How to Find Relief for Concussion Symptoms

by SharonHartnett | Sep 10, 2024 | Craniosacral Therapy, upledger institute

Common Concussion Symptoms

Concussion symptoms are serious business. A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury. Any strike to the head should not be ignored. Especially if you find yourself being forgetful, sensitive to light, dizzy,experiencing blurry vision, confused, experiencing headaches, nauseous, clumpsy, moody, or having difficulties following instructions after any impact to the head, make sure you get checked out by a physician. Symptoms may or may not appear immediately, so be mindful about your state of being for at least a few days. Especially if you lose consciousness, it is imperitive to your long-term health to receive proper care.

Healthcare providers will usually recommend that you take it easy after a brain injury. The brain needs time to resource its energy to heal. Usually with lots of rest, the brain can recover. However if you continue to have difficulties concentrating, feel off, or feel irritable with headaches, you may want to check in with a Craniosacral Therapist.

Having experienced a few concussions myself, I have found that besides rest, Craniosacral Therapy has helped me the best. How this works is that a Craniosacral Therapist. will directly work with the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain and the spine. Why this fluid is so important is that it protects, helps nourish and moves out toxins. A concussion or a Traumatic Brain Injury will disrupt function. Craniosacral Therapy listens and melds with the deeper healthy currents of the Craniosacral System to bring better symmetry, a healthier rate, optimal quality and amplitude to the rhythm. After a numerous bumps to my head, the Craniosacral Work has helped me to feel more balance, more clear and able to manage my life normally.

My training is with the Upledger Institute

If you would like to find more detailed information about how UI is helping to advance research and the positive results they have observed in clinics and intensives, check this link: Concussion Help

If you are suffering from concussion brain injury, don’t wait. You deserve to live a good life.

Sharon Hartnett CST-D

703 509-1792

www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com

7 Things to Know about Highly Sensitive People

by SharonHartnett | Sep 8, 2024 | barbara brennan, Craniosacral Therapy, Energy Healing, healing, mind body & spirit, mindfulness, Spiritual Healing

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Recognizing the Gifts of Being with Highly Sensitive People

Understanding Sensitive People takes effort. Yet it’s definitely worth your while. About 20% of people are sensitive. Basically, what this means is that we (I am including myself) react more to life’s stimulation. At times, it’s not as easy for us sensitive people to screen out certain stimuli. Things can become overwhelming for us if we aren’t mindful to our comfort zones.

Anyway, in the recent past, I was talking to my Craniosacral Therapist about my sensitivities in group relationships, and she recommended the book, “The Highly Sensitive Person“, by Elaine N. Aron. As I began to take the test in the beginning of the book, I checked off almost every single characteristic of a Highly Sensensive Person (HSP). Wow, this woman understood my life without even meeting me!

Honestly, I can’t tell you how alone I have felt (on a certain personality level) for a long time being highly sensitive. Most of the world either masks it or is less sensitized. I have processed things and been in the healing and therapist field for close to 30 years. I have worked on boundaries and so many things. Yet, still-when I walk into a room, I feel the mood of the people, and all the nuances in human relationship. I hardly miss a thing, especially emotionally. This even extends to plants, trees, and watching a bird fly. It’s as if I feel ever flap of the wings. My heart resonates. Yet I also feel very vulnerable.

At the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, we learned to develop what Barbara called “HSP” Higher Sense Perception. Same acronym. This is a fine tuning of seeing, feeling, tasting, sensing etc at a very subtle level. This helps people who work with energy or relationships to become astute and skillful in meeting people in connection, the auric field and other dimensions. This has benefited my clients in that I can deeply sense stress, pain, and dysfunction simply by tuning in. When I do this, I can use my sensitivity skills to help ignite the healing response within.

For me, being aligned with my sensitive nature is tremendously helpful in my work. I can sense things and support where others may not. On a fine level, I gather so much information through listening and melding. I know how to meet the “Other” in a gentle manner with touch which can encourage wonderful openings. At the same time, I often have to take some alone time afterwards to settle and digest life experiences. Being senstive doesn’t necessarily make me an introvert, but I do need to rest and integrate often. Self care is crucial.

Aron, writes in her book that our mind/body experiences are different and unique. Some of our positive traits that she mentions are:

1. We are better at spotting errors and avoiding making errors.

2. Highly conscientious.

3. Able to concentrate deeply on things where we are drawn.

4. Especially good at tasks requiring vigilance, accuracy, speed and detection of minor differences

5. Good at being able to process materials at deeper levels.

6. Deeply affected by other people’s moods, which help us to understand and be more present.

7. Able to learn without being aware we have learned.

There is so much great material in this book. What I like best about it is that I don’t feel so alone in that I feel different than so many others. Also, It helped me to refocus on the gifts of this personality I have lived with. I feel so aware of the interconnection of all of life. I feel it deeply. Sometimes, life hurts as the casing around the heart breaks wide open, but I am also able to have such profound life experiences. I have become emotionally stronger in my vulnerablity and can hold that for others in “Presence”

I am sharing today about being sensitive, and I hope this helps someone else recognize that there are many other of us around. We need to learn to accept ourselve and find the seeds of truth and kindness inside to make this life of sensitivy so worthwhile. We do this through self nourishment and awakening to our authentic selves.

Sharon Hartnett CST-D

703 509-1792

www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com

Aligning Your Life with the Truth of Your Body

by SharonHartnett | Sep 6, 2024 | Craniosacral Therapy, Healthy Body, mind body & spirit, mindfulness

The Truth of Your Body

Believe in the Truth of Your Body. It’s honest. It’s integrity. It is what is real in the moment. What I mean by this is that the physical is not making up perceptions. It is what it is. An expression of your human physical state of being. It lives and does its’ thing!

The mind is what perceives and creates stories. Your thoughts, experiences and learned beliefs influence the body. But the body is not the thinker. Rather, it is living physical relationships dancing cheek to cheek inside of you on a physiological level.

From one perspective, this includes individual parts. The human body can be seen as cells & their parts, tissues, organs and systems. They are all separate, yet the truth of your body which also exists is experienced as a “Whole” dynamic creative expression. The body exists in partnership through fluids and connective tissue as ONE Living Experience. It shapes based on mind and from Source itself.

When a professional and experienced manual therapist works with you, they are listening to your body primarily and also your story (if this is their practice focus) if they are to be precise and accurate in discovering and supporting the health of any physical tension areas. While a person may come in and say, “this hurts”, the therapist listens verbally but also stays curious primarily by where the body directs us. By placing our hands on the body, we allow the body to lead us to the pattern that is most significant in the encounter. This is where we work rather than on the place that hurts. Generally, the pain spot is what speaks from a mind perspective. It could feel like the weakest link. However, the truth of the body is more accurate in its’ objective communication.

I know that sometimes people do have stories and issues where they need to be heard, and understood. This IS valuable information on a different level. Often this is key in healing too. This can be addressed in Somato Experiencing type of work. It needs to be mirrored and given equal measure. Yet if we truly want to address the physical piece, we need to understand that it’s vital to address the truth of the body to remedy what ails you.

When you trust the signals of the body, it is easy to move and meet the current concern. Feeling the pull towards that area is easy with practice. Dr. Barral says, “The body hugs the lesion”. I find this to be very true in my work as well.

What differentiates a talented manual bodyworker is the ability to listen on different levels. We have to stay open minded and learn our anatomy. If you want better alignment in the body, find a therapist who listens to the truth of your body.

Sharon Hartnett CST-D
703 509-1792
www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com

How to Keep Your Eye on the Dream

by SharonHartnett | Sep 2, 2024 | Craniosacral Therapy, dream, meditation, mindfulness

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Dream On

Life is a Dream. In life, we are always in relationship. Whether it is to another person, an animal friend, an object or the empty sky. Reality is the world as it is. It’s whole, the sum parts of all existance. To be in it we must be in the present moment.

The challenge is our brains are most often generating what we think is our experience before we even live it. The truth, how we understand life to be in often a quest. Until we settle down into mindful awareness and curiosity to the experience of the One. It’s not really something the brain can wrap it’s mindset around. It’s a surrender. It’s a giving up of the ego’s need to exist.

We are fortunate to awaken out of the dream. But many of us actually enjoy the dream as well. It’s part of the earth’s gift to human beings. It’s an experience. Either way, becoming aware of illusion, the noticing of the dream state is helpful if you want to navigate life with more ease.

In the dream state, there are many glimpses. Signs so to speak. When these signs come into your life. Listen. Pay attention. For example, recently I had a deep loss. The heart hurt deeply. Inside, I felt broken apart. I still do although I am feeling a bit better every day.

Anyway, just as I was walking toward the physical place of my avoidance of feeling this all, a beautiful butterfly appeared. Black with turquoise wings on top. The colors associated with the horse I lost recently. My heart horse. It just stood in front of me flapping it’s wings until I was ready to leave. At that time, I felt my horse’s life all around me. I woke up to his joy and his freedom. I felt it inside me as well. This happened with the same type of butterfly 4 times with me and those close by.

I know this can sound like a dream. Part of it is the dream in which we all live. But the essence of love and interconnection inside opened and freed me as well with each sign that showed me the way. I am still in the midst of grief. But reality is showing me out the dream by keeping my focus on the signs. Yet, the signs are from reality poking through the dream. So pay attention.

I think, being human is very tough. I suppose that is my belief I came into with this life. At the same time, it is miraculous, so precious yet fragile. It’s eternal spiritually but just a speck of temporary sand in the physical world. This life in these skins in which we live are full of potential. Life is what we make out of it, and also in how we treat others.

Enjoy this dream world. It’s an adventure. But if you want to wake up out of the suffering, it’s essention to set an intention, then pay attention, and open the door by being yourself. Your real self.

Sharon Hartnett CST-D

703 509-1792

www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com

How to Empower Yourself By Facing Your Own Fear

by SharonHartnett | Aug 31, 2024 | Craniosacral Therapy, fear, healing

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Fear Embraced

The Stimulation of Fear. Prepare to Run! Get ready to fight! What a great friend fear can be to each of us. It often moves us toward safety. Fear is a strong emotion. Human Beings, as animals, have evolved successfully thanks to the biological process within each of us that shifts our bodies into gear when in danger.

In fear, the adrenal glands prompt us to react when faced with an immenent threat. The challenge though is when we can’t fight or flee, the brain freezes.

In Craniosacral Therapy, I often work with people who live in patterns of anxiety, PTSD or panic attacks. At some point in their lives, there was an inability to act against a given threat. So in current times, sometimes the logical mind is taken over by the limbic system. Living in hyperarousal, it’s easy to be overly sensitive or to be easily triggered.

If this sounds like you, take back the reins of your own life force! There is a way through. I find that there are many good therapists out here in the world with great tools to reflect and teach how to calm and bring you back to center.

From a Craniosacral Therapy perspective, we work with the Cranosacral System (CS). Bascially, that focus is on the brain, the spine, and particularly on the cererospinal fluid which surrounds it and flows. We listen and meld with the rhythm of the CS of an individual, supporting and helping to enhance the nourishment of the nervous system as well as helping to release toxins. Most clients find deep relief and peace after they start to trust the process of receiving the benefits of their own healthy self-regulation.

A Craniosacral Therapist works in a body centered manner. In the higher level, they learn to open up dialogue to fear. There are also body centered psycotherapists who work with the body which can be helpful too. Then there are therapists like me, trained in both. All of these work at supporting the limbic system to find balance. We include the body to brain relationship, from bottom up. This acts as a doorway to transform and heal.

I do want to remind you that fear is never the enemy. I often invite my clients instead to allow whatever is happening to move through as long as they are strong enough and in a comfort zone to make room for the movement of emotions. If not, there are techniques and different ways to slow down or minimize at a healthy pace.

Fear is only an emotion. It’s not who you are. It’s just waiting to be processed and to come into completion. When that’s done. you are set free.

Sharon Hartnett CST-D

703 509-1792

www.craniosacraltherapistcolumbus.com