PREGNANCY, BIRTHING & AFTER THE BABY IS BORN: HOW TO GET YOUR BODY READY

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

As I work with more and more expecting moms, I usually hear lots of excitement for the birth of their child, but also some fear… especially if it is her first child. Very understandable. Her doctor ensures the mom and the baby’s safety and health with close monitoring. Now, if this is covered, why would we need to train our body for child birth and life after the baby is born?

As we know, birthing is a strenuous event, places a lot of demand […]

WHERE TO LOOK FOR PAIN RELIEF.

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

If we are in pain, we of course want to get out of it. We want our body to feel good again so we can do the things we love. Instead of feeling tension and pain, we want things like relaxation, a feeling of strength and vitality… this is why we start physical rehab. But before we recover from injury, pain or stiffness, we can still experience things like relaxation, strength and vitality… We may just have to look for it in other places than our body right now. So where do we look? […]

UNLOCKING YOUR FULL POTENTIAL… EVEN IF YOU HAVE PAIN.

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

It can be difficult to see the potential of our body if it is always in pain. It’s much easier to see what we don’t have, what we have lost, and what we think we should be able to do. For sure. So why would it be important to put our attention on our full potential?

As a practitioner who helps people recover from chronic pain, injury and stiffness; I assess the whole person. What does that mean? I’m not just looking at pain areas, just to fix that spot. I look at how […]

I CAN’T GET OUT OF THIS PAIN. WHAT DO I DO?

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

When we are in constant pain it can be scary. It can feel hopeless, especially when all of the strategies we are trying to relieve our pain aren’t working. That feeling can be nerve racking… it seems that this pain is going to last forever. So what do we do when we don’t know how to get rid of pain?

First, we can see what sweet efforts we are making to help ourself. We truly are trying to comfort and aid ourself. Feel what it’s like to be in that support. What unfortunately can be twisted into this lovely intention […]

LOVE & MEDITATION. WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH PAIN RELIEF?

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

When we are in constant pain, have struggled with injury and re-injury, can’t do the things we love, it is easy for our attention to go to the crappy things that we experience. “I can’t”, “It hurts”, “I hate my bad side”, “This sucks”. Not a very fun place to be in.

If you have ever experienced any of those thoughts, or something similar, you can feel how crappy things feel. But what we have to watch for […]

DOES PAIN ALWAYS MEAN DAMAGE?

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

If you have had an injury recently, broken bone or sprained ankle, or torn ligament then you have suffered tissue or bone trauma. You are recovering. Now what happens when it’s a year later and we are still having pain or we never really had an injury but we have pain all the time… what about that? Does this pain still mean I am hurting myself or there is damage?

What I can say is that pain does not always mean damage or that you are physically hurting yourself. If the physio has said there […]

SPORT. WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH PAIN RELEIF?

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

What does sport have to do with pain relief? There is actually a great gift that sport has given pain relief. Let me explain.

If you have ever played sport at a competitive level you will know the grueling physical and mental training involved with peak performance or being ready for competition or accomplishing personal bests. Along with all the nutrition, physio treatment, etc involved. Even if you haven’t played sport at a competitive level you may have heard a sports newscaster talk […]

I’M NOT GETTING ANY BETTER. WHAT DO I DO?

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

Many clients have said on their first phone call to me that they have tried everything to get better: physiotherapy, chiro, osteo, massage, yoga etc. and their pain or injury just isn’t getting better. They are really frustrated, at their wit’s end.

When my clients do start to find relief from pain and injury from our work together it is so nice to see. Their personality starts to come out, sense of humor; some smiles start to creep into practices, relaxation, […]

HOW TO REGAIN TRUST IN YOUR BODY: PART 2

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

Working from clarity is one of the most important skills to regaining trust in our body, and most importantly, ourself. So what does that mean?

When thoughts of “I will probably hurt myself if I do that” or “I feel a bit of pain in my back so something must be wrong” or anything that starts this type of thinking… this is where we start our practice of clarity. We need to ask “Am I actually in danger of an injury at this moment?” If we are actually in danger of an injury at that moment, then we know to remove […]

HOW TO REGAIN TRUST IN YOUR BODY 

(Rachel Donen teaches Physical-Rehab and the Body Alignment training from Yoga to relieve Chronic Pain, Injury, & Stiffness. Toronto locations: Little Italy and Roncesvalles.)

“I just want to trust my body again.” When working with clients, I hear again and again, “I just want to trust my body again.” If you have had this thought or have just felt like you can’t trust your body… or it has let you down, then just know you are not alone in this.

So how do we regain trust in our body after persistent pain, injury or stiffness? […]