It’s that busy time where everyone is trying to use their benefits before the year ends! A great self-care plan for the new year could be to pre-book your massage appointments. It’s amazing how quickly your body can get into a groove and look forward to that regularly booked session, whether it’s every 4-5 weeks or every second month. This can be very preventative, and if you do wind up with an injury, it’s amazing how often it lines up with an upcoming appointment! It can be hard to book last minute at times, so anticipate your body’s needs and take care of yourself! You’re worth it!
Community News
Ask The Expert
Q: I had cataract surgery a few months ago and now I can’t see anything up close. Why is that? I thought I wouldn’t have to wear glasses.
A: Going through any type of surgery can be a bit overwhelming. Your surgeon likely mentioned the limitations of what the surgery (and lens implants) can do, but the reality sometimes doesn’t sink in until afterwards. You have a fairly normal result since your implants probably aren’t focused for close work. Ideally, your concerns should be brought up during your scheduled post-operative examinations.
Finding our Team/Connection
With the holidays coming up, it is importance to acknowledge our human need for connection as important to our survival. Our brain’s hardwiring seeks connection with others in order to promote our safety. When we have connection, our brain is more relaxed knowing the species can survive a threat. Not belonging to a group can produce feelings of loneliness and increase the risk of illness or injury. Building our connections can come from various ways such as organized groups, team sports, religious communities, holiday dinners or simply engaging in quality connections with another human who shares a common experience with us.
Acupuncture and Seasonal Affective Disorder
Are you suffering from the Winter Blues? The cold, dark and damp days of winter can literally dampen your energy. Acupuncture has been proven to be an effective treatment for depression, without the unwanted side effects. Acupuncture needles move energy throughout the body, releasing endorphins and improving the flow of energy throughout the body, while eliminating blockages and bringing balance to the mind and body. Endorphins counter the symptoms of depression and allow the person to resume a normal life. Do you or somebody you know suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder or depression and are looking for a natural way of dealing with it? Don’t hesitate to reach out for help.
Words to Live By
Christmas magic is silent. You don’t hear it — you feel it. You know it. You believe it. Kevin Alan Milne
Words to Live By
Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. Hamilton Wright Mabie
Book Club
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. by Angela Duckworth. In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and business people, that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called “grit.” Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that—not talent or luck—makes all the difference.
Words to Live By
Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most. Ruth Carter Stapleton
Healing Cell Signaling
The human body has between fifty and three hundred billion cells. Inside every cell, we have mitochondria (some cells have thousands). Mitochondria, when functioning properly, produce redox signaling molecules. Cell signaling carry life-sustaining messages to cells, and your cells respond to those messages, keeping you alive and healthy. As we age, cell signal weakens they can disrupt gene expression. But if you had a way to regulate gene activity with redox signaling molecules, cellular communication would remain strong. Our bodies heal on a cellular level, and the genetic instructions that dictate healthy body function don’t get through without redox signaling.
Setting Healthy Boundaries at Work
Occupational burnout has been defined as a recognizable syndrome by the World Health Organization. Burnout results in physical and mental fatigue, poor productivity and overall health. Employers and employees need to set healthy boundaries to create healthy, high performing workplaces. Here are some great ways to prevent burnout: Nourish a safe culture making it ok to admit if the workload is too high. Compromise and negotiate workload. Delegate. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. Create a ‘not-to-do’ list. Take breaks. Practice mindfulness. Practice saying no. Offer flexibility or telecommuting options Find more workplace wellness tips at WellnessWorksCanada.ca.
Music and Brain Plasticity
Brain-imaging techniques have revealed the brain’s plasticity and have identified networks that music activates. The brain areas activated by music are not unique to music. These networks also process other functions. Musical and non-musical functions share systems. For example, motor control and executive control share circuits with music. Music can activate and drive complex patterns of interaction between the other two, so that a stroke patient and someone with Parkinson’s increases movement, and someone with traumatic brain injury increases cognitive functioning, such as problem solving or decision making.
