fbpx

Author Archives: Ellen Heed

Breath in Time of COVID

Breath & Whole Body Health

Posted on by Ellen Heed
01
May
Trauma literature is replete with ways to use the breath to either come into presence or to retreat from it; breath is our silent partner in nervous system regulation. By breathing deeply and slowly, we slow our nervous system, dipping into a healthy parasympathetic state of rest and digest. When we’re too up-regulated, we breathe shallow rabbit-y breaths up around our collarbones. Traps tighten, shoulder blades reach for the stars, and our necks kink forward. This has neurological consequences, as the very nerve that feeds a range of motion to our diaphragm gets squeezed into oblivion between tight neck muscles.
Continue reading →
Breath in Time of COVID

Do You Breathe Well?

Posted on by Ellen Heed
24
Apr
Breath allows us to SEE how which branch of our nervous system dominates our experience, for better or worse. When things swing out of balance, the use of breath can offer sensations to make a correction. How did we accumulate this much stress anyway? Present circumstances aside, as a culture, we do everything to train young people to quiet their bodies and suppress their boisterousness, along with their breath. We're told to sit still in school. Not to wiggle, not to squirm. To suppress our urges to pee, ignore our need for a snack, and not scratch that itch. As a consequence, we've learned to ignore our bodies. Including our breath.
Continue reading →
The Right Questions

THE RIGHT QUESTIONS: Do Microbiome Variations Determine the Severity of Exposure Response To Coronavirus?

Posted on by Ellen Heed
26
Mar
Now it gets science-fiction-y again: bacteria and viruses TRADE GENES inside of nasty slimy biofilms. These are pockets of infection that accumulate where we have implants, metals, and other stuff not present at birth. Just wondering again - are the folks who are succumbing to coronavirus rife with biofilms, which have been linked to autoimmune and diseases and otherwise compromised immunity?
Continue reading →
Personal Stories

Hunkering Down

Posted on by Ellen Heed
celery root
16
Mar
We began to question our assumptions when we went to our farmer’s market yesterday. Whole foods had periods of empty shelves all week, and we expected a busy outdoor market. But it was eerily quiet without the music and chatter of diners sitting around, kids in tow, enjoying their Sunday morning. The market was without the usual comradery created by the eating of everything from guava croissants to pupusas and musubi. The tables were gone; without a DJ, there was no bossa nova in the background. With the absence of music and tables went any vestige of every Sunday morning’s typical casual community vibe.
Continue reading →
Personal Stories

Proof of Concept: Birth of the Orgasm Mistress

Posted on by Ellen Heed
17
Mar
Brentwood Housewife in Her 50s perks up and asks me what exactly it is I do. I tell her I do lots of things: Bodywork, pelvic floor work, scar tissue remediation, craniosacral work. She nods, glazing over. My Gyro instructor reminds her with some slight exasperation that she’s given her my name more than once. I discreetly wink at my instructor and seize the moment. I jump in - “And I’m also an Orgasm Mistress…”
Continue reading →
The Right Questions

The Right Questions: What’s the Connection Between Your Blood Sugar and the Coronavirus?

Posted on by Ellen Heed
12
Mar
You think everything’s fine because your blood sugars tested normal at your last checkup? Think again. A more accurate way to verify your blood glucose status is to check your blood glucose levels multiple times over two or more weeks. Testing sugars two times a day over ten days or more shows you a whole glucose-uptake-movie, compared to the snapshot you get from a one-off blood test at your doctor’s office.
Continue reading →
Personal Stories

Goat Milk & Tequila

Posted on by Ellen Heed
02
Feb
Goat milk and tequila. My sister's invitation is to get up at the crack of dawn and meet her at the northern end of the San Fernando Valley. From there she will guide me to an undisclosed location to drink goat milk fresh from the tit, mixed with tequila and chocolate. I bring the chocolate; she'll bring cups & tequila. I'm up at first light, grating piloncillo (raw sugar) into a baggie. To it, I add unsweetened dutched cacao powder - fruity, bitter, delicious. This chocolate is from a remote finca in Tabasco, a southeastern Mexican state bordering Guatemala. Fit for any Mayan gods who may yet reside there.
Continue reading →
Embodied Autonomy, Read Me First

What is Embodied Autonomy?

Posted on by Ellen Heed
What Is Body Autonomy?
01
Jun
Embodied autonomy means ownership of your own body, the very one that entered this world at birth. Embodied autonomy means a more mindful occupation of your own skin - on a sovereign, consistent, and pleasing basis. It’s a sensation that leads to a coherent connection to your own intuitive, fundamental knowing. It comes from your bones. It’s a kind of confidence - that you know what you know – when you trust yourself to interpret your body’s signals.
Continue reading →
Embodied Autonomy, Read Me First

Biochemistry & Embodied Autonomy

Posted on by Ellen Heed
Biochemistry & Body Autonomy
08
Jun
All these systems add up to the totality of us, and our body is one nation, ruled by the quality of our blood. Every one of our cells is bathed in it. It’s basically a question of plumbing – when fluid flow is plugged at either end, cells suffer, and health suffers.
Continue reading →
Embodied Autonomy, Read Me First

Emotions & Embodied Autonomy

Posted on by Ellen Heed
15
Jun
We have a map of our body stored in our brain. It’s a map that binds our emotional landscape to our physical real estate, a map of our psycho-proprioceptive self. The body and mind are in constant reciprocity – they communicate back and forth to maintain muscle mass, postural alignment, and appropriate responses to our environment. Embodied autonomy depends on open lines of communication between our brain and the muscles, organs, glands, nerves, bones, and connective tissue that make up the rest of us. Forgotten or suppressed emotions sink deep; they can shut down the link between our body and its mental map.
Continue reading →