by Lieke Campbell, Student Dentist, Ghent, Belgium
I am a dentistry student and in the course of my work, I started developing pain in my neck and back that stayed until the next day, even from working just short periods of time with patients. As a dentist, I have to work in an area that is small (and moving) which asks for precision and attention to detail whilst working with the instruments in the person’s mouth. To be able to see it all, I often find myself going out of the preferred ergonomic position – which is with back and neck only slightly bent – bending and turning my back and neck in all directions. This is the worst position to be in for your back and neck, as it puts a huge strain on the spine and the muscles around it. Even when knowing this fact, not wanting to cause harm to my patient can drive me into going into such a position anyway. Combine this with a little nervousness and tension about treating my first patients and this developed into neck pain.
For this pain in my neck, I felt I needed some support.
I was recommended an online session with an Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapist in Australia, and it was great. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a very gentle way of treating the body, honouring the fact that our connective tissue is what holds us all together and is the stuff through which the energy that moves our body flows. She was able to give me the connective tissue exercises I needed to support my back and neck. These consist of rhythmic gentle small movements of certain parts of my body in my thorax area. I got much more than just exercises though; as we talked about my body and the effect of the exercises during the session, I noticed how I felt I was dropping deeper into my body. Feeling my legs, arms, and neck more and from the inside out. From there I felt a level of settlement and contentedness I had not been feeling for a while. I also felt warmer and all the tension I had been feeling released, through doing these simple exercises.
One thing the practitioner said during my session stood out for me especially. She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do. I had never stopped to appreciate my body like that before. It was a real eye opener for me, as before I saw my body a bit as a nuisance, not able to let me easily do my job, but at that moment I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed. The only thing it was and is asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations.
One of the ways I deeply care for it are these exercises now and I feel the benefit of them instantly. The exercises are easy to do in between patients or if I have to wait a moment during a treatment – because of their simplicity.
This one session with the Esoteric Connective Tissue Practitioner has already made something shift in my body, and I no longer have pain during or after doing my job.
By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner, and more able to care for my patients throughout the course of my career.
Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven that supports our body on many levels; they are applicable in many industries and dentistry is just one of them.
Read more:
Medicine and Serge Benhayon 
The Esoteric modalities support life-transforming shifts. The depth that they can bring us to is one hundred percent out of this world in more ways than our simple, temporal mind can comprehend.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy reminds us that no matter what we may think/believe our body is one whole unit therefore what we do to one part of it affects every other part.
It is so ingrained in us to take our bodies for granted and to be able to stop, feel and connect with our bodies sounds super easy and it is, yet how often do we do this? I mean really feel and connect to the body. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is super supportive with this and I love how your practitioner brought it back to really appreciating what the body is actually offering us.
Connective Tissue Therapy… a must for all dental students around the world.. ( and Doctors, nurses, physios… etc ..:-)
Ah lovely great reminder to appreciate my body for all the bending and turning it does, I can so often go in automatic wanting to get things done and not giving the attention my body so rightly deserves.
How we move is everything. The more we align in the rhythm of our body the less pain can ever occur. Connective tissue therapy is an amazing tool to remind a driven body of its actual quality.
I like this part about appreciating your body, it makes me think about how warm and delicate my body is, and how it works so hard – never stopping a heart beat or a lung expansion.
That is so true- imagine our body would make breaks of caring of its function how we have off moments, where we don´t care about it ?!
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is truly a gift from Heaven that supports our body on many levels and the exercises offer a way to care for our own body.
“I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed. The only thing it was and is asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations” – this really stood out for me. The body is so accommodating and supporting in our movement and asks so little when in fact it deserves far greater care and attention. It feels like whether we end up developing a chronic pain that we feel like we have to learn to live with for the rest of our life lies in a very simple choice of awareness.
I never heard of connective tissue until I was on a Universal Medicine course and I got to understand and appreciate what an important aspect of the body it is. So deep within yet so deeply important. So to have the Connective Tissue Therapies and exercise to work with is seriously supportive.
I love the way Esoteric Connective Tissue therapy reconnects the body and anything that felt disjointed or not aligned falls back into place and not only that it also makes me feel far more expanded than my physical body itself.
Appreciation for our wonderful body working alongside the Connective Tissue Therapy exercises; what an awesome combination for healing any issues in our body. Like you Lieke, I have had such incredible results from this beautiful union and deeply appreciate the healing it offers me every single day.
We easily do we forget to appreciate everything our body does for us. Recently with bending I could hear and feel my heart beat and I was just in awe about it. That was my heart beating in my body and how beautiful was that!
“One thing the practitioner said during my session stood out for me especially. She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do.” Amongst a myriad of other things that our body can do, this is just one example of how we can and do so easily take our bodies for granted. If we stopped to appreciate everything that our bodies do in every moment of every day, with that deepened awareness we would undoubtedly and willingly take more care of ourselves.
Shoulder, neck and wrist pain are all the things we have been discussing at work due to working on computers all day, so it’s great to be reminded of the connective tissue exercises and having an appreciation for what the body can do, and is willing to do.
Especially when your body needs to do several tasks over and over again it is crucial to build a foundation within you, that is a fitness how to hold your body to handle everything that it is asked to do.
Yes, that is true. I worked in a motorway services grocery department and we would get 500 customers on one shift and I found lifting the bags a strain due to having a constant stream of customers. Then I took up the advice of an Esoteric Practitioner who told me to do some light weights as a support for the job and very quickly I found that my body could cope and the job became easier.
Yes very much so. And I found that our fitness not only includes our physical fitness but also our way of being in life, emotionally, psychologically and so on as it all matters and has a huge impact. For instance thinking badly about ourselves all the time wears us out too.
It has a huge effect how we “hold” ourselves in life – I realised I do not have to do weights, as how I hold my upper body in life and whilst working as a photographer is exercising me enough now.
It is amazing to have modalities, such as the Universal Medicine modalities, available to us that work in honor of and with the intelligence of the body and Soul, supporting the body and being to return to a state of harmony and union along with the understanding of what energy was behind the ill-momentum. This is what offers true healing and empowerment, supporting us to live with greater responsibility of taking care of our own health and well-being as much as possible.
Connective tissue therapy should be really an integral part of all dentists training … Imagine that 🙂
I agree. Dentists, Hairdressers, Carers, Nurses….the list is endless. Anyone in fact who works in a way that involves putting any kind of repetitve strain on their body would benefit from Connective Tissue Therapy training.
And just imagine what it will be like going to the hairdresser who knew this… How amazing it would feel as they did your hair…Well I can imagine 🙂
I have noticed this too as a physio – that we tend to compromise our own bodies in order to support someone elses! How does this make sense that to help someone else we need to wreck our own bodies? And yet this is the reality for many health care professionals.
Recently Universal Medicine practitioner Kate Greenaway presented the Connective Tissue Movements to three different kinds of audiences – one of students, one of healthcare workers and one with general public. All three instantly could feel the benefits of these exercises and how they can be so easily used in everyday life. It is super supportive for all but even more so for those who have physical jobs.
The settling and contentedness offers a marked difference from the unsettled feeling we have come to take as normal in our body.
When we feel discomfort we can be quick to complain, yet do we appreciate the time when we are able to move freely, to bend and twist, to dance and play and just enjoy our own body?
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is such a gentle supportive modality, yet the profound changes that can result from a session are amazing.
Connective Tissue Therapy can sometimes allow us to feel what has been suppressed in the body for example someone who has had a severe accident and lost feeling in their legs can begin to feel again. This can be disconcerting but actually may be a sign that the connective tissue is coming alive again and a flow is being restored.
Connective Tissue Therapy… Something so simple, something so true, that can be used from the cradle to the grave.
Building our awareness of what’s going on in our bodies gives us more awareness of our reactions, thoughts, feelings and emotions- and then the clarity to see some of our behaviours and patterns more clearly. In my experience, building a relationship with my body has started to bring more appreciation of all that it does and carries me through; a foundation that makes me want to look after it more carefully, treasure it more deeply.
Hi Lieke, are you able to share how things further developed?
What I love about Esoteric Connective Tissue is that it asks me to surrender, so as soon as I think about doing any of the super gentle stretches or exercises I have already started to put my body into a more gentle state of being and this in itself supports the body and any pain I may have begins to disappear.
I love how this session supported you to realise that your body is actually working with you and all it is asking is for you to work with it too. A two way street that has amazing benefits and results.
A two – way street that brings each movement together with purpose for the body and what it offers others.
Connective tissue therapy will one day be an essential part of healthcare for humanity.… It really is inevitable considering the incredible quality of this modality.
I agree, this modality is incredibly powerful and the answer to many of the health problems we encounter in the world today that we so far can only manage, such a chronic pain.
” She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do.’
I had never seen it this way and I was thinking of all the turning and bending and twisting my body has done over my whole life.
Yes, it sounds silly to say this, but our body is quite amazing.
It is astonishing to learn that a physical pain can be dealt with via an online session, with no hands on treatment from a practitioner. Sure, you get given the exercise, but there must be an amazing level of alignment and communication between you and the practitioner for this to happen.
We often take our body for granted, yet when we truly appreciate the support and wisdom it offers us, I have found through Esoteric Connective Tissue we learn to move in a different way.
I have been suffering from some lower back pain recently and was wondering if Connective Tissue Exercises might help, so it’s very interesting to read that some simple exercises were such a great support, as not only did they help on a physical level but in a way that taught you to appreciate the amazing body you are in rather than be annoyed at its failings. I can feel how I have gotten irritated with my body and the pain it is causing rather than appreciating what it’s telling me and all it does for me throughout the day.
Yes Fiona we berate our body for being honest! I have to say it is a good reminder to me about who else I berate or blame for being honest….
Connective Tissue Exercises feel as if they would be extremely gentle movements to the body that even those who have long term pain or injury could do as it’s moving the body from the inside with absolute body awareness rather than from the head. I have never done Connective Tissue Exercises but I’m interested in how it may support people in a far more gentle way than other forms of therapy.
Reading this reminds me of the importance of taking care of our whole body, not ignoring aches or pains and what they may be communicating to us. And by caring for our body we give ourselves a sound foundation from which we can more deeply care for others.
Beautifully said Fiona and so true and something I am learning more and more.
Very true Fiona, just the other day I caught myself ignoring a gentle communication from my lower back and pushing through, resulting in major back ache the next day. I realise my body had nudged me to look at something I was not feeling or was not taking care of in my way of living but as I ignored the nudge, it had to become quite loud to get my attention. It was a great reminder to deepen the level of care with myself, not just for me, but because I have a responsibility in how I care for others.
For me too, “Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven” as making a commitment to doing them at least once a day has been the difference between a body that was once full of pain and stiffness to a body that is relatively pain-free and much more supple. It is such a joy to now move in this new version of me and I often wonder how I managed to move in the very uncomfortable way that I did, for so long.
When we treat our body as something more than a thing that we need to function in life, we can start to appreciate how important it is to move in a quality of tenderness and gentleness.
We make life about push and pull, right and wrong, fight or flight when it’s all about flow. Connective Tissue exercises show us our true strength lives in appreciating how connected we are. Thank you Lieke.
The profound effectiveness of these simple exercises cannot be underestimated. By bringing our full attention and focus to our bodies when making even the smallest movements, we are supporting our bodies in ways that go far beyond just the physical movements. A daily routine of Connective Tissue exercises can literally be life changing.
We give so much attention to our ‘attractiveness’ and the makeup of our face and body shape, but you’ve brought up a great topic Lieke which is that our body is made up of cells, connective tissue, muscle, skeleton and thousands of other structures which have a huge impact on our everyday, but do we value these or appreciate them at all? Or pretend they don’t exist until we get the news that something has gone wrong?
‘our connective tissue is what holds us all together and is the stuff through which the energy that moves our body flows.’ I love how you describe our connective tissue, just very simple and after reading this everybody will and is able to understand the importance of its role in the body.
“but at that moment I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed.”
A huge smile came across my face as I read this….how amazing are your bodies indeed. We are so lucky to have them 🙂
Our bodies are amazing and well worth appreciating, it’s a great point you share how we can miss this and just see it as a nuisance when we have aches or pains. And beautiful how the depth of care that you give to yourself will also support your patients.
“By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner, and more able to care for my patients throughout the course of my career.”
What you write here really is the foundation for medicine when we understand the above we become the best health professionals because the love we hold our body in is naturally shared with all.
I love the fact that you can look in to the longevity of your career with confidence, knowing that you have been given the techniques which can support you and thus your patients. This is so rare and beautiful, as many professions are intense and I know that many people experience burnout at one point or another, which perhaps could be avoided if we all knew how to deeply care for our bodies.
We expect and take for granted that everything just ‘works’, like it’s our natural birthright to be well. When you consider how illness cuts this arrogance down and helps us appreciate just being able to move around, then you can see that illness and disease is truly a massive healing for us all, to return to our natural state of grace. Thank you Lieke – I appreciate what you say and am inspired to appreciate me.
I am constantly blown away by the power of the Connective Tissue sessions, for them to be so subtle in the actual technique yet have such a massive impact on my body. It has been a huge learning and an accepting process to understanding energy and that this is happening everywhere no matter what.
What Connective Tissue Therapy and its exercises offer the body is nothing less than profound. From the simplest and tiniest of movements comes an opening and releasing of long held tension and trauma in the body which allows it to open up and connect back to its true expression. I have experienced some remarkable changes both in myself and in others from this extraordinary modality.
Appreciating the quality of our movements is an ever confirming process that provides a wonderful foundation of support for our bodies.
Appreciating the body for all it offers us is huge but rarely practised, as it asks for us to be less abusive and deeply honouring of it.
Appreciation is key. We take so many things for granted. Appreciating even the small things in life enables us to evolve and move on to the next point of service.
I did the Connective Tissue Level one course last weekend again and OMG! After only the first day I felt like a totally new man. I haven’t done any of the exercise yet but this blog has inspired me to do so as I have a job that has been taxing on my body over many years and the exercise I feel will truly support me as well.
It’s so true Lieke, we don’t appreciate our human body nearly enough for the wisdom and awareness it brings us every day.
Connective Tissue awareness, both treatments and exercises, benefit everyone, the whole of humanity… a big statement but it’s true.
Connective Tissue exercises are an awesome way to move and realign our bodies and feel amazing when we do them.
I agree Julie, connective tissue exercises are super supportive for everyone with a body, so for everybody at any age. They make the connection to the body stronger and give space, which allows settlement.
Neck pain seems to be difficult to resolve, perhaps as or even more difficult as acute or chronic back pain. Well done for resolving it and making the changes necessary.
Our connective tissue reflects our interdependence in life. Each part of our body needs support and plays an integral part with the whole.
Connective Tissue Therapy is truly a modality that offers the potential to connect to the grandeur of what our body is capable of showing us to live. There is no doubt that when one gets to stop and register this we are automatically given the choice to say yes to this natural way of living and being.
I did an esoteric connective tissue exercise course recently combined with sacred movement- this was an amazing experience. During the course I felt like I was going to fall asleep as a lot of stuff that was being held tightly in my body was releasing. It was amazing to notice the areas of tension in my body that I was just putting up with and learning how to let these go.
‘Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven that supports our body on many levels; they are applicable in many industries and dentistry is just one of them.’ From my personal experience of Connective Tissue therapy, I totally agree Lieke – so amazing for our body, and we take our body every where we go!
Being a true practitioner in life is learning about all your movements in your life, never about perfection or drive. You make your way accesible or not, it is the way you move that constitues the result later.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is such an amazing modality which the human race is crying out for as it is so badly need by so many people.
Had you ignored the early signs and pushed them away or overridden them, things may have been fine for a while. Or there may have been a low level pain that you learnt to deal with. Either way, nothing in the body would have healed and from there over time things would have slowly been added to a pot that was now tarred. More and more being added over time leading to a body that can’t be vital. When we pay attention to all the little things and address them, we actually allow for our body to be clear. With a clear body – divinity can pour through us.
Connective Tissue exercises make me more aware of my body in general and make me want to take more care of it. I am just ordering a new office chair this morning to support my posture while working at my desk. This makes a difference to the support of my lower back, spine, shoulders and head. It also means that the distance between me and the laptop is much more comfortable and there is less strain on my eyes. It is an investment well worth making and appreciate that I feel I am worthy of the expense.
It is gorgeous that there is a way to deeply support yourself through connective tissue exercises between patients so that you no longer have to physically suffer the demands of your job. The body is always asking to be cared for and not pushed beyond it’s limitations and the simplicity and yet power of these is perfect to allow you to offer it what it needs whilst offering yourself the space to bring in a settlement and contentedness that most do not get to experience when living out the tension that can otherwise dominate.
I love hearing about all the different jobs we do and the ways in which bodies cope and adapt to all of the roles that are needed. I thought I wanted to be a dental nurse when I was a teenager but I never thought of the possible neck pain that could occur. The fact that you were able to clear such frequent pain in one online session is gob smacking in itself. It is truly inspiring that you did not get caught in the consciousness of “It’s just what happens in my industry”. Instead you have actively sought support and listen to the signals the body was giving you.
That is a great point Sarah. It is easy to just think ‘oh that is what just happens and there isn’t much to do against back pain’ but you are right that is a consciousness, a way of thinking we are all easily thinking in. Yet when you step back it is clear that there are ways to not have neck pain and that is through self-love and self-care and being aware of our posture first and foremost.
It is well known that dentists often suffer back pain, due to the position they have to work in, however is it possible that it becomes a persistent problem through the lack of self care, and not honouring ourselves when we have to move in a certain way, esoteric connective tissue is great at realigning the body, and through certain exercise we are able to strengthen our core body, which in turn makes it possible not to be affected as we once were.
I can imagine neck and back strain is a common issue for dentists. Trying to see into nooks and crannies in a patient’s mouth must be hard! It is great that you have taken steps early in your career to prevent this. Now you will be able to share it with other dentists in journals or presentations.
By bringing our full attention and focus to the way we move any part of our body in a very delicate and subtle way allows, us to be aware of and feel how much tension we can be holding onto without realising it. As a result it can and does have the potential to deeply heal far more than we could ever anticipate.
I find connecting to my body and staying with those subtle and slight, yet what can feel like all-moving movements in the Connective Tissue exercises, brings back to conscious awareness a settlement and ease in the body, which is hugely releasing and healing.
Taking care of our body is so important and over a year of not doing exercise I have started to go to a gym and in just 3 weeks have in turn noticed how this has supported me in my work and whole well-being. Really lovely to hear that you are supporting yourself by doing a few simple exercises in between seeing people.
Just imagine if CT was a part of EVERY nurses training …. What a different health care system we would have .
WOAH yes that would be amazing … especially if instead of imagining this actually happened and they were supported this way along with many other health professionals.
It is beautiful to feel how much more in tune we are to the intelligence of our bodies when we choose to bring our awareness to our body and its movements. As we then are able to understand what is needed to move with greater harmony, flow and a strength that is established from within.
The connective tissue and lymphatic system of the body are such beautiful reflections of our relationship with the universal flow and order. We can either embrace our divine flow wholeheartedly or resist stubbornly.
A beautiful and true testimony to Connective Tissue Therapy Lieke. What struck me this morning was the deep appreciation you have for the function, purpose and movement of your body; an inspirational message, thank you.
I literally adore the connective tissue sessions I have received and have had amazing shifts with a particularly painful foot.
just imagine if connective tissue exercises were part of the daily care in old folks homes, even in hospitals in general… The quality of people’s experiences would be so different… So enhanced.
Yes Doug …same here … it would certainly turn around aged care 180 degrees on its axis in so many ways… bring it on …:-)
The level of deep connection offered in this modality is what makes the difference in how we are willing to heal our aches and pains. It is so easy to exercise and modify our movements but when we don’t add the quality we can so easily go back to square one.
It is deeply insightful how we can be seemingly aware of ourselves and our body and yet there are even greater and deeper levels of understanding and awareness to go to. This is one of the fascinating wonders of our body that forever astounds me.
Beautiful to read this as a reminder of what our bodies allow us to do in life, and what we do to our bodies. It’s a two way relationship and with a deeper caring comes more support. That is a lifelong dance.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a truly supportive modality for the body. Every time I do the simple exercises I can feel the difference they make to my whole day. I find that I walk more easily and in more flow though the day.
Interesting how the body naturally warms to anything and everything that is truly loving and honouring of it. Yet many of our behaviours are not that at all.. in fact in many cases they are absolutely abusive to the body such as eat too much, eating the foods our body does not truly need, eating not enough, not going to the toilet when called to by the body and many many more. The benefits of looking after and loving ourselves and our bodies is evidently palpable and so simple!
The body is so loving to us. Every moment it is communicating to us how we can love it deeper, as every moment it is expressing to us we are a much deeper love than we have allowed ourselves to live.
We should never stop appreciating the amazingness of our bodies, because they are absolutely amazing and the Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a sure fire way of maintaining that amazingness.
Exercise can offer so much more than a time of care and maintenance. Such as a time where we connect and listen to what our body can communicate and deepen the relationship of appreciation for this body which houses our inner most essence.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is supporting my body in a flow to come more into an acceptance to live my life in full.
Recently I have been doing some simple connective tissue exercises with my hips as instructed by my friend and beautiful physiotherapist Kate Greenaway – and since then I have noticed some phenomenal changes in the tension melting away in my hips. I have never experienced my hips to be as loose as they are now, and I really love the feeling! Too precious indeed – thank you Kate Greenaway!
Lieke I have never thought to appreciate my body for all the bending, twisting and turning it can do. The next time I do some exercise I will be incorporating this aspect into my workout.
I really needed to come to this blog today to feel the sweetness and communication from my body and the benefits of listening. Thank you, Lieke.
I am not surprised by this. I had Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy many years ago to assist with healing spurs and torn meniscus tissue in my feet from falling off a ladder, and the results were spectacular.
It’s incredible how such seemingly subtle awarenesses and movements can have such a profound effect; it really shows to me the power of being in tune with our whole body and appreciating it.
Fine tuning in response to our bodies can have the most profound impact on the way we move and feel… my posture definitely affects my moods.
The lovely thing about connective tissue exercises is that they can be done at any time of day – some are sitting, some are standing and there are some beautiful ones to do when lying down. They are so gentle and vitalising at the same time.
Connective Tissue Therapy for me is like an automatic connection with my lymphatic system and a sense of stillness and flow comes over me, it is some times a feeling that is a contradiction to how I have been living, controlled and a level of hardness and I can feel my body feels a bit achy and raw, because of this, but the actual treatment is so very gentle. It offers the body a real support for releasing aches, tightness and tension and brings sense of true calm.
Thank you Lieke. We ask a lot of our bodies and it is great to be reminded to support, nurture, cherish and appreciate our bodies for the amazing way they carry and guide us, our Soul, through our every day.
“She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do.”
It’s so important to be reminded of how amazing our bodies are, for hand in hand with appreciation comes greater honouring and care with our movements. I have been researching amazing facts about the pregnant body for my Aqua Natal class each week, as I feel it brings more understanding and appreciation to the miraculous transition that our bodies are undergoing.
I love the detail with which you describe the cause of the onset of your back-pain. This kind of attentiveness is superb because it gives us a real opportunity to deal with the root causes. Our bodies tell us all that we need to know and, because you were listening, you have an early and clear choice to deal withe the problem. Bravo and hoorah!
What a beautiful sharing in commitment to building a deeper relationship with yourself. To honour your movements and to commit to developing a more loving connection with your body.
It is great what you share, we do need to stop and build a relationship with our body so that we are honouring and supporting the movements it is able to do. At the same time appreciating what movements our bodies are allowing. Stopping to take care of the body, nurturing it and provide the food and nourishment to function.
Yes I find it is great to observe our posture as much as possible because a little bending to one side for instance can create a lot of discomfort after doing that for a long time. I know when I am stressed and wanting to get something done in a certain time I often push through and don’t care at that moment about my posture. Later I feel it, and really it is not worth it!
Developing a relationship with my body on a level that has awareness of my bones, muscles, tissues, organs, skin… means that I have a really strong resource for monitoring how I am living, moving and being in my day – this is informative and supports me to make sustainable, supportive and responsible choices
This is such a beautiful way to approach how we treat our body in the workplace. I sit at a desk for much of the day. Sometimes I can become so engrossed in what I am doing that I lose connection to my body. I’ll find my wrists were at the wrong angle, my feet in an uncomfortable position or that I’m not fully straight in my chair for example. These are all little things but they have quite a big impact. When we take care of the little thing, there is space for so much more.
Kate deserves every word of this song of praise, as does the modality she beautifully practices! To think people suffer this type of pain and think it normal is sad, or seek constant repairs with no true deep support. Kate knows how to practically strengthen and adjust your body but never steps away from reminding you of the delicately that we hold as women, coming from a strong women, this is powerful.
There are so many points in the day where I can stop and check in how I am holding my body, either in full support, braced against the world or collapsed from the onslaught of life. Each moment is a reminder of who I am in essence and to hold myself in such as way that reflects that.
Awareness is a powerful healing tool, if we learn to connect, and with the support of the connective tissue exercises tune in to the body, then we have the opportunity to undo the ill-configurations we have been ‘sub-consciously’ running that have led our bodies into ill-conditions and strain and restore them back to their natural true movement.
That’s a great point, Lieke – to appreciate what the body can do rather than focus on where it is restricted. This in itself makes us less tense and frees up our movements.
The more we look after and care for our self, the more we are able to care for our clients. We cannot drink from an empty cup nor can we give from an empty body.
Yes it is pretty simple isn’t it. We have to learn how to truly care for ourselves and what this means.
Such simplicity – yet absolute truth. Agree entirely.
I never cease to be amazed at the profound and life changing effects that Connective Tissue Therapy can have, even in one session. It is a remarkable treatment that asks nothing of the body, other than that it deeply surrenders to allow true healing to take place.
‘ It was a real eye opener for me, as before I saw my body a bit as a nuisance, not able to let me easily do my job, but at that moment I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed. The only thing it was and is asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations.’
We can very easily slip into disregard, and the beauty and grace in our body is lost by our choice of movements.
This is outstanding … that ONE CT session, and online at that could make such a difference .. I can’t wait for the CT TV channel…☺
Appreciation is an important part of every relationship and is so in our relationship with our bodies… when I appreciate my body and all it does, I start to have a dialogue with it that reminds me of its wisdom and the benefits of approaching life from the inside out… this is a constant in a world of great inconsistency and volatility.
‘Feeling my legs, arms, and neck more and from the inside out.’ This is something we rarely do – we are so used to looking at ourselves from the skin in that we don’t appreciate what goes on inside our bodies. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy enables our internal sensitivity to be felt, as it releases tensions and blocks we have put in the way of our body’s natural flow.
What I appreciate concerning connective tissue is the simplicity of the movements and its relaxing effect to the body.
I loved this bit too – to remember to stop and appreciate our bodies for all the things it can do for us. – a refreshing change from the continual self-criticism and berating we can so often inflict upon our body. Appreciating opens the gateway to the greater communication and connection with the truth our bodies hold within
Such a great reminder Lieke to stop and appreciate our bodies. Our bodies serve us amazingly well considering what we can put them through. It is great to know there are simple and gentle exercises that we can learning and use through Connective Tissue Therapy that will support our body to continue to support us in our day to day lives.
It’s funny how we can look at things and take them for granted and yet they are here for us all the time, in whatever way we need. Like the article is saying about the body, “It was a real eye opener for me, as before I saw my body a bit as a nuisance, not able to let me easily do my job, but at that moment I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed. The only thing it was and is asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations.” This shows how strong the Connective Tissue Therapy is in that in one session over the phone a person can see this. It makes sense seeing as though we are made of Connective Tissue and how much we should recognise this fact and take a lot more care of ourselves, seeing that the thing that goes with us everywhere is our body.
Yes so true Ray we are made of connective tissue, I have studied the body and it is literally in every part of it. So it makes sense that how we move does have a huge impact and is spread through our body by the connective tissue just like the ripple effect of a stone thrown into a lake. It just makes you care much more for your body when you consciously notice this fact.
It would make me wonder then why didn’t someone teach or show me this earlier? I see there is one site that is leading the way in what this is all about https://www.universalmedicine.com.au/services/healing-therapies/connective-tissue-therapy You could nearly call this a crime we have seen or been shown this earlier, even to have this integrated into school or into science lessons. We all need to walk this out into the greater world for everyone. If we all can see the huge benefits this has had on our life then it only makes sense for this to be available for us all.
Connective Tissue exercises remind us of how we are naturally designed to move.
So simply put, Vicky, I love it. And when we remember how we are naturally designed to move our bodies invite us to another depth of awareness about life and the impact of our choices.
Very true Matilda. The growing awareness activates the movements that allow the patterns and behaviours that are in the way to naturally and effortlessly drop away.
Taking care of the body is a great way to build ones self-love and self-awareness.
This is beautiful Lieke, it is so important to appreciate and feel the amazing job our body does for us day in day out. And makes us listen to the signals it sends for us to take deeper care.
I too love the simplicity of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy exercises, making them able to be done at anytime and anywhere. I have just started a new job and I consistently have found myself tensing up while using an unfamiliar keyboard and computer monitor and as a result could feel this tension not just affecting my neck but my shoulders and head. So today I will be regularly reminding myself to stop for a moment and take the time to do these exercises – they are priceless!
I have found Connective Tissue Therapy not only assist with aches and pains of muscles and joints, but also to bring a deep appreciation of our body as you get to feel its delicate, and yet at the same time, such a foundational supportive strength with the body.
What I love about the Connective Tissue Exercises is that not only does it have huge physiological benefits but it also, and as importantly, develops and deepens my relationship with myself, so that in everything I do there is a building quality of presence that is very inspiring.
Connective exercise is a beautiful tool to connect back to the body, it is nurturing and harmonizing the body.
I love the idea of sharing gratitude and appreciation for the work my body does for me each day. Gentle
connective tissue exercises have improved my bodies healing time immensely.
“…I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed….” Yes, indeed… You know, this is a great ‘stop in your tracks’ kind of thought about our body, as you get to see just how much your body is like your best-est friend.. or slave… ever, as it will go wherever you want to go, consume and process whatever you put into it to eat… most of the time without complaint… it really is a moment to take stock, appreciate and return the favour with self-love and self-nurture… and then your body loves you back… x10-fold… One aspect of medicine that doesn’t come in the form of a pill, and that is to take care of ourselves!
What’s important to understand here as a reader is that you did not abdicate the healing process, but walked hand in hand with practitioners the whole way to learn your own lesson.
The simplicity and beauty of responsibility and the incredible benefit this has on our well-being and relationships.
Our bodies are very willing to work and move and be active, but often it can feel like this is the last thing we want to be doing, and would rather have another hour in bed or have 5 minutes more (which turns into an hour) of TV/Facebook etc. But these actually don’t make me feel any better, only temporarily numbed to the dis-ease. I felt very tired the other day and rather than ‘can’t be bothered’ I chose to do my morning routine of light weights and stretches, keeping my focus on those limitations and honouring how much my body could do. Afterwards it felt like I had a shower, completely refreshed and not sore from the exercise on top of the tiredness, but more awake and ready to start my day.
What a great blog Lieke, we don’t alway listen to our bodies, I am the same with how I tend to sit at my desk in the office, hunched over and not being very supportive or appreciative of what my body does for me everyday, I tend to be more critical, which isn’t helpful. So loved what you have shared here.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a very healing modality, a sure gift from heaven. It is such a gentle therapy but yet a very powerful one working with the tissues and lymphatic system. It has really supported me with my posture, letting go of hardness in my body and bring stillness within.
It is so beautiful to appreciate that our bodies are so much more than a functioning unit, rather a vessel of expression for our divine essence.
The exercises are simple but an amazing opportunity to deepen our awareness of how we hold and move our bodies in every moment.. and it is these movements that can either bring us to a greater level of freedom and expansion or cement ourselves and our bodies more deeply into an ill-configuration, perpetuating and exacerbating the pain/ ill health/ emotional conditions etc. So the awareness is key and the benefits on offer beyond measure.
Those apparently tiny or insignificant shifts in posture that totally change my day/mood/outlook… we can never underestimate the impact of our treatment of, and relationship with, our bodies.
Yes making a shift in posture is huge, it just makes sense that slouching will make us feel less good than having a upright sitting position. Being aware of little slouches I make in the day makes a huge difference in how I feel. It is really a science how our posture and movements impact on how we feel.
Experiencing Connective Tissue Therapy has connected me to the delicacy and interconnectedness of my body in the most beautiful and practical way.
Working in the field of health and wellbeing my experience is that connective tissue exercises can help with chronic illnesses. The results can be amazing.
Esoteric Connective Tissue is so powerful and what is incredible is that because it is working with the inside of the body that holds everything in place when this is connected with and then brought the healing touch it automatically is bring that quality to every part inside the body.
Not ignoring and overriding our bodies but learning how to work with them can prevent so many complications as we age.
Absolutely, we still need to do our jobs and have our commitments but to learn to do them in accordance with the body does make a difference. I was yesterday at work and even though it was intense because of moving with care and tenderness I feel not as heavy today, as I have been at times. Even though the work was and felt pretty much the same.
I mentioned something similar to my partner yesterday, it’s not the work that drains me (as if work is the issue) but how I am in my work that affects me. Taking this stance is far more empowering than it is to believe that the work is harder or bigger than how we choose to be with ourselves in the work.
Working with the connective tissue is like working directly with God because when you feel the connective tissue in the body you get to feel the beautiful flow that is there. It makes me appreciate that there is much more to us than meets the eye.
This is great Lieke, it is through the appreciation of our bodies that our movements are more in the natural flow of our true nature without restrictions or tensions from the mind.
‘Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven that supports our body on many levels; they are applicable in many industries and dentistry is just one of them.’ Connective tissue exercises can be done any where at any time . – it is great to always be aware of the quality that we are moving in.
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It is super powerful to bring full connection and presence to our movements – and this quality then informs our next movement.. the exercises can be very simple, but done in true quality can reveal the patterns that are then restricting our living and creating disharmony. and with this awareness comes the deeper healing.
When a health professional has tension in his or her body this will have an effect on the patient or client they are interacting with. It is vital that health professionals look after themselves first, so it is lovely to read how you are doing this Lieke.
Connective Tissue exercises are like a soothing balm to the inside of the body.
A great sharing Lieke. We often don’t consider how just even these bits of pressure on the body affect it, and how the root causes, like being nervous, trying to get things right and not harm are also holding our body in a certain position. Its as if there is a link between body posture and our energetic state of being, they both affect one another.
The appreciation and care for our bodies you share here Lieke is beautiful and very inspiring. Esoteric Connective Tissue is an amazing modality and real gift from heaven for us all as is the gentle honouring way of moving and loving care in how we live and makes all the difference to our lives.
These exercises, stretches and modalities are heaven sent, I practice them and I work in health care and I know that this gentle purposeful approach alters the whole quality of rehabilitation and maintenance.
Whenever I go to the dentist now I remember this piece of writing, and I wonder if the dentist is in any pain, if they feel supported in their body, or if they feel tired and drained and if so, what a strain it must be to work all day in people’s mouths feeling exhausted. Self-care therefore seems like the most vital personal tool for this industry that gives so much to society.
That is great Shami. What this does make me aware of is that many people who visit the dentist probably don’t consider what a strain the work of a dentist is on the dentists body and how this can also affect how the dentist is with the client. Understanding in this is very important and that goes both ways. This understanding could also take away anxiety of going to the dentist as we see each other more as human beings rather than ‘scary dentist’ and ‘anxious patient’.
It is so true the more we are able to self care we can truly reflect and inspire others to care for themselves.
I too agree that Connective tissue is a healing modality/ gift sent from heaven. I have treated clients with chronic lower back pain which after 6 weeks the pain has resolved, after having one hour treatment per week.
Lieke, your sharing is truly powerful because it reminds us to make a stop when our bodies are signalling that something is not quite right.
And to appreciate that our bodies are our allies and wise guides.
Isn’t is simple and yet I do not always stop when I need the rest, yet it is so healing to take stock and recognise signs of tiredness and give ourselves a rest or a reset of how we do what we do.
appreciating ourselves is so deeply neglected in this life we have created and that is why it is possible for so many things to crush us – because until we learn to build a steady foundation of the truth of who we are, then all that is not of truth that we have allowed to run riot in this world will be directed towards us to keep us tumbling and crumbling. Starting with appreciation we can step by step restore our strength and understanding in knowing who we all are.
When I stop and feel in my body that I’ve been at something to long or too intensively, I very much enjoy and appreciate the flow and rhythm I can re introduced to my body with Esoteric Connective Tissue exercises.
‘appreciating my body’ as the start to truly appreciating the divine wisdom we all hold.
I agree, ‘Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven…’ when I choose to apply them they support my body so beautifully. I feel more myself, relaxed and still…aches and pains disappear and my body feels more open and vital.
Hands on Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy treatments are also absolutely awesome and incredibly powerful. Amazing how such tiny almost imperceptible (at times) movements can bring about such great healing.
Also quite an eye opener to discover how responsive our bodies are – a little bit of love and awareness go a very loooooooooooooooooooooooong way.
What I find amazing is that my willingness to listen to what my body flags up is in itself something that transforms my experience of pain and/or illness.
It really is quite amazing the effect of such simple and small movements can have on the body when done with a true purpose and focus. Imagine if exercises such as these were introduced into schools in the mornings, or even into work places before the start of the day, and potentially what a difference it would make to the effectiveness of the workers and the results of their work.
Connective Tissue exercises are bringing an ease and flow in the body so that the body feels much more light in the end. I do them in the morning and during the day because they ease the tension I am accumulating in certain situations.
I had a similar experience with my connective tissue session, an expansiveness that was quite incredible from such simple small movements!
‘appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do’ this is something for all of us to take note of, we tend to take our bodies for granted and constantly look outside of ourselves for appreciation, whereas simply appreciating our bodies and the way they can move makes such a difference to our self worth.
When I do this, I realise the amazingness of our bodies and what they can do; from this place I am much more likely to value and take care of everything my body tells me.
What a timely reminder to get about doing my Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises again along with some simple Sacred movement as presented by Natalie Benhayon to bring more flexibility to my body and my day. For more on Sacred Movement go to;
http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=sacred+movement
such a simple philosophy, yet it seems to change our relationship to our body because we are not fighting it as much anymore. Thanks Lieke for the reminder to appreciate and not fight my body as much.
i love the fact that you chose to get support early with this, to address the root cause rather than use drugs or just hope it would go away by itself. I am so impressed that the help was so simple, so available via Skype, and that you allowed full support by adopting what you needed to.
Esoteric connective tissue therapy is an amazing support for our bodies in allowing a natural flow and harmony to be restored and felt from the movements and conditions we hold. It also allows us to really feel what is going on and feel the natural flow and rhythms from our movements we can choose to change by this awareness and the loving support and care we can give our bodies.
It is interesting what you say about how if we move in a way which is not supportive to the body against its limitation, when it is “combine with a little nervousness and tension” it locks up and causes deep levels of pain. Our body has to be looked after, nurtured, feed and exercised too obtain optimum health. Connective Tissue Therapy is gentle way to support the body.
There is such a shift in my relationship with life when I allow myself to marvel at and appreciate the amazing work our bodies do, how supportive and adaptable they are and how they show us beyond doubt the impact of our choices.
I love how you sought support for the pain in your neck Lieke and yet you describe how engaged you were in your own healing path with the help of connective tissue.
It is interesting how we, in many situations, can compromise ourselves and allow pain and disregard (often on auto pilot), to avoid causing discomfort to another. The key is to become aware of it and take an honest look at how to choose differently, in a way that is honouring of ourselves first and foremost.
It never ceases to amaze me how such subtle shifts in the changes of energy in our body can change our physical posture and vice versa. I sometimes adopt a stance or posture that I did in the past and boy was there such a strain, to think that I had held my body in that for so long it became normal and took on that stance, our bodies amd the energy we choose have within us is truly a wonder – bless Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy.
Beautiful, Lieke. Making a commitment to consistently care for your body will surely have a ripple effect out to your patients and the rest of your life.
If a little child showed pain or discomfort in how they were being moved or handled we would respond, adjusting our movements with a gentler awareness and approach. This is what our bodies are asking when in pain or discomfort. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a wonderful support for the body to once again be released from the grip of pain or discomfort by the extra force that is sometimes imposed on it from the way we move and use or bodies.
“The only thing it was and is asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations.” Pain or discomfort is is the body’s way of letting us know to please take care, a simple request that requires a very simple response.
While we might not always be able to stop moving in a particular way I agree Lieke the Connective Tissue Exercises are simple and amazing to support the body to return to a more harmonious state after the required movement is complete, and this is repeated as often as required.
A willingness to build awareness of our bodies means we can be guided and inspired by what they ‘tell’ us about our choices.
It is very rare that we stop and appreciate our body for what it can do and what it does for us. We are more likely to moan about it for aching or becoming ill. But the things we moan about are actually the things we should appreciate the most, as these are signs that we need to take extra care of ourselves. Our body is always asking for love.
I have recently started some Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises for low back pain and can really feel the gentleness of them but the power too of such small stretches. They really get to the spot that feels stuck without any brute force. This way of exercising feeling the flow and the connection to the body is the way forwards for us all to learn to keep the body healthy.
It is quite inspiring to see people recover from musculo-skeletal pain in full and to listen to the strategies they used.
I shifted years of emotions I held onto in my body by doing Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises.
I am really appreciating how much our bodies move in every direction as we twist and turn. But not only that, when one part moves, the rest will also follow along to stretch, glide, lengthen and shorten to accommodate the movement to spread throughout the body from head to toe. That is the interconnectedness of the connective tissue we can observe throughout the whole structure working in all parts in harmony as one body. This is an important understanding for us to grasp and the effects this has on organs, blood vessels, nerves, muscles and bones, all different structures that are all interconnected. It is pretty amazing to connect to this through the Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy.
That is true – there is some scientific understanding of the connective tissue but there could well be room for much more valuable research.
Yes I agree with both of you. Connective tissue is everywhere in our body, so it makes sense that as that gets tense it causes a lot of tension and stress in the body. Just like for us as human beings we can get influenced by our environment so too is it on the micro level, our organs and cells are affected by their environment too.
This is beautiful how you share in basic terms how our everything is connected via our connective tissue, therefore it is important that healthy cells, blood flow, nutrients support the connective tissue enable for the body to move in all directions.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy brings my body back to harmony, its natural state. This is huge if we consider what it really means.
Love that you’ve shared this Lieke, as such an incredible exercise and technique should be shared far and wide!
We humans are great at ignoring our body and expecting it to do exactly what we want without appreciating the demands we put on it. I know before Universal Medicine I had no appreciation or respect for my body, pushed it to its limits and then wondered why I had back ache,neck ache and various injuries. I love how Esoteric Connective Tissue brought a deeper connection with your body and you were able to see how amazing your body is at working in small and confined spaces and learn how to work lovingly with this, and how this awareness would also support your patients
Esoteric Connective Tissue exercise are a gift from heaven.
I love that you have shared that discomfort in the body can be addressed with so much more than just the physical. Usually I would think ‘I have a pain so how do I get rid of it’ but here you share how there is an opportunity to come from appreciating your body – this is healing in itself and shows me that there is so much more than just fixing things physically.
I agree there is so much more than just fixing it physically, if we don’t look at the root cause and how we are moving, that problem will re-occur often more intense than before as we have not dealt with the cause and changed how we are moving.
The connective tissue does hold us together and as a person / massage therapist I am really interested how its condition impacts on the way we feel and move. Many people who I treat come with with habitual movement issues, be it sitting at a desk, feeling worried, defensive, driven, playing golf a lot, these are habits of movement and the connective tussle respond to these choices….and so gently supporting the body to realign is a very deep and beneficial practice – Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is incredible .
What I have found is powerful about Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is also consistency in doing it regularly when needed throughout the day. It supports me to be in connection with my body and be aware of what is going on and the quality of choices I have made in how they are impacting on my body.
It’s beautiful experiencing the simplicity and depth that the connective tissue exercises can bring to my body. In my experience, no matter what has happened during the day, those delicate and precise movements bring me directly back to myself. When I listen and honour my body in its movements, I can be fully present in it, and then, clarity, joy, expansion, gratitude,… everything that I truly am can be lived and shared again.
Understanding how connective tissue is a structure that runs throughout the body from tip to toe, it makes sense how one can feel such benefit from this modality in re-establishing a natural flow, reducing muscular tension all over the body, and as a result, deeply re-connect one back with themselves.
Our body is the most beautiful vessel of expression – but the body’s health, harmony and vitality depends on how we express with and through it.
Our patterns of movement are well worth studying and understanding. If there is pain in my body then I can relate it to my physical movements, but more than this I can consider how I have been in my thoughts, my experiences, are there mini trauma, dramas, outplays that have affected the quality of my movement, my posture and the fluidity and openness of my body. These are all things that affect how I feel and that I too have found have been supported by connective tissue exercises.
The tiny subtle movements of Connective Tissue Exercises have the potential to heal conditions in the body that have possibly been resigned to just something that has to be lived with. In the same way that the lapping waves of the tide can erode rocks and pebbles on the beach, the small regular and rhythmical movements of Connective Tissue Therapy can change the flow of energy through the body, bringing deep healing to enable an ease of movement in areas that have been in pain or discomfort for sometime. In turn this enables the rest of the body to move more naturally and so promotes overall health.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises are so simple to do, and are life and body changing. In some cases it only takes a few moments of these exercises to bring us straight back to our body.
Pain and discomfort is the body’s way of communicating to us that the way we are moving is not taking our body into full consideration. It is great to adhere to these messages, as you have shared so beautifully here Lieke, for when we do this changes everything.
I have found Connective Tissue Exercises to be a simple tool to reconnect back to my body – and with that reconnection comes greater awareness, understanding, confidence, space and the ability to observe rather than continue living in constant reaction and the resultant damage to body and being…. hugely powerful and supportive.
I was feeling very heady a couple of weeks ago, in the sense something was bothering me and I was over thinking – I thought I was totally lost and all it took was the kids in one class to call for Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises and I was straight back into my body in seconds, no lie. I had been thinking it would take me days to feel myself again. And all that stuff that I though was bothering me, I couldn’t even remember what it was. This just goes to show that our movements change our thoughts.
The simplicity of the connective tissue exercises belies the power and enormous potential that they have to help us tune in and reconnect to the profound wisdom the body can share with us if we give it the opportunity.
Annie as you say here its so simple yet its also very empowering, there is no need to keep getting the same issues fixed or medicated but instead a way of adjusting and deepening the care and love taken to ensure true support. Deeply empowering.
With body work and posture work I agree it is so much more than doing physical exercises – it is about transforming how we feel in our bodies from the inside out. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and the exercises which Kate Greenaway presents does exactly that and it is a revolutionary way of treating and supporting the body in physical therapy.
“From there I felt a level of settlement and contentedness I had not been feeling for a while” – is so true Lieke, Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy brings and offers exactly this, settlement through the ease of gentleness to restore fluid, movement, flow. It is like the removal of loads of teeny ‘car bumps/humps’ situated along the strands of the body…where there is great freeness in ‘the car drive’ afterwards!
Our body is our vessel, it allows us to operate and is our mode of transport on earth, just like our car. It’s amazing how we often look after our cars far better than we do our body.
What struck me especially about your online session learning CT exercises was not only learning supportive exercises but bringing appreciation and presence to when we move our bodies, making them so much more than a functional tool.
It is amazing how responsive our bodies our when we take the time to truly look after, honour and appreciate them. We largely treat our bodies with so much disregard and dismissiveness. The fact that our bodies do not burn out and give up earlier is something worth pondering! For me it shows how truly supportive my body is and the moment I honour it, it responds as if I had not abused it so much before. The more we see our bodies as the gift they are, the more we get to share the love within with everybody else – after all how can we love another if we do not first love ourselves?!
I love connective tissue movements and I have the feeling they can bring back our movements into a way which is natural for the body in bringing the connective tissue again in a more flowing state as it has been before.
It is quite sobering how the advances of society over the past 100 years have made us so much more sedentary, first with the car and then with the computer. This combined with increased body weight and decreased exercise overall makes us less fit than our ancestors. Your experiences with the gentle Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises and the changes you have felt in one simple session are very profound Lieke.
Gentle exercise in the morning before I go to work seems to set me up for the day, so finding out what truly supports us in what we do all day is essential for health and wellbeing.
We often don’t appreciate how very small movements can have such a profound impact on our whole body and the way we feel.
The feeling of dropping in the body is amazing, we think we are relaxed and yet there is a whole other level and more levels of our bodies surrendering.
We often forget to appreciate our body, the amazing things it does without us having to even think about it. Connective Tissue Therapy, I feel would be supportive for everyone of any profession. I find it is very common we use our body in a way that can cause injuries and discomfort, especially at work. I feel Connective Tissue Therapy is a super gentle and supportive way to allow our body to correct and heal itself. I find this is a much deeper and more effective way to support our body to heal. It allows our body to utilise its natural healing ability which is available to everyone, sometimes we do require a little support and a gentle reminder of what our body is capable of, and Connective Tissue Therapy is a brilliant modality for this.
It is beautiful to feel how you initiated yourself to become more educated to take greater care of yourself and the quality you bring to your profession.
I really appreciate how connective tissue therapy ask / allows us to be gentle, and to connect with our body gently, it becomes about the quality of the movement as foundation, it re-imprints moving and so we deepen our understanding of how we move.
Yes, and what an extraordinary ability to recover, given the right support.
It is interesting that you experienced lasting relief just from following exercises rather than having to receive extensive treatment. That is valuable.
I am having the same experience where the Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises have been supporting me with my episode of low back pain Lieke. I can appreciate much more how the body is completely integrated with the connective tissue connections throughout it, and how the very gentle nature of the exercises mobilise it when I am connected to myself. This feels the way forward to how we heal and continue our support for our physical bodies.
The Connective Tissues exercises show how the slightest movement done in conscious presence can have a profound effect on the body, and the level of connectedness continues to deepen. What it also shows is how important it is to be aware of the movements of the body and the effects they can have whilst going about our day to day.
So cool that you not only learnt practical exercises but you learnt to appreciate your body more too. True appreciation is medicine to our body.
Appreciation for our bodies and all the intricacies it performs allows us to develop a relationship with our own nature and trust that we have everything within ourselves to deal with what is presented in front of us so that we can let go of the pictures that which keeps us living in constant nervous energy hardening our bodies in order to push through and get things done making it difficult to accept and appreciate the divinity within.
To share with honesty the way you have done here, is a great reflection for us all to understand that pain and illness does not just occur from one moment to the other, it is always building up to it, and if we are willing to be honest about what we feel in our bodies and not override it, we are much more likely to stop it from turning into a serious physical condition.
Taking the time to appreciate the multi functionality of the body and applying the simple connective tissue exercises is pure magic to the normal rigours of our daily routines that place stress on our bodies. Thank you Lieke, what you have shared is so inspirational, for almost everyone in some way places there body in a contorted posture. .
I was at the dentist yesterday and I remembered this blog as I was watching the dentist leaning over the chair. I was also aware how much my neck was beginning to ache after an hour in the chair with my mouth open. Perhaps connective tissue exercises are something that could be offered to patients too…?
This is an amazing story Lieke. It is truly wonderful to be supported by a practitioner that knows how to look after themselves and actually puts this into practice. I can see that the way you care for yourself now will allow you to bless so many patients with your tender care for a long time to come.
Thanks for sharing your experience with Connective Tissue Therapy. I too agree it is a gentle and delicate body treatment that offers enormous benefit for the human body.
I am also practising connective tissue movements regurlarly and they are deeply supportive to keep my body in a flow.
I like how your practitioner brought you back to appreciating your body and some of its amazing functions and movements that we can so often take for granted, a great reminder for me thank you. Also by learning to ‘ appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner, and more able to care for my patients throughout the course of my career.’ Absolutely.
What a wonderful example of a practitioner making the choice to care for themselves, for how can they truly care for their patients if they don’t? From my experience it hasn’t been common practice for practitioners to do so, but lately I have been observing many starting to care for themselves very deeply and I know without any doubt at all that their patients will be reaping the ‘rewards’; the ripple effect is so very powerful.
“I know without any doubt at all that their patients will be reaping the ‘rewards’; the ripple effect is so very powerful.” Yes, beautifully said Ingrid. A practitioner that does not care for themselves will always, however good the intention is, convey two messages one from what they advise and say and the other is what their bodies are telling, most of the time I think the latter actually speaks more loudly and gets heard more seriously than we realise.
I love how you write about feeling your arms and legs from the inside out. I know exactly what you mean, when I feel the connective tissue treatment, I can feel my inside in a completely different way that I hadn’t noticed before. It is a different way to connect to the inside of ourselves in feeling a flow from within.
Yes Gill, I feel this too when I have a Connective Tissue treatment. It really is possible to feel from the inside out and to feel the body in a completely different way.
Neck and back pain are endemic in society and anything that reduces the severity or the number of incidences would have big consequences in terms of quality of life and finances for society. Great job, Lieke.
Lieke thank you for sharing – I know what you mean about truly appreciating your body, it is something I do not do enough of. It is so easy to take it for granted, yet to move in a way that truly and deeply appreciates my body gives me goose bumps, it’s my body’s way of saying: yes, bring it on!
These connective tissue exercises are simple to do and can be incorporated into our working day. They also provide an opportunity for us to check in with the body and can prevent the build-up of tension which eventually leads to restricted movement and pain.
Yes it is great to check in before we get pain from sitting tensed for a long time without realising.
It’s great that you started appreciating your body, Lieke. It is an amazing vehicle that works tirelessly and too often we take it for granted and then blame it if something goes wrong. If, instead of this, we take responsibility for our choices and actually listen to our body we will be guided as to how to move and this will bring more quality to what we do.
A beautiful example of the simplicity and immense power of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy, thank you Lieke.
I have found connective tissue therapy an enormous support at any time, but especially in times of stress.
Yes, I have experience the feeling of being reset as well.
Having felt the power of the universe in my body be unleashed from connective tissue therapy i can honestly say its incredible and needed. How can we ever deny we are made from star dust, when connective tissue therapy reveals this exquisiteness lying within us, that every man and woman has access to, with no exceptions.
I have lower back/sacrum pain at present, and Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a gift from heaven.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy sure is a gift from heaven. When I receive a treatment it is like I have waves of love pulsing up and down my body – what I also love about it is these are not just for the treatment rather they stay with me and deepen as I move afterwards and the more I embrace and accept them the more I feel this flow in my body throughout my day.
How often do we really appreciate how our body supports us throughout the day? Perhaps by appreciating our body we will want to support it back by being gentle and more harmonious in our movements.
What is beautiful here to read is how there are activities we can take part in at home within our everyday that can be very supportive – activities that are empowering of each person to have vitality and strength for every day living, with no need to be dependant on a practitioner.
I love the loving way you treat yourself Lieke. Becoming a dentist takes dedication and application. Being a dentist of quality who is also healthy also takes dedication and application. You have found a way to do this. Your service to others as a dentist will be great.
This is one that I still have to bring myself to remember. Appreciating the body for what it can actually do and offer us. I find it amazing what I am actually capable in a weeks work and towards the end of the week I start to think wow the body is a little tired. Being able to fully feed it back the commitment that it gives us with both physically lovingly nurturing it but also the whole body with the appreciating and acknowledging how incredible it really is.
I have noticed as a physical therapist that if I am holding any tension in my body in reaction to what is going on at work then my body feels much more tired and sore at the end of the day. Some days I feel completely at ease in my body, no matter what is going on, and my body feels great. An interesting experiment and one that requires further research I reckon.
Andrew i think this would make an excellent research topic, an aspect of which I would love to undertake myself as part of a health research post graduate degree.
Awesome! Go for it!
It’s strange to consider we have such a disregard, if not disdain, for our bodies, when in fact they are amazing and awe inspiring, and without our care they break down and do not function well. It seems obvious that loving and supporting our body would be a great everyday choice, yet so few human beings naturally do this (at least beyond the basics) – interesting!
I recently had a session with a connective tissue therapist also and her advice is priceless. I have always been somebody who walks around in HUGE levels of anxiety and tension. So much so that sometimes I jump in my sleep. Since my first session with this practitioner I’ve also had some exercise to do at the beginning and at the end of my day which have supported me to let go of a lot of this tension.
Reading this I remember a few years ago when I first had Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy. I had had mild neck pain for a while and had even been told that I was on the way to arthritis in my spine. I couldn’t turn my neck fully without pain. I had a series of sessions with an ECTT practitioner where we talked about my neck but also so much more. After the sessions a lot came up for me to look at – in my life and the way I was living. I chose to look at it and work with what was being presented. I now forget that I used to have neck pain as it has completely gone from my body. The ECTT helped on the physical level and also allowed for the energetic side of my neck pain to be revealed – that was the part where I had to do the work.
How beautiful that bringing such an appreciation to how your body supports you, in turn, supports your body. Thanks Lieke.
I was just thinking that with so much of society facing back problems it would be one of the greatest gifts to start to integrate Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapies into the workplace, if people were supported to know how to deal with and care for themselves better, you would end up with a transformation in terms of personal, family and work life.
MA that is a fantastic idea, back pain is one of the top global health problems. There is no reason that every family or workplace worldwide could not integrate exercises into their day.
There is no doubt whatsoever that when I care for my body in the most loving way eg. by getting plenty of rest or by going for a walk when I feel to or simply how I am with myself I feel so much more alive and vital and in a position to truly care for my children and those around me. So it really does not matter what profession we are in it is how we are with ourselves that makes a difference.
What you have here is a blueprint how to simply and effectively deal with musculoskeletal pain. That is very valuable.
Yes knowing that there is so much musculoskeletal pain this needs to be known more widely as
Esoteric Connective Tissue exercises and therapy are one of the few modalities that really have healed chronic pain.
It is very common for us to see our body as a nuisance, for presenting limitations and not just letting us do whatever we feel like doing. To start to appreciate just how much it puts up with and what it is capable of doing to support us is really important in changing the way we feel in our bodies. It takes away the criticism and blame and replaces it with awe and tenderness, I know which feeling I would want to have flowing through me.
I agree that there is such incredible benefit to be had by how we treat our body in the course of our working lives. I do love that connective tissue therapy is so simple yet incredibly powerful, and can make the world of difference.
Thank you Lieke for sharing the amazing healing power you have received from Connective Tissue Therapy, I just love this heaven sent modality, so gentle in its delivery, our bodies just respond to the healing it provides, so beautifully.
Connective tissue is so delicate and tender. And it is one of the first tissues that can get affected in the body by the way we move, by the way we are as well as the activities that we choose to do and how we do them.
And if it is under ‘assault’ from movements, or activities that are unsupportive, then its first response is to harden which then predisposes it to injury and micro tears, inflammation etc. Some conventional body treatments such as certain types of massage can often treat connective tissue like muscle, with hard strokes and trigger points, however, these can damage further the delicate connective tissue. So Lieke, it is wonderful to hear how you have found gentle connective tissue exercises to do that have supported you in the right way to come back to a more natural balance or homeostasis within your body!
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is very gentle and it can be easy to think it isn’t going to be effective. But it is incredibly powerful and has amazing results as you testify Lieke. It is so powerful because it is so gentle and the body can completely relax and feel the flow. Once we let go of tension and stress the body can return to its beautiful flowing state of balance and homeostasis.
What is so lovely to read here is how you are doing gentle exercises to support yourself in your everyday movements for work. Our bodies are amazing, when supported they allow us to be in life in so many different ways.
A brilliant testament Lieke, of the incredibly empowering support offered through the modalities of Universal Medicine, for the body and being to return to a way of living that is more harmonious and true, when the being is truly willing to heal. Our bodies are always signalling to us when something is not ok, and the choice is our choice to listen, or not. For without the will of the being to heal, the body cannot truly heal.
Spot on Carola, the first ingredient for true healing is for us to be willing to go there and embrace the true changes and the work to be done.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy allows us to feel the wonderment our bodies truly are and the suppleness in movement when we connect and honour that nature within ourselves.
I love that I can do Connective Tissue exercises at my desk to support me while I am at work. They are such beautiful, graceful movements, that they naturally extend into all movements.
I know how much Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy has benefitted me, I am so glad to have access to this therapy. I do love how my body responds and it is part of my health care tool box so to speak.
This is also a great support for kids too, I have used Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises in class at school. But the truth is it has to come from how you live first.
Connective Tissue exercises are gold, they change the body in an instant, and bring a flow that lets the breath come in without the constriction that may have been there a few moments earlier. An incredible gift to supporting a healthy body.
The deep care and love our body asks for and appreciates in everything it allows us in life and the way we live is beautiful to feel and see here clearly how amazing our body is. This is a very inspiring sharing as is the amazingness of Connective Tissue Therapy supporting our body is very special and supportive for us all.
‘..at that moment I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed..’ this is a beautiful and powerful sentence to inspire appreciation of our bodies and the incredible things they can do; it also encourages me to be respectful and caring when it comes to how I treat my body.
Connective tissue exercises are amazing. We can take care of our body with such support. Equally important is how we do such exercises – and how we go about our daily lives – the quality with which we function.
What a beautiful awareness Lieke of how living in Nervous tension contributed to neck pain and tension. When we connect fully to our body and the way in which we live in life there we are given constant communication we only need to listen.
I remember a while back witnessing a demonstration by Serge Benhayon and then having a go myself and noticing the difference in how my body felt when I carried out the same physical activity with and without care, presence and awareness of my body. A certain level of grace, flow and ease returns to our movements when we choose to move with care connection and harmony. The fact that connective tissue so profoundly supports us to deeply connect to this rhythm within us is a true blessing.
I love how you describe the awareness of yourself while doing the Esoteric Connective Tissue session and how you allowed yourself to drop deeper into your body – I have similar experience of this profound therapy myself.
I find that the quality brought to the body in an Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy session supports me/my body to reconnect deeply to a natural flow and rhythm, that releases the very physical and also energetically long-held old patterns and beliefs that come up to be healed through this incredibly tender and holding modality.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is indeed a powerful modality supporting us to care for and take responsibility for our bodies. Sharing your experience Lieke provides a wonderful testimony to the healing qualities of ECTT.
Wow Lieke, just how powerful these Connective Tissue Exercises are. If this is the feeling that comes from just doing them occasionally, imagine the quality and experiences we could have if we made our each and every move about this connected quality too. I’m typing this on my phone, and as soon as I’ve said that I am typing with so much more presence with my thumb, the movements are consistent, not strained and my heart is warm. This connection stuff really works!
Our bodies are our life long best friend.
It’s fascinating how such small movements can affect the integrity of our whole body. I noticed in the last week occasionally my back would bend to one side, and I’m imagining the amount of pressure that small leaning would put on my spine is huge. Small adjustments can make the biggest difference to how we feel in our bodies at the end of the day.
I never thought of that but it makes sense, when we look at our bodies and the detail of how it is all working together I can imagine it has to make huge adjustments to deal with small misalignments. Just as in the same way the body is able to heal through the smallest gentle movements as well.
Beautiuflly simple and easy to do in a few minutes, Connective Tissue Exercises are profoundly supportive and can be life changing. By introducing the small, subtle, regular movements, the body is able to reimprint a muscle memory that has potentially changed due to any number of reasons, and in doing so reintroduces a harmonious flow and rhthym. It is remarkable what can change, not just in the physical body but also in our overall general health and well being, and consequently our lives when we introduce such simple exercises.
Professional sports are all about ignoring the messages our bodies send us; they are cared for like a Formula One race car and their pit crew that allow you to continually run hard until it has a critical failure… then are scrapped. Do we also do this to ourselves, in our daily lives?
Laptop computers are one way we can affect our posture, because the screen is low, we always have our necks bent down. It was fine whilst a laptop was just for travelling but for many of us they are now our main computers. Getting a separate keyboard can help as then the screen can be raised to a more suitable height. Being aware of our bodies as we do any daily tasks is important to avoid setting up pain in the future.
To reach out for support when we are in a situation that needs a bit more attention and we sense that in that moment we are not able to deal with it on our own, is a true gift to ourselves.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is indeed a “gift from heaven…” There is connective tissue throughout our entire body, and so when one area is gently moved in Connective Tissue exercises, the entire body is treated.
“She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do. I had never stopped to appreciate my body like that before.” I have never stopped to appreciate my body in this way either Lieke… as I read this and felt appreciation in my own body, there was such a warmth and shift in my body – like it was appreciating being appreciated!
Thank you so much for sharing this and for the inspiration.
Our bodies definitely respond to being appreciated and then communicate with us more.
Thanks for your sharing, Lieke. When we work together with the body it can do what is needed, even long days, without feeling drained or compromised. Such is the power in taking great care of ourselves.
I can say for sure that without a doubt Esoteric Connective Tissue has changed my life enormously. It has changed my relationship with myself, with God and with life in general as I am able to bring a far more steady and astute focus to it all as well as embracing it in full and no longer running from it and trying to manage like I was. It definitely is not just a great support for the body, it is a miraculously healing opportunity you can offer yourself each and every day.
As you say Lieke “Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven..” Only the magic of God could give us such simple exercises that have such a profound effect on the body.
Beautifully said Peter, these exercises are a direct gift from God.
This experience breaks through the ‘no gain without pain’ ideal. Being gentle with our bodies and tenderly exercising them is proving to be extremely beneficial medicine. The Esoteric Connective Tissue exercises are laying the foundation for a whole new approach to our perception of how to stay fit and healthy.
It makes so much sense to care for our bodies and be very in tune with what they need. You give a great example as we all have some pain somewhere and it does not take much to notice it and take care of it. What is so very important to understand is that our bodies deserve to be treated with the utmost care and love and that it is that which we need to focus on, the love and true care we bring to ourselves, which then will be felt in our bodies and quite naturally be reflected in our care and love for others.
I fully understand and thus connect to the words Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises and as I practise them daily they feel like gentle stretches, which builds more love in my body…
Connecting to our connective tissue supports our connection with God, because God is in the detail within and that is exactly what the connective tissue is.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy helps us to become more aware of the delicate balance of systems in our body and to feel the way the whole body works in harmony. It helps us to learn how to support that harmony by the way we move.
Absolutely and beautifully said Carmel. The connective tissue is everywhere in the body so it make sense to release the tension in the connective tissue by moving it gently instead of harshly and that this will support us to feel more harmonious. And as you say this is not just done with the exercises but also by how we move in every part of our day; in how we sit down, how we open a door etc.
There is connective tissue everywhere in our body. The Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy brings focus to a very powerful and amazing tool that so gently brings our body back to its natural state. It should be practised everywhere!
There is no doubt about Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a modality like no other. It is a divine gift from heaven. Both the therapy and the exercises work on the connective tissue – “the soft tissue that connects muscles, tendons and bones and holds the shape of all our internal organs providing a network for fluid, nutrients and hormones to travel through and support all the physiological systems in the body.” – See more at: http://www.unimedliving.com/healing/esoteric-connective-tissue-therapy/esoteric-connective-tissue-therapy.html. This modality has been miraculous for me, as it supports me to be able to walk by reducing the inflammation and pain that comes from having osteoarthritis in the hip.
Thank you Lieke: sharing experiences like you have here is so supportive. Yesterday was a day that was demanding on my body work wise. As I felt the tension come in and a pain start, what you shared was the first thing that came to me. So I paused for just a second to re-adjust and stayed aware that compromising my body wasn’t going to support any of us.
“that compromising my body wasn’t going to support any of us.” Very true and one for us all to enjoy, as at work it is most of the time more about getting the job done than about caring for ourselves whilst doing the job yet it makes more sense to make it about supporting ourselves first as when we don’t there comes a time we can’t do the job anymore because we are so run down!
Yes that is the paradox of the system we work under – push for ‘productivity’ then pay forms of ‘compensation’ often medical in either time off or injury claims to try and fix the original choice. But we can’t go back so easily and it seems to cost more money and time with this approach. Perhaps it’s time to ‘wise up’ and choose a self-caring way in the first instance?
The great thing about Connective Tissue exercises is that we can do them at our desk while we work. They are so simple, yet have such a profound effect on our body.
Thank you for sheding a light on the importance of being aware of the signals that our bodies are constantly offering us, and how if we ignore it or try to override it, it may develop into a major physical issue further down the road.
Having blamed my body most of my life for stopping me doing what I want and trying to make it work for me in the way I want, this is amazingly valuable. I can feel how appreciation of my body for what it CAN do rather than CAN’T already makes a difference and opens up all sorts of possibilities and new ways of moving. I know when I experience Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy I have felt my movements flow and my body moving all in one piece, aligned in my posture and light and free, but have still held onto those old belief systems that my body has to work for me. Just one simple sentence can change your life around.
Thank you, Lieke, for sharing this great lesson – that if we appreciate and honour the body it will communicate exactly what is needed in terms of posture and movement.
In understanding that aches and pains come from the choices we are making in how we move our bodies and the quality in which we move them, we are left open to making different choices. Once we know what those choices are with support, we are empowered. Once we know why we have generated them we can take responsibility for them without expecting others to constantly fix them for us.
Yes it is true michelle819. It makes sense that when we move our body in a tensed way we are not going to feel good, and if we do this for a very long time it is going to make us ill. I noticed this big time after yesterday having had a long physical day at work and now today feeling the impacts on my muscles, if I would do this every day I would be having lasting issues soon for sure. Though being aware of the discomfort now will support me making different choices that will not lead to pain the next day. It is indeed all about choices.
I have just clocked that when I feel something that doesn’t come with integrity my automatic response is to brace myself and my shoulders go tight, and I hold my breath! My left shoulder now is feeling the hardening particularly. Very interesting to observe because of course this is a choice I am constantly still making. Before I found Universal Medicine my shoulders were incredibly tight and sore but I feel that I have come far with the tension I carry in my body by letting it go. However as we know there are many layers and this is the next one to look at. By nominating it and by clocking all those times I am feeling unsafe/reacting I am working at getting underneath to the hurt that precipitates the reaction, supporting my body to let go and heal from the hardening I have put it through.
This makes me think of how we react to so much more than just work pressure and stress as in physical visible stress-factors. We sense everything around us and this can make us brace ourselves and harden like you shared. There is so much more going on unsaid and energetically than we often choose to be aware of! I am also learning how it pays of to be aware of what is going on all of the time so I notice why I tense up at times.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a very simple yet utterly profound modality that allows our body to re- align itself so that it is much easier for us to feel what is true for it, and thus for us, or not.
Wouldn’t be amazing if this type of exercise was taught as standard in professions that cause such strain to our bodies. At least then we could ensure that all newly qualified professionals embark on their career knowing how to keep their body, heart and soul in one piece, so that they can deliver a truly caring service to their patients, one founded on the quality of their own self care.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises can changes years if not lifetimes of old patterns, abuse and in true movements in the body in just a few simple steps.
Gyl that’s so true, not only can it help prevent us from getting certain conditions by introducing a quality of energy that we can build in our movements but it can also help reverse and heal the many ways we lived that were not true. How amazing to consider the power of this modality.
Isn’t it incredible that the connective tissue is something that so few people know about and yet it’s so pivotal to our health? Come to think about it, there are so many things that are absolutely key to our health and well being that it seems that the common man knows little about. Energetic discernment is another prime example. Basically the ability to determine whether something comes from an energetic source which is impulsed by our soul or from an energetic source that is constantly looking to keep us in separation from our soul. And to be absolutely honest we all do know about these things, it’s just that we’ve swept them under the proverbial carpet, so as not to blow the whistle on our own lack of responsibility.
Yes, having a way to deal with connective tissue could have vast, positive health implications.
‘Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven’ they are designed for all of us, not for any individual, but they help us on an individual level to connect deep within our own bodies and through our bodies, to all of humanity.
The only way to reach out to everyone is to go inside. It is a false concept to run around busily doing charity work all of the time in order to help humanity because humanity does not benefit whatsoever from a person that is lost in their doing. However the whole of humanity benefits hugely by a person that is deep in their being whilst they do their doing.
so well said Alexis, you write in a way that really resonates, such a mastery of words and their meanings, Thank you
I have heard many times in my working life about people being in pain due to their work. Quite a few of them changed something on the outside and got better but I haven’t heard of a lot of people who changed something within themselves and then could work in the same circumstances without pain. This is well done, Lieke.
It’s true Lieke, that Esoteric Connective Tissue exercises are ‘much more than just exercises’. As you say, you start to feel your body ‘from the inside out’ and it’s this deepening awareness and connection to our body that allows it to let go of the tension we hold so that there is no restriction to the flow of energy through the connective tissue.
‘By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner, and more able to care for my patients throughout the course of my career.’ Lieke, this is a lovely insight for how can we truly care for another if we are not first caring for ourselves. Many practitioners do not understand this and may even see patients when they are hung over, exhausted or not well and therefore cannot really be there in full for the patient who will also feel this.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a truly beautiful modality that supports the body like no other. I am always left with a feeling of greater stillness, rest and wellbeing.
Our bodies can teach us a lot, if we feel a little pain it means we need to bring love and attention to that area, and find a way to do what we need to without compromising the body, in fact honoring it deeply and appreciating how supportive it is.
Yes, it has been a big step for me that messages from my body are actually there to support me to live and be more harmonious and …. more effective and powerful.
I agree, Lieke, that Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a gift from heaven, because it reminds us that our bodies are intrinsically divine and so our movements can reflect that quality in our every day lives.
‘As long as you got the job done or achieved the goal’… How ingrained is it in our reality that the end justifies the means? And if the means is ignoring your body, well that is just part of the course. But what does that say about our achievements if we are not connected and honouring of our body and therefore not connected to the depth of love within us. Without us bringing the love that we are to the equation, the outcome is at best nothing more than a tick box exercise.
This is a great reminder of the way in which I can have expectations of my body to perform in a particular way rather than listening to it and appreciating it for what it is truly willing and able to do.
“By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner,” When we learn to appreciate, respect and lovingly care for our bodies, it naturally unfolds into our work and what is shared with those we work with, whatever the profession, comes from a living truth.
Lieke I keep coming back to your blog as not only do I love connective tissue but it reminds me of the power of the esoteric modalities, especially the Livingness choosing to live in a way that really supports ourself to be all that we are. There is never an area of life that we can’t deepen our love and purpose with.
I wonder how many of us actually stop regularly and appreciate our totally amazing bodies and all that they can do and what we can do to assist ourselves in keeping it in as good a shape as possible. Connective Tissue exercise and therapy is such a beautiful way of doing this and will be absolutely huge when we all wake up to how awesome it is.
Yes I agree, Kevin, the healing power of this modality is still relatively unknown, but without a doubt it will be a key support once we acknowledge the important and direct link between living harmoniously in our bodies and good health.
“I felt I was dropping deeper into my body. Feeling my legs, arms, and neck more and from the inside out. From there I felt a level of settlement and contentedness I had not been feeling for a while. I also felt warmer and all the tension I had been feeling released, through doing these simple exercises.” Lieke i am inspired that an online Connective Tissue exercise session can support this level of connection and awareness, its amazing the understanding you came to in just one session and equally remarkable that this was accessible through an online session.
Lieke I would love to be your patient because how you care for yourself made me feel safe. Before I was reading your amazing sharing I was not aware how stressful it can be for a dentist’s body and I am wondering how other dentists care for themselves. Next time I am visiting my dentist I will ask him as I am interested what he did . . .
Thanks Lieke, I definitely do not appreciate my body’s capacity for twisting and turning, or even getting me around and through each day the way it does. Thanks… I love Esoteric Connective Tissue work also and can thank the effortlessness of my movement most of the time to the incredible effect of that modality.
Appreciating our bodies for all that they do. So often I have only paid attention when my body hurts but I’m starting to find it very lovely and appreciate how amazing it is. This is so different from when I used to obsess about what it looked like without any regard to how amazing it is on a daily basis.
I am deeply, and deepening ever more, my appreciation for the community and all the support we can offer one another. Be it practitioners to photographers to hairdressers we all have an offering.
Every Esoteric Connective Tissue session that I have experienced I get to feel my body in a whole different element. The communication that is taking place within the body and I instantly let go and find myself getting to feel the space between my cells. I absolutely Love this modality. Thank you Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon for these incredible modalities that you share with us. Truly Heavenly.
This blog has a very supportive flow on affect – thanks Lieke. When working I accommodate my body around what is required for the client and each time I make a move that feels a little compromising I can feel what you share here. With that I make the simplest or smallest of adjustment to my body and the flow on effect in my body, work and day is much more supportive. The support Connective Tissue Therapy offers can’t be underestimated.
“Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven that supports our body on many levels; they are applicable in many industries and dentistry is just one of them.” Absolutely definitely supportive in hospitality too, when you are lifting heaving plates and furniture. You don’t realise the hardness and tightness caused in the body when we are lifting things daily.
Often we see our relationship to our body as a one way ‘I ask, you do’ alliance, where we can do whatever we want and our body has to keep up, but as you’ve shared ‘the only thing it was and is asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations’, and it’s super important we actually respect this, otherwise our body has to respond by making us!
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy works very gently with the body, yet its healing effect is far deeper and wider than just the physical.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is so simple to apply takes very little time and is profoundly transformational. It is definitely a modality from heaven.
I have found that Connective Tissue Therapy helps me to connect deeper within, it is such a delicate, gentle movement that is in harmony with the body’s way of working and, because it is so non-imposing, it enables us to feel our bodies at a very subtle level.
Lieke you nailed on the head the whole of this when you talk about how learning to take care and appreciate yourself supports you to be a more caring practitioner, if we all took this much care in how we lived the world would be a very different place in that the care and love we lived with all others would be truly foundational.
Appreciation is so key. So often we tend to slam ourselves for not being able to do things. Appreciating your body for being able to do the movements required for dentistry feels like a very important step for your healing and growth as a dental practitioner, and feels gorgeously loving. The service you provide will be grounded in the fact that you appreciate and love yourself in this way. It feels wonderful. Thank you for sharing.
‘This one session with the Esoteric Connective Tissue Practitioner has already made something shift in my body, and I no longer have pain during or after doing my job.’ How remarkable that one session has supported with this!
A great sharing Lieke – our bodies are so willing to work with us if we are willing to appreciate it and pay attention to the feedback it consistently gives us, and consequently honour what is truly felt.
Esoteric Connective Tissue is amazing at finding blocks that stop the natural flow in the body. The Connective Tissue exercises can then support these areas of the body. They are so simple to do, and like you say Lieke, can be done almost anywhere. Just a simple movement like rolling my shoulders back, brings an awareness to that part of the body and I can then feel how much I am connected to this area of my body, how my posture is and how my movements are.
Whenever I don’t feel the energy flowing through my connective tissue, I actually miss it. It’s such a dear and precious feeling to me. This warmth is simply and amazingly precious and to me true love. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy supports greatly to connect to this flow as well as that it restores the natural flow and balance that lives within.
How amazing would it be if exercises like the ones you describe here Lieke were a part of everyone’s training and education – truly setting people up for a harmonious way of working and living, that’s sustainable and honours their body and wellbeing too and with that improving productivity I’m sure.
“By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner, and more able to care for my patients throughout the course of my career.” What a great learning to have at the start of your career, Lieke, and how wonderful that you are taking responsibility for your health and well-being not only for you but for all of the clients that will be blessed by this level of integrity.
These exercises prove beyond doubt that the way to deal with stress in the body is not to compound it with deep tissue massage or strenuous exercise, but to restore a delicate integrity, which allows all the tissues in the body to resume their correct tension and expression, in harmony with all the surrounding fibres.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy reveals precisely just how delicate and yet so powerful the body naturally is. And the ouch is recognising just how rough, demanding and the expectation we load up on it to ‘do’. Naturally our body is like the magnificence of the pyramids, but in the ‘modern era’ we have long forgotten the way to build it. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy helps you to re-member, re-build and put back together the body to its natural state of being, releasing the tension and hence pain we develop by the way we make demands of it to perform.
I love how the connective tissue practitioner did not give you a list of postures to not do when doing your job, but reminded you about appreciating your body. When we appreciate our body not only do we not abuse it, but neither do we assume it is incapable. Our body is made to work and it is amazing at that, but what we need to do is put in place the required care and the support needed, and yes the connective tissue exercises are great for that.
Connective Tissue Therapy is a modality straight from heaven most definitely, and the smallest and simplest of movements make such a big difference in how my joints and limbs feel, as well as how I feel overall with my energy levels after I’ve done connective tissue exercises or after a treatment.
There is so much we have, to appreciate deeply about our body – thank you Lieke for reminding me of that this morning! There is so much I ask of myself and to do so many things, and here is my body going along with it and also moving and bending and lifting etc – how special when you really let yourself feel this! And how important to keep moving the body in way that is always respectful and caring!
There are many possibilities to set up a randomised controlled trial where, among a group of people who work in confined spaces or do repetitive movements, some get Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and some get the standard treatment, for example massage, and to see if there is any difference.
Lieke this is great to share as it makes me realise that there is a lot more to healing than just taking medicine. It shows that we can always look into why we may develop pain and how we can move our bodies in a way that supports us.
Posture is a practitioners foundation, and should be treated with the upmost respect.
“One of the ways I deeply care for it are these exercises now and I feel the benefit of them instantly. The exercises are easy to do in between patients or if I have to wait a moment during a treatment – because of their simplicity.” I agree Leike, it is the simplicity of these exercises that makes them so accessible, yet they are so incredibly supportive and beneficial to the body and can be done periodically throughout the day wherever you are.
The Connective Tissue exercises, offered by Esoteric practitioners are amazing and they simple to under take, they are gentle, they make sense and you can feel the difference straight away. They deeply support the body and also support reconnection with the body.
Learning to be gentle with ourselves moment by moment Lieke is a journey to embrace because that is lots of moments to remember. But the Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises are lovely to support us to do this and it slowly develops. The pain has gone away but the lesson and exercises continue.
And now the exercises only need to maintain health which can make everything easier.
The power of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is incredible, from that one session it offers a whole way of being in life that means you do not have to get the back pains that you may otherwise have had. From an occupational health perspective this is what true care is about, the fact it was conducted remotely shows there are no limits to borders and session rooms.
I agree this therapy is incredible the support and healing it offers the body and the connective tissues is unexplainable. My body feels 10 younger and is 10 times more supple than I used to be 10 years ago. I love having these sessions, and on top it allows my body to come to a deeper level of stillness.
Lovely blog Lieke. There are so many professions in which people have to hold their body in awkward positions or work in small areas, or do the same repetitive movement over and over again. I agree that Connective Tissue Exercises are indeed a gift from heaven and would go a very long way in supporting so many who are working in this way.
I can relate to blaming my body for its limitations whilst not being willing to listen to what it was trying to communicate about the many ways that I have distorted it over the years that have led to nagging back pain. Choosing to take more care and honour my body has transformed my relationship with it so that I now frequently feel a beautiful flow of working with it but can still override its signals and think it is OK to just finish something before I adjust my position e.g. in front of the computer.
I have found that Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy sessions have made me very aware of my body and how I move it. As result I pay more attention to how I walk, sit and move. If I start to develop any aches or pains (I particularly suffer with back problems) I will start to pay closer attention and make adjustments to my movements. More often than not I am finding that those adjustments work and the pain stops.
We are at the beginning of a whole new appreciation of our Connective Tissue, as evidenced by other scientific research. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and the exercises you speak of Lieke are opening up a whole new understanding of the delicate way this essential tissue holds us together and influences the health and expression of every cell in the body. When we compromise our posture, we are compromising so much more than just a few muscles: every cell in the body will suffer. Tenderly addressing integrity of the connective tissue re-establishes the core foundation of our health, well-being and body intelligence.
Until reading your blog I had not really appreciated my body and what it achieves. I have marvelled and been amazed by all it achieves but to appreciate it, now that is a whole new way of relating with it, which I shall enjoy exploring.
Beautiful, Lieke. Connective Tissue exercises are gentle yet very powerful, and always a ‘go to’ for me to feel the flow again throughout my body when I have got bunched up with tension or holding.
Whatever the issue, a UniMed Practitioner will be sure to support in dealing with both the symptom and the root cause.
I imagine that it is a very awkward position to be in leaning over a dentist chair all day. It’s great that you have found a way of keeping your body free of pain.
‘Combine this with a little nervousness and tension about treating my first patients and this developed into neck pain’ We don’t think about how our state of mind affects our posture – when we are feeling slightly low, it is easy to turn the shoulders in and curl the spine – we see that a lot in older ladies. Anxiousness sets up tension in our organs and can lead to constipation – there can be many long term effects of tension in our bodies.
What if we would all be taught from young to adore and cherish our body? And what if we all got explained that every little ache or any tension in our body is actually telling us to listen to ourselves and increase the level of tenderness? What if this is in fact Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy? An amazing and deeply profound modality that is worth teaching children from day 1 at schools all around the world.
Recently I have been using Connective Tissue therapy on several people over a 6 week period, to help treat chronic lower back pain. The results have been very positive. It is such a gentle modality, yet very powerful, clearing any blockages, therefore allowing the correct flow of energy throughout the body. The movements are very simple. Great to learn and do on a daily basis to support the natural flow in the body.
I sit at a desk and computer for much of my day and it is sometimes the smallest movement to my posture that makes all the difference to how I feel while I’m working. Hunching or slouching will guarantee I feel tired so when I adjust and lengthen my back, adjust my shoulders, it can make an instant difference.
“I noticed how I felt I was dropping deeper into my body”. This is one of the many things I love about Universal Medicine Therapies, is the deeper connection to your bodies that they can offer. It is life-changing.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is so incredibly supportive to my whole body, the release of tension and the feeling of returning to a more harmonious state within is always very profound. All the while the actual treatment itself is very un-invasive and subtle, this is a Therapy very worth recommendation.
What you share here is such a simple yet very powerful point – we notice our bodies when they stop doing what we want them to do, but do we appreciate them for what they can do?
‘as before I saw my body a bit as a nuisance,’ Great to bring this up Leike. Most of us have experienced that ‘inconvenience’ of the body feeling at some point. What pure delight it is to know that we have a vehicle of divinity, that can show us the way when we listen to its’ calling. Thank you Serge Benhayon for showing us how the body is a marker for truth.
‘By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner’ This is interesting, that as you care for your body, you help your patients think about looking after theirs, because they can feel the energy of how you live and it inspires them.
I have had right shoulder and neck pain recently and your blog inspired me to start doing some gentle exercises for myself. I was amazed at the stiffness in my neck and how easily this dissipated, with the exercises. Thank you Lieke.
My body feels like it thanks me when I take the time to do some connective tissue exercises before bed.
I love this, Lieke, as it reminds me how powerful and supportive it is to pay attention to my body to the nth degree during the day, even in the way I sit and position myself.
“She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do.” It’s not until we hurt one part of our selves do we fully appreciate just how every part of our bodies contributes to how we move and the quality of our health. It is so easy to take our bodies for granted. Taking time to do gentle exercises and delicately tune in to our bodies enables us to fully appreciate the simplest of actions, the importance and preciousness of every single muscle, sinew, bone and organ.
This part about appreciating our bodies for what they can do is beautiful, because how often is the body considered the enemy or something that we need to overcome, defeat, control etc? When actually what Lieke and the Esoteric Connective Tissue exercises show us, is how we can live in appreciative harmony with our bodies – making life that much more full and purposeful with a deep underlying respect for all that our bodies enable us to do.
Connective Tissue exercises reawaken the body´s innate sensitivity and knowing of true posture and movement, ie how it naturally and gracefully likes to be treated, move and act to allow for our being to fully be present and express.
How we treat our body makes all the difference to how it ‘performs’; as you’ve shared Lieke, we don’t appreciate enough just how much of a support our body is, how flexible we are, our ability to do very active jobs and so forth, however when we run our body into the ground and exhaust ourselves we get frustrated for it’s ‘underperformance’, but is this really the fault of our body or our own choices?
Yes, indeed. Judging the body for underperforming is not working with it and listening to its accurate messages about how we are living. We blame the body rather than looking at our choices that drain and harm it.
I have found connective tissue exercises amazing for connecting to very minute movements creating enormous sense of expansion. Fascinating! And extremely supportive.
Yes, you hear this a lot and especially in dentistry that ‘it destroys your back etc.’ but I agree it is how we do care for our bodies that makes the big difference. Tender love and care play a big part in this and works much better in my experience than extreme stretching or chiropractic treatment.
For me pieces of writing like this as well as sessions of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy support me greatly in developing a way of being that is much more understanding, caring and loving. I can even say – for the first time in my life – that I’m in the process of developing a nurturing way of being with myself. Giving myself permission to give myself what I need based on what I consciously feel that I need.
Thank you Leike – a great insight into a very supportive modality for the well-being of our bodies in our day. I also work with clients who are quite immobilised and twist and bend my body to accommodate the situation and care required. I find regular Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy sessions very supportive to continually deepen my awareness to how I’m using my body, and how it feels. Now I’m going to add a very large dose of appreciation 🙂
now that really makes sense to me, appreciate what the body can do and marvel at its amazing ability to restore itself, but also do not push it beyond its limits.
I can really feel by your commitment to take the utmost care of your body and to keep it supple and tension free allows you to be a much more caring practitioner to your patients. It’s amazing how these little tools that are rarely taught can make the difference between a job you love and a job that causes you pain – of course your care and attention towards your clients in a job you love is going to be much greater than in a job where you are uncomfortable and not enjoying it – it makes perfect sense!
This is an awesome blog Lieke, reminding us to appreciate our body, how it moves and function. When we study our body, it shows how intelligent and amazing our bodies are. Definitely worth appreciating every moment and worth caring for from top to toe.
how cool is this! Knowing that this sort of support is available to us is really needed as it shows that we are not alone and do not need to brush discomfort in the body aside. It will always be a message for us, and if we are willing to look at it, then we can be supported to shift our bodies as has happened here.
Our bodies respond instantly when we honour what they are telling us… how would life be if we respond instantly to what our bodies are telling us?!
There is a natural innate flow, harmony and grace that is well worth honouring 🙂
The Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises are helping loosen my back after an intense episode of low back pain. I have also realised I hadn’t been appreciating what my body does on a daily basis Lieke. When we do the exercises, we are able to connect into our body so we can feel really deeply what is going on.
I have been doing some gentle Connective Tissue exercise every day and they have supported me to be more aware of my body and also much more aware of my posture. So awesome you are sharing with us what worked to help you with your neck and back pain because these are common aches and pains people suffer from and often choose not to look after it because of various reasons. You show that there are simple techniques and exercises we can do to love and support our body. Thank you Lieke.
Having suffered neck pain and back ache much of my life, the gift of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is amazing, as is the awareness from this of one’s posture and the true rhythm and flow in our bodies that it responds to so quickly and deeply when offered the choice and the huge part we play in this ourselves.
Yes, Lieke, I can relate to the frustration with the body and seeing it as a nuisance to contend with. It has been life-changing for me to stop and listen to the messages my body is constantly telling me about the way I am moving through life. There are so many simple ways, as you say, that we can honour our bodies throughout the day.
To give our body the gentle ‘treatment’ is not just benefitting the body but means to deepen the relationship with ourselves and make it one about love.
What an inspiration to all your associates, both in and outside of work, to take the time to develop a way of working that supports you in the profession rather than later “burn out” or blame the work on your ill health. It shows a true responsibility to serve.
It’s great that you can do the exercises in between patients, I do exercise before work but you have reminded me that I can also do stretches while at work to support my daily tasks.
I have never experienced a more tender, gentle and powerful healing modality than Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy. Having spent a childhood on, and consequently off horse back, this modality has healed many an old, niggling injury with astounding results that many other modalities have not got anywhere near. Being able to further this support through gentle exercises to help support the integrity of our connective tissue throughout our day is one of the best health care approaches we can invest in.
I have never experienced a more tender, gentle and powerful healing modality than Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy. Having spent a childhood on, and consequently off horse back, this modality has healed many an old, niggling injury with astounding results that many other modalities have not got anywhere near. Being able to further this support through gentle exercises to help support the integrity of our connective tissue throughout our day is one of the best health care approaches we can invest in.
Great point rowenastewart, often there are old injuries that create scar tissue we take as normal. Yet Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a modality that offers the body an opportunity to let go of all those old injuries both physically and emotionally.
Isn’t it incredible that through a few simple movements our whole body and how we feel can completely change.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is such a powerful modality, I can remember when I had my first one years ago and was blown away by how my body responded to it. I didn’t even know what the connective tissue really did until a month ago and how important it really is because it supports every other part to the body by holding it. So it is like your body is getting a massage from the inside out.
I love the way you talk about the connective tissue exercises taking you deeper into your body, feeling it from the inside out – this feels like a very honouring and responsible way to live that, as you say, supports and sustains us in our work.
Our bodies are so amazing aren’t they. I love the connective tissue exercises and the support they offer. We are worth the exercise!
Absolutely Rosie. Having recently introduced a Connective Tissue Exercise routine into my day I am appreciating how much my body is loving them and how much it deserves the love and support that it is offered when I do them.
That is beautiful Lieke, so simple to rectify. Like you I have begun to listen to my body much much more and have also had the benefit of those same exercises to support me. Doing these exercises brings a greater awareness to our bodies and so we notice any discomfort so much sooner too and can take early steps to support ourselves well.
Yes very true Jeanette, doing the exercises offers a moment to check in with our bodies and I often notice tension that was not aware of before I stopped to do the exercises. And then it is beautiful that the exercises help release the tensions so we have a fresh start yet again.
As you have pointed out Lieke the very least we can do to love and care for ourselves is to honour and listen to our bodies; the Connective Tissue Modality is a wonderful way to do just that.
I love the simplicity of connective tissue exercises and the movements are often easy to do in everyday situations. A great way to connect back to the body and feel how my body enjoys and responds to the rhythmic flow of movement.
You just have to look at the growing number of health concerns and the first area of problem identification is the neck or back. It is interesting how this ailment is now considered the norm. Something you just cope with and make part of your everyday living. Thank you Lieke for writing about a modality – Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy – that brings us to a better understanding of how we are with our body rather than looking at ways to fix the body. This is the difference between Esoteric and Western Medicine and that a combination of both is what brings the vitality back to all.
“Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a very gentle way of treating the body, honouring the fact that our connective tissue is what holds us all together and is the stuff through which the energy that moves our body flows” – and it’s probably my favourite healing modality Lieke, i find it changes the entire structure of a body on a cellular level and afterwards there’s always a deep rest felt with fresh, steady vitality.
I love what Lieke’s sharing about being tender and loving with our body. To me this is great to read as I can be quite hard towards myself and my body if my body’s aching. What I understand is that it is about being tender and choosing to listen to my body, rather than pushing and driving it.
This might sound too simple, yet I can clearly feel that inside my head I’ve told myself that this is obvious, yet I’ve hardly put in into practice. I can feel only writing about this in a very real way, supports me in feeling tender and supportive towards myself.
Since I first read your thoughts the other day Lieke, I’ve realised how much I use things and move around ‘just because I can’ without any gratitude for who I am or what I do. It’s like it takes illness and pain for us to celebrate the fact that our body is a piece of amazing engineering. Right now while I type these words – I mean how cool is this? To have these fingers make the most micro movements I tell them to, and with such delicacy too!
It is true Lieke, these exercises can be applied to all areas of our lives especially in industry. I work as a receptionist, seated and on a computer all day and found my body was experiencing stress in some areas. Making the choice to have sessions with a connective tissue practitioner has supported a shift in this experience and also in my life. The deeper loving self care I now live flows out into every area and relationship in life and brings to me daily the opportunity to truly be with myself in a new and expansive way. My awareness and connection to myself and all this offers has deepened.
It really is amazing just how many people are affected by back and neck pain – I know i have suffered from neck pain recently, but I have stopped and realised that it is caused not just by bad posture at the computer, but by the way I carry myself in life – because of a drive and constant motion, my body ends up tilted forward slightly, putting pressure on my upper back and neck. When I slow down and relax, and let go of that driving force, my back and neck can also relax.
Rebecca that driving force to move through things makes our posture and energetic quality a bit like that of a race horse, it’s no wonder we’ve all got stiff backs and necks. We need to learn to fall back towards ourselves as opposed to trying to jump forward out of our own bodies all of the time.
The race horse analogy is a good one – all the built up tension that the constant drive forward creates builds up in our movements and in our bodies. It can even be as simple as walking, but your mind is miles ahead of the body – it means the body can be tense and in a unsupportive position but we won’t necessarily feel it.
Sure we don’t feel our tension Rebecca because we’re not with our bodies, we’re galloping madly towards our imagined finishing lines. Finishing lines that simply don’t exist. If there were to be a finishing line then it would be behind us, not in front of us, therefore to make any kind of progress it’s actually way more beneficial to practice falling back on ourselves, rather than trying to gallop ahead all the time.
I too have suffered neck and back pains, I am also learning to check every so often how I am sitting, standing and walking. It makes such a difference to bring awareness to how I hold my body and then I can readjust to make sure I am not straining it and moving awkwardly. When I lovingly support my body, the quality of my thoughts also shifts.
You make a great point here, one not often considered. That there is more to good posture than bodily comfort, but also a way of thinking and feeling. When in class, if you slump, lean on the table etc, you are more likely to be switched off and not take in what is happening in the lesson. When we sit comfortably, but with shoulders open and relaxed, we are far more likely to be alert and listen as just basic examples.
This is such a great sharing Rebecca. The way we hold ourselves in our day does have an effect on the physical body. It shows too that if we are feeling tensed and stressed and do things from a drive, this can have an effect on our bodies. So if there was not already enough evidence to not do these things, this would be one more reason to let go and not be so hard on ourselves.
I agree Lieke, we often don’t consider the compromise that drive puts us in – we feel like we are getting more done, but at what cost to the body?
One of the many ways we compromise our physical body is using computers, especially laptops – straining forward or sitting in a way that is not supportive until we finally notice the backache/neckache and stop.
Yes and because we use computers so much we ‘get used’ to the discomfort, dismissing it as par for the course. Developing an intimate and respectful dialogue with our bodies is key and can turn around many chronic musculoskeletal problems.
This is a key point Matilda, for many of us, we don’t actually know what it means to feel truly well in our bodies, so an element of discomfort or even pain may just be accepted as normal. In this regard connective tissue exercise can be quite influential in resetting our expectations of what we should be able to enjoy feeling.
Yes, with using computers it is really easy to check out and forget we have a body. So note to self to be very aware and present when using a computer as it is as much ‘work’ for the body as is walking around and carrying things.
We often don’t realise how much tension we hold around our necks and shoulders especially holding a slightly bent and twisted position. This is bound to affect us, so it is brilliant to learn how not to hold it all Lieke but to use your Connective Tissue Exercises to support yourself and release the tension. Your amazing body gave you the message and you listened to it.
There is something profoundly different in the way our body coordinates itself and responds if we make a point of being present and with our movements and actions. This was demonstrated by Serge Benhayon once in a workshop where he demonstrated lifting of a chair the way most of us do when our attention is somewhere else, you kind of imagine the pull of energies in different directions, and he followed it by lifting the chair when you could sense he was simply present and aware in his body. This one was graceful, beautifully coordinated in every detail.
Since then I have experimented with this myself, the difference in my body is huge. Modalities such as Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy that support us to connect more deeply with our body and be present with our self are powerfully supportive beyond measure.
What has amazed is how the Connective Tissue Exercises are so so simple yet there has been within myself a resistance to doing them each day. And why would that be when they are so beautiful and quick too! More practical than anything you could ask for! It is no more than the avoidance of true connection and it makes me wonder how much we avoid it during our day letting our mind run the show instead of our body.
Self-care is so fundamental to be able to care for others, it seems such common sense that it does not make sense that all professions, particularly those involved in the care of others, do not make it the foundation of all training.
Any of us can benefit from Connective Tissue exercises, but especially anyone whose work involves them either on their feet all day, or in a seat all day. On second thoughts I guess that covers almost everyone!
This is awesome Lieke – millions of people all over the world live with aches, pains and strains (some chronic) and tolerate them as a part of life, but it’s great that you took initiative to heal your neck and back pain through committing to regular connective tissue exercises and stayed consistent with it.
This is a beautiful sharing Lieke…Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a powerful modality that is tender in approach and truly supports the body in ways that are different to anything else I have experienced.
It makes a massive difference when we work with our bodies during the day rather than fight them or see them as an inconvenience.
The deeply healing effects of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and exercises are immense and even more powerful when one realises just how easy and gentle a modality it is. This modality is opening the door into a whole new world of appreciating and understanding the key fabric of our bodies and how to re-connect to and support it, and subsequently our bodies, to remain healthy, vibrant and fluid.
I find I can get pain and discomfort in my neck when I am in a state of drivenness, trying to get things done. I have found esoteric connective tissue exercises to be so simple and beautiful, they can often be done in public without anyone realising.
‘She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do.’ How often are we taught to really appreciate and honour the body? Until I met Serge Benhayon I hadn’t come across anyone or any modality that supported me to be aware of how much I was overriding the signals of my body. In humanity’s urge to put function over quality we have lost connection to the very simple idea that our bodies and we are worth nurturing and taking care of – that our bodies are our vehicles of expression, that our bodies communicate a very natural wisdom that supports our awareness of the bigger picture if we but chose to listen! Learning to listen to my body in this way has taken me to a depth of delicacy that never ceases to amaze me!
Beautiful to feel your appreciation for your body and its willingness to support you in your chosen profession. The more we work with our bodies to support ourselves the more the tension that we so often hold in different parts is released and we are free to move in connection with ourselves.
I would ordinarily be loathe to say any of the esoteric modalities cured anything for me, for there are so many factors that contribute to one’s healing and the esoteric philosophy is such that it always state that no one can truly heal you. You can only heal yourself. Where I have found the esoteric modalities invaluable however, and they all have their particular purpose, is that they assist to connect us to our true sense of being – that of fire. In that connection, anything is in truth possible. And I have experienced many so called miracles, that I am sure can not be explained by simple science. I have with the assistance of esoteric connective tissue therapy experienced accelerated healing with regards to chronic heal spurs, torn meniscus tissue, and lower back pain.
How supportive it is to read something like this – written in appreciation. It is a stark contrast to much of the everyday expression I observe which tends to be ‘issue or problem focused’ and hence gives much energy to the issues themselves. Appreciation is a valuable form of expression and can bring true change when used consciously and regularly and is supportive of a very different way of living.
I have been contemplating connective tissue exercises for sciatica which can occur in my lower back/buttock area from time to time. It is not bad but I would rather support my body now than carry on living and find that it gets worse. I feel connective tissue exercises would assist me perfectly to connect to my body more deeply. Thank you Lieke for sharing.
Homoeostasis is the body’s balancing act to allow everything to work together. If, one part of our body has a problem, though our connective tissue the rest of our body will be affected. This pain or irritation can be the first warning sign to us, about what we are doing to our body.
Well it is true, our whole body is connected through the connective tissue. So it makes sense that what we do to one part of the body will affect all of the body. So it is wise to listen to the body and what it can and can’t do.
I had the same positive experience when I had an episode of a lot of pain. The recovery was quite amazing.
This is true, Lieke – having even a little awareness of our body during the day, how we sit, how we move, has made a big, cumulative difference for the better in my life, allowing me to be more harmonious and have more energy.
Your blog show just how Esoteric Connective Tissue treatments are so supportive for the human body.
Lieke, I so relate to the idea that my body should do what I ask and I haven’t always fully appreciated it and all it does for me, so hearing you discuss this here is a gorgeous reminder for me to stop and appreciate my body, all it does and all it shows, and how as it does it supports me to know the truth of me.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a gift from heaven indeed; I love the ease and spaciousness that it reintroduces me to and the exercises support this daily.
“One thing the practitioner said during my session stood out for me especially. She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do.” What a wonderful thing to appreciate indeed. We do take our bodies for granted so much and expect them to twist and bend, lift heavy weights and keep on going when they are tired. But simply appreciating something as simple as this and really honouring what our bodies do for us brings a whole different level of care and attention to the detail of how we do these things. And in doing so they will respond accordingly.
Through reading this blog I’ve become even more aware of the fact that our connective tissue is actually holding us all together! How wonderful is it to have a ‘system’ that is so important that without it functioning natural, we’re getting all kind of different sufferings. There’s indeed a natural flow and in any area of the body without a natural, gentle flow of energy, there’s something going on. This honesty will support us to be much more wiling to have a deeper look to the deep ‘reason’ that blocks the natural flow.
Gorgeous Lieke, so simply – pure and really tangible what you mean. What stands out very obviously and is such good and important message for all of us to come back to is:
‘By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner, and more able to care for my patients throughout the course of my career.’ It is only that that truly brings us forth.
Connective tissue exercises can reveal tension in our bodies that we are not even consciously aware of. By gently moving one area we can feel the beneficial effects in other areas as well. Practising connective tissue exercises for my neck revealed tensions in my forearms, my breathing, my abdomen, my right hip and leg! Not surprising in one way when we consider connective tissue is throughout our whole body and is what holds it all together, however it brought so much more awareness in my body and how I now choose to move through my day with that awareness – with so much more respect and honouring of what my body is constantly telling me.
What is so awesome about the Connective Tissue exercises is the simplicity of them – although there is great detail in being aware of our bodies, they are very gentle and simple exercises that can be done by anyone, anywhere.
A great sharing Lieke, especially in how we can inspire one another. Often it doesnt need to be much – just a word or two that can be so revelatory and life changing.
Appreciating our bodies, rather than hardening them into configurations that cause body stress or fighting against them… is so healing for more than just our bodies. It supports us in honouring ourselves and taking greater care of our bodies which translates into the care we then offer others.
“It was a real eye opener for me, as before I saw my body a bit as a nuisance, not able to let me easily do my job, but at that moment I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed.” Such a smile came to my face when I read this paragraph because of the shift from nuisance to appreciation. What a gift you have given you and your body. Our bodies are totally amaze-balls!
When we appreciate our bodies, we then became more connected to our bodies, and naturally become more caring, our body responds and there is a new found confidence that our body begins to move in. It says ‘hello’ to the world ‘i am here’!
Knowing that self-care is just as important as the optimum healthcare you give to your clients by choosing to be truly responsible for your own health Leike and your willingness and consistency in doing the simple but so very supportive Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy exercises given to you is indeed worth appreciating. I too have found Esoteric Connective Therapy Exercises given to me by a practitioner of this modality to be an invaluable support in helping me to heal from past injuries.
Gentle and lovingly smooth movements grace not just the body but the being as well; it reconnects us to how we naturally feel when being connected with oneself, just like young children move and feel before they start to contract under the expectations that are being imposed on them.
Hi Alex your sharing resonates with me as you describe the movements gracing the being and not just the body, I love this as I feel a whole change in myself when I make a commitment to move with love in my exercise and even when typing, it is rejuvenating for my whole being.
I have not often stopped to consider how much dentists must crane their necks, or bend their backs in order to work within such a small confined space of the client – the mouth! I have more often come from a client’s perspective where I am wondering how long I can go with my jaw so wide open or trying hard to control my tongue so the dentist can do what they need to do without this curious muscle trying to get a feel! Thank you Lieke for sharing what you have shared – dentistery, like any profession, does hold its challenges, and hence the right support is needed for keeping up with such work long term. Great to hear how much Connective Tissue Therapy has supported you with this.
Care of our bodies is important 24/7 – feeling how we are standing, sitting, breathing and then how we move, is our spine in a natural alignment, how are we holding our shoulders. Simple tuning in and small adjustments can make a big difference to our physical wellbeing long-term, because our bodies tell us the truth, all we have to do is listen and honour what we feel.
I had not received Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy for a long period until recently. I completed a 6 week programme for chronic lower back pain. I have had this pain for nearly 5 years now always there sometimes inflamed sometimes not. The pain has not completely gone but I must say this modality has marked in my body how important flow is in the body. The flow of what’s true and where it is blocked. A remarkable science and therapy that proves it.
I love the appreciation that you were able to deepen for your body by the simple fact that you were made aware of how very much your body is actually providing and willing to do. We take so much for granted and have the tendency to complain when something does’t go our way. What you show that it can go our way but that everything needs to be considered and honoured in the process. When we have discomfort or pain in our body it is a simple sign to look at what we need to do/change to support our body to not compromising itself anymore.
Something that just came to me when reading your post again Lieke is that the Health system normally has to pickup the pieces from people who don’t take care of themselves, by you in your early days in your chosen profession having sought out and taken responsibility for finding exercises that support your body to be able to perform the tasks that are needed, you have chosen not to be that burden on the health system. Deeply inspiring stuff that shows the world what is truly possible.
Self-care is essential where we care for others, it should be at the foundation of what we offer as practitioners. Awesome to read of your experience of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy.
Great story thanks Lieke. I have a similar experience of doing connective tissue exercises and body awareness exercises to support me in my job as a Physiotherapist and with good effect also.
I have a Practitioner who supported me also in feeling and appreciating my legs, to feel how they carry me through my day and do such a great job here. It is a shame that this kind of appreciation is so unfamiliar for us! Our body is a treasure-box and if it gets appreciated we bring more awareness into our movements.
What came through clearly from this blog was how beneficial it is to appreciate our bodies for everything it can do, and to go into a finer detail with the appreciation.
‘Connective Tissue exercises are truly a gift from heaven that supports our body on many levels’ – this is oh, so true Lieke – the expansiveness that we feel in our body allows us to let go and frees our particles to vibrate more in sync with the Universe. Hence we feel more at one with ourselves and with the all that is the space around us – that being God.
Lieke, this is lovely, ‘She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do. I had never stopped to appreciate my body like that before’, I can feel how so often we do not appreciate our bodies and that it is this taking them for granted and not appreciating and taking care of and honouring their limitations that can cause damage. I know that even though I take much more care of my body than I used to that I had not considered actually appreciating my body.
I love how this modality has supported you to be more lovingly supportive with your body and more aware of your choices Lieke. To go from non-appreciation of your body to appreciation of it is a big deal and this blog is asking me how I could appreciate my body (and thus myself|) more. In this appreciation of the body there is permission to surrender more to it, and to recognise that in the sensitivity of feeling comes much more awareness.
This is vital information for everyone Lieke, thank you for sharing it. What an extraordinary shift to make in just one session, an awareness and appreciation that will benefit you for the rest of your life. It proves that there is a way to work and support our bodies to perform what we want them to do that respects both our bodies and our careers. Awesome!
Lieke this is incredible that one session in Esoteric Connective Tissue can support and change so much in your body. I recently had a session in this myself and I was blown away by the power of such a subtle technique. Currently I am studying anatomy and physiology I now understand that the connective tissue is everywhere in the body and is what surrounds everything. So it makes sense to have a technique that supports this to flow and be open as this will naturally support the rest of the body to do the same.
I have often wondered how dentists look after their necks and backs as it must be very challenging bending over someone’s head for much of the day, so how amazing that you discovered Connective Tissue exercises.. I too have had some amazing results from these seemingly simple but very powerful exercises, having all but healed pain that I had lived with for many years. It was pain that I thought would be with me for the rest of my life but that belief has been totally dismantled. The exercises that have become an integral part of my day are so gentle and as they bring me more in touch with my body I can feel the gentleness flowing through every part; I can’t recommend them highly enough.
Ingrid your reference to flow feels very significant in regards to the true health of our bodies. It stands to reason that as our connective tissue covers our whole body and is all interconnected. then if one part is tight then it’s going to pull the whole lot tighter than it should be. And as we know when something is tight then whatever flows through it will be restricted. When something is relaxed then there are no restrictions to flow.
I would imagine Ingrid that a lot of dentists don’t care for themselves as they should, we definitely see in many professions that body care is seldom thought of and yet what a difference it makes, as you share too when we adopt gentle exercise in this way.
Connective Tissue Exercises are a miracle.
I wish I had learned to appreciate my body earlier in life for it has been such a revelation. That said, it is never too late to do so – our bodies are constantly communicating with us and sharing their innate wisdom. Working with our bodies rather than against them is a true blessing. Thank you for your blog Lieke – a great sharing.
Thanks for writing this Lieke, A great reminder of how absolutely amazing our bodies are and to be more connected from the inside out through Connective Tissue therapy is definitely a wonderful thing. I do a physical job and am no spring chicken anymore so I am finding as I get older my body can’t take the punishment it used to, so being more aware of its capabilities is a real must. So CTT is the way forward for me as well. I can see it becoming mainstream in the future as it is so well needed in all walks of life.
A great testimonial for Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and a deepening appreciation of how our connective tissue is what holds our body together and calls for us to take responsibility to restore and maintain the flow of energy through our body.
“By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner, and more able to care for my patients throughout the course of my career.” Imagine if you had ignored your neck pain Lieke it would have affected how you treat your patients and you would have had to compromise your body more and more to accommodate the pain.
I often hear from others at times that Health and Safety have become a nanny state, protecting us from everything it seems. Having spent most of this life working in industrial labour fields where the body is one of the most valuable tools… it was also in the past, the tool that most often abused the most. What happens to tools when they are no longer fit for purpose? When we disregard the limits of our body, there is always a price, to be paid!
Its an amazing modality but whats more incredible is actually taking the time to apply the exercises in to your own daily routine, for it makes so much more impact on the body when you work with the practitioner.
Your blog brings awareness to just how important it is to look after and appreciate our body, and how easy it can be to override or put up with pain.
“She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do” – completely Lieke, our body is amazing in how it moves us around and allows us to do the things we need, and it’s the quality living inside it/inside the body i.e. our being is what makes a body and its movement one of true beauty in all its twists and turns (!) Graced by the quality/being of love, the physical body is moved with that same love.
Connective tissue exercises are so gentle and at the same time truly teach us to look after our bodies lovingly and with respect. Your wisdom in taking the time now at the beginning of your career to look after your body is a true example to all Lieke!
What a great support for you Leike, having the connective tissue exercises that you can do during your working day and what a great level of care of yourself, which you bring to your clients. I have done Connective tissue exercises once with a practitioner and found that these simple subtle exercises were powerful in supporting my body.
This is awesome how simply we can come back to our body and allow it to heal through simple exercise and understand our body through the support of Connective Tissue Therapy. I love this therapy as i have found each time I have the deeper my connection to my body and a deeper stillness felt inside.
Self care of our bodies needs to be taught as part of training for all professions, because anything we do repetitively will put a strain on our bodies in some place, whether it is working in an office, at a supermarket checkout, preparing food in a kitchen, teaching, there is always a physical element to what we are doing, even if it doesn’t appear to be hard physical work. Any time we compromise our bodies we are creating potential for illness further down the line.
The body, the body, the body if we keep bringing it back to the body, over and over again then eventually we will return to the truth of who we are. All of the answers are in our bodies, our bodies are the road maps home, they are our best friends, our wise advisors, they are our every-thing.
Lieke I can feel how the deep connection and self care that your connective tissue exercises bring, do not stay with you, they emanate out for not only your patients to feel but for all of us to be part of. How truly beautiful.
Wow what a change and one that sounds like it is lasting as well – a truly sustainable support for you to do your job and not get burnt out, thanks for sharing this Lieke.
Lieke, I love how you shared about feeling that your body was a nuisance and that a large part of the healing for you was to realise that you were lacking in appreciation for what you were already doing with your body! Having read this, it makes me realise how often I can fall into that as a pattern as well (the part where I feel that a body ailment and hence my body is a nuisance), instead of deeply appreciating all that I can do with my body. We cannot ever see our body as a nuisance, for if we do, then we have lost the whole meaning of care, respect and love for ourselves and everyone else, and we have made it purely about the doing and not the being, nor the quality of what we bring. Thank you so much for this reminder which I will put into practice immediately, loving and caring more deeply for myself…there are after all deepening levels of this love and care which are endless!
There are so many people that just carry on with their (physical) hurts as it seems to have become normal that we’ve got pain. At least in one or a few parts of our body. How inspiring is it to read that Lieke is already taking responsibility for her health and seeking support. A support that she will benefit from for the rest of her career as a dentist. The difference between enjoying working / studying or ‘getting through the day’ way of working. I can personally definitely recommend Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy!
I just read another blog on dentistry: https://medicineandsergebenhayon.com/2012/08/21/dentistry-is-stressful/?wref=tp where the stresses of the job are talked about. It is a job where your posture is compromised, something I had never appreciated in dentists before. How beautiful that at the start of your career you are taking such care with your body and supporting it. How fantastic it would be if that too was part of what was taught at dentist school.
To be aware of your posture as a dentistry student and get the support through connective tissue exercises is such a loving way to support your body for the future.
How beautiful to have these beautiful connective tissue exercises to support your body to stay open and fluid as your work Lieke.
Just shows the power that Esoteric Connective Tissue exercises had on your body, by bringing your body back to a more gentle place, tension free. And also shows how well the body responds to such tender touch and care.
The more I take care of my body even in all my movements, the more my body responds to me in such a loud and loving way. Thank you for a beautiful blog on self care and the effect ECTT has had on your body.
If only we were loving and honouring of our body we would exactly and naturally know how to move and care best for it. How less we actually appreciate and cherish our body is very much brought to awareness by modalities like Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy by applying the well-deserved care and tenderness thus we get to learn how to restore a loving relationship with our body and ourselves.
I LOVE Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy. At first I thought it was something too simple to ever have any support or positive influence on the body. Nevertheless, it has proven to be something of a true gift to offer myself each day whenever I feel my body needs its support. It has shown how truly delicate, delicious and sensitive the body is to everything and anything in life which we can hold in our posture or in tensions and tightness in the body. This therapy helps to support us with this physically by letting these tensions release, it also pulls us to be more understanding and loving of why we are taking them on in the first place.
I was deeply touched by reading the point when you started to appreciate how your body was willing to do everything you needed and all it was asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations. Our bodies are in effect are our best friends ever, yet in return how minuscule is the care, appreciation and honouring they tend to get.
Spot on Golnaz, our body is definitely not appreciated enough for the enormity of what it actually carries out. And yet we know our body to be the connecting factor to God itself, after all our particles belong to God. So what this reveals is that we have yet a ways to go before we can truly appreciate the presence of God in our lives in every moment, and every movement of our body.
Thank you for the reminder to appreciate my body. It is not something I do very regularly and yet my body is truly amazing in the way it moves and supports me in all that I do. It reminds me to allow more grace in my movements, I know my body would, in turn, appreciate that.
In the few Esoteric Connective Tissue sessions I have had I can best describe it as a complete melting away of any hardness in my entire body, it’s like all the connective fibres unravel and loosen up, it feels gorgeous. And your right Lieke our bodies are always there willing and ready to be with us whatever we choose to do in life but how much are we appreciating that support that never asks us to move mountains but to honour our feelings that are never imposing but beautiful to feel when allowed to just be.
`What an amazing modality connective tissue therapy is allowing us to feel the natural flow and harmony in our bodies and the appreciation of this is also a key in the way we honour ourselves and live. What a gift you offer your patients from offering this to yourself first a real marker for our health and well being that is here to support us all.
The body is designed to move, and bend and stretch but we can put strain on it sometimes with repetitive positions we need to be in at work. When you know how to support yourself in this way with some very gentle simple Connective Tissue Exercises, it is a great support for yourself and the body responds positively loud and clear.
Lieke thank you for sharing as it shows that Esoteric Connective Tissue exercises can be done anywhere, any time (well nearly) and the power they have. It’s not that we need to keep going to a session but we can introduce these supportive tools during our everyday.
Absolutely Lieke – Connective Tissue not only supports the connective tissue in the body but support us to go much deeper in honouring who we are. It is a blessing that brings so much amazing insight.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is something that takes me deeper every session – It is truly restorative and one gets to feel underneath all the tensions and stress we have taken on unnecessarily that only serve to limit our true and free expression. Simple yet so profound.
This is a beautiful example, Lieke, of how small choices to self care and stay present with the body can make our work harmonious and flowing rather than a constant strain that ends up in an illness or injury.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is a truly gorgeous modality and you have demonstrated this beautifully. Thanks Lieke!
This is gorgeous Lieke. It’s lovely to remind ourselves to appreciate our bodies for what they can do. So often we give ourselves a hard time for not being able to do things. Appreciation changes everything.
It’s quite amazing how our body responds to tenderness and true love. Often I hear and have experienced myself that we have collective beliefs and ideals that being hard on our body is actually supportive. I love how Lieke share about her appreciation for our body. Shouldn’t this be our primary focus and quality we bring into the relationship with our body. There’s no partner than our body that is so close and intimate with us. And what I’m finding more and more is how communicative it is. Only it doesn’t do that with spoken words. But when I feel the communication, I understand and am far more willing to be with my body. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy does support greatly to reconnect to this precious communication within.
There are 2 gifts here Lieke – the Esoteric Connective Tissue exercises from your practitioner and your dedication to yourself by consistently practicing them.
Connective Tissue therapy – and exercises – are an amazing support for us as we go about our daily lives. So lovely to read how you can incorporate them into your student dental practice in between patients. One life.
Thank you for this reminder Lieke – awareness and appreciation are the great keys to everything in life. The more we appreciate our body, the more it is able to be in its natural balance and harmony as we work with it rather than against it.
“She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do. I had never stopped to appreciate my body like that before. It was a real eye opener for me, as before I saw my body a bit as a nuisance, not able to let me easily do my job, but at that moment I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed”.
Beautiful Lieke,I too have found the effects of one treatment of Connective Tissue has miraculously shifted stiffness and pain that i have been experiencing in my left hip for months. The simplicity of the treatments and unimposing nature of the practitioners is supremely powerful.
At times we can discount the power of something because it is too ‘simple’. What you have shared is a great reminder of the power of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy exercises – no matter how simple they may appear to be.
Yes I noticed this in myself lately, that ‘I got this being tender with myself’ thing already (the arrogance!) and that I did not need to be tender anymore. Yet my body suffered from the lack of love and tenderness I was giving to it. Now re-applying it again my body loves it and I feel warmer and as a result.
The combination of self-care and Connective Tissue Therapy is a marriage made in heaven.
What struck me when I read your blog Lieke was how easily we as health professionals can disregard ourselves for the sake of our clients/patients –” Even when knowing this fact, not wanting to cause harm to my patient can drive me into going into such a position anyway.” It is wonderful that you found a way to not compromise both the love and care you have for your clients and well as the care and love you have for yourselves by learning how to support yourself with Esoteric Connective Tissue therapy. This to me is how we take responsibility for ourselves as people and as health professionals.
Awesome how your dedication to sorting out the pain in your neck and back was resolved after one ECTT and your appreciation of the amazing support you receive from your back every single day. Your future patients will be truly blessed to have you as their dentist not just for the quality of your work but also the reflection of what true self-care looks like,
How many people take for granted and give little thought to a small part of our body, our thumb and what it allows us to do? Then add the complexity of the rest of our body and working all in harmony as one… until we disregard its limits.
Often therapies focus on fixing a problem in isolation to the whole and don’t seek to offer the client a truer understanding of their body, how to work with and not against it. What you were given was easily transferable to life as you’ve integrated gentle movements into your working day. A great way to continue to heal yourself as you go.
Lieke, what an amazing start to your career, ‘By learning to appreciate and care for my body in this way, I feel I will become a much more caring practitioner, and more able to care for my patients throughout the course of my career.’ This feels like such a loving foundation to have at work, honouring yourself deeply and as a result your patients too.
What shines through in this blog and leads the way in how our bodies and work life could be is that so often we blame the job and conditions for how our bodies are feeling. We then continue in this mindset and put more strain on the body or end up leaving the job thinking the issue may go away. Neither of which are addressing the way we are with our body and relationship with it. Imagine if all students no matter their job role from the start could be aware of this as the burn out rate of amazing people may then drop. Thank you Lieke.
Not only did pain disappear but you to see and have a deeper appreciation of your body and each minuscule movement it makes, without being aware of it.
I love how the understanding of why Lieke had pain was shared so clearly and precisely in this article. This delivery of the true reason we have pain in our bodies could unlock years of suffering for many, especially when the understanding is then supported with Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy.
The level of self care you describe here was up to now unknown in the dentistry or any other study but with you bringing this to this trade it will become more accessible for others to apply too. Imaging if every medical practitioner or practitioner of any other trade would be familiar with the delicateness Esoteric connective Tissue Therapy brings, our world would be very different, less rushing and more honouring to the delicateness our bodies are.
I recently had a connective tissue therapy session and was given 2 very simple exercises to do twice a day. It really is an incredible powerful modality. I can feel the intricacy of how my body moves whenever I have a session, the detail, which I have to say is something that I don’t always pay attention to. I loved how I felt longer when I got off the table and more connected and aware of my body.
Wow, how many books and theories are there out there about getting the best body posture, and the way to fix misalignment? But they all miss out on one crucial fact – the way you are with yourself is a powerful posture all on its own. Effectively if we don’t correct this we are trapped in a situation as limited and uncomfortable as any hunch slouch or paunch. Thank you Lieke for pointing this out.
Wow Lieke. These exercises sound amazing. I love the reminder to be appreciative of our bodies too. I find myself feeling annoyed because my body is tired or sore but it’s not often that I truly appreciate how hard my body works to do everything it has to do.
Appreciation is the glue that holds it all together and creates a foundation to build even more love.
Lieke,congratulations on treating your first patients and for doing so well in that activity. Have you considered showing your colleagues how to take care of their back and neck?
When there’s a pain or limitation in the body, I realise how much I have taken for granted that this delicate apparatus of mine and not appreciated how impeccably it functions most of the time without me consciously giving it commands and takes care of me, and I have not in return really played my part to truly honour what this lump of particles is offering to me.
It is very significant just how much the body responds to appreciation and care towards it. It certainly is a factor to include for maintaining heath and wellbeing.
There is so much to appreciate about this physical body—every movement we have chosen that do not reflect our truth gets exposed, I have not come across anything in life that has so much love for me. Our body is gently allowing us the opportunity to express back the truth that we are so much love—just so so beautiful.
Our bodies are truly amazing and Connective Tissue sounds like it could support us in re-correcting patterns and habits which do not support our overall well-being, much like supporting us in returning to a movement which reflects our wholeness and fullness.
Wow, appreciating the body for what it can do, that is a game changer – like you, I have been more inclined to focus on its limitations and who or what could thrive under such conditions? Our body is truly amazing.
To “honour the body in its limitations” is often ignored or frowned as not working hard enough. The body is an instrument that can work long hours and be extremely productive in any work place when it is treated with the levels of care and this is build into a regular routine. Thank you for sharing this blog Lieke as many people push the body that bit further thinking that it will perform when there is not enough time spent cherishing and appreciating all the tiny details that go into our human functions each day. Our body is our greatest instrument of work yet it needs to be supported to bring the quality in all situations with not only how we move but the choices we make to exercise, fuel and rest it.
I can imagine it’s quite common for people to live with a tension in their body, not truly finding a settlement and contentment like which you described due to not truly taking care of their bodies and honouring them in their limitations. How beautiful to have your eyes opened to what you need to do to care for and support yourself better and as a result, your patients
Great post Lieke, and Esoteric Connective Tissue is one of my favourite healing modalities too, i love the the subtlety of the healing in tandem with the subtlety of the intricate body… i recall having a recent session on my pelvic area, and it totally reconfiguring my hips, gait.. and how i walked felt spacious inside that area, like i was walking on air (!)
The Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercises I have been shown by a practitioner, and incorporated into my own life have also made a tremendous difference Lieke. What a blessing it is, to be offered and presented with such bodily wisdom and this way of developing and going deeper with our own relationship with our own body, that we CAN actually honour the body in the activity of our day and not negate it and put it secondary as has so often been the case.
If only all would take heed when such ‘warning signals’ come from our bodies as you have Lieke… Imagine the chronic conditions that could potentially be prevented.
It’s great that you have brought the awareness to the root cause, and not sought a quick fix and go back to the same behaviour.
I can imagine that dentistry is an intense and pressured job as you have a very short window to assess a clients needs and to carry out the necessary work, I love the fact that rather than override what you were feeling in your body that you we’re able to make some very simple changes which will support not just yourself but all of the clients that you see.
I can easily relate to getting pain from working in positions that have not supported my body and although I tried massages at the time to relieve the pain nothing really worked so I accepted the pain as something I just had to live with. Reading your experience with connective tissue makes me wonder why this is not more readily available in places of work to support their staff to move in ways which do not compromise the body.
In our bodies at a cellular level we are registering tension all the time. The key here is whether we allow ourselves to feel and acknowledge it so it does not block the flow of energy through our body or whether we are hardening to deal with this tension thereby creating a block so that our true source of energy, the love of which we are made, cannot be the guiding impulse to our movements and we begin to invite in instead, an energy that comes from the hardness of protection and is not true to the love that we are. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy has supported me to become so much more aware of how I am choosing to move and whether this choice is supporting the expression of who I am or, who I am not. Thank you Lieke for this great and practical example of how this modality has supported you in your profession.
I’ve been doing Connective Tissue Exercises to help with a restriction I’d developed and I completely agree more that you get more than the exercises releasing this specific part of the body. I could feel as the exercises addressed the patterns of movement, that they unwound or unlocked feelings and experiences that were also ‘held’ as tension in the body.
Appreciating my body is still something I have to remind myself to do. I like you Lieke tend to see my body’s limitations rather than how well it copes with the demands I put on it.
I was just talking to a friend yesterday about how we don’t always appreciate our health until we’re unwell. It’s then very easy to forget and not appreciate. Equally so, it can be easy to focus on the things we can’t do so well, rather than appreciating the fact that we can do it all. Great point and great sharing here, Lieke.
This is awesome Lieke to hear how supportive the connective tissue has been for you. Recently I have had a session in connective tissue and lately my hours at work have increased with an opening of members club. I am on my legs a lot of the time and to have this connective tissue which was focused on my legs was incredible. I walked out and they literally felt like different legs. So supportive I agree.
I agree. Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy could be very powerful.
What you share here Natalie confirms to me that our bodies are designed to work but there is an owners manual to it. This manual describes that we have to take care for the delicateness our bodies are in everything we do, that we do not have to harden to get things done, but that we can be in the delicateness of the body in everything that we do.
I’ve had Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy for many years and always found it extremely warm and supportive. A lot of the time I have fallen asleep because of how it felt and from reading this article I can see it’s time for some more. I have often in the past gone to fix certain parts of my body in isolation to the rest. In other words when I have torn a hamstring I’ve done exercises to strengthen and rehabilitate that part and then just gone on with life. Where this modality supports with injuries but not with a focus on a part, it takes in the whole body and addresses how you moved to the point where you tore a muscle.
It is truly amazing how even the tiniest movement or adjustment in our body can make a huge difference. Sometimes just bringing our awareness or appreciation to a certain part of our body without even any discernible movement can release tension or energy and also make a big difference. Our bodies are super awesome and the most wonderful asset we have and yet we often do not respect, listen to or honour them.
So true Nicola – in the seemingly minuscule movement contains ‘the everything’ of the Universe that can call us back to true order within.
Yum the way you write and express is a most delicious movement in itself.
‘…I could feel how willing my body was to do everything I needed…’ What a gorgeous appreciation – a real movement away from the disdain we often treat our bodies with. Our bodies aren’t the nuisances we think them to be, they’re our best friend, confidante and vehicle of expression.
In hard times I often forget to appreciate everything I have. It is ironic as appreciation is often the safety rope which assists us out of the pit of hardship when fully read and analysed.
To appreciate the body for what it can do, not the limitations which it will obviously have. It’s a reversal of how we often look upon our body, which is probably what gets us into trouble physically. I know that I have much more appreciating of my body to do, the many daily movements I make that I should stop taking for granted and really appreciate the wonder of what I have. Thank you Lieke for writing this.
Thank you Lieke, you have began your profession with such a great foundation – self care without cutting corners or compromising your wellbeing whilst you care for others. I felt this was a great line about the body “The only thing it was and is asking for was to be taken good care of and to be honoured in its limitations.” How true this is!
Lieke, it is great to feel how having a deep appreciation of our bodies as opposed to having an expectation that our bodies can do something, can be a healing tool for us.Connective tissue exercises support us in this appreciation as we feel our bodies at deeper level.
Thank you Lieke for sharing the profound impact Esoteric Connective Tissue Exercise had after just one session and how it can help us to bring ease into out work despite of the strain it can put on our bodies.
I agree, connective tissue exercises are so much more than just exercises, they help us to feel our bodies, to honour them and to know how to move in harmony. ‘appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do’ is beautiful, as an older person with arthritis and osteoporosis, I am less able to bend and twist, but appreciate what I am able to do, which is pretty good for my age.
What you are sharing here is enormous Lieke, that by honouring our body there is so much to gain, to not ignore when we have discomfort or pain and find a way to support us to not stay in this compromised posture. Simple and yet so very profound.
It can be so easy to put our bodies last on the list – our workload becoming more important and we suffer, be it our posture, liquid intake, sleep or exercise etc, and yet these are the simple things that support us to do what we need to
That’s awesome Lieke. Such an awesome modality and beneficial to everyone as you say. Supporting yourself with these exercises everyday is so honouring of your body, and obviously it’s thanking you for it!
It is remarkable what changes we can make to our bodies and our lives when we bring all of our focus to the tiny details of how we move, or the positions we place our bodies in. And Connective Tissue exercises, along with the modality itself are a wonderfully simple yet profound way in which to support our whole being.
It is in your words that the care you have for people really shines through. A care that you equally deserve. I am so glad that you have this level of support, because the world desperately needs you to be working and caring as you are, such a beautiful person.
Beautiful to feel how the body is totally supportive and when we work in a caring partnership with it, it will give us the flexibility, function and sustainability needed. It will also remind us by causing pain and discomfort when we neglect or push it. I too have found enormous benefits from connective tissue exercises Lieke. Thank you for sharing.
Hear hear Lieke, I’ve also had a recent online session for support from Esoteric Connective Tissue and my body loved it. This brings a whole new level of appreciation of my body, “She talked about appreciating my body for all the bending and turning it could do.”, and how important it is to support our body in all its commitment to doing what we need to do each day.
Amazing, this made me stretch move and appreciate my body, thank you. And Awesome you have completely re-imprinted work for yourself and your body.
It’s true that our bodies are quite amazing when you consider of all the things they can physically do. Its something I had not thought much about before, but I’m now going to make it a regular appreciation.
I agree Debra, I have been connecting to my breath recently and feeling how delicate the movement of my rib cage is, it feels so lovely to connect to and appreciate the simplicity of it.
Wow, I wish every one who has pain could read this.
I have had 2 sessions with an Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapist and it has healed tendon pain I was experiencing in my arms very quickly.
It is so gentle and yet so effective.
It is supporting me to be more settled in my body throughout the day too and this makes a huge difference in all I do, not the least being able to speak & communicate better because I am not pushing myself to hurry (out of social anxiety) and thus abandoning my sense-of-me as frequently.
Great tip on appreciating our bodies for what they can do. My body has served me well. I have worked for 50 years, mostly physical work and with a lot of disregard, however it always been there when I needed it. I have thought that eventually I would have to stop the physical work as I grew older and there are many things I will not do any more, but I have found that if I do things with gentleness and presence my body can continue to do the work that I love. I deeply appreciate my body for all it has allowed me to do in this world.
That could be interpreted as one session of Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy and you are cured, how powerful is that Lieke? And of course, that is true, but feeling into it deeper, what truly happened was the Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy enabled you to connect to yourself and appreciate your body as never before. Now you are nurturing and looking after yourself with these exercises as you work, well done.
Great point you make Gill. It is the self-care which is what truly heals. If Lieke had not asked for help and followed the practitioner’s guidance she would not have had the healing.
Thanks Lieke for your sharing. While feeling your description of connective tissue and the way it helds us together, Tenderness arose from inside but then when appreciating your body for so much it allows you moving, working, let say living;
Joy and Gratefulness flowered in a sudden through my whole body.
Through your words I could discover and appreciate my own body and soooo much it supports all day long.