Why Is Communication So Important?

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This is a question worth answering. You were not here for me to ask, “why is communication so important to you“ or “what are the benefits you want from good communication?” so I googled the questions to see what other folk had to say.

Many people stumble round in the dark wondering why their communications don’t work for them. Do you want some light on this issue? Do you find in some circumstances you communicate effectively and get the feedback or results you wanted? Do you find in some circumstances you don’t know what to say or how to say it? Do you go round trying to fix the aftermath of miscommunication? Do you find you often have to smooth ruffled feathers? Do you want someone to smooth yours?

When it comes to effective communication there is more to it than meets the eye, though the eyes do reveal, and register, much.

I read that in the workplace “for organizations to be successful, a ‘listening culture’ is vital”. The benefit they want is to bring greater performance and higher productivity, and have found when staff members feel valued and recognized they do more to support the business. Hmm! The words that stand out to me are “valued” and “recognized” and the idea that they come from a “listening culture”. This is totally valid at home as well as at work.

In the work place stats show there are more women than men in Personnel Departments as women are seen as having more caring and nurturing skills. Which also says something about men and about our expectations. To help others feel “cared for and nurtured” and “valued and recognized” being a good listener goes a long way. Being a good listener is not necessarily an in-born ability in every person, but certainly a skill that can be learned and honed, by both men and women.

More Questions Worth Answering
Has your communication ever got you into trouble? Here you were, just explaining or delivering a message, when all hell breaks loose. Instead of being heard and considered you are being attacked. What did you do next? What could you have done? What is the best thing to do?

Why is it that some people are very good at “rubbing everyone up the wrong way”? How come some people “put their foot in it,” often? What is the magic some people have to “still troubled waters”? How come some people make us feel relaxed and others don’t? Why is it easy to communicate about some issues and not others? How can you put people at their ease so you get on the same wavelength? How can you fill in the gaps in your ability and build on the skills you already have?
These are just some of the questions that will be answered in Dynamic Communications Program.

Be There and Discover the Answers
What you will discover and learn are many layers of answers to “why is communication so important, to you”, in various areas of life and with specific people, and “what are the benefits, to you, from good communication”, the ones you want for yourself that you can have in those situations that you want to make easier and more satisfying.

With awareness through The Dynamic Communications Program you will expand your range of insights and skills to elegantly handle situations from the everyday events right through to sticky and prickly challenges.

One thing is for sure. In communications as in other areas, if you keep doing what you do now you will keep getting the same results. To get better in an essential area you have to grow in that area to step out beyond the old barriers round your comfort zone. How do you do that in your communications?

Register and attend The Dynamic Communication Program. It’s far easier to move forward with like minded people who have a willingness to advance. It really helps to work with those who have gone before you and tested the waters, know where the rapids are, how to guide you round them, and to equip you to go through them, to come out the other side, more confident and more capable.
Dynamic Communications program delivers results. See March News to Register now.
Cheers
Anna

Communication Pitfalls and How To Navigate Safely

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We have all had the experience of having words tumble out or our mouth before we could think, resulting in insult or injury. Now let me ask, were you wanting to insult or injure at the time? Was that your intention? If so, check your motivation for this, as like attracts like, and you will likely find your world full of people who think it is fair game to insult and injure you.

Is this what you want for yourself? If not, do you know how to turn this around? Do you know how to recognize and navigate safely through communication pitfalls and roadblocks? Do you have the skills and strategies? Do you want some understanding and insights?

What if the outcome was totally opposite to what you intended? What if you were you wanting to gain co-operation and positive and mutual benefits and it mis-fired? It was mis-understood? It blow up in your face? Tell me, was your conscious and subconscious in agreement on this, on the same page, pursuing the same goal, expressing the same intent? How do you know?

Your communication awareness and skill may benefit from a thorough exploration with a specific goal in mind. If you have Touch For Health skills then do a goal balance on something like, “I easily attract relationships that are mutually respectful, caring and beneficial.”

Kinesiology as a First Step
Balancing the meridian system to that specific goal, using Touch For Health Kinesiology, aligns you to be attracted by and be attractive to others with the values and behaviours of your goal statement. Balancing your energy to the frequency of the goal statement is like tuning yourself to be in resonance with it. That becomes the “vibe” you put out and one that recognizes and attracts others with that “vibe”.

Now Build Communication Skills and Insights
Having aligned your energy for the result you want to have, mutually respectful, caring and beneficial relationships, next step is to identify the “how to”. Communication is an art you can develop. You can learn the skills to apply and achieve the communication outcomes that nurture the relationships you want to build and maintain.

Touch For Health energy balancing is one way to shift your focus and direct your energy to what you do want and no longer add energy from what you don’t want. But there are many communication pitfalls and how to navigate safely is an essential skill. In The Dynamic Communication Program we go into the “what” and “how” of communication. We draw attention to the pitfalls so you don’t fall into the holes, so you can see what is coming and navigate safely round, even through, without leaving a trail of disaster and without being battered and bruised yourself.

To get more insights on how to do this, register for The Dynamic Communication Program and get the benefits of more effective communications that lead to more satisfying relationships. You can learn and thrive.

The Dynamic Communication Program is open to professionals and every day people, parents, siblings, spouses, teachers, business leaders, natural therapists, to all who specifically focus on communicating with others for mutual benefit.

The only prerequisite is an open mind and heart, and a willingness to take part, contribute, exchange, and gain benefits. Register now. (See Notice attached to March News)
Cheers
Anna

Muscles – How They Work

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A friends daughter has just given birth to her first child. As you can imagine there is much joy and delight for the families of both parents of this new being. This wonderful event has drawn my attention to muscles, and how they work.

Looking at and holding a new baby I am in awe of how quickly this tiny, soft bundle will go from no voluntary muscle control to, in 12 months or so, be crawling, balancing, toddling, all to the joyful encouragement of anyone on the scene. This child will also begin eating and drinking without assistance, turning pages in story books, attempting to put on shoes and items of clothing and mimicking what the “big people” are doing, all in the first year pr two.

All this physical activity is dependant on muscles. Without control of the voluntary muscles of our body we would be as helpless as that new-born baby.

Babies have their muscles in place at birth but these have too little tone for specific activity as yet. While in the womb there was no need for muscle tone as the environment was fluid, there was nowhere to go and nothing to do but let nature take its course over a nine-month period.

This is the real miracle to me – how a cell can be fertilized and begin to divide into two cells, four cells, eight cells and continue to follow a blueprint over nine months to grow into a whole baby.

And once born this baby will have to learn to live under the pressure of our atmosphere, a very different demand from in the womb. That very demand will develop tone in muscles till this little one can “find its feet”, stand up, toddle, walk and then run.

Muscle Is Remarkable Tissue
Muscles make up 70 to 85% of your body weight, depending on your physique and fitness level. Muscle fibres have the unique ability to contract and release, shorten and lengthen, and are responsible for almost all movement in and by the body.
Some muscles are classed as voluntary muscles. They are the ones we activate when we to cook dinner, draw up a plan, create a garden, use our computer, hug those we love, go for a walk or swim. These are the ones we can overwork at the gym or strain when lifting the groceries out of the car boot.

Other muscles are classed as involuntary muscles. They activate our visceral organs and keep them working as needed without requiring our conscious input. These muscles keep food moving through our digestive system, allow us to breathe in and out, and move waste material to the bladder and bowel ready to eliminate, among many other tasks that we mostly don’t think about.
Muscles are the most metabolically active tissue in the body and use most of the oxygen and food we provide. Muscle tone, or lack of, defines our shape and physical activity, provides stability for our joints, keep bones in place, is the source of our physical strength and influences our sense of power.

Our skeleton is held together and erect by muscles attached by tendons, ligaments and other connective tissues. It’s not the skeleton that holds us up. Without muscles doing their job we would be like a collapsed bag of disjointed bones.

Muscles work in groups with a prime mover doing the most to create a particular movement, in concert with synergists or helpers, stabilizers and bracers, and antagonists that release as the prime mover activates, to produce graceful, smooth, efficient movement.

“Any contraction in one part will necessitate lengthening in other parts, so that the entire musculature must always utilize many of the different directions of pull afforded by the arrangements of its fibres and many of the cables and levers provided by the tendons and the bones in order to execute any single change of shape,” writes Deane Juhan in Job’s Body.

In other words, any movement is not isolated to one area but engages the entire body’s muscles and connectors in greater or lesser adjustments to achieve change in body posture or movement. All your body muscles and their attachments are constantly communicating with each other and working as a single, united, synchronized whole.

This is why piece meal work on a muscle misses the point in terms of reducing pain and creating betterment in balance and co-ordination, as an isolated area of change needs to be integrated with the whole body awareness. The body operates as a whole and all upgrades need to include the whole muscle support system, not just a part. That’s what makes the Touch For Health Kinesiology muscle and energy balancing procedures so effective. You balance the whole body for every issue or stress.

Muscle Response Testing
Muscle tone and muscle responsiveness is responsible for normal posture, gestures and general movement. And it is this responsiveness of muscles that we look for and monitor in Kinesiology muscle response testing. We are testing this ability of the muscle to respond and hold its position in response to the gentle test pressure that is applied gradually to engage the lock mechanism. I train my students to feel and recognize this response in muscles. It is far more gentle and subtle than power or strength testing and avoids causing unnecessary strain.

The muscles ability to respond in this way to subtle testing indicates the conditions internally are available for the body to communicate effectively via the nervous system for efficient function and to give immediate feedback. When conditions are unfavourable the muscle effectiveness is reduced and the muscle does not fully lock and has to work much harder and recruit other muscles to do its job.
Actually, every thought can change the conditions for efficient muscle response by raising or dropping the energy flow according to the quality of each thought.

Do This
Close your eyes and hold your arm out to the side at shoulder level.
Now recall a time you were having fun. It might be the last time you were at the beach, or hiking in the hills, or sailing, or fishing, or pottering in the garden. Hold that thought for a bit and note how your arm feels.
Change your thought. Recall a time you were annoyed, fed up, despondent or anxious. Hold that thought for a bit and note how your arm feels.

Shift from the pleasant or fun thought to opposite thought a few times, waiting for a few seconds at each change to tune in and note the feel of your arm.

What you are likely to notice is that as you think of the “fun” time your arm feels lighter, easier to maintain, and when you shift to a “no fun” thought your arm feels heavier. That is your arm muscle, middle deltoid, demonstrating that you need more effort to hold out your arm for a “no fun” thought because your energy level to the muscle doing the job out just dropped.

Your habitual thinking can make you feel lighter or heavier, increase your energy or decrease it. Every thought has a muscle and energy pattern.

In everyday life muscles under constant strain can become overloaded and complain by causing pain. Muscles can also become underactive through congestion of accumulated waste products, or due to lack of fresh oxygen and nutrients to support cell action, or due to reduced energy availability.

The range of contraction and release will govern flexibility in movement. Reduced flexibility and use of muscles response will make us feel old and weak. “Some of the most tangible and troublesome features of age itself are simple conditions of muscular activity … that create all kinds of limitations to movement and that waste precious vitality,” says Deane Juhan in his book Job’s Body.

Muscles and how they work reflects how we think habitually. Constantly focused on energy sapping thoughts will drop body vitality and reduce muscle activity, creating a continuous downward spiral in health and energy.

Rigid muscles often reflect rigid habits and rigid thoughts that become more obvious as we age. Restoring muscle responsiveness to structural muscles returns power to the muscles, increases circulation and energy flow, revives flagging spirits and uplifts motivation and interest to a more youthful functional age – thank goodness.

Kinesiology muscle balancing brings holistic change to body, mind and spirit.
Cheers
Anna

How Body Patterns Can Program Your Thinking

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It’s not surprising our body gets out of balance regularly – because we do not use our body symmetrically. And the hidden effect is that your body patterns can program your thinking and left and right brain communication.

Each of us is either left or right handed and left or right foot dominant. This will predispose us to favour activity initiated by one arm and one leg, putting more demand on that shoulder and hip and the teams of muscles throughout the body that work with our dominant pair. Lifting, carrying, pulling, writing, kicking, digging, climbing stairs, whatever, we will tend to rely more on our dominant arm and shoulder and on our dominant leg and hip.

Even getting out of a chair, or walking to the letter box, doing the shopping, mowing the lawn, all the various activities at home or at work, we will “put our best foot forward” with greater demand on one side compared with the other. Little by little it leaves its mark.

Brain Activity
This lack of symmetrical physical activity in turn activates more of one half of our brain than the other, one of the influences that creates a dominant brain reference in our thinking as well.

To shift thoughts something as simple as using the non-dominant hand for gesturing, and putting more weight on our less dominant leg, can facilitate access to another perspective, another range of possibility in mental activity, another way of doing things. Our thinking and our body movements and posture are closely linked.

What is Ideal
There is no static ideal of body balance in life but a fluid unique way of moving for each of us that reflects our flow of energy and our ability to handle life’s events and recover from the stresses we personally experience. Stresses will register in both the tension and in the lack of tone in muscles.

If stress is not released the evidence in our muscles of further stressful events builds on each previous layer till they “weigh us down”, muscles give up under the load, till shoulders droop and the spine curves, clearly showing the burden is too much to carry. Or the reverse happens. The muscles get tighter and more rigid showing the strain of carrying on under duress. Eventually the joints become stiff and unyielding, our muscle range limited, as is our activity in life. We can look and feel old long before our chronological age says we are.

We are designed for movement, and the more varied our movements the more variety we create in out thinking and solutions to the myriad life challenges we encounter in our time. Challenge and change provide the opportunity to continually adapt, extending our emotional, mental and physical range, and provide the means of escaping the gradually increasing fixations of spine and posture, of thought and emotions. We can slow the down hill deterioration, plateau out, and then continue to increase life enhancing activity to improve health and resilience at any age.

Keep Moving
Life keeps happening and we will either rise to challenges, build knowledge, ability and strengths and deal with the challenges, or we will hunker down, shield ourselves, withdraw from the challenge, ignore it or push it away. And it will show in our general posture, our muscles, our range of movement, our attitude, thinking and problem handling capacity.

Take Charge
Take charge and be kind to your body. It is your instrument for playing your part on this planet. Regular health and body maintenance, regular attention to tone of muscles, releasing overworking tight areas and stimulating under working areas, is anti aging maintenance that brings short and long term health benefits. Maintenance can effectively rebalance tissues before stiffness becomes debilitating, before pain becomes chronic, before we become one eyed or lop sided in how we go through our experience of life.

TFH Kinesiology muscle response testing easily and readily identifies the particular emotion held in a specific muscle that is too tight and painful or too flaccid and unresponsive.

Applying TFH Kinesiology stress release techniques and balancing procedures change the energy concentration, drawing off excess energy from the over working muscles and redistributing to the under active muscles by stimulating their uptake capacity. The resulting postural changes reflect in more balanced thinking and reduced stress levels.
New body patterns can program new thinking.
Cheers
Anna

Eye Language and Body Language Say More Than Words

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I was reading an article (in U on Sunday, January 29, 2012) based on an interview with Dr David Craig about his book Lie Catcher, released late 2011 in Australasia.

David is called in at times to be a human lie detector. He has honed his ability over many years and collated is knowledge and experience in his book. Though both eye language and body language say more than words, David focuses on eyes as one tool particularly useful for lie detection. “It’s as if your brain and eyes are hard-wired together and when the brain is put under pressure, the eyes reveal it,” David Craig writes in his book.

Actually, the Brain and Eyes are One
There’s no “as if” about it. The eyes are a physical extension of the brain itself. In the early stages in the womb when the embryo is progressively forming, the eyes begin as dark spots on the tiny brain in the seventh week of pregnancy. The spots progressively become little buds that grow to balls and are slowly pushed forward on the end of the optic nerve, looking like balls on sticks.

Your eyes are actually an extension of your brain and are created from the same layer of the neural tube that becomes your brain and your nervous system. It is amazing how, with today’s technology, we can track every stage of development in the womb, from conception to birth, learning from nature the miracle occurring at every step.

Every nerve impulse that goes to your brain also registers in the fibres of your iris. This is why iridology can be used to analyze the state of functional health. Your eyes are on the same communication loop between body and brain. The fibres in the iris respond to the every nerve signals that your organs sent to your brain.

Overactive organs send lots of signals to the brain causing the fibres in the iris to be pulsed forward, towards the surface of the iris, which makes that area look white. When an organ is underactive it sends fewer or feeble signals to the brain and the corresponding fibres in the iris don’t get stimulated to move forward, can even drop back deeper than surrounding fibres, so the area looks darker. Your health can be read by looking at your iris and the arrangement and patterns of fibres. And your stress level too can be read in your iris.

Another way to pick up what pleases or displeases, delights or distresses is to watch for changes in the pupil. Your pupil is not static. It will contract when you look at something you don’t like and open wider to let in more light when you see something you do like. Just watch a woman looking at the latest fashions or at jewelry. The items that appeal to her will “light up her eyes” and often her whole face. Your emotions are reflected in your eyes.

Learn more about this in Dynamic Communications Program.

Eyes Reveal Brain At Work
Dr David Craig says that a lie can be revealed by changes in eye contact, in blink rate and eye movement. “Liars may look away briefly as they tell a fib to break eye contact, but may also try to disguise their guilt by looking back quickly, for example. A rule of thumb is that if a right-handed person is recalling something that has already happened, they will look to your right, their left. If they are creating something in their mind, something not seen or heard before, they will look to your left, their right.”

So when you are watching the eyes you are watching the brain working.

Important Insights in Communications
What David Craig is referring to is the way the brain is set up. Most people store their memories in pictures for later retrieval. Complete or whole memories are stored in the right brain as pictures. Eyes that flick up left are referencing a picture in right brain. Just watch the kids in a spelling quiz in TV programs and you will see lots of eye flicks going up left as they confidently spell out a known and visually recalled word.

The left brain is active when we are building up a picture piece by piece so don’t know what the whole looks like as yet. Eyes right activates left brain and step by step thinking, and eyes left activates right brain to flash up a whole picture of an existing representation of an event or reference.

Learn more about this in Three In One Concepts program Basic One Brain.

Experiment
Check out eye/brain connection with this experiment: Ask someone to tell you about an enjoyable occasion, a special dinner, a sports event or a holiday. Watch their eyes and note which direction they look often while telling you about the event. A right-handed person will look up left to access their right brain.

Now ask them to tell you 3 things they did last week and to make one of them a lie. Note eye movements and look for the event where the eye movements are different from those when telling you about the past recalled events.
Some people look straight ahead and defocus when they access pictures from the past. That makes it a bit harder to pick the lie from the truth.

But you might notice a different blink rate or their voice tone may change or the rate at which they speak may speed up or slow down. An answer given more slowly is being considered more carefully. More on this is covered in Dynamic Communications Program too.
Lie detection is far from a precise science says David Craig. “Even with MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) and sophisticated machinery, you cannot tell. The polygraph has been disproved many times. Its accuracy depends heavily on how questions are framed.” It seems people are still better than machines at picking a lie.

Learn More About Dynamic Communication
Lie detection is not on my agenda to teach, but Dynamic Communications is on my teaching agenda and is coming up next month. Language of the eye movements, the way body “speaks” through gesture and other movement is the language we all learned first, before we learned to understand and use words. It’s in your subconscious to a greater or lesser degree. You can learn how to bring it up into conscious awareness and gain an enormous advantage in all communications is what you learn in Dynamic Communications program.

How to read “between the lines” or hear more than the words is invaluable in all human communications and is another part of the course.
In day-to-day communications we often get clues that “something doesn’t add up.” We may be getting mixed messages, several agendas at play, with the eyes and body saying one thing the words another. You will learn how to decipher that.

There’s more. Have you ever felt uneasy when listening to someone, not sure you can trust what they say yet you can’t put your finger on why something doesn’t sit right for you? Can you recall a time when you were aware of tension between people even though nothing was being acknowledged as a problem or issue? Did you ever see a person smiling but you knew it wasn’t real? How did you pick that? And how did others miss it?

Stress Communicates Itself
Communication is both verbal and non-verbal. Words are only about 7% of any communication. Your body language and voice tone and tempo are the other 93% and often speak much more loudly than the words. When words are not congruent with what you see and hear beyond the words, that incongruence will need some exploring to get the whole truth behind the words.

Secrets You Can Learn
Through Dynamic Communications Program you can learn many secrets that help you decipher the different layers in a communication. One challenge in communication with others is associated with making sure that what you thought you said is the same as what they think they heard.

Communication occurs on multiple layers simultaneously, on conscious and subconscious levels. The Dynamic Communications Program reveals the layers, shows you what to look for, how to read and interpret what you see and hear, and become aware of what you may have missed in the past. Take advantage of attending this course to have a big advantage “up your sleeve” when communicating daily and especially in sticky situations. (see notice attached to February News)

Eye language and body language say more than words. Learn what they are saying.
Cheers
Anna

Why Do We Lie?

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I was amazed to read that statistical research shows that the average person will tell a lie every 10 minutes!!! What? That can’t be true, can it? If it is, how can we ever trust anyone, even our self?

So, why would we lie? Why do we lie? What’s the purpose of a lie? Do we even recognize we are lying?

Hmmm! It seems lying is a “normal” part of human communication. That means it’s so prevalent that we consider it the norm in our society and don’t even notice it or question it. Actually, there are times we believe we have to, must, are required to … lie.

“Do you like my new dress/hair cut/ lipstick?” Now how would you answer that one? “Does my butt look big in this?” “I don’t want to talk with her/him right now so just tell them I’m with a client/unavailable/at a meeting.”

I guess your answer will depend … on your relationship with me and whether you want to bolster my confidence in the choices I make and avert a meltdown, or want to avoid a hostile or defensive reaction, or are choosing to continue building rapport with me, or want to continue the business relationship we have currently.

We lie. We might not call it a lie. Well, maybe just a white lie. We will lie for a whole heap of reasons we consider acceptable. Some of these might be to justify and explain our choices, to avoid embarrassment, to reinforce, to impress, to expand and embellish, to sound interesting, to appear knowledgeable, to gain an advantage, to avoid punishment, to protect privacy, to engage our creativity, to sweeten someone’s mood, to distract a fractious child, to redirect, to sidestep a discussion, to shift focus … and on and on it goes.

Not All Lies Are “Bad”
So not all lies are bad. Much of “getting along” with members of our society involves telling lies of some kind. Otherwise we could never celebrate Santa Clause at Christmas. I have to say I really thought about not starting the Santa annual visit lie with my first-born. However, we were staying with my in-laws that first Christmas and my mum-in-law simply introduced him to their family traditions – and my son got to believed in Santa – as least for a few years. I still don’t know when he twigged getting presents from Santa was a lie.

So some lies are condoned and even encouraged as being traditional. If we don’t go along with it we could easily be considered to be un-imaginative, too real, too literal, too practical, too one dimensional, too direct, too blunt, too inconsiderate, too difficult, too something.
Do we need more than a “grain of salt” when listening to, or telling lies? Should we take this “convention of lying” into account? Maybe some lies can also be called myths, fairytales, make-believe, pretending, or delusions.

“Lies” are often part of a ritual, an accepted convention. “How are you?” “I’m fine thanks.” It’s only a greeting not a real enquiry into your health state and the reply to that may be far from the truth. Each culture will have some of these conventions. Some of these overlap many cultures and people can feel insulted or put out when convention is not followed.

Intended Benefits
The question remains “acceptable to whom” and “for the purpose of what?” Many of these lies would be considered as told “with good intention, for the benefit of the recipient, the relationship, or even for self.”
An example might be, “I give others a compliment because it makes me feel good.” Whether they choose to respond by feeling good too is beside the point. They can enjoy the compliment or deny or ignore it, but I still feel good.
But I can also give a compliment so that the other person feels good, even when it makes no difference to how I feel as a result of extending the compliment. I might simple see it as a fact, an acknowledgement of their ability or their achieved outcomes.

Convention Can Be A Trap Or A Barrier
Problems occur when I feel I have no choice but to lie as expected by convention or other people’s personal rules or beliefs. Now I might ruffle some feathers if I am truthful or I might feel trapped if I don’t tell the truth. How many of us were told as children, “don’t be rude,” when we said, “that person is fat.” Did we learn to lie too well? Are we still obeying our parents’ rules even as we become grandparents our selves? Is that a good thing? Does the younger generation respect us for continuing to lie? Or do they accept convention as a good thing?

There is much to ponder.

Male/Female Lies
Some are “between gender” lies. An example is when a female asks her special male, “Does my butt look good in these?” Now, every male will know that you are dammed if you say “yes” and “dammed” if you say “no.” Savvy men will know the safest thing is to say, “Darling, your butt always looks good to me,” whether it’s the truth or not.

Some Lies Are Harmful And Criminal
Of course, some lies are not benign. They are told with negative intent aimed at the receiver. They are intended to hurt, to damage, to mislead, to trick, to embezzle, to hide, to sensationalize, to undermine, to out-compete, to destroy, to shame, to get back at, and a whole lot more. Newspapers and magazines fill their pages with these, and courtrooms are full of the fall out of these intentional lies, twisted truths, and omissions, in business dealings and in personal relationships.

I can’t even begin to talk about right or wrong. Because the next question is “Right for whom?” “Wrong for whom?” “According to whom?” “In what circumstances”? That’s what the lawyers make their money from and what court judges have to preside over and decide – according to an interpretation of a specific law.

It can be tricky and the results may not be seen by all as being “fair” or “just.”
In our personal life we must decide our own values, including when to “lie”, if to “lie”, when to use convention, when to go against it, when to be direct, when to be discrete, when to withdraw, when to speak up. Our values and decisions may not suit everyone in our circle and we will have to deal with any repercussions.

So we need to look at the guidelines and rules passed down to us, check which are still valid, which need upgrading, and add any new ones that relate to our much-changed society. Often a kinesiology energy balance to release the stress and have clarity for self can be helpful.

Obviously what we communicate and how we communicate it takes insight, skill and understanding. Dynamic Communication is the program set up specifically to meet this need and to help you do that with grace and power.

In Health Care
It’s not just in our personal and work life that we need guidelines and rules.
So is it any wonder that every health care modality must have their “rules” well defined as to what constitutes “ethical behaviour” and for the registration of suitably “qualified” members.

This is usually concluded in consultation with the legal representatives and association members of a modality. Australian Kinesiology Association And Australian Institute of Kinesiology are in the throes of this process right now. It is essential that our clients feel well cared for by people who have been trained for this purpose and can apply their training competently.

Also at this time, natural therapy modalities are aiming to come together under an umbrella to become a united voice in lobbying government and other bodies regarding the acceptance of natural therapies as being a valid choice for people in terms of their health. This is the task of the newly formed The Natural Medicine and Therapies Registration Board, the NM&TRB.

I take my hat off to everyone involved. Both individual association tasks and the umbrella body tasks are daunting yet necessary for our natural health care industry to move forward and continue to provide the choice more and more people are looking for today.
Cheers
Anna

PS. Dynamic Communication is essential for healthy, strong, and balanced relationships with your self, your family and in your work place. Communication training is a requirement for Advanced Registered Kinesiologists with AKA and for Diploma in Kinesiology at various registered colleges.

Dynamic Communication Program will be available in Brisbane Tuesday nights, 6.30pm to 9.30pm over ten weeks scheduled to begin 6th March. (See February Newsletter to register)

Walking Benefits Body and Brain, Heart and Soul

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Walking benefits the body and brain, the heart and soul. Walking is often quoted as a health giving and life affirming activity that is available to us all every day of the year. And yes, it does our heart and lungs a heap of good, it strengthens our leg muscles and lifts our mood. Walking helps to keep blood sugars in balance and gets us out of enclosed environments where the air pollution and electronic pollution is high. Depending where you live in the world today you can often find that inside homes and work places the air can be more polluted than outside with the traffic. That’s scary.

But there is more to learn about walking. Research is continuing to provide statistics and specific answers to questions like how does walking effect weight loss, energy use, fitness level and health outcomes?

Two Scientists from University College London performed a meta-analysis of research published in peer-reviewed English-language journals from 1970 to 2007 . All 459,833 participants covered by the meta-analysis were free of cardiovascular disease when they enrolled in the 18 studies. Collating all the data the bottom line is that the meta-analysis makes a strong case for walking.

Tracking Walkers Over Years
In a group of 44,452 American male health professionals, who walked 30 minutes a day, the result was 18% lower risk for coronary artery disease. Among 72,488 female nurses, walking at least three hours a week was linked to a 35% lower risk of heart attack and cardiac death, and a 34% lower risk of stroke. These people were free of cardiovascular disease when they enrolled in the studies, and were tracked for 11 years to arrive at the results published.

A 10 year study of 229 postmenopausal women randomly assigned the volunteers to walk at least one mile a day or to continue normal activities. At the end of the trial, the walkers enjoyed an 82% lower risk of heart disease.

The benefits of walking went beyond just for the heart and arteries and implicates lack of exercise contributes to four of the leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.

A study followed the lifestyle habits and health of 30,000 women over a 12 year period. It found women who walked one hour per day at least, and added one hour a week of gym or swimming, were 55% less likely to develop breast cancer. The research was conducted by Nagoya City University in Japan.

Walking each day can help Type 2 diabetes. Contracting muscles use up blood sugars helping to keep blood glucose at normal levels. A study by Dr Frank Booth showed 30 to 50% of all cases of Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and many cancers were prevented by 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each day. He received Honor Awards for his work on why sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of 20 of the world’s most deadly chronic diseases.

Tracking People Needing Cardiac Rehabilitation
But what about people who already have heart issues, will they gain any benefits from walking? Randomized clinical trials of cardiac rehabilitation provided answers. 48 trials in 8,946 patients showed moderate exercise for 30 minutes three times a week produced 26% reduction in risk of death from heart disease and a 20% reduction in overall death rate.

As a guide:
– 80 steps a minute indicates a leisurely pace
– 100 steps a minute indicates a moderate to brisk pace
– 120 steps a minute indicates a fast pace.

How Fast Should You Walk?
According to Professor Brewer, University of Bedfordshire, “At slower speeds you’ll walk less efficiently which requires more energy to travel the same distance. But the health benefits of walking or running extend far beyond burning calories, to lowering cholesterol, blood pressure and much more.”

“Maximum benefits are felt when you’re walking at between 50 and 70 per cent of your maximum effort, meaning you can just maintain a staggered conversation.”
Apparently the speed you walk at is as good an indicator of how long you’ll live as your health history, smoking habits and blood pressure combined, USA researchers have found.

University of Pittsburg physiologists analyzed data of over 34,00 adults aged 65 and over. They found speeds of 2.6 feet per second were associated with average life expectancy. Those who walked 3.3 feet per second or faster had the highest survival rates and the greatest gains were seen in walkers aged over 75.

Walking Up Stairs
Even at a slow pace climbing stairs burns calories two to three times faster than walking briskly on the level. The Harvard Alumni Study found that men who average at least eight flights a day enjoy a 33% lower mortality rate than men who are sedentary. That’s better that walking 1.3 miles a day that lowers the death rate by 22%.

Stair climbing is twice as energy demanding as brisk walking on the level, and 50% harder than walking up a steep incline or even lifting weights in the gym.

Best Time To Walk
Walking is a great start to the day. It’s the least polluted time of day so you gain the most benefits and the cleanest air. Of course walking on the beach or along a bush track or through a park is better than walking the streets. Even so, avoiding main roads and winding through suburbs with their trees and gardens will do more good than walking on a treadmill in the gym.

Walking in the morning also increases your metabolism along with oxygen intake and sets up your body and brain for a productive day.
Gradually extend the distance you cover and as you become fitter pick up the pace. You will come home with a clear head, feeling refreshed and re-energized and ready to start your work day with enthusiasm.

Walking Benefits Heart and Soul
Not only does the physical heart benefit from walking, but so does the emotional heart. When heart broken, heavy hearted, wounded, shattered or torn apart, your metaphysical heart too, your psyche and your essence respond to walking. Our Australian native people, like many native people, knew to go walk-about to connect with the Earth and sacred places, to hear and feel the heart beat of our planet. They knew the places of healing to strengthen their physical, emotional, and spiritual being.

Our churches and places of worship are often built on energy lines, the energy meridians of the planet. When we walk into an area of special significance our soul responds. We absorb the tranquility and harmony nature provides to restore our own inner state. Walking, like a metronome, can be mesmeric, a moving meditation that calms the mind and allows the body to synchronize, and feel the Earth draw us into its rhythm and vibration. Walking is very healing.

Old and New Under Review
More than 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates said, “Walking is a man’s best medicine.”
And Charles Dickens said, “Walk to be healthy, walk to be happy.”
And today our modern day researchers and scientists are saying the same thing.

Walking is an excellent way to protect your health and slow down the aging process. And you can walk alone with your mind in meditation mode, with friends who share your interest in health and wellbeing, or with the family to set the example, bond through regular activity together, and build healthy habits.

Don’t underestimate the power of walking regularly. Walking is not high tech, or funky, or cool, or glamorous, or expensive, so may not always get the respect or limelight it deserves. But for its health benefits, its value as personal transportation, its role in recreation and its ready availability and adaptability to all ages and all fitness levels, it is an intrinsic and practical way to be at our best.

Walking benefits body and brain, heart and soul.
Cheers
Anna

Walking – 50 Benefits in 7 Categories

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Walking has many benefits for the body and brain, heart and soul.
Below is a list of 50 benefits in 7 categories:
physical benefits, health benefits, nutritional benefits, emotional benefits, mental and creative benefits, electro-magnetic benefits, economic benefits, and more.

Physical Benefits:
– low impact form of exercise
– gentle on joints and your whole spine
– improves flexibility
– is a cross patterning movement to improve co-ordination
– start at own pace to match fitness level
– easy to control increase of intensity, distance and frequency
– stimulates body-brain communication
– improves recovery from injury and surgery
– resets muscle use after trauma
– integrates healed muscles into team work again
– improves fitness
– increases lung capacity
– builds spare capacity for emergency activity

Health Benefits:
– speeds healing
– good for cardiovascular fitness
– can assist in lowering blood pressure
– reduces cholesterol
– improves bone density
– reduces risk of osteoporosis
– improves sleeping patterns
– assists in weight loss
– increase energy
– strengthens your immune system
– reduces risk of cancer
– increases lymphatic clearance of cellular waste
– gets you outside regularly
– extends life

Nutritional Benefits:
– increases oxygen intake
– improves digestion and elimination
– better nutrient assimilation
– allows exposure to sunshine and vitamin D
– draws attention to need for hydration and increasing water intake

Emotional Benefits:
– lowers stress levels
– elevates mood
– releases feel good hormones as you walk
– settles the mind
– is meditative
– can be shared

Mental and Creative Benefits:
– stimulates left and right brain integration
– encourages whole brain thinking and creativity
– aids problem solving
– activates new brain cells
– builds brain circuits

Electro-Magnetic Benefits:
– barefoot on wet grass or wet sand is grounding
– barefoot will discharge build up of positive ions in body
– barefoot will absorb negative ions from the Earth’s field

Economic Benefits:
– very economical as is free, just get good walking shoes
– cheaper than any gym
– keeps you healthy so saves on medical bills
– is insurance for healthy later years

I totally believe if you appreciate and honour your body’s intelligence, do what keeps your body well, provide quality food as fuel and building material, and take charge of your thoughts, beliefs and expectations, your body can then be your willing and able servant all your years so you can have the life your choose and love the life you have.
Einstein explained, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” So keep walking.
Cheers
Anna

PS See Article: Walking Benefits Body & Brain, Heart & Soul http://annamcrobertblog.com/?p=349

Sudden Muscle Pain Solution

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Have you ever had sudden muscle pain that seems to come out of the blue? Then this experience might sound familiar. You are sitting at your desk and reach out to your right side to select a book from the shelf beside you. That’s OK. You ease the book out from its position on the self, still leaning slightly and stretching to your right. It’s a bit awkward but you can’t wheel your chair closer as there are files on the floor blocking your way. You wriggle the book free and you lift it off the shelf. It’s a bit heavy and you feel a sudden twinge in your shoulder. The shoulder didn’t like that but the pain subsided as soon as you put the book on your desk.

After referring to what you needed in the book you again lean out to put the book back on the shelf, but this time the pain is stronger so you change your mind and leave the book on your desk. At the end of the day even picking up the book from your desk right in front of you creates twinges, and there’s tension in the back of the shoulder too.

Next day you are aware of shoulder twinges with the slightest moves, even without holding any extra weight in your hand. And it continues to get worse. In a few days the arm and shoulder ache, and tension has increased in your back, now the opposite hip is also complaining.

Your Own Experience
Now in your case it might not be reaching over to get a book. It could have been reaching back to pull the safety belt out to buckle up in your car seat. It could be reaching down to pull out a weed. It could be picking up the paper that fell on the floor or doing something you have done many times before, but this time it’s a slightly different angle or from an awkward position or while juggling other items or something similar – and bang! – there goes that sudden twinge or sharp pain telling you something is definitely wrong.

Let me ask you, did that particular movement cause the pain or was it the last straw? Or had you been sitting in the same position for hours before reaching out? Or were you thinking about something stressful and not paying attention to what you were lifting? Or did you have a hangover or your blood sugars were low, or you were too busy of late to eat well and had no time for exercise? Or had you been relying on coffee, tea or juice, even soft drinks to hydrate your body instead of water?

Hmmm! There are many possible causes for pain, and some relate specifically to shoulder area, or your neck or more the low back, or hip or knee in particular, or could involve several areas. Rarely is the cause right then and there. That would be an accident, wouldn’t it? But of course, when under any kind of stress we are all more accident prone anyway. So even an accident may have contributing factors that relate to your own lifestyle or state of awareness, or lack of, over time, culminating in that moment when pain suddenly fired off.

Get To The Cause
But whatever the cause, attending to and getting relief as soon as possible is important. And once the pain is reduced or even if it disappears, it is equally important to find the underlying cause and attend to that. This is the key that ensures the pattern that set off the pain in the first place is not repeated. Addressing the cause is the long-term solution that protects you from degenerating into patterns of recurring pain and ongoing suffering.

The immediate solution and long term solutions will naturally depend on the cause and the repercussions on the body as a whole. Researching the topic of pain and pain solutions you will quickly discover there are almost as many options for solutions as there are causes. Seeing a doctor for a diagnosis and any tests that could help is a start. Getting to the bottom of the cause and creating long-term solutions is not the expertise of doctors as this needs a holistic approach and most doctors limit their themselves to drugs and surgery.

Holistic Solutions
Attending to the obvious is rarely the long-term solution. For best results uncovering and re-balancing the causal factors on a physical, mental, emotional, nutritional and essential level will reinstate holistic equilibrium to the body, mind and spirit.

Kinesiology Identifies What is Needed
Kinesiology muscle response testing quickly sorts through the options to identify the priority for creating the best internal environment for healing to take place and ensure long term betterment. Your body knows what it needs to heal itself. Muscle response testing provides a way to “ask” the body what is necessary.

Some of it is common sense.
Do what it takes to help your body’s healing process:
– reduce stress and strain
– drink water to dilute and flush out waste and toxins
– provide repair material through your food choices
– add supplements and herbs as appropriate
– keep the body moving within the range of the situation
– ensure your circulation is well maintained to bring new supplies for new cells
– focus on improving oxygen levels with mindful breathing
– ensure adequate rest and sleep for the repair and replacement to happen
– stay positive and appreciate each step of the improvement as you recover
– be grateful that the body is designed to self heal
– review what to change so there is no repeat of the problem.

Would it surprise you to know most people don’t consider these basic common sense actions or are not even aware they can support their healing process?

Kinesiology muscle responds testing is an invaluable tool and will guide you to pin point the specifics within each of these “common sense” components for your body’s optimum healing level. You can test for how much water, which foods, best time to eat what, thoughts that lift and direct energy for repair – and create the best healing environment internally.

Muscle responds testing will also identify the specific emotions stirred up by your pain experience, how to rebalance the stress, and the insight to gain from this pain experience so you build your awareness and self-knowledge.

To help yourself stay pain free you do need a level of awareness, some knowledge and skills. What is it that helps you know whether to learn skills to resolve pain now, or soon? How do you go about deciding how much time and energy you will invest in learning about your health and pain recovery? What would it be like if you had the knowledge and strategies to double your energy and increase healing for your self – and for your children?

Touch For Health kinesiology can do much more that reduce your pain.

Are you interested? You might want to learn at least the basics of Kinesiology muscle response testing through Touch For Health workshops. Attending just two days of TFH 1 you will learn how to raise your energy to handle every day life with greater ease, be productive and still have energy to spare to enjoy your family. And you will have techniques and strategies at you fingertips to boost recovery from life’s mishaps as needed.

Imagine what would happen if you could muscle test which food was causing your child’s headache or tummy ache, or uncontrollable outbursts, or sleep disturbances. Or which foods would aid pain recovery. Or what if you could help with learning difficulties, your own as well as your child’s, would that make a difference? You’ll be amazed and delighted how you can go from feeling helpless to helpful with Touch For Health knowledge and skills at your finger tips. Muscle pain can happen suddenly. Learn what to do to quickly and safely reduce the pain and fully recover.

Register for Touch For Health 1 Workshop coming up on 4th & 5th February and begin your year on a positive note. See notice attached to your January News.
Cheers
Anna

How To Stay Calm – anytime – not just at Christmas

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Not everyone looks forward to Christmas festivities. Do you wish you could stay cool, calm, and relaxed, at anytime, not just at Christmas? Then this special calming technique can be your perfect gift to your self that keeps giving all year long, especially right now, and during the school holidays.

Christmas can be a joy and can also be a nightmare. Old family animosities flare up, especially with alcohol blocking the front brain’s ability to control impulsive behaviour. Normally polite or considerate behaviour can give way to outbursts and thoughtless comments as the day progresses and alcohol consumption increases.

It can also be time of missing a family member who has passed during the year or a reminder of other traumatic events.

So it pays to have a few coping skills under your belt.

Your expectations of disaster or disappointment or grief can prime you to be in that emotional state long before the celebrations begin. Your thoughts beforehand can add energy to, and so create, the very outcome you dread and are trying to avoid.

If you think it will be stressful, then it will be so. If you think it will be peaceful and fun, then it will be so. Because whatever you decide beforehand that it will be, for you, it will, and you can more easily stay in that state, no matter what others are saying or doing. You are in charge of your feelings by being in charge of your thoughts and the energy pattern those thoughts create.

One of the surest ways to set your self up for a good day is to take 5 minutes out for a special personal activity. Now I know you are super busy right now, but let me assure you, I’ll tell you exactly how to use that 5 minutes so your day works better for you. Spending 5 minutes will save you hours of stress and tension.

Take 5 minutes to do a special mini meditation. Doing this mini meditation for even 5 minutes a day will create a network in your brain that goes with a relaxed and peaceful state, one that you can access during the day with just a breath and a thought. It’s easy.

How can you do this?
I can’t keep my mind still for even a minute, you say.
There’s too much to do right now.
It’s just too hard for me. Or not.

Many Westerns are not used to being still and quiet without thoughts demanding attention and a drive to action. TV is a distraction that often dulls the mind into a non-thinking state, which is not the same as being relaxed and calm. It’s often an avoidance tactic.

Let me show you how to create a habit of calm and relaxation. You can program your brain to create a new and healthy habit. Doing this on a daily basis for 5 minutes creates a brain program, which you can readily access when you need it, when stress begins to rise or when the pressure is on.

Do this mini meditation:
– sit in a quiet room or space, or push your chair away from your work desk
– lengthen your spine and sit slightly forward on to your sitting bones
– relax your hands in your lap, feet on the floor
– take a deep breath in … and breathe out as you gently close your eyes
– breathe in again … and out … as you allow your body to gently relax

– imaging your favourite flower, with multiple petals, a rose, a lotus, a daisy
– now imagine this flower as a bud, the petals curled tightly
– breathe in, and as you breathe out, imagine one petal gently loosen and unfurl
– breathe in, and as you breathe out, imagine the next petal gently unfurl
– continue to breathe in and out … unfurling your flower bud … petal… by… petal
– when your flower is fully open and all the petals beautifully arranged according to natures design, enjoy its beauty
– enjoy its perfection … its form … its shape … its colour … its texture … its perfume perhaps … its health and vitality

– imagine or see the aura extending out from the living fully opened flower
– imagine the flower aura expand with every out breath as you watch
– and progressively the aura extends to include you in its energy field
– breathe within that bubble like energy field created by your flower
– become aware of just how serene, and peaceful it is within the energy bubble
– enjoy the calm as you breathe in … and out

– if there is a particular situation in which you want to feel this calm, imagine the energy bubble enveloping and permeating the situation, the place, the people, the conversations, the activities, so they too induce calm in you as you watch, calm and peace
– do this for at least three full breaths

When you are ready to go back into your every day world, begin to move your body, become aware of the surface you are sitting on, of the surface your feet are in contact with, the feel of your hands, and wriggle them a little, move your head, and shoulders, and arms, and feet, and gently open your eyes.

Be aware of the calm state of your mind and body. This is the state you take into your activities and that you projected forward into your particular situation. A breath and a vision of your flower fully open will refresh your calm state at any time, so you can stay calm, anytime, not just at Christmas.
Let me know how that goes for you.
Cheers
Anna
PS Merry Christmas