The Body Mind Guide, Suite 7, 324 Marrickville Road, Marrickville (2026)

07/08/2021

Childhood trauma is also:

NOT BEING SEEN OR HEARD: Our core human needs are to be seen, heard, + authentically expressed as we are. If we had stressed, overworked, distracted parents (who were deeply struggling themselves) these emotional needs aren’t met. We begin to deny/betray parts of who we actually are in an attempt to get love or approval. As adults this creates a fear of criticism, disconnection from intuition, + confusion around who we actually are.

HAVING A PARENT FIGURE DENY YOUR REALITY: As children, we experience events very differently than adults. When we share our experience with parent figures + they tell us “it wasn’t that bad” or “that didn’t really happen,” we begin to no longer trust ourselves. We start to outsource our reality to people around us. As adults this manifests in relationships where we feel “crazy” or unsure or what’s real.

BEING TOLD DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY YOU CAN’T OR SHOULDN’T EXPERIENCE CERTAIN EMOTIONS: Sounds like— “man up’ “don’t cry” “don’t be dramatic” “stop being so sensitive.” We become conditioned to believe emotions are ‘bad’ + need to be denied to repressed in order to make others comfortable.

HAVING A PARENT FIGURE WHO CAN’T REGULATE THEIR EMOTIONS: looks like— a parent figure who becomes easily overwhelmed + screams, engages in “ghosting” or silent treatment, or uses substances/food/romantic relationships to cope. As children, we need our parent figures to model how to feel ‘big’ emotions. If we don’t get this, we adapt similar coping mechanisms they did.

HAVING A PARENT FIGURE THAT’S FOCUSED ON APPEARANCE: Our parents body image becomes our own internalized body images. The way they speak about their own bodies + our bodies becomes our intently voice. We unconsciously believe our appearance is the way to gain (or lose) love/approval.

HAVING A PARENT FIGURE WHO DOES NOT MODEL BOUNDARIES: we only learn boundaries by witnessing them. If our parent figures didn’t have boundaries or violated our boundaries, we don’t have them as adults. This manifests as relationships where we feel taken advantage, guilty for having our own needs,or resentful. We also don’t understand how to honor others boundaries

28/02/2021

The beauty of Kinesiology is that it’s a mind and body modality.⁣
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This means that when you come to see me, you may want to share things that you haven’t been able to tell anyone else, or that no one else has been able to truly listen to. The process of being heard and held without someone saying, “Don’t worry about it” or giving advice, is incredibly healing.⁣
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For others, they may have done plenty of talking and the story itself may feel exhausting to relay. This is where the body work part of the session comes in. In this case, the focus is more: How is the story affecting you now? Our autonomic nervous system was designed to protect us from danger. I feel a great reverence for our nervous system, as it is hundreds of millions of years old, and originated long before us.⁣
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Emotional stress, when left unresolved, keeps our nervous system in sympathetic activation. Our mind and body are in a chronic state of fighting or fleeing, even though the event may have passed. Part of the work we do together is befriending the nervous system, and finding the tools unique to you to let your body come back to a safety state, where you feel calm and present once again.⁣
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♥️

09/02/2021

Thinking or Feeling?⁣
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We can’t think + feel at the same time.⁣
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- Thinking: Our ‘story’ (thoughts, beliefs, labels, attachments; ‘ego’). - Exists in mind.⁣
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- Feeling: Our sensations (lightness/heaviness, empty/fullness, cool/warm, tingling, heart beat, breath, tightness, tension). - Manifestations of our autonomic nervous system. ⁣
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When releasing emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, etc, see if you can notice the difference between these two levels of self awareness.⁣
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When we feel an emotion, there’s already been a change in our nervous system response, e.g. a set of sensations in our body. By then we may have given this experience a label of ‘anger’, ‘sadness’, etc.⁣
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A huge aspect of healing is slowly, curiously, patiently, compassionately, becoming more familiar and friendly with the sensations in the body. The more we learn to focus on and allow them, the sooner the emotion is able to pass.⁣
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“I am the sky, and my emotions are the clouds that pass through me.”⁣
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☁️ ☁️☀️ ☁️⁣
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Pic: daggy holiday snap of yours truly ♥️

10/11/2020

Curiosity + connection.

How often have our assumptions got lead us to disconnection and arguments? Thinking the worst re: our partner, family member or colleague...

~ Our egos are so good at creating stories though! Convincing ones, too! ~

What’s that old cheeky saying?
“To ass.u.me is to make an ass of u + me.” 🍑

One way I like to overcome this is to replace assumption with curiosity.

Not sure about how someone feels about something? Ask :)

“If you’d like to share, I’m curious to know what you’re feeling/thinking about ... .”

I do this a lot, it leaves zero room for my any ego to try and fill the gaps, e.g. “They must think that’s/it’s/I’m...”

With gentle curiosity we seek to understand. When there is understanding, there is connection. ♥️

05/11/2020

Lunch time sketch ⁣
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P.S. There are more options :)⁣
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How often have you just wanted to be heard, but received (well meaning) advice instead? Did it kind of stunt the feeling?⁣
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How often have you provided well meaning advice to someone upset and it hasn’t seemed to help?⁣
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Validating is key.⁣
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It tells our children’s (and our own) minds that, “It’s okay for me to feel. It’s okay for other people to feel.”⁣
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There is a natural life cycle to all emotions. We tend to get stuck in the tunnel of the emotion if we try to get all logic about it, or carry beliefs around particular emotions. If we allow it, we come out of the tunnel, and the emotion has run it’s (often very short) course. (Think of toddlers who are crying one moment and fine the next. It can be quick 😭🙂)⁣
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I hear people say, “I’m afraid that if I cry I will never stop.” ⁣
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Keeping the cry in compounds the cry, like a pressure cooker. This can produce a feeling of anxiety and/or other secondary emotions. If suppressed long enough, it comes out in other ways (e.g. physically in our behaviours, or symptomatically).⁣
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How are you feeling today? ⁣Share below.
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Love,
Jas⁣

29/10/2020

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21/10/2020

The uncertainty of letting go.⁣
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If this is you, trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be; in the sometimes seamless, sometimes wobbly phase of letting go of the familiar. ⁣
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For some of us, this may be a familiar layer of our ego’s identity that no longer serves us, for example, as being ‘the emotionally dependable one’, ‘the one that will always care’, or ‘the reliable one.’⁣
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A client this week is letting go of the feeling that she needed to ensure her mother was happy, with the understanding that this codependency can so often be mistaken for love. ⁣
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For another client it was about letting go of the identity as the family member who took the blame for everyone else’s feelings.⁣
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In the metal season we respectfully let go of what no longer serves us in the way it used to. This makes way for our destiny (water season) and how to action it (wood season).
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Trees let go of their leaves and move seamlessly through the seasons.

Let’s take a leaf out of that book ;)
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♥️

29/09/2020

Feeling stuck?

When I see people who feel stuck, it can manifest in symptoms of irritability, PMS, waking tired, pain, headaches, inflexibility in the hips, period pain, high blood pressure, depression, reflux, blurred vision, dream-disturbed sleep, and repressed emotions. Combined, these symptoms are called, 'Liver qi stagnation'. Paralleling these symptoms often somewhere in their psyche, is a feeling of being stuck in some aspect of their lives.
While I cannot speak to the individual psychological reasons we feel stuck, as this is related to the subconscious beliefs we individually carry (what we excavate in our sessions), I can certainly speak to the ways in which we move through that state with lifestyle.

4 tips for transforming stagnation into clarity and decisiveness:

1. Move your beautiful human shell.
If you’re not already moving your body and you feel stuck in some way, then a lack of movement will only further compound that feeling. A short walk around your block of 5 minutes, morning and night is an achievable micro habit to form, and often you will want to go further once you’ve begun. Physically, you’ll know you have stagnant pain if it feels better for movement.

2. Sleep before 11pm.
Our liver and gall bladder are doing their best work from 11pm-3am (often when people wake up after drinking alcohol). Going to sleep at this hour may not be achievable if you do shift work, however, there are other ways to support your liver. Ideally, when we sleep at night, our hun, the spiritual aspect of our liver, works to bring insight to us through our dream state. It is here we often find answers, (“I’ll sleep on it”) and the vision required to action our destiny.

3. Greens
The liver is most supported by sour foods and green foods with stalks or sprouts. Squeeze lemon in your water first thing in the morning, throw spinach and asparagus in the pan with your scrambled eggs, enjoy a sour green apple for morning tea, broccoli with your lunch and zucchini, green beans and peas with your dinner. Greens are your friend. Make your body a place for the psycho-spiritual aspect of your liver to feel at home.

4. The doctrine of signatures.
Trees, the manifestation of the liver (or ‘wood element’), have a potent directionality in their branches, moving through obstacles, reaching towards the light. Spend time among trees. We can learn a lot from the steady strength they hold in their trunks, with their concurrent ability to sway with the winds.

Full article: https://innerwisdomkinesiology.com/blog/f/feeling-stuck-in-life

Love, Jas

17/09/2020

I used to think this was B.S.

The Australian Bush Flower Remedies, and Bach Flower Remedies.

Then at some point I started vividly dreaming about them, I’d have a dream of being in an awkward social situation and would hear the words Tall Mulla Mulla in my sleeping state, then Google it in the morning, only to find it was a remedy for feeling comfortable in people’s company.

This happened again and again, even before I knew much about the essences, before I was even practicing.

When I was set to end the lease at our old apartment in Marrickville, I dreamed of Bauhina, which helps with change and transitions. I certainly needed that...

I figured that my subconscious mind, or some higher power was communicating with me in my sleep and figured I’d better listen.

So I bought the stock essences, and here I am making them up, ready to go.

When using them in clinic (which only makes up a very small part of what I do) I’m guided to muscle test row and column (see pictured), not knowing what they are.

It baffles me how accurate they are once we read their meaning.

Sturt Desert Rose came up for a client experiencing chronic pain and was seeking to work with the emotions driving the pain. He deeply resonated with the remedy that showed up for him, as he felt deep guilt about a situation in his past. Long term guilt creates pain in the body, as guilt seeks punishment.

For another client experiencing bitterness towards close family, the same essence came up in two separate sessions, Dagger Hakea, a remedy for forgiveness.

The stories like this are too many to name. So despite my logic brain’s healthy skepticism, I have let these sacred essences into my practice for when there is a calling.

They so beautifully accompany the subconscious work that we do, as well as the stress clearing in the physical body.

They address themes of rejection, sexual shame, holding grudges, ability to let love in, held in personalities, greed, overcommitment, creative block, vagueness, grief...

Everything.

I love them. I hope you find you love them too, as they help support your self-unfolding between and beyond sessions...

♥️

Jas

16/09/2020

Dive into this post if you experience the following:

- bloating
- heaviness
- diarrhoea
- feeling cold
- cold limbs, feet and hands
- nasal congestion
- brain fog
- swelling and puffiness (inc. oedema)
- lethargy
- difficulty getting out of bed in the morning

All of these symptoms combined suggest that your body’s internal environment is humid, or damp. You’re not transforming fluids properly so there is an accumulation of fluids in the body giving rise to what we call ‘Dampness’ from Spleen Qi Deficiency. Stay with me, foggy one.

Because almost 80% of the people I see have some form of Spleen Qi Deficiency (I’ll explain what that means), I wanted to do another post on it. It’s so common 🤪

What is Spleen Qi Deficiency? Think of the Spleen system as responsible for our digestion and transforming fluids. Then think of Qi as warming energy, which in the case of our spleen - its like a our digestive fire.

Now why would you not be transforming fluids, giving rise to all of these symptoms?

Among other reasons, you may be throwing ‘green wood’ on the fire.

Think of the thermal nature of the food you eat, and the drinks you consume. Are they cooling or warming?

Here are some common food diaries I see:

- Banana smoothie for breakfast
- Salad for lunch
- Eggs and avocado on toast
- Coconut water
- Date balls
- Fruit
- Alcohol

Bar the last one, all of these things are technically healthy! It seems like you’re doing right thing… and you are… yet they’re a big NOPE for your Spleen, which is crying out for more cooked, warm foods.

All of the foods listed are either ‘damp’ forming foods, which are raw, sweet or cold in nature (either due to their inherent cooling nature [e.g. cucumber, dairy] or because they’re actually refrigerated or frozen).

Making this small shift to more cooked and warming foods will go a long way.

May your Spleens be warm!

Love Jas xx

Jasmin Choice, Kinesiologist

15/09/2020

5 tips: How to have a better relationship with yourself ♥️⁣
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To relate to ourselves better we first must embrace our shadow side.⁣
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Resisting or fearing our shadow is as effective as resisting the setting sun. ⁣
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Here are 5 things to remember if/when you struggle with a part (or parts) of yourself...⁣
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1. We all have a shadow side.⁣
You wouldn’t be having a human experience if you didn’t.⁣
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2. Bring it in, baby.⁣
You might feel shame about your shadow (normal, there are reasons for this). However, resisting it causes more shame: When you push away a part of yourself, you create a split in your consciousness. The answer? Bring that part of you closer. It could be your anger, your jealousy, your people pleasing, your need for control… it’s cool, bring it in to be soothed. The other way hasn't been working.⁣
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3. Then own it, darling.⁣
Owning it doesn’t mean it comprises all of who you are forever more, or define you. Your shadow side comes from the created self - the ego. This is the part of us we develop as children to get our needs met. Someone’s need for control may stem from not having any as a child. Someone’s current day jealousy may stem from not feeling like a parent loved them as much as a sibling. Someone’s anger might come from never being heard. These are just examples. The point is, our ego is a result of the beliefs and behaviours we adopted based on those formative experiences. Once you own it, you finally give it permission to be healed in the way it deserves to be.⁣
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4. Real self acceptance.⁣
When you embrace your shadow, you are essentially accepting all aspects of yourself. (Love of yourself is therefore not conditional, i.e. “I’ll love myself when…”) This makes it easier to recover from tricky situations where we would normally go into a shame spiral or bout of anxiety.⁣
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5. Relationships will benefit.⁣
Rather than define others by it, or let your ego react as though it is an attack on you, you'll learn to accept the shadow in them. Rather, you’ll see their shadow as the unhealed child within.⁣
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What do you think? I'd love to know if this resonates with you...⁣
xx⁣
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Jas ⁣
Jasmin Choice, Integrative Therapist⁣
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12/09/2020

The role of the heart in overcoming loneliness:
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When we live in our heads, we are often living in the past or future. This future/past headspace inevitably leads to feeling disconnected. ⁣
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Often this disconnection can become loneliness. To overcome this we move out of the mind and back into the heart, essentially reconnecting with our real selves. ⁣
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The heart always beats in present time. It never steals us away to the past or future. ⁣
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To drop into the heart I call upon an image of something I love, like a gnarly old tree, or the cute dove that visited me at my window the other night. ⁣I become familiar with the sensation of love in my body and sit with it for as long as I can.
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Then I let that love into my entire being, from which blossoms a loving connection to myself. From here I am more genuinely available and able to connect with people and the world around me. ⁣
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Loved, loving.⁣
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Present, connected.⁣
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Pic: Me at Crater Lake with my girl, Tahns ⁣
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The Body Mind Guide

07/08/2021

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09/02/2021

10/11/2020

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29/10/2020

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