I have to admit, these have not been the best weeks of my life. Neck and shoulder pains were rearing their ugly heads. The resulst were severe pain in that neck and headaches that on some days made it impossible to even get out of bed. On days like these even my belief in positive thinking is stretched to it's limits and I have to admit that on one day it completely failed. After that day it was time to act!
I sat myself down and started thinking about solutions. Also talked to some good friends to cheer myself up. Fact is that I am getting more headaches in the mornings now and getting up extremely sore. I know my matras is a good one and not too old so I am ruling that out. Then we come to cushion and that I am not sure off. So time for research. I have included a youtube video I found. [Sorry it is in Dutch but maybe the images speak for itself] It tought me something I did not know. I thought that I had a healthy sleeping habit sleeping on my side and using a cushion with neck support. But.. my cushion has been outdated by new technology and sleeping on my side is not as healthy as I thought it was. When you sleep your body relaxes and you sink into a 3/4 belly position which puts a lot of strain on your neck muscles. Best thing is to sleep with a sleep rol which supports your knees and your upper arm. This way your neck stays in alligment with the rest of your body. I tried it out with an old cushion just to support my upper arm and the difference was remarkable! Already it gave pain relief.
So now I am going to get new cushions as soon as possible. What I want to share here is: know your body! If a new kind of pain joins, do not accept it without research. Be a detective and try to figure out a solution. Either alone, with friends or with therapists and doctors. [never do something invasive without talking to a doctor first!] Even with older pain, technology never stops. Keep searching and willing to try new remedies. And never give up hope! Life is too good.
I have talked about my tutoring job before. It is something that I enjoy very much. To contribute to teaching other counsellors how to work ethically and effectively online.
Two weeks ago we had a face to face meeting with all the present tutors to celebrate the fact that OLT has been around for 10 years. That alone is amazing, 10 years ago not that many counsellors were working online, many people still had very bad internet connections [dial up for instance] and we worried a lot less about encryption. It took some visionary minds to bring counselling online and from the start care about doing it well. To take into account that it was not the same as having a client in the same room with you and that you had to learn to do this well. So over the years the courses have evolved. The tutor team are always on the lookout for new inventions online and incorporate that into the teaching. One of the things that have become clear over the years is that online counselling is very well suited for both counsellors and clients with disability. Because you can work at your own pace, those with disabilities can decide not to work when they do not feel well.
We are still growing. Next year will be a very exciting year when we plan to ad many more workshops to our curriculum. And a whole new course is going to start, online superivision. We have just heard that this new course has been accredited by CPCAB. So if you are a counsellor who wants to branch out into this exciting field, please contact me for more details.
I am still working on the new webpage and right now that takes up a lot of my time. Sorry but I am not ready to share it with you just yet, but on the left you will get a sneak peak on how it will turn out. Over the next couple of days [and weeks] I will be adding content to it. It is my intent to have a lot of resources there for highly sensitive people and those learning to adjust with chronic pain. [If there is something you would like me to include please send me a message or a comment here. good ideas are always welcome.] So my blog posts the coming weeks might be a little short. I promise that I will make up for that when the new site is up and running.
Again a short post as it is a pretty busy week for me. Lots of travel as well first to Belgium and then on to England. I am getting to know the ferry boats pretty well! I am looking forward to meeting all my fellow tutors in the flesh very much. And I think it is great that we weill be spending a part of the day brainstorming about how we can make our courses even better! Watch this space for what we come up with.
Another big change will be my website and this blog! Both will be migrating to wordpress very soon and will be integrated. I will share the new web adress soon and then for a little while will continue to mention the new posts here. I really hope you will all be able to find the new space just as easily and will keep following me there! Take care,
This week I am opting for a very short post again. Why? I migh hear some people think. Fact is, I love writing. But it is one of these times in the year that my body is shouting at me to slow down. Many years even this shouting was not enough. But now I have gotten so much better at listening. And we get along much better. Blogging is fun but it is not one of the things that I 'really' need to do during the week. So I am now on a basic regimen of tasks. My body is happy and I get to catch up on DVD and books, win-win.
Part of next week I will be on a work trip. I will certainly talk about it when I get back! It is great to be a part of such a dedicated group of people as the tutors at Online training for counsellors. We will talk about making our courses even better and adding new courses and workshops for our students.
Safe Haven Coaching offers general coaching an counseling through email and messenger/skype. I also offer the following specialities: I coach highly senstive people who are 'bothered' by noises, strong emotions and the moods of others to deal with these situations differently. This way it is easer to function better during work and social interactions and 'space' is created to develop the joys of being sensitive. I also coach people with cronic pain problems who have troubles integrating the pain in their lives. Through exercises and coachingtalks/e-mails I offer new insights and as a result you will have more energy to spend on the nice things in life. The therapy is very goal orientated and geared towards your wants.
Voor wie is Safe Haven Coaching? Ik bied algemene coaching en counseling zowel f2f [ op lokatie] als via email en messenger/skype. Verder ben ik gespecialiseerd in het coachen van hooggevoeligen die 'last hebben' van geluiden, te sterke gevoelens en stemmingen van hun omgeving om hier beter mee om te gaan. Hierdoor kun je beter functioneren in werk en relaties en ontstaat er ruimte om de voordelen van je gevoeligheid te ontwikkelen. Verder begeleid ik mensen met chronische pijn, die moeite hebben deze pijn een plaats in hun leven te geven. Door oefeningen en coachingsgesprekken/e-mails bied ik inzicht in de situatie en daardoor komt er meer energie voor de leuke dingen van het leven.
I have to admit, these have not been the best weeks of my life. Neck and shoulder pains were rearing their ugly heads. The resulst were severe pain in that neck and headaches that on some days made it impossible to even get out of bed. On days like these even my belief in positive thinking is stretched to it's limits and I have to admit that on one day it completely failed. After that day it was time to act!
Fact is that I am getting more headaches in the mornings now and getting up extremely sore. I know my matras is a good one and not too old so I am ruling that out. Then we come to cushion and that I am not sure off. So time for research. I have included a youtube video I found. [Sorry it is in Dutch but maybe the images speak for itself] It tought me something I did not know. I thought that I had a healthy sleeping habit sleeping on my side and using a cushion with neck support. But.. my cushion has been outdated by new technology and sleeping on my side is not as healthy as I thought it was. When you sleep your body relaxes and you sink into a 3/4 belly position which puts a lot of strain on your neck muscles. Best thing is to sleep with a sleep rol which supports your knees and your upper arm. This way your neck stays in alligment with the rest of your body. I tried it out with an old cushion just to support my upper arm and the difference was remarkable! Already it gave pain relief.
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