Posts Tagged ‘Migraines’

Faith is belief in the absence of proof

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

I have been exceedingly busy in the last few weeks, so have not had a great deal to say. In the midst of studying degree modules and completing tasks towards fund raising for our big event in March next year, and getting back into training for that, on top of integrating a whole new format for teaching yoga, and work and  homelife and somewhere in that schedule I have to find time to sleep! :-) blogging has been a bit low in my list of priorities, so guess I will have to get to it when I can.

At this moment in time, life is hectic but, oh so much fun…….everyday I am proving to myself that aspirations are possible and the only things that stop us is the ‘taking action’ part, ‘feeling the fear and doing it anyway’. I am finding inspiration in books, films, other people, quotations as in the title of this post. “Faith is belief in the absence of proof”.

We generally think of faith as religion, Christianity, Judaism, Islam…. religions which put their faith into  texts of old and practice without questioning, the words of those texts and of their respective religious leaders.

But faith can be belief  in a theory or philosophy, in an individual, but probably and most importantly, in my own thinking, faith can be belief in oneself. In ones own abilities and strengths to achieve and accomplish, to complete and arrive wheresoever ones choices take them. Of course belief in ones abilities to  accomplish, cannot be subject to testing scientifically and so by default proof of ability is absent. Track record becomes the benchmark.

 What is it to have sufficient faith in oneself, blind belief that their dreams or aspirations are within their own reach? Some might call it delusion or wishful thinking, or having your head up in the stars. Maslow called it self actualisation and Jung referred to it as individuation.

History has given us Einstein, Newton, Mother Theresa, Margaret Thatcher and Barack Obama and many countless more who started with an idea, a dream or an aspiration. Whether you are the first female priminister of Great Britain and turned out to be an iron lady, or you are the first black American President in a country who would until  147 (January 1st 1863) years ago been considered a slave. Whether you were Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandhi or Nelson Mandela, this world has seen huge amounts of belief in the absence of proof, and thank God! ( if there is a God) that these people did believe and did fight for freedoms and dreams. Imagine what this world would have been had we stood down to the mass murderers and dictators of time gone by.

The human spirit is a powerful thing, but humans on the whole are pretty cool, full stop!!  Consider for one moment the way we tick and what puts us out of sink, simply complicated…not a man made machine to compare, nor a species of intelligence able to match. Humans are truly unique  and that uniqueness expresses through to us individually, even though we are made up of common components.

This brings me to what I work with… the human body…in states of pain…physical, emotional, psychological. Conventional professionals (not counting the open minded ones, obviously!) berate the work of my kind and tell us it is without scientific foundation and yet countless patients walk through my clinic door and amaze me in their ability to work with their own healing. Colleagues all over the country report similar experiences and each time I encounter such events my belief becomes stronger. My faith in  my work and in the human spirit is reinforced. My faith in Fascia :-) is bound without scientific proof. This simple but beautiful structure, compliant and yet specific in its mechanics and memory, supporting our body’s structures from skin to internal organs is truely a thing of wonder and when felt or sensed and complied with can take a person from pain to health, from misery to joy, from a life without quality to a life of endless potential and possibilities.

From a common cold to a potentially terminal illness, I believe the cure is in the individuals own body, to re-address health and fitness. It is by no means an easy task and does require enormous, unflinching belief and as with all things the human spirit is its key.

I was out shopping last Thursday, and met a patient who I had worked with a year ago. A woman who suffered anxiety, heart palpitations, panic attacks, she saw the whole world as her enemy, she felt herself unliked and unwanted, she was prone to carrying the worlds burdens on her shoulders and yet when she saw me she greeted me with the most beautiful of smiles and her posture was changed dramatically, her words were all positive. she paid me a compliment by telling me she “could never have done it without me”. The truth is actually the reverse of that, when you consider she had been doing whatever she had been doing for a whole year, without seeing me. My reward was in observing her so changed, so healthy and so vibrant. What I learn from that is that proof doesnt always have to be measurable, it can as easily be seen, to be believed.

Craniosacral therapy, visceral manipulation, myofascial release therapy and manual lymphatic drainage  are powerful aids to the body’s own healing capabilities. If you have questions or concerns related to health matters you can email me directly on shehnaz@touchofhealing.co.uk or visit my website www.touchofhealing.co.uk

thankyou for reading

Shehnaz

The stress of politics

Monday, May 10th, 2010

I am not someone who is really interested in politics. I find myself not entirely believing what the politicians say, infact I realise I am alittle synical about their motives…this coming from someone who essentially tries to see the good in all humans (well until they me otherwise)….sadly that is not the case and in recent news the greatest depravity of mankind shows through, in alot of what is going on. Greed is just one example…

I dont consider myself in any shape or form an authority I go on what I see, as politics goes, and looking at Mr Cameron I am reminded of Tony Blair who many years ago promised us the earth and then took us into a futile war on the behest of an american president. Right now Nick Clegg is in an unenviable position of brokering a deal, but we are all still wondering which way it will go…bless him…we thought England was going to see History in the making, judging by the poles, he may have thought he had a real chance at the premiership… 

But if I am honest I look at Gordon Brown and my heart goes out to him. He so wanted to govern this country, but luck has simply not been on his side. My husband mentioned that Brown and Blair had had a pact in the early years that at some point Blair would give up leadership of Labour and leave the avenue open for Brown to take over provided there was no opposition. Well Blair must have had a crystal ball in tow, because he got out just before the preverbial s***  hit the fan so to speak.

I voted on Thursday, but I have no idea of what my local candiditates name is and my daughter later mentioned he didnt even live in the area…I know I voted for the leader. Alot of people do that…the leader of the party is the face we most see, and therefore it is in truth the person we vote for. Even though here in the UK we dont have a presidential electoral system, personality counts. Policies are important too, but its about who we most trust. The hung parliament implies that maybe we dont really know who to trust. Going back to the leaders themselves, David Cameron, with majority seats is entitled I suppose to claim the highground, but I keep thinking about Gordon Brown.

If as I mentioned earlier the country votes primarily on leadership, then Gordon Brown was never voted in by the public. Ever since he has come into power the world in general has been going into melt down, driven to a large degree by the greed of the banking industry, which here in the UK had regulation lifted from them. At the time it may have seemed a good idea for our econony, but history has obviously shown it was a huge gaff, and probably a big part of Browns eventual downfall. That an scandal  after scandal. Personality wise he isnt great, though his intentions may be genuine, what we see is whats on the outside.

In the last debate, after he locked horns with the lady in the north, he looked exhausted. In that final debate he was struggling to keep his eyes open, and they were bloodshot, probably from lack of sleep. He could not even manage what I would describe as a genuine smile. He looked in need of some manual lymphatic drainage massage for the puffiness around his eyes, and some serious muscular lift and enhancement on his jowels. (Acupressure and facial rejuvenation). Ofcourse this is all aesthetic and to a large degree is a reflection of whats going on inside him, but his stress levels must have been through the roof. Its scary to think what it must feel like to him, what it must be doing to his esteem to know his party internally must be biting their lips to see him off and the public obviously finally got to say ‘get out’ to him. I dont envy his position one little bit. Personally, I cannot blame him for wanting to be top dog, but I feel that he should have gone to the poles immediately Blair left and given the public a chance to have their say as to whether it was ok for him to be their priminister. If he had been brave enough to do that instead of hanging on to something that the public didnt see as his, he might not have been staring at the the kind of humilation that I feel sure people are just edging to meat upon him. Its a shame but…..c’est la vie.

A Successful Day For the British Heart foundation

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

On Saturday the 1st May, My husband, my daughter and I did our very first fund raising event for the British Heart Foundation towards our trip to base camp everest in the Himalayas in March 2011. Up and until last Saturday we had raised approximately £600 towards the collective total of 12,000.

It was the annual flower parade in Spalding, and as is customary, although not so popular as it used to be, hoards of people from all over the world came over to watch the parade. Myself and a number of my family members were there offering Henna Tattoos and Indian Head Massage, for donations.

Although it was forcast torrential rain, it stayed fine and the sun shone from start to the point we finished. Only then did the heavens open up…was that pure luck or devine intervention :-) . Well I am sure there will have been many people in Spalding praying for a good sunny day and it turned out to be just that.

It was a slow start with lots of people reading our Banner and showing interest, but feeling unsure. But it soon took off and by the end of the day we had raised £252.00. Ofcourse it was only fair that we make a donation to St Pauls Church at Low Fulney in Spalding for kindly allowing us to use their grounds.

The event very nearly didnt happen. The grounding of planes meant we couldnt get the popular prepared henna shipments in from overseas and an 11th hour intervention by a niece of mine saved the day, and the day before the event itself I slipped on moss, whilst trying to save a bird trapped in the roof of our small office. I landed on my back and as I lay in agony my first thoughts were that I wouldn’t manage to get through the day on Saturday.

Well luckily I did manage to stand up, initially I took pain killers, but spent the rest of the day giving myself direct energy, which is a technique in CranioSacral Therapy and requested all my friends from facebook,  to send me Reiki and other healing, and somehow on Saturday, you would not have known there was anything wrong with me, until the whole thing finished and then my back said ‘enough’!

It was a great day, and we took another step in the right direction.

5 ways to master your emotions

Monday, April 19th, 2010

I came across an article in a prominent womens magazine, given the title as above, and before actually reading the editorial I wrote the 5 ways which came to my mind based upon my experience and skill as a bodyworker, and yoga teacher. My 5 ways are:

1 Diet comprising of unrefined, unprocessed predominatly fresh food, and nutritional supplements

2. Pranayamic breath work

3. encouring self awareness

4. Letting go of  energies which serve our lives in a negative manner, and replacing them with positive energy, which encourages our growth and development. The most positive of which is Love. Love of self, love of others, love of the universe and its abundant qualities.

5.Yoga and meditation

Within these 5 ways you take care of mind, body and soul. Womens Health Magazine gave their 5 ways  as these:

1) Feeding the Brain vitamins

2)Breathing right

3)Know thyself

4)Step Out of the same old story

5)get your daily dose of Love and laughter (not quite in that terminology)

Its obvious that their 5 ways are incorporated into my first 4. I was actually surprised they didnt  mention Yoga or meditation. Meditation is the single most effective way of calming the mind, and switching off the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system alongside correct breathing, which is notorious for its negative impacts outside its normal function of homeostasis and fight or flight response. Both of these phenomenon are mentioned in up and coming articles, so watch out for them if you are interested. 

In  a previous blog I mentioned that I have begun teaching Yoga Classes in my village. These classes are going down really well and already I am being asked to set up a second evening class, and the young girls from a community group I teach for free are also asking when I will be restarting. Its incredibly satisfying to know this ancient art is still so much in demand and growing in popularity.

Yoga has become a huge passion for me in recent years, and the more I work at it, the more I understand that its basis is sound. The meditative component targets the emotional turmoil which often threatens to overpower us with mental diseases like depression and anxiety. The physical postures and the progressive stretches, manipulate and lengthen a component of  tissue which is incredibly important in bodywork, this is connective tissue or what is known as Fascia. In an article which I wrote on Touch for Therapeutic purposes I talk about connective tissue or Fascia and its ‘personality’.

I beleive stuck, congested or contorted fascia is responsible for pain, chronic illness and more contraversially terminal health problems. Right from headaches, to asthma and to cancer fascial misalignment may be the answer to why we suffer ill health. Craniosacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation, Manual Lymphatic Drainage massage, Myofascial Release Therapy and Trigger point therapy are all ways we access the personality of fascia, and hopefully change it for the good of the patient.

Hello my name is Shehnaz

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Hello my name is Shehnaz Dungarwalla, from my beginnings as a beauty therapist some 20 or so years ago, my interest in peoples health has taken me from the world of the aesthetic into philosophy and teachings which promote the ability of the human spirit to overcome health issues, encourage positive thought patterns and take their lives into a realm they perhaps never believed. There are two things I have experienced recently, which most readily sum up what I have effectively been living, or trying to live and continue to integrate. Firstly from the film “Invictus” and secondly from the author Alex Howard a book entitled “Why ME”.

“We are the masters of our soul” and to truly live to our fullest potential we must “take action” to create our desired outcomes in life. We can see lifes challenges as opportunities to learn and grow from or we can let those challenges chew us up and spit us out. Its entirely our call.

These words are easy to say, but are not so easy to live, especially if you are someone who has suffered illness longterm, or endured pain with no sign of light anywhere in your future. If you are someone who crumbles under emotional stresses, how do you hope to see a world of opportunities instead of the whirlwind that constantly threatens to swallow you up?

A quote that is utilised in “Why ME” by Alex Howard says “It doen’t matter how many times you give up along the way, as long as you keep putting one foot infront of the other”.  Sometimes it a case of having some one caring enough to help you through those difficult times, or knowing there is someone who has professional knowledge and skill with the ability to guide and encourage you. This article on complementary medicine may be of interest to you:  why choose complementary medicine.