*Exercise *Intuition - Yoga, Acupuncture, Cupping, Rats & A Giant Penis

I just arrived home after acupuncture with Stefan. As soon as I entered the treatment room today I blurted out “So how is your wife going with that giant penis of yours?”. Stefan and I looked at each other 😮 silently for a few seconds. I actually couldn’t believe that it came out of my mouth! Then, we both burst out laughing while Stefan proceeded to look at his groin making comments such as “I’m glad you noticed”. I told my daughter what I had said, after the appointment, and she was shocked. I asked her to think of any context that someone could say that sentence and have it be appropriate. She could think of none. Well, here you go. Stefan told me, at our last session, that he found a giant wooden phallus that had washed up on the beach. He was very impressed with his find, but his wife was fairly nonchalant. I think Stefan, like most men, wanted his penis to be of more interest to his wife. Alas, an age old problem.

After our in depth discussions about his wooden phallus we got on with the treatment and chatted away. I talked about a synchronicity, I had recently, that had resulted in me getting given a piece of my health puzzle by the Universe.

I had been thinking about Yoga for a long time. My flexibility was worse than ever. Before I got sick, I was trying to do some YouTube yoga but I didn’t get too far. Unfortunately, when I got Cancer and then Scleroderma, I stopped everything. The body has become more rigid than ever, to the point where putting my hands just past my knees, while standing, is an achievement. I pondered yoga regularly but, the thought of pain puts me right off.

It’s not that I have no options for yoga. I have two friends, both of whom have local relatives who teach. I don’t go, I just continue to think. Then, a few weeks back, I’m taking the dog for a walk and I run into a neighbour who is a retired fitness instructor. I mention that I want to get more flexible and she suggests going to see Elia at Woy Woy Yoga Space. She sends me the link via SMS. I get home and I can’t get it out of my head. I phone Elia and organise a private lesson as I’m too embarrassed to join a class and look like I’m just loitering when, in fact, that would actually be me participating. I’m unsure, at this stage, why I chose Elia, rather than the other people who I knew better. This became clear later.

At our first lesson, Elia was talking about how stretching is good for disease. “I know, I’ve heard it before” I thought. Knowing it is good for you sometimes isn’t really a motivating factor. Elia didn’t know the specific details of Scleroderma, so I gave her the rundown. She then mentioned that she had a YouTube clip which I might be interested in, which she sent to me later. We finished our session, which was not as horrible as I thought it would be, in fact I felt kind of good. We organised our next lesson.

A few days later I watched the one hour clip entitled Stretching, Connective Tissue, Chronic Pain, and Cancer. I think it was filmed at a medical conference. I was blown away! The whole clip was about rats with Scleroderma and how stretching a rat has proven to significantly lessen disease in ratty Scleroderma patients (and subsequently ratty cancer patients). I had thoughts running through my head such as “How do you give a rat Scleroderma?”. I also had a vision of a little rat on some sort of stretching torture rack, laying on his back like a starfish, with his little arms and legs tied up and a painful & pleading look on his face. Regarding this latter vision, I wanted to see if I could use that image in this post so I looked up rat torture. I was momentarily hopeful, when I saw a Wikipedia Page “Rat Torture” pop up. Alas, it was just full of old human torture methods using rats. No little rat racks could I see.

Sorry, I digress….. Turns out that that Fascia is connective tissue and I have a connective tissue disease where inflammation runs rampant causing fibrosis. If you look at a nude chook, fascia is that weird slimy white stuff under the skin that covers the chicken. Not only does it cover our body, just under the skin, it also encases organs and connects every part of our body together. It has multiple layers that, in a healthy body, are meant to move separately. From my understanding of the YouTube clip, in unhealthy situations, perhaps a sedentary lifestyle, the fascia becomes restricted and its layers do not move separately. This situation causes uncontrollable inflammation and subsequent fibrosis. SHIT!!! DOUBLE F*&KING SHIT!! Did my sedentary, desk sitting, inflexible lifestyle contribute to my disease???

I had another question. Did Elia find a more appropriate clip, involving Scleroderma, to send me. When we spoke previously she did not know what Scleroderma was, yet the clip was all about Scleroderma. I asked Elia, at our next lesson, and she advised that she had watched the clip ages ago and did not know that it was specifically about my disease. BAM, there is the synchronicity, that is one big reason why I had to go to Elia (that and the fact that she does Yoga Therapy as well as Yoga, which I did not know until I attended). I could have gone to 50 other Yoga teachers and it would be unlikely that they would have had that particular clip to show me or would have had her gentle therapy methods to get me stretchy. My guides are working hard to get me to understand everything more clearly. I’m now on a mission to GET FLEXIBLE!

Oh, the clip also refers to acupuncture having a big effect on fascia. You tweak the fascia on your foot and they can see movement in your neck (or anywhere around your body). Tick, I’m already doing acupuncture. I had a thought as well. Perhaps cupping can help as well, as it sort of sucks hunks of skin into the little glass balls. That’s got to stretch it as well. I ask Stefan his thoughts and he brings out his cupping set, apparently he does that as well. Interesting guy: leeches, needles, sucky cups, herbs and giant penis stories. He agrees that it would work as well. So, suck suck suck, he sticks a whole bunch on my back. Hmmm, I just realised I have a post referencing a giant penis and the words suck suck suck. NB this is not a porn page - honest!

I have one final thought. I wonder if I could get Jason to do a home version of cupping on me, using the vacuum cleaner. The cheaper option I’m thinking. Mmmm i’ll ponder that thought before attempting.

And so the story continues.