Reducing stress in our lives is one of the basic components of good health. Stress is ever-present, and eliminating it is impossible. Besides, sometimes we need stress to motivate us to complete tasks, make changes in our lives, or run from a hungry lion (or out of control car, depending on where you live!). It’s the way we deal with stress that usually needs work.
Kinesiology works with the technique of muscle testing and monitoring, which provides biofeedback, and pressure point techniques that are based on the Chinese meridians to assess where energy might be stagnating in the body, causing imbalances. Our physical, emotional and mental problems, such as how we deal with stress, affect the sense of balance in our bodies.
How Does Stress Work?
Stress is a normal physical response to either internal or external stimuli that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. When you are stressed, all of your body systems are affected. You may experience a wide variety of physical and emotional health issues, including headaches, high blood pressure, insomnia, anxiety, depression and joint pain, to name just a few.
Among the causal factors of stress are relationship difficulties, work, traffic, or a real physical danger (that hungry lion). When you sense danger, the body's natural set of defences, called the “fight-or-flight” response, kicks in. Hormones surge through the body in an automatic process and can get us out of sticky situations.
This flight or flight response is your body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, alert and energetic so that you can meet deadlines or perform in an exam. In emergency situations, stress can save your life—giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to hit the brakes to avoid an accident—or run from the lion.
The problem is, though, that we rarely come face-to-face with a lion. The stressors we deal with in daily life are the ones that start to undermine our balance.
How Can Kinesiology Help?
Muscle monitoring is a key part of kinesiology. This technique involves detecting and measuring the electrical activity of muscles, which then allows an experienced kinesiologist to access information in the subconscious mind and identify elements contributing to physical or emotional stress.
By measuring muscle strength through muscle testing and monitoring, a kinesiologist can tell if the underlying cause of an individual's health condition stems from physical imbalances, chemical imbalances or emotional imbalances. They can then use or recommend a treatment plan to correct imbalances in the body and return the body to a state of balance that leads to optimal health.
Source: Dr. Jason Piken
One simple kinesiology technique that you can do for yourself or others is the emotional stress release technique. It is said that when we are stressed, blood flows to the back of the brain, where past memories are stored. When we are stressed, we fall back on old patterns—things that may have worked once in a certain situation but aren’t appropriate for the current situation.
If you are feeling intensely emotional, place your hands on your forehead, just above the temples. Focus on the emotions you are experiencing around a specific incident. By placing your hands on your forehead, you are directing blood flow to the front of the brain, where it is thought that new choices are formed. The theory is that you will be able to approach the situation in a different way and let the stress surrounding it go.
Try this technique next time you are feeling tense, stressed or blocked about some issue.
Additional Tips for Reaping the Health Benefits of Kinesiology
Kinesiology can be a valuable tool to help you manage stress and improve your overall health. However, unlike pharmaceutical drugs, which provide immediate relief by temporarily masking symptoms, kinesiology is often used in conjunction with other effective treatments such as chiropractic, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), naturopathy, massage therapy and physiotherapy, among others. The following tips will assist you in getting the most out of kinesiology:
Be patient
Kinesiology takes time to work. Don't expect to see results overnight.
Be consistent
To get the most out of kinesiology, you need to practise different muscle testing techniques regularly.
Be open-minded
A kinesiology treatment method may be different from what you're accustomed to, but don't be afraid to give it a try. You may be surprised at how effective it is.
Seek professional help if needed
Kinesiology can be an effective stress-reduction tool, but it's normal to feel overwhelmed at first. If self-help kinesiology doesn't seem to be working for you, seek the help of a professional kinesiologist in your local area.
Originally published on Jul 22, 2011
