The transition from pregnancy to motherhood can be tough even under the best circumstances. Socially a woman may feel isolated, she may also feel scared, underprepared and overwhelmed. Although these feelings may pass, in some circumstances like a prolonged or difficult labor, problems during pregnancy or delivery complications, she may develop what is called Post Partum Depression.

Also known as PPD, Post Partum Depression is a type of major depression which affects a new mother within the first year after childbirth. Although it generally occurs shortly after childbirth, it may occur months after the delivery. Symptoms include, crying, irritability, uncontrollable mood swings, poor self care, a lack of interest or resentment towards the baby, excessive fatigue, isolation or a withdrawal from family and friends. If any of these symptoms start to effect daily life, PPD may be the cause.

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By Marta Hernandez

Until recently, Newtonian laws of physics and nature from a few hundred years ago have been our model for our mechanical view of the world.  As this view has emphasized the world as solid and unchanging, so have we responded in our daily lives with a linear and structured way of being.  The deeper human experience and what it really means to be alive has been lost.

This mechanical view of the world has also set the stage for how we interact with our own bodies.  Feelings of isolation, inhibition and depression seem to block or dull the innate life force and intelligence within.  But with the evolving times and the increasing popularity of new fitness regimes such as yoga and pilates, we see people turning away from the repetitive style exercise systems in search of having a deeper connection with their own bodies.

Breath and movement are fundamental to all human beings.  Besides anchoring us in the moment, our breath helps us to sense ourselves more completely and impartially.  By connecting the breath and the movement, we are more able to tap into a deeper authenticity within, thus helping us to find new dynamic ways to promote health and vitality in our lives.  Breath is the impetus for all movement and by connecting to it, we find a place where the body and movement have no boundaries.

Unique to all of us is the ability to move.  Dance is our creative expression of this. Moving through restrictive patterns, acknowledging and feeling emotions or sensations stored in the body help us to not only heal but to feel the essence of who we truly are.  Feeling our body is good, but feeling good in the body is even better.

By Emilie Salomons

October 2008

As we approached the Kisoro hospital on our fourth day in town, we could see a lineup of patients winding through the courtyard and reaching around the building right up to the exit. It was 8:30 in the morning and already about two hundred people had lined up for acupuncture; the group at the front of the line had even slept overnight to ensure they received treatment. It was clear that it would be a busy day.

Kisoro is located on the southern tip of Uganda, bordering Congo and Rwanda. The cultural influence of its neighbours is very apparent in the area, who for over two decades have been escaping their turbulent homes in favor of the stability of Uganda. What is also apparent in the region is the toll that the mental and physical trauma of war, genocide, displacement, poverty and a general struggle for survival has taken upon its inhabitants.

The Pan African Acupuncture Project (PAAP) has now trained 162 healthcare workers throughout nine districts around Uganda. The healthcare workers have then introduced acupuncture as a new treatment tool into their small, rural health centres, clinics and hospitals. Kisoro Hospital was one of the largest and most advanced centres we had trained in to date, although it’s lack of functioning equipment demonstrated the great need for new, affordable and sustainable treatment tools such as acupuncture. The hundreds of patients who traveled from all around the district to receive treatment only emphasized this void in the current healthcare system.

The hospital superintendent was ecstatic about our training week in his hospital. He mentioned that although he had initially been unsure about what acupuncture actually was, the fact that our acupuncture clinic had managed to clear all of his hospital wards of patients certainly cemented his support for our work.

Pain was a very common complaint among patients, including chest pain, abdominal pain, headaches and musculoskeletal pain. Because of the strenuous way of life and limited healthcare in rural areas, many injuries had been left untreated for years. We also encountered many patients suffering from cysts, STDs, fungal infections and malaria whose health issues had long been without medical attention. In fact, we were often the first medical professionals to address the complaint.

As the word on the efficacy of the treatments spread throughout the community, so did the growth of our line of patients. The word was out, the acupuncture clinic was here, and its doors were open to everyone!

Upon our departure, as we had done the week prior in Mukono, a town just north of the capital, we informed our patients on the location of the clinics where the newly graduated ‘acupuncture protocol specialists’ were working. This way, patients could continue their treatments once we left. So, with smiling trainees, a very pleased hospital staff and the head of district health services bidding us farewell, the PAAP team headed off on our mountainous 14-hour, 300km journey back to the capital.

Two more districts, another 52 acupuncture trained healthcare workers later, my second trip with the Pan African Acupuncture Project in Uganda was a fabulous success.

Emilie Salomons is a licensed Practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Vancouver, BC.

Yoga is the process of becoming whole. It starts with the physical process of opening up tight muscles and strengthening and encouraging movement through the body and then goes much deeper. It connects not only the physical parts of ourselves, making the body more unified and graceful, but also brings us greater awareness of our minds and our emotions and how these influence, and are influenced by, the functioning of our bodies.

Yoga begins right where you are sitting now. Beginning students often feel that they are somehow disconnected from the practice because they are stiff or inflexible and that the postures as they imagine them to be are not possible. Yet this is exactly where we must be if we wish to pursue this goal, that of wholeness and self-knowledge. Simply being in the postures, for a few moments, a few deep breaths, initiates a deep process in the body. Tensions our minds wish not to recognize are brought to the surface, a humbling experience for all of us, yet simultaneously our body begins to let go. This takes time and patience and so the real challenge of yoga is to quiet the restless mind and simply let the process happen. Almost immediately we begin to receive some assistance: as the muscles relax we begin to feel the mind and the emotions relax and so the whole cycle supports itself. Yoga becomes easy.

It is appropriately ironic that the stiffest, most inflexible people are often the ones who benefit most from a regular yoga practice. Likewise, people experiencing a high degree of mental stress in their day-to-day life find tremendous calm and serenity by giving themselves permission to slow down for an hour or so each day. Time spent in active relaxation is rewarded by increased mental clarity and efficacy, and by a deeper, more satisfying sleep. The practice of physical yoga seeds a return to wholeness that spirals out into the rest of one’s life, encouraging harmony, balance, and insight. It is to consciously choose the highest path in one’s life.

Written by Chris Tucker -A Vancouver Yoga teacher… one of our teachers at the Space.

The Space’s Chinese Medicine Practitioner, Emilie Salomons and The Pan African Acupuncture Project (PAAP) are looking to raise money for HIV, TB, Malaria education and treatment in Uganda this August 2008.

Donate individually or as a group.

What is PAAP?

PAAP is a non-profit NGO, which trains rural African healthcare workers in basic acupuncture for the treatment of common diseases like, HIV, Malaria and TB.

Fund Goal: $2500.00 by August 1st, 2008. *Donations are tax deductible

Donations go toward:

• Training 52 Ugandan healthcare workers in sustainable, affordable and effective methods to treat or manage symptoms of HIV, Malaria and TB

• Continuing medical supplies after training

* No funds go toward airfare.

Why Acupuncture?

Benefits of the program:

• Sustainability: Acupuncture programs cost a fraction of what an average western medical program costs making it possible to implement in rural areas without hospitals or laboratories. Supplies are also much less costly than pharmaceutical drugs, therefore much more reliable and consistent.

• Reaching rural communities: Once trained, the healthcare workers are able to go back to their existing community clinics and treat patients immediately. Acupuncture is not only used for every day treatments, it also becomes an important tool to supplement their practice during medication supply droughts.

• Bridging Tradition with the West: Many villagers still resist going to western medicine because of a lack of trust. Acupuncture has proven to be a way to bridge the two worlds and create a trust. Once in the clinic, the patients can be educated and tested for STD’s and other common diseases.

This program has been incredibly successful since starting 5 years ago. Seeing the success in Uganda, neighboring countries like Kenya, Ethiopia and Malawi have also started sister PAAP projects.

To make a donation please visit: http://www.givemeaning.com/project/paap

“What we think, we become,” the Buddha was reputed saying. This principle is also at the heart of Pilates- an innovative system of movement evolved from the principles of Joseph Pilates. The exercises are designed to stretch, strengthen, and balance the body. Emphasis on proper breath; correct spinal and pelvic alignment; and concentration on smooth, flowing, movement; leads one to become aware of how their body feels, where it is in space, and how to control its movements. It is through this attention and awareness that one begins to retrain the body to move in a safer, more efficient, pattern of motion. The goal of Pilates is a fusion of the mind and body, so that eventually, without thinking about it, the body will move with economy, balance, and grace.

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A balanced body is flexible, strong and fluid. These attributes symbolize the foundation of a solid golf game. Many of our clients are avid golfers, so we use several modalities to assist them inenhancing their game.

Pilates: Pilates builds strength and flexibility simultaneously, develops core strength, improves posture and alignment, and creates stability. These are all key components to a swing.

GYROTONIC®: Using flexibility and strength, it increases range of motion and develops coordination. Training with GYROTONIC® provides many of exercises for every part of the golf swing. Golfers at every level including PGA Tour Pros & PGA Professionals use this as a source of training.

The benefits of GYROTONIC® training for golfers include:rotational ability will increase, increased strength and flexibility will result in further drive distance, better contact and directional control of the ball, while preventing or Limiting potential injury

Yoga: To create a symmetrical golf swing, both sides of the body need to be balanced. We are often predominantly stronger and or tighter on one side of the body. Yoga can help to restore, open and regain alignment. In addition, using breath and awareness, yoga is an effective way to increase and maintain focus.

Acupuncture: While this ancient technique has many benefits, we find that regular acupuncture helps to relax the mind and builds clarity, which definitely comes in handy in a frustrating golf game!

Acupuncture also proves very beneficial in treating those acute and chronic injuries which may be holding you back from optimal performance in your golf game.

If you have any questions, or want to find out more, please post a reply below. Wendy Eyton, CYT, Co-owner The Space

Hello!

Welcome to my first ever blog about ‘animal totems’. If you do not know what this means, that is understandable as we city dwellers tend to live in a world that is highly disconnected from nature. Urban sprawls and nature shrinks more everyday. It is my goal to bring nature back into our hearts and our every day lives.

Following your animal totems means paying attention to what animals are showing up in your daily life and following their ‘medicines’. Each animal carries with it it’s own special words of wisdom or advise based on how it exists on our earth.

For example, squirrels can teach us about activity and preparing for the future. Ravens are all about magic and are symbols of both creation and spiritual strength. They can teach us how to be playful and amorous. Eagle is all about creativity and a willingness to seek out our true emotional aspects. Eagle can teach us how to soar in our own lives. Personal sightings or even feelings of affiliation towards different animals can be clues from the universe as to what you may need to either take on or get rid of in your own life in order to feel good.

Spring often brings with it a cleaning and purging of what is no longer needed. The animals we see most often during spring reflect this accordingly.
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Emilie Salomons R.TCMP, ADS, Doula

Depression has affected people for thousands of years, but with today’s pace and increasing demands at work, school and home, this treatable disease is being diagnosed more and more frequently in western medicine. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers another view and approach to managing stress and depression. Aside from the staples of current treatments like counseling, group support – whether friends, family, or peers – and medication if clinically necessary, TCM offers an additional set of diagnostic and treatment methodologies and a new way of looking at what is going on inside our complicated bodies and minds.

Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at the body, mind and spirit as one interconnected being. An imbalance in one organ can manifest or present itself through a change in mood, just as a strain to the emotions can affect the function of our vital organs. It might be helpful to think of the “butterflies” that flurry in your stomach and the sudden loss of appetite you feel when something makes you nervous.

So if everything is connected, what can we do to help lift our mood and ease our tension? Read Full Entry…

Spring is a time of new beginning, the birth of a new year. It is a time of growth and shedding. We shed the pounds we gained over winter and we clear our lives and homes of clutter. We rub our eyes and emerge from our hibernation with a new outlook on the world. Where winter was a time of hibernation and introspection, spring is a time to take that self-awareness and put it into action. Express yourself! Start something new.

Forget New Year as a time for resolutions, spring is the time to start fresh and try new things.Naturally in spring we begin to become more active, we sleep fewer hours, we tend to eat less than in winter and we start to shed our emotional baggage. Spring is a time of rapid changes, like a shoot bursting from a seed planted deep in the earth. This time can bring about a burst of energy and emotions, or these changes can be exhausting if we have not rested enough through the winter.

The organ related to spring in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the Liver. Emotions which may arise in spring and which are related to the liver are: frustration, agitation and anger. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you notice you are a little less patient than usual, to a certain extent, this is normal.

So what can we do to help this time of renewal and rejuvenation? Read Full Entry…