Acorn Health Blog

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 Helen Duffy – Nutritional Therapist

Hello! My name is Helen and I am a fully qualified Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist. I trained for three years with the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London and Birmingham and am registered with BANT (British Association of Nutritional Therapists) and the CNHC (Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council) who assure that all their members are well trained, qualified and insured.

So what is Naturopathic Nutritional Therapy and how could it help me?

Some people simply want to check that they are on the right track with healthy eating, a kind of ‘nutrition MOT’ if you like, but most people I see want help with a particular condition or symptoms.

As a Nutritional Therapist, I recognise that each person is an individual with unique requirements and histories. This means that I take the time to explore your current and past health and lifestyle in order to define a personalised nutrition plan designed exactly for you and what you want to achieve rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Nutrition has to be one of the main elements, along with our genes and environment, that determines how our bodies will cope in the world we live in. You often hear the phrase ‘You are what you eat’ and, absolutely, this is so true in many situations. However, there is maybe, a more accurate phrase ‘You are what you absorb’ as many people can seem to eat nutritious, healthful foods, yet still something isn’t quite right. Maybe they still lack energy, still find it difficult to lose weight, still have that annoying PMS each month, still have blood pressure a little bit too high or achy joints in the morning. This may be that regardless of how much nutritious good food you are eating, if your body isn’t able to do something with all that goodness, it’s just passing straight on through (if you know what I mean!).

In a Naturopathic Nutritional Therapy consultation we look beyond a person’s set of symptoms to find the underlying imbalance in the body which is preventing the person from feeling their best. On many occasions, this may lead back to the person’s gut and poor absorption of nutrients due to years of prescription medication, stress or inappropriate food choices, to name a few. Nutritional Therapy works with a person (often alongside their GP and current meds) to rebalance and optimise the body systems in order to achieve health and vitality.

What happens in a consultation?

An initial consultation lasts about an hour and during this time I will need to know as much about your current and past health and lifestyle as possible. We will then identify goals that you would like to work on and agree how much you are prepared to change in your current nutrition habits and lifestyle. I will then develop a personalised plan focussing on these areas which will be sent to you 48 hours after your consultation. There may be some short term nutritional supplements or functional testing recommended so that we can really pinpoint exactly what is going on inside you body and therefore focus your plan more precisely. Most people will work with their plan for 4-6 weeks and then return for a follow-up appointment to see what progress has been made or address any difficulties that have arisen. One important point to make here is that your plan won’t necessarily be about eating less of all the things that you love, it will be about eating better and allowing your body to experience the health and vitality that comes from feeding each and every cell in your body exactly what it needs.

As Hippocrates said, ‘Let food by thy medicine; let medicine be thy food.’ Your body will thank you for it 🙂

For a FREE 15 minute chat to find out how Nutritional Therapy could help you, contact Acorn or email helen.duffy@northstarnutrition.co.uk

www.acornnaturalhealth.co.uk

Indian Head Massage – a
wonderful treatment in its own right

This is a wonderfully relaxing massage treatment in a class all of it’s
own!

The client is comfortably seated in a low-backed chair for this massage,
which makes it perfect for the less able-bodied amongst us.

And it can be with or without
massage oils making it ideal for home visits or the workplace, as well as the
treatment room.

It provides a wealth of physical and psychological benefits .. and you
needn’t go all the way to India for one either!

So what is it?

Indian Head Massage (or “Champissage”) combines stimulation of acupressure
points with a wonderful range of
relaxing massage moves to release stress that has accumulated in the tissues,
muscles and joints of the neck, shoulders, upper back, arms, neck, face, and scalp.

What are its origins?

Indian Head Massage has
derived from the ancient Ayurvedic healing system and dates back more than
4,000 years. The art is still passed
down the generations by Indian women today,
being taught to children so that they can return the favour to their
parents and other relatives!

In the West, Indian Head
Massage has been adapted to help eliminate stress and tension in our hectic
lives, and will usually combine both traditional Indian and western massage
techniques.

It is a true “holistic” treatment as it can be
applied purely for deep relaxation, or from a healing approach involving work
on the energy centres referred to as chakras.

An Indian Head Massage is carried
out as a separate treatment in its own right, yet can also be combined with
other treatments and is often used alongside conventional care in hospices,
hospitals and other healthcare settings.

What are the benefits?

* Gently relieves muscular stiffness and
tension

* Helps you let stress
and anxiety melt softly away

* Can help relieve
depression, and improve concentration

* Lifts the emotions and
helps you feel deeply calm and peaceful

* Can help release
endorphins to help with positive thinking

* Promotes deeper,
calmer breathing

* Aids relief from
tension headaches, eyestrain and migraines.

* Softens and nourishes
the skin and assists healthier hair

* Stimulates circulation
and lymph drainage aiding elimination of toxins and odema
* Can helps relieve sinus congestion and headaches

* Assists deep, peaceful
sleep

Can everyone enjoy and Indian Head Massage?

There are certain
conditions where you should avoid massage e.g. epilepsy, certain heart
conditions, contagious skin diseases or
if you have had recent surgery. A full consultation will take place prior to
your treatment, which will provide me with the opportunity to ensure massage is
right for you. However, if in any doubt, please talk to your doctor
before arranging a treatment.

What happens in a treatment?

The client is seated on a low-backed chair
for Indian Head Massage, making it ideal for the less able bodied client. As a treatment couch is not essential, it is
also suitable for treatments at home or in the workplace. (Contact Eileen for more information on
arranging office/home treatments)

An Indian Head Massage can be carried out either with or without massage oils. Without oils, the client can remain fully
clothed, wearing a loose-fitting, comfortable tee-shirt or something similar.

When oils are used, the client removes upper outer-clothing
and a large towel wrapped around to
ensure modesty. Oils help ensure a
smoother massage and a range of beautifully aromatic, blended oils are
available to help enhance your massage experience.

A full Indian Head Massage lasts around 40
minutes, but do allow a full hour for your appointment so you can take time
after your massage session to drink a glass of water whilst you sit quietly,
gently bring your awareness fully back to the present.

Shorter taster sessions are also available if
you’d like to come along and give it a try for the first time. Contact Acorn for details on latest Taster
Session offers!

Aftercare

Some clients can
feel extremely tired or slightly dizzy after treatment, so it is essential to arrange
your Indian Head Massage for a time when you can return to a relaxing
environment afterwards and keep warm, as massage reduces your blood pressure. Drinking plenty of water and avoiding
caffeine/alcohol will help your body de-tox so you get maximum benefits from
your treatment. You will receive full
free aftercare advice following your treatment.

How many treatments do I need?

A single treatment
will be deeply relaxing and beneficial for you and it can be tailored to
provide an emphasis on specific areas of concern e.g. congested sinuses, stiff
neck etc.

You can also
include a regular monthly Indian Head Massage treatment as part of your own health
and wellbeing regime.

By Maz Harvey

The term massage encompasses a large and varied
number of techniques and approaches.
Massage in its simplest form entails any
hands on techniques involving stroking, rubbing, lifting and squeezing of the
tissues with or without a skin lubricant. More advanced forms of techniques
practiced under the umbrella term of massage include techniques used by Physiotherapists,
Osteopaths, Chiropractors and even Acupuncturists.

I believe the time is right for the massage bodies
/ authorities to distinguish between the

various forms of massage so as to enable the public
to know which type of massage practitioner to go to for treatment. A simple
split may be Spa massage and Clinical massage?

Who can benefit from massage and what can it treat?

The answer to this question would fill a very long
blog post so I will give a few random examples of who / what I have treated
this week.

I have helped a lady recovering from a stroke, a
more mature gent struggling with a thigh problem that was keeping him awake at
night and ‘more importantly’ stopping him play golf, a G.P. with a painful
neck, a talented teenage footballer desperate to play in a final this weekend,
another mature gent still turning out to play veterans football and several
neck and shoulder problems, some with related headaches and some with related
nerve sensations down the arm.

As you can see ‘Massage’ can help with many types
of soft tissue, joint and nerve pain. It may well take several sessions to get
to the root of the problem and it may involve lifestyle changes by the client
but don’t underestimate the potential effectiveness of massage.

www.acornnaturalhealth.co.uk