When Our Community Changes

July 10, 2012 by 9 Comments

Patty-Kikos-CommunityAre you enjoying the cold? I don’t mind it so much this year despite the fact that it feels a little icy at times. I seem to enjoy curling up with a good book a little more than strolling along the coast these days and despite this, I still feel very much connected to my tribe. One of my clients was chatting to me the other day about the importance of community and how important it is to have one, especially when your personal or professional circumstances change.

His own personal environments had changed dramatically when he embarked on some lifestyle changes that included a radical health overhaul, as well as the demise of his relationship. One of the things that came up in his kinesiology session was a longing to belong, and in his case, the trigger was the lack of supportive community around him.

From the moment our umbilical chord is cut, we have a longing to reconnect, and depending on our personality of course, this manifests in different ways, either by relating through a person, an organization or even by studying. [Read more...]

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Winter Chills

June 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

winter-umbrella-patty-kikosThe ancient Chinese believed that human beings should live in harmony with the natural cycles of their environment. The cold and darkness of winter urges us to slow down. This is the time of year to reflect on our health, replenish our energy, and conserve our strength.

Winter is Yin in nature; it is inactive, cold, and damp. Remain introspective, restful, and consolidate your Qi through the season and prepare for the outburst of new life and energy in the spring.

“The wise nourish life by flowing with the four seasons and adapting to cold or heat, by harmonizing joy and anger in a tranquil dwelling, by balancing yin and yang, and what is hard and soft. So it is that dissolute evil cannot reach the man of wisdom, and he will be witness to a long life.” – Huangdi Neijing Suwen

Element: Water

Nature: Yin

Organs: Kidney, Urinary Bladder, Adrenal Glands, Ears, and Hair

Taste: Salty

Emotion: Fear and Depression

Winter is ruled by the water element, which is associated with the kidneys, bladder, and adrenal glands.  [Read more...]

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Golden Milk

June 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

patty-kikos-golden-milk

Now that it’s starting to get a little chilly in Australia, one of the best ways to help your body lubricate its joints is with Golden Milk. The almond oil is a very important part of this recipe. Turmeric is called “the internal healer” with natural antibiotic properties in Ayurveda. It is also a blood purifier and is best known for its ability to help the female reproductive organs. Some research indicates that turmeric may be of value in preventing diabetes and cancer.

Ingredients:

1/8 tsp Turmeric

1/4 cup Water

8 oz Milk

2 Tbsp Almond Oil

Honey or Maple Syrup to taste [Read more...]

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20 Health Benefits of Turmeric

June 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. Tumeric has been used for over 2500 years in India, where it was most likely first used as a dye.

patty-kikos-turmericThe medicinal properties of this spice have been slowly revealing themselves over the centuries. Long known for its anti-inflammatory properties, recent research has revealed that turmeric is a natural wonder, proving beneficial in the treatment of many different health conditions from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease.

Here are 20 reasons to add turmeric to your diet:

1. It is a natural antiseptic and antibacterial agent, useful in disinfecting cuts and burns.

2. When combined with cauliflower, it has shown to prevent prostate cancer and stop the growth of existing prostate cancer.

3. Prevented breast cancer from spreading to the lungs in mice.

4. May prevent melanoma and cause existing melanoma cells to commit suicide.

5. Reduces the risk of childhood leukaemia. [Read more...]

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Thanks

June 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Patty Kikos GratitudeGratitude is something that I try to cultivate on a daily basis, especially in my yoga practice and in my practice as a kinesiologist. It is often said that through the mindfulness practice of gratitude, one is able to rejoice amidst all life’s suffering.

The Buddha taught that every human birth is precious and worthy of gratitude. In one of his well-known analogies, he said that receiving a human birth is more rare than the chance that a blind turtle floating in the ocean would stick its head through a small hoop.

The practice of gratitude does not deny the challenges we face everyday, especially as we live in troubling times, and so many of us have experienced many challenges, uncertainties, and disappointments in our life. [Read more...]

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Be Anyone You Want To Be

May 15, 2012 by 2 Comments

Be who you want to be

We are very fortunate to live in a time and place where few of us are limited by what we can do, study or even ‘be’. Gone are the days when your role was very much defined for you by the standards of the society you were part of.  Our life experiences help shape our personality but the way we are treated by others is also a huge contributing factor in how we value ourselves.

For many of my friends and clients that were married over 20, 30 or even 40 years ago, the options not to be the main breadwinner for a male, or the homemaker for a female were few and far between. The concept of studying and completely changing a career path after 30 or 40? Absolutely unheard of!

In this day and age, it is almost expected that we will try a few different things in terms of our vocation and even life experiences. In fact, it adds a certain chutzpah to our street cred. [Read more...]

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Autumn Changes

April 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment

AutumnAutumn is a time of transformation, from play to study, from outward to inward, from life to death. Nature does a lot of shedding during autumn and likewise, the lungs and large intestine are responsible for releasing, cleansing, letting go of stuff from the body.

If we look after these organs effectively during autumn, they can do their job properly and we can eliminate toxins promptly.

Element: Metal

Organs: Lung and Large Intestine

Emotion: Sadness & Grief

Autumn is a time when we settle back into routine. The summer’s ease and freedom give way to school schedules, more formal relationships and a sense that life is getting back to normal. This sense is a key theme in the Metal element, as the metal element feels comfortable with the maintenance of boundaries and a return to the norm.

Autumn is also a time of harvest, where fruit separates from the tree and vegetables are dug up to be stored for winter. In a sense, the Metal element brings us to a place of harvest as the sunny summer experiences are gathered and stowed in preparation for the long cold winter. [Read more...]

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Is Our Weakest Link Our Strength?

March 7, 2012 by 1 Comment

Our Weakest LinkHave you noticed how much we avoid being uncomfortable in life?  It seems that many of us work very hard to create a life where we are surrounded by people we love and for the most part tend to cocoon ourselves in the bubble of a very cushy comfort zone.

But sure enough a spanner will inevitably be thrown into the works where our perception of ourselves and even the way others perceive us will be questioned. We question things like:

• What do we really excel at?

• What are our challenges?

• Is our life set up so we don’t grow and shift old habits?

• How do we respond when someone challenges us?

How do we handle it when somebody comes into our life and threatens to burst our little bubble of comfort, and confidence? Certain people are unavoidable and they seem to fall into the category of either a new love, their best friend, a newly acquainted brother or sister in law, a disapproving mother in law, or a new boss. [Read more...]

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Embracing Our Shadow

February 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Embracing our shadowIn anything that we do, the shadow side of our personality often gets sidelined for the part of us that is more ‘acceptable’ to society. If we don’t acknowledge the shadow part of our personality, it rears its head with the people and the situations that we manifest in our lives.

If we are polarized, we become like a magnet drawing towards the opposite pole and as a result, we attract others who personify our rejected shadow. Think of the people that challenge you most in your life such as your boss, co-workers, siblings, parents, children, friends or lovers – what part of their personality do they embody that is actually a reflection of a part of you?

If we have rejected our own personal power, our boss is likely to be a bully, as we need to learn to stand up for ourselves. If we are generous and kind to a fault, we are more likely to meet someone that is frugal and withholding so that we implement boundaries in our life.

Our shadow will inevitably roar up from a situation that either makes us uncomfortable or in a setting when we are ready to shift a belief structure that no longer supports us. “One does not become enlightened by imaging figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious” Carl Jung. [Read more...]

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Is a 50/50 Split Always Equal?

February 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Is a 50/50 split always equal?For most of us women that live in a western world we have been told that we have equal rights to men. Women can be doctors, lawyers, and company directors; in fact we even have a female Prime Minister, but is a 50 / 50 split always equal?

One of my kinesiology clients had been self-employed for many years and when he first started dating his partner, there was an assumption made by both that all costs would be split down the middle. Except that his salary was less than half of hers.

He tells me that it took a year of dating before he realised that his ego had not allowed him to voice the fact that he simply was not able to keep up with her more expensive lifestyle. His interpretation of what her expectations were of him, were based on the fact that he simply never shared the reality of his finances with her.

Through kinesiology, we explored further and discovered that their lifestyles were also very different when they were both single. He is a Pilates instructor with a modest income and a minimalist lifestyle.  She is a Corporate Executive with a 6-figure salary and a vast disposable income. [Read more...]

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