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One of the common things I see during my remedial massage therapy sessions is a weak core which predominantly results from poor posture. You only need to look at the people around you and you’ll most likely be able to spot someone who’s shoulders are hunched over ever so slightly, their upper back has a bit more curvature to it than it should, and their neck is more forward than it should be. This is the inevitable state of where we are now given that we as a species have gone from a life where our days were full of physical exertion to a life where it’s mostly sedentary.
If you go and see a personal trainer, chiro, physio or even a massage therapist, most of them will say “you need to work on your core to improve your posture”. So what exactly is the core (and no it’s not JUST the abs so doing crunches and sit ups might not be THAT beneficial). The core is the set of muscles that act to stabilise your spine so if you were to look at a diagram of the muscles in our body, you’ll be quick to realise that there are a lot more muscles in there than we thought!
When we stablise our spine, our posture is better, our movements are more efficient and we are less prone to injury. Every movement that we do is essentially using the spine and therefore requires our core to turn on, so let’s start with a pretty basic movement that everyone does – walking!
We tend to walk unconsciously – i.e. we don’t pay a lot of attention to our bodies when we’re walking (unless we experience pain). If we were to think about walking, most of us would think about the parts of our body from the hips and down. Whilst this is correct to a degree, it’s important that we pay attention to what’s going on above the hips too. In fact, our psoas muscle is a hip flexor that pretty much attaches our lower spine to the legs that enables us to walk. If you’ve been a client of mine, you’ll know that I have a holistic approach on things, so the psoas is situated very close to the kidneys, which in Traditional Chinese Medicine, hold the emotion of fear – which is funny because fear tends to make us run away from things and the psoas is the muscle that helps us walk and run 😉
Moving up the body on top of the psoas is the diaphragm. As you can see, the diaphragm has a pretty interesting shape, and it’s the tendons and ligaments of the diaphragm that connect with the psoas (not to mention the fascia). In a previous article, I wrote about the importance of breathing and how to breathe properly so we won’t go there again, however it’s interesting to note breathing can have an effect on your psoas, the way you walk and ultimately your core. When breathing properly, everything from your diaphragm and below all the way to the pelvic floor (including muscles and organs) gets toned, massaged and stimulated. The effect of this is that your core is also getting a work out.
Another interesting thing is that the diaphragm is innervated from the spinal nerves at C3-C5 of your cervical vertebrae, which is where your neck is… so changes in posture around the neck and upper body can have an effect on the operation of the diaphragm!
So, an exercise you can try at home is to walk from your diaphragm. This sounds weird but hear me out. If you place your awareness at your diaphragm and imagine that your legs start from there and start walking, you might notice that your posture all of a sudden changes to make you feel a lot straighter, and perhaps even feel that your shoulders come back a bit. Whilst walking, try taking some deep breaths as well – you might notice more things relax and open up further – this is the way we should all be walking!
Better Balance Chiropractic are healthcare clinics in Sydney aimed to help people locate and assist the balancing of their health by removing the physical, chemical and emotional stress factors preventing full expression of their health and vitality.
For the last couple of years I've had a stubborn redness around my mouth & chin area. I thought it was diet-related, so removed gluten, dairy, coffee and sugar from my diet completely.
The redness remained. I've always felt that our face shows "who we are", so I was always self conscious of it. I googled the problem (not a wise move... cue panic stations!) and the closest I got to an answer was something called "perioral dermatitis". The recommendation was to use absolutely no products on the skin, so the redness could heal.
My first thought was, I can do that! If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I'm all about natural products for home cleaning, skin care and food. There are so many harsh chemicals added to our beauty and home products, many of which have been shown to disrupt our hormone balance (especially damaging to fertility), so over the years I've reduced the number of chemicals I expose our family to.
I've tried many beauty "alternatives"... e.g. only using baking soda & apple cider vinegar as shampoo/conditioner, exfoliating my face with baking soda (I went through a big baking soda phase!), and using coconut oil as a face and body moisturiser, hair mask, and shaving cream. Let's just say that some of these methods worked better than others. The coconut oil hair mask, for example, took about a week to wash out. The baking soda "shampoo" made my hair as dry as sandpaper and I got dandruff as a result. All in the name of being healthy!
So I decided not to use any product on my face, as per googles infinite wisdom, and only wash with water. At first I thought it was working, but then my face started breaking out in acne because I wasn't washing it properly. So I had a red muzzle and acne to boot!
I realised it was time to consult an expert, instead of spending too many hours on google. I booked a skin appointment and the therapist informed me I have what is called "product damage": the acid mantle (top layer of the skin) had been harmed by whatever I had been doing to my face. I explained that I wasn't currently using any skincare, but in the past I had used baking soda as a face scrub and coconut oil to moisturise.
The therapists face paled. She explained that while those products may be fine for some skin types, it can damage already sensitive skin.
I learnt a very valuable lesson, which I hope by writing to you today, you won't make as well. Some natural products are great (here's a fantastic multi-purpose cleaner recipe that works well and doesn't contain harsh chemicals), but think twice before putting them on your face. If you want a natural option, talk to an expert who can analyse your skin and make recommendations accordingly. (Google can't do that... yet!)
Over to you... have you ever made a beauty mistake that seemed like a great idea at the time, but you regretted later? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!
PS: Wealthy Healthy Wise's 21-day BodyLove Project starts in June! It's free, and will help you feel GREAT in your skin. More info here!
I so resonate with what you were saying about feeling good about using the "natural" alternatives... I used baking soda for a while (and it made my skin much worse), until one day I was scrubbing my bath with baking soda, and I suddenly thought... If this is cleaning grime and bath scum off my bath, what on earth is it doing to my face! needless to say I ceased using baking soda after that. It is so nice to hear of other people sharing in skin troubles. I have always had "problem skin". If i wasn't breaking out in acne, it was dry and flakey... I have never found any products that nourish my skin in the way it needs. It is so hard to walk out the door feeling confident and beautiful when your skin is bad. The silly thing is, most of the time, other people don't even notice! But the impact on us internally is so encompassing. Thank you for sharing your story! I am looking forward to seeing my skin repair itself in the coming months now that I have switched to Sense!
Very interesting Kate - I had tried the coconut oil on my skin and found it made it drier (always keen on natural products !) I went back to using the 'simple' skin care range which I have used for about 8 years and I find great and at least has a lot less chemicals etc than your average skin care :)
Drinking a lot of freshwater with Young Livings Lemon Essential Oil added works amazingly for me. It's a great detoxifier.