Acorn Health Blog

By Eileen Strong Therapeutic Massage & Holistic Complementary Therapist

What is meditation anyway?

It’s really just a state of being when your mind becomes quieter. You have less thoughts per minute. That doesn’t sound like much until you stop and notice how many thoughts you are having every minute! If you try sitting down with a piece of paper, and mark it with a tick every time a new thought comes along, you will see what I mean.

So when you notice the noise and chatter in your mind, you can simply decide to slow things down so you feel less bombarded by them. When you learn to meditate, you learn to listen to your thoughts in a different way, observe them and manage them, so they begin to feel less overwhelming.

Your brain has a range of different operating frequencies, depending on what you are doing in the course of your day. I like to think of this like the gears of a car that you adjust to travel smoothly at the speed you need. So as your mind grows quieter and more calm, it begins to slow down though it’s gears and that, in turn, triggers the activation of many wonderful chemical/hormonal reactions in your body that have a whole range of benefits.

And as your mind and body become more relaxed and balanced, your emotions benefit too. This is why the holistic approach to health and wellbeing is so effective, because then benefit the whole person, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually.

So its win-win really. It can just take a little practice. There are different types and styles of meditation, so it’s worth trying as many as you can to find which works best for you. Here are just a few of the recorded benefits:

– It reduced levels of stress and anxiety

– Helps reduce physical pain and boost the immune system

– Lowers blood pressure

– Increases blood flow to the brain and improves your powers of concentration

– Promotes deep sleep

– Balances the emotions

– Helps your develop deeper self awareness

Developing a regular meditation practice, either daily or a few times a week, even for 5 or 10 minutes (whatever you can manage in your routine) can really make a difference.

You learn techniques during meditation that you can embrace within the rest of your day, to help you feel calmer and less pulled about by the people and the world around you.

And of course, the more you feel like that, the better decisions you make.

And the better decisions you make, the better your life becomes. Simples.

So why not give meditation a try. At Acorn, my classes use guided meditation/visualisation with a focus not only on relaxation, but also on self healing , empowerment and positive life changes.

We also have special guest teachers along from time to time so that you can experience other types of meditation too (such as our very popular Zen Meditation night last year with my good friend Jibul from Peak Zen .. and we have a few more lined up too, so do keep your eyes peeled for those!)

Here’s our upcoming dates:

Introduction to Meditation Weds 11 April 7-8 pm £8

Suitable for new starters and people who are a bit rusty, an informative and experiential evening. What is meditation? How do you do it? Why would you want to? And could it be fun?

4-Part Series – Meditations for Wellbeing Weds 2, 9, 16, 23 May 7-8 pm £7 /£20 prebooked

Meditations that cover a mind, body, spirit and emotions them to give you a broad experience and plenty of benefits.

NEW Monthly Meditation Mastery Class Weds 7 March, Weds 4 April 7-8pm £7 / block book discount available

A regular monthly class for people who have had some experience and are making meditation a part of their daily life, to help you become the master of your meditation practice. Guest teachers from time to time.

Do get in touch with us to register your interest and book a place. Pay on the night.

Contact Eileen direct on 07745 409059, email eileen@eileenstrong.co.uk or Acorn.

By Anne Marie Allen Reflexologist, Reiki Practitioner & Massage Therapist

You may know what chakras are, you may have heard the word knocking around every now and then or maybe it’s a completely new word to you and you’re thinking what…?

Your body is much more than the physical body that you can feel, its made up of an energy body too which extends beyond the physical body and consists of many layers commonly known as the aura. Chakras pronounced “cha kra” are energy centres within the body. There are seven main common chakras, these help to regulate all the bodily functions including the emotions.

The seven main chakras are:

Base Chakra – Career, money, security, sense of belonging, our foundation, our sense of survival money, food, related to spine, rectum, legs, arms and circulation.

Sacral Chakra – Connection and ability to accept new experience and others, abundance, well-being, pleasure, sexuality, related to the reproductive organs, kidneys, bowels and immune system.

Solar Plexus – Confidence, being in control of your life, life direction, self-worth, self-esteem, ability to channel, personal power, related to central nervous system, pancreas, liver, digestive tract, skin.

Heart Chakra – Love, relationships with self and others, self-acceptance, joy, inner peace, tenderness, related to heart, thymus, lower lungs, circulatory system, immune system.

Throat Chakra – Self-expression, our ability to communicate, the truth, related to thyroid, respiratory system, teeth, vocal cords.

Third Eye Chakra – Intuition, sense of purpose, direction in life, imagination, wisdom, ability to think and make decisions, related to pituitary gland, eyes, senses.

Crown chakra – Connection to the divine, inner and outer beauty, connection to spirituality, pure bliss, related to pineal gland, brain and nervous system.

In order to feel fabulous, well, full of vitality and energy we need to take care of our chakra health. Illness and disease first start as negative energy in the aura, only when its ignored, built up and it’s reached the physical body does it manifest as illness or dis-ease. Chakras can go out of balance, life nowadays is stressful, draining and demanding. Everyday stresses can cause our chakras to go out of balance! Thankfully nourishing them and gently putting them back into balance isn’t difficult.

When our chakras are balanced we feel energised, vital, relaxed and centred, when they’re out of balance we can feel irritated, not quite our self but not sure why, emotional, irrational, angry, spiteful – an imbalance can also manifest its self as pain, illness or dis-ease.

Over the next seven months I’ll be concentrating on one chakra a month starting with the base chakra in the next newsletter. There’ll also be recipes, affirmations, hints and tips, treatment offers to help balance your chakras as well as ways you can balance your chakras at home throughout the month on Facebook, so don’t forget to like and follow us to ensure you don’t miss a thing!