When most of us were teenagers, we had more important things to think about than our skin care regimen.  Sure, we might have spent plenty of time in front of the mirror, but we weren’t necessarily dutifully cleansing, using a toner, moisturizing and peeling once a week.  Maybe you dipped into your mom’s products now and then.  But, if you were anything like me, you weren’t borrowing the night cream, you were going for the mascara and the darkest lipstick you could find (which, naturally, didn’t go on the lips until you were out the door).

Are you kicking yourself for not paying more attention to skin care when you were young?  How many times did you bask in the sun without sun screen?  Did you even know there’s a difference between soap and cleanser?  The good news is, it’s never too late to start taking care of your skin.  The other good news is that now that you’re older and wiser, you can help the young adults in your life take care of their skin.  Encourage your teens to use a good cleanser instead of soap.  There are great toners out there for teens too, and moisturizers you can match with their skin type.  Even when the breakouts are frightening, remind them that to even out their skin’s oils, moisturizer is a must.  The more you dry your skin out with washing, the more oil it will produce.

You will likely never talk your teen entirely out of junk food.  But, you can remind them that they are what they eat, and if they put junk in, it’s likely to come back out through their pores.  Gross.

Teen won’t listen to you?  For help that’s not coming from you, find a great YouTube skin mentor for your teen—like this one!

For even more help, Root Whole Body sells gift cards.  How about an organic facial day for your teen and a friend?  We even have a blue light cold laser which kills pesky breakout bacteria.  (Serious acne can be addressed with amazing results.)  They’ll learn all about their skin type, proper skin care, and they’ll have a great time too!

Photo By: D Sharon Pruitt

You’re only as old as you feel.  It’s true.  But, even if you feel young, your skin will eventually show signs of aging.  Lucky for you, it’s never too late to start taking care of your skin.  You can’t stop the aging process, but you can slow it down, prevent lines and wrinkles, and help your skin be the great body-protector and detoxifier it’s meant to be.  How, you ask?  Well, you can start by eating good, healthy food and drinking lots of water.  You are what you eat, as I’m sure you know.  You can check out this great Skincare Education Handout.  You can moisturize, and more importantly use sunscreen, as the sun is a major culprit in premature aging of the skin.  You can work to become more aware of your facial expressions to prevent that bunched brow from leaving a mark.  (Yoga can help with this : )  You can also come visit us at Root Whole Body for a skin care consultation or organic facial.  Our estheticians are skin experts and can help you determine the best skin care routine for your unique skin.  A switch to the right organic products that actually feed your skin can do wonders.  What’s the best part about preventative skin care?  It’s easy and it’s enjoyable.  It smells good, it feels good, it gives you confidence, and it doesn’t require doing squats in a stinky gym.

We hope to see you soon!  If you have specific questions about your skin, don’t hesitate to call us, and we can connect you with an expert!

CNN.com’s look at dementia, “How to Cut Your Risk of Memory Loss” gets to the heart of the importance of preventative care.  In order to prevent your brain from losing mass and memory from failing, it’s important to keep blood flowing in the brain.  This can be achieved through exercise, a healthy diet, social activity and mental work.  In other words, in order to keep the brain healthy, one must keep the body and spirit healthy as well.  Dr. Majid Fotuhi of John Hopkins suggests dancing as the best brain health exercise because it’s also a social activity and requires learning and memorization of steps.  In between dance lessons, you can come in to Root Whole Body to relax your brain with massage and skin care, and challenge your mind and body with yoga.  We also have a great nutrition expert on staff to help you with your healthy diet.  Keep the blood flowing and love your brain.

Photo By: Spec-ta-cles

Wrinkles happen.  It’s inevitable.  Our histories of emotion and our days spent basking in summer sunshine eventually begin to show on our faces.  I’ve often admired the lines around an elder friend’s mouth and the creases at the corners of her eyes because I know the shadows there are evidence of a life well lived.  They paint a face like a map of experience.  However, now that I’m beginning to notice wrinkles of my own, now that I find myself scrutinizing my forehead in the bathroom mirror, watching the skin bunch as I raise and lower my eyebrows like a child discovering what emotions look like, I’m beginning to think differently about wrinkles.  At least, about my own.  I’ve done some smiling, and some sun-bathing and some serious thinking and I don’t care if it’s a map of a pretty okay life.  I’m just not ready for it to show.

What is one to do?  You can’t stop time.  And what if you’re just not into cosmetic surgery when there are risks like bruising and necrosis involved?  There’s also the matter of the high price to pay to have synthetic substances injected into you body.  We aren’t even sure yet of all of the long-term risk of having such things inside of you, except of course that inevitable, plastic appearance.

Did you know that ancient and natural treatments like Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture can give your face and body a lift without the risk?  By increasing the flow of qi in the body and face and stimulating production of collagen and elastin, the skin in naturally lifted.  The skin clears and pores tighten.  With weekly treatments you can experience a reduction of fine lines, wrinkles and age spots.  Your face will be rejuvenated and your body will experience the positive side effects of acupuncture—a balancing of energy and an hour of deep relaxation.  Your entire body will benefit, as cosmetic acupuncture is a form of Traditional Chinese Medicine and therefore about treating the whole body, not just the face.

The recommended protocol for Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture is a series of ten 90 minute treatments, scheduled at least weekly.  If you’re preparing for a big event, treatments can be collapsed into a shorter time frame with two or three visits each week.  For optimum benefit there should not be more than one week between visits.  After the series it is recommended to schedule follow-up treatments every 4-6 months to maintain your appearance.

The wives of Chinese Emperors received Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture.  At Root Whole Body, we think you deserve to be treated like royalty.  Call for an initial consultation, meet your acupuncturist, and ask any questions you may have.

Ok, so you know that yoga will help you improve your flexibility and your body strength and will help you get in touch with your inner self.

‘You should do yoga to improve your flexibility.’

‘It will help you breathe better.’

There’s nothing wrong with this.  Yoga does do these things and there is certainly nothing wrong with wanting to do things for yourself.  But this frame of thought overlooks some of the surprising benefits of yoga that we might not think about due to their sweet subtlety.

1. Inner peace brings outer peace.  When you are more at peace with who you are, what you are and where you are going, you are able to be more at peace with others.  Many conflicts stem from something rankling at us from within.  Those who take yoga find some inner peace also find themselves surrounded by a stronger network of friends and family.
2. Compassion and patience.  There’s nothing quite like being in a room with fifteen other people moving and breathing together.  Many students report feeling more at one with others and thus feeling more compassion and more patience toward others.
3. Increased confidence.  Of course, yoga can help you to improve your confidence. When you look and feel better inside, you will project those feelings outward.

So, yoga isn’t just a way to improve your flexibility or to make your abdominal muscles stronger.  It’s also a good way to make your relationships and confidence stronger and develop a sense of compassion and patience.

Improve yourself inside and out with yoga at Root Whole Body. Click here to see our class schedule.

Photo By: AlicePopkorn

We have it pretty easy here in the Northwest.  Temperatures drop below 30 only on rare occasions.  Occasionally, the wind blows hard enough to make you pull your scarf tight around your face.  Our skin doesn’t suffer quite as much during winter months as those poor Midwesterners shoveling piles of snow from their driveways, their skin tight, their lips threatening to crack and bleed.  Still, our skin isn’t quite the same as it is in sunny summertime.  Even our heaters dry out the air in our homes.  And so, with the season’s change, it’s time to change your skin care regimen.  As our estheticians here at Root Whole Body will tell you, your skin adapts to the products you use.  It’s a good idea to switch it up now and then.  Elle suggests switching to a gel moisturizer for the cold months, but if you want to know what’s right for unique you, schedule a consultation here at Root.  Elle also reminds us to keep exercising and hydrating even when it’s more difficult to get outside.  (May I recommend a little yoga?)  Movement encourages blood flow and a healthy glow.  And don’t ever slack off on your SPF protection!  It might feel funny to slather on the sunscreen when the clouds are thick, but did you know that clouds can actually magnify the effects of radiation?  Take care of your skin this winter.  It’s an important and beautiful part of you.

Here at Root we offer organic facials, LED light treatment therapy and Eminence Organics products.  We even have a Winter Skin Hydration Package specially priced to keep your skin healthy this winter.  Got questions?  Give us a call!

Yoga is best used in conjunction with other things you like to do, such as soccer, hockey,  running or swimming.  Yoga is ideally suited to enhance and supplement other activities in a number of ways, and that is why, if you are an avid sportsman or just starting out, yoga is worth adding to your day.

What do all sports and activities like it have it common?  They require you to be flexible, strong and have good endurance in order to enjoy them.  No matter what physical activity you choose to enjoy, you will need to be flexible, sturdy and relatively strong in order to succeed.  Yoga can help you get there faster.  Furthermore, yoga helps in the after-effects of these sports, from teaching you how to stretch to cool down your muscles, to helping you recover from injuries faster.

Yoga to Start

If you want to take part in any sort of recreational activity, yoga can help condition you.  The most basic forms of yoga can help to improve flexibility and endurance so that you can get out on the field, in the rink or in the pool and play harder, longer, stronger.  Yoga sessions aren’t terribly long, so you won’t have to worry too much about your schedule.

People often underestimate just how important it is to be flexible when playing sports until they have to contort themselves to catch a ball, hit a puck, or dance.  Yoga can make these movements much easier. T he eight ‘limbs’ of yoga are great tools for athletes as well, teaching things like breathing, posture, and improving core strength.

Yoga Throughout

Don’t stop doing yoga when you score your first winning goal!  Yoga continues to deliver fantastic benefits to even the most seasoned athlete.  Indeed, more and more trainers are recommending a regime of supplemental yoga.  Yoga trains you to listen to your body and pay attention when you are feeling overstrained.  By listening, you can prevent injuries.  Yoga also teaches you how to focus and concentrate on your goals so that you can learn to shut out distractions in the game and keep your mind on the ball. And of course, yoga continues to improve endurance, flexibility and strength.

Yoga After Sports

Yoga continues to be helpful even if you can not longer hit the field due to injury.  The main advantage of yoga here is the ability to help people recover from injuries a little faster.  It is particularly helpful for knee and back pains because it improves blood flow and oxygen levels.  If you have retired from the field, yoga is still useful to you; even seniors can get huge benefits from yoga.

But what if you just want to start running?  Or swimming?  Or horseback riding?  Yoga can still do a great deal of good.  Although most people concentrate on how yoga can help athletes, the same things which help athletes will also help those who don’t want to compete but would just like more time out of doors.  Swimming, riding, running… all these things also require strength and flexibility and a great deal of endurance.

Don’t think of yoga as a stand alone activity.  It is actually one of the best things you can do to supplement other activities in your life to get the most enjoyment with fewer injuries.

Whether you’re a hardened athlete, a weekend runner, or you are making it your New Years Resolution to finally make it through a marathon, we want to see you in Yoga classes held at Root Whole Body.  Yoga will help you get stronger, more flexible and tougher so that you can get the most out of all of your physical activities.

Photo By: Vramak

Did you know that the yoga was originally believed not to better the individual so much as the community?

The early days of yoga have been lost to time.  The first recorded poses on seals and paintings date to around 3000 years ago.  However, many yoga scholars believe that yoga has the same roots as shamanism.  Shamanism is an ancient practice of worshiping divine spirits through meditation, chant, prayer and sacrifice. (Physical, emotional and/or mental–not just killing a goat!) and it was believed that yoga could put you in touch with the divine, that through yoga and meditation, a select few could speak for the divine and help the community.

These days, yoga students are often told that their practice is meant to help them better themselves and it’s left at that.  In the West, we often think of yoga as something to strengthen the core and help us gain more flexibility and endurance.

In the days before yoga was recorded, but simply happened, it is thought that yogis would do their meditations and work in order to get in touch with the spiritual divine which would then be imparted to the community.  In this way, yoga benefited everyone even if only a few practiced.  There are a wide range of ancient figurines and statues which may depict ancient yoga; though there’s no sure way of knowing now.

If you stop and think about it, you are doing your community a favor by taking yoga.   You feel more relaxed, fit, and strong.  You are prepared to serve others.  The tradition of yoga as a service continues today!

Join our community at Root Whole Body and see how yoga can help you and help all of us! We have over 35 opportunities a week to serve yourself and your community!

Photo By: Lululemon

Well, we know that yoga can help you recover more quickly from most injuries because it improves blood flow and warms up your muscles.  But what can heal can also harm if it’s done incorrectly.  This reality has been writ large in headlines proclaiming all of the injuries which can result from practicing yoga and often with a dire warning aimed towards those who use alternative medicine instead of the ‘tried and true’ (ie, drugs) or at least those who use it incorrectly or expect too much from it.

Anything can be just as harmful as good if it’s abused—take caffeine and alcohol for example.  Any physical activity can result in injury, especially if we’re not practicing mindfully.  It’s true: yogis are sometimes injured (usually muscle tears, strains and sometimes fractures) In order to avoid such injuries, you have to play it smart.

How can something that should be helping you be harmful?  Our western attitude of more is always better certainly doesn’t help.  Nor does our tendency to compare ourselves to others is class, to turn yoga into a sport, into a competition, to want to do elaborate poses held for a long period of time before you’re ready. This sort of mentality may lead to injury and could be the reason why novices generally get injured more than experienced yoga students (though even highly skilled yoga students may overdo it to their chagrin.) It is important not to take your time in yoga.  Poses sometimes come very slowly.  What’s important is that you come to class, ready to learn, not that you execute each pose perfectly.

Yoga is not a race or a competition.  Everyone can progress at their own rate and there is no end goal.  Instead of trying to do more and more, harder and harder, take the time out to listen to your body, only do as much as you can, and slowly work towards those convoluted and difficult poses.  Make sure you work with a qualified instructor whom you trust.

Pain and injuries can happen even in yoga and particularly if you lose sight of what yoga is all about.  It’s a practice, not a performance.

Come practice with us at Root Whole body.  We offer yoga classes seven days a week and we’d love to see you there.

Photo By: Foxtongue

What Happens When I Get Injured?

Let’s say you were out running and, OUCH! you tripped, fell and wrenched your knee. You are out of the running (ha!) for at least some time, and that means fitness goals will be stymied and you will grow increasingly frustrated, not to mention the fact that your knee hurts and looks like you stuck an apple under your skin!

Of course, all the sympathy is nice, but something to help you deal with the pain and help you knee heal faster would be even nicer!

When we get injured, our brains send a message to the heart to pump more blood to the affected area.  This is actually why we swell up, but it’s also a good thing.  The blood carries oxygen, endorphins and infection-fighting white blood cells to the injured site and gets to work.  The more blood you have moving to the affected area, the better and faster the injury will heal.  However, when we are confined to bed rest, we aren’t getting optimum blood flow to the affected region so it takes longer to heal.  Obviously, if you banged your knee, you’re not going to be running around.  What else can you do?

How Yoga Helps

So you’ve banged your knee and now you’re swearing and sweating over the fact that you won’t make that weekend run after all.  You’ve been told not to run for a while, but you also know that you have to do something to keep your body conditioned.  Enter yoga!

Yoga has been successfully used to help people recover from injuries and some forms of surgery.  There are three key things which yoga does:

• Promotes oxygen and blood flow throughout the body to help injuries heal faster
• Promotes pain management techniques, teaching you to move through the pain instead of just fighting it and letting you loosen up your muscles and ligaments so that there is no more tension creating more pain
• Promotes listening to your body so that you can tell when you’re going too hard on yourself and when you can do more

Yoga is a fairly gentle form of exercise in many of its forms and you don’t have to worry about putting undue stress on injured parts of your body.  BUT, you should always make sure to find a qualified instructor who is not only skilled in yoga but also in physical  rehabilitation so that he or she will know best how to teach you with your injury.  Never push yourself  too hard or you’ll just undo all of your good work and then some.

So, you have a busted up knee, but don’t despair!  Yoga can help you recover quickly, and once you’re up and running, continued yoga can help you become more flexible, stable, and stronger.

Root Whole Body is dedicated to your health and wellbeing.  Our yoga practice is dedicated to you.  As well as a team of chiropractors, massage therapists, naturopaths and acupuncturists.  Make it a resolution to come in and start yoga classes with us today. We’d love to see you!

Photo By: Lululemon