Kan niet geloven dat ik zo lang niet heb geschreven, maar het leven heeft niet stilgestaan!

Vanavond is mijn nieuwe website live gegaan 
en volgende week vertrek ik alweer naar Griekenland om les te geven en te behandelen op Karpathos samen met Carla Groen en haar man Henk van Zeijl.
Alsof het gisteren was dat ik daar op het strand stond les te geven en genoot van de mensen, het heerlijke weer en het lekkere verse gezonde eten.

In de tussentijd heb ik afscheid genomen van dierbare vriendinnen die het tijdelijke met het eeuwige hebben verwisseld. Heb ik fysieke uitdagingen overwonnen. Ben ik inmiddels bijna 20 kg afgevallen vanaf mijn hoogste gewicht en ga ik vrolijk verder met trainen en het omarmen van mijn nieuwe dieet (geen dieet maar een levenswijze!). Vind ik het nog altijd heerlijk om mijn cliënten te behandelen en vind ik het super dat er nog steeds nieuwe  bij komen en dat er ook af en toe verloren schapen terugkeren. Heb ik een heel seizoen, onder de bezielende leiding van Anushka Hofman, lesgegeven aan Do-In docenten op de Nederlands School voor Klassieke Shiatsu, wat ik ook heerlijk vond. Ga ik in de rest van het jaar mij meer richten op mijn eigen ontwikkeling en de opleidingen die ik graag nog wil volgen, zoals de verkorte acupunctuur opleiding en de Doula opleiding. Kijk ik niet uit naar de BTW verhoging. Ga ik proberen meer aandacht te besteden aan mijn vrienden, die ik schromelijk verwaarloos sinds ondernemer ben. En was het weer een onvoorstelbaar feest om in Glasgow te zijn om mijn favoriete band in al hun glorie live te bewonderen, te knuffelen en met kletsverhalen te bombarderen.


Life is great!
And I feel good!
Yoff

Healer heal thyself.......

Clients and students are always a source of inspiration and also meant to be a mirror, so I stay in the here and now and keep on my toes. One important factor is that in the same reality I am also someone’s client and someone’s student. Now that first one never really stuck well with me. I’m up the River in Egypt with that one, as in “denial”. I perceive myself to be challenged but invincible. So when others get sick, I won’t. Where others need regular treatment, I don’t. Wrong! It is a well known behavior in therapist country that we ourselves are last on the list when it comes to receiving treatment on a regular basis. Best options would be trading with each other and regular study groups. I confess I’m guilty, I don’t plan either of those well or on a regular basis. So basically I don’t practice what I preach. Ergo, I’m just human and I do get sick. But then again, when I do, I have a whole lot of info to get myself through the process more swiftly and easily. And when I do, I finally turn to my colleagues and ask for help. Definitely a learning process. And now that it is once again autumn and the energies of lung and large intestine should be strongest as the metal element rules Autumn in the oriental five element cycle, what happens? My old friend and enemy bronchitis lurked and popped up its periscope. Compared to the debilitating two weeks in bed with heavy antibiotics I used to suffer from as a teenager, now I can function to about 75% and not have to stay in bed. So what is my learning curve here. Obvious I guess. I am not invincible, but I will survive and learn to ask for support on time. Check! All done. So apart from some coughing and sniffles I’m ready to rock and roll again. Now what it does make obviously clear to me is that everyone can use a little extra support this time of year. Fun! So I delve into my low artistic digital skills whip up a little flyer and offer my clients extra pampering for autumn/winter with a little discount. I love to offer special deals. And trust that my clients will know that preventative care and pampering will do them just as much good as mine did for me!

Less is more or sometimes different is more

I’m a firm believer in using supplements to support your body through certain periods in life. Sometimes that means taking 6 different ones and sometimes you forget to buy new bottles and it means just taking a multi vitamin supplement for a while. There is so much on the market nowadays that it is confusing and then add up to that the unique and personal aspect of what you need and it all becomes a bit complex. Adding in the factors, price, quality, the vision and mission statement of the producing company, factoring in if it is vegan, without additives and produced with the most respect towards mother earth and the employees involved. These can all be factors that matter to you, or not!

Sometimes you intuitively know what you need. Sometimes you need someone else to assist you in sorting it out. Sometimes you don’t even know that there is something out there that might be useful to you at any given time. Or which brand is best and which foods you need to add or to leave out so that your body can more easily assimilate the substances you need to supplement. It’s a whole new world, and maybe you just don’t want to dive into it.

At the moment 've decided to delve into the world of cell salts or Schussler salts. It seems we are born with perfect amounts of everything and then succeed in depleting one or more of these essential salts from our body along the journey of life. My kinesiologist helps me to determine what is needed at any given time. So you see I on the same path as you, and that is why I find this so amazing and interesting to share with you.

Taking them is easy as pie, they dissolve easily under or on your tongue, or you can dissolve them in water which you take small sips of throughout the day.

You can read more about it online yourself, but here are a few websites to check out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biochemic_cell_salts

http://www.doctoryourself.com/cell_salts.html

http://homeoinfo.com/08_non-classical_topics/minimal/schuesslers_cell_salts.php

Although there is a strong resemblance to homeopathic remedies in the descriptons, the cell salts are not strictly seen as being homeopathic medications. There are 12 basic salts…..and then some.

So if you are for example experiencing cramping, muscle pains, not sleeping so well, one might advise you to try out magnesium as a supplement. Now in some people this supplement works just fine and in others it is not easily assimilated for whatever reason and seems to lead to no positive result at all. Then you  might want to try the magnesium Schussler salt, after which you do start getting results. Don’t bother to ask why, just embrace that there are different ways to get to the same destination.

So what I mean to say today is, it’s worthwhile to investigate, collaborate and try out a new way of looking at supplements to support your general health and / or specific temporary needs in that department. I’ll be glad to accompany you on that voyage, there is no end to what we can learn and find and implement for ourselves.

what's going on?............two ways to go with the flow!

I thought I should sit down for a minute and think about what Shiatsu and Reiki mean to me and could mean for others. First of all there is the wonderful effect of tranquil quality time for you while being treated, knowing that someone is really listening to you and what is going on in your body. Secondly…..well there are a few hundred of those!

To me personally Shiatsu is a very earthy grounded way to optimize the flow of energy in your body. It’s all yours to begin with anyway. We as therapists don’t put anything in and we don’t take anything out. We just sort out where the boulders have fallen into your little flowing rivers of energy (aka meridians) and try to softly urge those boulders to move out of the way so your energy can once again flow unhindered and freely. This is how harmonization is achieved and the amazing healing properties of your own body kick in and do their part. And all from sticking fingers or needles in a few choice points. Now how is that for amazing and useful? Of course a few thousand years of studies upon studies and lot’s of research into natural healing happened before it became so readily available to us all. I am incredibly grateful and it still brings me joy every day to study and deepen my knowledge (and understand each day that I know less and less in the vast realm of available knowledge!). And I also really enjoy sharing the little bit I do know with others, so they can feel better and take matters into their own hands. You get the point right? I love Shiatsu!

Now the love for Reiki came much less natural to me or so I thought. But now that I am working with it regularly and have finished studying with a few choice teachers, I am quite happy and at ease with it and mostly enjoy organizing workshops to once again share this knowledge with others. That was actually the greatest wish of the founder of the whole movement Mikao Usui. He wanted to have this healing energy (modality) available to everyone everywhere, or at least to as many people as possible. If you want to have more in depth information on Reiki I can highly recommend the books by Frans and Bronwen Stiene http://www.ihreiki.com/reiki_info/and also by Frank Arjava Petter http://www.reikidharma.com/en/index_en.html. Interesting also to see how Reiki evolved and grew in the western world, and how it actually still exists in a more pure and simple form in the traditional Japanese schools of Reiki. But you can find that out for yourself if you are interested!

I perceive Reiki to be a fond sister of Shiatsu, but there where Shiatsu is more earthy and more internal, I find Reiki more “heavenly” aka universal as coming from all around us (air, trees, water, grass, sunlight, etc), readily available, but we just often forget to ask for support or to be connected to the natural flow. So with Reiki we become vessels that temporarily condense this flow so it can be used to cleanse and heal the person we are treating. The bottom line here is, and this is the case with most healing modalities, that we are striving to harmonize the energy in the body and through that invite the natural healing abilities of the body, mind and soul to come back into effect. This also goes for Yoga, Shiatsu, Reiki, Do-In, Bowen therapy, Lomi Lomi, Holistic Pulsing and all the other modalities I could mention. We all want to be whole, healthy and free flowing. It’s as simple as that. I also see energy and energy work as an expression of love, love is energy and both Shiatsu and Reiki are all about energy right? So if you want to come and give it a try…….please feel free! You will know when it is your time and you will know what feels best to you. And I will be waiting here for you, I can be easily teased away from my books and studies if someone comes to visit so we can share this amazing 

energy stuff that makes you feel better! 

".....Even flow, thoughts arrive like butterflies

Oh, he don't know so he chases them away
Oh, someday yeah he'll begin his life again, yeah
Whispering hands gently lead him away........"

Reinventing yourself

I've been in the business of bodywork for quite a while now. Recently my whole life underwent a boost on many levels. I realized that it had become easy to fall into the trap of running on autopilot. Not that this means that you give less, or that you are less alert or invested in what you do by any means. But it just sort of creeps up on you. So with the help of my nearest and dearest I am going to revamp my website (will let you know when it is ready!), take a close look at my information folder and start coming out of the stone age and starting to properly use social media and other tools to show the world I'm available and still going strong. I'm pretty sure it will be great fun. I also decided to dip into the world of Groupon and see what it would mean to put my name out there through that medium as well. It's been interesting to say the least. But what warms my heart the most is that this last week it has not brought me shoppers looking for a cheap deal, but really truly wonderful people, mostly very open and definitely walking a very spiritual path. All at their own pace. It was quite an eye-opener for me. And I'm just really excited to be sharing the wonderful benefits of Shiatsu with a whole new generation of clients.
So although re-inventing yourself is at times time and energy consuming, it brings so much. Just like I believe the body works (when properly used) I now also believe that renewing the place where I depart from as a professional also works. It all works! So here I am: taking control of the wheel again.