holistic healing

Playing Your Nervous System

Sometimes when we are in pain, we reach for the "easy fix" in a pill bottle. However, in doing that, we're usually treating the symptoms instead of addressing the cause.

Those of us who suffer with chronic pain, swelling, and stiffness are lucky because we live in a time when we can choose from many holistic treatments that address the causes of our health problems.

If you've tried almost everything and nothing has helped alleviate your symptoms, you might want to try a Bowen technique practitioner.

Developed by Australian Thomas A. Bowen, the technique consists of a series of movements that subtly challenge and roll the muscles, nerves, tendons, and connective tissues. These moves are gentle, vibrational, and meant to stimulate the body's autonomic nervous system to reset and heal itself. In a sense, the practitioner "plays" the nervous system.

The Bowen technique is used to treat musculoskeletal pain, respiratory problems, digestive disorders, gynecological problems, chronic fatigue syndrome, tinnitus, and earaches.

For more information about the Bowen technique, see bowtech.com.

"Sound" Advice

We've all heard this famous saying, although usually incorrect and incomplete:

Music has charms to soothe the savage breast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

The author, who wrote it some time during the 17th century, might have been on to something.

Music therapy has been used since the mid-1950s in Canada to help people develop the skills required to improve overall development and personal growth. It's usually used to effect positive behavioural or cognitive changes. The formal definition of music therapy is "the structured use of music experiences to facilitate positive changes in human behaviour." But there have been recent, exciting developments in the unstructured therapeutic use of music.

Studies have shown that just listening to relaxing, familiar music can have positive effects on a wide range of health conditions including oncological disorders, chronic pain syndrome, physical disabilities, and heart problems. In fact, listening to relaxing music before, during, and/or after heart surgery and other surgical procedures has been found to have positive, calming health benefits. Music can reduce stress, stimulate circulation, and help regulate irregular heart rhythms. Listening to music can, therefore, help to soothe the savage breast.

You have to wonder, how did a 17th-century playwright know that?