Posts tagged ‘methods’
Meditation on the go
A couple of weeks ago I bumped into a video and a related site: One Moment Meditation. Apparently it’s Martin Boroson‘s method to implement meditation and mindfulness for people on the go. I haven’t read the book and I’ve only watched the brief video that doesn’t really give any instructions but I found the idea quite intriguing.
So, I’ve been performing some real life experiments and found the following:
- it IS possible to “meditate” even in a rush hour underground while listening to music!
It’s really quite simple: I just focus on my breathing for a little while. In – and out – and in – and out – simultaneously picturing an empty mind in my head where the breath comes and goes like the wind. Easily and unforced.
A brief moment of meditation or mindfulness might not have the long lasting implications of meditating for years after years but it sure does calm the mind and hence the body is calmed as well. As meditation research has shown, meditation lowers the pulse and blood pressure. Quickly, the stressful or busy or restless feeling is gone and replaced by something happier.
Like there’s always time for (a little) exercise, there’s most definitely always time for meditation as well. No need for fancy pillows or incense, just order it on the go!
Headstand to help shoulder pain?
I was reading International Herald Tribune on our flight back from France on the 3rd of August this year when something interesting caught my eye. Jane E. Brody was writing about treatments that “don’t cost an arm and a leg” in which she describes physiatrist Loren Fishman and his innovative methods.
What in particular was fascinating was a treatment developed for people with shoulder pain by Dr Fishman’s. Since yoga exercises form nowadays a centerpiece for his practice, this one was also a modified yoga pose: a headstand without actually requiring standing on your head. Done only for 30 seconds (sometimes combined with a little physiotherapy) for five different sessions this maneuver should ease the pain caused by a rotator cuff syndrome. The benefits matched and sometimes exceeded those following physical therapy alone or surgery and rehabilitation. ON a follow up yoga treated patients maintained the initial relief for as long as they were studied, up to eight years.
The mechanism behind this method is that the modified headstand trains subscapularis , the muscle below the shoulder blade, to take over the job of the injured muscle, supraspinatus. When normally it’s supraspinatus that raises the arm from below chest height to above the shoulder, after the headstand subscapularis will take that job.
According to Dr. Fishman, this doesn’t work for everybody, like for string musicians whose shoulder muscles are overtrained, but it has helped approximately 90% of his 700 patients. Not bad for a yoga pose!
On Positive Psychology
This piece by Martin Seligman (TED) talking about positive psychology is worth watching. Validates what’s been known in occupational therapy for a long time; life is not at its best being just pleasurable, there has to be meaning.
Note that it’s possible to get the subtitles in English or in Finnish.
https://ted.com/talks/view/id/31211 – Poetic Therapy
I want to share a method of guiding someone – almost anyone – to write a poem. I learned this while studying occupational therapy on an intensive course in Dworp, Belgium in 2006. I’ve used this method for several years with a lot of different kind of people: it works for people with mental handicap, it works for the elderly, it works for people with memory deficits, it works for children, it works for you and it works for me.
You better start out some easier subjects such as animals, colors or seasons. You may then proceed in writing poems about places, people, emotions and finally of yourself. The method is very versatile and pretty quick. You may also use it to create a poem with a group. The guiding questions make it simple to get words out of people. Some of the most epic ones have been made by people with autistic features being composed solely of sounds, not words. Extremely impressive and poetic. Hopefully also empowering.
Today I used this method with a client of mine and I asked whether I could publish her first poem in my blog. I got the idea when she told her favourite subject at school was writing. Here it is in English, originally this was made in Finnish. She said this would be a good way to describe the Finnish autumn for a foreigner from the opposite side of the world. After writing this she analyzed it and read it aloud for her roommate. The roommate thought it was fabulous. The writer was very happy about her poem and in getting something back which she thought was already lost.
Autumn
Colourful, dark.
Allows reading relaxed
It snows early, unexpectedly
Creative.
—-
So here’s the method called Eleven:
1. One word – choose a topic – for example pick an animal
2. Two words – describe the animal
3. Three words – what does the animal do – include a verb
4. Four words – what happens then? Something unexpected or surprising, maybe a twist in the story
5. One word – one, final strong word – how does this thing make you feel? Which word sums it all up?
—
Like this:
A Poem.
Delirius, succint.
Captures a moment
Thinks highly of itself.
The fool.
—
I sincerely hope you write your own poem and send it in the comments.
Meri Pekkanen: Occupational therapy, nutrition and other hot health stuff 
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