self care - Darwin Health Care - Darwin Kinesiology Clinic

9 Simple tips to improve your health

13/02/2023 • Uncategorized • by Rena

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Small changes can make a big difference! Try these simple tips and feel the difference in your health and wellbeing.

Drink at least 500mls of water every morning when you wake up. Then drink at least another 2-3 litres throughout the day.
Add vegetables (esp greens) to everything; smoothies, stews, casseroles, sandwiches, to easily increase the nutritional content of your meals.
Add sweetness to your food with cinnamon, and skip the calories from sugar. Plus it helps to curb sugar cravings and enhance insulin.
Stay active, e.g. take the stairs or park your car a little further away. Simple changes like these will help increase your daily exercise without having to schedule extra time.
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Happiness and Joy

24/05/2022 • Uncategorized • by Rena

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As a Kinesiologist a large part of my work with clients includes looking at the emotional aspects of the issue at hand.

Often the word to describe the emotion is very specific. Last week I was working with a lady who needed more “joy” in her life. I had been testing “happiness”, which we had considered as the same, but “joy” definitely tested as the correct word.

There are subtle differences between the two feelings.

Happiness and joy are closely related and frequently occur simultaneously. They both bring feelings of contentment, pleasure and satisfaction, but the reasons for these feelings are where differences lie.

Happiness is an outward expression of bliss and elation and comes from material things and earthly experiences, for example good food or company. Whereas joy is a more inward experience of peace and contentment, from spiritual experiences like feeling connected to a god or people. Joy requires an ongoing process of living a moral, more selfless lifestyle, caring for others and expressing gratitude on a regular basis.

Because happiness is based on outward circumstances, it is often more fleeting. Whereas joyfulness takes longer to cultivate, it is a stronger, longer term state less influenced by life’s ups and downs.

It’s worth your time, effort and energy to cultivate more happiness and joy in your life. There are health benefits, including; stronger immune systems, lower heart rate and blood pressure, fewer aches and pains and longer life spans.

Here are some simple hints to integrate more happiness and joy in your life. Read More…

Celebrate your wins

18/01/2022 • Uncategorized • by Rena

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In the water at Casuarina Beach

Celebrating your wins is an important step on the journey to achieving your goals.

Pausing to congratulate yourself for following through on your new habit or goal buoys your energy and enthusiasm, and keeps you going. Think how a sporting team is inspired by cheering from supporters.

Periodically taking time to notice how far you’ve come builds confidence. Reflect on your successes and mistakes, so you can apply lessons to new goals and challenges.

Celebrate with friends and colleagues, thank them for their help and support along the way – you may even inspire them to achieve their own goals.

A little self-promotion is good thing too. It shows you have confidence in yourself and other people may want to place their trust in you.

The more you celebrate, the more you have to celebrate!

A celebration can be as simple as a daily self-congratulation for taking action to achieve your goals or following through with new habits. Then choose bigger rewards or celebrations for bigger achievements.

Celebrate each kilo lost, each fear faced, improvements in speed or efficiency and watch your commitment to achieving improve.

It takes more than one thing to heal

18/11/2021 • Uncategorized • by Rena

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8 Dimensions of health

People often think of healing only in terms of physical health but there are more aspects that should be considered!

Holistic health is linked to the choices and actions we take to bring together different dimensions to work in harmony: nurturing the spirit, engaging the mind as well as addressing physical aspects of good health. Importantly, it is also an awareness of the physical, social and cultural environments in which we live.

Eight dimensions of wellness should be considered when we strive to heal ourselves from injury or illness, neglecting one will eventually adversely affect another. Read More…

Multitasking? Stop it!

13/09/2021 • Uncategorized • by Rena

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For a long time I considered myself an expert at multi-tasking. I often would be working on 3 or more tasks at the same time, thinking I was being productive. As a single mum and small business owner I figured multi-tasking the best way of getting everything done. Wrong!

It made me constantly stressed and tired. I made mistakes that I then beat myself up about, and, worst of all, I often over cooked or burnt dinner.

Then one day I read a list of “Zen things” and at the top of the list was “Do one thing at a time”. I started putting this into practice and discovered that I was much more efficient and productive, made less mistakes and produced better quality results (and meals). Admittedly, it took me a while to develop this new habit and even now I sometimes have to remind myself to stay focused, but it has been well worth the effort.

I did some research to find if other people had similar results and here’s what I found…. Read More…

Maintaining Mobility

17/08/2021 • Uncategorized • by Rena

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Swimming at Darwin Waterfront – Rena Walker in the lagoon

Staying active is one of the most important tools for leading a long, healthy life, however, when pain strikes, it becomes challenging to maintain your activity. Injury and pain often occurs because of a lack of mobility and flexibility.

When I work with my clients I define flexibility as the ability of a muscle to be lengthened and mobility as the ability to move through your full range of motion efficiently and comfortably.

In this context true mobility requires a combination of flexibility, balance, coordination, control and strength. Muscles and tissues need to lengthen, as well as work together to activate and relax in a coordinated way to allow smooth, controlled movement throughout the full range. This requires the neuromuscular system (the communication system between the brain and muscles) to be working effectively. Read More…

Holding too tight?

19/11/2018 • Mental wellbeing, self care, stress, Uncategorized • by Rena

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When I was a child, I often had the comment “Rena tries too hard” on my report cards. I remember thinking what a ridiculous comment to make. How could you ‘try too hard’? Weren’t you supposed to try hard?

As an adult I better understand what the teachers meant, but there are still times when I need to remind myself that, rather than continuing to push through frustration, it’s better to pause, take a breath, relax and reassess.

In a kinesiology session a few weeks ago, a similar problem surfaced for a client. As we were discussing the issue, some advice I was given by a cycling friend came to mind which served as a great metaphor to describe the concept. So, I thought I would share it here…. Read More…

Kefir breakfast

11/10/2016 • General wellbeing, Nutrition, Uncategorized • by Rena

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I love the probiotic goodness of kefir, so I consume it regularly. I also prefer variety in my diet so I have created a couple of recipes to use kefir in a variety of ways. This simple recipe is just as good whether you use kefir made from coconut milk or cow milk. I include dried fruit in my recipe to assist with energy for my exercise schedule, plus I personally enjoy the sweet flavour burst from the sultanas. If you’re concerned about your sugar intake, leave out the dried fruit, it still tastes great! Read More…

Balancing our energy is like balancing our finances

30/09/2016 • Uncategorized • by Rena

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When it comes to our finances, ideally we want the flow of money to be higher income than expenditure. If the flow is in the right balance we have “left overs” that we can bank and keep in reserve for harder times. If the hard times go on for a long time we use up all our reserves and start going into debt. The further into debt we slide the harder it is to come out of. We know that once our finances are back into the right balance we know that it will take time to firstly get out of debt and then to build up reserves again.

In our youth our bodies are quite good at producing more energy than is expended, and we can easily build up reserves. When we hit a period of extra demand on our energy, we have the reserves there to handle the extra drain. For example when we’re young we can pull a series of all-nighters for work or uni and survive quite well afterwards. Unfortunately, this can lull us into a false sense of security, we mistakenly think that because we managed so well in the past, we can continue to use up our energy without acknowledging it needs to be replenished at some stage.

As we age, our body becomes less efficient at energy production and our ability to produce more energy than we use is diminished. If we are moderately healthy, we may be producing enough energy to sustain our normal day to day energy expenditure but not enough to build up reserves. Many of us have health issues that mean our ability to produce energy is so diminished that we are not even producing enough to sustain our “normal” activity. If we continue to drain our energy faster than it’s replaced, we will start heading into energy “debt”. And, the longer we continue this pattern, the further into debt we slide.

We are like our mobile phones!?!

30/09/2016 • Uncategorized • by Rena

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When you buy a mobile phone it comes with default settings. Over time you download a variety of apps to help you to use the phone more efficiently. When something happens and your phone needs repair, it usually comes back with the default factory settings and you have to download all your favourite apps again.

The advantage is that now you know which apps are the most useful and you only download those, not bothering with the ones that you rarely or never use. You might also download a few new and different ones because you want to test them out and see if they will be helpful. So now you have a phone that is functioning even better than before.