The Psychology of Place Inside and Out

Shirley Vanderbilt

What’s cluttering your life? Is it the stuff in the corner of the bedroom, or the stuff in the corner of your mind? What are you tolerating that keeps you from expressing your true self? Authors Bruce and Lou Stewart say that clutter–both in our environment and our mind–is stagnating, blocking the free-flow of energy, or chi, in our homes and lives. Whether we’re detouring around a box in the living room or repeating a negative pattern in our head, it’s time to clear the path.

In their new book, “Your Way Home–The Psychology of Place Inside and Out,” the Stewarts present a unique approach to clutter-clearing by combining Lou’s expertise in feng shui with Bruce’s mastery of neurolinguistic programming (NLP). While feng shui has to do with external placement and structure, NLP is a psychological approach that addresses our internal structure of mind, body, emotion, and spirit. With feng shui, we can free energy flow by rearranging the room; with NLP tools, we can do the same thing with our mind. The goal is to bring balance between the inner and outer sanctums by clarifying our core, or essential self, and allowing our environment to reflect and support our core values.

Making the Connection

When the Stewarts first blended their feng shui and NLP skills together in workshop presentations, they noticed it was easier for people to clear their environment when they were connected to their core.

“It really is a cycle,” Lou says. “The environment and our core are reflections of one another. When we know our core, it’s much easier to…(To read “the rest of the story” please click here Fall2020Newsletter

Mary Betts Sinclair

Do you have tension headaches or chronic tension in your upper body? How about neck and shoulder stiffness? Maybe you experience strain in the temples, forehead, neck, shoulders, or back, especially after a long period of working at a computer or reading a book? If so, your tension could be related to how you look at the world.

Healthy vision is comfortable, efficient, and relaxed for the viewer, while poor visual habits can interfere with free and easy movement, making the body chronically tense. We use our eyes much of the day, and if we strain to see, we create tension in the face, neck, shoulders, and back muscles. Squinting and straining when we have trouble making something out, or stiffening our entire neck, spine, and pelvis every time we look up can affect the entire body.

Most of us develop these vision habits without even being aware of them, but there are other health factors that can play a role. Up to 5 percent of children are born with some kind of visual abnormality, or develop one in the first few years of life. A lazy eye, for example, may cause a child to hike up one eye or one shoulder, or twist the neck to look out of the better-sighted eye at all times. Being sensitive to light might cause a child to develop the habit of hanging the head forward. Injuries to or near the eyes can also cause chronic tension in the muscles of the eyes or structures near the eyes. And finally, emotional stress can cause us to hold our muscles tight while we look out at the world.

What To Do

Step One: …(To read, “the rest of the story”, please click here Summer 2020 Newsletter)

According to findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Dermatology, people who eat foods containing high levels of vitamin A have a 17 percent risk reduction for getting cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma—the second-most common type of skin cancer among fair-skinned people. According to Eunyoung Cho, associate professor of dermatology and epidemiology at Brown University, “Skin cancer, including squamous cell carcinoma, is hard to prevent, but this study suggests that eating a healthy diet rich in vitamin A may be a way to reduce your risk, in addition to wearing sunscreen and reducing sun exposure.

Our study provides another reason to eat lots of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy diet.” Vitamin A-rich foods include apricots, broccoli, carrots, kale, spinach, and tangerines, to name a few.

Read the full study at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190731125417.htm.

Test the Waters

Is Your Skin Dry, or Dehydrated?

By Alex Caspero

Chapped lips, itchy skin, redness, and peeling are all common dry-skin symptoms as winter’s brutal cold and sharp winds settle in for the season. And, while many assume these issues are related to dry skin, it may be more perennial dehydrated skin.

DRY SKIN VS. DEHYDRATED SKIN

As a general definition, dehydration means your body is taking in less water than it’s losing. Therefore, dehydrated skin lacks water—compared to dry skin, which typically lacks natural oil. More simply put, dry skin is a skin type, while dehydrated skin is a condition usually related to other lifestyle factors. Dehydrated skin can affect anyone, regardless of skin type, pore size, or genetics.

Unlike other factors that may contribute to dry skin, like psoriasis or eczema, these conditions don’t cause dehydrated skin. Dehydrated skin can also cause dullness, darker under-eye circles, increased appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and shadows around the eyes.

LIFESTYLE FACTORS

The usual suspects of prematurely aged skin also play a role in dehydrated skin: smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and too much sun exposure. As both alcohol and caffeine are considered diuretics, reducing (or eliminating) these will benefit both skin appearance and hydration status.

A diet of high-sodium, processed foods and low-water plant-based foods is more likely to (If you’d like to read “the rest of the story”, please click here BS Winter 2020)

Beyond Pain Relief, Massage is Valuable for Preventive Care

– Karrie Osborn

This article first appeared in the Summer 2013 issue of Body Sense. Whether it is an aching back, recovery from an injury, a case of carpal tunnel syndrome, or a host of other debilitating physiological conditions, there’s no doubt massage and bodywork works to relieve pain. But once your therapist has helped you tackle your pain, do you quit calling? When the pain is gone, are you gone, too? Massage therapy is highly effective for pain relief, but it is an amazing preventive therapy as well. Massage helps build and maintain a healthy body (and mind), it combats stress, and it works to keep the immune system strong. In short, massage can keep on working for you, even after the pain is gone.

MASSAGE FOR WELLNESS

If it’s been a while since you booked your last massage–because your pain is no longer an issue or your injury is fully rehabbed–you might want to consider massage for preventive care.

Massage can play an important role in a good health-care regimen. Just as you eat healthily, exercise regularly, and take your vitamins to ward off illness and maintain a fit body, you should consider making frequent massage a part of your wellness lifestyle. According to Benny Vaughn, a sports massage expert in Fort Worth, Texas, one of the benefits of consistent and regular massage therapy is better flexibility. “This happens because regular and structured touch stimulus enhances the nervous system’s sensory and spatial processing capacity,” he says. “That is, the person becomes more aware of her body’s movement in space and becomes more aware of tightness or pain long before it reaches a critical point of mechanical dysfunction.”(to read this entire article and more, please click here Winter-2017)


Facing the Frost
The biggest wintertime concern is dehydration. In colder climates, you definitely need to increase the protection quotient. “You must over-treat skin to keep it hydrated,” says Barbara Schumann-Ortega, vice president of Wilma Schumann Skin Care in Coral Gables, Florida. That means a shift from lighter skin care products used during warmer months to winter-weight products, such as thicker, cream-based cleansers and moisturizers. These will provide stronger barriers against the harsh environment of winter months. And this is especially important for the face. And if much time is spent outdoors skiing, snowboarding, or walking, for example, your complexion needs heavy-duty protection from brisk wind and winter sun as well.

How to prolong the Benefits of Bodywork. A massage works in wonderful ways: easing stress and pain, calming the nervous system, increasing circulation…Click here for complete newsletter: Spring 2009-fsa