When is the last time you considered your own financial health? There are many dimensions to financial health, including the amount of savings you have, how much you’re setting away for retirement, and how much of your income you are spending on fixed or non-discretionary expenses. Each person’s situation is different, for this reason, it is worthwhile spending some time in developing your own financial plan to ensure that you’re on track to reach both your short-term and long-term goals. People often fail to recognize the power of interest; For example, putting away $10.22 per month from the time you are 16 years old, with compounding interest, would result in $100,000 upon retirement. However, purchasing everyday items on credit and just paying the minimum balance each month may mean that you reach retirement carrying $100,000 in debt. Shedding unnecessary debt now with our help can steer you toward future financial health.

Colleen Craig
www.cecraig.com

Many people are not aware that they should visit their denturist office every two to three years. By not doing so, their overall oral health may be jeopardized, making their denture wearing ability and comfort harder to achieve. The need for regular visits is due to changes occurring in both the bone structure and soft tissues of your mouth over time. Usually a simple reline or rebase can refit the denture to the gums causing a more comfortable and tighter fit. However between the five to eight year mark, the actual denture teeth may be worn down enough to cause damage to your Tempo mandibular Joint from over closing. This over closing can also lead to cracking of the corners of the lips, aging of the face, or even headaches. Denturists are your Denture specialists and are trained to spot these problems and correct them.

Kent Roberts
www.burnsidedentureclinic.com

Adequate sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle, and benefits your heart, weight, mind, and more. The cost of poor sleep is much greater than many people think; it can have profound consequences for our long-term health. People who consistently fail to get enough sleep are at an increased risk of chronic disease.  One potential cause of inadequate sleep is Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Multiple arousals each night are a result of the closing of their airway when asleep. This causes decreased oxygen levels and increased blood pressure. Over time, this leads to the chronic elevation of blood pressure, which is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Fortunately, when sleep apnea is treated, sleep quality improves, blood pressure may decrease and so do the associated risks. Testing for Sleep apnea is done in the comfort of your own home.

Shelley McCulloch, RRT
www.medprorespiratory.com/obstructive-sleep-apnea-treatment/sleep-disordered-breathing

Doula Nancy Murphy offers prenatal, birth and postpartum support to pregnant women and their partners/families from Victoria to Duncan, both in a home birth and hospital setting, with midwives and physicians. Having a doula on hand to coach you through your pregnancy and birth adds an extra level of support throughout your entire pregnancy journey and offers great peace of mind. As a graduate of the Pacific Rim College Holistic Doula Practitioner program in Victoria, Nancy utilizes integrative holistic approaches such as Thai massage, yoga, acupressure, and herbal medicine, with her clients. Also a visual artist in Victoria, Nancy embraces the beauty of pregnancy by sculpting belly casts as a beautiful keepsake for expectant mothers, with each cast being finished with art designs chosen with her clients. Another fun service that Nancy provides is belly henna – which is perfect for baby showers and other celebrations.

Nancy Murphy
www.theartofbirthdoula.com

We strive to maintain our health today with exercise, diet and preventative care by visiting our general practitioners annually, but what about our eyes? How often should you see an optometrist? Today eye exams are recommended once a year for a multitude of reasons, and having good vision doesn’t exclude the need. A person can have 20/20 vision and still require prescription glasses to help with symptoms such as fatigue and headaches caused by binocular or accommodative disorders. An optometrist is not only trained in detecting ocular diseases, like glaucoma macular degeneration and tumors, but also systemic conditions, that often times have changes within the eyes, such as diabetes, hypertension and multiple sclerosis. Many of these diseases may be asymptomatic in the early stages, but can cause permanent vision loss if not detected early. So if you’ve never seen an optometrist, or it’s been a few years, you’re overdue.

www.iris.ca

When you go for a massage do you ever ask your therapist what kind of oil or lotion they use? Do you care? Some therapists are purists and others not so. For example Holly Oil, which is actually petroleum based, tends to be used due to its cost effectiveness. A popular and more natural option to try is fractionated coconut oil, which is a light carrier oil, fragrance free and much better for your body. With fractionated coconut oil, the lauric acid component is removed leaving it liquid at room temperature. As with all oils and lotions, make sure you are purchasing from a trusted supplier. Quality and freshness differs greatly. Buy organic when you can and stick to natural ingredients whenever possible. Up to 85 % of the product is in the top three ingredients listed. Your body deserves the best.

Roxanne Derkson RMT
www.vivitherapy.com

Xylitol is a sweetening agent used in foods since the 1960s. It is an odourless, white crystalline powder with the same sweetness as sucrose, but one-third fewer calories. It is found in many fruits and vegetables (strawberries, raspberries and plums) and is produced by the human body during normal metabolism. Xylitol currently is approved for use in foods, pharmaceuticals and oral health products in more than 35 countries. It is a naturally occurring sweetener available in chewing gum, candy, and toothpastes, and is an effective preventive agent against dental cavities. A series of studies have concluded that the full or partial substitution of xylitol for sucrose or the addition of xylitol to the diet reduces cavities. The between-meals consumption of xylitol-containing chewing gum has been demonstrated to reduce cavities in teenagers by 30 to 60 percent in studies conducted in Canada, Thailand, French Polynesia and Belize.

Mary Ellen Breckenridge
www.smilevictoria.ca

If you need support to make positive changes for your health, then consider seeking out a certified health and wellness coach to help you on your journey. Whether you’re looking to lose weight, adjust to new hearing aids, get stronger, say “no” more often, learn to live well with chronic pain or any other condition, a coach can help you meet your goals. A certified health and wellness coach uses evidence-based behavioral psychology, counseling, motivational interviewing, positive psychology, adult learning theory, and solution-oriented therapy to help clients identify the areas in their lives that they want to change or improve and help them create a plan to get there. Coaches then provide structure, accountability, expertise and inspiration to enable clients to grow, increase self-awareness, commitment and confidence beyond what they can achieve on their own.

Juhree Zimmerman R.N., B.Sc.N., M.Ed., C.P.C.C., O.R.S.C.
www.strategyforsynergy.ca 

Stress seems to be an inevitable part of modern life. While healthy stress can motivate us to take positive action, chronic stress compromises our immune system, reducing our ability to think clearly. It can also increase the risk of a wide range of conditions including: obesity, heart disease, diabetes, depression, gastrointestinal problems and asthma. The good news is, that each of us has the ability to calm our own stress responses. Three slow, deep, belly breaths can begin to counteract stress symptoms; so can moderate exercise or meditation. But if root causes of the stressors are not dealt with, the effects may be short-lived.  Issues such as an up-coming exam or job interview; family or work conflict, trauma or deep-seated issues generally require more in-depth approaches. Today, simple but highly effective energy therapies can easily be learned for self-care stress reduction or use with the guidance of a skilled practitioner.

What Are These Simple but Powerful Energy Therapies?

Known as Power Therapies or Energy Psychotherapies (EP’s), with labels that sound a bit like alphabet soup, these are a growing number of modalities, which grew mainly from a technique known as Thought Field Therapy or TFT, developed by psychologist, Roger Callahan, PhD in the 1980’s. (visit my website and click on History of Energy Psychology for a detailed description). Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) also known as “Tapping” is one of the better known therapies in this field, because hundreds of thousands of people, around the world, are now using it to help themselves and others. Not as well-known but equally gentle and powerful is another of my favourite therapies, known as TAT or Tapas Acupressure Technique.

What Kinds of Issues Can Energy Therapies Help With?

Energy Therapies can be used to relieve pain, muscular tension, relationship conflicts, panic, anxiety, trauma, depression, insomnia, migraines, love pain, grief, addictions, nightmares, anger and much more. Even a short session can reduce your stress hormone – Cortisol – and lower your blood pressure, while enhancing thinking and problem solving. It is also an amazing performance enhancement tool for speakers, students, athletes, musicians and artists and it can enhance your spiritual practice.

One of reasons that the simple “recipes” these EP’s use are able to help with so many issues, is that they all work to alter the body and brain’s out-moded responses to old thoughts and memories. ( Watch for my December 2015 article on “Trauma and the Unconscious Mind” for more details on this mechanism.) Simply put, they take the body out of reactivity and “stress” mode and into a state of more energetic coherence or calmness. This allows for new, more whole-brain responses to the issues that were previously troublesome.

Here are a few examples of how some specific stressors can be reduced or eliminated with Energy Therapies:

• A student with severe test anxiety can now approach her exams with confidence and calmness and improve her Grade Point Average.

• A businessman uses EFT prior to an important meeting and is able to present his product clearly and confidently.

• A classroom group of children “Tap” at the start of the school day to help themselves be present and ready to get the most out of the day.

• A mature woman is able to work through a childhood trauma and enjoy Christmas with her family for the first time.

• A woman with a 24-year flying phobia eliminates her fear in a 45 minute treatment session.

• A child with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder uses “Tapping” to calm himself down and avoid being teased.

• A military veteran with 18 years of Post-Traumatic Stress who, after years of medication, group and psycho-therapy had minimal relief, is finally free of major symptoms with only 6 sessions of EFT.

• A young actor is able to eliminate performance anxiety and gains notoriety in a highly competitive field.

How Do EP’s Work?

All these EP approaches work with a simple process of putting ones’ attention gently on a distressing symptom, thought and/or emotional memory while holding or tapping on specific acupuncture meridians with your own fingers. This process is a kind of mental Exposure Therapy; which activates a constellation of energetic impulses in the body/mind, where the roots of the issues have been “stored”. Stimulation of the acupuncture meridians at the same time as the mental activation can create a relaxation response in these systems. This generally results in a reduction or elimination of the previously troublesome emotions, thoughts and body symptoms, often with only a few applications. More complex issues may require a few sessions to resolve but usually a person will leave even their first session, feeling more calm, relaxed and neutral about a previously distressing issue. My students and clients refer to this as the PCL state – Peaceful, Calm and a kind of Lightness in their body!

What Does A Private Session Look Like?

It is important that my clients understand that we work together as team! It is a combination each client’s history, inner wisdom, and commitment to self-growth, combined with my knowledge, experience and intuitive sense, together weaving a path of healing. Sometimes this will occur in just one or two sessions but often a series of 3 to 5 sessions over time, with self-care “homework” by the client in between, is the optimum recipe for success. I also believe that healing can be fun! My clients and I sometimes find humor erupting as a very healing mechanism even in the depths of distress.

Our first session of 1.5 hours will start with a brief check-in and history taking, after which we will commence using one of the EP’s such as Emotional Freedom Technique on a troublesome issue. By the end of the session, there should be a noticeable sense of change in the Issue we have been working with. Subsequent sessions are around 60 minutes in length and are directed by the needs of the client.

If you are wondering if a Private Coaching or Counselling session might be useful for you, I offer a free 10 minute phone consultations to assist you. If you know you would like an appointment please call or email and we will set up a time that is mutually convenient.

How Can I Learn These Energy Psychotherapies?

I generally teach EFT to my clients in our very first session, so they can experience the benefits and have it as an ongoing stress reduction strategy for homework between sessions and for LIFE. I introduce additional approaches as requested or required. These may include other EP’s, meditation or grounding and energizing techniques.

Workshops and Presentations

My passion is to teach and empower as many people as possible with Energy Therapies and other healing approaches. I offer short, 3 – hour Stress-Buster EFT classes and longer, 2 day EFT and TAT Workshops, where professionals and lay people can learn how to use these therapeutic tools for self-care and to help others. There are many YouTube videos online and tutorials where you can learn EFT. But according to Gary Craig, creator of EFT “the best way to learn EFT is to participate in a live workshop.” So I hope you will join me at one of mine!

Please email [email protected] with the Subject Line Workshop Request if you would like to attend or organize a presentation or workshop.

Thank You for Your Interest!

It is my pleasure to answer questions or receive comments about this article. You will also find more information and contact information on my website: www.karenledger.ca

Yours in Wellness,

Karen E. Ledger, RN BScN

At One Communications

Life is all about balance; and about communication between the parts of our whole organism. Different regions, different systems of the body all need to be, and are, in constant contact with each other – at least that is so in a situation of healthy balance. When, however, there are imbalances, compromises to the communication channels between regions, between systems, the body is attempting to demonstrate, to gain attention for those imbalances, disruptions and/or distortions in those communication pathways.

In this way, it is very important to look at the presenting situation – of symptoms or challenges that arise physically (and mento-emotionally) for us – for they can be seen then as problems to understand and address. The best way I know of to facilitate a reading of what exactly needs to be understood and addressed, is by osteopathic assessment, palpation, and the treatment process itself.

So the body is a finely tuned instrument. It constantly expresses and reflects its state, and the psycho-emotional state of the mind. It is inexplicably linked to, and expressive of, how one sees the world. If we feel criticized, isolated or judged, for instance, that will be reflected in our posture; how we breathe and talk; how we hold ourselves; how we move about in the world; whether we meet the eyes of others around us; whether we allow ourselves to take in, and feel the support of the ground beneath us, the chair we are sitting on; whether we feel the natural world around us – or not.

Having some conscious awareness of how these interactions between our view of ourselves and the world around us, take place, can be very freeing. New neurological research (well represented by the book, The Upward Spiral, by Alex Korb, PhD) indicates that there is a regulating influence, or an improvement in one’s health that follows simply from acknowledging to oneself how one is feeling. So, if I am feeling sad, and I attempt to move around it; if I don’t want to admit it to myself that I’m feeling that sadness (or angry, desolate, fill-in-the-blank with any uncomfortable feeling for you), then I’m going to tense up against even trying to feel it. Now, the tension itself has become more of the problem than the sadness, anger or whatever I was failing to acknowledge feeling. Note here that I ALREADY AM FEELING the uncomfortable emotional content, but I am trying not to “see,” “hear,” taste,” or “sense” it in any way. If, on the other hand, I simply acknowledge what I’m feeling – it doesn’t have to change – there is already a shift in my brain chemistry toward a healthier perspective toward myself and “the world”.

A big part of the work I do as an osteopath is to share with the people, parents of young children, or animal care-givers seeking my help, the perspective that is so evident to me from that person/child/animal’s body, so that they can use that understanding to work with me in re-establishing a more harmonious balance and regulation within the communication networks that are always functioning in a live physical body. If we are alive, that network is functioning at some level. Our level of health and wellness is largely determined, however, by how clear and unimpeded those communications are, and the extent to which they acknowledged.

If you are an osteopath, physician, chiropractor, physiotherapist or massage therapist and would be interested in exploring ideas like this in a practical and experiential way relevant to your own practice please get in touch with me directly, at: [email protected] Please use the subject line “Professional Workshop List”

I am presently in planning mode for course offerings to begin in the next couple of months. I may also offer some other forum for discussion and sharing amongst my patients and the general public. If that interests you, please send me an email to the same address, but use the title: “Public Discussion”

Howard V. Dieno DO (UK)

British-trained Osteopathic Practitioner

Website: www.dieno.ca

Also see: www.osteopathybc.com

And: www.victoriahealthcooperative.ca

Blog: howarddieno.wordpress.com