When I first became a personal trainer 30 years ago, I was convinced that exercise and fitness was the secret to overall health. Gradually, though, my belief that every ailment could be improved, if not cured, with the right exercise prescription wore thin, as I encountered physical challenges in my clients and myself that wouldn’t budge through fitness alone. Thus began my search for the “missing piece” — a more holistic approach, which led me to yoga and Pilates, which in turn led me to meditation and breath work. I followed that trail through all kinds of mind-body modalities, with improving results, but I ultimately found that even though this was an improvement over traditional strength and cardio work, most of these results were more “body” than “mind”.
I first learned about positive affirmations back in the late eighties, when Louise Hay’s wildly popular You Can Heal Your Life was creating armies of fans and fierce detractors alike. Hay espouses that every aspect of our lives – from health to relationships to career and more – is a manifestation of our thoughts, and that simply by changing our thoughts we can change our lives. Though it seemed like a vast oversimplification, the guts of this idea appealed to me, and I found that applying these principles helped me better manage stress and improve my state of mind. Yet these results also fell short of what I’d hoped to achieve in terms of maximizing health and well-being.
Today, I find the greatest power for self-healing lies in the judicious combination of all of these techniques and more. My current arsenal of healing tools includes everything mentioned above plus energy work, essential oils and my most recent addition, writing. I combine all of these modalities daily to promote healing on every level and the achievement of optimal health for myself and my clients.
Here’s an example from my own self-care routine that I actually did today: To further the healing of a debilitating spinal disk issue that I experienced back in January, this morning I performed hip and back stretches recommended to me by my extraordinary physical therapist, Kevin Towers, DPT. To optimize the effect of those stretches, I prepped by applying a few drops of a calming essential oil blend to acupoints on my feet, followed by a short Eden Energy Medicine daily routine. Then I read an entry from one of the inspirational daily meditation books I use regularly. Free-associating in my journal for a few paragraphs about the reading helped me identify a negative thought pattern likely related to my back pain. So finally, while doing the stretches, I recited an affirmation countering that negative thought pattern. The whole process, which took about 30 minutes, is more complicated than the homework I offer many of my clients, but it’s an excellent illustration of the powerful combinations of mind, body, and emotional healing techniques that I’m grateful to use and teach.
If you’d like to discuss any of these techniques further, please comment below. Or for more info visit me at www.generationsfitness.net or www.sherylburpeedluginski.com.
painful and complicated process. Though it’s the size and weight of a textbook, the writing style in Courage, as I’ve come to call this old friend through the years, is that of a loving confidant or wise counselor. Every survivor’s experience is completely unique, of course, and a peek at the 
In this fourth grade class picture taken during the time that my father was sexually abusing me, I’m second in from the left in the first row of chairs. Like many trauma survivors with PTSD, I initially repressed the memories, and only began to recover them at the age of 23. By then it was already two years too late for me to take any legal action against my father, despite the fact that he had admitted – on tape and in front of two therapists – that my debilitating flashbacks were of actual incidents that he remembered too.
Sheryl Burpee Dluginski 