Detoxing "Detox" Diets

Being a registered nurse, and Rolfing(R) practitioner I am an advocate for healthy weight maintenance and healthy habits in general. However, I am always skeptical of practitioners promoting "detox" as a quick way to get healthy. It seems "detox" is a catch-all phrase for making a sudden healthy shift in eating, or doing a low calorie fast (like the popularized lemon juice/maple syrup one). However, it has very little basis in the Western medical approach.

Detox is really a misnomer. We all posses kidneys, intestines, and a liver. When these organs function properly, our body rids itself of waste. The idea that adipose tissue (fat) holds onto all these creepy, garbage-like chemicals offends my critical thinking abilities. Nothing I've read in my studies of medicine has convinced me I should jump on board the "detox" wagon - largely promoted in the yogic and naturopathic community. Until someone can inform me otherwise, I'm calling detox diets a magical way of describing the real positive benefits felt when one fasts for a time or changes dietary habits to ones that fit into the traditional food pyramid (no new news there). Can you measure the toxins leaving the system? Have heavy metals really eaten away inside you for years? Is your body in dire need of alkalizing agents? Is your colon REALLY packed with layers upon layers of caked-on feces?

Bah! Why don't we just fess up and call it eating healthy and getting exercise?

Bonsai Grower

As a tree grows it bends, twists, branches, spreads, bows, and lifts through a complex interplay with the environment. The tree is affected by sunlight, wind, and available nutrients. Thus, the current form of the tree expresses a life with a rich and sorted history, not just the current best position for the tree. This is what happens in the human body.

The muscles, fascia, ligaments, and bones adapt to the environment throughout life. Hence, the current form is resultant of years of parenting, sports, work, emotion, injury, fatigue, eating habits, high heels, etc. and all of these factors influence the current form and shape of the physique. Unlike a tree, humans also consciously conform our bodies to fit certain socio/cultural cues - like holding our heads high, pulling our shoulders back, or tucking our guts.

Just like a Bonsai grower lovingly prunes and and artistically bends his trees into beautiful forms, a Rolfer(R) examines your physical history and body-story and over a series of sessions works to shape you by releasing the old stuck tissues, to shape the hisstory of pain, disarray, and crookedness, in order to help create a new, more vibrant form.

Information-itis

Yes, I'm coining a new disease:

The overloading of oneself with information to the detriment of emotional and/or physical well being.

I say this with some conviction due to recent experiences managing my own life in the information age and working for many years with clients in the Financial District. I started asking, "How do I, and others, get wrapped up in information, communication, and entertainment to such a large degree?" For many it is essentially a full-time job, or simply synonymous with living in this age. Now don't get worried, I'm not in need of counseling yet but I've noticed that this behavior can be a slippery slope and many of us are participating in this behavior to a shocking degree with less productivity, increasing physical ailment, and disconnection from Nature as a result. At it's worst it can become an addiction - i.e. to the news, interntet, e-mail.

I think it's enough that most people are required to spend 8 hours/day working on a computer; to go home and fix oneself to yet another screen - be it a home computer, fancy cell phone
(Blackberry, iPhone), or TV serves to cause deep unrest in the body and mind. Besides the poor posture and deleterious micro-movements of mousing, typing, and Black-Berrying that this information managing creates in the physical body, it also removes us from the present reality of our surroundings, and can end up consuming more of our precious time (and yes our time here is finite).

I do recognize that these devices for communication and entertainment are simply a fact of modern life, but the way we choose to utilize them can contribute or detract greatly to our well-being. We need to make these devices work for us, not the other way around. It is a thin boundary to utilizing a technological device and being wrapped up in it.

Here are some suggestions, I invite you to adopt any that resonate with you:

1. Focus on improving the quality of communication and be an advocate of this in the workplace. Get it settled in one conversation instead of ten emails or text messages.

2. Be present and commit to do just one thing while you are doing it rather than switching between multiple tasks at the same time.

3. Set up regular time to simply be in your body (i.e. exercise, walking, regular stretch breaks from the computer, getting Rolfing ;-)).

4. Fast. Take the devices and shut them all off for a period of time (i.e. all of Saturday, or even just a few hours) and do something rewarding by yourself, with another, or in Nature.

5. Choose and filter entertainment. Media (music/TV/movies/net surfing/texting) can give us a fix, just like a drug and we have to choose carefully which drugs we consume with our eyes and ears. Media can create a mental reality that is fantastic but has absolutely no relation to our lives.

All the best!
-Greg

Ida Video

Ida Rolf speaks about myofascia.

The Pain Game

"Why is Rolfing so painfull?" When I see a new client I often hear about Rolfing's painfull repuatation. This may be due to the nature of the therapy, people's expectations around Rolfing, and the communication that happens during a session. Fundamentally the pain happens when nerves are stimulated.

THE NATURE OF ROLFING

The nature of myofascial release work - and Rolfing therapy - is one that creates a deep and lasting change for the client. This said, the depth of the work, and the speed at which the tissue changes are two key components of the pain level experienced within the therapy. If I jump into your quadricep with my elbow, and start pushing hard and fast - that will create a lot of pain (unless you're particularly thick skinned). However, if I address outer layers of myofascia first, and unravel the tissue on different layers (outer to inner) with a slower approach the you will NOT experience much pain/neuro sensory overload.
This said, Rolfing isn't for the faint hearted (unless you found a particularly patient and unique practitioner). Tissue change is challenging, and I liken it to deep psychological work. Sometimes it feels great, and sometimes it just sucks. We go to therapy because we have problems, and want to elevate our overall quality of being/existence. A good therapist (whether myofascial release, deep tissue massage, Rolfing practitioner, chiropractor, etc.) will know your limits, know how to manage your pain level and not let it get out of control to the point where you just don't want to come back. A key question in deciding whether Rolfing is for you is deciding if want to confront the ingrained reality of inflexibility in your body. If this is true, a happy medium can be found. However, like talk therapy, sometimes the confrontation of self can be too much. Rolfing can end up feeling like a trap that you just want to get out of, and for that we need to allow agentle, kind, patient, loving presence in our work. I strive to provide this on balance to my clients and utilitze to outer to inner approach to unraveling as much as is possible in order to create a wholly satisfying, yet transformational client experience.

COMMUNICATION IN ROLFING

A key component in Rolfing is direct communication between client and therapist about the pain level, moderation of the level, and a mutual sense of satisfaction around this. Rolfers are not masochists or sadists. We care about helping people, creating new alignment, better posture, improved breathing, freedom from chronic pain and myofascial restriction, transformation in life, and many other things. For this reason, I am typically very direct with clients about the pain level in the session. A number scale is a quick and dirty way to find out where the client is with the therapy - "1 is nothing, 10 is excruciating, I never want to go above a 7 or 8 for you during the session, so please let me know if I'm getting there" is a typical statement I make to my clients when I first meet them, and during our first session I make a point of using this system a couple times so they get a good feel for it.

With the 1-10 scale in place, direct communication can still be still elusive. For this I typically watch breathing patterns (restricting breath can mean pain), and facial grimacing. Nonetheless, clients can withold their expression of pain, hide it from the practitioner, and go away feeling it was too much. Creating a promise to the client to moderate pressure and approach according to pain/sensation threshold is only as good as the client's expression of his/her threshold. Trust on the Rolfing table is not an easy thing to come by, especially if you have difficulty expressing your limits in day to day activity, or with your body in general. So Rolfing is not something I would recommend to people who struggle greatly in this area. Or if they do -to consider Rolfing but only with the open discussion of this boundary issue with your therapist. There are truly great moments in Rolfing when the client - choosing to face his/her inflexibility in an area can find great satisfaction, trust, and relief in literally handing his/her body over. This is built on trust with the practitioner, and trust of self. It intimate but not sexual. It is simply a state of being safe, met, and realized. For me, these are some of the finest moments in my practice.