“We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives” - Gary Zukav
UNLOCKING THE RHYTHM OF WINTER MAGIC
As winter settles in, there's a palpable shift in the energy around us. The world seems to slow down, and nature invites us to embrace a period of introspection and regeneration.
In the Eden Method, the winter season is associated with the Water Rhythm and holds profound significance for our well-being. In this blog, we'll delve into the fascinating Winter 5 Rhythm theory and the meridians that play a vital role during this transformative period.
Understanding the Rhythm of Winter
In Eden Method, we work with the 5 Rhythms as one of the 9 inter-linked energy systems - Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water - which govern the cycles of creation, balance, and transformation in nature and within us. The Water element represents the energy of winter and holds the qualities of stillness, silence, and rest.
Exploring the Water Rhythm and its Meridians
The Water Rhythm relates to the Kidney and Bladder meridians, which act as energetic pathways in our bodies. The Kidney meridian is responsible for storing our essence, known as Jing in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which influences our vitality, reproduction, and growth. The Bladder meridian aids in the elimination of waste and helps maintain balance within our body's fluid systems.
Nurturing the Kidney and Bladder Meridians
Winter provides us an opportunity to prioritise self-care and pay attention to our Kidney and Bladder meridians. Engaging in practices such as Qigong, tai chi, yoga, meditation, and incorporating daily Eden Method practice can help us cultivate energy and restore balance within these meridians. Additionally, incorporating warming foods, such as soups, stews, and nourishing herbal teas, can support and nourish the Kidney and Bladder meridians.
Embracing Stillness and Rest
Winter symbolises a time of hibernation and introspection. Just as nature conserves energy during this season, we too can benefit from embracing stillness and rest. By acknowledging and honouring our need for downtime, we allow the energy within our bodies to regenerate and rebuild.
Adjusting our Lifestyle and Routine
To align with the energy of winter, we can make subtle changes in our lifestyle and routine. Creating a cozy and warm environment, prioritising sleep and rest, and indulging in self-care practices, such as warm baths or deeper Eden Method sessions, are ways to support the nourishment of our Kidney and Bladder meridians.
Conclusion
The Winter Rhythm and its associated meridians provides us with profound insight into the transformative energy of the season. By understanding and embracing the qualities of the Water Rhythm, we can harmonise our bodies, minds, and spirits with the natural rhythms around us. So, let this winter be an opportunity to dive deep into the stillness, rest, and regeneration it offers - allowing us to emerge refreshed, energised, and ready for the vibrant seasons ahead.
Interested in how the Eden Method can support your Winter wellness...?
Apply for a free Discovery Call with Carolyn today: BOOK HERE
“As you begin to heal the inner you, you alter your immune system” - Wayne Dyer
BOOSTING WINTER IMMUNITY
As winter approaches, so does the season of colds, flus, and weakened immune systems. It's crucial to take proactive steps to support our bodies and maintain optimal health during this time. While there are several ways to strengthen our immune system, one powerful and often overlooked approach is through natural practices, such as those offered at The Healing Barn, in particular a practice called the Eden Method.
In this blog, we explore how Eden Method can enhance your immune response and help you sail smoothly through the winter months.
Understanding the Immune System
Before delving into Eden Method, let's briefly understand the immune system's role. Our immune system defends against harmful pathogens by recognising and eliminating them from our body. However, factors such as stress, lack of sleep, poor diet, and environmental toxins can weaken its functioning, leaving us more susceptible to illnesses.
Enter Eden Method
Eden Method is a holistic approach that combines ancient healing techniques and modern scientific knowledge to restore balance and optimise the body's energy systems. By addressing energy imbalances and blockages, this practice enhances the body's innate healing abilities, including the immune system.
Enhancing Energy Flow
In Eden Method, various techniques are used, such as acupressure, tapping, and exercises, to stimulate specific energy points, meridians, and pathways within the body. By promoting the free flow of energy, these techniques remove blockages and prevent stagnation, creating an environment where the immune system can thrive.
Strengthening Key Energy Systems
Eden Method recognises nine energy systems within the body, including the Meridian System and the Radiant Circuits. These systems interface directly with the immune system, influencing its functioning. By energising and balancing these key energy systems, Eden Method helps strengthen the immune response.
Stress Reduction and Relaxation
Stress is a known immune suppressor, making us more vulnerable to infections. Remember stress comes in many forms; from our lifestyles, work pressure, peer and family pressure, too much junk food, alcohol and caffeine, a lack of sleep and even personal care and skincare products laden with toxic chemicals. A sensible approach includes creating balance in all aspects of your life, meaning you can still have fun, but without the fallout!
In Eden Method, relaxation techniques like deep breathing and grounding exercises help to reduce stress, anxiety, and promote overall well-being. By managing stress levels, we can support our immune system to function optimally.
Boosting Vitality
Simple daily energy practices taught in Eden Method, can help boost overall vitality and resilience. These routines involve simple self-care techniques that balance and align the body's energy systems. By regularly practicing these exercises, we can maintain a strong immune response.
Conclusion
As winter arrives, prioritise your health by exploring alternative approaches like those offered by The Healing Barn to support your immune system. By addressing energy imbalances, promoting relaxation, and strengthening key energy systems, this practice can enhance your body's ability to fend off illnesses and thrive during the colder months. Incorporating Eden Method into your self-care routine may just be the missing piece in achieving optimal health this winter.
Remember, it's crucial to consult with certified Eden Energy Medicine practitioners to fully benefit from this holistic approach.
Stay healthy, energised, and ready to take on the winter with a robust immune system!
“Only time and tears take away grief; that is what they are for.” - Terry Pratchett
Releasing grief & sadness
The human experience is filled with a myriad of emotions, both joyful and challenging. Grief and sadness are a natural part of life, but sometimes they can become overwhelming and hinder our overall well-being.
Thankfully, there are holistic approaches like Eden Energy Medicine (EEM) that can help facilitate the process of releasing grief and sadness, allowing us to find healing, peace, and strength within ourselves, whether the feeling of loss is recent or long-standing.
In this blog, we will explore the transformative power of EEM techniques in dealing with the complex emotions of grief and sadness.
Understanding Grief and Sadness
Grief is a profound emotional response to loss, often associated with the passing of a loved one, a broken relationship, or significant life changes. Sadness, on the other hand, is a general feeling of unhappiness and sorrow. Both can result in physical, mental, and emotional imbalances, affecting our body's energy systems.
The Healing Principles of Eden Energy Medicine
Eden Energy Medicine is an alternative healing modality that works on the belief that energy imbalances can manifest as physical and emotional issues. Through a combination of gentle touch, specific movements, and intention, EEM helps us restore balance and flow within our energy systems, promoting healing and well-being.
EEM Self-Care Practices for Emotional Healing
In addition to working with a trained EEM practitioner, such as Carolyn at The Healing Barn, there are EEM self-care practices you can incorporate into your daily routine to ground you, and stimulate the flow of energy throughout the body.
This can help you to reconnect with the present moment, release emotional heaviness, foster inner peace and cultivate self-awareness.
Integrating EEM into Your Healing Journey
EEM can complement and enhance other healing modalities such as therapy, counseling, or grief support groups. It offers a unique and empowering perspective on emotional healing, focusing on energy flow and balance.
Conclusion
Releasing grief and sadness is a deeply personal and transformative process. Through the gentle touch and intention of Eden Energy Medicine techniques, we can create an environment of healing and empowerment, allowing grief and sadness to be acknowledged, processed, and ultimately released.
Remember, seeking the guidance of a trained EEM practitioner can provide valuable support and guidance on your journey toward emotional well-being. Embrace the power of Eden Energy Medicine and let it guide you into a life of healing, balance, and joy.
EEM is rooted in ancient Chinese wisdom, and associates grief with the Metal element, and in particular, the Lung meridian. The second meridian in the Metal element is Large Intestine, which relates to 'letting go'. In letting go of our grief we can become more able to open up the Heart Chakra and begin to fill it with more feelings of love, especially for self.
Why not try these simple EEM exercises daily for the next week to support you in your grieving process , and see how you feel?
Interested in knowing more...?
Apply for a free Discovery Call with Carolyn today: BOOK HERE
“There is something incredibly nostalgic and significant about the annual cascade of autumn leaves” - Joe L Wheeler
Falling into autumn...
In the US Autumn is known as 'Fall' and when we think about Autumn in respect of the Chinese Five Elements, the word 'Fall' makes so much sense...
Autumn is all about letting go, releasing and loss. It is about descending, cooling and drying.
... and in this season, Mother nature is letting go of all her splendour; her leaves, her colour, her vibrancy and daylight... and looking inward, gently mourning the loss of what was, as she begins to focus inwards and hibernate.
Our bodys' naturally fall in line with natures rhythms, so just like the earth, Autumn is a time for us to let go and retreat, to become more 'Yin', to focus inwardly and nurture ourselves after the busyness of the Summer.
Autumn is represented by the 'Metal' element - a rhythm of structure and organisation.
The meridians in this element are Large Intestine, which is linked to the emotion of 'letting go' and Lung which is linked to 'grief'.
So how can we naturally support our alignment with the Autumn/Metal element...
NURTURE MORE YIN
Have you noticed the wild animals this time of year? They are gathering food for the winter, beginning to slow down and getting ready to keep warm and conserve energy for the spring.
I've seen the squirrels here busily gathering food over the past few weeks, but we're seeing less of them now as they prepare for their winter months in hibernation, a time of rest and inward focus.
You don't have to try and hibernate, but you really should:
- Sleep longer
- Slow down
- Turn your focus inward
- Eat more moisture-rich foods
- Add warming spices to your foods, such as cinnamon
- Moisturise you skin using toxin-free, soothing products
Boost your immune health
It's the time of year when colds and flu, and nowadays Covid, are on the prowl. It's time to protect your respiratory system!
The Lungs are associated with the Autumn/Metal rhythm, meaning they are vulnerable in this season, so all the more reason to protect them.
Support them with deep breathing exercises and by breathing in lots of fresh air every day.
Onions, garlic and ginger can also support lung health, so why not incorporate them into warming foods and drinks to help strengthen immunity?
set boundaries, let go
As the trees are dropping their leaves for the year, it's time for us to drop what we no longer need too.
It's time to move on and let go.
Consider what isn't serving you well - unhealthy relationships, bad habits, negative mindset, things you no longer need...
Let them go and move on...
The structure and organisation of the Metal rhythm mean this is the perfect time to de-clutter and reorganise.
So why not tidy your personal and work spaces, donate to charity, and get organised?
The Large Intestine, one of the organ systems of the Autumn/Metal rhythm is all about letting go... or elimination!
Working with Large Intestine can be helpful in letting go on an emotional or physical level - headaches, menstrual cramps, constipation and so on.
A natural process
So the Autumn/Metal theme is one of grief and letting go.
Many of us find ourselves processing a lot of grief and letting go of ways of being that no longer serve us. In such transitional times this can be extremely difficult and is often something we resist.
There is a natural grieving process that accompanies letting go, be it the deep grieving of a lost loved one, or the simple loss of a cherished item.
These emotions will gradually subside if observed without judgement.
If you'd like to know more more...
“I know you're tired but come, this is the way” - RUMI
a hidden gem -'The Healing Barn'
You've probably never heard of The Healing Barn at Sun Valley Retreat - and you definitely wont have stumbled across it, or spied it from the road or a local meandering countryside path!
Sun Valley Retreat nestles in a private, tranquil location in an enchanting, hidden valley in Stockton Brook. Amongst the rolling fields and woodland areas sit a pair of 5-star self-catering holiday cottages and 'The Healing Barn'.
From the driveway, The Healing Barn looks just like a plain old shed, but once inside you're greeted by a beautifully calming space with uninterrupted views onto the fields, accompanied by peace, quiet and the sounds of nature... It's instantly healing.
So, other than the tranquil location, and calming interior space, what's so special about The Healing Barn, and why do you need to discover it?
Our Lifestyles Are Making Us Sick
Every day in every way you are bombarded with stressors, which directly and indirectly have a negative impact on your health and wellbeing, often leading ultimately to disease.
You may think of stressors as being the obvious things in life - the baby that wont sleep, the 'problem' teenager, the demanding boss, the unrealistic deadlines, the traffic jam when you're running late, the pressure of the cost of living crisis... and so on. But stress comes from so many more things in your life.
Your body is stressed physically, mentally and emotionally each and every day from the chemicals, antibiotics, pesticides and hormones in ultra-processed foods you eat, toxic, chemical-laden products you apply to your body, electro-magnetic frequencies emitted from the devices and wifi you use and live amongst. What is in and around your very existence harms you.
Many of us take up activities to counter feelings of stress - going to the gym, running or maybe competitive sports. But that can be a mere distraction, a temporary fix and may even be a stressor too.
Then we add to the mix the constant fear-based news; the financial crisis, pandemics, wars, fires and floods, available to you 24 hours a day via the radio, TV news and mobile phone alerts... not to mention the pressure of keeping up with social media presence and alerts - or keeping up with 'the Joneses'!
... and add to that the stress you are acutely aware of in your life day to day, plus the toxic stress many of us carry from our early years that you aren't even aware of, but that impacts your health day to day.
Stress, whether conscious or subconscious, breeds disease.
Many of us are addicted to stress without even realising it.
No wonder disease prevalence and poor mental health is on the increase.
Consider how many people have touched your life who have or had cancer, heart disease, diabetes, auto-immune disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue... and so on...
Oh to be Healthy and Vital!
When you're dragging yourself around day to day feeling exhausted or living with chronic low-grade pain or other symptoms, life isn't that much fun!
How many times has someone asked how you are and you've said 'Fine' when really you're not?
We have become so used to feeling 'not great', that it's become our 'norm' and we don't even know what it feels like any more to feel joyful, healthy and vital.
Imagine a toddler (and you may even have one in your life) who jumps out of bed in a morning excited for whatever the day brings, who smiles, laughs and giggles their way through their day, approaches everything they do with genuine love and boundless energy - and then sleeps soundly all night.
Is your day like that?
Do you wish you still had the energy, joy and love of life that you maybe had as a child? Or even 10 years ago?
Do you wish you could switch off the pain or symptoms, even just for one minute?
Do you wish you could truly rest and sleep like a baby after dragging yourself through your day?
Traditional Methods Are Not Meeting Our Needs
Our UK National Health Service is amazing. Day in, day out, it saves lives in emergency situations.
BUT it fails to create health, or prevent disease.
Waiting times are long, and the medicines and surgeries on offer often come with side effects which then often require further medicines, with yet more side effects... and so the cycle goes on.
When a person is suffering, but does not fit into one of hundreds of categories of disease diagnosis, medical personnel are often left with no treatment options and those people are left without hope.
But we can do better than this...
Healing Is A Natural State We All Have Access To
Your body is truly amazing. It is wise beyond belief.
When you cut yourself for example, your body knows how to heal, without direction from you. Your body simply knows how to pump blood, breathe, digest food and so much more. Your body is continually adjusting and adapting to keep you alive. Its 24-hour focus is survival!
When you injure yourself your body instantly creates inflammation and pain to let you know you need to pay attention, and also adapts so you can continue to operate, albeit on a less effective basis.
But sometimes your body forgets. It gets stuck in unhealthy habits, particularly when stress and busyness is an undercurrent, and that's when it needs a reminder of how to be in balance, how to be healthy and how to heal.
Bringing your body back into a healing state can take time as the habits that have become entrenched over years or decades, need to be released and replaced with new healthy ones.
Science and Ancient Wisdom Work Wonders Together
Ancient wisdom and traditional healing, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treat the body as a whole, unlike western medicine, which separates symptoms and the individual organs and systems.
Have you ever been to see your GP with more than one (possibly related) symptom to be told he can only deal with one symptom today?
Everything is connected; mind, body, emotions and all of the bodys' complex systems.
As science and research progresses, it provides us with more proof that there was (and still is), true wisdom in ancient medicine.
The opportunity to explore this wisdom, grounded in modern science provides each of us with the opportunity to address our unique imbalances and to create an opportunity for healing within us.
The services on offer at The Healing Barn, enable you to experience feelings of improved relaxation as well as shifting the balance of your mental, emotional and physical being into a healthier state, naturally.
Carolyn provides a safe and calm space into which you can gently relax, and start to release those old habits and make way for new ones, as your proceed on your healing journey.
Meet Carolyn & Take a Peek Inside The Healing Barn
Could The Healing Barn make a difference in your life?
Here is a quick checklist of reasons why you might want to explore what's on offer at The Healing Barn. This isn't a complete list (and this natural approach can benefit any issue), but it might give you a good feel for who this is for:
You are experiencing ongoing physical pain or other symptoms, which may have been diagnosed or not
You are struggling with poor mental health or invasive negative thought patterns
You are struggling with ongoing, difficult emotions such as fear, anger, anxiety or grief much of the time
You struggle with hormone imbalances which might cause PMS, PCOS, Thyroid Issues or symptoms of Peri-Menopause/Menopause
You are facing high levels of stress, fatigue or burnout
You have experienced trauma in your life
You experienced a difficult childhood or struggle to recall much about your childhood
You lack a sense of purpose
You lack joy
Treatments and therapies you've tried have had little benefit or provided only temporary relief
You'd prefer to avoid medications or surgery if you can
You preparing for or recovering from surgery
You're undergoing cancer treatments; chemotherapy or radiotherapy
You'd like to enhance the effects of traditional treatments or therapies
You'd like to counter the side effects of medications or treatments
You're open minded and willing to try something a little different
You're happy to take an active role in your healing journey
You're open to exploring how Carolyn could potentially support your healing journey
