Category Archives: body

Serotonin: the “don’t panic yet” neurotransmitter

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Here’s a New York Times article, Job Description Grows for Our Utility Hormone, on the neurotransmitter serotonin.

New findings: it’s manufactured prenatally by the placenta and stimulates the growth of new neural connections in the forebrain, and it plays a role in bone health.

Excerpts:

The molecule was first detected in 1948, in blood serum, and it was shown be a vascular toning agent that causes blood vessels to constrict — hence its name, a conjoinment of “serum” and “tone.” Five years later, scientists found serotonin in brain extracts as well, and they soon learned that the recently invented hallucinogenic drug lysergic acid diethylamide worked by tapping into the brain’s serotonin system and that if you took too much LSD you might end up wearing hair garlands and overusing the word “wow.”

For all the intricacy, serotonin in the brain has a basic personality. “It’s a molecule involved in helping people cope with adversity, to not lose it, to keep going and try to sort everything out,” said Philip J. Cowen, a serotonin expert at Oxford University and the Medical Research Council. In the fine phrase of his Manchester University colleague Bill Deakin, “it’s the ‘Don’t panic yet’ neurotransmitter,” said Dr. Cowen.
Given serotonin’s job description, disturbances in the system can contribute to depression, anxiety, panic attacks and mental calcification, an inability to see the world anew — at least in otherwise vulnerable people.

Neuronal serotonin may be better known, but as it happens the vast bulk of the body’s serotonin supply, better than 95 percent, is synthesized outside the brain, mostly by the gut. The two serotonin stocks are kept strictly segregated by the blood-brain barrier, however, and are able to perform on entirely independent pathways.

Starting the process of brainwave optimization

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Yesterday I did something I’ve wanted to do ever since I learned about it. I had an assessment of how my brainwaves are working.

I learned that I still have traces of fight-or-flight activity stemming from PTSD. Forty something years after the trauma, after nearly 20 years of yoga, psychotherapy, releasing the traumatic energy block a la Waking the Tiger, over 5 years of meditation, learning NLP, and doing the trauma releasing exercises, this pattern (although much less than it was) is still present in my energy field. All of those healing modalities have helped and been completely worthwhile, to be sure.

Fight-or-flight is a wonderful instinct to have — when there’s something to fight or flee from. The problem is when there’s nothing in the environment to fear, but I am still tense or jumpy. It’s a brainwave pattern.

I’ve wondered how can I know I’ve completely recovered from trauma. The trauma happened when I was young, so I don’t have an adult baseline of well-being to compare to. I’d really like to know that I’m over it and don’t need to spend any more energy on it. Ever.

The aftereffects of a trauma can last a lifetime. I’d like to experience what it is like to be untraumatized. I can’t change the past, but I can change my brain wave patterns and therefore my life.  

Here’s how the process has gone so far. I made an appointment with Gigi Turner at NeuroBeginnings. That is one of three Austin affiliates offering brainwave optimization using the equipment and software and training provided by Brain State Technologies (BST).

The founder of BST, Lee Gerdes, has written a book, Limitless You: The Infinite Possibilities of a Balanced Brain. I have just gotten the book myself. One of the testimonials on the back cover mentions “restoring … humans to a joyful and highly functional state in their daily life.” Yeah.

All of these companies are staying busy, from what I hear, and I’m sure they are all very competent at doing what they do. I connected well with Gigi on the phone and identified with her as a working woman, so I chose her. She’s also the most highly trained BST certified technician in town.

At my first appointment, she had me fill out an extensive online questionnaire. I’m pretty sure they ask about so many issues because BST wants to collect as much data as it can. All in the name of compassionate science. This is a fascinating frontier that I’ve blogged about before.

At the end of the questionnaire, I identified my top reasons for wanting to do this. I listed well-being and happiness first. And, oh yeah, I wouldn’t mind having better spiritual development and meditation, cognitive improvement, social interactions, etc.

Gigi had me sit in a recliner. She put some electrodes on my earlobes and scalp. She then asked me to close my eyes for 2-3 minutes. Then she asked me to open my eyes partially. Then she asked me to open my eyes completely. With eyes open, she had me do an exercise like repeat strings of numbers.

Meanwhile, a big computer monitor with a split screen is showing my left and right hemisphere activity as colors — blues, green, red, each color representing a range of brainwaves like beta, alpha, theta, delta — streaming by.

Pretty and fascinating. I wonder what this means.

Then she’d move the electrodes and repeat the process for a different area of my brain, getting readings for the frontal lobe, parietal, temporal, occipital, cingulate gyrus, and midline, if I remember accurately.

With my eyes open, I’d do a different exercise for each area. I solved math problems aloud, read to myself and answered a question, listened to Gigi reading and answered a question, and just looked around the room.

At the end, she removed the electrodes and showed me a summary on the computer of my assessment. (It’s proprietary, so I didn’t get a copy. Darn! I love looking at data, seeing what pops out.)

Basically for each area of the brain, there’s data about the left and right hemispheres, about each brainwave type, and about ratios between types (such as between beta and theta), as far as I could tell. I bet there’s also data about the brain’s flexibility in moving from eyes closed, partly open, to wide open, and how well it functions doing each assigned task.

From experience, the BST-trained technicians have come to recognize “brainwave signatures” for various conditions like PTSD, ADHD, and so on. But it’s really not meant as a diagnostic tool. It’s meant to be used to harmonize and balance the brain, and this is the starting place.

They also can tell what range the numbers “should” be in for optimal functioning. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with being out of range. I imagine some gifts and talents that people have developed (math prodigy, psychic) rely on being out of normal range while doing that activity. The question is, are they happy and healthy? Can their brainwaves change to meet the situation, or are they in a dysfunctional pattern?

Even if you don’t have anything like PTSD, you can probably benefit from tuning up your brain. The literature says it can help with addictions, anger, anxiety, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, compulsive behaviors, eating disorders, learning difficulties, obsessive thinking, panic attacks, poor memory, sleeping difficulties, stress, and a host of other issues.

So it is possible that with the training, I can completely retrain my brain to operate as if I never had PTSD.

I can be less jumpy and experience even more well-being. I’m looking forward to that.

I can also learn to focus better on reading material that is, ahem, less than compelling. Like textbooks and other dry material.

I’m a pretty good sleeper, but Gigi says that optimizing my brain waves will help me sleep even better, waking up even more refreshed. Wow. I’ve had insomnia before and have great compassion for people with sleep problems. I’m looking forward to sleeping more restfully.

BST affiliates can also do things like increase beta in the left hemisphere and increase alpha in the right hemisphere. Yeah, let those hemispheres specialize even more! I imagine this would make someone more cognitively adept when they need to be and happier the rest of the time. I’ll have some of that, too!

So I’m going to do it later this month, when my contract job is completely done. You need to be able to come in for a couple of hours a day every day, or even twice a day, which is why I’ve waited until now.

I understand the process uses sound, and that you actually “observe” your brain waves and optimize them yourself, creating the balance and harmony you desire, rather than matching an external norm.

I will report back here at Well:bodymindheartspirit.

Inducing tremors without doing the trauma releasing exercises

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An anonymous reader posted this about doing the TRE exercises:

Hi, I’ve noticed that I can induce tremoring now without doing any of the exercises. I just assume any of the lying positions and relax into it. Perhaps my body sees this as such a good thing that it figured out how to make it happen without waiting around. Has anyone else experienced this?

I’m wondering too if others have had this experience.

Anonymous, I’d love to know how long you did TRE before this happened and what you do intentionally to begin the tremoring — is it completely involuntary, or do you intend for it to happen and perhaps remember it happening vividly?

I still need to do the “air chair” pose as a trigger to begin tremoring. Maybe I’ll be able to do it this easily as some point.

~~~

Update: I posted this many years ago. It’s now 2023, and I’ve been able to start tremoring voluntarily in my legs, either standing or lying down, without needing to do a posture to first induce strain into my muscles, for many years now.

Pratyahara starts with unnaming and having a fresh mind

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I came across this article, 10 Things About Pratyahara: The Pivotal Moment in a Yogi’s Path, a few weeks ago on pratyahara and found it too good not to share.

Pratyahara, for the uninitiated, is one of the eight “limbs” of yoga, according to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. It’s often translated from Sanskrit into English as “withdrawal of the senses.”

That description may not make much sense to those of us who are aware that our senses — when not engaged externally in seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching — are often engaged internally, when we experience internal dialogue or visions, imagination, and memories.

When does it stop? And is pratyahara really about what the senses are engaged or not engaged in? I think it’s more about the direction and freshness of your awareness.

This article points out B.K.S. Iyengar’s belief that when we internally name things we see, such as “tree,” “slugbug,” “cloud,” we are not practicing pratyahara. We do this all the time but may not be conscious of it.

Pratyahara occurs when the naming ends. We are so wedded to knowing. “That is a woman.” “That is a car.” “I am [insert your name or job or sound bite here].” There’s a feeling of triumph — you know! There’s certainty! And once known, it becomes stale.

Pratyahara is fresh.

Pratyahara is like Zen beginner’s mind.

It’s awareness of the samskara of the mind, creating a new direction for awareness. Rather than focusing outward while internally naming, change your mind’s direction and practice unnaming. It’s another awareness practice, another presence practice.

One exercise you can do to begin to practice pratyahara is to go for a walk and deliberately name everything you see. For five minutes, look at it and label it!

Then stop. Just listen for a couple of minutes, listening in an unfiltered way, letting all the sounds come in. You may still notice yourself labeling sounds at first. Go ahead. After you label it, really listen. Notice the gestalt of sound coming into your ears. Hear all the sounds at once!

Then continue walking, but this time walk as if you were seeing for the first time. Notice patterns of light and dark, notice shapes, contrast in colors and textures.

Do sirsasana and view the world upside down. Unname it.

You begin to loosen the grip of knowing.

You begin rewiring.

You begin pratyahara.

Restorative yoga class changes

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Yesterday I wrote that I was limiting the size of my Sunday night Unwinding class to three students. I realized last night from setting up a different way that there’s room for one more student.

So the new maximum is four. I have a couple of regulars and would love to have a couple more.

I encourage you to visit and find out for yourself if this class meets your needs. If you’d like to check it out, please call or text or email ahead (preferably by Sunday noon at the latest) to make sure there’s space and props for you. I’d love to introduce you to restorative yoga!

If you’re already a regular, please know how much I appreciate knowing when you’re not going to be there. You’ve been great about that!

Starting next week, I’m initiating something new — taking blood pressure and pulse/oxygen readings before and after class. 

One student has high blood pressure and insomnia. She says she always sleeps well after taking this class. I’m curious about whether there’s a connection between blood pressure and insomnia. She has a blood pressure measuring device that she’s letting us all use. 

I bought a fingertip pulse oximeter, which measures pulse rate and oxygen saturation. We’ll use that as well, before and after class.

I love reading what scientists have learned about the effects of practicing yoga. I’d like to add something to that body of work, even if it’s not a double-blind study with controls. Does everyone’s blood pressure decrease after a restorative class? If so, how much? Does their pulse slow and oxygen saturation increase? How does this tie into stress, sleep, and being centered?

Stay tuned to find out!

Sunday morning/evening yoga bliss

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I so love starting my day, and especially Sunday, with a long, slow Sun Salutation, resting as long as I need to in each stopping place, repeating movements as needed, really paying attention to my body waking up and energizing.

I build in mini-vinyasas, so from high plank slowly to chaturanga slowly to cobra slowly to tabletop. Then child’s pose, or cat-cow, or swaying hips & shoulders in opposite directions, or circling. Tucking one arm under, shoulder to floor, for a nice twist.

Then dog and its variations. Sometimes adding in a standing pose vinyasa.

Really working the ankles and toes in the lunges, working the fingers in plank.

Delighting in the infinite variations on surya namaskar…

~~

I’m limiting the size of my restorative class to three students. If you’d like to come, please call me at 512-507-4184 and confirm whether there is space for you. I’d like to have one more somewhat regular attendee.

This is an Iyengar-Lasater style restorative class. Someone I talked to yesterday said she had been to a restorative class that was anything but, so I want to clarify what my class is about.

We use lots of props, which I bring. Firm Hugger Mugger bolsters, 3 blankets per student, 3-4 blocks per student, belts, sandbags, eye pillows.

You just bring your mat.

We hold poses from anywhere from 2 minutes to 15 minutes, depending on the pose.

You get relaxed and you get some passive stretches. I don’t use music, so you will have fewer distractions from going deeply internal, to that inner centered stillness that is so renewing, that nothing else can substitute for.

The class is 90 minutes, from 7-8:30 pm, at Oak Hill Healing Arts, 7413 Old Bee Caves Road, Austin.

~~

I’m substituting for Eleanor Harris at her noon class this Thursday, May 3. The class is 60 minutes, $10. Bring a mat. Call for location if interested.

Pomegranate Breast Oil, for women and those who love them

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I don’t ordinarily plug things on this blog, but I found a product I really like and want to share information about. My dear friend Sunny Markham makes a wonderful product called Pomegranate Breast Oil.

The oil smells great and feels really amazing on your skin, and the ingredients (organic pomegranate rind, organic mustard seed oil, and essential oils of amber, frankincense, spikenard, sandalwood, and myrrh) promote beautiful, healthy breasts. It is an Ayurvedic formula, and Sunny decocts the pomegranate rind and mustard seed oil outside in two big pots for approximately 44 hours under the full moon. It’s a labor of love!

I’ve been using it for many months now, and I’m hooked. This is a great way to love myself, and for all women to love themselves. It smells and feels so good, I love taking the time to do this. I feel more loved and healthier, and my breasts are now naturally toned as a result of the frequent massage.

Giving loving attention to your breasts has gotta do something wonderful for ‘em! Your partner can do this for you, too, but it’s a practice you’ll want to keep up several times a week for optimal results.

This product also makes a wonderful gift to give a woman you love. I’m giving some to my daughter for Mother’s Day, and if my mother was still around, she’d be getting some too.

You can order it online in small quantities (or large for a great discount), and you can also buy it at The Herb Bar on W. Mary St. (just west of South Congress), Casa de Luz, and Victory Pharmacy in South Austin. It comes both with and without the essential oils.

Every bottle comes with a beautiful little booklet with six simple breast massage steps that are playful, sensual, and do healthy things like move lymph and drain toxins and increase circulation.

Your breasts will be toned and glowing with happiness! Go to http://www.thegatheringforhealth.com/ and http://www.pomegranatebreastoil.com.

 

Hope you enjoy it!

~~

Here’s a follow-up on May 5, 2011. I emailed Sunny to find out where all her oil was being sold in Austin. Here’s what she replied:

The building of the Austin Centre for Happy, Healthy Breasts will be completed in a few weeks! I’m planning the grand opening in June. The Centre will be the home of Earthsong Pomegranate Breast Oil and offer breast self-massage workshops.

If someone wants to purchase Earthsong Pomegranate Breast Oil prior to the opening, they are welcome to come to my home. I’m off Cuernavaca down Bee Caves Rd. towards Hwy 71. Call me at 512-203-9739 for details.

If it’s more convenient, they can purchase the oil from one of our local distributors:

  • The Herb Bar, 200 W Mary St., Austin, TX, 512-444-6251
  • People’s Pharmacy on N. Lamar, Austin, TX, 512-459-9090
  • People’s Pharmacy, 4201 Westbank Drive, Austin, TX (512-327-8877
  • Venus DeMarco’s Skin Care 4101 Medical Pkwy # 113, Austin, TX, 512-626-6141

I recommend they contact the store prior to going there, to check their stock and pricing. When they call, they want to make sure the supplier has the Essential Breast Massage brochure that comes with the oil.

If they purchase the oil from me, (1) 2 oz. Bottle of Earthsong Pomegranate Breast Oil is $30.00 + tax.

I’m pleased to include my simple 6-step Every Woman’s Guide to Essential Breast Massage. It’s so easy to follow and I’ll explain it to you if you want!

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Here’s a great price break from me!

Order (6) Bottles of Earthsong Pomegranate Breast Oil and pay just $16.99 per bottle.  That’s $101.94 + tax.

This would be such an elegant and caring gift to the beloved women in your life! 

I’ll include Every Woman’s Guide to Essential Breast Massage with every bottle ordered.

Words of wisdom from Suzuki Roshi

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Today’s message from Tricycle: The Buddhist Review is:

If meditation is a priority, then it’s helpful to take that word literally and put meditation first. An example would be my rule of not turning on the computer before I’ve meditated. Simple, but effective. Probably the most trenchant advice I ever heard was in eight words from Suzuki Roshi: ‘Organize your life so you can sit well.’—David Schneider

My three-month contract job ends this Friday, with another week later in May to tie up loose ends.

I’m looking forward to rearranging my days around my agenda. My sitting practice has been intermittent for the last few months.

I like this: meditate before turning the computer on. I think I’ll adopt it.

Click this link to read more tips from the meditators’ toolbox.

Antidotes for sedentary jobs: getting more life in your life

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NPR is carrying a story about the health risks of a sedentary life, covered last week in the New York Times. (I blogged about it here.)

This story, Sitting All Day Is Worse For You Than You Might Think, is available for reading and listening by clicking the link.

This article recommends sitting on a stability ball (aka exercise ball) and taking frequent mini-breaks.

I’ve worked at sedentary jobs for many years. At my last job, after a period of not working and living an active life (walking, swimming, biking a lot), I took lunch-time yoga classes and brought in an exercise ball to sit on instead of using my office chair.

Many people, one at a time, asked me about it when they came by my office on another matter. I let them try mine if they liked. I believe one or two may have even got one for themselves.

(You know, I think I was kind of a pioneer, ahead of my time in that workplace. They probably saw me as being too “out there.” I don’t know, and actually it’s none of my business. My business is taking care of me. And now I’m moving away from sedentary work. My body just needs to move. I’m much happier and healthier.)

When you sit on an exercise ball, you use your leg muscles. It’s also easier to roll, bounce, sway, and otherwise get more movement into your day at a desk.

Also, without a back to lean against, using an exercise ball for a chair really works your core muscles. You have to hold your torso up with your muscles. That may be a little fatiguing at first. It took me a week to get used to it. I was never sore, though, just tired from the extra work until my body accommodated it.

I think I got my exercise ball at Target for $12.99. I’m not very tall, but the largest size worked for me. I think it was 75 mm.

They come with a foot pump. You fill it with enough air so that it’s firm. Every six months or so, you need to put more air in because either the rubber has stretched or it has leaked a tiny amount.

I used a large bent paper clip to pull the “nail” out of the air hole, pumped more air in, and replaced the nail.

You could put a square of duct tape over the nail if you’re worried about it popping or leaking.

I’m not sure how much weight they can hold. You can spend more for a burst-resistant ball.

If an exercise ball is not an option, the next best thing is to sit on the edge of your office chair rather than leaning against the back. At least you’ll strengthen your core muscles.

I like the idea of mini-breaks. Walk to the water fountain or restroom, or just take a walk around your workplace. As you walk past offices, listen to the sounds of people at work, catch snatches of phone conversations, hear how fast people type, smell various aromas, see how people personalize their office space, let your eyes rest from computer work by looking down the long hallways. Stretch, dance, do a minute of yoga.

It’s all good and puts more life in your life!

Silent mind

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Tonight I was reflecting that one of the things that my sitting practice showed me is just how busy my mind was for all those many years before I began sitting and paying attention to my actual experience.

Constant activity, no stillness, no silence.

One of the great benefits to me of practicing sitting was having some contrast between my active mind and my silent mind.

By silent, I mean experiencing awareness with no internal dialogue.

What was/is that internal dialogue about? (Because I still experience it. I just know I have a choice now. Before, I didn’t.)

Usually the past or the future. Anxiety-based thoughts, what ifs, and I shouldas. Also a lot of judgment.

It was just such a blessed relief, through the practice of meditation, to learn experientially that I could take a break from all that and just be. Just be aware of the present moment — of sounds, thoughts, feelings, of the spaces in between, of the theater of awareness.

It does seem now that my practice of meditation and the self-awareness it brought me has been somewhat responsible for many of the changes in my life, from quitting my job to dreaming of possible new livelihoods, to honing in on what kind of work is satisfying to me, to deciding to downsize and simplify.

You can call it congruency or integrity or whatever you want. There’s a deep need to take action so that my external life matches who I am, which is ever changing.

What a lovely challenge it means now to be truly alive and engaged. There’s no holding back, no fear (well, not much), just doing and learning, and more doing and learning.