Tag: healing

Comparison is The Thief of Joy

pammunkholm

Why do we compare? Does any good ever come from it? We either use comparison to lift ourselves above another or to find we don’t measure up. Neither leaves us feeling sunshine in our souls any day.

I believe that we each have something to offer the world. The subject matter and presentation will vary widely. Some of us will have a large audience, others a small one. But all have a voice that should be heard and will be validated by the enjoyment of others, given the chance. What do you have to offer the world?

I went through a phase where I felt like a useless lump of clay. I was so weak physically, my physiotherapist has recently admitted that was the weirdest day for her. I went to see her Christmas Eve and I suddenly had no muscle mass. I was so weak. This takes a toll on the body but also the emotions. I had worked hard to do all the “right” things. And yet my body continued to fall apart. Where is the fairness in that?

I didn’t want to do anything. I went to bed and didn’t want to get up. What could I offer the world when everything I tried to do became too repetitive. Every time I do a repetitive task there is always a muscle group that has been overworked. Even with careful planning and prevention! Over the past decade I kept losing things and gaining nothing. I couldn’t play the piano the way I used to. I used to crochet. I was learning sign language. I’ve already mentioned running. I gave up my business. We moved off the farm because I couldn’t handle the work and the farm house. I felt stripped down to my bare minimum and now I was just a drain on society. What could I possibly do that would make an impact on the world for the better? I went through a few options. Some of them seemed so right and were painful to pass on. But something was calling to me. I finally figured out what it was saying: Forest Therapy. I am now a certified Forest Therapy guide and I am trained to take groups on Forest Therapy walks.

Disclaimer: I am not a trained Therapist or Counsellor. We will not be working through past issues. This is for those seeking healing that only our beautiful earth can offer. Those who have greater needs mentally or emotionally are encouraged to talk to a trained Mental Health Counsellor or Therapist. And then join us when you are ready! In this space the forest is the therapist and I am here to facilitate.

A story is told of a little girl who had her hand in her pocket for far too long while she and her mom were out running errands. Eventually the mother noticed this strange phenomenon and asked the girl why her hand was in her pocket. The little girl calmly replied, “Because it’s full of glitter”. The mother, caught off guard asked what any mother in her situation would ask. “Why do you have a handful of glitter in your pocket?” “Oh” the girl replies “just in case someone needs celebrating”. How much do you love this little girl? Can we be her? Maybe we can use bubbles instead to save on laundry woes.

Can we be ready with a metaphorical hand of glitter to celebrate anyone? What if she achieves a goal? What if she is able to accomplish something we desire but are not able to accomplish in our current season of life? What if she has children and we don’t have all the children we wanted? (ouch) Can we still celebrate her? What if she is thinner? What if she always has the funny or interesting thing to say in a conversation? Starts a business that has aspects we don’t understand (nudge, wink)? Has a talent we crave? Are we still going to throw our hand in the air and say Wahoo?

Or are we going to be stingy with our glitter celebrations?

I have wanted to start this blog and my Forest Therapy business for a while now. But I worried about all the people with their degrees and certifications and even the group to which I used to belong, a self employed business owner running something that makes sense and is a recognizable business. Well stuff and nonsense, I say now! There is a space for everyone. And we need everyone and whatever they have to offer.

Bring on the glitter!

Regardless of how some will judge what I am doing, I still want to be the person who is ready to celebrate all women. I choose to be that person. That is something I can offer the world despite (and maybe due to) how unempathetic some have been towards me in the past. This letting go of comparison and better than or less than is freeing! Sometimes I forget. But I try again the next time.

I seek to see the good in others. I seek to understand them and their circumstances. I think this adds to my joy. At the end of the day, can I honestly say I have lived true to my highest self and deserve my own little Wahoo? That’s the most important question when deciding where to focus my time and energy.

Another healing tip I have found is to be happy with where I am and what I am doing. Even if it’s not exactly what I would choose. There are days I literally want to run and I have to walk and other days where I figuratively want to run and have to walk. On each of those days, I am happier when I celebrate others. When I choose not to feel more than or less than. It is so much less stressful when I can be me and not feel I have to live up to someone else and their expectations.

How does this relate to healing through forest therapy? It is all interactive. Our physical, mental, spiritual, and social selves. If I only focus on my physical need for strength and healing I will miss so many parts of myself that could result in healing momentum. The pull toward all things bright and beautiful in life. Those things that take us into nature. Join me on my next forest therapy walk to find this joy and desire to celebrate others with me. Head over to my contact page to inquire.

Take care, you’ve got this my sweet friends.

What is Forest Therapy

pammunkholm

In the 1980s, through the national health program in Japan, was introduced the art of Shinrin- Yoku or forest bathing as it is known in English, to help workers reduce stress. The negative effects of stress were starting to rear their ugly head. Heart conditions, high blood pressure, a rise in auto immune disease. Doctors pointed sufferers to the forest for help. The forest has many healing qualities and Japan was learning how to harness them and how to offer it to others. These sufferers were willing to try anything. Are you there? Do you feel like you’ve tried everything? With a forest therapy guide to get the most benefits, forest bathing is still proving most effective today. 2/3 of Japan is forest. Some of the most beautiful in the world. Doctors even started prescribing it to those with stress related disease. Doctors in Japan recognized how many people had become disconnected from the earth. While our ancestors slept on the ground and ate food grown from it and walked around on it with nothing to stop the negative electrons flowing into their bodies, those in modern day Japan were far from this description. The effects of this disconnection are not isolated to the eastern hemisphere. Our world is highly toxic and the earth offers a way to heal from the negative effects. In an effort to connect the people around me back to the earth, I prescribe it to you today.

Forest Therapy or Forest Bathing, the literal translation of the Japanese term, Shinrin Yoku is what I want to tell you about. The art of going into the forest for healing. There are various understandings of the term. But in all the research I have done it has nothing to do with bathing as you might be picturing the use of the word. No rubber ducks. No shower caps. And everyone is to be fully clothed!!! At all times!!! The relation to bathing is only in the way that when you have a bath you are fully immersed in the water; forest bathing helps you fully immerse yourself in the forest or absorb the forest atmosphere. That is where healing begins.

Forest bathing can be defined as making contact with and taking in the atmosphere of the forest. With all the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of forest bathing, you also gain access to other tools here that can be used to generate and accelerate healing. These are the tools I have learned and developed into my own routine. I’ve tried so many suggestions, through decades of pain. This is the first non-medicated thing that has consistently helped me.

Studies have shown that there are a myriad of health benefits to being in the forest. Some of these benefits include lowered concentration of cortisol, lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure, lower blood sugar levels, greater parasympathetic nerve activity, and lower sympathetic nerve activity when compared to being surrounded by city environments. Being in the forest is great. Bathing yourself in the forest is even better. I can show you how in future posts!

The forest therapy I offer is a combination of forest bathing, silence, (doesn’t everyone know how to do that? what if someone else is disrupting your silence? what if the silence feels awful?) grounding, and more. I will explain all of these in further detail in later posts but for now I just want to get the overall idea out there.

As with all programs this one has its side effects. Unfortunately, with these tools in place you can reduce the symptoms for anxiety, depression, anger, increase your concentration and memory, boost your immune system, (an increase to NK cells) improved quality of sleep, reducing fatigue and confusion and an overall improvement to your mood. Increased positive and decreased negative feelings. No weight gain or facial paralysis hiding at the end of the list over here.

I want to be clear. I would never tell anyone to stop taking any medication without talking to their doctor. Some are necessary and life saving. And I myself have not reached the point with my condition to stop all medications. We all start from where we are and carefully move forward. When it comes to medical areas, talk to your doctor. If you have a mental crisis, talk to a mental health care professional. If you feel you are in spiritual crisis, talk to a religious leader or friend. What we are talking about here, my target audience, is those who are living their lives and functioning- adjacent and I can help take them to an even better life with the tools I offer. Ideally a life with less pain.

.

Now. What if you live in the city? This is the beauty of forest therapy. You can create an atmosphere of forest bathing within any natural environment. The more natural, the more you can accomplish. Yet every grounded plant, spot of grass or tree can offer benefits to the most diseased among us.

Join me by booking your walk over on my contact page.

That’s it my sweet friends. Allow me to show you the way.

Forest Therapy: How I Manage My Chronic Pain

pammunkholm

I have talked with too many women who, like me, are currently dealing with daily, chronic pain. And due to years of suffering with no exact source that can be named or found they now picture themselves in a life story where they have been written off as weak of character because of the limitations of their body, mind or spirit. They have lost themselves to the pain and are running on empty. Have you also felt misunderstood or so very small while trying to seek understanding and support? To the point you feel it’s not worth the effort anymore?

This has been my experience.

As a society we have benefitted immensely from the study and practice of western medicine. I know phenomenal healthcare workers. We need more people like them. They are fabulous at their jobs. Sadly, that world of medicine has not held the resolutions I needed. Through my experience I have learned, western medicine is not the only answer.

I don’t fit a simple diagnosis. I have extreme hyper mobile joints. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’m not an easy fix. And yet, contrary to popular belief, my pain exists. Doctors don’t know what to do with me, so the answer has been to live with it. Manage the symptoms and put up with pain.

But my body decided that wasn’t good enough and it started to shut down on me. Since that time, I’d like to say I started listening. But I’m a mom that had stuff to do. Luckily, MY mom noticed and made me pay attention. She literally saved my life. (Thanks Mom!👍) She has led me to the resources and health care team that I need, not only to survive but to thrive.

One method of healing that has been of great worth to me is the practice of grounding. I will go into greater detail in later posts but the idea is to connect to the earth and access its healing properties. To take this to even greater benefits, one should connect with nature on all levels. Physical, emotional, social and spiritual. Through taste, smell, sight, sound and touch. This method I will explain, is one I have found of greatest advantage, lowest cost, and gentle enough for even the most unhealthy and toxic ridden among us.

I promise I’m not crazy, new age, or trying to convert you to a cult. Stick with me here.

All I know is that somewhere in my great efforts to learn and practice grounding and other methods, I started to hope that there was a better life ahead and I was worth this campaign to come back to life. The aggravating pain started to subside. I could see what was helping me and how it could help others. All this led to the decision that it is worth the daily grind. Nobody could do this for me. I was ready to find relief. It came in the form of forest therapy.

For years now, I’ve been on a journey to find better health for myself, most recently, through grounding and now forest therapy. Actually, until not long ago, it’s been less of a journey and more of a marathon. With mudslides and hurricanes. And zombies and ninja mice (I hate mice). Sometimes I’m on a roller coaster, sometimes circling another drain. And yet, in the marathon, I have met some of the best people and found healing in the places and ways I least expected. And although some days it has taken all the energy of my soul, I dare say I’m stronger now. A strength like the intertwining roots of a forest, each piece of knowledge entangled with the next. Holding up what I have come to recognize as great worth to me.

Doctors have tried to help me find answers. In that effort there is more pain. The physical pain I saw coming. The emotional pain would come out of nowhere and slap me in the face. I have experienced months of waiting to see a specialist who I hoped would have the answers and instead, I was asked why I even came to see him as my condition has nothing to do with his specialty. ‘Sir, I can’t even pronounce your specialty. And btw I’ve been putting all my hopes on this. Holding to the faith that something can improve. But thanks for your diagnosis of don’t- let- the- door- hit- you- on- the- way- out.’ On another occasion I was told there is nothing doctors can do if I don’t want to take the medication (they literally laughed at me and said I’d be back for it), as though I’m an obstinate child and not a woman that knows my body and how it will react. One time in a first ever patient-doctor interview, after giving him some basic symptoms, he jumped to erroneous conclusions and told me if I wasn’t going to get up off the couch he couldn’t help. I was going to have to make an effort 😒. He had no idea the efforts I’d made. I hope he’s had a chance to rethink his bedside manners. On leaving a doctor’s office I heard the heartbeat in another room where a mom-to-be listened and my heart crumpled with the memory of when that was so recently me. In the days before my miscarriage. Instead, I was the woman walking out after a miraculous pregnancy that ended suddenly without any medical reason after 10 years of trying. That tiny one and all the joy of having another baby quietly slipped away one morning. I have had surgery after surgery and medication after medication offered as the best and only solution. I have made up my mind. I don’t want to live this way anymore. I want to practice what I’ve gained in going into the forest.

I call this blog Sunbeam Acres, if you go down in the woods today…

I hope I have rays of light to share with you that will brighten your day. Bright little idea babies that you can take and turn into whatever works for you. My ideas will connect you to the forest and to your roots.

Sunbeams take me to my roots. In our church I sang Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. That beloved song that sends 3 and 4 year-olds flying off their chairs in a most irreverent fashion. I like things that take me to my roots.

Trying to take care of my body could be compared to trying to catch a sunbeam. It seems like a particle of dust floating around that I can never quite grasp. I have grown in understanding my body and how to make it work for me. Instead of running after all the sunbeams I have allowed them to come rest on me. I hope my thoughts can warm you to your soul like sitting on the damp leaves on a quiet summer morning looking into the acres of forest around you, each tree representing a possibility for your life. You can let my thoughts float around you and see what lands. Some particles instantly disappear into your being because they’re right for you. Anything that’s incorrect for you can float on past. We don’t have to agree on everything to be friends here 😁. Each of us will have a different journey into our own metaphorical forest.

My condition has taken me to dark places. where I have yearned for anything that offered the smallest ray of light. This blog is an effort to stave off the darkness for myself and reach through my own canopy of doubt, for the light others have to share. I will share what I have learned as I have gone out into the forest. You are welcome to sit back and learn or to join me in a forest walk of healing.

I offer validation for anyone who may be suffering with daily, unexplained pain that cannot be treated or found. Hear me now, you are important enough to do whatever you need to do to have your best quality of life. It is worth the effort. There is hope. You are worth the time and when you don’t have the energy, seek support.

And for anyone who knows of my struggle and has ever asked me, So, what do you have? Are you feeling better yet? Or even, What are your symptoms? and I gave a blank stare or a stammered response that’s somewhere between scripted and implausible, this is the whole answer. It’s gonna take me an entire blog to explain myself and how to use the forest and all of nature, that is available to you, to take your own healing to the next level.

With the knowledge I pass on you will hear the story of me and my chronic pain. It is big and diverse. And now I know it’s worth sharing (even if only my mom reads about it)😉!

POSTS

Subscribe for more posts like this