New Class and New Technology

In our last newsletter, I told you about new offerings from BodyMind Transformations, such as the newsletter, video testimonials, an online edited recording of a Basic Ayurveda class from last years CSE Summer Retreat, and a new website format. The website is still in process, but it’s starting to take shape and I’m really excited about it.

Another new addition, on March 24th, I’m offering the first Recovery from Burnout class. This class addresses the HPA axis (involved in burnout and a host of mood and functional illnesses), reviews the integrated process used at our office for recovery from Central Nervous System (CNS) issues, and will, of course, cover some practical tips that you can do at home to support healing. Call or email the office to sign up.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to let you know about a new technology that I’ll be offering in the next couple of months called LORETA (Low Resolution Brain Electromagnetic Tomography) and Surface z-score Neurofeedback. It will allow us to train not only many different areas at once, but perform more than one type of training at the same time. It’s a very new technology, and only a handful of people are doing it, but the initial reports are overwhelmingly positive. Clinicians are saying that functional changes are occurring in as few as 5 sessions.

I believe this new technology will make treatment more accessible to more people. Even though the cost of an individual session will be twice as much (because of the cost of the technology), the total cost off training will possibly be 1/2 to 1/4 of the current cost and the training time will be reduced, so we can serve far more clients in a shorter period of time.

Winter, Spring, the Elements, and Self Care

I recently received a question about the elements and predominant Doshas as they pertain to Winter and Spring. If you review the Practical Ayurveda class on

my website (wired4peakperformance.com), you will hear that Ether, air, fire, water and earth form the five gross elements, which in turn form the Doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Each season of the year is associated with a particular Dosha. To prevent our individual doshas from getting aggravated (which makes us sick or

unbalanced), we pacify the dosha associated with the current season. If you look at different sources, most will say that fire is the element of Summer and air is the element of Fall, but sources vary on the elements associated with Winter and Spring. One reason is that while some areas have 6 seasons (like India), someareas (like California) only have 3 or 4. Most often, in Winter and Spring the same elements are predominant, but there are two different processes occurring.

As Fall passes into Winter, it is a dry, cold time and then it gets wet. This cold wetness is associated with the water element, but as winter progresses, the Kapha in our bodies and our environment begins to solidify (like earth). Congestion stops rattling and starts giving us pressure headaches. Doctors may suggest ear tubes to help move stuck congestion in little ear canals.

It is a Kapha time of year (Kapha is formed by the water and earth elements), and Kapha increases as Winter progresses. As Spring arrives, it gets warmer. The Kapha in our world and our bodies begins to thaw and we feel a desire to move again. If we don’t do something to remove the excess Kapha from our body, we may get Spring colds, which is like ice melting and carrying away the bugs that were stuck in the ice. We often have runny noses in the spring. This is also a Kapha time, but an earth to water process instead of a water to earth process.

So Winter and Spring are both Kapha in nature, associated with the same elements of water and earth, but there is a strong distinction in their process.

In many areas of the country, we beat the cold away with various types of heating systems. Because most of these heating systems are drying, we also need to be mindful of Vata in the Winter.

So what can we do to pacify the Doshas associated with Winter and Spring? By being mindful of our constitution, the season, and what is occurring in our bodies and minds. This time of year (Kapha season), you’ve probably been getting lung congestion between 6 and 10 am/pm (because those are the Kapha times of day). Every time this happens, if you make a cup of hot water, add lemon juice and honey (no other sugar substitutes!) and drink it, you will find that the rattling in your lungs stops. The lemon is acidic and drying (fire and earth), honey is a carrier for Kapha, and the hot water is an anti Vata/Kapha. What we sometimes see as allergies (throat clearing, coughing, sniffling) can disappear immediately with this simple solution. The nature of Kapha is to stagnate. We have to keep moving in the Winter to combat this Kapha tendency (walking is the best). This will help with digestion, circulation, and waste removal. If you have injuries or illness, such that you cannot walk regularly, massage and simple yoga postures like Viparita Karani (lay on the floor with hips elevated and legs up against the wall) can be used to produce movement also.

Will I Need to Do This Forever?

I’m often asked by clients if they will have to do particular aspects of their treatment indefinitely or when they can stop doing something. The answer is that it depends on the chronicity and severity of the imbalance as well as where the weakness lies. The foundation of the integrated process we use at BodyMind Transformations is Ayurveda. In Ayurveda, the first step to any healing process is to stop doing that which causes us harm. If we practice Ayurveda, then we can do anything in moderation, especially if we become skilled at rebalancing. But often the people asking the question about how long they need to do this are wondering if they will ever be able to do the things that created a chronic imbalance, and for this the answer is “no”, unless you want to feel the way you felt when you came to our office. You may be able to do some things, some of the time, but then you have to compensate with rest or restorative practices. If a high intensity life burned you out in the past, there is a weakness in your Central Nervous System (CNS) and other systems that will be impacted more strongly with less wear and tear in the future, no matter how good you feel right now.

Another aspect of the integrated process we use is to support the health of our neural pathways. Damaged or underdeveloped neural pathways can affect the function of our organs, our visual/auditory processing, coordination, balance, and the way we interact in the world. Though we can lose the ability to do things we once did easily if the neural pathways are damage by trauma or aren’t stressed in positive ways, we can also use various tools to support the correction of damage and provide positive stress to improve the health of our neural pathways. If the damage or developmental issues aren’t severe, then we should not have to redo or update any training we’ve done to correct this. Where severe trauma or neurodevelopmental concerns are present, we may need to be retrained periodically or have upkeep sessions. For most of the adults I’ve worked with, continuous training to support neural pathways is unnecessary.

If the neural pathways are reasonably healthy, the next aspect of our integrated process is to address neurotransmitter and bodily systems health. Poor neurotransmitter levels can affect our mood, energy, focus, immune response, sensitivities, sleep, headaches, impulsiveness, motivation, cravings, and more. Bodily systems which aren’t functioning well can affect our mental and physical performance. For example, we may eat organic food, but if our digestion is poor, the nutrients can’t be absorbed and used by our body which ultimately starves our tissues, including our CNS. Food, digestion, environment and experience will always affect us, so we’ll always have to be at least moderate in our attention to them. If you’re taking Ayurvedic herbs, I generally say that for something chronic, you may need to take them for six months. They shouldn’t be part of your long term plan for health. They should support the health of your tissues and your physical processes, but ultimately, you should be able to function well without taking the same formula for a longer period. If you need neurotransmitter supplementation, you’ll probably need to take some kind of targeted neuro supplementation for the long term. If your vitamin D was tested and found to be low, you would need ongoing supplementation. Neurotransmitter supplementation is no different. You did a urine test that showed high or low levels of various neurotransmitters. Though it might be wise to retest in 6 months or a year to see if something needs to be readjusted, you will probably always need some supplementation to stay balanced. It’s likely that your values were not optimal due to early developmental imbalances or chronic stress. Either way, your body hasn’t been able to keep up so far, and it’s probably going to need ongoing attention in that area. It’s very important that you continue to take appropriate neuro supplementation if you want to maintain the results you gained from neurofeedback and sound therapy because one of the things your neurotransmitters affect is your ability to learn or retain learning. Your neurofeedback and sound therapy training is being maintained by those chemical pathways called neurotransmitters.

If your neural pathways, neurotransmitters, and systemic health are reasonably balanced, then you shouldn’t need to do neurofeedback or sound therapy again, unless you want to attain new levels of performance and health. The real key to knowing what balance looks like in your life is contentment, which will require forging a new relationship with yourself, based on your constitution and any chronic weakness in your system.

1. Stop doing that which harms you.

2. Strengthen the health of your neural pathways.

3. Address neurotransmitter and bodily systems health.

4. Train your brain (CNS).

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