kathleengramzay

From Nervous to Nirvana: Rewiring Your Brain to Control Your Behavior

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 19:26:47 GMT

Are you feeling tense or anxious? You’re not alone - over 43% of Americans say they feel more anxious than the previous year. In this episode of House Calls with Dr. Connie, Dr. Connie Mariano talks with Kathleen Gramzay , Body/Mind Resilience Innovator and Neurosomatic Intelligence Certified Practitioner, about how training your nervous system through movement can reduce stress, ease tension, and restore balance between body and mind.

How to recognize and reset your stress triggers
The science of the body–mind connection
Simple breathing and movement practices for instant calm
Why the vagus nerve is key to relaxation and resilience
Practical tips for better sleep, focus, and emotional control

The Hidden Key to Human Leadership in an AI World -How Nervous System Regulation Unlocks the Leadership Qualities AI Can’t Replicate

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 19:06:29 GMT

As AI reshapes the workplace, one truth becomes more and more clear: What sets great leaders apart isn’t technical knowledge or productivity. It’s their humanity — and their ability to lead with empathy, ethics, creativity, and trust.

In my last article, I shared 10 essential human leadership qualities that AI cannot replicate. But that raised a deeper question:

If these human qualities are so critical… why don’t we embody them more consistently?

The surprising answer?

It’s not about your degrees, personality, or leadership training. It’s about the state of your nervous system .

Your Nervous System: The Human Operating System

We like to believe we’re making decisions logically and intentionally. But the truth is, our nervous system is running the show.

It drives:

How we respond to pressure
How we relate to others
Whether we react or reflect
And even whether we can access the best parts of ourselves — like empathy, vision, and calm.

When your nervous system feels safe and regulated , you have access to the prefrontal cortex , the part of the brain responsible for:

Ethical decision-making
Creative thinking
Emotional intelligence
Long-term strategy

But when you're in fight, flight, or freeze , the brain prioritizes survival. Higher-level thinking shuts down. You lose access to the very leadership traits we most need, especially in uncertain or high-stakes environments.

This is biology, not mindset. And it’s why leadership training without nervous system awareness often falls short.

How Nervous System State Impacts Leadership

Here’s how nervous system regulation — or dysregulation — directly impacts each of the 10 essential leadership qualities from my previous article:

1. Emotional Intelligence: Leading with Empathy

A regulated nervous system supports emotional attunement. Under stress, the amygdala hijacks this ability, leading to impulsive or emotionally detached responses.

2. Ethical Judgment: Navigating the Gray Areas

Ethical decisions require space for reflection. If your system is in a survival state, fear and bias often override principle-based reasoning.

3. Creativity and Vision: Seeing What Doesn’t Yet Exist

Innovation requires access to the creative centers of the brain. Stress constricts this, making leaders reactive and risk-averse instead of visionary.

4. Motivation and Inspiration: Moving Hearts, Not Just Metrics

Motivation comes from purpose and meaning. But when the nervous system is stuck in survival mode, dopamine drops—and with it, your ability to inspire.

5. Cultural Intelligence and Inclusion

In-group bias increases when the nervous system is under threat. Regulation allows for openness, curiosity, and inclusion across differences.

6. Adaptability in Uncertainty

Adaptability requires cognitive flexibility. Fight-or-flight creates rigidity and black-and-white thinking, blocking creativity and innovation.

7. Mentorship and Personal Growth

Mentoring others requires patience, presence, and generosity. In dysregulation, the focus narrows to self-protection, not development.

8. Relationship Building and Trust

Trust is built on safety. If a leader is operating from threat, their communication and energy often send signals of control, disconnection, or defensiveness.

9. Storytelling: The Power to Connect and Align

Great storytelling requires emotional coherence and connection. Stress fragments attention and narrative flow, weakening your ability to align teams through vision.

10. Ethical Use of AI: Humans Must Lead the Machines

To lead responsibly in an AI world, we must prioritize long-term ethical impact. In an anxious or threat-based state, short-term thinking often wins — and that’s dangerous when machines scale decisions.

The Leadership Edge AI Can’t Touch

Your nervous system is the hidden gateway to the kind of leadership AI can’t replace. It’s the difference between knowing how to lead — and being able to access the state of presence required to actually lead .

We don’t rise to our intentions. We fall to the level of our nervous system’s capacity.

Regulating your nervous system is not just personal development, it’s leadership development.

If you'd like your leaders and teams to meet your Q4/2025 goals and enjoy doing it, consider equipping them with neurosomatic resilience training at your upcoming monthly meeting, quarterly retreat, or conference. Contact Kathleen directly Here for availability.

Kathleen Gramzay, NSI CP, is the Founder of Kinessage LLC. She is passionate about helping conscious leaders reduce anxiety, stress, and burnout; and build resilience capacity to lead and succeed with greater positive ripple impact and reach.

Kinessage LLC supports performance, culture, and human-centric organizations, empowering leaders, managers, and teams to show up more effectively, confidently, and collaboratively through resilience strategy and training. The Kinessage® interactive body/mind training programs teach individuals neurosomatic skills to reduce burnout, build stress resilience, and self-release chronic tension and pain, increasing mental and physical resilience for greater individual and organizational success and sustainability.

Why Human Leadership Matters in an AI World: 10 Human-Centric Leadership Skills AI Can’t Replicate

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 01:49:09 GMT

No matter how useful artificial intelligence is, it’s critical to remember one thing:

Leadership is still—irrefutably—human.

While AI excels at logic, speed, and efficiency, it lacks the heart, ethics, and vision that define great leadership. The most effective managers and executives bring something to the table that algorithms can’t replicate: emotional depth, contextual judgment, and the ability to inspire.

Here are 10 essential human leadership qualities that remain irreplaceable in the age of AI.

1. Emotional Intelligence: Leading with Empathy

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is more than just being nice—it’s the ability to sense, understand, and respond to human emotions and needs. When a team is under stress, a good leader doesn’t just push deadlines. They read the room. They pause, listen, and then provide the resources their people need to be and engage as their best selves.

AI can detect sentiment, but it can’t genuinely care. That human ability to say “I understand” or “you have my support” and mean it and follow through on it, builds trust, loyalty, and psychological safety—core ingredients of high-performing teams.

2. Ethical Judgment: Navigating the Gray Areas

Business decisions often require navigating complex moral terrain—choices where the right path isn’t clear. Should we prioritize profit or people? Should we launch a product that’s technically legal but socially questionable?

These aren’t decisions that can be made by optimizing for data points. They require human leaders with integrity, lived experience, and a moral compass that machines simply do not possess.

3. Creativity and Vision: Seeing What Doesn’t Yet Exist

AI can analyze what has happened and make predictions about what might happen—but only humans can imagine something entirely new.

True visionaries see around corners. They dream, take creative risks, and shape future opportunities from abstract ideas. They cultivate a culture that enables their teams to carry them out. Whether it’s launching a revolutionary product or rethinking a business model, these leaps of imagination are powered by healthy human brains, not a neural network.

4. Motivation and Inspiration: Moving Hearts, Not Just Metrics

People don’t follow data—they follow purpose. Great leaders energize their teams not with charts, but with conviction and connection. They tell stories, share values, and create a shared mission that sparks passion.

AI might generate performance dashboards, but it can’t walk into a room and inspire people to go the extra mile during hard times. Leadership requires presence, vulnerability, and authenticity.

5. Cultural Intelligence and Inclusion

Workforces today are global and diverse. Effective leaders understand cultural nuance, social identity, and how to create inclusive environments where everyone feels seen and valued.

AI might translate languages, but it doesn’t grasp cultural meaning. It doesn’t know when to be subtle, when to be bold, or how to honor traditions. Only humans can lead with true cross-cultural sensitivity and build belonging through shared commonality and appreciation for the expanded brain-trust that diversity provides.

6. Adaptability in Uncertainty

Leaders often must make decisions with incomplete data and shifting conditions. This is where human adaptability can shine.

AI waits for patterns to emerge; humans lean into ambiguity. When a market suddenly shifts or a crisis hits, a strong leader pivots, improvises, and reassures others—not because a model told them to, but because they feel the moment demands it.

7. Mentorship and Personal Growth

True leadership isn’t just about directing—it’s about developing others. Human leaders mentor, coach, and champion their team members, often becoming lifelong influences in people’s careers.

That human-to-human investment—offering wisdom, encouragement, support, or tough love—is something no chatbot can emulate.

8. Relationship Building and Trust

Trust is built over time, through shared experiences, emotional honesty, and consistent behavior. It’s delicate, hard-won, and essential for collaboration.

You can’t automate a bond. People trust people, not platforms. Conscious human leaders who demonstrate genuine care for the mental and physical well-being of their people foster loyalty, reduce turnover, and make workplaces more enjoyable and more resilient.

9. Storytelling: The Power to Connect and Align

Data tells you what’s happening. A story tells you why it matters.

Leaders use stories to rally teams, communicate vision, and create shared meaning during times of change. These narratives give work purpose beyond profits, connecting people to something greater than themselves.

No AI can write a story that truly resonates the way a leader speaking from lived experience can.

10. Ethical Use of AI: Humans Must Lead the Machines

It is up to human leaders to decide how AI is used. Will it promote fairness—or amplify bias? Will it empower people—or replace them irresponsibly?

Only human beings can ask and answer those questions from a place of conscience. Leadership in the AI era includes being ethical stewards of technology, ensuring that innovation aligns with human values.

The Bottom Line

AI is a powerful tool—but it’s still just a tool. The heart of any organization lies in its people, and the soul of its success lies in conscious leadership.

As companies embrace automation, they must double down on developing human-centered leaders—people who can think creatively, act ethically, adapt instinctively, and lead with empathy.

The future of work will be built not just on what machines can do but as always, on what only humans can bring.

________________________________________________________________

Kathleen Gramzay is the Founder of Kinessage LLC. She is passionate about helping mission-driven leaders reduce burnout and recharge their resilience, to lead and succeed with greater positive ripple impact and reach.

Kinessage LLC supports performance, culture, and human-conscious organizations, empowering leaders, managers, and teams to show up more effectively, confidently, and collaboratively through resilience strategy and training. The Kinessage® interactive body/mind training programs teach individuals neurosomatic skills to reduce burnout, build stress resilience, and self-release chronic tension and pain, increasing mental and physical resilience for greater individual and organizational success and sustainability.

If you'd like to provide a deeper level of conscious engagement and effective resilience tools for your leaders or organization at your next monthly meeting, quarterly retreat, or conference, contact Kathleen directly Here.

If these articles resonate, I welcome you to comment, subscribe, or share them!

Uncertainty Is Kryptonite: Why Human Resilience Is the Superpower Your Organization Needs Now

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 01:37:19 GMT

In every great story, there’s an invisible force that weakens even the strongest heroes.

For Superman, it’s kryptonite. For today’s workforce—especially its leaders—it’s uncertainty.

The world is no longer dealing with occasional turbulence. We’re living in a time of persistent volatility: economic upheaval, global instability, rapid technological shifts, and mounting social pressure. For business leaders, this creates an urgent challenge—and a defining opportunity.

Gallup’s 2025 Global Workplace Report lays it out plainly: manager burnout is now a systemic risk. The data shows that nearly 6 in 10 managers report being stressed at work, and employee engagement worldwide is 21 percent (as low as during the COVID 19 lockdown). Even more alarming? Most leaders are navigating this reality without the tools to support themselves, let alone the people they lead.

This is not a leadership crisis. It’s a nervous system crisis.

Stress: The Silent Saboteur of Performance

Uncertainty doesn’t just make people uncomfortable—it dysregulates the human nervous system. When employees and leaders are exposed to chronic ambiguity, hypervigilance sets in. Focus narrows, creativity shuts down, and the brain prioritizes survival over strategic thinking. The result? Burnout, disengagement, conflict, and collapse of morale.

What does unmanaged stress look like in the workplace?

Missed deadlines and sluggish innovation
High turnover, absenteeism, and presenteeism
Managers emotionally checked out or over-functioning on empty
Talent depletion across every level

Gallup reports the cost of the fall of global engagement is $438B in lost productivity, and cites the manager engagement drop from 30% to 27% as its primary cause. The Report warns that if leaders don’t address this burnout epidemic, GDP loss on a global scale could be the long-term outcome. This is much more than an HR problem, it’s an economic imperative.

Resilience: The Antidote to Kryptonite

But here’s the good news: unlike kryptonite, uncertainty isn’t fatal—if we’re prepared. The human body and brain are wired to adapt. What’s necessary, is to build that blueprint potential into a practiced skill of real, embodied, enduring resilience that becomes the bodymind’s enhanced response to stress and uncertainty.

Think of resilience as the organizational equivalent of muscle memory. When people learn how to regulate their stress response, recover from setbacks, and stay grounded amid chaos, they don’t just “cope”—they lead. They collaborate better, think more clearly, and act more decisively under pressure.

And what happens when that skill is built across entire leadership teams? You get healthy, engaged people, and performance that lasts.

Neurosomatic resilience training builds exactly this capacity—through nervous system regulation, stress load reduction, emotional agility, and mental flexibility. It’s about equipping people to thrive in the storm, not wait it out.

The Business Case for Resilience

The numbers speak for themselves:

According to Gallup, highly engaged teams show 23% higher profitability and significantly lower turnover and absenteeism.

Organizations that support employee well-being see up to 41% less burnout, higher productivity, and greater customer satisfaction.

Cultures that prioritize resilience outperform in adaptability, innovation, and retention—key drivers of competitive advantage in a world of constant change.

Resilience isn’t soft. It’s smart strategy.

Leading Through, Not Around, Uncertainty

We are long past the point of seeing burnout as an individual failure. It is a systems failure that the demands placed on people have outpaced their internal and collective capacity to meet them.

As a leader, you have the power to flip the script.

Instead of bracing for the next disruption, what if your people were equipped to move through it—calm, creative, and collaborative?

Instead of treating well-being as a sideline initiative, what if it became your organization’s strategic foundation?

Instead of fighting to sustain yesterday’s momentum, what if you built the nervous system strength required to lead into what’s next?

The Path Forward

A resilient organization starts with resilient leaders. It starts with the decision to treat people not as resources to be optimized, but as human beings with interdependent systems that require support - mind, body, and spirit.

Resilience training is not a luxury. It’s the core infrastructure for future-ready business. It builds the internal capacity your people need to meet the external demands your industry will inevitably face..

Uncertainty isn’t going away. But burnout, disengagement, and stress-related decline don’t have to be your story.

Here’s a simple start of 3 basic practices to weave into your day:

1. Regulate Before You React

In high-stress moments, take a pause before responding. Use a simple nervous system regulation tool—take 5 deep diaphragmatic breaths to center yourself. This models calmness for your team and improves your decision-making clarity.

2. Create Micro-Moments of Recovery

Resilience isn’t built in isolation—it’s built in the flow of the workday. Integrate short, regular recovery practices: a 5-minute walk, hydration breaks, digital detox zones, or brief mindfulness pauses. These reset your energy and help prevent burnout from accumulating.

3. Normalize Conversations About Capacity and Act on the Feedback.

Build psychological safety by regularly asking your team, “What’s one thing you need to feel more supported this week?” This opens the door for honest communication and reinforces a culture where human limits are respected—not ignored. Key point: demonstrate positive action on the feedback to walk your talk and make real headway in building trust.

Resilience is the superpower. Are you ready to intentionally build it into your organization?

___________

If these articles resonate, I welcome you to comment, subscribe, or share them!

Humanity at the Crossroads

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 01:25:36 GMT

Humanity is at a paradoxical crossroads. We are wired for greatness, but chronic stress has short-circuited our potential.

Why is this an issue? Under chronic stress or burnout, greatness isn’t an accessible menu option.

What then determines whether we can access our greatness and embrace our collective capacities to solve the significant shared human challenges, or devolve into threat-based, fearful people who believe the only way to survive is to dominate others, take as much as we can get right now, and let everyone not like “us” fend for themselves?

- The conditioned state of our nervous system, our awareness of it, and our conscious will to reclaim sovereignty over it.

Chronic stress conditions us to respond as threatened prey or predator. Stress resilience conditions us for problem-solving, long-range decisions, and positive action under pressure.

Perhaps you’re familiar with this scenario: The leader shows up smiling and in a good mood; everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief and relaxes with a sense it’s going to be a good day.

The next day, the leader shows up barking orders and demanding everything NOW. Instantly, each person’s nervous system goes into its individual aspect of survival mode. Communication goes from collegial to cutthroat or no communication at all.

Strategic thinking, positive engagement, and creativity are neurologically offline. The collective goal is sacrificed to reactionary individual protection and safety.

Like a network of computers, human nervous systems respond relative to those with whom they interact. The fact is, business leaders aren't just managing employees, they're managing human nervous systems. And more critically, they are either regulating or dysregulating them.

Our wiring has been burning for a while, fueled by the pandemic, distrust, invasions, and political upheavals that continue to disrupt personal-to-global relationships, supply chains, markets, and the world economy.

Consider data from leading industry sources:

Senior-leader and manager burnout levels: 50 -70% (SHRM, Gallup, McKinsey)
Employee burnout levels: 88% (Forbes/MyPerfectResume)
U.S. employee active engagement: 32% (Gallup)

The ripple effects of employee disengagement/burnout are exponential:

Economic : (American Journal of Preventive Medicine April ‘25)

Annual Cost Per Employee $3,999–$20,683 (hourly to executive)

Equal to 0.2–2.9 times average health insurance and

3.3–17.1 times employee training costs

Human :

The mental, emotional, behavioral, and physical health of each person
The contagious dysregulating impact on others around them

In the leader survival mode example above, the workday is unproductive and the ripple effect continues. Impacted employees unconsciously vent their emotions perhaps by cutting off someone in traffic, being rude to a convenience store clerk, or berating a family member for not doing a task at home, causing more separation and survival mode behavior.

We know it’s necessary to care for business operating systems. We spend big budgets maintaining and protecting them. We understand they must be defragged, updated, and rebooted if we expect them to run efficiently and continue working well.

Our human operating systems - our consciousness, mental, and physical states of being - are infinitely more powerful, resilient, and expansive. Yet they are less understood, less valued, and less prioritized.

Our intellect has brought us far in terms of technology. Yet it’s our human operating system - the state of the body/mind, our mental and physical felt sense of safety, that determines whether we direct that technology to benefit everyone or use it to fuel division, hatred, greed, and chaos.

It begs the question: Why are we willing to invest heavily in artificial intelligence yet allocate little budget to stop the deterioration of human intelligence and health at a time when every human’s highest capacity is critically needed to optimize our advancements?

To successfully navigate today’s tumultuous world, we must consciously upgrade our human capacity to live and lead through it. How?

Prioritize (budget & model) mental and physical restoration to reduce chronic stress and its corrosive effect on humanity and business. Resilience is a leadership necessity, not a luxury.
Leverage neurosomatic (body/mind) skills to turn stress into strength activating the innate intelligence that fuels creativity, and connection of our greater Selves.

We can defrag our minds, remove the toxic files from our bodies, and reboot our desire to positively engage with each other.

Operating through our higher-order thinking minds and hearts we can draw from the collective wisdom of coherence and reason for human success and sustainability.

The capacity of these body/minds is regenerative and expansive. By investing in and applying resilience to all aspects of our human intelligence – neurosomatic, emotional, and intellectual, we can regain our sovereignty to individually and collectively move ourselves, our families, communities, businesses, nations, and humanity forward.

In future posts, I’ll share practical applications to enhance resilience in yourself and your teams. Follow along as we recharge our collective resilience.

If these articles resonate, I invite you to comment, subscribe, or share them.

___________

Kathleen Gramzay is the Founder of Kinessage LLC. She is passionate about helping leaders of mission-driven organizations reduce burnout, and recharge their resilience, to lead and succeed with greater positive ripple impact and reach.

Kinessage LLC supports performance, culture, and wellness-conscious organizations, empowering leaders, managers, and teams to show up more effectively, confidently, and collaboratively through resilience strategy and training. The Kinessage® interactive body/mind training programs teach individuals skills to reduce burnout, build stress resilience, and self-release chronic tension and pain, increasing mental and physical resilience for greater individual and organizational success and sustainability. You can find out more at www.kathleengramzay.com

Why Resilient Leadership Starts with Your NERVOUS System | Kathleen Gramzay

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 02:02:58 GMT

Human Resilience Part 2: Root Solution to Burnout, Outbursts, Absenteeism & Attrition

Wed, 22 May 2024 23:56:54 GMT

Resilience-the Power to Reclaim our Sanity, Health, and Civility

Have you noticed that people seem to have shorter fuses these days? Are you seeing more outbursts by colleagues, clients, and family members, in public, or online? What the heck is going on?

Maybe you’re noticing it’s you who has become quicker to react with anger, fear, or anxiety. Perhaps you’re wondering, am I the only one feeling this way? That answer: Definitely not, you are far from alone.

It’s easy to make negative judgments about ourselves or others. But when we do, we miss a critical opportunity to gain a deeper understanding and a doorway to sustainable solutions for better mental, physical, and social health.

If you’re willing to take a little ride with me here, I believe you’ll find it worthwhile.

Has Everyone Gone Mad?

Given the current state of hostility and division among people, it does appear the world has gone crazy.

Thankfully, the clear lens of neurology provides physiological answers and a crucial vantage point to reclaim our sanity, health, and civility.

Very simply put: This is what four years of chronic stress and burnout look like in human beings with overtaxed nervous systems that have become highly dysregulated.

Think of chronic stress as a pair of self-darkening sunglasses that negatively tint our perceptions of how we think, feel, and act, with the physical body bearing the toll at a functional level. The tint gradually gets darker and darker, incrementally increasing our negative perceptions, behaviors, and health.

The twist is that we don’t realize it’s the glasses creating the distortion . It looks and feels like someone or something outside of us is causing the problem, so we think people and things outside of ourselves have to change for us to feel better.

The irony of chronic stress and burnout is that we can’t see it in ourselves but quickly spot (and often judge) it in others. Perhaps you’ve been in a meeting or at home and watched someone have a seemingly “out of nowhere” emotional outburst, blame someone or something else, and storm out of the room leaving everyone else raising their eyebrows at each other. If so, you’ve seen some of the effects of chronic stress.

Chronic stress creates predictable negative bias patterns across every aspect of our health -how we think , how we feel , how we act , and how it shows up physically . These aspects of our health are so intrinsically tied, that I use the term “body/mind” to encompass them.

Historically, the allopathic medicine system has compartmentalized health treating mental, emotional, behavioral health, and physical health as separate entities.

The reality is that physiologically, there is no separating mental health from emotional health from behavioral health from physical health. It’s all ONE health . A sample of pandemic fallout in the upsurge of prescriptions for depression and anxiety, stress-related emergency room visits, high blood pressure, gut issues, violence, and suicide bears this out.

Connecting the Dots

A March 2024 burnout survey by MyPerfectResume [i] provides data that demonstrates a vivid connect-the-dots illustration. Note the italics which highlight the thoughts/emotions/behavior/physical connections.

1 in 5 think about quitting their jobs every day
1 in 4 have experienced depression about their jobs
9 out of 10 respondents feel burned out
24% have taken a leave of absence due to stress
20% have called in sick because they couldn’t face going to work
20% felt angry at their co-workers
10 out of 12 have had outbursts at work (53% reported multiple outbursts) in the last 6 months

Reported Health-Related Issues :

Increased anxiety/stress
Frequent headaches
Chronic muscle pain
Disturbed sleep
Lower immunity, higher risk of colds, flu, and other infections
Stomach, digestion issues
Difficulty concentrating
Irritability

Through the dark lens of chronic stress and the underlying neurological bias of perceived threat, here’s an example of what we experience in our psyches, our bodies, our work, and our relationships:

It shows up as a stressed-out leader or manager barking at direct reports about another deadline that must be met. The reports neurologically react in fight, flight, or freeze. One gets angry and resistant. Another shuts down, already planning to call out tomorrow. A third person who has hit their breaking point avoids saying anything but gets online and fills out job applications. A series of reactive emails ensue to pass the buck or blame.

The Outcomes:

The product is not delivered as promised and the client is unsatisfied and unhappy. Everyone goes home in a bad mood and vents about how toxic the culture is, how no one else takes responsibility, or how certain people are intentionally out to get them. Conversely, they say nothing, reach for something to “take the edge off” and zone out binge-watching TV. Meanwhile, their mood is so thick family members feel it and they get triggered into their go-to emergency fight/flight/freeze response to cope with the situation.

In this scenario, everyone negatively impacted goes to bed in one of the three emergency states. They’re now unable to access the deeply needed restoration side of the nervous system that holds the healing power of sleep, cellular repair, and full immune system function. Instead, they wake up feeling worse, dreading the day, wondering how they’ll get through it.

This is how the fire of individual chronic stress spreads into a blazing forest fire across organizations and human society.

So How Do We Flip the Switch?

The blessing in things getting so bad is that it demands attention. When asked what would help reduce their stress, respondents of the cited survey offered the following:

Earning more money
Having more role clarity
More flexibility/autonomy with my schedule
Getting a promotion
Having fewer responsibilities
The ability to work from home more
Being more intellectually challenged
Having more autonomy over my work
Having a different manager
The ability to go into the office more
Fewer meetings
A shorter commute

Thankfully, more leaders are starting to realize the impact magnitude of chronic stress and taking steps to listen and improve the work environment, which will greatly benefit their people, culture, and bottom line.

Eliminating stress triggers and implementing meaningful changes is the smart place to start and the first step of an effective resilience strategy. However, it falls short of being a viable sustainable solution.

What’s Good for the Tree Sustains the Forest

Trying to stamp out chronic stress and its ripple effects by focusing on external triggers is like pruning the branches of a diseased tree. It might make it look healthier temporarily. But so long as the root cause is left untreated, the disease will continue to spread through individual trees and the forest of humanity showing up as physical, mental, emotional, organizational, and societal disease and disturbance.

It’s time to address chronic stress at its roots by shifting the individual, organizational, and societal priority to regain agency over our body/minds and rebuild resilience and health from the inside out.

Resetting ourselves not only helps us. It also positively co-regulates others, restoring our sense of safety in engaging together. Making individual well-being a priority is the cornerstone of creating and sustaining community, organizational, and societal well-being.

This approach allows us to shift from the insidious threat, distrust, and division that has darkened our perspective, health, and behavior toward ourselves and each other.

A Sustainable Solution

The ever-renewable, resilience-building prescription entails teaching people how to re-regulate the nervous system when triggered supporting the body/mind to increase its resilience and capacity to get along with each other while addressing life’s challenges.

This holistic, root-cause solution addresses the problem internally reactivating calm, critical thinking, emotional balance, trust, kinder, more considerate behavior, and allows the body/mind to shift to restore itself. This is where we’re designed to live - the neurological home of our mental, emotional, physical, and social health and well-being.

The more proficient we get in re-regulating ourselves through resilience training and other smart health and social practices, the more natural co-regulation happens between us. Through it, we restore our sanity, our health, and our civility.

From that restoration, our cooler heads, kinder hearts, and greater health can fuel our creativity, empathy, and capacity to collectively resolve the challenges that face us all.

If you'd like to learn more about how resilience training for your organization, contact us.

[i] The Truth About Worker Burnout , MyPerfectResume, March 2024

Human Resilience Part 1: Root of Organizational Success Today

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 20:27:15 GMT

Organizational Resilience Through Human Resilience

“Resilience” has become a buzzword for the times. You’ve likely heard it enough to surmise that having more is better, but what exactly is it and why does it matter?

While resilience relates to many aspects of business - organizational, economic, logistic, and technological, they are all predicated on the essential one: individual human resilience.

This blog series will address the relationship between chronic stress, organizational success and sustainability , and why strengthening human resilience is the most effective strategy for strengthening individual, organizational, and societal sustainability.

The Impact of Chronic Stress & Burnout

In today’s world of constant change and uncertainty, two things are clear: the daily stress of life is intensifying, and we need healthy ways to condition ourselves to handle it better.

Leadership fatigue and burnout is real . Forty-four percent of the global workforce is chronically stressed or burn-out, with the U.S. and Canada reporting rates of 52% [1] . In that state, our ability to think clearly, solve problems, stay healthy, and get along with each other is significantly obstructed.

If we can’t change circumstances, what can we do to increase our capacity to respond to them better and stay healthy in the process? The answer is to strengthen our capacity to be resilient as leaders and individuals to be collectively resilient as organizations and societies.

When people are chronically stressed or triggered by perceived threat, they are blocked from accessing higher levels of brain function and connection. Why? Because the nervous system automatically shifts the brain and body into the emergency/survival side of the nervous system to keep us safe.

That’s helpful when we truly are in harm’s way. In early human evolution, blood automatically shunted from the brain to the heart, lungs, and legs to escape what could kill us, enabled us to survive as a species.

Today’s New “Normal” Challenges

Our Autonomic Nervous System (“ANS”) is designed to toggle into emergency mode when needed and switch back to the equilibrium side (parasympathetic) when the emergency is over. However, since and post-pandemic, there has been no “over.”

Today’s challenges of life and business such as market or supply chain fluctuations, wars, layoffs or threats of them, political unrest, inflation, and climate concerns have become “normal” daily contentions . No wonder people are chronically stressed and feeling more frustrated, anxious, or withdrawn and are less engaged in what they’re doing.

Inside the organization, being expected to do more with less, poor communication, lack of training or development, feeling disconnected from colleagues or company mission are factors perpetuating chronic stress and burnout. (More on this in Part 2.) These aspects are particularly true for managers. More than 50% of them reporting feeling burnout [2] .

Since managers’ roles put them in the pivotal position of either mitigating or exacerbating stress levels, the ripple effect of whether they are burnout or resilient is exponential.

What's critical to understand is this: The qualities demanded of successful leaders and managers today - trust, authenticity, relatability, and the ability to make prudent decisions, are not neurologically accessible when operating from emergency/survival mode. If organizations want to solve the engagement problem, the toxic weed to uproot is chronic stress, and the tree to grow is resilience.

In our next segments, we’ll talk more about the pivotal role of managers, and circuitous relationships between burnout, engagement, retention, resilience, human and organizational health and sustainability.

[1] Gallup.com Gallup State of the Workplace 2023 Report

[2] Harvard Business Review More Than 50% of Managers Feel Burned Out. May 18, 2023.

Kathleen Gramzay Part 2: Fostering a Resilient Culture: HR's Role in Building Trust and Self-Compassion

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 00:48:16 GMT

Resilience and Self-Care Innovations: A Conversation with Kathleen Gramzay

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 00:47:17 GMT

The Great HR Burnout

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 23:44:13 GMT

5 Things CEOs Can Do to Mitigate HR Burnout

One of the things that became evident during the pandemic is how important 1 ^st responders are to society, and how prevalent burnout is among them.

Today I’d like to bring awareness to the group of 1 ^st responders critical to business – HR professionals. As a group, HR is the unsung hero of both the pandemic and the Great Resignation, but it has come at an extremely high cost. The Great Resignation has produced the Great HR Burnout. According to the Workvivo report published in Forbes:

· 98% of HR reported feeling burnout

· 78% would consider leaving for another opportunity

· 88% reported dreading their work

· 73% don’t have the tools/resources they need to do their job

· 71% do not feel valued by their organizations

Given that one of the top attributes of a toxic culture is people not feeling valued, there is genuine cause for concern about the health and sustainability of your organization with 71% of HR folks feeling unvalued.

If you’re a C-Suite leader looking to retain some of your most valuable contributors, I invite you to seriously consider the following suggestions:

Ways to Demonstrate You Value Your HR Team:

1. Schedule standing meetings to hear their recommendations and ask what support they need from you.

2. Provide that support in both budget and presence. One of the biggest frustrations voiced by HR professionals is being charged with initiative responsibilities and then being denied the budget to carry them out. The second frustration is no visible C-suite support for the initiatives which is critical to their success.

3. Acknowledge the level of stress HR has been handling on behalf of the organization and provide them the tools and support they need to restore themselves and to do their jobs well.

4. Incorporate stress reduction and resilience trainings. They are effective very effective. According to a Udemy study, 48% of employees report that company-sponsored wellness programs are the no 1. factor in helping manage stress.

5. Contemplate all your HR team has done to keep your organization stabilized and in business for the last several years and take these action steps:

Ask your CHRO if they feel they are given the same respect and voice as their C-suite counterparts. If not, find out what is necessary to provide that equality. If you don’t have a CHRO position, it’s time to do so. The role’s importance cannot be underestimated in today’s world.

If interdepartmentally HR is not given the same respect as traditional revenue generating departments, devise a campaign you lead to consistently demonstrate that your CHRO’s seat at the table is valued and supported, both in action and policy.

HR has always been a fundamental cog in the wheel of successful organizations. The workforce paradigm shift from productivity-centric to human-centric makes a well-supported, robust HR team even more critical to your organizations' sustainable success.

If you'd like support reducing stress and burnout for your organization including within your HR team contact us to learn more.

Leadership Chronic Stress

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:06:10 GMT

Is Leadership Chronic Stress Poisoning Your Culture & Increasing Your Attrition?

According to recent studies:

50.5 Million people in the U.S. quit their jobs in 2022 (federal govt. JOLTS report)
50% of US workers are stressed, 67% of global workforce is disengaged. Cost - $7.8 Trillion, 11% global GDP (Gallup State of the Workplace 2022 )
56% of women senior leaders are stressed, with 46% of women senior leaders burnout, 40% are looking for a new role (Deloitte Woman at Work 2022)
Toxic Culture is the #1 rated predictor of attrition (MIT Sloan Review Jan 2022)

The question is why? The logistical realities of the pandemic are obvious. The fallout in terms of how people are thinking, feeling, and acting going forward is a paradigm shift that needs to be addressed if organizations want to sustainably succeed. Looking through the lens of the nervous system we can see that chronic stress is an amplifying underlying catalyst, particularly as it relates to the impact of leaders.

Given the statistics, both leaders and teams are stressed and burnout. Regardless of what lofty statements are written on the walls, who leaders are consistently being is the tone of an organization’s culture. Any incongruency between what is stated and done, is seen, heard, and felt by everyone, and now more acutely than ever. Neurologically speaking, congruence builds trust, incongruence builds mistrust.

As a leader of or in your organization it's important to understand that you are the #1 domino of direction, communication, and your culture. Who you are being as you lead and communicate IS WHAT you are communicating and triggering through your organization.

That communication is not only heard through words and tone, or seen and felt through actions, it’s neurologically felt without ever saying a word. You've experienced it. Think of a time you walked in to speak to someone, and without them even looking up you sensed it was not the time to have the conversation you planned. Your nervous system picked that up before your brain did.

When we are triggered, the nervous system's emergency mode of fight/flight/or freeze triggers specific patterns in how we think, feel, behave, and physical conditions result. The purpose is to ready the body and direct the energy of all it's resources to fight or run. When the emergency is over, it switches back to restorative mode where clear thinking, digestion, repair, and consideration of others is possible.

However, when chronically stressed, it stays in emergency mode. Those patterns grow stronger and reactions can get more severe. Think of chronic stress as a pair of self-darkening sunglasses. You get used to the tint and don't realize it is still coloring your vision, but other people can certainly tell it is!

How Chronic Stress Affects the Body/Mind :

Thinking -As critical or cynical thinking, rash decisions or indecision;
Emotionally - As anger/frustration, worry/anxiety, apathy, hopelessness, or depression;
Behaviorally -As aggression & hostility, avoidance or disengagement
Physically - As cardio vascular disease, high or low blood pressure, gut issues, weight gain, type 2 diabetes

Equally important to note is what gets suppressed when chronically stressed:

Ability to think strategically or creatively is suppressed.
Empathy, compassion, patience and appreciation are not neurologically accessible in survival or chronic stress mode.

These traits are accessible only through the restorative/parasympathetic side of the nervous system.

We can see these patterns clearly in current society - from shorter tempers in traffic to the now common and far too frequent mass shootings.

The Question is: What patterns can you see in yourself and your leadership team?

If you want to feel better, and have greater success, a happier team, and a better culture, ask yourself these questions:

1. What emotions and behaviors are my typical auto reactions to stressful circumstances?

2. What domino effect does that start in my direct reports, and personally, in family members?

(To get an objective answer, ask those who you trust to give you an honest one. It’s likely a persistent theme in your life.)

3. What can I do to reset myself first to then communicate from your clear-thinking, team/organization focused, best self?

Need Support?

If you'd like to find out how resilience strategy and body/mind resilience training can give you tools to shift stress in the moment and get you and your organization back to focused, creative, and collaborative success, Contact us for a complimentary consult.

Caring for Employees Through Self Care

Sun, 02 Oct 2022 00:36:28 GMT

Kinessage for Self-Care with Kathleen Gramzay

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 00:44:47 GMT

Don't Let This One Factor Derail Your Company Goals for the Year

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 21:47:33 GMT

The New Year is here. You’ve spent months planning, budgeting, and setting your company goals for your most successful year yet. Your team is ready, with each person’s contributions an integral piece to the success of the whole. If each member of your team contributes their part, everyone wins – your customers, your team, and your stakeholders. So what can derail your plan, disintegrate your momentum, and increase your costs?

Your key administrative person needs carpal tunnel surgery and is out three weeks
Your top salesperson has sciatica, ends up with back surgery, and is out for a month and limited capacity for six months
Your star business development person tears a hamstring tendon during a fitness challenge and is out six weeks
Your key IT troubleshooter has tension headaches/migraines that incapacitate them for days at a time

Stress, chronic tension, and muscular pain are factors that erode the health of your team members and your business. Considering that seventy-four percent of absenteeism is due to musculoskeletal-related conditions, doesn’t it make sense to provide your team with a tool to help alleviate the underlying causes of a majority of conditions so they can feel good, stay focused and productive?

Kinessage® Self-Care training and the Kinessage® Self Care Virtual System is the first do-it-yourself wellness program for musculoskeletal disorders that empowers people to release their own stress, chronic tension and muscular pain without drugs or office visits.

If you would like to improve the probability of reaching your company goals this year and increase the health, vitality, and focus of your team, contact me to schedule a complimentary consult to find out more at kg@kathleengramzay.com

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Kathleen Gramzay, BCTMB is Body/Mind Performance Expert, 20-yr Board Certified Massage Therapist, and Developer of Kinessage® Self Care and Mindful Resilience. Her mission is to empower people to release their stress, chronic tension & pain to live more joyful, productive and healthy lives. If you would like to learn more about Kinessage® Self-Care or the Mindful Resilience programs, contact Kathleen

Are Allergies Taking the Fun Out of Your Spring?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 22:00:07 GMT

It is hard to appreciate the glory of Spring when every time you step out the door your eyes are watering or a cascade of sneezes starts.

One way to relieve allergies without medication is by using a neti pot. What is that? It is a small, ceramic little teapot designed for flushing your nasal passages. They can be found at health markets for around $14.

Here's how it works. Dissolve 1/4 teaspoon of regular salt into one cup (its capacity) distilled or filtered water only and rinse. (For health safety, never use tap water which may contain parasites you would not want to introduce to the inside of your head.) Follow the directions on the box. Tilting your head slightly is sufficient to get the water to flow out the other nostril (without having it flow elsewhere).

This is a great thing to do after working in the yard or if you breathe in lots of dust. The sooner you can rinse after exposure, the better your chance of inhibiting the histamine response.

For many people, the automatic response to a runny nose is to take allergy medications to stop it. Although quite messy and inconvenient, all that flowing mucus is your body's way of trying to flush out the irritants.

While medications dry out the mucous membranes to stop that flow, they don't necessarily kill bacteria that can be gathering in the sinuses. As a result, it is not uncommon for sinus infections to follow.

If you need or want to take allergy medication, supplementing it by rinsing your nasal passages will help keep them moist and healthy. You can flush your nasal passages a few times and cover the remainder in the pot if you want to do several rinses. When you're complete, be sure to disinfect the neti pot by running it through the dishwasher before you use it again.

By using the neti pot (with just the saltwater), I have eliminated what used to be 6 weeks straight on allergy medications to virtually to zero! With the neti pot and tea tree, I have also eliminated what used to be cold-related sinus infections.

The bonus is in reducing the need for taking antibiotics for minor health issues, your body won't be resistant to them if you really need them for something major.

It's great to know there are simple preventive ways to stay healthy that can also diminish the need for medications with potential side effects.

Easy breathing and a sweet smelling Spring to you,

Kathleen

Are These Warning Indicators Showing Up in You or Your Team?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:59:40 GMT

Indicators are a great tool for managing business. For example, market indicators, inventory-turn indicators, and closing ratios are all helpful data to understand what is (or isn’t) happening in your business. Knowing how to spot and properly interpret them means the difference between being blindsided, prepared for challenges or ready for opportunities.

When it comes to humans, reading indicators may seem more complex but it doesn’t have to be. It’s a matter of understanding the underlying drivers, what triggers them, and then having the ability to shift accordingly. People are expected to show up, do their job well, and to be collaborative team players regardless of external influences. However, when stimuli trigger the survival side of the nervous system it overrides the restoration and positive social engagement side and things often start to go sideways.

There are two highly pervasive and often ignored stimuli: musculoskeletal pain/tension, and stress. Seventy-four per percent of lost work days are musculoskeletal-related, at an annual cost of $872 Billion annually.1 Studies on the effects of stress are now well documented.

It's interesting to note that according to Nate Reiger, PhD, in Conflict without Casualties, “Negative conflict, manifested in workplace drama, costs the US economy more than $350 Billion in the currency of broken relationships, dysfunctional teams, morale and engagement problems and failure to thrive.”

It’s impactful to understand then that physical pain, stress, concerns over job security, health care coverage, or family issues are drivers giving their own directives to the BodyMind vehicles your team members are working and relating through.

Like good business system indicators, the BodyMind shows signs when trouble is brewing. How many of these warning indicators have you been missing or simply write off as today’s “normal”?

more people out sick or some frequently sick
more doctor or therapy appointments
faster consumption of the break room bottle of advil
a higher number of prescription claims
a higher number of injuries
more complaints of lack of sleep or digestion trouble
more frustration, anger, or dissension among team members
less or non-engagement, apathy, members “checked out”, “just going through the motions”
more drug, alcohol, or domestic violence related issues

These are indicators that people are operating predominately in emergency mode. The emergency fight/flight or freeze system is on; the healthy, creative, collaborative side of the nervous system is off. Unhealthy coping skills are the default.

While “emergency” has become the daily operating system for many, it is clearly not sustainable. Moreover, it is neurologically impossible for humans to express their best selves when operating from it!

Many companies spend significant sums on job-related and people development training to increase performance yet wonder why the results don’t always demonstrate a commensurate return on investment.

Interpreting these indicators correctly can lead first to recognizing underlying drivers of health and behavior that impact humans to process information and function at their best.

Directing the self-healing mechanisms of the BodyMind to clear itself and switch the nervous system back to creativity and collaboration empowering individuals and businesses to thrive, is the next evolutionary step. Are you ready to take it?

(1.United States Bone and Joint Initiative, the U.S. National Action Network of the Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health 2015.)

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Gratitude, Brain Science, & the Wisdom of Our Elders

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:57:39 GMT

How many times have you heard your parents or grandparents say: “Count your blessings.” or “Be grateful for what you have in front of you.”? Science is demonstrating health and well-being benefits that go along with the elder wisdom of appreciation.

If you’re curious about why being grateful is a good idea, Dr. Robert A. Emmons, the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, offers the following statistics:

Keeping a gratitude diary for two weeks produced a sustained reduction in perceived stress (28 percent) and depression (16 percent) in a study with healthcare workers
Gratitude is related to 23 percent lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol
Gratitude is related to a 10 percent improvement in sleep quality in patients with chronic pain (76 percent of whom had insomnia) and 19 percent lower depression levels

Gratitude brings our attention to recognize a gift of goodness outside of ourselves that connects us in a heart-centered way to others. It recognizes a gift, freely given that was not earned or something to which we are entitled. When we feel grateful it takes us out of the mind’s self-centered focus and brings us into the heart’s space of appreciation.

For thirty years, the Heart Math Institute has been studying the effects of gratitude and love on heart rate variability, a critical factor in health, and its relationship to the brain. Gratitude synchronizes the heart and brain into coherence measurable in EKG’s that improves heart rate variability, resiliency, and health.

As we enter the season of Thanksgiving and Love that is engulfed in the sea of stress and holiday pressures to overspend and over-commit, I offer you this gift. Every day between now and the new year I invite you to ground yourself by looking for, feeling, and acknowledging the moments, people, and blessings for which you are grateful, and to remember your elders who measured through their hearts the blessings of gratitude.

Happy Thanksgiving, Kathleen

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Under Pressure of 4th Quarter Demands & Holiday Distractions Will Your Team Succeed?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:56:15 GMT

Busy – The New Norm.

The pace of life and business today does not discriminate. Have you noticed that the automatic response to “How are you?” has become: “Busy!” or even "Crazy Busy!"? If everyone is experiencing a more hectic-paced environment, what sets successful people apart?

Successful people have the ability to remain calmly focused on the objective at hand under compounded stress, change, additional pressures, and demands. They are capable of managing their “seas”, the mental, emotional and physical states from which they operate.

The seas often get particularly rough in the fourth quarter. Accelerated pressure to meet year-end goals combined with added personal pressures of holiday obligations, expenses and activities take their toll physically and mentally. The results: physical illness, anxiety, overwhelm, muddled thinking, and poor performance simply from nervous system overload.

At the very time you need your team members to be at their best to close out the year successfully, their ability to be present and at their sharpest is most compromised.

If you want your team to have a successful and healthy fourth quarter, equip them beyond survival. Give them a deeper level of training to thrive in fourth quarter seas and beyond.

Help Your Team Navigate 4th Quarter Seas for Overall Success

An hour or 90-minute training can teach your team scientific skills to quickly release their own chronic tension and switch their nervous system out of anxiety and overwhelm to calm, critical thinking, greater immune system function, and social engagement for greater productivity and team collaboration. Calm your 4th Quarter seas. Provide training that teaches your team HOW to fish more successfully in any sea, under any condition.

How Successful and Enjoyable Will Your 4th Quarter Be?

Learn More About Mindful Resilience and the difference it will make in your team and in their lives. Special pricing savings when booked by October 31st.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Do You Provide Deep Water Training for 4th Quarter Seas?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:53:55 GMT

Odds are you provide training for your people. You budget for it, you schedule for it you invest in it. You cull providers and products to determine which trainings are going to sell your products faster, provide better service, increase efficiency or enhance soft skills for team members to lead or collaborate more successfully to meet those objectives. You probably know your market, your competition, your industry cycles, and have a pretty good handle on the environmental waters in which your company fishes.

The question is: Have you spent considerable resources to provide training or introduce initiatives to accomplish the task, the function, the goal only to be disappointed by lackluster engagement, application of, or downright resistance to them and not know why?

I invite you to consider the overriding effect the “seas” are having on your team’s ability to be open to new information, ideas, processes or change. The “seas” are your employees’ mental and physical states, the filters through which they perceive and react to external conditions.

You may be aware of some of the negative effects that stress produces – inability to concentrate, immune system depletion, chronic tension or muscular pain, heart function irregularities.

There is another aspect to consider that has a deeper impact. Stress also switches the nervous system into Fight/flight or Freeze. Fight/flight demonstrates as anger, frustration or anxiety. Freeze shows up as shutdown/overwhelm. These states neurologically inhibit people from being able to think coherently, act decisively, and work collaboratively.

The ability to be receptive, clear-minded, and socially engaged happens when humans operate from the health and restoration or parasympathetic side of the nervous system. While it used to be believed that the Autonomic Nervous System was “automatic”, science has proven that it’s possible to consciously direct and switch it. That’s a very helpful skill that sets up your team members to maximize the value of the other success and collaboration training resources you provide.

If you want people to be more receptive and capable of handling stress and change and succeeding, enhance their ability to do so with tools that get to the deeper level of the issue – the nervous system.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

There is No Backstage Pass for Chronic Pain

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:51:58 GMT

With over 27 million albums sold and countless tours, Lady Gaga’s voice has thrilled fans worldwide. She’s now using it to talk about a very personal and widely-shared issue, chronic pain. Lady Gaga is challenged with fibromyalgia and PTSD. Singer Selena Gomez recently revealed her life-saving kidney transplant to increase awareness of lupus, an autoimmune condition shared by Toni Braxton, Nick Cannon, Seal, and Kristen Johnston to name a few.

Other celebs deal with chronic back pain as a result of injuries – George Clooney, Bono, and Paula Abdul. Melody Griffith’s neck injury led her down the path of publicized opioid addiction and finally successful rehab.

Millions of people without their notoriety suffer daily right along with them. While non-celebrity humans might not have the specific stress triggers that come from international touring, we all have personal stress tipping points that push the capacity of our bodies and minds to handle it.

Chronic pain is real and it has multiple components: physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral. What happens to us, how we feel about it, how we process it or block it out, and the steps we take as a result are all part of the continual feedback loop that either supports health or degenerates it.

The first step of understanding is to acknowledge that there is no separating physical health from mental health from emotional health. It’s all One Health.

For in that understanding lies our ability to turn the lens from a judgment of acceptability to focus in on the innate intelligence of the body/mind for self-healing when all aspects of our being are included. We can then more effectively use the tools of science to support the restoration of optimum health and well-being.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

EMPOWER YourSelf to Succeed!

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:49:42 GMT

The beauty of a new year is that it gives us a psychological boost to a fresh start. Often, great intentions are set to eat healthier, get more exercise, be more fiscally responsible to name a few common choices.

Yet, according to a study, only 64% of people are still committed to their resolution after 1 month, and only 46% after 6 months. And, only 14% of adults over 50 achieve their resolution compared to 39% of people in their 20's.

So what's the huge factor that de-rails good intentions? HABIT! But habit doesn't start with putting the donut in your mouth or turning on the t.v. It starts with the habitual mental thoughts that lead to the action. "I've been so good this week. I'm going to treat myself now, I'll start again tomorrow." "I've had a stressful day." "I don't FEEL like going for a walk, I just need to veg."

4 Tips to Outsmart Your Mind & Make the Change for Healthier You

1. Awareness - actively listen to the rationalizations your mind is telling you to get you to do what you've decided you no longer choose. Observe when you are weakest. For example, is it when you're tired? Stressed? Want to procrastinate?

2. Will - Decide that no matter what, RIGHT NOW, in this moment you're not giving in. Use distraction, replace it with something healthy, just don't give in right now. You'll find that the compelling urge comes from that mental voice using its best arguments to keep the unhealthy status quo. Remember, this is the Conscious YOU vs. your unconscious automatic pilot mind. Who will you decide is going to win? Remember, it's an incremental progress race. If your mind wins one round, in your resolve, "get up" immediately. Don't fall prey to the guilt and judgment sucker-punch tactic your mind uses to make you feel worse to get you to give up. Instead, learn. Note the experience, tell it YOU are now making the choices, and win the following rounds.

3. Plan - Think about and write down when that habit usually takes over. Plan your counter success instead. Do you need to meditate first thing before you get distracted by your phone? Do you need to plan your meals or only buy healthy food so there's no temptation in your fridge? Do you need to set out your workout clothes the night before? Set yourself up to succeed.

4. Accountability - Make a big chart or use a wall calendar to track your progress. Every night before you go to bed, write in your wins with your favorite colored marker - P3 (plank 3 minutes), M20 (meditiation20) $$ (for smart spending). You'll find that by being congruent in THIS moment, it becomes today, and today becomes a string of todays which changes your life for the better. It's surprising to see how soon it feels better to mark your achievement on your calendar than to eat the sugar or crash on the couch. Try it for yourself and let me know your experience; I support your best Self.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Choose the Right Pillow and Get Better Sleep

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:45:29 GMT

Starting your day with neck pain makes for a tough start. One of the big causes of neck pain is using a pillow that doesn't support your neck properly.

Do you have chronic neck pain or wake up with occasional kinks from "sleeping funny"? If so, I invite you to replace your pillow with a better choice that will be easier on your neck, help you sleep better and wake up happier.

My newest favorite for back sleeping has become the travel pillow - used in a different way. Most people wear them around the back of their neck with the opening at the front. I switched it around so that it is in a "U" shape beneath my head instead. It's perfect for supporting your neck and cradling your head when lying on your back, and much better support sleeping on a plane! This one is a memory foam so it's got good support and give to let your head and neck settle in. Try it and let me know how it works for you.

Check out my youtube video to see some other options you may not know about. Happy Sleeping!

https://youtu.be/fZCeWG_zqK0

Kathleen

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

What's Your Declaration of Independence?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:42:45 GMT

With fireworks and parades, barbecues and loved ones we commemorate the independence of our country. We pay tribute to those who gave their time and many, their lives, to afford us certain unalienable rights, the freedoms of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

It took courage and conviction for our forefathers to stand up and say NO LONGER would they accept the status quo.

It then required sustained willful action to change the circumstances that were no longer acceptable. What had long been tolerated became intolerable -to the point where the pain of staying the same was greater than the pain of taking a different course of action.

Once firmly committed to and consistently acted upon, the new course of action fueled by the desire for a better life gained momentum and uplifted their spirits and strengthened their resolve.

They firmly engaged in right action, and right action repeated created the change they desired and gave us all the freedoms we enjoy today.

You inhabit the country of your body/mind, an abundant country of health and vitality that is ruled by the king of habits of thoughts, feelings, and actions.

What is the state of your country?

Do you have pain, immobility, physical or mental habits that have been infringing or eroding your freedom to enjoy your life, liberty and happiness?

Is it time for you to make a Declaration of Independence of your own?

What one behavior of thought or action relative to your body/mind will you decide is NO LONGER worth the pain it is causing? Pick a better alternative - activity versus the couch, a protein or vegetable versus the sugar or empty carbs, movement or H20 instead of a pill, music that uplifts you versus the news, people that support you versus people who don't, asking for help versus staying stuck and isolated.

Just start. One better choice today.

Fuel that choice with continued right action that you do more often than not, and you will find yourself gaining momentum. Your conviction, spirit, and resolve will be uplifted; carrying you forward to your own freedom, your own inalienable rights of life, liberty and happiness.

And if you'd like support, state your Declaration of Independence below or on facebook at KathleenGramzayReleaseYourPain

If you'd like to take action for yourself or for your team we're happy to help at www.kathleengramzay.com

Happy Independence Day!

To your greatest health & well-being,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Bridging the Wellness Gap

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:39:33 GMT

It was heartening to hear local company reports of the favorable trend of increased employee participation in wellness programs at the “Phoenix Business Journal’s Healthiest Employers” event. Notwithstanding arguments of hard ROI versus soft returns regarding employee satisfaction and productivity, “wellness” clearly benefits both the employers and individuals.

While nutrition and exercise programs help to improve blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and body mass index, a significant gap in wellness remains for both businesses and their employees who cannot participate in wellness programs due to a factor which accounts for 33% of all work-related illnesses and injuries. The elephant in the wellness room is chronic pain.

Perhaps it’s time to expand wellness to a deeper level and address the largest category of chronic medical conditions accounting for the greatest loss of productivity, absenteeism, health-care costs, and a significant portion of worker’s compensation claims – Musculoskeletal Disorders (“MSDs”).

The Leading Cause of Disability/Health Care Cost

The prevalence of MSDs and their related costs are sobering. One in two or 126.6 million1 adults are affected by MSDs. That’s twice the rate of those with chronic heart and lung conditions, and seven times the 18.8 million diagnosed with diabetes.

It’s hard to be productive, or participate in a company challenge or make the best food choices when it’s painful to even think or move. How many employees might choose to participate or stay engaged if pain and/or mobility issues didn’t stop them? How much more productivity, focus, and satisfaction might employees have if chronic pain, tension or stress wasn’t distracting them from work or keeping them absent from it?

What are Musculoskeletal Disorders?

“Musculoskeletal Disorders” encompass conditions and injuries related to the bones, joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissue (also known as fascia).

The most prevalent musculoskeletal conditions are:

Back & Neck disorders, disc disorders, and injuries
Arthritis & Joint Pain
Osteoporosis
Injuries

The National Impact of MSDs

The overall cost for MSD treatment and lost wages is a staggering $874 Billion 2 which constricts businesses, employees, and society-at-large. Already equaling 5.7% of GDP in 2011 dollars 3 and rising, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that musculoskeletal disorders are one of the leading determinants of the physical and economic health of our nation.

Narrowing the Scope

Setting aside the categories of acute and chronic bone issues (such as fractures, arthritis, osteoporosis, skeletal and disc disorders) and the acute stages of torn ligaments or tendons requiring surgery, leaves soft tissue disorders and injuries open for discussion.

Looking at the $176.9 Billion 4 spent from back, neck, and musculoskeletal injury subcategories compared to the overall, current U.S. health care costs pointing toward a trillion, might, at first glance, seem like small potatoes.

To the contrary, these subcategories are significant for two reasons: the scope of their impact and the fact that they have the greatest potential for positive change.

The Impact of Musculoskeletal Injuries 5 :

77% (65.8 million) – Leading cause of all injury-related health care visits

$176.9 Billion – Annual cost of treatment (2011)

397 Million – Number of prescriptions filled for MSDs (2011)

70% (216.5 million days) – Self-reported lost work days due to MSDs

30% (284,000) of work-related injuries due to MSDs with an average of eleven lost work days

Compounded Pain for Business

For employers, the economic burden from lost work days is compounded by two other factors. First, the price of absenteeism and lost productivity estimated to be $225.8 Billion or $1,685 per employee6. Second, when the multi-year economic impact of increased worker’s compensation insurance premiums triggered by 7+day claims is added in, it’s easy to understand why U.S. businesses are struggling.

Traditional Treatment

MSDs are traditionally treated with rest, over-the-counter or prescription drugs, and/or surgery. Before addressing other components, the overriding socioeconomic component of accelerated increase in prescription drug treatment for MSDs needs to be recognized.

The Rise of Prescription Drug Treatment for Musculoskeletal Disorders

Of all direct cost component use, the 97% increase in filled prescriptions for MSDs is largest.

While the direct costs for all MSDs treatment components have increased, none compare to the 210% increase of prescription drugs.

The greater socioeconomic cost and consequence, yet to be fully measured, is the opioid addiction epidemic resulting from the increased number of prescriptions being written for them. From absenteeism to rehabilitation, opioid addiction is a very real burden contributing to declining productivity and rising health care costs.

Unfortunately, the impact doesn't end there. The grave reality of soaring deaths due to opioid overdose is most recently seen in this week's proclamation by Governor Ducey of a statewide health emergency for Arizona. For more discussion on the epidemic, see The Price of Pain series.

Having access to and implementing alternative pain relief options provides exponential benefit for employers, individuals, and the society-at-large.

Lost Work Days by Nature of Injury

Let’s look at injury nature and median days lost, while conservatively focusing on the soft tissue-related or slow onset conditions from the table below.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome – twenty-seven days
Tendonitis – ten days
Sprains & Strains – ten days
Soreness & Pain – eight days
Back Pain – seven days
Workplace Injuries – eight days (includes soft tissue conditions)
Musculoskeletal Disorders - eleven days (includes soft tissue conditions)

Each of the above categories hits or crosses 7 days away from work, negatively impacting workers’ compensation insurance ratings. The good news: they are also the categories with greatest opportunity to reduce the number of days away, as well as average cost per hospital stay.

The 2011 average charge per hospital stay for the Sprains and Strains and Musculoskeletal Disorders categories: $41,700 and $48,100, respectively. 7

By percentage above, back and neck pain at 35% and musculoskeletal and connective tissue conditions at 17% account for over half of all lost work days.

Finding a different solution to address the underlying causes of MSDs and mitigate the number of incidents, treatment costs, and lost days is the key to shifting the tide of our current economic and physical health and our overall well-being.

Addressing the above-listed and many other soft-tissue disorders is the segment of health-care where the potential for prevention, faster healing, cost reduction and increased productivity is not only greatest, it is already a reality.

Alternative Methods Sought

The fact that the average number of non-physician care visits for MSDs has increased 92% from 197.5 million visits in 1996 to an average of 379.3 million in 20118 attests to the public’s active pursuit of alternative treatments. And for good reason.

Musculoskeletal disorders respond favorably to the hands of skilled therapists; ones who understand and partner with the self-healing mechanisms already built into the neuromuscular-fascial system. Pain relief and restored mobility can be achieved without the systemic side effects of pharmaceuticals.

The Wellness Bridge - A Different Solution

Even though it has been traditionally studied and applied by professionals, the knowledge of how to partner with the body is not exclusively the domain of professionals. It’s intrinsic in every body, and available to be used by the average person in order to direct or restore his or her own greater health and well-being.

The term “self-care” encompasses many definitions from pampering oneself to visiting a professional to receive the benefit from their skills. These approaches will always have a fundamental place in one’s good health and well-being arsenal. However, within the body’s built-in intelligence and self-restoring design for movement there exists another level of self-care.

While working with thousands of people and hundreds of therapists over 17 years, it’s been my experience that most MSDs can be cleared utilizing the body’s own ability to reset itself, release chronic pain, restore proper muscular tension and a normal range of motion. Resetting normal tension and force patterns allows more balanced, unimpeded movement. It also reduces negative impact on joints and helps mitigate reoccurrence of the condition or injury.

Through a specific system of intentional movements, the term “self-care” deepens to a therapeutic level that is self-applied. Mindfulness, directed in partnership with innate neuromuscular system intelligence releases the underlying cause of myofascial conditions which were previously treated through office visits and medication.

Currently, wellness programs target the underlying factors of diet and exercise to reduce the correlated health conditions. Their implementation is a good step towards greater health for individuals and business.

Offering a self-care wellness program that targets the underlying cause of soft-tissue conditions and/or injuries to release chronic musculoskeletal pain and restore the body’s normal tone and mobility without drugs or office visits takes “wellness” to a deeper level.

It not only addresses the country’s leading health-care cost and cause of disability, it also bridges the wellness gap for healthier individuals, employers, and our society as a whole.

C1-5, 1-5,7,8 Source: United States Bone and Joint Initiative: The Burden of Musculoskeletal Diseases in the United States (BMUS), Third Edition, 2014. Rosemont, IL. Available at http://www.boneandjointburden.org .

6 Source: CDC, International Monetary Fund

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Valentine's Day Self Care for (not only) Singles - Top 4 Ways to Be Your Own Valentine

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:27:41 GMT

Holidays designated to celebrate relationships often have a way of magnifying their absence for those not in one.

Valentine's Day, in particular, can be challenging because the implied message is that validation of being lovable comes through someone else's expression of love for you.

Whether you're single (or in a relationship) and feeling unloved because someone else isn't demonstrating their love or affection, I invite you to challenge the assumption of what defines "lovable" and free yourself in the process.

Being lovable is a perception of worthiness, and the great news is that you get to decide that worthiness.

You get to decide if you want to be lovable - and loving - to yourself. If your mental programming has you believing otherwise, you can change it. If you've treated yourself poorly or allowed others to do so, you can change it.

Here are my top 4 recommendations for how to nurture yourself to help cultivate healthy Self-love and be your own Valentine all year round:

1. Give yourself a real hug - often. Humans crave affection for a reason: we need loving, nurturing touch!

Sit in your favorite cozy place so that you can feel the cushions against your back and your body securely supported. Now close your eyes and think of someone or a pet you adore. With your eyes closed, allow yourself to wrap your arms around yourself with the same loving intention you would have holding that person or pet. With each of several breaths, allow yourself to relax deeper into the hug, paying attention to how good it feels to simply hold yourself. Feel your body releasing its tension and sinking more into the cushions as it feels the love coming through your embrace. Feel the simple peace in this. Be aware of any inner critic mind chatter. If it starts, simply tell it to be quiet and instead mentally repeat: "It feels good to be loving to myself". Pay attention and note how your body/mind responds to the shift in message.

2. Do for yourself what you've been waiting for someone else to do for you.

If you've been wanting someone else to appreciate you, appreciate yourself. Make a list of the qualities you like about yourself and put it up somewhere you see it every day. If you've been wanting to go out on a date, take yourself out on one. Enjoy something you love that you've been holding off doing until you had someone to do it with. Feel how good it feels to treat yourself in a kind and loving way right now.

3. Pamper yourself in a way you'd love but typically don't allow because your to-do-list always wins out.

Sleep in until you wake up, make yourself a nourishing, favorite meal you usually reserve for company, spend a few hours in nature or listening to music that makes you happy.

4. Give yourself the priceless gift of daily meditation.

Whether you focus for five minutes or five hours, learning to quiet your body/mind and connect with your true Self gives you the joyful feeling of mental peace, quiet contentment, and access to the infinite wisdom and power that is available to each of us.

With every loving thought, feeling or action you do for yourself, you start to shift the tide from determining your lovability based on what you do or don't get from others, to what you choose to give to yourself. And because healthy, loving, thoughts, feelings, and actions strengthen the true essence of Self, the internal spring of happiness and peace starts bubbling up from within because what you truly are at the core of your being IS love.

Self-love. the more you nurture it, the more it nurtures you. And, ironically, the more you sincerely love yourself, the more that love is reflected back to you through others.

Happy Valentine's Day.

With love,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Sitting is a Pain Pt 3 - Air Travel

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:23:47 GMT

The third place sitting is a pain is air travel. Between schlepping bags, the mental duress of contending with possible schedule changes, and the actual time stuck in a seat, flying can definitely be a pain. If your job or vacation involves cross-country or international travel, you are already keenly aware that 5 to 15 hours in a cramped seat can definitely cause some discomfort. Hopefully, you get to travel business class which makes flying a lot more comfortable.

My recent flight to and from Greece, then from New York to Phoenix had me using my favorite tips to keep myself comfortable on my trip. I hope they serve to make your travel more enjoyable.

1. Preflight. Instead of sitting while waiting for your zone to be called, find a corner and take the opportunity to stretch, reach and bend.

a) For Low Back. The arm of the end seat makes for a great bar to squat and do a low back stretch. Gently bend forward and hold on to the seat arm with your arms fully extended, feet planted. Slowly bend your knees and drop into a seated squat. Pay attention to the extending stretch in your low back, pausing in the spots where it especially feels good. You'll be more comfortable on the flight and may inspire fellow travelers to follow your lead.

b) For Hamstrings. To keep from cramping on the flight, use either a chair seat or the low tables adjacent to do hamstring stretches. Place your heel on it, leg straight. Lean slightly forward and tilt your pelvis back to stretch your hamstrings.

2. Get Aligned with Your Destination Time Zone. Set your watch to your destination time zone to start early adaptation to it.

For international travel, night flights work if you can sleep on the plane and wake with the sun there. The trick is when you get there not to succumb to a nap but wait to sleep until night falls. (It was a great excuse for a 4 pm Greek coffee and bhaklava:) If sleeping on a plane is challenging for you, better to do day flights.

3. Stay Hydrated. Staying hydrated is always key for a healthy body/mind, even more so when flying.

Drinking plenty of water is important to counter the lower humidity in air cabins that can cause dry eyes and leave you more vulnerable to possible infection. If you're going to drink coffee or cocktails, do so in moderation and increase your water intake to offset them.

4. Strengthen Your Respiratory System. Recycled air and lots of people increase the chance of exposure to infection. Here's an easy way to combat it.

I travel with a ¼ oz bottle of eucalyptus oil as eucalyptus kills bacteria in the respiratory system. Place a few drops in your clean hands, rub them together and inhale. If you're surrounded by coughing and sneezing it can be a life saver.

5. Stay nourished and mentally calm. Always travel with a healthy snack in your bag.

Almonds with raisins and candied ginger is a personal favorite. The protein and fruit provide a balance for blood sugar. Ginger aids digestion and adds a little zip. That and a bottle of water, and you're set if there are delays in flight service. Staying nourished and hydrated also helps keep you from getting cranky if there are unexpected travel challenges

6. Take the strain off your low back. As in driving, keeping your knees lower than your hips to take the strain of the low back.

Raise your hips by placing an airplane pillow just under your butt bones to increase the angle. ( See the video in Sitting is a Pain Part 2 ) During the flight, periodically tilt your pelvis back and forth to alleviate low back stiffness.

7. Move & Walk. Long periods of sitting and lower cabin pressure is not a good combination for healthy circulation.

Flex and circle your ankles every hour or so to increase circulation and counter swelling that can be caused by lower cabin pressure and reduced oxygen absorbed by the blood. (Also helps to counter potential deep vein thrombosis - blood clots). If you can't stretch your legs while in your seat, be sure to get up and walk the aisle optimally once an hour.

8. Be Productive Waiting to Deplane.

Take advantage of the wait and move your parts - neck/shoulder circles, pelvic tilts, knee and ankle flexing to activate your muscles. It will give you something to do while waiting for those ahead of you to deplane, and your body will be ready to move once you get to do so. Whether business or pleasure, the trip will be more enjoyable when you move with ease.

Happy, smooth, comfortable travels.

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

#painfreetravel #travelbackpain #backpainrelief

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Sitting is a Pain Part 2 - Driving

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:18:44 GMT

In my August blog, Sitting is a Pain in the Butt, I offered some simple and effective tips to make your office chair a little less painful.

There is another office seat that causes many people pain, the mobile one located behind a steering wheel.

While cab and Uber drivers come readily to mind, there are untold numbers of people who spend their days on the road for their jobs covering expansive territory, as my friend Lynn did. She, along with many of my previous clients, dealt with sciatic pain as a result. Neck pain is equally common for folks who spend a lot of time behind the wheel.

Long hours in the same position is tough on the body. Driving for the major portion of a day can take additional tolls. Has your leg ever cramped from holding your foot on the gas for an extended stretch?

In scanning the road watching for hazards or getting irritated with other drivers/traffic, have you ever found yourself gripping the steering wheel for dear life without realizing it?

Chronic tension, whether physically or mentally initiated, accumulates. Left unchecked, it can become a significant factor in musculoskeletal disorders.

During my practice, I worked with many clients with neck, back, and hip issues. After our appointments, I walked out to their cars and had them make a simple set of adjustments to alleviate stressors that contributed to the chronic tension and pain they experienced. In response to my friend Lynn's request after the last blog, I'm reiterating them here for everyone.

Tip number 1: Use cruise control whenever possible to keep your leg in a relaxed position rather than tense and extended.

The remaining tips are found in this Kinessage® Self Care Tip for the Day - How to Save Your Neck and Back While Driving that I shot several years ago while still in my practice.

https://youtu.be/trz1wZ_3D0o

Apply them and see how driving can be less of a pain in your keister and other parts too.

To Your Greatest Health & Well-Being

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Sitting is a Pain in the Butt

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:17:25 GMT

Have you heard the saying if you want to understand someone's experience "walk a mile in their shoes"? Instead of walking in someone else's shoes, I have been sitting in someone else's office chair. All I can say is given the option, I'll take the shoes.

I'll admit I've been spoiled. For the last 17 years as a self-developed, movement-based therapist and educator teaching Kinessage® to therapists, my days were all about movement. My desire to share the method with everyone else who lives in a body led me write Release Your Pain, Expand Your Life, develop the virtual Kinessage® Release Your Pain Self Care System for the public, and do the website to get it out.

Here's the irony. That all required the majority of the last 12 months spent with my butt in a chair.

What I already felt passionately about has been pointedly corroborated by my body: The positions you regularly hold are cumulative, and movement throughout the day is critical.

Here are a few things to keep an eye out for that can cause pain that you might not be aware of, as well as some tips to build movement into your day.

1. What is your regular posture when you are mentally engrossed in what you're doing?

Is your head lurched forward towards the screen or to the side trying to hold your phone? Is your jaw clenched, your mouse hand reaching away pulling on your neck? Is one leg wrapped around the other like a pretzel? Is one foot crammed underneath the other? If you have frequent pain in any specific area - head, neck, shoulder, arms, wrist, hand, back, hips, knees, ankles or feet look at how you sit at your desk or the position your body is in the majority of your day.

Once you know what it is, put a sticky note right in front of you that reminds you to undo that, i.e., "uncross your legs", "pull your head back", "sit up straight", whatever you need until you break the habit.

2. As for movement, the operative word is FREQUENT.

If you get sucked into your screen and then next thing you know, it's time to go to lunch or home, that is NOT frequent. New recommendations are that you should move after every 20 minutes of sitting. If that's not feasible to you, set your phone alarm to 45 minutes. Focus and concentrate for 45 minutes on the specific task at hand (which will increase your productivity during the time) then get up, stretch, and move.

Walk or do other specific movements that help your body release the tension and reset itself. You'll sit back down with a more energized body and a more focused and relaxed mind.

Your butt will thank you for the break too.

To your greater health & well-being,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

5 Reasons Why Your Body is Easier to Understand than Rocket Science

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:14:35 GMT

Have you ever noticed certain subjects have general perceptions around them? For example, how many times have you heard the adage: "it's not rocket science!" Meaning, whatever you're talking about is understandable or not that hard.

To the average person, rocket science is believed to be very difficult to understand or you have to be brilliant to do so. To a rocket scientist, however, it just makes sense.

What's the difference between the average person and the scientist? Education, interest, and the belief that the information is comprehensible.

When it comes to the body/mind, there is a general perception that you have to be a doctor or health care professional to understand it. While you may never have the interest to study the body to the depths that conscientious health care professionals do, it's important for you to know that you are capable of understanding how your body works.

In the event, you are faced with pain, limited mobility or other conditions that challenge your health, the mindset of trusting that you are capable of understanding the issues and making decisions that are right for you is paramount for your good outcome.

To help shift your mindset, I would like to offer

5 Reasons Why Your Body is Easier to Understand than Rocket Science:

1. You don't need a degree in aerospace, mechanical or electrical engineering degree

2. There is google, and a world of information available at your fingertips

3. There are conscientious professionals who love to study the details and share digestible overviews

4. In addition to your intellect's capacity to comprehend data, you receive constant feedback from the body you live in; and

5. You have your own internal small, quiet voice - your intuition, your "gut", which tells you when something is true or not; or is or isn't right for you.

Trust it and trust yourself.

You may find that keeping yourself healthy and happy isn't rocket science after all.

To your greatest health and well-being,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Are You a Boss Willing to Lead Your Team?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:11:47 GMT

In my last blog, What Kind of A Boss Are You? , we saw that "Team Body" does the best job it can given the leadership, tools and materials provided by its "Mind-Boss".

The body gives feedback all the time about whether the leadership and materials are sufficient or not. How do you know? It tells you. It speaks.

As the boss, you might not have ever learned its language (who thought you needed to?) Maybe you've relied on interpreters. Great interpreters are highly valuable; but if they're off duty when the team is ready to strike, you could have a big problem on your hands. What if you learned the language enough to understand and respond appropriately to diffuse the situation? What would that be worth to you in terms of time, money and aggravation saved?

If you want to be a better boss, start by listening to your team. If you've been distracted or uninterested you may have missed obvious communications. Think of it as sign language that you can see and/or feel. The mind/body has two primary languages: Well-Being and Pain.

Well-Being demonstrates as things like: ease of movement, good sleep, healthy digestion, healthy weight relative to frame, feeling happy or at least content.

Pain, the "Time-to-Get-Attention Language" demonstrates in different ways:

Muscular/joint/bone pain - neck, shoulder, elbow, wrist, back, hip, knee, ankle, foot pain

Poor digestion, extra weight, feeling cranky, irritated, weary, angry, etc.

As mentioned last blog,

You can blame the team for betraying you and live with the status quo.

Or, you can be the boss who provides the leadership and tools your team needs to thrive.

Invest in yourself. Learn to understand your body/mind, partner with your team, and wield your power to direct your health and truly live the life you desire.

You now have new resources available to you: The Kinessage® Release Your Pain Self-Care System.

Part 1: is the digital book that provides you an "owner's manual' for your body/mind.

Release Your Pain, Expand Your Life!

Using Movement, Mindfulness & Momentum to Free Your Body & Mind

at www.kathleengramzay.com

We'll talk more about the magic of releasing pain next time.

To your greatest health and well-being,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

What Kind of a Boss Are You?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:09:29 GMT

When you think about it, it's pretty miraculous that your body's innate intelligence keeps you alive with fairly minimal participation on your part. Your role? Provide the materials it needs: water, nourishment, sleep, and movement. Everything else happens without your conscious participation. You don't have to understand it or pay attention for your cells, organs, and systems to continually operate for highest function and health.

The system is extraordinary. It's also familiar. It's your body

You've been living in it for years. And what is familiar is often easily taken for granted. It's easy to assume that your body should work like you want it to work regardless of what you ingest or don't; how you sleep or don't; how you move or don't. After all, it's been working for years.

Think of it like this. Your mind is the boss and your body is a unified group of employees - your team.

Your employees are innately qualified for their jobs and they do them seamlessly and effortlessly. You provide great leadership. You pay attention to your team. You listen to them, take their recommendations, and provide what they need to do a great job. It's the perfect partnership and the whole business flourishes.

Time passes and your team has been doing a stellar job. They've virtually been running things so well on their own that you assume the gravy train is going to continue. You've been directing your attention and resources elsewhere. You expect the same level of results from your employees although you've pretty much checked out of the endeavor. You don't acknowledge team members let alone listen to them. For a while now, you've been providing substandard materials and ignoring the memos that the lower quality has caused serious problems. Things have broken down to varying degrees. You tell them to handle it, hoping you won't have to step in and actually do something.

Your boss mentality still expects them to provide the same high-quality results. Ironically, when that doesn't happen you get mad at your employees! Ranting or blaming them will not reverse the situation back to health and harmony.

Only changing your perspective and your actions to partner with your team will.

If you want your "Team Body" to do all that it is capable of doing so that you can live in vibrant health,

you have to be willing to train "Boss Mind" to provide the necessary leadership:

1) Make the decision that your improved health is 1 of your top 3 life priorities.

2) TODAY, start providing high-quality materials for your team to get better results.

3) Identify and acknowledge the areas that need assistance to get your team running smoothly again.

4) Commit to action to partner with your "Team Body" to make those changes toward a preferred result for all. (To be continued..)

To your greatest health and well-being,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

Paradigm Shift: It Has to Hurt to Work, Doesn't It?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:06:28 GMT

A predominant myth in our culture is "No pain-no gain." In addition to athletics, it permeates beliefs with regard to healing.

I say "no pain-no gain" is a bald-faced lie.

In sports or working out, you can argue the merits of pushing the body through its limits to increase its capacity for greater strength or endurance. But why is that belief so common when it comes to healing?

Therapies that initiate pain or discomfort first and then provide relief, fuel the underlying assumption that some kind of pain is necessary in order to effect healing.

Physical therapy, traditional chiropractic, medical or deep tissue massage are some examples. There's pain or a sound (crack or pop) that tells you it's working or it worked, and then you expect the results.

For many years in Massage there were two options - Swedish or Deep Tissue. If you wanted to be an effective therapist Deep Tissue was what you did. It's also what you ask for as a client if you want to get "the knots" out. It was a given that the pressure had to be deep, it was likely to be uncomfortable, you may well be sore after, but you'd feel great in a day or two.

I had mixed feelings from my own introduction. My instructor was demonstrating a stroke down my back to the class. His pressure was too much for me and my whole body winced and tightened up against the pain. I told him it was too much. He either didn't hear me or wasn't listening. When he got to that spot again by pure instinct, I swung my arm out and smacked him in the leg. I picked my face up and emphatically stated: "that's too hard! I thought massage was supposed to feel good." From my experience, I didn't know that Deep Tissue could be done differently and not be painful.

The no pain-no gain mindset is deeply rooted in sports. In working with many professional athletes over the course of my practice, I had to address it. I told them upfront that Kinessage® worked differently, they would think I wasn't doing anything, and to trust their trainer's referral so that they could mentally relax enough in the session to find out. They, and many massage and physical therapists I teach are conditioned that harder is better and more pressure equals more results.

One of my greatest joys is to observe the surprise on their faces when they experience the release of pain or tension and more fluid movement without discomfort for the first time. The "aha" is so much fun to see. It busts the no pain-no gain belief wide open.

To get beyond "no pain, no gain" and get a different result, you have to be open to the possibility that healing can happen without pain or some volatility to activate it.

Healing is a restoration, a return to your inherent natural state of health. It's innate. It's quiet. It's subtle. You might not have any of the cues you're conditioned to telling your mind that it's working.

However, if you pay attention to and partner with your body, the results can be miraculous - GAIN WITHOUT PAIN.

To your great health and well-being,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

The Paradigm Shift: Your Body, Your Partner

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:02:13 GMT

The idea that you can partner with your body is somewhat novel to many people. Isn't your body something you have and manage? It's great when you're young (even if you don't appreciate it at that time) and then it becomes a pain, literally somewhere down the timeline.

When I became a massage therapist in 1999, I was eager to learn as much about the body as possible because I wanted to help many people. What I couldn't have known then is how that knowledge would change my perspective, my life, and my own health.

What is one of the basic tenets to good health?

M-O-V-E-M-E-N-T! Not really a shock is it?

I mean, you know that it's smart to exercise and there is a ton of evidence that supports why it's a good idea, yadda-yadda-yadda. It's not that you don't know that. It's how you feel about it that is the deciding factor.

If you've not found some kind of movement that you enjoy, mentally putting movement in the "exercise category" automatically makes it work of some kind. And who wants more of that? Goodness knows your plate is already full, who's got time?

When you were a kid, did you think of riding a bike, walking with your friends, playing some sport, swimming or anything you did as exercise? Odds are, no. It was just fun.

To your body, movement is life.

Every system within it is predicated on movement to function well, like a self-winding watch. Over time if you haven't "shaken your watch" in a while, the parts start to get sludgy and things start to stick. Arteries clog, joints stiffen, muscles tighten, bowels constipate, lungs congest.

And all of those parts live within the most amazing system of all, your fascial system. When it gets stuck down it becomes more like flypaper. Everything in it gets squished, including nerve sensors whose main job is to send warning signals that register to you as pain.

Your body is trying to get your attention. "Hey can you get this thing moving? Things are getting stuck in here!"

So today, I invite you to make some time, even a few minutes, outside of what you normally do- walk down the hall or up the stairs, stretch, play your favorite song, anything that feels good, and shake it for five minutes.

Put your attention into your body and FEEL it. It's your partner. Let it know you're listening and give it some love.

To your great health and well-being,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

5 Myths of Pain - Part 1

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:00:16 GMT

Every day, millions of people experience pain. Headaches, body aches, joint aches, sharp stabbing pain, dull achy pain, pain that comes and goes, and pain that comes and seems to stay. Billions of dollars are spent for pain relief; and sometimes at best, it's a crap shoot as what to pick to try to relieve it. Being in pain and not knowing what it is or how to relieve is frustrating, annoying, and it can just plain make you cranky.

I'd like to speak to five myths - underlying common beliefs that keep you stuck in pain so that you can start to clear the brush that fuels that fire. Today we're going to look at the first two.

Myth 1 - Aches and Pain are Just a Part of Getting "Old"

This myth is, in my opinion, the largest underpinning of collective thinking that feeds the decline of one's health over time.

• First, it constantly feeds the mind with the expectation of decline

• Second, it deflects all personal responsibility for how one has tended their body/mind during the course of life

• Third, it assumes that the cause has no basis in anything one has control over

I offer these ideas for your consideration instead:

• The mind and body are in constant exchange; what the mind directs, the body follows and vice versa

• Whatever you feed your body/mind daily has a cumulative effect on your bodily experience later in life

• Your body/mind has infinite intelligence built right in, and you have the power to work with it

Myth 2 - If I Have Pain, It Must Mean I Have Something Seriously Wrong and Need Drugs

This myth is constantly being perpetuated by pharmaceutical ads that run ad nauseam. Take a look at these facts as reported in an article on 3/23/15 from The Washington Post Wonkblog:

• In 2014, drug makers spent 61.6% of their advertising budget on TV advertising, up from 52.6% in 2011

• Drug makers spent $4.5 Billion in 2014 marketing prescription drugs to the public, up from $3.5 Billion in 2012

• Drug makers spent $24 Billion marketing directly to doctors in 2012

Having that constant barrage of messaging permeate your psyche precisely when you are vegging out, increases the suggestibility and recall of the message. To me, the danger lies in the "if you have this symptom, you must have this syndrome" linking in your mind that automatic assumption to be triggered later if you do experience one of the symptoms for which they are targeting their product.

There are many reasons why you might be experiencing pain. There are many holistic options that may relieve that pain without affecting your whole system. Taking a drug for one symptom affects the rest of your trillions of cells, with potential harm, as the very long list of drug side effects attest.

I want you to know that you have far more power than you may think to relieve your pain, and we will talk more about it in this blog series on the subject. The first step is to clear the underbrush of distractions that keep you from seeing the forest for the trees.

Next week, I'll address myths 3-5:

Myth 3 - If Pain Lasts for a While, It Means It Will be Here Forever

Myth 4 - I'll Just Have to Learn to Live with the Pain

Myth 5 - If Tests Show No Physical Cause Then "Nothing" is Wrong, and I Must Just Be Crazy.

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

The Price of Pain Part 3 - Shifting the Paradigm on Pain

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:59:59 GMT

So far, this series has been looking at pain through the lens of the western medical model. Today the lens is being widened to let more light in on the subject. Notwithstanding its contributions, the drawbacks of the traditional medical model are significant: side effects, potential drug dependency and lethal interactions, not to mention the risks associated with surgery.

In the western model, the body is seen as something to fix. Pain is something to manage, and imbalance or disease something to conquer through external means.

Pain has a highly irritating quality to it - it hurts. Of course humans seek the quickest answer to quell it! Swallowing a pill for pain relief has become the norm because it is as convenient as it is highly advertised. It has become a conditioned response, - have pain, take something.

The challenge is that it can be easy to get lost in the loud distraction of discomfort. Instead of the underlying cause, getting rid of the pain becomes the focus sometimes regardless of the cost.

The first step in shifting a paradigm is to be open to a fresh way of considering underlying assumptions.

Through the holistic model lens, the body is seen as a whole organism of interdependent systems with capacity for self-correction given the support to do so. Treatment is based on looking and listening to the whole - body, mind, internal and external influences.

Instead of being viewed as something to manage, what if pain could be viewed as a warning alarm purposely built into the system?

Pain is your body's dashboard warning alarm. In your car, disconnecting the warning light on the dash doesn't resolve the problem it just stops the irritation of its glare. Instead of being irritated by the warning alarm of pain, what if you could see it as your very intelligent internal friend giving you a heads up that something needs your attention? (Like KITT in the old TV series Knight Rider, only without the wise-cracks.)

When you start to see your body/mind as your wise partner rather than something to fix, manage, blame, abuse, criticize or judge, the paradigm for healing shifts exponentially.

The road widens, and in amazement you find that your body/mind already has the GPS locked in on your route to greater health and well-being.

Next time, we will look at some other assumptions about pain from the driver's seat of the holistic paradigm.

To your great health and well being,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

The Price of Pain Part 2 - Why Are Side Effects Acceptable?

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:57:58 GMT

In my view, the opioid addiction epidemic is evidence of how deeply steeped our nation is in the conventional medical model (drugs/surgery) of treating imbalances of body or mind.

Certainly, sales messaging touting pharmaceuticals as the "best" means to "treat" the body or mind perpetuates that conditioning and belief system. The indoctrination is pervasive and commonplace.

It has simply become ACCEPTED that when one takes prescription meds or over-the-counter drugs to EXPECT side effects.

My question is: WHY is that acceptable?

The law requires side effects to be listed in advertising. It is the job of advertisers to sell the benefits of their client's product and downplay any negative aspects; hence, the nonchalant, casual demeanor in the voice listing harmful, possibly fatal side effects.

When it comes to pain, of course, you want something fast acting - you're in PAIN! And since the medical insurance system covers (or partially covers) drugs and surgery it is the path of least resistance.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, people often share their unused pain relievers, unaware of the dangers of nonmedical opioid use. Most adolescents who misuse prescription pain relievers are given them for free by a friend or relative.

Honestly, pain relief in pill form is an easy system to buy into.

It's not the only system for pain relief. It's just the one predominantly and continuously sold.

To your great health and well-being,

Kathleen

Sources:

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2015). Drug Facts: Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medications.

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

The Price Of Pain Part 1

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:56:28 GMT

In this series, I will be sharing information about the current models for dealing with pain and the costs they wrest from individuals, families, and society as a whole.

Twice in the same week, I have happened across radio stories of the current epidemic of drug addiction in the U.S. Neither was about the stereotypical heroin addict seen in TV dramas and movies. The subject was pain and the conversation revolved around prescription opioid addiction. On June 5, 2017, just 14 months after the original post of this blog, the matter is highlighted closer to home. The Arizona Governor has proclaimed a statewide health emergency regarding the 16% increase deaths due to opioid overdose in 2016. Of the 790 deaths, 482 were from prescription opioids and 308 from heroin. Since 2012, Arizona has seen a 70% increase in deaths from opioid overdose.

Opioids like oxycodone, dilaudid, demerol are prescribed regularly for moderate to severe pain. Percocet, the brand name for acetaminophen and oxycodone is the most commonly prescribed painkiller.

While they can seem a Godsend when recovering from surgery, a severe injury or to combat chronic pain, the long term use effects can be devastating or potentially fatal.

Opioids work by binding to the body's opioid receptors in the brain, spinal cord, and other areas and reduce the pain signals to the brain and the perception/feeling of pain.

There are two aspects that create the potential for a very slippery slope.

First, the body builds up a tolerance to opioids which then requires greater qualities of the drug to get the same effect. It is important to note that with the introduction of external opioid sources, the body's own natural internal opioid production system wanes. Second, opioids trigger the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the limbic brain which regulates emotions such as pleasures of sex, eating or drinking, which is why opioids can become so physically and psychologically addicting.

Over time, the body develops a hypersensitivity to opioids that continues after someone has stopped taking them. As a result, the body has a much lower tolerance for opioids going forward.

This explains why fatal overdose is so common in those who relapse after a period of abstinence, thinking that the body can tolerate the levels is had previously grown to handle.

Since at least 2011, articles have been discussing this issue as a national epidemic. According to the National Institute on Drugs, there is a wide addiction age range from 12 to 80 years old, with 45-55 year-olds having the greatest number of deaths due to overdose.

A Report to Congress this January 2016 by the National Institute of Health reveals sobering statistics of the alarming situation:

• Of the 21.5 million Americans that had a substance use disorder in 2014, 2.1 million had a substance use disorder involving prescription pain relievers and 586,000 had a substance use disorder involving heroin.

• Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US, with 47,055 lethal drug overdoses in 2014 of which 18,893 (40%) overdose deaths were related to prescription pain relievers.

In my previous blog post 5 Myths of Pain, I cite statistics on the increased television advertising dollars spent by pharmaceutical companies directly to the public, as well as marketing directly to doctors.

The NIH report cites several factors as likely to contribute to the epidemic:

• drastic increases in the number of prescriptions written and dispensed

• greater social acceptability for using medications for different purposes and

• aggressive marketing by pharmaceutical companies

The American Society of Addiction Medicine's 2016 Facts and Figures offers these statistics:

• From 1999 to 2008, overdose death rates, sales and substance use disorder treatment admissions related to prescription pain relievers increased in parallel. The overdose death rate in 2008 was nearly four times the 1999 rate; sales of prescription pain relievers in 2010 were four times those in 1999, and the substance use disorder treatment admission rate in 2009 was six times the 1999 rate.

• In 2012, 259 million prescriptions were written for opioids - more than enough to give every American adult their own bottle of pills.

Particularly disturbing is that two factors contribute to the jump from prescription opioids addiction to heroin addiction - cost and availability.

• Four out of five new heroin users started out misusing prescription painkillers; and

• 94% of a 2014 survey of people in treatment for opioid addiction said they use heroin because prescription drugs were "far more expensive and harder to obtain"

The pharmaceutical companies' response is to race to see who can make time-released formulas more tamper proof and bring it to market the quickest. According to Cowen & Co., opioid pain reliever sales are expected to increase additional 15% up to $8.4 Billion by 2017.

I'm not saying it's not a smart idea to make time-released capsules more tamper-proof.

I'm offering that maybe that's not the real problem that needs solving. Maybe the underlying assumption that permeates our culture - that pharmaceuticals are the solution to pain - needs to be questioned.

To continue to operate within a model that isn't working is to stay stuck in a paradigm that does not offer viable answers for true health and wellness and expect that it can because that's the message that is being sold. The definition of insanity is to do the same things over and over and expect a different result. Sanity begins when you open the door to different ways of doing or being to get a different result.

In this continuing series, The Price of Pain, we'll look further at this subject and open the door to a different paradigm.

To your great health & well-being,

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

5 Myths of Pain Part 2

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:52:22 GMT

Last week we talked about the first two myths of pain. Today I'm going to speak to three more.

Myth 3 - If Pain Lasts for a While, It Means It Will be Here Forever

It's ironic, but the mind has a short memory. You can be healthy for forty or fifty years, have one physical challenge that lasts a few weeks, months, or maybe even several years, and the mind concedes that it will be like this for the rest of your life. That is not necessarily true but the mind which magnifies your experiences can make it feel like that.

Having pain over a period of time is certainly taxing and wearing, but that doesn't mean it's permanent.

Chronic muscular pain, for instance, can be a result of adaptive patterns that change the lines of force from going through the correct patterns of movement to putting that load on areas that are not designed to carry it. Restore normal function and pain is alleviated.

Myth 4 - You'll Just Have to Learn to Live with the Pain

Unfortunately, this is another constant message that is perpetuated. When allopathic medicine which segments things into physiological pieces, cannot identify or treat a condition, too often, a patient is told: "there's nothing we can do, you'll just have to learn to live with it."

For someone who places all their trust in a medical professional's opinion, that is not only a life (or death) sentence but it also the beginning of resignation to no other possibility for another outcome.

Let me state that there are certain neurological conditions which interrupt or alter normal communication of the nervous system and cause constant pain signals. I am not addressing them here.

I'm offering that there may be other solutions beyond the scope of allopathic medicine that can positively influence and restore the body/mind balance and peace for a wide variety of pain experiences.

Myth 5 - If Tests Show No Physical Cause Then "Nothing" is Wrong and, You Must Just Be Crazy.

This myth relies on only one type of measurement as the sum of all possibilities. To make matters worse, it then makes the person experiencing the issue question their sanity when that measurement cannot supply an answer.

You are not just a physical body. A reductionist method of drawing conclusions based only on physiological results leaves out the other two aspects that influence how the body responds.

Your thoughts and your emotions contribute as much to the environment in which your cells function as what you ingest or external causes.

To doubt what you intuitively know is true because one method of measurement does not provide a probable answer does not mean there isn't one. It doesn't mean you're crazy. It offers the opportunity to look for an answer outside of that paradigm.

The more you can start to question the underlying automatic assumptions about pain the more options outside those assumptions start to appear.

Keep your awareness open and listen to what assumptions play in your mind on a regular basis that may be limiting your options to be pain free.

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

About the Author: Kathleen Gramzay

The Magic of Spring

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:46:12 GMT

Ah, spring, that beautiful season of rebirth and renewal. The dormancy of winter is over its muted blanket the fertilizer for regeneration and growth of new life. Nature abounds with activity.

My blue yucca is in full bloom, providing within its spiny palms a secure fortress for the annual nesting of a pair of cactus wrens. Each morning the mates come forth and gather materials from the nearby shrubs to line the bed for their clutch. The birds work methodically, attending to the task at hand. When a lurking cat ventures forward with the idea of a tasty meal, the birds swiftly retreat to the safety of their prickly castle keeping a close eye on the threat below. Finally, the cat dejectedly wanders off and when it is safe, the pair returns to their project unruffled.

Once complete, they retreat into the comfort of their abode for the majority of the day. They venture out for food in the late afternoon and retire again until the sun's rays beckon them to resume again on the morrow.

Nature provides such a great example of the balance between industry and rest.

Each season has its role in the cycle of death and rebirth; and within each season, nature responds harmoniously. There is no resistance to winter, only a resurgence of life in spring and the making the most of the day's sunlight and the opportunities presented. What a great example Mother Nature provides us.

Like the wrens, we can be present in the moment and make the most of each day, performing our work with steady attention.

When challenges come we can observe, determine the best course of action, and then return to our task or goal with a clear mind and refocused vigor.

At the end of a fruitful day, the sunset reminds us to drink in nature's beauty to replenish ourselves and to be with the peace that is.

Night draws its dark cloak around us as sleep restores our bodies and minds for the coming dawn and calling of the sun's rays.

May your spring include joyful productivity, rejuvenating rest, and enjoyment of the beauty and peace of nature.

Happy Spring, and if you celebrate it, Happy Easter.

Kathleen

My mission with this blog is to provide information that supports holistic pain relief and self-care that encompasses all of who you are - body, mind, and Spirit.

Essence of Life of Another Kind

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:44:24 GMT

Air and water are necessary for life. Without them, it doesn't take long before you're dead: three minutes without air, and a week to 10 days without water, on average. Your body/mind starts sending warning signals way before you get close to either.

There is another essence of life for humans that when diminished may not kill you quickly, but certainly can cause a slow death either functionally or in your outlook on life.

That Essence of Life is Movement. As humans, we are designed to move. Every one of our systems is predicated upon it to function correctly.

Much like a self-winding watch, our bodies require movement to function and stay healthy and vibrant.

When we walk, our joints are lubricated and stiffness lessens. When we inhale, our diaphragm expands and our lungs draw in oxygen. When we eat a meal, the smooth muscle within our esophagus moves the food down to our stomachs, and smooth muscle within our intestines moves the waste out. Without movement, stagnation occurs that can lead to decay and disease in any of our systems. "Move it or Lose it" is an adage that is spot-on when it comes to the body.

Have you ever felt stiff from sitting too long? The connective tissue (home environment of everything else in your body) has gel-like properties. It's more fluid-like and flexible when we move or it sets up and becomes more solid when we are sedentary. As we advance on the time line of life, it's even more important to stay hydrated and move to keep connective tissue healthy and flexible so that everything within it can stay healthy too.

Obviously, having a comfortable body makes life more enjoyable from the physical perspective.

There are even greater benefits to be had, though. Movement, cardiovascular exercise in particular, also significantly benefits your brain and your outlook on life as a result.

• A study of 120 sedentary adults 55-80 who incorporated 40 minutes of brisk walking only 3 times per week over a year revealed new neuron growth (2%) in the hippocampus, the area responsible for developing new learning and memory.

• It's well-documented that exercise releases endorphins, the body's natural pain relievers as well as serotonin which elevates mood.

So, the next time your mind clamors for comfort food, lace on your sneakers or dancing shoes, and "move it" instead.

You'll get the pleasure response without the calories, along with the benefits of a sharper brain, an uplifted mood, and be able to give yourself props for making the more loving choice.

Make Spring Projects Easier On Yourself

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:41:04 GMT

Ahh, Spring, the time for rejuvenation of all kinds. After the winter and the frosts it's time to clean up the yard, plant beautiful flowers and soak up the sunshine in comfortable temperatures. Before you dig in, here are some tips to make it easier on you.

While the beautiful weather can motivate us to get off the couch and on to some of those outdoor projects, it's important to remember that 8 hours in the yard pulling weeds, shoveling, planting or painting can take their toll on your body.

Remember these tips:

1. Be smart before you start. Make time to eat a good meal for energy. Hydrate before heading out (of course you'll want to drink water during and after your project too.) Make your work more enjoyable and easier on your body - stretch before you start to prepare your body for the demand you'll be making on it. You'll be more comfortable during and after. Click here for these easy gardening stretches.

2. You are NOT a mule. Use tools that absorb the bulk of the weight of your work. Use a wheelbarrow for carrying bags of mulch or moving yard debris, use the right size tools for the job you're doing to save shoulders, arms and hands, make sure your gloves are the correct size and are in good shape to protect your hands.

3. Be aware of body position while working. Is there a way to support yourself better? Can you sit or kneel on a pad pulling weeds or use a hula-hoe and stand up straight? If pruning above your head will take a long time, can you use a ladder so that you are pruning directly in front of you or below shoulder height to save your neck?

4. Take frequent mini breaks to rehydrate, stretch and enjoy the moment. Hydration and easier movement work together OR their opposites will. Dehydration not only affects the mind, it impacts the body's tissue fluidity and ability to flush toxins. Drink some water, take a minute to roll your neck or stretch your back, take in a deep breath and appreciate the peace of being outdoors.

5. Remember your friend Epsom Salts. For sore muscles, you can't beat a warm Epsom salt bath. Be sure to use 2 cups per bath to get the best results in soothing aching muscles.

6. If Spring pollen dampens your fun, look back at my 2/26/16 post on the neti pot to flush it and the irritation out.

Happy Spring!

To your great health and well-being,

Kathleen

Your New Best Friend for Allergy Relief or Sinus Infections

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:36:35 GMT

This week I've seen a number of people with red watery eyes, stuffed up or runny noses. It looks like allergies are kicking in early. So if you haven't made this acquaintance yet, I'd like to introduce you to your new best friend for Spring - the neti pot.

It is hard to appreciate the glory of Spring when every time you step out the door your eyes are watering or a cascade of sneezes starts.

How it works is you dissolve 1/4 teaspoon of regular salt into one cup (its capacity) distilled or filtered water only and rinse. (For health safety, never use tap water which may contain parasites you would not want to introduce to the inside of your head.) Follow the directions on the box. Tilting your head slightly is sufficient to get the water to flow out the other nostril (without having it flow elsewhere).

This is a great thing to do after working in the yard or if you breathe in lots of dust. The sooner you can rinse after exposure, the better your chance of inhibiting the histamine response.

For many people, the automatic response to a runny nose is to take allergy medications to stop it. Although quite messy and inconvenient, all that flowing mucus is your body's way of trying to flush out the irritants.

If you need or want to take allergy medication, supplementing it by rinsing your nasal passages will help keep them moist and healthy.

I've spoken about the benefits of tea tree before. It is an antibacterial essential oil (you can find it where you get the neti pot) that can be added to the salt water to kill bacteria in your sinuses. It is important to NOTE: ONLY 1 DROP is used for the whole cup of water. Otherwise, it will burn - not a fun experience! You can flush your nasal passages a few times and cover the remainder in the pot if you want to do several rinses. When you're complete, be sure to disinfect the neti pot by running it through the dishwasher before you use it again.

By using the neti pot (with just the salt water), I have eliminated what used to be 6 weeks straight on allergy medications to virtually to zero.

The bonus is in reducing the need for taking antibiotics for minor health issues, your body won't be resistant to them if you really need them for something major.

It's great to know there are simple preventive ways to stay healthy that can also diminish the need for medications with potential side effects.

Easy breathing and a sweet smelling Spring to you,

Kathleen

Essence of Life - Water

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:32:55 GMT

The scene opens and the camera pans across the scorched, dry, barren earth. The man's skin is equally dry and blistered, his mouth dry, his tongue swollen. His lips and tongue are as cracked as the ground he is treading. His aching head swims with dizziness, barely allowing him to think or eyes to focus on the path before him.

He works to sweep his tongue around his mouth to create some saliva, but there is none forthcoming. Although walking for several days, he has no urge to urinate for there is no fluid to pass. His pounding heart belies the crawling pace set by his cramping calves. His body shivers despite the arid heat of the day. Oh for just a sip of cool, refreshing water......

The scene above provides a graphic picture of severe dehydration. Here in the southwest, dehydration is always a topic of consideration for summer outdoor adventures.

Yet, dehydration doesn't just affect desert dwellers or occur only on hot summer days. Fluids are regularly depleted through the act of living - breathing, sweating and digesting food.

When more fluids are lost than replaced, dehydration occurs. As in the scene above, the severe signs of dehydration are more obvious. Here are some of the subtle signs your body may be demonstrating dehydration:

• acne

• muscle cramps

• low urine output or deep yellow to orange in color

• cravings for sweets

• headaches

• dry skin

• constipation

• dry eyes

Water is the essence of the human body ranging from 60-80% in adults.

Simply put, your body runs on water and minerals. Water is necessary for all cellular, organ and system functions as well as temperature regulation.

In short, if you want your body to function correctly, it's critical to stay properly hydrated. Certainly conditions that deplete the body such as increased physical activity, vomiting or diarrhea call for increased hydration.

If you're looking to increase your vitality, increasing your hydration is the first step and easiest step. If you're not a fan of plain water, try adding citrus or try naturally flavored carbonated water. Double your benefits of hydration with rich vitamins and minerals by selecting high-water-content fruits and vegetables such as strawberries, watermelon, grapefruit, celery, cucumbers, lettuce, zucchini, tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant or cauliflower.

Here are a few of the payoffs to make increasing your hydration a habit:

• better brain function, nervous system communication, and mental health

• healthy fascia/connective tissue - the home environment of all other systems

• increased detoxification of your filters - liver, kidneys, intestines, and skin, (as well as additional benefits for weight loss)

• increased energy

These benefits make the effort of being hydration-conscious worthwhile.

With regard to hydration, there has been plenty of debate about how much water to drink ranging from at least eight 8-ounce glasses per day to half your weight in ounces per day (150lbs/2= 75 oz.) Use common sense, and if you have any of the subtle or not so subtle signs listed above, by all means experiment and see if you those signs dissipate with adding more hydration.

A word of caution: if you exercise, it's important to increase intake without swinging the water pendulum too far. There have been documented cases of death due to "exercise-related hyponatremia", a fatal scenario that has caused death in athletes who overtaxed their kidney capacity and body's water/sodium balance. Guidelines were published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine to re-educate the public about hazards of drinking beyond thirst while exercising.

The Institute of Medicine's ideal recommended amount is listed as approximately 3.7 liters (16 8-ounce cups) for men and 2.7 liters (11 8-oz cups) for women.

Whether you are an athlete or not, if you are going to engage in physical activity that will make you sweat, drink an extra 1.5 to 2.5 extra cups of water to compensate for lost fluids. Sports drinks that contain sodium help keep the necessary mineral balance to reduce the chances of hyponatremia.*

Water is the essence of life, absorb it and enjoy a healthier body/mind.

To your great health and well being,

Kathleen

*Source: Winger J and Hew-Butler T. Statement of the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference, Carlsbad, California, Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. 2015.

WARNING: LOW BATTERY!

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:30:54 GMT

The red light comes on and the scramble begins - where's that charger or outlet? In airports and crowded public spaces, we vie for the coveted position closest to the three-pronged resuscitator of modern life. Perhaps otherwise reluctant to converse with strangers, the need for recharge breaks the silence barrier: "Can I plug in here?"

Keeping our batteries charged has become a high priority in our technological age, and we have built in habits to ensure we're not left stranded. We have multiple chargers and multiple outlets; we ritually plug our phones into their home or office stations.

There is another more important battery to be sure is operating on full current - your body/mind battery. Its main source of recharge? Sleep.

It's common knowledge that sleep impacts health. Here are some critical functions that happen while the eye shades are down:

• tissue repair
• muscle growth
• growth hormone release (especially needed for vitality as we age)
• protein synthesis

Sleep affects cognitive brain function, memory and the ability to learn new things, as anyone who has ever struggled with an exam or work presentation after a poor night's sleep can attest.

There is a big difference between lying in a bed for a number of hours or getting delicious, deep, restorative, regenerative sleep. Have you ever plugged into the last open plug at the airport or coffee shop only to find it's loose? The connection is intermittent, your indicator shows it's kind of charging and then not, and then charging again?

That is what happens when our sleep is interrupted or we go to bed with a mind that is processing stressful thoughts, violent images or sounds. We are not able to solidly connect into the deep REM sleep where all those life-sustaining and enhancing processes occur.

Our body/mind low battery signal looks like:

• not wanting to get out or having to drag yourself out of bed

• dependence on caffeine or sugar to get the jump start or stave off the afternoon brain fade

• lack of ability to focus

• increased reaction to minor life inconveniences - less patience, more irritability

New parents are particularly familiar with the challenges of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation in the extreme has been documented in sleep studies where animals deprived entirely of sleep lose all immune function and die within weeks. No wonder when we're sick, our bodies crave sleep to support our immune system's ability to fight infection and restore health. There is no doubt, good sleep is imperative for good health.

If you would like to increase your vitality, brain function and ability to cope with stress, you can intentionally plug in nightly to improve the quality of your sleep and enhance the quality of your days.

Yes, it may require that you change some long-standing evening habits. But, if you find yourself dragging through your days waiting for 5 o'clock, I invite you to try them for two weeks and see if you notice an increase in energy, focus and overall feeling of well-being.

Here's How:

Prepare yourself for great sleep. Limiting the mental and physical distractions prior to sleep will help assure solid sleep.

• An hour or 90 minutes before bed, turn off the TV or your computer so your subconscious mind is not trying to process violence or a lot of data while you sleep.

• Limit late evening food and libations. If your body energy is directed to processing food, alcohol or sugar it is not as effectively available for cellular repair and immune system recharge.

• Read something uplifting or listen to something soothing right before bed that you mind can process that is to your benefit.

• Make your room dark and silent. Even if you don't wake up, lights and sounds can draw you up out of restorative REM sleep.

• If you use your phone as your alarm, put it in airplane mode to silence the other notification sounds your brain is used to listening for.

• Make your sleeping space a place of respite - cozy and comfortable and free of clutter.

• Most importantly, get enough sleep - seven to eight hours to awake refreshed.

Mornings are much brighter (or for non-morning people - at least more tolerable) with good sleep. Here's to you getting it and your recharged battery.

Sweet dreams,

Kathleen

The Real Price of Being a Slacker

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:27:51 GMT

The crew finally arrived at my door. Juan, the lead man apologized for their tardiness, three hours later than scheduled. Although not otherwise inconvenienced, the delay stirred serious doubts about whether I hired the right company for the job.

It was clear he was a seasoned artisan and brick was his medium.

Juan listened closely as I described the shape and feel I pictured. I wanted the path to be a meandering flow to my front door warmly welcoming guests to my home. We discussed the right width for comfort and the flow of the pattern, its edges softly rippling like a small stream. I knew nothing of pavers or how to lay them out, but he did. I asked him to share his expertise to accomplish my vision. While we created the mental form, his co-workers, a man also in his 40's and a younger one in his 20's stood idly by the truck. The young man was completely engrossed in his phone.

They used flexible PVC pipe to shape the right edge, the senior men and I discussing the balance of the curves from top to bottom. I marveled at their process and attention to detail. The brick palettes had to be unloaded and the younger man worked intermittently between texts. I finally asked him if he was texting with his boss. When he said no, I asked to put his phone away and to focus on what he was being paid to do. His co-workers gratefully smiled and said: "we tell him that all the time, but he doesn't listen."

A number of the bricks they were placing had big chips. I asked them to use those with clean edges and showed them what was acceptable and what was not. They checked the bricks and either turned them over or discarded and chose another. A while later, I glanced out and saw an odd break in the pattern right in the center of the walkway. There, the young man had placed several severely chipped bricks. I asked him to replace them which meant he had to take out about six rows to get back to them. His look conveyed his irritation. His co-worker took the opportunity to say:

"when you take the time to do it right the first time, you can take pride in your work and you don't have to redo things."

It occurred to me that there is a greater loss than both material and financial when we do not give our best. Whether personally or professionally, each time we put forth less than our best effort or less than our full attention, we chip away at our relationships with those who count on us to do our part.

More importantly, we chip away our self-value which chips away at our mental peace and self-love.

In giving less than what we are capable of, we deny ourselves the joy of serving others well, and the feeling of accomplishment that nourishes our self-worth and satisfies the soul.

My walkway turned out beautifully, just as I pictured it. It was Juan that meticulously swept the gravel to the brick edge, finishing everything as if the walkway had always been there. He smiled at my happiness and the job well done. In addition to my verbal gratitude, I placed an extra monetary expression in his hand. When we value what we do, so do others.

Intentions Without Action Are Meaningless - Part 2

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:25:46 GMT

Intentions without action can also be costly and inconvenient.

It only took one day to get the new phone. But it took three trips over four days, three different cable shipments, and the skill and persistence of an exceptional technology wizard named Mike Alger to restore my life's schedule - my calendar. Although I had previously been in this store several times precisely to get the phone calendar to sync with Google calendar, he and I had never crossed paths. Through use of a mouse and a monitor Mike figured out how to remotely access and transfer the calendar off the old phone which otherwise could not be seen or accessed. It was my blessing that this Air Force technology communications specialist "happened" to be working his last few days at this location before heading elsewhere for duty. I was beyond grateful when on the third visit and his last day we triumphantly watched the monitor record the data transfer.

There was another blessing I didn't anticipate.

In those twenty-four hours sans cell phone, I realized two things. I could indeed exist without text, voice mail or even my calendar for a few days. More surprisingly, I secretly relished the peace present in the void of notification sounds clamoring for my attention. I also noticed a greater capacity to focus on the subject of attention in the moment.

I have a new intention that I am backing up with action.

Several times throughout the day, I now practice not jumping immediately when phone tones beckon. I even turn off my phone completely when I want to concentrate on something important. Who knew that in being unceremoniously disconnected from the world I would reconnect with my capacity to more deeply focus my mind and be more peacefully productive.

What intention have you been meaning to get to that hasn't made it quite to action yet?

To your peace and productivity,

Kathleen

The Quintessential Essential Oil

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:25:23 GMT

Essential oils have different base scents. You'd expect the herbaceous/camphoraceous "medicine-y" smelling ones to have therapeutic benefits. Yet, there are also some beautiful floral scents that have medicinal purposes, chief among them: Lavender.

Lavender is extremely versatile from its amazing regenerative healing capacity to use as a safe home cleaning option, making it the quintessential essential oil to keep on hand.

Lavender is a very soft scent that also packs great value in its beautiful aroma. Lavender has become common, and its soothing properties are becoming familiar to most people. Although commercial room fresheners tout it, that doesn't mean they have the actual oil in their products. Be sure to read the labels to see if you are getting nature's product or a chemical imitation which does not have the properties listed below.

There are several types of lavender: French, Bulgarian and Exotic, each with subtle differences in the "notes" or aspects of fragrance.

Here are some of the things it's good for and reasons why it's one of my top go-to oils:

Great on burns - it immediately takes out the sting and prevents/reduces blistering. Apply directly to burn
For skin - acne, dermatitis, psoriasis, cuts
For scalp, hair
Aid for sleeping/insomnia, and depression (add 10 drops in 2 oz of water and mist on your pillow)
Headaches/migraines

Here are some of it's properties:

Anti-inflammatory
Anti-bacterial (can be diluted and used as a non-toxic spray cleaner too - great for counter tops)
Mood balancing

In lavender, Mother Nature packages good medicine in a heavenly fragrance. Enjoy it. Let me know, what is your favorite use for lavender?

Remember, If you're going to use essential oils, do your research about how much and what dilution is best for the intend use, and be sure to buy only 100% essential oil. There are many books and classes on the subject. Jeanne Rose is a master aromatherapist and national author/teacher.
For local classes and high-quality oils, Aroma Terra in Phoenix, http://www.aromaterra.com is a great source.

Intentions Without Action Are Meaningless Part 1

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:22:55 GMT

It was going to be a full back-to-back kind of day, and I was prepared and ready. I had an appointment, then three conference calls one after the other before returning to my office. Since I was going to be out, I had my laptop, my headset, my phone; I was good to go.

Phone in one hand, the other occupied by my tea mug and keys I turned to leave the salon to make my first call.

And then, my phone slipped.

In what felt like slow motion, my lifeline to business and the world bobbled three times in and just out of my air-clutching, one-handed attempts to grasp it. Despite my best juggling skills, it crashed face down on the pebble and concrete floor at my feet. A collective gasp filled the room as all eyes turned toward the piercing sound dreaded by technology-tethered humans today.

It wasn't smooth tile. The phone didn't land on its back or even front with the cover closed. I looked at the lovely textured pebble entry way with a new non-appreciation. I took a breath hoping that by some miracle my phone was functional. As I gently turned it over, my eyes were met with a multicolored line jumble reflected through fragments of cracked glass resembling a 1960's television screen after program sign off. And then it went black.

I took another deep breath. No screen, but the notification ring for a voice mail sounded, most likely by the person expecting my call. Was it her?

She's probably wondering what happened to me. Rats, her number was in my phone..... Another sound, it's my text tone. Oh no, I can't see who is texting me! One conference call missed. Ok, get a grip, I can return to my office to make the others. I can email my friends when I get there and let them know I can't get texts or calls right now. They'll have to call my landline. (Thank God I still have one.)

On the way, I veer into a shopping center with a Verizon store. I stride in and answered the guy's greeting with one word: "Help!" He confirmed my phone had bit the proverbial dust but that he could order a new one that would be shipped the next day. I said thank you and mentally started to adjust my thoughts and schedule around twenty-four hours without a cell phone, its delivery timing, and knowing with whom I had appointments scheduled.

I glanced up at the wall of accessories and saw the tempered glass screen covers. Three months prior my sister had told me about how hers saved her phone when she dropped it. "What a great idea!" I thought. "I'll have to get one when I get back to Arizona" I said with full intention. I MEANT to get one. But somehow that intention never made it to the front burner of actually walking into a store prior to this moment and buying it.

As I handed Tim the sympathetic Verizon representative my credit card to cover the $100 insurance cost, I added: "And I'll take one of the tempered glass covers too please." Out loud I shared with him my realization of the moment: "Intentions without action are meaningless."

Part 2 to follow.......

Good Bye Pain, Hello Life

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:22:53 GMT

With billions around the globe cheering it on, the clock ticked down to midnight. In a split second December 31, 2015 became January 1, 2016 and with it, the feeling of new possibilities awoke.

What is it about the birth of a new year that causes us to celebrate? It is an opportunity to release the old and embrace the new. There is a sense of hope that things can be better, that life can be better. But how do we seize that opportunity and make it a reality?

It starts with a decision to release what no longer serves us.

Releasing is the prerequisite to embracing. If you are clutching something, you are not free to embrace something different. You might not even realize that you are clutching because your hand or mind has been in that contracted state for so long it seems "normal." Letting go of a pencil only requires the awareness that you're holding it and the decision to open your fingers.

Pain, whether physical, mental or emotional is like quicksand: it's easy to get stuck in. What if you could release it? What if as in gripping a pencil you could simply open your hand and let it go? The first step is awareness, followed by decision.

What habit of thought, feeling, action (or non action) that causes you pain could you let go of as your first step to living a more joyful life?

I invite you to identify one, the one that you decide now January 2016, to be free for good so that you can embrace what you'd prefer and say Hello to Life.

To your new day and your New Year,

Kathleen

Get a Handle on Colds and Respiratory Challenges with this Top 5 Essential Oil

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:19:45 GMT

Stuffy noses, head or chest colds are no fun. It can either feel like your head is about to explode from all the mucus or you can't turn off the runny faucet. Most of us don't appreciate blowing our noses repeatedly, yet the mucus does have a purpose. Its job is to flush out infection. Over-the-counter meds address the symptom and dry up the mucus, but that doesn't mean they treat the infection. Without doubt, mucus is messy, inconvenient stuff. You might be less irritated without its slimy presence. However, you may have to content with the next level of infection instead. A sinus infection or bronchitis can result leading to the need for heavier medications like antibiotics with their own downsides, which I'll discuss in a future blog. As the old adage goes: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

This is the major reason why Eucalyptus Oil is another of my personal have-to-have oils.

It has been known for centuries to benefit the respiratory system and for good reason; it's a great decongestant. (The makers of Vick's Vapo rub figured that out too.) Eucalyptus is my secret weapon when I feel anything trying to take hold in my head or lungs. I literally carry it on me when traveling to keep my respiratory system supported while being exposed to lots of public spaces, surfaces and recycled air on planes. For application when traveling, I simply put 2 or 3 drops in my clean hands, rub them together and breathe it in. (Note: I don't have any skin sensitivity. If you do, read the caution below.)

There are a few great ways to inhale eucalyptus through steam.

It's easy to use in the shower by placing a warm, damp washcloth with 5-10 drops on it out of direct water contact. It can be used in a vaporizer or diffuser while sleeping for easier breathing. Prior to learning about the benefits of eucalyptus, I used to get bronchitis at least once a year, often after the holidays, when my immune system was worn down. By using the steam method demonstrated below, I am grateful to say it's been over 17 years without any bronchitis. You can check it out here .

In addition to those already described, here are some of eucalyptus properties and other benefits:

• anti-inflammatory

• analgesic (pain relief)

• antifungal

• antibacterial

• antiseptic

It's good for:

• muscle aches, spasms and sprains

• cold sores

• insect bites/repellant

• stimulates memory/mental clarity

If bugs bug you, I have found eucalyptus to be a great insect repellant for both mosquitos and gnats, especially when I've worked up a sweat hiking or working out in the yard.

The most common form of eucalyptus is "Eucalyptus Globulus" which has a bolder aroma. I prefer "Eualyptus Radiata" which has more citrus notes (scent) to it. In my massage practice, I used it below the face cradle to help prevent clients from getting stuffed up while lying face down. In all those years, there were only two clients who preferred not to have it during their massage.

Remember that essential oils are potent and can interact with certain conditions.

For those with sensitive skin, it is not recommended to use eucalyptus undiluted directly on the skin but should be mixed with a carrier oil. If you have a specific condition as always, before using something new research it relative to your condition to keep yourself safe. It's your body and your responsibility.

Happy holidays, breathe easier, and be well,

Kathleen

Kinessage® Self Care Tip for Pain Between the Shoulder Blades

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 20:12:48 GMT

Do you have pain between your shoulders? It's possible that your chest muscles (pectoralis major) are too tight and the muscles between your shoulder blades (rhomboids) are overstretched from the patterns of doing everything in front of us - computer stuff, sitting at a desk all day, etc.

Try this stretch

It's easy and you can do it anytime you walk through a doorway. First off, mentally scan your body and see if you can sense the area between your shoulder blades and your chest.

Stand in the doorway with your arms out shoulder height, elbows bent with forearms from elbow through palms against each door frame. (Like you're taking an oath with both hands.) If that feels too tight start with forearms a little lower.
Keeping your feet together, head aligned with your torso, and arms on the door frame, lean your whole upper body through the door frame. Hold the stretch for 10 seconds, you should feel a stretch through your chest. Repeat 3 times, progressively stretching more deeply through the doorway.
Pay attention to what you are feeling. Now, move your forearms slightly up the door frame and repeat. This time you should feel the stretch in a slightly different area of your chest. Repeat 3 times. Move your forearms up again and repeat. Ahhh, that feels better!
Take your arms down and mentally scan your chest and between shoulders again. Do you feel looser? More flexible? Just by paying attention you help your brain recalibrate the difference.

Make it a habit

This is a very easy thing to incorporate in your day at work to counteract all that sitting and forward shoulder rolling. In order to make it a habit, tie to something you do throughout the day, like every time you go into your break room or to the bathroom.

Happy stretching,

Kathleen