101 Ways to Create Parasympathetic Mind

In clearing out stuff, I came across something from my career in mental health: a laminated rack card called “101 Ways to Cope With Stress.” It now being many years later, I read through it with new eyes. I realized that most of the recommendations were ways to calm the Sympathetic Nervous System response. Some were unrealistic, some not helpful, and some (for me, anyway) would create more stress. So, I decided to take the idea and add what I have learned from working with SCENAR and the Parasympathetic Nervous System for the last 6 years. (This list is not in any order.) Morgana Morgaine, life coach and humorist, defined Parasympathetic Mind best: “Relax, Rest, Release, Restore.”

If you have other helpful ideas about creating Parasympathetic Mind, please feel free to comment. (For more information about releasing your own neuropeptides and balancing your autonomic system, go to the Healing Tips page.)

1. Take 10 minutes before you get up in the morning and before you go to bed at night to quietly focus on your breathing. To keep your mind focused you might count your breaths up to 5 and then start over. Take any moments in daily life when you are waiting (red lights, grocery store lines, etc.) as an opportunity to remember your breath. Simply take a deep breath and notice your body relax.
2. Have a SCENAR treatment or lay in the Multilayered Therapeutic Blanket. Learn what Parasympathetic Mind feels like.
3. Prepare for the coming day by thinking of those things you will be doing that make you feel good.
4. Reach for any thought that makes you feel better in any situation that feels stressful. Pay attention to how you feel. If you feel bad, find a thought, any thought, that makes you feel better.
5. Forgive negative people and move on to interactions that feel better to you.
6. Have fun on purpose. Seek to feel joy.
7. See challenges as opportunities to see things differently. Look for the silver lining.
8. Regularly write down what you appreciate in as much detail as you can.
9. Go outside and enjoy the sunshine or curl up with a good book when it rains.
10. Learn to care for and comfort yourself.
11. Make it your intent to find and hang on to any and all things that inspire you, especially thoughts.
12. Make a list of your personal attributes that you value and using 3 or 4 of them write a Mission Statement for your life.
13. Notice negative self-talk and stop. Then remember your Mission statement.
14. Use affirmations and/or mantras to remind yourself that you want to feel good.
15. Practice grace when under pressure.
16. Feeling good activates the Parasympathetic nervous system. The Parasympathetic nervous system activates good feelings.
17. Pay attention to the moment. A moment missed is a moment lost and unconscious moments make for unwanted consequences.
18. Remember that stress is an attitude. Remind yourself that you are NOT a victim.
19. Quit judging or trying to “fix” other people. It only makes you feel bad.
20. Look for options. In any conundrum, ask yourself, “What are my options here?” You will quickly discover that options give you a sense of freedom and control.

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Pain Awareness Month

Here we are at September again (where did the summer go?) and National Pain Awareness Month. Those of us who have chronic pain are always aware, but this designation gives organizations devoted to helping those struggling with pain an opportunity to provide information, meetings, and conferences in a focused way.

In the last few months, I have had another flurry of a specific complaint in those who have sought natural pain relief from SCENAR: low back pain. Treatments with SCENAR have been largely successful in reducing or eliminating this complaint, and part of the treatment is to advise clients on things they can do to help themselves heal and prevent further episodes. In researching low back pain (the internet is full of resources) there is one site I would like to recommend: The National Pain Foundation. They have an online manual about back pain, what causes it, how it can be managed, and common myths about it. Of all the web resources I’ve seen, this is most concise and comprehensive.

In 1983, I injured my back while working as the circulation manager of a local newspaper. I went through physical therapy and attended a “Back School” held by that office. From that experience I took away three tidbits of information that helped me enormously in managing my weakened back as it healed and grew stronger over the next several years. I have not found these techniques anywhere on the web, so wanted to add them to the awareness of things you can do to help yourself, should you have an injury or suffer with recurring back pain episodes.

1) Think about and change the way you get into and out of a car. My physical therapist was convinced that how we get into and out of a car is the number one behavior that predisposes us to back pain. Most of us get into a car by putting our right foot in first and then in a somewhat controlled fall, land ourselves in the seat. Then we bring in the left leg. That landing of our bodies in the car’s seat produces powerful sideways distorting forces on the vertebrae of the low back. We don’t notice it generally, but it happens nonetheless, and can set us up for later back issues. The best way to get into a car is to sit in the car’s seat first and then bring our legs into the car one at a time as we turn our bodies to face forward. Those who have “bad backs” are usually aware of this, as throwing oneself into a car when the back is sore can produce pain. But, the rest of us go our merry way, without awareness, until our backs begin to complain about the abuse.

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SCENAR and Post Polio Syndrome

In 1950 at age 2, I contracted polio and was hospitalized for six weeks. I was left with paralysis of my left foot. At age 37, I was diagnosed with probable Post Polio Syndrome with symptoms of extreme muscle pain, fatigue, and muscle weakness. I was told by the orthopedic doctor that I would likely wind up in a wheelchair. Having small children at the time, I denied the diagnosis and went on with my life. After spraining my left ankle five times in 1999, I was forced to go back into a brace. By then I was having difficulty managing my symptoms while working full time. I had pneumonia twice, and often had to take off time because I was too fatigued to work. In 2004, my doctor took me out of work for severe tendinitis in my right shoulder, elbow, and wrist. Over the next three months my doctor tried everything to treat my symptoms. Nothing worked. Then a friend suggested I let her daughter treat me with her “weird Russian Voodoo device.” Her daughter had experienced an amazing recovery from carpal tunnel syndrome through an acupuncturist who was using a little known device developed in the Russian space program called the SCENAR.

I had an amazing response to my first treatment. For the first time in 15 years, I had no pain anywhere. Stunned by my improvement, I bought a SCENAR, received training, and began working on myself. Word spread about what I was doing, and I began providing treatment for others. The recoveries of those I worked on for various pain related issues was surprising to me as well as those I worked with.

I began working with people who had Post Polio Syndrome in order to see if their response was similar to mine. I have worked now on several polio survivors. In all but one situation, their recovery was just as stunning as my own. One of those clients slowly walked into our office with a cane for his first session. After the treatment, he walked out of the treatment room with his cane held in front of him exclaiming, “I feel 20 years younger!!”

I have often pondered what the SCENAR’s action could be that would cause that kind of dramatic improvement. Scientists believe that in the initial polio infection more than half of the motor neurons that control the voluntary muscles are killed outright, and the remaining surviving ones reach out to paralyzed muscles, innervating them. This is thought to be why so many who had polio were able to recover so much function in the years immediately after the infection. However, this meant that the surviving motor neurons were carrying 8 to 10 times the number of connections to muscles than what they were designed to carry. After about 35 years, those overworked neurons begin to lose their muscle connections or die from the overuse, thus bringing on new muscle weakness, pain, and fatigue.

In thinking about the action of the SCENAR and how that might impact PPS, I wonder if the cascading release of neuropeptides that results from the treatment provides nourishment to the failing motor neurons. I haven’t had a PPS flare in over a year. My functioning is improving. I don’t have the fatigue of the past, nor the debilitating pain. I have not had pneumonia again, even though I have had colds. Although, self care has been an important part of managing my life so as to not bring on a exacerbation of symptoms, I believe it is the SCENAR that has improved my functioning and allowed me to live a much less disabled life.

If you have PPS or know someone who has it and would like to see if SCENAR can help, call me at 828-337-6854, or email me at penny@BioHealingWeb.com.

SCENAR Promotes Homeostasis and Well-Being

Webster’s dictionary defines balance as the state of equilibrium between contrasting, opposing, or interacting elements. From planetary ecological balance to being able to stand up on our feet, balance is a delicate, intricate, and wonderfully orchestrated cornerstone of our outer and inner reality. We ignore this cornerstone at our own peril.

In our work with SCENAR great attention is paid to assisting the body in returning to its inner state of balance or homeostasis. This involves working with the autonomic nervous system which, for the most part, operates without our conscious control. It maintains the internal balance of the organs and systems in response to external stimuli.

There are two aspects to the autonomic nervous system: the sympathetic system (often called the “fight or flight” response) and the parasympathetic system (called the “rest and digest” response). These two aspects operate in opposition to one another. When one is operating, the other one isn’t. When you are running from a saber tooth tiger, the last thing you want to do is “rest and digest.” Ideally, there is a balance between the systems based on the fluctuations of conditions. The sympathetic system keeps us alert and responding to the environment in ways that promote our survival, and the parasympathetic system rests, heals, and restores the body from all the activity required by the sympathetic system. The sympathetic system uses up the resources of the body and the parasympathetic system recovers and restores those resources to be available if needed again.

Our modern world challenges our bodies in maintaining the balance between these two systems. In general we are inundated with demands, information, time urgency, conflicts, and confusion that our bodies interpret as being threats to our survival. We worry and feel anxious, angry, resentful, or frustrated. We don’t have time to attend to eating well, resting, relaxing, and even when we try to rest or relax we are still ruminating about the issues. The parasympathetic system is shut down. Our bodies are in a near constant slow sympathetic system boil. We have a word for this: STRESS. We have lost our inner balance. Living too long in this state leads to disease as the body is unable to heal itself.

When the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are working as they should, the tendency is to rest often and easily. One can, however, perform at “peak ability” with equal ease. When challenged by stress, the balanced person is able to respond with vigor and fortitude. The parasympathetic system reduces the activity of the brain, the muscles, and the adrenal and thyroid glands. When no situation is pressing, the balanced person can comfortably choose to rest and can sleep deeply. They engage in lifestyles that allow the body to be nourished and restored.

When we are stressed and the sympathetic system is dominating, the sensations of pain are amplified. The SCENAR addresses pain by activating the parasympathetic system which releases neuropeptides to address the pain and restore the inner balance. In only a few minutes of treatment people will visibly relax. After a few sessions, very frequently people will become interested in taking better care of themselves and talk about ways they can do that. They also usually have an overall improvement in their mood. It is amazing to watch. (Read about some of our clients’ experiences on the “What Our Clients Say” page.)

If you are stressed and in pain, you might want to look into experiencing a SCENAR treatment series. It could make a big difference not just in your pain but in your overall health and sense of well being.

Nine Supplements to Boost Your Mood

Part of the action of SCENAR is to boost mood through the stimulation of the parasympathetic system causing the release of endorphins and the neurotransmitters that regulate the emotional state. Our experience of happiness is a unique biochemistry in the brain, and nutrition also plays a vital role regulating it. I have found that clients who pay attention to their diet and lifestyle around eating respond much faster to SCENAR treatments. If the body has at its disposal the nutrient building blocks needed for the production of regulatory peptides, the availability of the internal pharmacy for healing is greatly enhanced, facilitating a rapid recovery.

The major cause of mood regulation difficulty is stress. When the sympathetic system is turned on for long periods of time, the parasympathetic system is turned off and the body can’t recover well. Stress depletes the body of the chemicals it uses to heal itself, including the “feel-good” neuropeptides (endorphins) and neurotransmitters(serotonin, dopamine, nor epinephrine, and gamma aminobutyric acid – GABA). The most used pharmaceutical drugs these days are for reducing anxiety and depression. Before turning to these drugs, which can have significant side-effects, it is worthwhile to try a natural route.

Other than regular exercise, a good multivitamin, and fish oil which improve overall health and help with mood regulation, there are some supplements  that can help lift depression, reduce anxiety, improve your resilience to stress, and improve sleep.

Be Aware: If you are already taking drugs for depression, anxiety, or insomnia, talk with you doctor about adding natural supplements. There can be negative interactions which you want to be mindful of. It is always a good idea to thoroughly research any substance you are considering taking into your body, whether pharmaceutical or natural.

There are nine nutritional supplements that can help you reduce the effects of stress and improve mood: Read more »

What a SCENAR Session is Like

The first session is where many important things happen. First, I have you fill out some paper work so I know what is going on and start to formulate an idea of where to begin. Once we have talked about what issues you bring to the table, I can create an initial treatment plan. I discuss the plan I think will work with you and show you the SCENAR and how it works.

Let’s suppose you have pain in your neck and shoulders (many, many people do). I place the device on an area proximal to where we will work and bring up the sensation level until you feel a buzzing or tingling. The SCENAR will work regardless of whether or not you feel it, but feeling it helps you track not only where I am working, but also other places in your body where the sensation may travel. This tells me other areas to work that may have a healing impact.

Then I begin to stroke your neck and shoulders with the instrument. I am looking for places where the skin turns red and/or the device “drags” over an area. These are called “sticky” places and they indicate  what are called “asymmetries,” which is the way your body tells me where to work. There is a difference in the skin impedance between an area that is unhealthy and an area that is healthy, and the SCENAR picks that up.

When I determine where the asymmetries are, I focus on them and narrow down, through stroking, to what is called the “smallest asymmetry” in an area. Once found, I hold the device there until it gives me a signal that the healing chemicals (neuropeptides) have arrived at the spot. When they do, they immediately begin the process of healing, and the skin impedance changes. The device is looking for this and when it happens, there is a series of bells that tell us that the first “dose” of neuropeptides has arrived at the spot. The body’s healing attention is refocused on the area.

From there I look for other areas and treat them in the same way. There are typically several areas involved in neck and shoulder pain in the neck, upper back, shoulder, clavicle area in the front of the neck, and the muscles involved there.  I continue to treat any area that shows distress (asymmetries).

Usually, when I have treated all that I have found, you will feel substantial release from pain, more freedom of movement, and a sense of well being overall. Often this is most noticeable the next morning after the treatment.

Generally, after a SCENAR treatment, you will leave with a sense of relief from pain and an over all sense of well being in your body. The parasympathetic system is activated, so you will likely also feel a sense of relaxation.

It is important to drink water after a session because as the body heals it releases toxins from the tissues and you will want to wash them out of your system as efficiently as possible.

Chronic conditions may require 5 to 10 treatments.  Acute situations require fewer sessions which must done more frequently.

SCENAR is effective with any kind of injury, post surgery, and chronic conditions. If you have pain, call us at 828-337-6854. Mention this post for a 20% discount on the first session.

Shackles On or Shackles Off *

Here is a quick guide to navigate the emotions that influence the autonomic nervous system. Try this exercise: take a moment and think of the most frustrating, limiting, personally demoralizing experience of your life. Explore the feelings associated with this. Do they involve feeling trapped, stuck, or ineffective no matter what you do? Where are they located in your body? Would an apt description be “shackles on”? So, now that you have an understanding of what “shackles on” feels like, turn your attention to a time in your life where everything fell together almost effortlessly in realizing your goal or dream; when it felt as if every door opened in front of you and that your life was free and easy. You were in the “flow” or “zone.” Where do  you feel that in  your body? Could you describe that feeling as “shackles off”?

The feeling of “shackles on” activates the sympathetic nervous system which interprets that state as a threat. The feeling of “shackles off” activates the parasympathetic system which interprets the state as being one where healing is possible, and so sets about its work of doing so.

Using these key phrases can guide you as to what system you are in and how to keep the parasympathetic system activated so that you may continue to have health and a sense of well-being. When contemplating anything, ask, “Does this feel like ‘shackles on’ or ‘shackles off’?” If it feels like “shackles on” move on to think or do something else, preferably something that feels like “shackles off.”

Although working with your own thoughts and emotions cannot provide a cascading release of neuropeptides as the SCENAR can, doing so can promote more balance between the two aspects of the autonomic nervous system and improve the quality of your life.

Play with this. Don’t get too involved in it with your intellect. Don’t make it “shackles on.” Treat it as an interesting mental game, and with a playful heart, see what you learn from it and how it affects your life. You may be surprised at the sense of well-being you might find.

* I was exposed to this by a life coach here is Asheville, Morgana Morgaine, and by the book Steering by Starlight written by Martha Beck. The way it relates to the autonomic nervous system comes from my years of observing the response of the body to SCENAR and my research.

Happy Gratitude Day

What an amazing thing it is that we set aside one day out of the year to consciously bask in the holy ground of our connectedness with our family and friends. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday in that it is not so easily sullied by commercialization. Gratitude springs from the opened heart and cannot be traded in the market place. I’m grateful for that.

The experience of really feeling deep gratitude has an effect on our entire physiology. That emotion causes the release of neuropeptides, our body’s natural, intrinsic, healing pharmacy. (See the “Healing Tips” page for ways you can release your own neuropeptides.) It shuts down the “fight or flight” sympathetic nervous system’s activity and allows for the “rest and digest” parasympathetic nervous system to emerge. We can take a deep breath, our shoulders relax, and we can awaken to our presence in the moment. We discover a sense of peace and well-being, of feeling blessed and loved. Our hearts open and we experience the “parasympathetic mind.” We understand what is truly valuable in this life: our connectedness with our deepest selves and each other.

That we as a nation set aside this day to appreciate our lives and each other is a wonder-full and remarkable thing. May it be filled with joy as you deeply appreciate the gift and blessing that each of your loved ones brings to your life.  May you open to the healing that allows in yourself, in those you love, and in all of our human family.

May all of your blessings be fully realized, appreciated, and enjoyed.

Happy Gratitude Day!

Vibrational Being + SCENAR = Healing

Spiritual sojourners and religious mystics have told us from antiquity that we are so much more than what we think we are: that we are connected to each other and everything that makes up the entire universe (God, if that is your concept) in a deep and profound way. Not understanding what constitutes that “connection” has hampered our ability to grasp its nature.

With the emergence of Quantum Theory we have been offered another view of the universe that boggles the mind in its applications.  Einstein is actually the one who paved the way for a scientific understanding of what shamans,  yogis, and medicine have been doing for 5000 years.  He provided the idea that energy and matter are dual expressions of the same universal substance. That universal substance is energy. Energy is vibration. The modern science of super string theory teaches that fundamentally the universe is pure vibration. At the particle level, Quantum physics shows that all matter is really energy.

Everything living vibrates at certain frequencies. We humans, like the universe in which we live, are beings of energy. We are actually a series of interacting, mutidimensional energy systems that are manifested on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels of expression. Each aspect (from the cells to the systems) of our bodies is a part of this bioenergetic communications network and continuously generates a stream of vibratory information. The body is aware in that communication of the needs of the smallest part, and in its magnificent self-regulatory ability coordinates the response to bring balance back to the whole being. We call this health.

We are so much more than mere flesh and bones, cells and proteins. We are electrical and magnetic beings existing in dynamic interaction and equilibrium with a universe of energy that is similarly electrical and magnetic.

We know that the human body, when awake, vibrates at a frequency of 62-72 Hz.  Disease sets in when the frequency drops. The level of our vibration is nourished in many ways including what we think, feel, believe, see, hear, smell, touch, eat, drink, breathe and are exposed to. It is amazing to realize that our human body is able to balance these internal and external vibrations and find its own equilibrium or health.

Vibrational medicine is based on the intersecting aspects of the sciences of biology, physiology, chemistry, and physics and looks at the subtleties of human structure and patterns of energy in interaction. Now there is a global interest and research into the clinical application of the principles of bioenergetics. Systems like homeopathy, Ayurvedic medicine, and acupuncture are being investigated with new interest. New treatment modalities such as SCENAR have been developed. The discoveries resulting from this research have made it possible for today’s health care practitioners to work with subtler forms of energy and apply interventions that stimulate the body’s restorative systems without the side-effects associated with the use of pharmacological substances.

The SCENAR, developed in the Russian space program, engages in a vibrational conversation with the body through the skin. Reading the skin for electromagnetic imbalances or “asymmetries”, it can identify where they are and communicate with the body in a back and forth energetic conversation through electrical signals about the imbalance. The body responds through its capacity to regulate itself. This involves many systems, one of which is the neurological system which releases neuropeptides (among them being endorphins) that facilitates the restoration of functional balance; and the symptoms, including pain, are ameliorated. The device works effectively as an anti-aging treatment by stimulating circuits throughout the nervous system. When used on the face it is restorative and rejuvenative. There is a whole aspect of SCENAR application in Cosmetology.

We are entering a new and exciting era related to how we understand our bodies, ourselves, and the nature of healing. As we come to understand ourselves as vibrational beings, perhaps we will realize that everyone is a potential energetic healer to everyone else, and that we are all healers to ourselves. To this end, the SCENAR is a powerful bridge to give us an experience of a way of healing we may not have considered.

Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference

Next weekend, October 2-4, is the annual Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference. Featured speaker is Susan Weed. Days of classes, educational walks, and intensives are planned. If you are interested in living closer to the earth and exploring the native plant resources for health and well being, you don’t want to miss this conference! Doubtless, there will be a great deal of information about using herbs to boost one’s immune system and stay healthy during this flu season. For more information go to www.sewisewomen.com/index.php

Healing Innovations will be at the conference. Because SCENAR is so complementary with any other modality used for health and well being, we will be there to provide free demonstration sessions to conference participants. If you have been interested in trying out the SCENAR, here is a free opportunity. You can also put your name in a drawing for three free sessions – a $195 value! Coupons will also be given to interested participants for two sessions at a reduced cost.

Looking forward to seeing you there!