this blog has moved!

 Hi,

 I have announced it before but from today this blog will only be published on the new website

Safehaventherapy

Here you can view my blogposts. New feature. Also in Dutch!

Het nieuwe blog is ook in het Nederlands te lezen. Safehaventherapy

I hope to see you at the new blog!

Mieke

Escape to the sun

When I booked my trip to the sun I had no idea it would be so cold! Last weekend we hit -22C in the Netherlands and that it was over 25 years ago it had been that cold.

Do I hate the cold? No, I don’t. In fact I used to be someone who liked winter better than summer. I could not take heat at all. But since my pain problems started this has changed. It’s just plan fact that my muscles love the sun. This shows that people can change. Knowing that my body needs the warmth has made it easier for my brain to accept the heat.

As I am getting pretty busy with work, this year I decided not to take any changes. We had a terrible summer back in 2011 and my body misses the sun. Now we found a pretty good deal to go to Lanzarote for a week.

Some of my friends had to smile when they heard, they don’t imagine me as going to the Canary Islands. Yet the travel guide showed me that there is even a lot to see on Lanzarote. And there is always wellness. Been looking into that as well.

This week will be about recharching the batteries.

No blog post on the 16^th. But the week after I will tell you all about Lanzarote!

Circles

Right now I am amazed at how things in my life are coming to full circles. It also teaches me that time I have spend earlier during my life have not been wasted.

For example: When I was 18 I went to teacher training college just knowing that I wanted to do something with English or History in my life. There were too many students wanting to do History so I did not make it in there. I stayed in Teacher training college for 3 years studying English and Dutch and had a great time. But I never finished and I never thought I would ever do something with teaching in my life. And although I kept going over to Britain and the United States the next decades I didn’t do anything professional with English either. History has forever been one of my biggest hobbies and I am happy with that.

Last year the circle was round. I started tutoring the diploma in online counselling for OnlineTrainingforCounsellors. Which is a British company and the tutoring is in English. And right now I am marking papers for the first time since I left teacher training college.

I strongly believe that the things we do in our lives have meaning. Even if that meaning is not clear straight away, it will come to you. In my case it took 20 years, but it is a pretty nice feeling when it happens.

Do you have stories like this to share? I would love to hear them!

Qi Gong and chronic pain

This is really part 2 in my Qi Gong story and it will not be the last part! Last week I wrote about how I  started out and how much I liked it. As I have chronic pain problems myself in shoulders, neck and arms I was amazed how well I was doing the first 2 weeks I was practising.

That was when an old enemy reared it’s ugly head. Overconfidence. Even for me it is hard to stick to the guidelines of being gentle to my body and not overdoing it under certain circumstances. Maybe they are familiar?

•    I have been doing this for a while now and all is going well, I can move ahead faster.
•    When in a group and there are people who are older than me, or other people with health issues I get the urge to do better.

The last one is a problem for me, I know intellectually that it is wrong and silly but often the body just wants to compete.

This happened a week ago during class. As so often my pain warnings don’t come at once but boy did they come that night! A sleepless night with headaches and severe pain in my shoulders.

At this point it is so easy to give up. To say, ‘See this is not right for me after all. My body can’t take this.”
If that happens to you, be honest. It is not the Qi Gong that made me feel bad, it were my own thoughts about how I wanted to behave. So I did not quit and did very gentle exercises that week, respecting my body.

During the next lesson I was honest and told the group what had happened and what had triggered it. This has the advantage that now the teacher and the other group members will help me not to over perform as well.

Needless to say this week’s lesson went a lot better and I have learnt some valuable lessons.
•    Respect your body
•    Take it easy and stick to your schedule, even if you think you can do more
•    Don’t go it alone, inform others of your weak points and ask for help! Or     ask a friend to give you honest and critical advice.

I would love to read other people’s experiences in this area.

Qi Gong

I might have mentioned before that for me the hardest part of healthy living is excersise. I never used to be good in sports and I just don’t enjoy most exercise. And if you don’t enjoy something it is much harder to keep it up. Something you enjoy hardly seems an effort and time flies. But do something you dislike and that clock just seems to crawl.

But now I think I have found a solution. Thanks to the suggestion of a good friend I tried a trial session of Qi Gong. Officially Chi Neng Qi Gong. It is really a combination of gentle movement and meditation. While you move you are quiet and listen to relaxing music but your attention is directed inwardly.  The trial session was a big success and I have made the decision to do a ten part course. So far we have had two lessons and I have enjoyed going there. I even enjoy doing the exercises at home every day! For me that is a big thing. It is not strenuous but I am doing something for my body every day.

Chi Neng Qi Gong has a healing effect as well. It was invented by a doctor in China who ran a hospital that did not use medication. Yet 95% of all patients who came to him recovered with Chin Neng. Some patients were very ill and could not do the exercises. The power of Chi Neng is that even if you cannot move much, if you visualise yourself doing the exercises it has the same effect. So on a bad day you can chose to do that. That makes it very accessible for people with chronic pain complaints.

What I am trying to say is that there is something out there for everyone. You don’t have to do Qi Gong, but do have a look around and try to find something that you would enjoy doing. It is important that when you start working out, that you don’t expect too much of yourself at the start. Don’t set your goals too high and even if your goals are reasonable, do not get angry with yourself if you are not able to make them. Doing something is better than doing nothing, and positive energy makes you happier.

So what do you do to keep your body in shape and why does it work for you? I look forward to hearing from you.