Building Healthier Habits

With 5 months cigarette-free under my belt, all the major withdrawal effects had eased (e.g. sleep changes, touchy digestion, sensitive skin, circulation issues, etc. — for more information about the physical effect of quitting smoking check out www.healdove.com) and my new orthotics were being utilized on the daily. I still wanted to actively help my healing along so I booked an appointment with Susie Price, RMT.

My appointment with Susie was unlike any other massage appointment I had ever experienced. Because my purpose was for support around smoking cessation it made perfect sense that she targeted my lungs and liver to stimulate detox and help loosen all the tar and crap lingering in my body. We also talked a lot about my body (mainly my posture and largest organ, my skin), current physical limitations and my hopes and goals for the future. I found this discussion very helpful in the weeks to follow — it influenced my intention and personal awareness, the bottom line being building healthier habits.

Around the same time I was finishing up a class at a local pottery studio (see above images, completed pots included) and I started a new series of Hatha Yoga classes, with Susie’s observations fresh on my mind I set out to make daily intentions to bring more awareness around building healthier habits in my life. I could see the importance of building healthy habits at the pottery studio, but what about just for me?

The journal entry below was my resulting image(s) from the yoga series and it really helped me answer that question. I felt the weekly themes, the teacher’s words and presence, and the physical practice complimented my current intention and focus well. In those moments I craved a ciggy-break, my journal was beginning to hold many comforting and inspiring reminders that I didn’t really need it anymore.

Inspired by the final session in the yoga series, I took the opportunity to reassess my priorities in life. Taking time to reassess periodically, like re-grounding or re-centering, is never a bad idea. Using the same rainbow bulls-eye image (above) I filled each layer with a focus; starting with myself, each layer slightly larger than myself, all guided by the question, ‘Who/what do you practice for?’

The entry above is just for you. My bulls-eye was for me and mine only but I found it such a helpful and informative activity I had to share it. Curious to see what occupies your Priorities Bulls-eye?

Integrative Support

If you’ve ever wondered what the ‘integrative’ of Northwest Integrative Healthcare Centre looks like, here’s one glimpse. In my last acupuncture session with Dr. Griffith she mentioned that if I booked an appointment with Susie I should book a follow-up with her. I gave permission to both Dr. Griffith and Susie Price to chat about my case. The result was several 20-minute nebulizer sessions in a quiet private room at NIHC. The image to the right is the resulting doodle completed during one session.

Have you ever leaned over a pot of boiling water, thrown a towel over your head and inhaled the steam? A nebulizer treatment is essentially the same thing, only it’s a mask and a machine to get a straight shot of medicine to your lungs. My nebulizer treatment contained Glutathione (a sulphur-based chemical found naturally in the liver) and a herbal remedy for inflammation, pain and my lymphatic system. The sulphur smell was barely noticeable and, with my journal to doodle in or a book to read, the sessions went by quickly. The above drawing was not significant in itself but the image drawn on the other side left a transfer of bright colours over the poem I wrote to accompany my nebulizer-doodle.

What was the image drawn on the other side? Well, in the context of change, I had been trying to experience life with radical openness, a willingness to consider environmental and/or social feedback that I may need to change. This required courage and was the opposite of complacency, passivity or resignation. It was freedom from being stuck, it was finding my edge, and gaining confidence to make active and empowered choices.

During this time the buzz phrase going around NIHC was:

The colourful transfer that occurred after this wellness entry felt like a creative gift and it made me smile. So too the environmental and social feedback I was becoming aware of. At the beginning of my journey the idea of living life without cigarettes was terrifying. Now, I was not only living my life without cigarettes, I was learning to be aware of and open to feedback and change in a positive and bright new way. Not a bad start to building healthier habits, eh?!

“Creativity takes courage.” Henri Matisse

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