sleep 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.

Can you feel it in your gut?

Intuition is your inner tutor, the ability to access all your previous experiences, look at the situation in front of you and calmly …………

Can you feel it in your gut? We call it intuition, that feeling you get in your gut, in the pit of your stomach, it can be a quick response to something or a gnawing sensation that rumbles on over a period of time.

Traditional medicine practitioners have always paid attention to the intuitive responses of our clients and will often be heard to ask ‘how does that feel for you, what does your gut say?’.

Often, in my kinesiology clinic, I will be discussing some aspect of a client’s journey with them and their gut will rumble and roar, joining in the conversation and generally making itself known.

I often ask clients about their relationship with their intuition; curious to understand if they are acting on the knowledge that their bodies are desperate to share with them. Often, clients will relate tales of when their gut prompted them to go in one direction and their logic suggested another, they went with their logic and quickly came to regret it, wishing they had followed their own instinctive advice.

I have often pondered how we got so far away from the knowledge our bodies hold, this is one of the many reasons I was drawn to Kinesiology as a career, helping people to have a smoother easier relationship with their body, helping them to hear the wisdom their system has to share with them and to act on it without fear or doubt.

So many factors of our post industrial revolution life create ‘rules’ that we feel obliged to follow, many of which are counter intuitive to what our bodies need. I’m sure many of you have read reports about teenagers needing more sleep and how many of us, as parents, have been bombarded by the latest ‘thinking’ on how to best raise our children. Handily so much conflicting ‘rightness’ leads many to throw their hands up in resignation and just ‘do the best they can’. Which, incidentally, is often the best thing for that child.

Post industrial revolution society is a very left brained world, where each action creates a predetermined consequence. “Work hard at school and you will get a good job”. This is a linear way of working which leaves no space for creativity, exploration or individuality. No space for intuition to speak and be heard.

The result of all this ‘colouring inside the lines’ creates insecurities and fears, situations where people struggle to know what to do in response to a new situation or a business curveball, because they have not been told what the rules are for that particular encounter, and they can end up feeling anxious and lost.

This is the point where people tend to seek me out, many of my clients will start their conversation with ‘I’ve come to you because I am desperate’ and end it with ‘Thank you, I feel so much better, I wish I’d come to you years ago’.

What have I done in that short space of time? What magic have I performed? Quite simply, I have reconnected the person to their own body.

By gently and respectfully reconnecting you to the body of knowledge and experience that has travelled every single step of your life with you you can easily access your physical, emotional and bio-chemical repository. Your own personal PA that has seen everything you have seen, heard everything you have heard and experienced every second of your existence and, given the chance can help you use all that precious information whenever you need it.

Intuition is your inner tutor, the ability to access all your previous experiences, look at the situation in front of you and calmly and resourcefully create your own solution.

So, when you’re sick of doubting yourself, sick of being anxious, sick of second guessing every decision you might make, please, get in touch

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.

The power of ‘unplugged’

……there is life beyond the screen and the continual interruptions of the notification bell……

March 6/7th 2020 is #national unplugging day. A day where we are encouraged to untether ourselves from the electronic devices that now take up so much of our time, energy and attention and feel the power of ‘unplugged’.

The idea behind national unplugging day is to remind us that there is life beyond the screen and the continual interruptions of the notification bell. It feels like no coincidence that national unplugging days falls immediately after World Book Day.

What better way to unplug from the world than curling up with a good book?

I was delighted to see that these two days fell simultaneously as I had chosen world book day to launch my first book, a work book designed to help people innovate and create change in their own lives, a gentle guide full of insights, ideas, techniques and illustrations to fire up your imagination and help you remove the obstacles that keep tripping you up.

Maybe the inability to ‘unplug’ yourself from the world is one of those obstacles.

Is your inability to unplug from the world one of the obstacles blocking your creativity?

I carried out a small experiment a few years ago, into the power of ‘unplugged’, creating a valuable habit as a result of the benefits experienced.

Every night I switch off the modem that powers my internet. They have an off switch, who knew ?

Then I set my devices to charge in another room, away from where I sleep. If this is not feasible for you, try moving them to the foot of the bed, rather than having them on the bedside table, and remember to switch the mobile data off.

I found that I slept better and was more rested and refreshed when I woke up and this benefit continues to this day.

I bought myself a little digital alarm clock to wake me up and have developed a very different attitude to those notification bells. I’ve also given important people my land line number because, some days, I choose to leave the internet switched off, to minimise distractions and give my creativity space to roam.

If you feel that one of the obstacles that’s holding you back might be the inability to unplug from these constant distractions, give this a try. Yes, it feel a bit uncomfortable at first, but once you get into the habit the feelings of peace and deep sleep soon pay off.

If you’d like to find our more insights and practical tips to help you get where you want to be, check out my new book, which is being launched through a crowd funding campaign, all the details can be found here

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.

Hydration, why it’s never too late to re-hydrate

Hydration, why it’s never too late to re-hydrate. Your body is approximately 70% water, we are the most amazing pieces of organic engineering, creating power, strength, resilience and sustainability out of water.

Your brain and heart are approximately 73% water and your lungs are about 83% water.

If your car or your mobile phone ran on water you’d make sure they were fully recharged every day, to ensure you have all the power and functionality you need, yet we still find it difficult to drink enough water to stay hydrated and function well.

it's never too late to rehydrate

Water is fundamental to our survival, not liquid, just water.

As soon as you add anything to water it becomes a food, then it must pass thorough the whole of your digestive system before the water can be extracted.

Think of it like legos. A cup of coffee is constructed from some water bricks, some coffee bricks, some milk bricks and some sugar bricks all bonded together. The blocks can be broken apart again but that department is in your small intestine. So all the tissues that make up the oesophagus, stomach and duodenum don’t get any direct hydration from the liquid you drink, they have to wait a few hours and hope they get some from the water that is absorbed through the lining of the small intestine, and into the blood stream. They have to join the queue only, now, they are at the other end.

Your hydration is important to us, you are held in a queue and may be answered ... eventually

Meanwhile your body is performing at much less than optimum, because everything that your body does uses water. There is not one single bodily function that does not rely on hydration.

Think about that for a moment. Every thought, action and breath. Literally every thing your body does relies on water.

Signs of dehydration include

Fatigue, weight gain, reduced mobility, aches and pains, headaches, inability to concentrate, fuzzy head (like a hangover), irritability, dry skin, chapped lips, wrinkles, flaky skin, halitosis, poor urination, urinary tract infections, constipation, acid reflux, indigestion, changes in blood pressure, nausea, dizziness, increased resting heart rate, poor memory, slower response times, reduced dexterity, depression, anxiety, tension, mood swings, confusion…… and the list goes on.

Understanding the bodies need for water and the impact that can have on our system it’s time to get real.

How much clear, pure water do you drink, every day, and how much do you need?

Using a baseline of average adult (I know you’re not average, I know you’re amazing) but let’s use average as a starting point.
The average adult needs about 4 pints of water a day.
This adult is having a fairly decent time of things, no stress, no caffeine, no bugs to fight off, sleeping and eating well and taking moderate exercise.

So if you have stress, stimulants, illness or take more exercise you will need more water to keep you hydrated. How much is difficult to say but there are rules of thumb that we can use to help

For every cup of coffee drink twice as much water again – for 250 ml coffee drink 500 ml extra water
In times of stress drink more water, stress is very dehydrating. Drinking more water reduces the anxieties around stress and also helps the body recover more quickly from the effects.
Working out – drink more water. Yes, you’re sweating but did you know that water is responsible for the elasticity in muscles? If you’re really interested in building resilience into your workout – drink more water.
Feeling ill, recovering from a bug or laid up with something – drink more water. If the bug creates mucus, your body is using water to make that. If your body is fighting something off, your immune system uses water to make and distribute the anti-bodies to the internal battlefield, and to clear away the debris to keep your system clear.

As you run through the calculations you may begin to wonder how you’re going to have time to drink all that water, here’s the pay-off.

The better hydrated you are the better your system functions.

Stress reduces so extra water intake can too, drinking more water means you are naturally drinking less coffee because there are only so many hours in a day, right?
This reduces stress (again) so you will need less water.
Your sleep improves so, yes, you guessed it, you’re less stressed and so you need less water.
Your immune system functions better so you get less bugs so you need less water to be well hydrated.
You lose weight so your body requires less water to move you about.

In a fairly short period of time you reach that sweet spot of balanced hydration, where 4 pints of water a day is enough to keep you hydrated and you are more responsive to your bodies need for extra water as/when required.

It’d never too late to rehydrate and experience the benefits that decent hydration has on your physical, emotional and biochemical systems.

So, what are your waiting for?

Hydrate, sleep well, live better

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.