Watsu Water Therapy

Thanks for visiting my Work and Life Balance Blog.

I had THEE most bliss-inducing experience recently and I am eager to tell you about it!

Have you heard of Watsu water therapy? Watsu is gaining recognition for its incredible benefits to body, mind and soul.

The Sunshine Coast of British Columbia is now blessed to have had a beautiful, new Watsu water therapy pool and spa open recently. Fortunate me, I got to experience a water session (as a thank you for being a "photo model" for the website of this new spa facility).

Here's me in the photo below being loving supported and guided by my friend and sensitive Watsu practitioner, Taylore Sinclair. Being gently moved, rocked, massaged and swirled around in the water sent me into immediate bliss... even while a photographer was taking photographs!

So, what is Watsu? Here's a description I found to explain it...

"Watsu is a unique form of aquatic bodywork that is practiced in a warm pool environment. It is a very soothing type of massage that takes place in warm, waist-deep water. Its name comes from a combination of the words “water” and “shiatsu.”

It was developed by Harold Dull back in 1980, when he started applying Zen Shiatsu stretches to students floating in the warm pool at Harbin Hot Springs in California. Small floats are used to keep the body buoyant, helping to create a thermal and gravitational state of homeostasis in which the receiver’s external experience is aligned with our body’s internal state.

With Watsu, the client is supported by the practitioner and the experience is profoundly personal; the eyes typically close, the ears under water do not track for sound, and the brain wave patterns deepen to an alpha state similar to that of meditation."

Taylore twirled me through the water, one way then another, taking my body through a series of passive stretches and twists, applying various shiatsu pressure points throughout the water session. I found being held and moved in the comfortably warm water deeply relaxing. My attention turned inward, my breath deepened, my mind became quiet and my body found it's own unique pattern of movement. I felt an almost immediate sense of well-being as my busy outer world fell away and my attention turned to the present moment.

In addition to the emotional, spiritual benefits, Watsu has a good therapeutic effect on the body the water allowing the spinal column to be moved in ways that aren't possible on land. Allowing myself to be cradled in another's arms in deepish water was a positive experience in trusting that someone is there to support me. Aches disappeared and I felt like liquid both in and out of the pool later. I came away feeling deeply relaxed, emotionally opened AND I slept like a baby that night!

Please visit Taylore (and husband, Bill's) beautiful website for more information...

... (you'll see me "starring/floating" in the photographs)...

... http://www.beyondthewavesspa.com/

I hope to Watsu again really soon... and you might want to check this lovely healing method out for yourself, too.

Love, Carolyn

http://www.life-balance-success.com/

Connecting A Million Hearts

Earth Day may be past for another year now, but when I was gifted with this lovely web-link below, which has an important message to carry throughout the year, I knew I had to share it with you!

Make sure you have a few quiet moments before you click on the following link. The beauty that you are about to witness will undoubtedly touch you (as it did me) and you'll be asked to participate in a visual and kinesthetic experience... worth not being interupted.

When you're ready, click here and enjoy. You might want to pass this link on to all of your loved ones, for it has a message that can touch lives and the wellbeing of the planet, if spread far enough.

http://www.connectingamillionhearts.com/

Warmly, Carolyn

http://www.life-balance-success.com/

Healing Touch for Health

Thanks to USA Today and Phil Galewitz for writing an encouraging article about Healing Touch, a gentle, energy-based alternative method of healing.

"Healing Touch... not just a rubdown."

"Healing touch is not a massage. Sometimes the practitioner's hands hover above the body and don't actually make contact. Healing touch is an "energy therapy" that uses gentle hand techniques purported to help re-pattern the patient's energy field and accelerate healing of the body and mind. It is based on the belief that people have fields of energy that are in constant interaction with the environment around them, Wardell says.

More than 86,000 nurses and other health professionals use healing touch in hospitals and in private practice, according to Healing Touch International, a non-profit Colorado-based group that certifies practitioners."

To read the entire article, entitled: "Healing Touch: A new patient outreach program" click on this link...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-11-04-healing-touch_N.htm?POE=click-refer

As a certified Healing Touch Practitioner myself, I am very excited to read stories of this nature! If you've never had a treatment (and, no, you DO NOT have to be sick in order to benefit!), gift yourself with one. It is a lovely process that quietens and re-balances the entire body, mind and spirit!

Warmly, Carolyn

http://www.life-balance-success.com/

Retreat Programs for Personal Development

Welcome!

Richard and I recently facilitated a 3-day Inner Fitness(R) Personal Retreat Program for a couple wanting to better their relationship. They came extremely openminded and willing to look honestly at themselves and how their personal "stuff of the past" was contributing to their current woes.

It was such an honour to support them to go beyond their limitations into a new way of being together. They left with a much better understanding of themselves and felt excited about how they were growning in their love and relationship!

You might wonder what an Inner Fitness(R) Personal Retreat Program entails.

These personalized programs are designed in consultation with you to help you meet your personal aspirations for a more fulfilling life and relationship. Organic by nature, we would work to support you and your specific needs... each program being very different from each other, based on what each couple needs resolving in their relationship.

Our commitment is to help you grow free from historical patterning, strengthen new attitudes and behaviours, heal old wounds, improve your communication and interpersonal skills, increase levels of energy and peace of mind... and thereby recognize your greatest potential to live authentically together.

With almost 30 years of experience in our own loving relationship and in our counselling practice, Richard and I know that when we work to better ourselves while reflecting on how our individual "stuff" affects our significant relationship, this becomes an important combination for transformation!

Three full days spent working on your relationship can become a vital turning point for a new way of being together. $1995US includes the program and all of your lunches and dinners... transportation and accommodation not included.

Here is what one of our Retreat Program couples wrote about their time with us...

"Thank you so much for our (retreat) time. We cannot express how much this has helped us and we're so happy with what we have now started."

R & S from Washington State

For more information about our Inner Fitness(R) Retreat Programs, click this link...

www.innerfitness.ca/programs or give me a call and discuss your interest.

A little support to grow personally AND in how we relate with our beloved can make a life-changing difference... and all of us can use a little support at times! Is it your time to nurture yourself and your significant relationship? We have much to offer.

Warmly, Carolyn and Richard Clarke

www.life-balance-success.com

P.S. Our "Becoming the BEST YOU Possible" eBook offers an extensive chapter on improving relationships, if you're not ready for a retreat program yet.

Coming Alive at The Haven

Warm hellos again.

It has been a long stretch since I last wrote as I've been away on a personal development program entitled, "Coming Alive" at The Haven Institute for the past ten days.

This time away (from the intensity of writing our eBook and developing the website to promote the eBook) gave me the break I've SO needed... time to step out of living in my busy head and to focus on and nurture my heart, body and soul.

Coming Alive is not for the faint of heart. Each participant was called upon to search deep inside for the courage to be there among virtual strangers and do "the work"... me included.

With 28 other participants, this became our opportunity to share deeply in caring support of each other and to look at our individual inhibiting patterns of feelings and behaviours together. Believe me, we were not strangers for long... friendships quickly got deep. There were many different lives and many different life stories present... every heart-touching story you could ever imagine.

I learned much about myself, with my fellow journeyer friends reflecting important aspects of me that I wished to be free from. This program is about transformation... and transform I did.

The quiet mornings had me participating in a rigorous Hula dance class with the wonderfully brilliant and entertaining teacher, Gary Dillon. I felt truly joyous dancing every day.

And not once but TWICE I gifted myself with the most powerful massage I have ever had the opportunity to experience... LomiLomi Hawaiian massage! It is not only a very thorough deep muscular massage, but a sacred event as I was chanted and sung to by the practitioner, who was also the same Gary. Talk about bliss!

Mid-day, each day, the swimming pool beckoned me for resistance exercises followed by dreaming in the sunshine. Evenings, I joined others for lively conversation in the awesome hottub overlooking the beautiful night lights of Nanaimo across the inlet.

Every day offered me valuable time to walk in the beauty of the coastal environment, to move my body more than I'd done in many months and to feel new levels of muscle tone returning.

Every day offered me the opportunity to listen to the stillness within and to journal write the truth of my heart. I witnessed both sunrises and sunsets, too.

Great healthy food, lots of water, deep conversations and friendships that quickly emerged from mere strangers... this was my soul food. I even came home with several recipes of my favorite dishes... thanks to Travis!

I learned many very important things about myself, for which I feel grateful.

I learned that I NEED to be an integral part of a community of like-minded individuals living their potential, free from patterned behaviours.

I learned that I need quiet time every day to reflect on life and being on this human journey.

I learned that I am naturally an energetic and physically strong person.

I learned that I have a good heart to help others, even though I have the tendancy to "caretake" at times.

I learned that fear and anxiety are my own creations and that I can surrender them through breath.

I learned that I can still my mind and be at home in my body through movement sessions.

I learned that I am willing to fight hard for the expression of my life passions... that mediocrity is NOT an option.

I was reminded of how much I love the outdoors, taking photographs of nature and sharing them around.

You know, we ALL require time away from the craziness of our everyday lives to remember what is really important for our life quality...

... in our heart

... in our emotion

... in our soul

... in our body

... and in our being a part of the human experience in relation to one another.

We can be wonderful mirrors for each other to grow, if we allow ourselves to be open.

I will go to The Haven again... I hope sooner than later. If you are looking for an amazing place to step back, get unstuck and become more in touch with who you really are, I highly recommend that you consider going to this special haven for personal growth. http://www.haven.ca/

In addition to carrying on my daily personal growth practices, my task now that I am home is to introduce our "Becoming the BEST YOU Possible" eBook to the Internet public. I hope you'll check it out for yourself and share it around with others you see that can use some support with getting rebalanced in life.

http://www.life-balance-success.com/

I'll talk to you again in a day or two.

Namaste, Carolyn

http://www.innerfitness.ca/

Chiropractor Care

In my continued interest in my own work and life balance, I have included a new healthcare practitioner to help me... a chiropractor! My city chiropractor of years past just wasn't close enough in proximity anymore, so I've found someone closer to home.

It seems that all the sitting I've endured over these last six months of writing our "Becoming the BEST YOU Possible - Tools for Work and Life Balance" eBook has caused a feeling of compression in my spine and I've been hurting.

I had my first session with Dr. Steve Mayall last week and was immediately impressed with his knowledge, professionalism and his ability to shift me back into better alignment. I couldn't help but notice the parallel of how chiropractor care is to life... forever shifting around into better alignment and balance!

Fascinated that the initial computer reading taken of my spine, its colors revealed the exact thermal "hotspots" of where I was hurting and holding the most. It allowed Dr. Steve accuracy in treating my touchy back with deep massage-like movements before the actual adjustments.

I admit I've felt muscle sore for the last few days where he did his most focused work, and even more emotionally sensitive, too. We know from our counseling work that when you work at one level of healing, it affects all the other levels of our experience as well. By adjusting my body alignment, it moved energy not only at the physical level, but caused a rush of held emotions to be released. Overall, I feel so much better and I look forward to my next treatment.

I will see Dr. Steve with some frequency over this next while, to re-enforce this new alignment. His care comes at a perfect time, as our eBook is just days from being launched now, so soon I'll be out from behind the computer monitor and more active again.

If you have kinks in your body that cause you stiffness or pain, I highly recommend including a Chiropractor to your health-care team. And if you live in the Sechelt, B.C. area, I recommend Dr. Steve Mayall.

Here's to life in balance!

Warmly, Carolyn
www.innerfitness.ca