Photo by Clint McKoy on Unsplash
Who's up for their best summer ever? Awesome-me too! I love to use the early summer days as an opportunity to embrace a "summer re-set". We are roughly a half a year into 2018 and this is a perfect time to do a mindful assessment of our goals and intentions surrounding our self-care. How are you doing so far this year? Do you see any areas of growth and re-commitment? Please do not see this as a “fault finding mission”, but instead a chance to reclaim your passion for expanding and expressing the most vital, happy and peaceful version of you! To help us make this recommitment more exciting than ever we can employ the science and inspired power of epigenetics-an emerging field of science, medicine and longevity that validates the power of lifestyle in relationship to awesome well-being.
Epigenetics means “above your genes”, and shows that everything from your friends, family, food, exercise, stress management and overall environment have a direct effect on our gene expression, our DNA, our quality and quantity of life. This is inspiring news for all of us who are committed to proactive self-care as it details a path of purpose that does not lead us to believe that our DNA is always our destiny. We have a lot to say about how we will live, and how vital and strong our path will be expressed. One area of opportunity is the pro-active practice of protecting our telomeres.
Telomeres are at the end of each chromosome that protect them from damage. They tend to shorten with age, stress, unhealthy lifestyle choices and un-wellness. The good news is that we can positively impact the length and strength of our telomeres through the following practices: healthy eating, meditation, exercise, sleep and stress reducing exercises such as yoga, prayer and massage. Massage has been shown to reduce stress, increase relaxation and support overall healthier balance of mind and body. You can give your telomeres, your DNA and your livelihood a boost of good by gifting each the blessing of massage and the experience of epigenetics as you embrace and create your own summer of love and longevity!
Check out this helpful video from Dr. James Rouse on how to reset your intentions for the rest of the year.
Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash
By: Dr. James Rouse, Naturopathic Physician and Human Touch Wellness Council Member
You most likely have heard this ad slogan encouraging us to keep what happens in “Sin City” to ourselves, but I am of the belief that we need to shout what happens out loud, in relationship to our Vagus Nerve and its truly awesome benefits.
The Vagus Nerve is often called the wandering nerve, as it winds from the base of our brainstem to the abdomen by way of multiple organs, including the lungs and heart. The Vagus Nerve runs the show in your inner nerve center - specifically the parasympathetic nervous system which I love to refer to the house of Peace, Power and Positivity. Ahhhh, just that? let wash over you!
Do you long for Peace, Power and Positivity? You are not alone. This is most likely due to the fact that most everyone is suffering from being stuck on the sympathetic side of our nervous system where we feel wired and tired, a hair trigger away from the stress response of “flight or fight,” and all too ready to overly react to the small stuff. All this “stuff” left unchecked can lead to a whole host of challenges from depression, anxiety, sleep issues, immune dysfunction, heart challenges and possibly even shorter life expectancy…YIKES!
So what can we do? GO TO VAGUS!
When you actively engage with your Vagus Nerve you are on the road to recovery, and here’s how you can do it:
1) Create and sustain positive, loving, safe relationships
2) Meditate
3) Finish your shower with ice cold water
4) Sing
5) Laugh
6) Breathe from your belly
7) Exercise
8) Get a massage
We got this…right? I work on incorporating each of these daily, including massage. Any of the Human Touch massage chairs to the Massage Anywhere will do the trick. For me, I always finish my working day by engaging with my Novo XT. I use the “manual” program and click on “breathe”. It serves my mind, body and soul as I release my human doing and claim my human being…staying in Vagus as long as I can.
Dr. James Rouse, Human Touch Wellness Council Member and Naturopathic Physician, shares tips and tricks to allow you to improve your daily life using insight from social psychologist, Roy Baumeister.
Image by: Nick Duell
Are you ever feeling like you are too tired to keep running…but you are also too scared to stop?
You are not alone, and research suggests that literally anyone who has a job is experiencing a rise in stress-related challenges and the not-too-subtle decline in performance, personal peace and overall quality of life. In my own life as a dad, husband, doctor, entrepreneur and over-committed sprinter in the daily decathlon of life, I needed to find a solution to proactively reclaiming my energy and my life.
So as I always do, I looked to science to find a proactive strategy that we can implement to shift from stressed to blessed!
One answer lies in the new wave of human potential, personal performance and enlightened energy management - the rise of ULTRADIAN RHYTHMS. You are most likely very familiar with circadian rhythms, which is basically the 24-hour clock that our bodies run to align our sleep-wake cycles. Ultradian Rhythms are more of an interval-based way of approaching each day, to optimize every aspect of performance by honoring the natural way our mind and bodies function in 90 minute cycles of work and 20 minutes of rest/recovery.
What we are learning is that we do not perform optimally well after 90 minutes of work. In fact, we experience a sharp decline as we try and push thru and keep going. But, if we are courageous enough to STOP…fully “dismount” from our Human Doing and allow our Human Being to step in - we will be met with an awesome upgrade in productivity, happiness, creativity, strength, focus and just about every “upgrade” we could ask for ourselves.
What should you do for 20 minutes? Here’s what you should not do: do not surf the internet, do not get on your phone, or check social media feeds....I know…hard
Here’s what you can do: nap, get outside, have a great snack, do a series of planks, or get a massage. Yup, that is what I do 2 x per day. I grab my iJOY Massage Anywhere by Human Touch, and give myself an instant mind-body-self love and care intervention. Massage gives me a beautifully unfair advantage when I come back to work, it increases key neurotransmitters associated with creativity and focus along with a re-set with stress hormones and allows me to feel more peace and balance…the ability to reclaim the rhythm of the good life!
Learn more about how to use massage to align your body with the new time changes in Dr. Rouse's newest video post:
iJOY® Massage Anywhere™ is the perfect solution for those searching for a portable massage chair.
By: Dr. James Rouse, Naturopathic Physician and Human Touch Wellness Council Member
Just about this time of the year there is an ever increasing number of people who are falling into the support group called “not quite there” when it comes to feeling good about their New Year’s intentions. Research shows that most of our goals and resolutions tend to be fading fast by the end of January,as well as our confidence in ourselves to raise our quality of lifeto a level that reflects our true potential.
Is that you too?
Please do not despair, or think about ways you should be better by being harder on yourself…there is a possibly a better and more grace-filled path to success for you.
Massage.
Yup, I bet you didn’tsee that coming. As a clinician and a researcher, the science is clear and inspiring that giving yourself the gift of massage may be one of the most powerful paths to resurrecting your confidence that you do have what it takes to realize your mission for 2018 and beyond. Here’s how:
Massage rocks our resolutions by supporting the levels of powerful chemicals associated with success, happiness and health. First off, massage helps to keep the stress hormone cortisol in check-which in turn helps to serve our overall peace and balance. I believe we all achieve more under the influence of greater ease and grace - moving from stressed to blessed.
I have a wonderful knowing in my heart that “we” are also much better equipped to reach our peak when we are maintaining optimum levels of serotonin, the chemical associated with greater happiness, calm and centeredness, and massage may help to support this “check up from the neck up” too.
And lastly, we all tend to do better and realize more of our potential when we are feeling more motivated, confident and focused-this is the job description of dopamine, another chemical that is supported with massage.
You are here to create a life you love. If you are ready to allow the gift of massage to serve and support the highest expression of you…choose to allow massage to touch your mission and lift your vision to make 2018 the best year of your life yet!
Check out this helpful video from Dr. James Rouse on how to use massage to keep your New Years Intentions.
Dr. James Rouse, Human Touch Wellness Council Member and Naturopathic Physician, shares how he uses the Novo XT massage chair to accomplish his own goals and personal mastery.
By: Dr. James Rouse, Naturopathic Physician and
Human Touch Wellness Council Member
Full disclosure and absolute vulnerability here…have you ever been too tired to keep running but at the same time you felt too scared to stop? I know in my heart that you and I most always have the most powerful and sincerest of intentions to allow for the space of grace to envelope us on demand. Yup, every day we assemble our “to do” list and maybe, just maybe, we courageously insert our self-care towards the end of that long list as an “honorable mention” in the hopes that we may just make it happen.
Then life happens.
No doubt, we are living under the influence of “not enough-ness”. Not enough time, energy, mindfulness and presence. At the end of our daily decathlon we often times find ourselves feeling like we may let ourselves down… again. From there, we can go to the familiar place of finding all the reasons why we missed ourselves… again. Or, we can courageously choose to begin again, right here and now with a self-love, self-care intervention: wellness at the speed of life.
“Oh my, this sounds a bit self-indulgent… a little too self-absorbed…” I get it. How dare you place your SELF at the top of your “to do” list?
How dare you not?
Your ability to rise up each day and create a life you love - one that is awake, present, balanced and fully open to the highest expression of you is fully dependent on your ability to - openly and with enthusiasm - love yourself well-all day long.
Here’s some fun food for thought:
Massage Anywhere: planes, trains and automobiles. Make your commute a moving massage meditation. You will arrive more peaceful, balanced and ready to rock your success. Got lunch? Feed your mind and body the blessing of moving from stressed to blessed… the courageous move from being the human doing to re-claim the human being is done with your Human Touch iJoy Massage Anywhere. Make room for your afternoon delight. As stress hormones love to rise up with each and every email, voicemail and social media engagement, you can lower the drama and raise the positivity while you marinate in massage from your desk, meeting, soccer-mom-dad bleacher seat. All good. Always.
If you’re on the fence as to whether or not you can make the move to the greener pastures of peace, positivity and all out contagion, let me leave you with this: as you make your way into each day living under the influence of your self-care love affair the world will be watching. “They” will follow your lead, you will be a change agent, you will be the leader of the revolution- and you thought this was all about you. Rise and shine wellness warrior!
Do you sometimes feel like it’s hard to measure up to what everyone else is posting online? It can be hard to compare the full-length version of your life with everyone else’s highlight reel. Click the image below to watch this video with Dr. James Rouse to learn how to avoid envy, and to practice mindful engagement with others online.
How much time can you dedicate to your morning ritual?
Here's a practice that will take just 5 minutes - the Morning High 5 – and includes visualization, prayer/mantras, gratitude, reading, and HIIT physical exercise.
Gandhi once said, “There’s More to Life Than Increasing It’s Speed,” and that certainly couldn’t be more true that it is for me today.
Watch this video to learn how you can slow down and enjoy each moment of your life.