Tag Archives: lifestyle behavior patterns

The Power of Rituals in IC

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When you think about it, all healing involves rituals   If the doctor gives you a pill for high blood pressure, you make a point during the day(preferably the same time every day) to take the pill  If you want to change your nutritional format to heal your IC, you put into place things that you do on a regular basis to change your pattern of choices

So painful bladder flares are no different than any other disease in responding to planned ritualistic behavior

But why does employing rituals work?

Rituals and Healing

Rituals are a way to grab our attention  When someone gets married, a wedding is held to grab everyone’s attention about the significance of a happening in two familys’ lives as well as the couple getting hitched  When you brush your teeth, it’s done out of a ritual that you’ve created called “getting ready for the day”  But when you think about it, this concocted ritual is really important for your health  It not only sets the tone for the day but there are health advantages such as clean teeth and bodily hygiene  The holidays that have just passed is another great example of ritualistic behaviorMarriage

Some people create rituals around various health activities such as exercise

The characteristics of a ritual are: 1 they are done consistently, 2 usually best done when they are at the same time of day, 3 as above they are done to grab our attention that something important is being done

Hey,  Pay Attention

I’m sure you’ve experienced the “well worn rut” in your life where you feel that something has to change but instead of doing something different you continue on the same path as yesterday

A ritual has the power to break up the “same old” behavior patterns that may not be serving you very well and asks the bodymind to “Hey, wake up, pay attention to what I’m doing here…..it’s important!”Shaving

And the beauty about rituals is that they are done as a matter of a habit….just like the old habits that didn’t serve you very well  Think of it as replacing one habit with another  But the habit being replaced is usually not a well thought out pattern of behavior but something that has crept into your day somewhat by accident not by your permission

Things To Know About Rituals

Probably the hardest thing that you do in life is change behavior patterns that don’t serve you very well  This is why rituals can be so powerful

Many of the healing techniques in the energy science realm are those suggesting a shift in behaviors, such as eating differently(avoiding coffee, carbonated drinks, use of spices) going to bed early and getting up early to start the day, morning oil massage, use of mono diets on occasion based on your energy makeup, etc

But there are some things that you should know about rituals employed for health

1 Not a quick fix  It’s about the proverbial “drip on the forehead” that over time has the physical capability to make a groove in granite  So it’s the persistence and consistency that pays off with any health ritual  You may know of the consistency of exercise and its rewards but it’s the establishment of the exercise ritual that does the magic

2 Real healing takes time   Actually a corollary to the above is that any energy healing requires time and patience  This is particularly difficult to believe if you’re experiencing pain  After all the whole reason that you’re taking on the ritual to begin with is to reduce the pain that is causing havoc in your life

3 Ritual adaptation  At times the ritual may need to be adapted, modified, or altered to get the best result  This doesn’t mean that the ritual is dismissed but rather it is changed as it is experienced  For example, if you find fatigue with your new exercise ritual, instead of doing it every day in the week, reduce it to 6 times per week

Good luck in your ritual planning for 2014!   Love DB

 

The Disruptive Nature of the Holidays and IC: 3 Secrets to Help

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bigstock-Luggage-Claim-Area-4674919Most of us know, like it or not, that the healing of chronic interstitial cystitis(IC) bladder or pelvic  pain requires changes occur in lifestyle behavior patterns(LBP)  Those favorites that we hold dearly just don’t serve us very well and are the instigators of what got us in trouble in the first place   As I talked about in the past, nutrition heads that list of LBP’s that get us headed in the wrong direction, but how we combine foods,  how we rest(when to go to bed and when to get up), how we exercise, how much fluids we drink during the day, all play a role, believe it or not, in our progress toward dealing with our IC

So we take on these LBP’s and we’ve started our journey  And we’re doing pretty well  But then something happens to derail our firm intentions

The Holidays

The festivities with family and friends during the two weeks around Christmas, although a great break from work, can be disruptive to those firm intentions that we have set around these new LBP   If you think you’re all alone in this one, just ask some of your friends in your IC support group about this

Any disruption in regular schedule whether it be from traveling or festivities sets us back on our LBP intentions  This is why traveling is becoming so strenuous and Vata aggravating  It causes our loss of normal schedules that is stressful and eventually hard on the physiology  I know of many avoid travel like the plague and have severely tapered their schedules just for this very reason(change in routine to make it to the airport, eating out with airport food, change in time zones and biological clock times to name just a few)

But the disuption doesn’t end with travel  Change in sleep schedule, eating times, types of foods(difficult to place your order for different food combinations or the limitation of certain foods that you’re trying to avoid) are hard to control and hence the LBP resolutions that you’ve been working on are now on the back burner

3 Secrets for Holiday Disruption

One can only do what what one can do  Accept that and it will calm your Pitta frustration fi you have some

1 When you’re traveling practice try  just doing 5min of pranayama…or just do a minute(whatever you can do)….to keep yourself from feeling like you’re a failure because you haven’t done anything for a week or two  And when you arrive at your destination try to get into your sleeping and exercise routines as much as possible

2 Take a list of foods along with you that you want to avoid and then when surveying the various foods on the table you know you’re going to avoid those particular foods or combinations

3 Restoring your LBP  rhythm when you get back from the travels or festivities as soon as possible is another step to keep you from getting siderailed and beginning those old LBP that you know don’t support your healing

Best of luck having fun       Love DB

IC and 5 Tools to Empowerment

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“Self empowerment is the key to a healthy life. Simply put, it means you can take charge of the things you do in your life in order to create and maintain the health you want. If you suffer a life threatening illness, you are fully capable of making the choices and changes necessary to help your body heal. It’s up to you and you alone; no one else can do it for you. Healing and maintaining your health is your responsibility, not the doctor’s. The doctors job is to help you buy time to heal.” Use this time well and begin planning now what you want your life to be after you recover!                                                                                                                                                         Glenn Warner MD (1919-2000)

Dr Warner was an oncologist but a maverick for his times because he told his cancer patients that they should take control   His colleagues felt differently and eventually got his medical license revoked   Today he is revered as a consummate healer who was ahead of his time in suggesting something as innocent as taking responsibility for our own healing

The Current Medical Model

The bladder pain of interstitial cystitis (IC) that can be unrelenting at times and want to be free of it

Medical ProfessionalsCurrently the matter science medical discipline practiced as the allopathic tradition has had the underlying treatment tenet that if you have a medical problem you should go to the medical doctor(MD)   The MD has studied the diseases and he knows what the answer should be or at least has the scientific  background to figure out a plausible and reasonable treatment solution

This is the medical standard under which we unconsciously live   And the MD has the high tech tools at his disposal to make this standard very strong in our culture   And I argue that there is great value for such a high tech system to “bail us out of catastrophic medical problems”   If you unknowingly create diabetes and come to the office with severe ketoacidosis, there is the capability to deal with the problem and straighten out this metabolic disease   Or if you have a life threatening injury from a car accident, the medical tradition can bring you back

A Problem

But the singular problem that has occurred with this matter science discipline is that it has unwittingly wrested away from you the responsibility for your own health at a subconscious level

And when that happens you naturally put all of the trust in the MD and his way of doing things  The next high tech research will solve my IC   The next drug will help me in some way

When relying on alternative therapies for the treatment of IC, you enter a different realm of healing   But carrying your old mindset of the MD will take care of me doesn’t translate  When you enter this world of healing you will have to be ready to assume responsibility for healing

And this is NOT like “going it alone” which is very scary   You should have and expect guidance in this road of travel if you so chose it

What does that look like, this responsibility for self healing?

I think there are at least 5 awareness tools to assume self healing and become empowered to take responsibility

1 Understand that self healing takes time

2 In this realm of healing multiple therapies are the absolute key to healing

3  Guidance with understanding the lay of the land is of value to help facilitate change

4 Remember baby steps   Self healing often requires changes in lifestyle behaviors, such as nutrition, exercise, or changing bedtimes or wakeup times

5 Be aware that the mind’s fear of change will argue to abandon this whole empowerment thing

This last tool of awareness is probably the most important because it’s our fears played out in friend’s “good advice” and well meaning family members(spouses included) who deter you from your path to empowerment   Everyone wants you to maintain the status quo

But the question is, “How’s it workin’ for ya?”

Most with chronic IC, if honest will have to say, “Well, not so hot”   There’s a common aphorism, “If you keep going out the same door and falling into a hole, the solution is to find another door”

Here’s for looking for another door                         To Health as a Skill  Love DrBill

 

Procrastination and IC

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“Tomorrow I’ll begin that Pitta pacifying nutritional format for this bladder pain.”

But as the saying goes,”Tomorrow never comes.”

Procrastination is a form of fear and can be related to the Kapha energy pattern but any energy pattern can entertain inertia.

It’s worthwhile looking at this fear as it directly plays into our human quest for chronic dis-ease. And if we are human and walking on this planet we have imaginary fears.

Although imaginary fears have no basis, nonetheless they are locked away in our mindbody physiologies in the form of tight muscles, ligaments and joints or parked away in organs.

Vata fears express themselves as run away or anxiety, Pitta as fight or anger and Kapha as inertia. And combinations of these control dramas is the most common of all. Can you see yourself in these dramas dealing with IC(interstitial cystitis)?

To know this about ourselves is very liberating because we can stop and innocently observe ourselves in the game of procrastination as it revolves around this concept of change in lifestyle behaviors as played out in nutrition.

We then can ask ourselves very honestly, “What am I fearful about in making whatever change I am contemplating?”

So if you want to push your buttons go to icdiet.com and see what comes up for you when you see what changes are to made for the better.  It can also help with IBS, GERD, fibromyalgia, and chronic prostatitis but maybe that’s too much to ask for.

“Oh, I don’t have time to go to there right now. Maybe tomorrow.”

See you tomorrow?                                     To health as a skill       Love DrBill

PS  Interested in geting out the well worn rut of not dealing with IC?  Talk to me about a program that can do it for you by signing up for a free consultation