March 27, 2012
What does stress do to our bodies?
We explore this messy, complex issue here and offer some simple, inexpensive solutions.
Image: © Margi Macdonald
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January 17, 2011
Brisbane Flood Recovery
Today our city slowly reveals herself from beneath the muddy, watery horror of the flood.
We’ve seen an extraordinary flow of generosity, willing hands and thousands of people mucking-in to help total strangers restore their homes and businesses to something resembling normal.
The physical presence and reminders of this flood will recede in time, yet we know that the emotional scars and psychological trauma will be on-going.
Lifeline is supporting people who have post traumatic stress, anxiety and depression, and needs your help. Donate here.
My family and I survived the complete destruction of our home and way of life when Cyclone Tracy tore Darwin to pieces on Christmas Eve 1974. We moved to Brisbane in January 1975, with the memory of Brisbane’s catastrophic flood of 1974 so vivid in the minds of Brisbanites. All these years later, we feel for those who have seen cherished homes and businesses inundated. We cannot comprehend the grief and shock felt by families and friends of the men, women and children lost to the floodwaters.
To help people heal emotionally, psychologically and physically, many acupuncturists and healers are offering our services free-of-charge, or at concessional rates. I am one of these practitioners.
If your family home or business was inundated, please know that you can receive a half hour Reiki healing free-of-charge with me at the Wooloowin clinic.
Reiki is a simple, pure healing method which uses the universal life force to enable healing to unfold. It requires no faith or spiritual belief, and demands nothing of the giver or receiver. A Reiki healing involves a gentle conversation before you lie comfortably fully clothed on the treatment table. Reiki healers gently place our hands on or just above your head, shoulders, chest, stomach, arms, legs, feet and hands so you can receive the warmth and peace of your healing. People who receive hands-on Reiki healing feel deeply relaxed during and after the session, and can usually feel the deep warmth or energy of the healer’s hands. Some people see beautiful colours or shapes during their healing, or drift and dream in a place somewhere between sleep and wakefulness. Reiki is nurturing, restorative, calming and positive in its scope.
I welcome you into this place of healing.
Contact Margi Macdonald here and read about the terms and conditions of the offer of free Reiki and discounted acupuncture here at FloodDiscounts
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Images:
‘Flood’ goes under at the Powerhouse. Submitted by Andy Norris to the ABC here
Healing Hands. Source and artist not stated.
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July 15, 2010
Distress. De-stress. Stress Down and Dress Down
The effects of stress on our bodies
So you see, it never has been a simple case of “it’s all in your head”.
Go to Lifeline’s Stress Down Day
You’ll discover how you can manage stress, have some fun, and raise money for an organisation which does a great job.
If you’ve realized your health is affected by stress, you must see your family doctor for a check-up, and then schedule a deeply relaxing acupuncture or Reiki session.
If you’re struggling with insomnia, you might like this.
You can also take the 30 second health check here.
February 3, 2010
Complementary medicine and cancer care in Australia – far from best practice
Recently I’ve reflected upon progress towards a greater integration of complementary therapies with Australian biomedical oncology practices and attitudes.
My reflections arose after a recent enquiry about my work.
Here’s my edited response to that particular heart-felt enquiry.
I can definitely offer appropriate therapies to help your friend through the rigors of treatment, and the whole ‘thing’ of dealing with cancer.
Mine is a compassionate, gentle, supportive style of practice, which places the client and her/his unique needs at the centre of the process.
I have a brochure which outlines all of this.
This week, I am facilitating an information session with a cancer support group at a regional private hospital. The group is a satellite of a larger support program offered in Brisbane, where in times past, I’ve presented information sessions.
Two medical oncologists – mainstream – sometimes refer people to me, but sadly, they wait until people have very advanced disease.
I am definitely a Complementary practitioner; my work is informed by the work, research and programs offered in the USA for a decade now, at places such as the MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston; Memorial Sloane-Kettering Cancer Center in New York; and other centres such as Dana Farber, and Alta Bates Summit. I just dropped my membership of the US-based Society of Integrative Oncology. I attended the SIO conference in Atlanta in late 2008. Mindblowing.
I rarely prescribe herbal medicines or supplements while folk are receiving chemotherapy, and if I do, it’s in consultation with their medical oncologists.
Best practice oncology in the USA, and some European countries – which very definitely incorporates Complementary therapies – is ten years ahead of the antiquated practices and attitudes in this country.
I consider that given the emerging overseas evidence – clinical, empirical and anecdotal – Australian oncologists are bordering on negligence in their failure to actively seek to understand Complementary therapies, and direct their patients to credible practitioners.
I hope I am able to help your friend.
I wish it was different here, I really do, and I am perplexed and increasingly irritated at the blinkered vision and conservative attitudes which pervade the thinking of too many medical practitioners in this country.
I cannot understand why it is that most oncologists here, seem ignorant of the therapies, programs and facilities offered to cancer patents and their families in some of the world’s most prestigious, highly regarded institutions.
And what stage do we call attitudes and platitudes such as the ones below negligence, and not just plain ignorance, and a distinct lack of compassion and insight into the needs and lives of people living with cancer?
These comments were made to me by Australian oncologists within the last three years.
”I’m just too busy to find out about it”
“My peers would give me a hard time if they knew I was doing this”
“I let the patients figure it out and make the choices themselves”
I know that there remain equally disturbing levels of ignorance, and antiquated and blinkered thinking, in certain sectors of the natural medicine world. There are, sadly, still some absolute quacks out there, whose practices and attitudes are ego-driven, unkind, and negligent.
How do we integrate the best of biomedicine, with powerful and effective healing arts and sciences?
Do leave a comment.
This is important.
To see how the ‘big guns’ in cancer treatment and research are including Complementary therapies in their care of people touched by cancer, follow the links listed below.
If you are living with cancer, or love someone who is, consider asking the oncologists involved, why Australians don’t receive the levels of care available at these centres.
Place…of Wellness MDAnderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
Integrative Medicine Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York
Complementary Therapy Programs & Support Groups Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, California
Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
Cautions and care
These pages are for information purposes only, and are not a substitute for the correct care and attention of appropriately qualified and experienced health care professionals. If you have a concern about your emotional or physical health, seek the advice of your preferred health practitioner.
© Unless stated otherwise, all images and content here are the property of Margi Macdonald.
November 21, 2009
Grappling with the night – insomnia and related torments
There really is nothing worse than spending wretched nights tangled in the bedclothes, thrashing, watching time tick slowly by, while all around one’s family and neighbours lie sweetly sleeping.
Similarly, nights spent interrupted by graphic, unsettling, incessant or just plain terrifying dreams are no recipe for a refreshed and quietly enlivened mind and body.
Afterall, such nocturnal torments will have us falling asleep at the wheel, frustratingly unproductive, snippy and snappy, fraught and frazzled.
So what’s going on here?
Quite a bit! If we consider all the information we receive in a day, the thousands of visual and auditory stimuli – many of them pernicious – the way we use our minds, life events and our reactions to them, and what we eat and drink, you can see why difficulty falling and staying asleep can become a problem.
There is an art and science to welcoming sleep into our busy lives, called sleep hygeine by those in the western 
medical sciences. So as well as counting sheep, you might like to see what works for you here: Reach Out
Some things to remember:
Daytime – Yang time – is the time for most of our mental and physical activity, including eating and digesting.
Nighttime – Yin time – is for restoration and relaxation of mind, spirit and body.
Our bedrooms are for sleep and sex. They are not information super-highways, so keep your electronic geewhizzery such as TVs, computers and telephones out of them! Why anyone would want these intrusive information-overloaders interfering with two of life’s simple pleasures is a modern-day puzzle!
If alcohol is needed to help us nod off, then we’re headed for trouble, and must seek the help of an empathetic, appropriately qualified health professional.
There is an emerging body of evidence which links high blood pressure and stubborn weight gain with poor sleep. There are also some significant medical and psychological problems associated with insomnia.
The good news is that most of us will experience transient periods of insomnia which resolve spontaneously. For those who grapple with a chronic inability to sleep well, help is available.
Fortunately Traditional Chinese Medicine provides us with a supreme framework in which to understand the relationships between consciousness – our Shen or Spirit – organ function and dysfunction, the Will and Intellect, the body’s natural rhythms and cycles, our Blood, Essence and Fluids, and our ability to sleep restoratively. Acupuncture, professionally prescribed herbal medicines and essential oils, Reiki and massage can all help us to re-establish restful, refreshing sleep.
But for now, turn on your sound, and enjoy the poetry below, accompanied by this famous old lullaby.
Serenade
by Mary Weston Fordham
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![Almost Like Another Planet... Pamukkale Blues (UNESCO World Heritage) [Explore #1, THANK YOU]](http://static.flickr.com/7079/7209710670_f67079c754_t.jpg "Almost Like Another Planet... Pamukkale Blues (UNESCO World Heritage) [Explore #1, THANK YOU]")
