confidence Archives - Claire Cutler Casey

Do you want to get by or do you want to get better? Is food intolerance getting in your way?

Food intolerance may only be the start of the story……. Do you want to get by or do you want to get better_

Food intolerance is on the rise, with nearly 20% of the population believed to suffer symptoms including:

- Diarrhea
- Abdominal pain
- Rashes
- Runny nose
- Bloating
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Fatigue
- Reflux
- Hot flushes

Food sensitivity testing identifies the foods the body is struggling with and elimination diets can provide some relief, however, food may only be the start of the story.

In Traditional Chinese medicine the stomach is the ‘home of emotions’, where we experience a vast array of emotional responses.

Consider a time you were nervous, did you experience butterflies in your stomach?

butterflies are a common sign of anticipation, excitement and nervousness

The stomach is the organ that begins processing all the nourishment we take in, be it physical or emotional. Metaphorically we ‘chew things over’ before swallowing, if we take on board something that is against our better judgement it can leave a bad taste in the mouth and decisions or situations that are indigestible to us, can cause emotional upset, making the stomach churn. If we cannot let something lie it can repeat on us resulting in physical and emotional pain as we go over it repeatedly, dissecting it to look for other information to support our decision.

emotions

Exploring our emotional diet alongside our physical nutrition creates a robust mechanism for supporting the body to better digest physical food, build emotional resilience and eliminate emotional situations that do not nourish us.

What emotional sustenance are you taking in that is not nourishing you? Are you self-critical, do you compromise your own values to maintain the status quo or are you holding on to some anger or resentment from previous experiences? Do you get stomach ache, headaches, nausea, diarrhoea or constipation? Do you suffer with IBS or bloating? Does your body react uncomfortably to the food you eat?

Whilst elimination diets provide a respite for your physical body they do nothing to address the emotional strain your body is experiencing, in fact, the added pressure of reading labels, checking restaurant ingredients and ensuring foods you can eat are accessible, whenever you need them, can create additional stress, increasing the body’s sensitivity to foods. The relationship between food intolerance and stress is difficult to untangle, ironically they ‘feed’ each other, dragging you down in the perpetual cycle.

Reducing the amount of stress and emotional turmoil you experience every day gives your body a greater opportunity to heal because every extra bit of stress perpetuates the downward spiral, be it stress from food or life.

Break the cycle, create space for the healing to begin.

out of order

In your personal kinesiology food sensitivity session you will receive a full kinesiology session to balance your system, before we go on to test over 150 common foods, to ascertain which ones are the most stressful to your system, helping you to eliminate these from your diet for a specified period, allowing your body space to recuperate.

During this period you might choose to address other emotional issues to support the healing process, it’s up to you, it really depends on how quickly you want to get back to the life you love.

Food sensitivity

We will discuss your concerns. You will receive practical tips and support to take away with you, enabling you to deal differently with the foods and situations that are not supporting your health. You’ll also receive valuable insights into the mechanisms your system has created to help you cope and what you can do (or stop doing) to improve your own comfort and build resilience, helping you take it one step at a time so you can build on your success everyday.

woman Jumping

So, ask yourself, do you want to get by, or do you want to get better?

Claire Cutler-Casey is a professional Kinesiology Practitioner and Touch For Health instructor as well as delivering a variety of business and well-being workshops designed to help you navigate the process of change.

If you would like to book a 1:1 Kinesiology session, please click here.

You can also join our online community here.

Try something new with your resolutions for the year ahead…

I’m going to ask you to try something.

Take a moment and stare into the flickering flames of the fire or a candle.

Let the light flicker and play and watch as it dances, in an endless rhythm of light.

Take a walk in the day.

Watch the frost on the dormant twigs, see how it shines in the sunlight, watch the lustre glistering in the moonlight.

Embrace the rapture of quiet, calm, reflective, winter.

Finally, having done these things, reflect on how you feel.

Winter is the time of reflection.

See the water frozen over, providing the perfect natural opportunity to witness yourself, as you truly are. No ripples to distort or interrupt, so in nature, everything is still and calm, including us.

Much of nature is in hibernation now; cosied up beneath a blanket of thick frost and frozen ground. Icy paths present us with an opportunity to glide, fleet footed. Dancing quietly with the beauty of this quiet, frozen time.

Remember you are part of the natural world, the seasons of the natural year echo and vibrate through you, calling us to rest, to reflect and to venture within.

Winter is the dream time, a time of short, short days and long, dark nights. A time to hibernate and let the dreaming body venture away. Now we can explore ideas without commitment, so, embrace the freedom to browse your future possibilities, with no intention to buy. No decisions are required just yet.

How often do you make your New Year resolutions on the stroke of midnight? Racing to get them fixed before the final chime has rung? Ready to fling yourself, all guns blazing into a brand new year, a brand new you.

But, wait, what of the ‘old’ you?

What of the wise you who learned so much during the previous year (and all the years before that) what of them?

Winter is the time to sit with yourself, to scrutinise and reflect, to ask yourself some intimate questions and allow yourself to hear the answers.

Winter is a time of gathering.

Gathering knowledge, insights, dreams, ideas and wisdom.

Gathering your self, assembling the pieces that make you and allowing them to gently combine into the person you will share with the world this year.

Like searching through a long forgotten chest to see what treasures are hidden there, before deciding the fate of the container, let us first explore what precious gifts it holds.

Winter is the season to explore the self, deeply and courageously.

It is the time to make peace with your fears, your insecurities, your frustrations and your creativity, time to explore – are you ready to try something new?.

It is the time to journey inward and connect with your inner direction, embrace your confidence, and courageously balance your cautious, careless, reckless aspects, taking ownership of all that IS you and creating resolution, within yourself, to carry you through the year ahead.

If recent years have taught us anything it is that it’s not plans and actions that see us through, it is courage. Courage in the face of uncertainty.

Use this time to embrace your courageous self.

Sit with it the brave part of you. Raise a glass to your inner courage, thank it, seek knowledge from it, above all, allow the courageous part of you to rest.

Your courage may feel depleted because of the exceptional year we experienced.

Winter is the time we replenish out depleted reserves, filling them until they are full.

Rest and reflection are the tools that enable this.

Allow yourself to play with ideas and dreams, who would you like to be this year?

Think of it as a game of dress-up. Experiment with different ideas of you. Mix and match until the person you wish to be emerges, just in time for Spring.

Come Spring you will have the energy, confidence and courage to burst into bud and blossom. What’s more, with your reserves refuelled, you have all the resources you need to achieve everything you dreamed of.

Happy New Year.

Claire

Claire Cutler-Casey is a professional Kinesiology Practitioner and instructor as well as delivering a variety of business and well-being workshops designed to help you successfully navigate the process of change.

If you would like to book a 1:1 Kinesiology session, please click here.

You can also join our online community here.

Walk your unique meridian pathway and unlock your inner purpose

The greater awareness you have of your own energy system, the quicker you can pinpoint imbalances and correct them. It also makes it easier to identify any recurring glitches and ascertain how to transform them, like a computer installing an update when the operating programme is corrupted. If you have an old, outdated, programme running part of your system it could be time to have a look at it and see what you can do to bring it up to date.

Walk your unique meridian pathway and unlock your inner purpose. So, what’s all the fuss about meridians?

Quite simply meridians are channels in your body that hold and distribute energy (Qi) around your system.

Many traditional practices work with meridians and the Qi that runs through them, including:

Kinesiology balances and harmonises your unique meridian energies to help restore peace and calm to the system.
Acupuncture precisely activates meridian points with fine needles.
Yoga stretches and tones meridian pathways, helping improve energy flow.
Reflexology stimulates associated points on the feet, hands and/or face to improve well-being.

Scientific studies used state of the art body scanning technology, with contrast dyes, to isolate and confirm the location of meridian points on various parts of the human anatomy, showing their distinctive anatomical construction and precise location(s).

There are two types of meridians each with their own distinctive functions and creating a pattern of unique meridian energy within you.

Ancestral meridians, also known as extra-ordinary meridians store Qi until your body requires it. The Qi energy is stored deeper inside your physical body, when these reserves get depleted acute feelings of fatigue, immobility and apathy can be experienced, these can easily become chronic and debilitating.

Ancestral meridian Qi is inherited from our parents at conception and provides a useful portal to a wealth of ancient wisdom, forgotten talents and exceptional knowledge, granting direct access to all the lessons your ancestors learned that ensured your genetic line survived.

Working with ancestral meridians allows you to uncover the unique mix of intelligence, skills and creativity ensuring your genetic line survived. Use these energetic super-highways as a fast track to access ancient wisdom and re-invigorate your intuition.

Working with ancestral meridians can also enhance past life work, providing firm foundations for soul retrieval and accessing akashic records, making it easier to work with your own etheric body.

Superficial meridians, also referred to as ordinary meridians, tap into the stored Qi and transport it along pathways, creating a connected circuit, distributing a unique blend of energy, vitality, wisdom and knowledge round your system, nourishing and regulating specific organs, emotions and/or endocrine functions.

Your superficial meridian system relates specifically to you, evolving as you develop. Beginning in the womb it creates your personal energetic map, drawing on your inherited energetic blueprint, helping you transform your inherited Qi, making it relevant for the world that you emerge into, grow up in and, eventually, shape.

Learning to tap into these reservoirs and streams of energy enables you to notice when things are out of kilter and super-charge your efforts to more easily achieve the profound shifts you desire.

The greater awareness you have of your own energy system, the quicker you can pinpoint imbalances and address them. It’s easier to identify any recurring glitches and transform them, like a computer installing an update when the operating programme is corrupted. If you have an old, outdated, programme running part of your system it could be time to have a look and see what you can do to bring it up to date.

Working with your energetic blueprint allows you to interrogate the beliefs, habits and behaviours that drive you.

Do you sometimes feel that you’re ‘off track’? Unsure how to set yourself back on the right path for you but certain that you have disconnected from your true purpose? Working with your own energetic blueprint via your unique median system enables you to better explore your inner purpose and connect with you own soul’s journey? Stepping back onto the correct path with ease.

The more you work with your own energetic blueprint the easier it becomes to manoeuvre and create a smoother journey through life. Elegantly drawing on the extra wisdom and insights needed to get you where you want to be without force or struggle, using all your vitality to progress rather than wasting your precious resources wrestling with your past.

A great way to start is by exploring your personal energetic blueprint, understanding what makes up the Qi that powers you, the responsibilities of each meridian and what experiences may have affected your personal energetic evolution.

To find out more about the next step to freeing up your own extra-ordinary energy click here

If you would like to book a 1:1 Kinesiology session, please click here.

You can also join our online community here.

Qi – Unravelling the mystery

get into the flow of the wu-wei, the space where attainment is easy, achievement without effort.

Qi (pronounced chee) is the universal force of life, responsible for movement, motivation, reproduction and growth. Contained in all living organisms, in many ancient philosophies it is disturbances in the manifestation, movement, retention and dispersal of Qi that lead to dysfunctions in the person, creating dis-ease and discomfort.

Qi combines with Jing (the substance of transformation) to create our individual constitutional make up, it is both supporting and nourishing, , helping every cell in our body to reproduce and perpetuate the 7 year cycle of transformation in women (8 years in men), imbuing organisms with potential, the possibility of development.

Nothing rests, everything moves and vibrates, pure energy vibrates at different frequencies, as can most easily be seen in the light spectrum, with different frequencies creating different colours.

Even at rest your body is transforming, taking in air, expelling carbon dioxide, cleansing blood, releasing hormones, generating T-cells, extracting nutrition from food, sorting thought the issues of the day. That these processes happen effortless in our sleep reminds us that life is a space of constant change and our ‘job’ is to find the most graceful, peaceful ways to find our own personal state of balance, to get into the flow of the wu-wei, the space where attainment is easy, achievement without effort.

Energy is no one force or thing, 32 distinct types of qi have been identified, they combine to create ‘the one Qi’ also known as prana or life force; found in all living things, it has five main functions:

Movement – including physical agility, dexterity and coordination
Protection – on all levels including physical, emotional, biochemical, physiological, energetic and spiritual
Harmonious transformation – the graceful and consistent transformation from one state to another
Retention of substances and organs – your body’s physical ability to contain itself and function optimally against both internal and external forces, such as gravity, inertia etc.
Temperature regulation – imbalances are more at times of menopause when hot flushes are accepted as an expected symptom.

Qi come from 3 main sources:

It is transferred between parents and child at the moment of conception, it is partly responsible for our inherited constitution. Stored in the kidneys it combines with jing to determine our unique constitution, personality and make up.

It is derived from the digestion of the food we eat. Consider your personal constitution when eating fast food, a plant rich diet, excessive carbohydrates. Does your mood change? How is your digestion when you eat on an argument? Qi is not just about the composition of our bodies it affects how we feel in our bodies.

It is extracted by the lungs from the air we breathe. Do you feel different in specific locations? Are you affected by a polluted city, an air conditioned building, a forest, being on or near the water.

5 main types of Qi include:

Organ Qi – each organ has its own distinct qi and metaphorical associations
Meridian Qi – normal or upright qi as it flows through the superficial meridian system .
Nutritive Qi – an essential force in the nourishment of the body, this qi transforms nutrients in the blood
Protective Qi – described as being ‘fierce and bold’ it resists and combats ‘external pernicious influences’
Ancestral Qi – aids and regulates rhythmic movement of breath and heart beat.

Exploring and understanding the factors that influence your unique Qi blueprint enable you to address your own well-being and health aspirations from a completely personalised perspective. Creating a bespoke personalised combination of techniques and simple lifestyles adjustments enables you to address your own unique situation from an informed perspective, where you can use your unique understanding of your own story to realise your full potential.

Join us as we dive deeper into the mysteries of Qi, learn how to identify your own imbalances and bring them back to harmony to help you more easily get into the flow of the wu-wei. For full details of the next workshop, please click here

If you would like to book a 1:1 Kinesiology session, please click here.

You can also join our online community here.

Impostor syndrome, but at what cost?

Is impostor syndrome holding you back and preventing you from realising your full potential? Read on to find out how to stop feeling like a fraud and enjoy more of what you love.

The true cost of impostor syndrome, defined as ‘the persistent inability to believe that one’s success is deserved or has been legitimately achieved as a result of one’s own efforts or skills’, can be more significant than we realise.

Impostor syndrome is often accompanied by high levels of anxiety and feelings of self-doubt, impacting the person’s sense of their own worth, impeding their progress and preventing them from easily realising their full potential.

Impostor syndrome does not discriminate by profession, gender or age. Anyone can fall prey as it worms itself into the psyche, creating an internal narrative that questions one’s ability, experience and, eventually, one’s very existence. Thoughts take the form of ‘who do you think you are’ and present a less than humble view of ourselves, suggesting egotistical self importance and dishonesty.

Trying to rationalise impostor syndrome is like trying to talk down a tired toddler on a sugar rush; infuriating, exhausting and futile.

Impostor syndrome often occurs when a person embarks on a learning journey and wishes to share their knowledge and experience with others, reaching a stage where they know more than the average person in the street yet still with more to learn, to master the subject fully. Realising the impact the learning has had for them they take the courageous step to share it with others.

As a practitioner, instructor, teacher or sharer of information/knowledge/experience, we provide a safe space where students may explore different ideas and their own relationship with them, where questions can be asked and debated. It is no teachers job to be the font of all knowledge, but a guide imparting wisdom, stimulating the curiosity of those who wish to learn, wherever they may be on their journey.

Authenticity is the new rock ‘n roll

It is impossible for authenticity and impostor syndrome to co-exist. The authentic practitioner/teacher knows and works within the current limits of their own learning, seeking to continually deepen/broaden their knowledge and allowing themselves the space and time to grow.

Knowledge + Experience = wisdom

Human beings are effective recycling units, accumulating knowledge and experience and passing it on as wisdom, providing a foundation for the next generation to springboard from. The more we go through in life, the more we learn. Impostor syndrome makes us doubt our own wisdom and prevents us from sharing it with others. True, we may not yet know the answers but we know the combinations we have tried and can pass on the baton to give those that follow a running start.

Impostor syndrome prevents that baton from being passed on. The richness of your knowledge and experience is lost to history and subsequent endeavours must start from zero. Consider for a moment the impact of that on your own life. Quickly think of 10 things you know about because someone else shared their wisdom with you. From ironing a shirt to splitting the atom, all learning builds on the input and experience of others.

Impostor syndrome perpetuates the negative internal narrative that holds us back, reinforcing our lack of self worth and impeding our progress.

Just for today, consider what could happen if you shared your wisdom and it helped someone else have a better day. How would that be?

Tips to combat Impostor syndrome

Acknowledge how far you’ve come / how much you’ve learned.

Reflect on where you were before you began studying your subject of interest. What have you learned? How have you changed?

Seek feedback

Asking for feedback can feel terrifying but it serves a dual purpose. Feedback encourages your clients/students to reflect on their experience and learning, it also provides you with regular insights into your practice, what is working for people and how you might improve/refine your practice. Written feedback can be easier to process but, either way, ask your clients and students for feedback on 4 aspects:

What did they learn
What did they enjoy
What didn’t they enjoy
What changes could you make to improve their experience

Make a record of ALL your achievements

From learning to walk to passing your last exam, from getting out of bed on a challenging day to working with your first client/student. Recording and reviewing personal achievements creates a firm foundation from which to build self confidence plus it’s a great tool to get you back on track on a difficult day.

Talk about it

You will be amazed how many of the people you respect and admire have experienced impostor syndrome. Allow yourself to learn from them and stand on the shoulders of giants.

Impostor syndrome is one of the unhelpful belief systems I help people to acknowledge, address and change in my 1-2-1 kinesiology clinic sessions.

When you’re ready to step into your true self and realise your full potential, please get in touch to find out how.

I look forward to working with you

If you would like to book a 1:1 Kinesiology session, please click here.

You can also join our online community here.

Change the world – a ‘how to’ guide

Change the world! When something isn’t working it’s human nature to try to change the situation to create something that suits us better, we prefer to change the world rather than ourselves. It can feel easier to decide what external factors need to change to enable us to better function.

However, if we work to change the situation without changing ourselves, the solution just gets further away and the perceived problem is magnified.

As we find fault with the world around us we create a mindset focused on what is wrong with the world and just how monumental the changes required are, this can become daunting, overwhelming even.

Turning our gaze inward is a productive use of our limited internal resources, exploring what we can do differently to begin teaching the world how to adjust; creating a space where change is within our gift, it is what we proactively give to the world.

The easiest and kindest way to change the situation is to begin by emulating the change we wish to see.

Be kind, be the change you wish to see in the world

By demonstrating the change we would like to experience we become part of the solution and that’s infectious. There are various theories around why this is and the simplest one is that good ideas stick.

Share a smile, a kindness, a compliment, your time.

Be the change and watch how quickly the world changes around you

If you would like to book a 1:1 Kinesiology session, please click here.

You can also join our online community here.

How to be assertive, without trying.

When we pursue what matters to us we become a more powerful version of ourselves.

To be assertive is a powerful feeling, the confidence to pursue our personal desires and to direct our personal resources towards the attainment of our aspirations.

Too often we let judgements get in the way of our own power to be assertive, not wanting to be seen as ‘pushy’ or ‘arrogant’ we drop back, taking up the cause for another person’s dream, deeming that to be more important than our own.

Here’s the thing though, when we put our own energy into something that matters to us, that energy becomes the thing that drives us, it’s like a self filling fuel tank, pursuing our dreams becomes the driver to pursue our dreams.

The more assertive we are, the more assertive we become.

Obstacles become the very platforms we climb up on to see further into the future. The challenges we face, and overcome, build our resilience, testing our strength. When we pursue what matters to us we become a more powerful version of ourselves.

There is a powerhouse within you responsible for continual growth, a part that constantly refreshes and redefines who we are, in the light of our own personal experiences. That is the energy of the liver.

The liver is the only organ that can regenerate itself, you could donate some of your liver to another person and you’d both have a fully functioning liver. And fully functioning is a colossal job, at any given time 10% of your blood is in your liver, filtering 1.4 litres of blood every minute.

The ultimate multi-tasker, the liver performs over 500 functions, simultaneously. Helping blood clot, breaking down alcohol, chemicals, and other debris, making bile to break down fats and making and storing glucose for a quick burst of energy, on demand, it’s your own in-house laboratory, watching, identifying, removing, creating, storing, excreting and fueling everything you do, or want to do.

When we hook into the energy of this internal powerhouse we mainline right into our own confidence, ability and creativity. No room for doubt or timidity, we are fuelled by the thrusting energy of personal renewal and regeneration, able to take the risk required to achieve the outcomes we value.

Consider the flower bulb beneath the soil. The heat of the sun warms the earth and roots sprout, the bulb is doing 500 tasks simultaneously then, all at once, it thrusts up through the soil ‘here I am ready or not’; pushing through the barriers, making a decisive entrance into the daylight – that’s liver energy in action.

No compromise, no doubt, just confident assertiveness, in action.

So, what are you waiting for?

It’s time to claim your space, to assert yourself and achieve your aspirations.

If you’re struggling to hook into your internal powerhouse to motivate and fuel your own aspirations contact me to find out how I can help.

If you would like to book a 1:1 Kinesiology session, please click here.

You can also join our online community here.

Emotional baggage: how long would yours take to unpack?

Do you ever stop to consider just how much emotional baggage you’re trailing around? Does it fit in your tote? Your car? Would it fill a garage?

Can you imagine the weight of it?

What effect does it have on you to carry the weight of that emotional burden around with you all the time?

Have you ever taken it off, set it down or even acknowledged the immensity of it?

Emotional baggage is the effect of all the hurts, criticisms and negativity we experience and store away ‘just in case’.

Initially it becomes a tool with which we believe we are protecting ourselves, like a game of emotional snap, we carry the emotional footprint of the incidents that wound us so that we will be able to spot them and stop them, before they hurt us again.

The truth, however, is far more sinister, as they set up home in our psyche and become the very sticks we use to beat ourselves with; creating and encouraging a destructive internal narrative that holds us hostage to the events of our past and prevents us from engaging with the hope, potential and optimism of our own unwritten future.

Working with the natural energy cycles, together, we can elegantly extract the lessons from your own past experiences, keeping the learning whilst gently releasing the pain.

There is never a bad time to cleanse yourself of the emotional baggage that may be weighing you down and holding you back.

Does this feel like a good time to de-clutter your emotional baggage and make space for new ideas, possibilities and aspirations?

There are monthly circle gatherings to help you do just that, while harmonising with the energy around and within us. Join us as we share tips, techniques and insights. Find peace, flexibility and resilience throughout the year.

So, if you’re ready to release the emotional baggage that is weighing you down, you can now join in from the comfort of your sofa, find out all the details here.

If you would like to book a 1:1 Kinesiology session, please click here.

You can also join our online community here.

Kinesiology: What, Where, When & How

The purpose of my kinesiology practice is to help you get into the natural flow of life, known as the Wu Wei in traditional Chinese medicine, meaning ‘without effort’.

In the west we talk about being ‘in the zone’ or ‘in the flow’ and you may already have some experience of that; that feeling of everything going smoothly, seemingly without effort, this is what we work towards with kinesiology; creating sustainable internal harmony that enables you to be the best version of yourself, achieving whatever you wish with ease, grace, calm and contentment and supporting you to handle the ups and downs of life, effortlessly.

I work 1-2-1 with clients, in my cosy clinic on the rural outskirts of York, in the North East of England.

I also offer Touch for Health Kinesiology Training, CPD workshops and monthly circle gathering designed to help you get the most out of yourself and the seasonal energies that are most active at the time.

Kinesiology is an interactive, non-invasive therapy, as a client you remain clothed throughout (you may choose to remove your shoes). We sit together and undertake a short, thorough consultation, to ensure all relevant information is captured, we then discuss the changes, both subtle and profound, that you are interested to address in your personal journey.

I then take you gently through the process of muscle testing, allowing you all the time you need to adjust to a space where, finally, the whole of your system can get involved in creating and accessing your own unique solution.

Together we’ll explore the binary muscle monitoring system. This is the foundation of all kinesiology practice and you can ask all the questions you need as we go along.

Then, together, we check which aspects of you are already working towards the changes you wish to make and which aspects need some help to do that.

Kinesiology embraces a comprehensive range of techniques drawn and adapted from various disciplines, as well as plenty of its own. Your system will indicate which technique(s) are needed. You may also be given simple techniques as homework. Homework reminder sheets are provided to help you.

After your session we check in to see how you’re feeling, you may feel some changes immediately and some may need time to evidence.

After your session you can carry on with your day and, when it comes time to go to bed, you may feel more tired than usual. My advice is always to listen to the needs of your body; it is possible that your system has done some significant work that you might not be fully conscious of, so sleep, restore and allow the changes you have worked on to permeate.

Please contact me to book you own window into your unique world,

I look forward to working with you.

Claire

If you would like to book a 1:1 Kinesiology session, please click here.

You can also join our online community here.