Trinity Health & Living

The art of breathing – properly

Ahhhh breathing… it’s something that is so subtle to our systems and yet is one of the most important aspects of our physical being that we completely take for granted. Take a moment now to notice your breath – are you breathing from your chest or above, or are you breathing from your belly? Most of us breathe from the chest and up. Unfortunately, that’s not how we are designed to breathe. The diaphragm The main muscle of respiration in the body is actually your diaphragm (as a side note, isn’t it funny that the diaphragm’s shape is very similar to the shape of the lungs). So, during inhalation, the diaphragm contracts (i.e flattens out) and pushes down on the abdomen, and during exhalation, it relaxes and the pressure is taken off the abdomen. This means that it’s your belly that should be the main mover during breathing as opposed…

Fascial unwinding – what it is and why it’s great for you

In my massage therapy sessions with clients who are exhibiting neck stiffness or pain, I tend to employ a gentle technique known as fascial unwinding. From experience, fascial unwinding isn’t a technique that most massage therapists use, however I find it to be one of the best tools to loosen up the tension in the body. Fascia – what is it? Fascia is connective tissue that unifies your entire living system. It’s not just the fibrous tissue that surround our muscles (think of the sinewy stuff that we see on steaks) – it’s also in your organs, cells, tissues and the various systems of the body. Given this, it helps to define the structure (construction and shape) of your body. It is also critical to maintaining the tension of various forces within the body, so if one part stretches than it will ensure that its matrix changes elsewhere to compensate…

Welcome to 2018 – A great time to make a change

Goodbye to 2017 and welcome to the beginning of 2018! Whilst I’m not the biggest believer in new year’s resolutions (i.e. I believe that we can consciously choose to make a change at any point in time and not necessarily just at the beginning of the year), the start of the year is a good focus point for sitting back and thinking “what could I do to make my life better?”. A good way to start this process is to do a personal stocktake – not just of our physical things, but also of our own patterns, beliefs and thought forms. So how do we do this? Physical de-cluttering De-cluttering is a great process to go through to get rid of the old and make way for the new. From a physical perspective, it’s pretty easy. Go through your wardrobe, cupboards, pantry, etc and ask yourself whether you really need…

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‘Tis the season for …. a headache?

Christmas season has arrived and this means that life can get a bit crazy with finding the time to come up with ideas for Xmas presents for your loved ones who seem to have everything, shopping for the presents, and then let’s not even talk about what the Xmas dinner is going to look like (or who is going to prepare it)! During this time, I’ve found that, contrary to the expectation that work should be winding down for holidays, it gets busy, with everyone wanting everything done before Christmas so that they can all go for a break! Xmas is a prime time for stress – and a physical symptom of stress is sore/tight neck and shoulders (with this potentially leading to the development of migraines and headaches). Here’s a couple of ways you can try to alleviate the pain or reduce headaches: Massage the base of your skull…