Acorn Health Blog

By Sally-Anne Marler Creative Awakening Coach, Intuitive & Energy Healer

We all have the ability to tap into a part of ourselves that is wise, supportive, knowledgeable, loving, creative, expansive, all knowing and in tune with our higher good and life purpose. The problem is, we don’t develop this connection and end up rationalising, assuming, second guessing, doing what is expected and taking action based on what we think we should do. As Einstein so rightly points out, we’re forgetting the beautiful gift that lives inside each of us.
I’ve spent a long time, working on and developing the connection to my inner guidance and wanted to share a few things that I’ve discovered in doing this.

1. Your inner guidance can show up in many guises. It can be presented to you as a ‘hunch’ or gut feeling. This is probably the most common form and widely experienced sensation. We’ve all had this feeling at one time in our lives – maybe there’s many times that you can think of but we fail to trust this source and shrug it off, only to find out later we should have gone with our gut!
2. It’s a whisper – not a loud voice in your head. It’s gentle, loving and kind. How many times do you have thoughts that feel quite harsh and self-critical? This is the ego, trying it’s best to keep you safe based on your past experiences by ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Your ego isn’t as you might assume – it’s true nature isn’t based on negativity. It’s what we develop as part of our personalities, as part of our survival kit growing up, our behaviours, defences, coping strategies – all of that is ego. It’s connected to survival and doesn’t care about how you survive, often leaving you feeling frustrated, restricted, untrusting and without much faith or hope. When you start to quieten your mind, however you might do this – with music or meditation or practicing mindfulness – listen out for the quiet whisper and ignore the loud thoughts telling you the latest you can’t, you mustn’t – don’t try or trust…etc, etc.
3. It’s connected to something bigger. We hear more and more about working with the universe and the universal laws that are always at play. The law of attraction is a common one that suggests like attracts like for example. People talk about guardian angels and spirit guides, the divine, then there are Gods. Different ones for different religions that support people’s beliefs in something bigger or a ‘higher source’. The point is that we are part of something bigger – regardless of our beliefs or lack of them. Once we learn how to tap into this ‘higher source’ which we can do through our ‘higher self’ a lot of light bulbs start flashing – well they did for me! It’s like being given a bird’s eye view over your whole life and the ability to objectively review it to make the necessary changes you want and need to move forwards with confidence and meaning. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an easy process and you can’t ‘short cut’ what you need to face, heal or learn once you embark on this inner journey but I can guarantee you, it’s worth it!

There are many ways to develop your inner guidance and work with it. I developed mine through creativity and expression, metaphor, using oracle cards, meditation, creative visualisation, reflective practice, recognising syncronicities, numerology, astrology, dream interpretations and so on. I’m running a beginners guide workshop to help others connect to their inner guidance system as I feel we need to start honouring the gift not the servant and everyone should have the ability and confidence to tap into their inner guidance to help and support them along the way. If you’d like to book your place please book here to do so – this is running at an early-brid offer of £32 if you book before 7th July. I also offer 1:1 coaching if you’re interested in embarking on an inner journey – my coaching program is called Brilliantly Shine and start from £55 for an introductory session & welcome gift. Perfect if you feel you’re an empath, struggling to connect to meaning or purpose, have regular feelings of sadness, anxiety or depression or just wanting to learn more about yourself, increase confidence and self-awareness.

By Anne Marie Allen Reflexologist, Reiki Practitioner & Massage Therapist

The base chakra also known as the root chakra or Muladhara Chakra is the first chakra and is located at the base of the spine. The base chakra is your foundation – without a balanced base chakra you won’t have the security, stability or rootedness which is needed for true, lasting change.

It is linked to the basic survival needs such as security, survival, warmth, food and safety and the colour of the base chakra is red.

Whether you feel secure and safe now often isn’t the cause of the imbalance, situations from the past even as far back as childhood can be the cause of the imbalance.

Imbalance in the root chakra can show itself as:

Restless, frightened, insecurities, greed, resentfulness, envious, criticism, pushing your body too far, not resting when you need to, gossiping, putting self or others down, negativity, procrastination, problems letting go e.g. fear, mistrust, anxiety, fears, nightmares, constipation, eating disorders, grounding to the earth, living in survival mode all the time, feeling like you can’t get enough. You may also experience problems with food for example overeating or starving, money problems, sex, and hoarding material things.

The root chakra is associated with your:

Colon, bladder lower back, legs, feet, knees, sciatica, prostate, gonads, ovaries, testes and sacrum.

How to balance and heal the base chakra:

There are several ways to balance the base chakra, here a few suggestions you can try but for more information or to book in for a Reiki session to assist you with this please get in touch!

– Yoga

– Meditation

– Sounds

– Colours

– Crystals

– Affirmations

– Essential oils

– Reiki

– Reflexology

– Diet

– Exercise

Special offer – a free Red Jasper Crystal with your Reiki Treatment!

Over the next four weeks I’ll be posting lots of affirmations, tips and blogs to help you balance your base chakra as well as posting some questions that you can think about to help you unearth any blockages and go really deep to find out which beliefs and past experiences are stopping you from moving forward. As from April – when you book in for a Reiki Teatment each person will recieve an organza bag with a Red Jasper Crystal to take away with them and keep absolutely free to help them work with their base chakra balancing! (This only applies to one treatment and expires at the end of April). There will also be weekly competitions to win a free treatment so make sure you don’t forget to like and follow us to ensure you don’t miss a thing.

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!