content. In chinese medicine it is known to ‘nourish Blood’ which means it is very tonifying like meat and should be an essential component of any vegetarian/vegan diet.

http://www.re-creation.org.uk

At the base of your spine there is a wedge shaped bone call your sacrum, upon which the whole spine is stacked all the way up to your skull. The part of the skull which is at the base at the back is a bone called the occiput. The sacrum and the occiput basically have a very close inter-relationship which means that they mirror each others movement, and if one shifts in any direction the other will eventually move to keep the all important gravitational balance. So, if we put this into practice then if one day you slip and fall landing heavily on say the base of your back or onto your bum, there is a very good chance the sacrum could be knocked out of line. If the pain goes away without any treatment, then that means to compensate for this movement, the occiput will move and any tension caused by the fall will now be sitting at the base of your skull. Depending on other factors, this tesion could very well develop into headache causing trigger points which could appear most likely at the base of the skull itself or very commonly over one or both eyes! And that…is how your headache might just be a pain in the bum.

Working with any chronic complaint, taking a detailed case history and a careful physical assessment is hugely important and can lead to finding the root cause of an issue. Once we have an idea what the root cause is, we can treat much more effectively and offer lasting relief from problems and not just tempory benefits.

Alex J.P. Boylan BSc(Hons) MBAcC http://www.re-creation.org.uk

I am one of those people who have had ALOT of massage. I practice what I preach, what can I say? In my wealth of experience of recieving, I too have sampled both ends of the scale, the good the bad and the one where I feel like a basted turkey. I’ll start by talking about the qualities we need to consider as massage therapists, to ensure the client is blown away by the treatment and if it’s their first sampling of your skills, the only question on their lips will be “Wow! What kind of massage was that!?”

Listen to the client

The consultation whether 2 minutes or 20 minutes should not be considered a mere formality, but is an opportunity for us to really listen to and get a feel  for the client sat before us. Where do they want the work concentrated, where have they had injuries, what experience of massage have they enjoyed, do they like the deeper pressure, do they have a senstive areas (most often feet/toes or front of neck)? The latter is equally as important as the others because even if we deliver a great massage but finish out by freaking them out…do you think they will want to come back? This is the first hurdle you will fall down at if you just have one routine or work to any routine for that matter. To actually deliver what the client has just asked for, the treatment will have to be an individual experience.

Observe the client

Observation of  the client is an equally important part of the consultation, as this allows you really fine-tune your treatment plan. How do they behave and talk? Are there any evident signs of high stress levels such as high pitch to the voice, talking quickly or seeming a little curt? This might mean that you add in a little 5 minutes extra relaxation work at the end to really round off the session. Physically how do they look? Do  they have the shoulders pulled right back in a ‘military posture’? If this is the case you immediately know that work will need to be done to open up the area around the thoracic spine, encourage the erectors to move laterally, and lengthening the rhomboids will bring great reward and benefit. Or are they shoulders forwards, collapsed chest with raised traps? In this case we obviously need  to spend more time opening up the chest, lengthening traps and encouraging the tissue back and downwards to gain any lasting benefit. Is there a head-forwards posture? Maybe if they’re comfortable with it you could try a little gentle lengthening of SCM and scalenes.

Use just a little oil/lotion, listen with your hands

I prefer to use lotion to oil, as rather than feeling greasy it is partially absorbed and gives the skin a silky texture which is really great to work with. If you do use oil, the worst thing you can do is slather it on as you would to baste a turkey and re-apply every ten minutes. All this does is create a barrier between you and the client, making it very difficult to feel tension patterns in the tissue and when you do try and do some slow specific work you will just end up sliding over the tissue and doing very little to release it. I tend to apply just a little lotion to the palm of my hand, and never directly onto the client and use the first sweeps of my hand to detect the tension patterns in the tissue and use the information to build my strategy. I always work slowly, first sinking to the level of the tissue I want to work with and then either stretching shortened muscle or working cross-fibre and muscles which are ‘locked long’.

Stay mindful

A good treatment is all about the connection between you and your client so enetering the treatment with a settled mind and remaining mindful between the treatment is paramount. It’s can be tempting at times to zone out and use repetitive strokes to while the time away, but staying focused on the tissues you are working with will bring much more benefit to your client and will work much more in your favour as you build a reputation as ‘the therapist to see’.

by Alex Boylan BSc(Hons) MBAcC  http://www.re-creation.org.uk

Welcome aboard Elaine!

Alex http://www.re-creation.org.uk

My first exeprience of the cleanse was difficult, mainly because of my lack of knowledge regarding vegan diet, which resulted in me starving myself unnecessarily and by the end of the cleanse I had actually lost a couple of stones!! So my first suggestions would be if you don’t normally eat like this, to plan out all your meals (including snacks) or you may be likely to either abandon the cleanse, just be hungry and depressed or both! Also not eating properly meant that the fasting part was particuarly difficult because by this time I was probably lacking nutrients and this left me feeling weak (and looking a bit rough apparently!)

Despite not feeling great I had come so far and was determined to follow through with the cleansing, which I followed to the letter. Drinking the olive oil and grapefruit mixture was easy as it was watery and just like drinking slightly warm grapefruit juice. The toughest part was drinking the last portion of epsom salts (which is the last thing you would want to drink first thing in the morning)! The actual results were a little disappointing as I only passed some (less than 10) tiny tiny bright green stones, and the acids I passed really burned my bum on the way out! By the time I was allowed to have a little something to eat and drink, already I was starting to feel pretty good with more energy than before. The book recommends having a colonic (colon cleanse) before and after each flush, but even before I’d looked at prices (£40-£70) or experienced one I’d decided this was a little excessive and had opted for just a follow-up one two days later. As it happens after 5 flushes and 4 colonics I’m still convinced just a follow-up colon cleanse is plenty for any man (or woman).

The day of the booking I went to see my colleague Ruth from Release Therapies in Leigh, and was VERY nervous to say the least. Luckily Ruth is very experienced and an absolute professional and I wouldn’t have been able to go through with it if she hadn’t been so calm and reassuring. The colonic itself is not at all painful, just very strange and I think I may have got a fit of the giggles for a few minutes, but that soon passed. For some reason I was expecting a rush of cold water up my bum, but the reality is its warmed exactly to body temp and you can barely feel it. By the end the truth is the experience had left me feeling a little violated and strange, but this was quickly replaced by feeling energised and with the clearest head I’d had in a very long time. The only other note I’ll mention is that you shouldn’t make the same mistake I did and try to rush off afterwards, take your time as you may need to go to the toilet once or twice at the end!

The second flush was perfomed around 3 months later. This time my diet had improved and I was able to eat more sensibly during the preceding week, so my energy was better going into the actual flush, however I had been left hungry on a few occaisions. Even during the fasting I had the energy to take my daughter to the park, but I wasn’t  good for much else later that evening. The flush itself again, was a little disappointing and I only passed around maybe 15 tiny green stones, but it was an improvement from the last time so I was encouraged to carry on trying. This was the only flush I didn’t follow-up with a colonic, and I have to say I didn’t feel as great as I had following the last time.

The third time was about 5 months afterwards, and by this time me and my partner Jen were eating vegan meals together reguarly so, my diet was even more sensible going into the actual cleanse and I wasn’t getting so weak or hungry anymore..but there was still a little room for improvement. The evening and morning of the flush had little to report other than I felt pretty good throughout and this time I passed around 30 small stones ranging from a tiny grain to about the size of a petit pois.

It may have been another 7 months until flush number four. This time I did it slightly differently, I planned out my next two flushes well in advance and made sure they were on a new moon (no moon), as apparently this is the best time to cleanse. The reason being is that when the moon is full out body retains too much water to cleanse effectively. In the week leading up to the flush I ate like a (vegan) King, and felt bloody fantastic even just from eating vegan for a day or two. By the time the fasting came I was feeling strong and energised and just carried on as usual, looking after kids, cleaning and tidying. This time the epsom salts kicked in right away for some reason and my bowels were completely clear by the time I went to bed that evening. I did actually make a mistake of not putting enough grapefruit in with the olive oil, and as I downed the mixture was acutely aware I was drinking oil and was VERY close to bringing it back up again!

The next morning, the floodgates opened. I passed stone after stone after stone! Ranging from sand like grains, to large rasins and even a giant bugger the size of a squashed golf ball! I was shocked but relieved that I had carried on with it because I realised all those stones had been lodged inside of me somewhere causing me harm! I carried on passing large stones throughout the day, but again felt fantastic. My shoulders felt incredibly relaxed my spine felt supple and my energy was through the roof! (Colonics by this point are a very civilised 30 minutes afair) Little did I know that I was going to need ALL that energy….

The next flush was planned for about 5 weeks later. For about 4.5 of those weeks both my children and my partner had been struck down with swineflu, and my son was still waking several times a night anyways. So, I was going to work for about 10 hrs a day, doing all the housework when I got home, looking after all 3 of of them AND doing the nightshift. There was no way I would have made it that long without getting sick if I hadn’t cleansed previously! But I am only human and I was coming down with something by the time the next flush came around. I ached all over, I had a sore throat and didn’t feel great. It is not advised to go ahead with the flush if you are ill, but I went ahead anyway. Although I did actually feel much less ill in the days following the cleanse, nothing really seemd to work right, I barely passed anything (which may or may not be a sign that I was almost clear of stones), and I didn’t even seem to digest the olive oil properly. Needless to say FLUSHING WHEN ILL IS NOT A GOOD IDEA. The reason being is that you will overburden the lymphatic system with toxins, which it really doesn’t need when you are ill. I probably only got away with it because I had had such a good cleanse only a month previous.

I hope you find this article useful. If you follow the cleanse to the letter and take note of my ramblings then I am confident you will have no problems with the flush and will be taking huge steps to a healthier lifestyle.

If you would like to know more about colonics please contact Ruth Lloyd at Release Therapies on 07950 326677 or visit http://www.releasetherapies.com  http://www.colonic-association.org/

This article was written by Alex J.P. Boylan owner of http://www.re-creation.org.uk

The techniques used are very slow and allow us to work on the collegenous aspect of fascia which allows permant structural changes to be made. This basically means that rather than just softening tissue (as in most massage) we can change the shape and use it to improve your posture and gain lasting relief not just temporary benefits. In the first session or two we normally begin by balancing the pelvis and head. This is really important because as I have discovered, a large number of lower back, disc, jaw, neck and shoulder problems are actually being caused by the pelvis being out of line and if the pelvis is out of line or twisted, pretty much everything above is out of balance in compensation.

As part of my training I have had the pleasure of having some of this work done on myself, and have have to say the benefits were pretty evident not only physically like in how I was standing and planting my feet, but also in the following days and weeks I enjoyed quite a large increase in energy.  One of the less complex reasons myofascial work can help improve energy is if you are more in line you will move more efficiently, and if your movement is more efficient, you need much less energy to do it. As is well documented in many articles, fascial restrictions can exert pressure of up to 2000lb per square inch which if you think about it is rather like wearing a virtual straight jacket.

If any of my clients who have sampled these techniques off me are reading this, please do leave your own accounts or experience as everyone is different.  I’m actually writing this while on a course in Scotland studying something called visceral manipulation, something equally fascinating. I’ll keep you all posted.

Alex http://www.massagemanchester.org.uk

I look forwards to sharing my experiences and ideas with you all….so watch this space!!

Warmest regards,

Alex