Posts by Michelle Oates
Exercise Addiction
Home » Exercise Addiction
Ever ask yourself the reason why behind your consistent need to work out? For many years I ignored my own reasons and just chalked it up to me needing it for my own emotional balance. If I did not “work out”, I felt unready to face my day and handle life’s challenges. While exercise is certainly very good for mood regulation, if it is the only tool in your toolbox in order to handle life’s uncertainties, this can be an unhealthy way to resolve conflict.
While exercise certainly increases those feel good endorphins which drown out pain or other issues we may be dealing with, too much exercise can just be another stressor added to our lives. According to Sara Gustafson, author of Holistic Health and Performance for Women there are some key questions to ask yourself in order to determine if you have an addiction. The first question to ask yourself is “why am I exercising?” Is it to increase performance? Is it for my health? Is it to feel good?
If you determine you are using exercise as a mood coping mechanism here are the next set of questions according to Sara to ask yourself. Does exercise interfere with family or work? Does missing a training session effect my mood? Are you using training to regulate your mood? Does training compromise my goals/values? Is training effecting my health negatively? Does training negatively effect my finances or relationships? If you answered yes to any of these questions it can be a sign you could have an exercise addiction.
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If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.
460 BC – 370 BC
Intuition
Intuition
Intuition can be an unfamiliar concept to some people; and yet for others it is just a way of life. This was not a foreign concept to our ancestors as they were able to communicate through this powerful medium with no cell phones. Tapping into our innermost potential is a way to relieve stress over having to listen to something outside of ourself as a teacher. We are all capable of being our own teacher and have access to infinite wisdom just by learning to become quiet enough to listen to our own soul. Our guts literally have more neurons than our brains and this is where the term “gut instinct” comes from. Our bodies work on an energetic and electrical level which is our emotional body of wellness and our nervous system.
With proper soul guidance, you can tap into that infinite amount of source knowledge and have the peace of mind that you are doing what you were created to do. With over 7 billions souls on this planet each with a different lens from which they view the world, each one of us has a purpose. For some people that may mean being the best mom, the best teacher, doctor, firefighter, scientist, architect, artist, you name it. There are enough roles to fit each soul here on Earth.
I teach holistic lifestyle coaching designed to help you tap into your own “inner knowing”. By practicing “work in” techniques, you can learn how to quiet the monkey mind. When you can learn to look at your thoughts no different than noticing a tree driving by but paying it no attention, you are beginning to tap into the no mind. This is the place where we can literally just let go and surrender. It’s a state free from judgement, negative thinking, or inner talk. The mind eventually will get quiet once its been trained there is nothing to “think” about. This is a state we can learn to access when we are feeling anxious or stressed and it will be that peace we seek during stressful times. After all we cannot control outside worldly events, but we are always in control of our reaction to seen and unseen forces.
Posture
Home » Posture
According to Paul Chek, “Posture is the position from which movement begins and ends”(2). If we really contemplate what this means it makes posture imperative to life itself. Every aspect of life involves some form of movement whether that be for sport, work, play or survival. Ideal posture prevents us from creating dysfunctional movement patterns that create muscular imbalances. According to Paul Chek “Ideal posture is that state of where muscles will function most efficiently”(2).
If we look at the body like a bicycle wheel, we have certain muscles like the spokes that are too short and tight and others which are too long and weak. These short, tight muscles are referred to as the tonic, postural muscles and the long and weak ones are the phasic or mover muscles. The phasic muscles tend to get lazy and let the tonic muscles do all the work. This imbalance in workload tends to create muscular, skeletal, and postural dysfunctions which can affect not only posture but organ health and fluid dynamics inside the body (1).
Emotions can also cause chronic postural problems and tend to make the tonic, postural muscles short and tight. Even events such as a car wreck or childhood bicyle accident can cause chronic muscle and joint problems which can show up in your posture (1).
In order to optimize our health posture needs to be addressed. My system developed through the Chek Academy has given me the tools to assess any postural imbalances and create a corrective stretching and exercise program to restore balance.
References:
1. Chek, Paul. How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy. The C.H.E.K. Institute, 2004.
2. Chek, Paul. Scientific Core Conditioning. The C.H.E.K. Instititute, 2011.
Posture imbalances can effect performance and general health. By following a corrective stretching, mobilization, and corrective exercise program balance can be restored to the body.
CATEGORIES
Energy
Intuition
Nutrition
Posture
Sleep
Uncategorized
RECENT POSTS
Exercise Addiction
September 8, 2021
Intuition
August 29, 2021
Posture
August 29, 2021
SOCIAL ICONS
posture is the position from which movement begins and ends
Energy
Energy
Energy is life force. Incorporating the other 4 factors of sleep, posture, intuition, and nutrition, energy is a natural by product. Learning to live holistically and listening to our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies we find balance. Each of these factors plays a part in the Chek developed system of the 4 doctors. By living in harmony with the 4 doctors of Dr. Quiet, Dr. Movement, Dr. Happy and Dr. Diet which correlate to my S.P.I.N.E. method, unlimited energy will be the result!
When the body is balanced with optimum sleep, movement, happiness, and nutrition a new sense of self emerges; one that is in harmony with natures laws. When one is living in harmony with their created purpose life, just seems to flow with ease and grace. The universe or god or source, however you like to label it, will continually reinforce you are on the right path. Energy will enliven you to go do what you were sent here to do.
I teach a complete system designed to help you find your purpose, fill your own cup first, and then learn to give to your family and the world from its overflow. Self care has been demonized in our culture to think its greedy or selfish, but ultimately self care is critical to being able to care for others. I love the term “sacred selfishness” coined by Master Chek Practitioner, Nicole Devaney on the Awakening Aphrodite podcast. Are you filling your cup today?
“Life is about the management of energy, where you place your attention is where you place your energy”
Dr. Joe Dispenza
Nutrition
Nutrition
Home » Nutrition
Food can make us thrive or it can put us into survival mode. The ancient physicians knew how important food was for our health. In fact, one of my favorite quotes is from the ancient physician, Hippocrates who said “Let food by thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food”. Nowadays many consider nutrition whatever quick fix piece of garbage they can shove in their mouth between busy meetings and a hectic life. There are more diet books than any other subject out there and yet many in our western culture are overweight or even obese. Information overload is the norm and can overwhelm even the most well intentioned researcher.
It is for this reason that no one diet can be a cookie cutter mold for everyone. Each of us has trillions of cells each creating 100,000 chemical reactions a second that react differently to certain foods. Even a food most would consider “healthy” cannot work for certain metabolic types and can create inflammation in certain people. By determining your primal pattern diet type you can begin to truely nourish your body with foods designed for your unique metabolism. In the book, How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy by Paul Chek there is a short quiz to determine which Primal Pattern Diet type you are.
Most of us do not eat enough variety of foods and tend to eat the same foods day after day. By rotating our foods we can begin to notice certain symptoms in our health we may not have attributed to our diet. Anything from headaches, anxiety, ADHD behavior, tired but wired, nervous evergy, sleepy, dull or depressed mood, mental sluggishness, heavy gut, full but hungry, craving sweets or caffeine can be attributed to our diet.
The system I use will help you identify your primal pattern diet type and I will help guide you in determining the best foods for you. A diet log is key in the beginning to start to associate symptoms to food choices. After awhile though it becomes easier to identify foods that you might be intolerant to and never realized it because it was consumed so frequently. I will also help guide you to eat intuitively and connecting to your soul for directions on proper eating for your unique metabolic needs. Not only is this type of “diet” sustainable, it is also so freeing knowing there’s no one “right” way for any person to eat all the time.
CATEGORIES
Energy
Intuition
Nutrition
Posture
Sleep
Uncategorized
RECENT POSTS
Exercise Addiction
September 8, 2021
Intuition
August 29, 2021
Posture
August 29, 2021
SOCIAL ICONS
Let Food by Thy Medicine, and let medicine be thy food
SLEEP
Sleep is highly underrated in our western culture which seems to advocate always doing more. We live in a faced paced society that overvalues money over living a balanced life. Sleep is our bodies natural recovery method where all the work we do during the day is transformed into stronger muscles, bones, and connective tissue. We also recover our nervous system while we sleep so we can be fresh for the next day.
Our ancestors would follow their natural circadian rhythm which means they would follow the natural light patterns of the day. They would fall asleep when it got dark and rise with the sun which is optimum for our health. We live in an artificially simulated environment where we are constantly being bombarded with blue light from screens and fluorescent lighting that is harmful to our eyes. This tricks our body into thinking we are in daytime even when it is nighttime and can throw off our natural circadian rhythm to make a proper nights sleep challenging.
The optimum window of opportunity for proper sleep is from 10:00pm -6:00am. We recover our physical bodies during the first part of our sleep from 10:00 – 2:00 am. This is where all the hard work from your workouts will repair your muscles and make your joints and connective tissue stronger. From the hours of 2:00am – 6:00am we repair our cognitive function. It is similar to rebooting your computer and if we miss this important window of opportunity either from getting to bed too late or waking up too many times we can feel off the next day. Brain fog, anxiety and memory problems can rear their ugly heads when our psychological processing is not adequately recovered.
Need tips for getting adequate sleep during the optimal time? Start by unwinding after 6:00pm. Use orange colored blue blocker glasses after 6:00pm and dim the lights in your house or use orange or red bulbs, salt lamps and natural candles to simulate evening. Keeping a cool temperature for sleeping is also a great way to get to sleep and stay asleep. Make sure to turn off all electronics in the bedroom and keep the cell phone away from the bedroom at night or else turn it off. Shut your wifi off at night as excess electromagnetic radiation from sources such as wifi or bluetooth is sleep disrupting. Practice deep breathing with a 4 second inhale, 4 second hold, and a 8 second exhale making sure your breathing into your belly (belly rises on the inhale and lowers on the exhale). Practice self massage using a lacrosse ball, foam roller, or similar mobility device. This will activate the parasympathetic nervous system which is imperative for good sleep. Try making your last meal no later than 7:00pm in order to give your body time to digest fully before bed. A full stomach definitely interferes with sleep. If still hungry before bed, snack on a high protein and fat source like tuna and a piece of avocado. Avoid carbohydrates before bed as these will most likely be converted to body fat.
Many health conditions could be prevented if we just got enough sleep. Make your sleep a priority and then see how you feel.