Grounding in times of stress

/in , /by

Right now, we are witnessing so much discord around the world. This type of violence has brought many of us to our knees for many different reasons.
At a time like this it is even more important to care for ourselves in little ways that can keep us in the present moment and keep as calm as we can, when we can.

If you’ve ever felt what it is like to have the coffee jitters, difficulty concentrating, being clumsy or forgetful then you know what it feels like to feel un-grounded.

Here are my tips for staying calm during the storms of life:

  1. Breathe. This is the most important thing you can do for yourself and others around you. Feel the air going down into your hips. Don’t imagine, FEEL.
  2. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach and feel your body under your hands, don’t change anything, just feel and breathe. Do this for 5 min or more. This is really powerful when you dedicate yourself to it for just a few minutes.
  3. Feel your feet. If you’re standing or sitting don’t cross your legs or shift from side to side, sit/stand with both feet flat on the ground (use a step stool to help with back pain). Simply stand/sit and feel your feet. That brings your energy down to the earth grounding you.

Notice yourself becoming anxious and take one or more of the steps above to bring yourself back to a calmer headspace.

If you would like some additional support in grounding, healing or even letting go of past trauma, please feel free to reach out to me directly at 647.801.2424 for a complimentary consultation or feel free to email me at apanabodywork@gmail.com.

Freedom From Resistance

/in , , /by

Sounds like defeat to most people. It makes one think of going to war and throwing one’s hands up while they wave the white flag.  As a healer for the past 17 years, I notice it’s something that people struggle with in particular. We live in a society where control and dominance reign supreme and letting go of control feels precarious. Our brains are wired to keep us safe and alive and surrender goes against all of that. 

In a spiritual practice, however, surrender is known to bring the ultimate peace. It’s when we stop fighting against what is and accept it; we melt into what is.  The challenge is, even if we are sold on the benefits of surrendering, how do we do it? 

Basically, the more we let go, the more we are in the flow of the universe (whatever that might mean to you). The act of surrender is something that may help you to release resistance.   Again, we have so much programming that stops us from letting go and it does take a pretty strong intention and some safe space to do it. It’s also not a switch, it’s not like we can turn our resistance off so to speak, it’s more like a dimmer switch: bit by bit, allowing yourself to let go.

Surrender isn’t about defeat. It’s about trust. Trusting in something that is far beyond our comprehension, something that is guiding us toward our greatest healing, growth and ultimately our truest selves. Let us start with the mind; Setting a powerful and clear intention for your surrendering practice can be all you need to get started. Now turning our attention to our body, feeling our body, and releasing all the air out would be a way to surrender, allowing the body to become just a bit heavier, deflate the body bag with each exhale we’re dropping down into whatever is holding us up. Softening each muscle of the body and allowing ourselves to just be here now.

The spiritual part of us is always there and is waiting for the opportunity to come through the top of our heads and to fill up the entire body with beautiful energy.  It may feel like a subtle buzzing current or warmth.   It’s the effort of no effort. We make a choice and then let it go. We keep dropping down into the chair or floor you’re lying on, bit by bit, muscle by muscle, choice by choice to be led by the unconditionally loving and wise part of you. You’re higher self, the part of us that knows just what we need, when we need it. 

So, next time you’re feeling overwhelmed, exhausted or just curious, lie down on your bed with the intention to surrender.

  1. Close your eyes and go inside your body, feel your heart space.
  2. Start noticing your breath, feeling your breath. Following it in and out.
  3. Become aware of your back body, feeling where your back meets the bed/mat.
  4. Start letting go, softening, releasing, muscles starting from the back of your head, neck, shoulders and all the way down the body through the stomach, hips, thighs, calves and finally your feet. You’re feeling into that place in your body and being present with it, allowing it to release more and more as you breath.
  5. Reminding yourself that there is a higher force at play that will take over this healing for you. You only need to intend for the surrender and healing and then let it do it’s job. You’re not doing anything, actually , the less you do, the better. You may fall asleep, you may see colours, you may experience seeing images or simply feel very relaxed. All of these experiences are normal and each time will be different as you continue to play with this process of surrender.
  6. Let me know how it went and if you have any questions about how to surrender, find me at apanabodywork.com 

To your greatest healing, 

Madeleine Chevrier

Trauma and Memory

/in , , , , /by

Trauma and memory often go hand in hand. Many trauma sufferers have gone to psychotherapy and it has helped them greatly. I don’t typically see those people. The trauma sufferers I see are those who have tried psychotherapy at length and found little to no relief.  The symptoms of trauma that I typically observe in my practice are: internal spinning or a sense of constant agitation, feeling ungrounded, heightened emotional triggers, mood swings, anger, anxiety, trouble sleeping, brain fog, low energy and relationship strain. There are many other symptoms but these tend to be the most common ones.

Basically, the person doesn’t feel like themselves since the trauma and they’ve tried to get themselves “back on track” but all the usual coping mechanisms of yoga, meditation, and therapy just aren’t working for them anymore. It’s very frustrating for them, and to be honest, they’re usually close to giving up and I’m their last-ditch effort.

I totally get it, I was once them. I didn’t think Trame Vibrational Therapy was any different than the dozens of other alternative therapies I had tried. My response was like: “yeah yeah…okay I’ll try it”. That was how I used to feel but let’s focus on the results of my past clients.

My past client’s name is Connor. He was a middle-aged exceedingly successful entrepreneur who would get these intense flashbacks of the sexual abuse he endured as a child. He would be walking his dog and bam, he’d be struck by these memories. Connor was able to function well but he was always wary about a flashback around the next corner.

 I explained to Connor that we can never clear out the actual traumatic memory, that’s called brainwashing. We don’t do that here! What we can do is clear out the raw energy of the memory so that it stops taking up precious space within your body. This is the feeling of internal spinning or a sense of constant agitation I was referring to earlier, that most of my clients complain of.  During Trame Treatments, the raw energy of the trauma begins to be cleared and the trauma sufferer begins to feel relief. They aren’t constantly perceiving this intense emotional energy inside of them spinning constantly. It starts to create clarity, emotional calm and changing perspectives.

Here is the tricky thing about traumatic memories: they replay over and over. Your body doesn’t ‘know’ that the trauma is over.  It perceives it in the present moment because there is an ongoing energy that is being picked up. AKA the internal spinning/agitation. When the raw energy of the trauma is stuck inside the body, the trauma movie replays again and again leaving the person in such a state of turmoil and suffering.

So how does Trame Vibrational therapy help clear out the raw energy of the trauma? It’s not magic. It’s quantum physics and alchemy together and it works on all living things, not just us. Basically, it works through intention and through connecting with the client’s specific vibration at each of the sixteen hand positions. I tune in and then I clear out vibrations or frequencies that have been accumulated over time. The other hand positions, I am aligning your Trame or grid. This allows for proper communication within your body but also empowers the person to make choices that are in alignment with their true selves. Without getting too technical, it brings the body back to homeostasis or balance and most people wake from their session saying ‘wow’ because they were transported to another place they haven’t been.

Here is more information about Trame Vibrational Therapy.

 Trame is not a magic bullet; nothing is. However, it is a treatment that allows the trauma sufferer to clear out the energy of the trauma without reliving it and it gives the person an opening to make changes in their lives. Ultimately, what the person does with that opening is up to them. Everyone has free will. The choice to do what they want with their lives and how they choose to integrate their sessions is no different.

So, what happened with Connor? He had three Trame sessions and all his traumatic flashbacks were gone, as in, never came back again. Connor went about his life no longer worried of what flashback was around the corner. He was ready to clear very the energy of the trauma and that’s exactly what happened.

I’ll tell you what happened with Connor. He decided to try three sessions of Trame Vibrational Therapy. Yes, it was completely outside his comfort zone as his inclinations were more towards sports and sweeping these emotions under the rug. I guess he got curious.

*The names in this blog post have been changed in order to protect the identity of the individuals*

Our Faith in Doctors can be dangerous

/in , , /by

I thought I was over this. Once again a doctor has made me scared.

A routine eye exam with my daughter, just making sure she doesn’t need glasses and that the vision in her right eye isn’t getting worse. When she was two she was diagnosed with strabismus. It’s a lack of convergence of the eyes so it makes it difficult to focus on an object or see properly.

For my Zoe, this means that she’ll be walking along and walk right into something or trip over a curb on the street. She’s a trooper, she doesn’t cry and just pops right back up with a smile on her face but it makes my stomach sink every time.

As the doc told me yesterday, if the two images from the right and left eye aren’t similar, the brain can’t put them together and use that information. I always knew that the brain did this magic trick where the image from the left eye and the image of the right eye formed this totally new picture that in reality didn’t even exist. If we think of Wayne’s world,” camera one, camera two”, this is what the brain has to do to integrate both images.

So this is all good, the appointment is humming along, I’m forecasting a lollypop for good behaviour. That’s when she hits me with the suggestion that Zoe wears protective goggles.

What… Why? That was my reaction.

This would be to make sure that her “good eye” doesn’t get poked out or something leaving her with no good eyes in the good doctor’s opinion.  Okay so they would be regular glasses but that’s not the point. The point is that once again I’m made to FEAR something bad happening to my daughter.

So frustrating.

This fear-based approach made me more than a little angry because it brought back the totally unilateral recommendation to pull the plug on Zoe after her devastating MRI results came back nine years ago.

If I had listened to the Doctor’s opinion and recommendation years ago, Zoe would of slowly been dehydrated to death. All under medical supervision.

I am so disgusted with the medical practices at times.

Nine years ago was one of those times and yesterday just reminded me of the thought process that can create havoc in one’s life.

Let us spread some prevention and hope instead of fear when caring for ourselves and our children.

I refuse to accept this opinion even if she went to medical school. I choose to trust my gut instead of her fear-based intellectualization of the situation.

For parents dealing with a special needs child, my heart goes out to you. We think we’re over getting upset by what doctors say to us but in order to make a good decision. We have to take in all the information and make a decision for what’s best for our child.

If I might share advice from what I’ve learnt along the way: Trust yourself first and foremost. Your gut will guide you.

Contact me at 647.801.2424 for a free thirty-minute ‘Heal your Heart’ consultation. I’d be happy to assist in clearing out the old pains in a painless way.

Staying Grounded & Calm

/in , /by

If you’ve ever felt what it is like to have the coffee jitters, ants in your pants or trouble falling asleep, then you know what it’s like to feel un-grounded.  This is a feeling we can all relate to but may not know what to name it.

On the other hand, if you’ve felt what it’s like to lay on the beach, swim in the ocean or hike up a mountain, then you also know what it’s like to feel grounded. It’s the difference between coming out of your skin and melting into your bed at the end of the day.

Using the Power of Nature to Ground Us During Uncertain Times

The reason the ocean, sand and mountains are all conducive to feeling comfortable in your skin is because these are natural sources of negative electrons. The same holds true for salt lamps, Epsom salt baths and trail walking. I’ve heard that salt lamps near a child’s bedside can help soothe the little ones to sleep.

We can use the power of nature to help ground us when we really need it. Right now, we are in the last week of March 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many of us to our knees for many different reasons. I don’t know about how you are getting through this tough time but as for me, my goal is to stay away from panic and anxiety. As a single mom and a business owner this has been and will challenge me more than I understand at this point. I just keep bringing myself back to feeling grounded and centered using the tools I’ve learnt over the many years of attending courses in CFQ Qigong, meditation and energy healing.

Here Are My Tips for Staying Calm During The Storms of Life:

  1. This is the most important thing you can do for yourself and others around you. Feel the air going down into your hips. Don’t imagine, FEEL.
  2. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach and feel your body under your hands, don’t change anything, just feel and breathe. Do this for 5 min or more. This is really powerful when you dedicate yourself to it for just a few minutes.
  3. Feel your feet. If you’re standing or sitting don’t cross your legs or shift from side to side, sit/stand with both feet flat on the ground (use a step stool to help with back pain). Simply stand/sit and feel your feet. That brings your energy down to the earth, grounding you.

Pay attention and when you notice yourself becoming un-grounded take one or more of the steps above to bring yourself back to a calmer headspace.

To your well-being,

Madeleine

Are You Showing Up as Your Truest Self?

/in , , , , , /by

How Trame Vibrational Therapy Can Help You Heal Your Mind and Body

Vulnerability has been researched extensively by one of my favourite experts on all taboo topics – Brene Brown. Leading by example during her TED talk that became the Top 10 most viewed in the world, she put herself out there confessing that she didn’t agree with her research findings. She has studied vulnerability for the past twelve years and has empirically proven that vulnerability at its core requires courage and simply can’t exist otherwise.

I don’t know about you but for me vulnerability didn’t come easy and still takes a few deep breaths to conjure the strength to put myself “out there” in moments when I’d rather put a wall up or pretend otherwise.

We are all Imperfectly Perfect

The reason I believe this topic is so important is that we live in a culture where we are starved for real connections. We are all-tech-all-the-time and little face to face time. We are going a million miles a minute and crave human contact, but we can’t really connect if we’re faking it or holding back our true selves. It is important to get comfortable in our own imperfect skin so that we can show up more as who we are, in order to reap the social rewards.

We all have people in our lives that being completely ourselves comes naturally and then we have the relationships where we feel we have to put our best foot forward and strive toward perfection.

So how do we show up as our true selves when we are in front of people who expect us to be flawless? How do we shed all the layers of false beliefs that tell us we are not good enough and really show up as who we really are?

It’s entirely possible.

One Step at a Time

With a focus on personal development and the right tools, you’d be surprised at how quickly your internal world changes for the better.

I’ve seen clients in my practice that come in with laundry lists of issues like physical pain, depression/anxiety, difficulty communicating or relating to their kids or spouses, stress, difficulty getting motivated in their businesses, and so on.

Sounds like a lot to “fix” right?

It’s a lot simpler than drudging through all the issues and dissecting them at length. In my practice, it’s about recalibrating the individual so that their own innate intelligence takes care of the healing.

So how do we get this done? Trame Vibrational Technique.

Trame Vibrational Therapy

Trame is vibrational medicine. Just like a musical instrument that requires periodic tuning, so do you! We are very complex instruments that can play off key at times and this only means we need a tune up.

Signs you may need a vibrational tune up:

  • Lack of mental clarity
  • Re-living the past
  • Anxiety/depression
  • Lack of energy
  • Difficulty focusing
  • Issues with Sleep
  • Inability to settle
  • Pain in the body

And the list goes on!

As Albert Einstein once said, “the future of medicine will be the medicine of frequencies.” Trame Vibrational therapy is just that – a big step toward balance, harmony and re-setting the nervous system so that the body can heal itself.

Feeling empowered enough to be vulnerable no matter where you are or who you’re with is something that I’ve witnessed in my practice even when clients weren’t looking for it. They show up confidently with their children as well as at work, they become more resilient to very stressful situations, and they learn about themselves. But most importantly they are happier and feel more like themselves. Personal growth is why I do what I do. I know the pain of not showing up as myself fully and I want to share that gift with others.

Let’s Connect

If you’re looking to shed some layers that are holding you back from fully expressing who you are in the world, book your complimentary 30-minute consultation and learn how this is easier than you think.

I invite you to share your experience or ask questions in the comments. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and join our newsletter for health inspirations and tips. My YouTube Channel is also an amazing place to connect and learn.

To our health & wellbeing,

Madeleine

Healing Trauma in Children with Trame Vibrational Therapy

/in , , , , /by

Has your Child Experienced Trauma? 

First of all, you’re not a bad parent. Sometimes things happen that are out of our control and as parents we simply do the best we can in the circumstances we find ourselves in. Helping heal trauma in children is a topic that I take very seriously.  

In fact, my own daughter had a brain injury at birth resulting from oxygen deprivation. The cord was wrapped tightly around her ankles and doctors didn’t detect it until I was in labor. So – I hear you! I know what it’s like to want to do everything in your power to help your child heal. 

As parents, we always want the very best for our kids. But what can you do if your child is too young to talk through their fears or challenges? Luckily, I have a highly effective, yet gentle treatment to offer you – it is called Trame Vibrational Therapy. 

How Can Trame Vibrational Therapy Help your Child? 

This is a gentle hands-on treatment that takes between 15-35 minutes depending on the age of your child. This treatment resets the nervous system and clears out cellular blockages. Blockages are caused by unresolved emotions, physical injury and negative beliefs. This treatment will also re-align the body’s blueprint. This blueprint controls all of the information and energy that travels through the body and organizes the body from start to finish. 

After a traumatic experience these blockages can get stuck in the body – thus creating chaos. Children and even adults can find it extremely challenging to describe what they are feeling inside. Once the treatment is over, balance is restored and cellular memories and blockages left behind from trauma will be cleared out. Then, the body will undergo an integration period that lasts up to forty days. During this time, the body will adjust to its new condition, in order to reach its natural harmony and state of empowerment once again.  

What is Involved in this Treatment? 

For children, this treatment may involve talking, moving around, and an ebb and flow (depending on the child). This is so that we are able to get all the hand positions completed. 

I’ve treated children that have experienced serious trauma such as – the loss of a parent, kids who have been bullied or made to feel unaccepted by their peers, and even those that wanted to avoid taking medication for their symptoms. I also have extensive experience working with children with severe autism.  

I invite you to share your experience or ask questions in the comments. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and join our newsletter for health inspirations and tips. My YouTube Channel is also an amazing place to connect and learn. 

To our health & wellbeing, 

Madeleine 

Overwhelmed?

/in /by
Read more

What Gives You Satisfaction?

/in , /by

It’s those little things that do it for you, am I right?

Perforated edges, getting the last cookie or sitting down at the very start of TV movie that you wanted to see in the theatre. Woo hoo!

When we’re in a sour mood or things aren’t going our way we often forget to do those little things that make us happy and we also stop attracting those amazing moments when things just line up for us.

So, what happened?

The law of attraction says “like attracts like” and as we have thoughts of “this sucks” or “I don’t like this” then we just get more of that. I personally find it frustrating when I’m right in the middle of something I don’t like. What I tend to do is overthink it and what I’ve taught myself to do is allow myself to not think about it. As I just let it be, a crazy thing happens, I slowly become more and more happy. I don’t make a giant leap but bit by bit I find an improvement in my state until I’m where I want to be.

I laugh because I’m the guinea pig for all I’ve learnt. (I also am a keen observer of everyone around me as well as anyone who wants to teach me). I write this from my experience, not because I’ve mastered it but because I’m becoming more aware of it and think that I can explain it in a way that makes sense.

My point is, and I do have one, that our natural state is alignment. It is to be content and when we find ourselves far away from that state of joyousness we only need to remember that we will eventually get there if we just stop doing that thing we do that keeps us unhappy. Meaning, stop thinking about the thing that’s bothering you. If you have a headache, don’t think about your headache. If you’re at a baseball game and you’re scared of getting hit in the face with the ball, don’t think about getting hit in the face with a ball and you’ll decrease the likelihood that you’ll need a new set of teeth.

Our thoughts are powerful. They attract exactly the feeling we have when we’re thinking those thoughts. 

But, take heart because your positive thoughts are infinitely more powerful than your negative ones so you won’t instantly manifest something that you thought about for 5 minutes one Sunday.

So the next time you find yourself in a mood as I call it, find something, anything that makes you a little bit happier and do it.

Make that tea, paint those nails (you too guys), go for a walk, vent to a friend, watch Netflix, write in your journal, watch funny cat videos or in my case ripping perforated edges of my parking receipts and put a smile back on that face even if it takes all day.

One little improvement after another and your natural state of alignment, happiness will prevail and lovingly suck you back in.

~ Madeleine

How Stress Can Leave You Shouting Out In Pain

/in , , /by

How Stress Can Leave You Shouting Out In PainStress is a highly individualistic, multi-faceted response to a set of circumstances that place a demand on physical or mental energy.

If you’re stressed out it can lead to an increase in pain in your body.  Here’s a real world example.  I have a retired client who came to see me to help with her chronic hip pain.  Within months she was functioning pain-free. She went back to her regular long nature walks and wasn’t troubled by pain while falling asleep.  All is going along swimmingly and she is just doing maintenance treatments to keep her functioning at her peak. Now she can do renovations around the house she can twist, bend and turn her body without any protests.

She takes a job just for “fun” and it ends up pouring on the stress. Not just that but family stressors add to the mix and she now has pain in her hip again at a level of 7 out of 10 as she describes it.

So what happened?

Stress my friends is what happened.

I see this all the time and I wish I could wave my magic wand and take it away. So that’s just what I did. I’ve been playing with a new healing technique that I’ve been playing with for years.  It helped unfreeze a 40-year-old frozen shoulder so I thought why not?

I did an assessment on my lovely retiree and found all the usual limitations in her joints. After 25 minutes of clearing blockages out of her energy field I checked back and found all the motion in her body was balanced again. I was amazed. I still did all the usual muscle testing to make sure every muscle was strong and it wasn’t just more motion without stability and there were three muscles that were weak where normally there are about fifteen. Long story short I checked back with her about a week later and she said her pain was now 3 out of 10 instead of the previous 7.

As a logical cynic it’s really hard for me to trust this healing process but here it is showing up for me again and again. The proof is staring me straight in the face so after twelve years in this field I’m finally trusting that the right combination of energetic and physical treatment can work wonders for pain even the most stubborn, surgery begging pain that you can’t seem to get rid of.

I still find it really interesting that we could clear and affect her joint settings and pain so drastically by not even touching her body. By clearing out “hot spots” in her body and bringing in “light” we could really change pain as well as the amount of motion and strength she had. Now the real test will be how she does during her two month walking trip abroad.

Stress that we don’t deal with, ignore or push down ends up getting stored somewhere in our bodies and sometimes that stress manifests as pain you would swear is completely physical but there is more to it than that. That I am sure of now.

If you suspect you have pain in your body as a result of chronic job stress, life stress, marital problems, loss of a loved one Apana Bodywork is in the business of digging deeper, finding the root cause and pulling it out of your body.

An easy solution for stress is focusing on finding relief and making ourselves a bit happier in the moment. So what happened with my retiree?  In the end she quit her not-so-fun job and returned to doing things that she enjoys and I’m sure her pain will continue on its downward trend back to zero.

If you would like to book a complimentary consultation with Madeleine Call 647.801.2424 or connect on www.apanabodywork.com .

~ Madeleine