why wy?

Great read!

Here's a snippet:
Simple experiments demonstrate that babies are, for the most part, trapped in the here and now, a conclusion supported by the finding that the part of the brain responsible for inhibition and control, the prefrontal cortex, is among the last to develop. Gopnik uses the example of an adult being dumped into the middle of a foreign city, knowing nothing about what's going on, with no goals and plans, constantly turning to see new things, and struggling to make sense of it all. This is what it's like to be a baby—only more so, since even the most stressed adult has countless ways of controlling attention: We can look forward to lunch, imagine how we would describe this trip to friends, and so on. The baby just is. It sounds exhausting, which might explain why infants spend so much of their time sleeping or (like some travelers) fussing.

For Gopnik, this lack of inhibition and control is a gift. It makes babies and children ideally suited for the task of acquiring information about physical and social reality.

that I've been gabbling on about biodynamic osteopathy without a proper intro. So here it is:

Biodynamic osteopathy is a non-intrusive, respectful approach to treatment that considers the patient as a whole and in connection to their environment. It was developed by Dr Jim Jealous, D.O, based on the later teachings of cranial osteopath Dr William Sutherland, D.O., who studied under Dr Still. It recognises that the forces which guided growth and development in the embryo are still present within us as the forces of regeneration and healing. During treatment, the osteopath interacts with this innate intelligence of the patient’s body and allows it to direct the treatment process. Patients often feel extremely relaxed and balanced after treatment.
Some patients can sense their body adapting as changes take place, others may be unaware that anything is happening at all but will feel a difference once the treatment is over.

I know it can sound a little fluffy, but it's almost like the Tao, really hard to describe and once you attempt to, you can sound like a fool but when you experience it first hand, you know exactly how powerful it can be.

Yeah blogger is back to normal.

There was an article in today's papers about the benefits of horse riding for children with special needs, and I completely agree. Horses, with the right temperament in the right environment, have a gentle nature that soothes, and all children love spending time with animals.

I've also been reading Sutherland, and he says that horse riding can help to free up the sacrum as the two innominates (bony bits of your bum) are fixed so the sacrum can be articulated by the movement of the horse. In children with special needs and even in regular folk, sometimes the sacrum is stuck and this affects the mobility of the entire spine, as well as the function of the pelvic organs. So perhaps there is a physical reason as to why horse riding is so beneficial.

Hey hey it's Saturday...

Sorry couldn't resist that...

I was reading Sutherland today - it was a required text for school but I never read it all the way through - and I came across the liver flip technique.

It's really simple, and it works! Tried it on myself and could definitely feel a change, the upper right quadrant is lighter, makes you feel less bloated. If you're getting worried, it's not really a 180 or 360 flip, more like the liver getting its bounce back by making sure it's suspended nicely and able to move. It's also meant to be really good for morning sickness, and pretty much any kind of hangover.

First, watch this.

Jill is a neuroscientist who suffered a stroke, but what's interesting is the language she uses to describe it.

Often, biodynamic practitioners will use similar terms when they get together and talk shop. I don't know what the significance of it is, but perhaps, it has something to do with turning down the volume of the left side of the brain so that you can start to hear what the right side is saying.

I've had AT Still's (founder of Osteopathy) works in my iphone for a while now, but they are in unwieldy pdf formats and I've finally got down to configuring it for Stanza. Stanza is the best ebook reading app for the iphone and it's free.

So that's what I did today. Hopefully I'll get to read them now. The biggest advantage of Stanza is it remembers where you left off.

You can get the books in pdf here.

There's also an interesting article on the same site, about the biodynamic approach and finding the Health in the patient.

I personally find learning biodynamics is like trying to learn a foreign language by watching movies without subtitles. The more foreign movies you watch, the better you get at figuring out the vocab, but every now and then, something happens and it makes you go huh?

I wonder if the blogger problem is a singapore thing. Tried a suggestion - changed to manual proxy - and it works fine. Hope I don't have to do it every time I post.

I'm sorry for the rough look of this post, blogger seems to have gone all 1996 on me, courier font, no java.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6735083.ece

Snippet: A radical approach to dementia care has been invented by a grandmother who has no medical training. She doesn't go into details, but it seems to suggest that since patients with dementia can't store new memories anyway, it's better to keep them happy by giving in to their fantasies than to correct them and make them feel embarrassed and a loss of control.

Thoughts?