Happy Body - A Serena Podcast

Sure, this is short physical therapy session. But these exercises are operating at an entirely deeper level at the same time, if you choose to allow that. Why? The hips are the home of your emotional self and they are the gates within which you will find your second or sacral chakra. In anatomical terms, the sacrum is the triangular bone at the base of your spine.This part of your physical body is aligned with the location in your subtle body that is highly sensitive to your energetic and emotional connection to others. This is where you generate negative emotions like fear, sadness and anger which are always designed to preserve your life. But the intelligence of this part of our selves is very limited so these negative emotions, particularly in today's world, are mostly unnecessary. So, we need to assert our wise self's dominance over our emotional self. We do this not by force or coercion, but through love and compassion. So, even though this episode is concerned with providing simple instructions on how t

The hips are located in the area of your second chakra, your sacral energy center. It is the place where our emotions and our unconscious desires emerge. These parts of ourselves have an energetic dimension which can create a host of problems if they are not led and organized by our higher and wiser self. The simple movements you will be doing in this movement therapy session are designed not just to free up the tightness or relieve the soreness in the tissues of your hip and sacrum, but to release any blockages in your second chakra. For if the energy can’t flow, your health can become compromised, your emotional state can become unbalanced and negative, and your mind can become distracted or unfocused. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you are experiencing pain or tightness in your hips, there might just be a physical cause like sitting for too long on a plane or at the office. Or maybe a workout triggered it. But why your hips? Or why that particular part of your hips and why that particular pain? There may be a straight-line physical explanation. But there might also be an emotional trail that you can uncover. The hips are one of those places where we encode our trauma or our fears. When we have tightness or pain or soreness in these areas, it can mean that there is a repressed fear that has been encoded as a physical memory there. This pain can be an invitation to face that fear, to let go of being scared, to stop running away or trying to hide from it. So you can use these exercises to uncover and even release these negative energies and emotions. Or, if that all sounds too hippie-dippie or nothing comes up for you in this emotional excavation, you can just enjoy the softening and relaxing effect that these movements will have on the

Our hips are a part of our bodies that hold memories, and especially memories of relationships. Romantic relationships, family relationships, or relationships with work colleagues. You might even find that they store ancient memories of your history with people from past lives. So, working with your hips is an opportunity to discover what these memories are, to unlock them from the physical pattern they have woven in your tissues, to face these memories and free yourself from their negativity. And doing these exercises will help your hips will feel better too! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Skin rashes, itchy eyes, sneezing, pressure in the sinuses. Or maybe the inflammation is internal somewhere else in your body. Regardless of where it is, there is a breakdown in understanding. A confusion within your body. Your job is to clear up that confusion. Let’s take dust. Dust mites may seem like a scary invading army. And if you’ve every seen a picture they look every bit the frightening sci fi monster. But each part of nature plays its role in the greater whole. There is one species of dust mite, for example, that lives in the ground and its powerful enzymes break down the organic matter in soil. This enrichment actually enables life on earth. Unfortunately, similar enzymes, when they enter our eyes or nose or mouth from the dust in the air, can irritate and begin to break down the tissues within our body. So to our cells they look a lot like an invader that will harm us. And so, even though they are harmless, these sensitive tissues call forth the body’s powerful defenses against a fake threat

Allergens confuse your body. Your job is to clear up that confusion. Let’s take dust. Dust mites may seem like a scary invading army. And if you’ve every seen a picture they look every bit the frightening sci fi monster. But each part of nature plays its role in the greater whole. There is one species of dust mite, for example, that lives in the ground and its powerful enzymes break down the organic matter in soil. This enrichment actually enables life on earth. Unfortunately, similar enzymes, when they enter our eyes or nose or mouth from the dust in the air, can irritate and begin to break down the tissues within our body. So to our cells they look a lot like an invader that will harm us. And so, even though they are harmless, these sensitive tissues call forth the body’s powerful defenses against a fake threat and the recurring inflammation creates its own sort of sickness within us. But there isn’t a virus or killer bacteria behind that initial irritation. The enzymes in the dust are just doing what

In the ancient texts such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead (originally called the Book of Emerging Forth into the Light) they had a concept of spells. While there may have been true magicians and miracle workers, most of these spells exploited a foundational feature of human neurology: a careful and disciplined cultivation of our mind can change our physiological sate. Anyone can learn with just a few minutes practice to change the temperature of their fingertip, for example. These "spells" of old are taking advantage of this 'mind over matter' power that we all have.So how do we do that with allergies? We speak the language of our bodies and apply a systematic and repeated practice to rewire our brain and therefore our physiological response. From time immemorial, allergens like dust and pollen have been a symbol of both creation and destruction (“ashes to ashes, dust to dust”). These twin symbols cause our bodies to become confused in their presence, to mistake a harmless ingredient in the life making

From time immemorial, allergens like dust and pollen have been a symbol of both creation and destruction (“ashes to ashes, dust to dust”). These twin symbols cause our bodies to become confused in their presence, to mistake a harmless ingredient in the life making process (like pollen and dust) as something that could harm us; as something that requires a full blown immune system response. But the pollen or dander or dust isn’t a virus or some other potentially lethal invader. Today we are going to practice using the power of our words and our mind to turn down the dial, at least a little, on the magnitude of our allergic response.Note: This is a 15 minute version of the Hello Dust episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Allergies are an incredibly frustrating and uncomfortable phenomenon. It is easy to fell helpless. But you have a choice. You can react to the pollen or dust (or whatever your allergen is) with fear and resistance… or you can choose to cultivate love and acceptance. The physical discomfort and suffering you are experiencing in your allergic response is an invitation to cultivate an ongoing posture of submission and acceptance. If you weren’t having your allergic episode, you wouldn’t have the incentive to practice this. Think of your discomfort as being like an secret cup that you have within you. The allergy empties that cup and creates a longing for wellness. Yet unlike a really harmful invader like a flu virus, the pollen or dust that has “invaded” you is harmless so it is an easier act of self-mastery to dial down this response. Maybe even one day switch it off. Note: This is a 15 minute version of the Empty Cup episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Most people think that 'spells' are a fanciful legacy of primitive cultures. But in fact some of them have a basis in the way the brain and body interact. There are techniques anyone can follow (or 'spells' anyone can learn to 'cast') to exercise the mind's control over the unconscious activity of the body. Allergies are one of those activities that are susceptible, at least at the margins, to these 'spells'. It turns out that you have a choice. You can react to the pollen or dust (or whatever your allergen is) with fear and resistance… or you can choose to cultivate love and acceptance. The physical discomfort and suffering you are experiencing in your allergic response is an invitation to cultivate an ongoing posture of submission and acceptance. If you weren’t having your allergic episode, you wouldn’t have the incentive to practice this. Think of your discomfort as being like an secret cup that you have within you. The allergy empties that cup and creates a longing for wellness. Yet unlike a really harmfu

Are your wrists or forearms aching or sore? If so, this moving meditation will help them recover their comfort and ease. You can also use it warm them up before a day at the computer or a session at the gym. We tend to take our wrists for granted but they are delicate parts of our bodies and are so much more than just the junction between our arms and our hands. The wrist is the place where we express our skill, where our ideas are carefully shaped into form. Chances are they are sore or tired from over use, in which case we need to accept a time of limited expression or seek other ways to give voice to our ideas and plans and opinions. If they are aching, they are probably trying to teach us patience and show us the boundary of our abilities which otherwise might not be visible to us. Our body is asking us to slow down and we aren’t listening. So it is turning up the volume. We can choose to ignore the message but if you push much further, the body will get louder and an injury will be the next step.Note: I

Are your wrists or forearms aching or sore? If so, this moving meditation will help them recover their comfort and ease. You can also use it warm them up before a day at the computer or a session at the gym. We tend to take our wrists for granted but they are delicate parts of our bodies and are so much more than just the junction between our arms and our hands. The wrist is the place where we express our skill, where our ideas are carefully shaped into form. Chances are they are sore or tired from over use, in which case we need to accept a time of limited expression or seek other ways to give voice to our ideas and plans and opinions. If they are aching, they are probably trying to teach us patience and show us the boundary of our abilities which otherwise might not be visible to us. Our body is asking us to slow down and we aren’t listening. So it is turning up the volume. We can choose to ignore the message but if you push much further, the body will get louder and an injury will be the next step.This is

Are your fingers or hands sore? Are they aching or stiff? You can use this moving meditation to help release their tightness and restore them to a smooth and relaxed resting state. Chances are that they are bothering you because they have been overused. Computers and smartphones have added hours more of delicate hand use for all of us. And when you combine that with other activities it can all just be too much. But the hands represent the expression of your power and your ideas and thoughts so there could be more information embedded in this pain. Whether you are gesturing while speaking, using your hands to write or draw, employing them to move an object or touch someone close to you, your hands are always a physical extension of your mind, a manifestation of your mental activity, conscious or not. They lie at the intersection of the shadowy world of thoughts and feelings and the hard-edged, tangible world of form and matter. Indeed the root of the word manifest is Manus or hand. The hands manifest idea

You can use this moving meditation to help release their tightness and restore them to a smooth and relaxed resting state. Chances are that they are bothering you because they have been overused. Computers and smartphones have added hours more of delicate hand use for all of us. And when you combine that with other activities it can all just be too much. But the hands represent the expression of your power and your ideas and thoughts so there could be more information embedded in this pain. Whether you are gesturing while speaking, using your hands to write or draw, employing them to move an object or touch someone close to you, your hands are always a physical extension of your mind, a manifestation of your mental activity, conscious or not. They lie at the intersection of the shadowy world of thoughts and feelings and the hard-edged, tangible world of form and matter. Indeed the root of the word manifest is Manus or hand. The hands manifest ideas into tangible world around us. When our hands or fingers are

Hemorrhoids is a problem people don’t like to talk about. But it is very common condition. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, as many as 75 percent of Americans will be affected by hemorrhoids at some point in their lives.With hemorrhoids, there is a swelling of the veins of the anus due to too much contraction in this area. This distension of the blood vessels, like varicose veins in the legs, results from excessive blood accumulation in this area. The blood that is stuck in the anus veins is blood that in the normal course of events would have returned to the heart but instead has been held onto down below.Emotionally speaking, hemorrhoids suggests that you have difficulty in letting go and this difficulty is manifesting at the key point where your body let’s go naturally every day. Hemorrhoids suggest fear of the future, low self-esteem and a lack of happiness. You are so afraid of what might happen that you can only let go with pain, even shedding blood in the process. Pain in

Our Mid- and Upper backs hold the weight of the world, our world at least. And this weight can bring chronic or periodic pain. Fortunately we can use our bodies and minds to release this pain, to heal ourselves. We just need to know the code. Listen to this or the longer version to help you learn that code.Obviously, if are having a serious traumatic episode and are suffering from whiplash or very real back pain, please seek the help of a professional.If you enjoy these practical guided meditations, you may like to listen to the other Serena Podcasts which include more traditional guided meditations as well as the Ancient Masters Podcast which provides the theory behind these practices and where we are headed by doing them. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Our Mid- and Upper backs hold the weight of the world, our world at least. And this weight can bring chronic or periodic pain. Fortunately we can use our bodies and minds to release this pain, to heal ourselves. We just need to know the code. Scientists have identified and synthesized the parts of marijuana that make people feel so good and along the way they have figured out the answer to the mystery of why all human brains would have evolved a specific receptor in the brain for a plant that until recently only grew in South Asia. It turns out that the cannaboid system is key part of our brain’s regulatory structure. So we didn’t evolve to respond to that particular plant. We, and every other organism down to the lowly sponge uses cannaboids to maintain balance in the body. Amazingly, the effect of our self-produced cannaboids in our bodies, while not as strong as the highly concentrated versions that people consume from the cannabis plant, is the same. Our bodies also produce endorphins and anyone

Ready to release the tension in your back and shoulders? Having pain and tightness again? You have the power to fix it by taking advantage of the way the brain works, by hacking its mode of operation. The world we perceive isn’t what we think it is. Take the vision processing center of our brain. 90 per cent of all connections coming in to this part of our cortex don’t come from our eyes. They come from other parts of our brain, carrying predictions about what is in the world we “see” out there. Neuroscientists have concluded that this means that we construct our reality in our minds. A small trickle of fresh data from the outside world is used only at the margin to update the model in our mind of what we are “seeing.” This invented reality allows for much faster response to dangers so was evolutionarily advantageous. We are optimized for survival, not for complete and accurate perception of what is “out there.” This world-simulation feature also applies to our model of our bodies and its movement.

Imagine that you have a daughter and she has just come in from playing outside. She has a freshly skinned knee and is crying because the bully who pushed her down also took her dolly. Our bodies are like that. They can’t speak the language we use with each other so they tell us their troubles and fears through pain, soreness and restricted movement. We can learn the language of our bodies and demonstrate mastery of our selves by understanding and practicing this truth. And our sore muscles will feel better in the process! But a tight or spasming muscle can reach a point of complete debilitation so we may have to bring out the full tool box to settle our little girl down. So before you begin, consider deploying some of the other options you have available to you. They include things like: making sure we are drinking plenty of water, massaging in arnica cream or tiger balm, taking ibuprofen or other NSAIDs, using ice packs, a foam roller, calcium-magnesium supplements, hot baths/showers or Jacuzzi/sauanas,

Ever wonder why a hug feels so good? Or a massage? Or hot baths? It is because these are the sorts of “words” our bodies understand. We can’t command a muscle to relax with a thought or a sentence. We have to speak the body’s language. We do this by combining love and attention with movement and touch. Music works too. This is the language our bodies understand. We all carry the stresses of the day and the traumas of our past in our bodies. One of the common but often unrealized spots is our jaw and our mouths. Some of us grind our teeth as we sleep or seem to be more prone to toothaches or cavities than others. Or we square and tighten our jaw to face the challenges and fears and stresses of our day to day life. Avoiding that tension in the first place is the cure but fortunately, we can treat the symptom in a way that not only helps release this muscle tension but also contributes to the cure. By learning the language of our bodies we can practice mastery of our selves and our body and take a giant step for