Wellness as a Way of Life

[we]llness as a Way of Life

Words by Lawrence Karol

THE WELLNESS CENTER AT DAP HEALTH OFFERS MORE THAN TWO DOZEN OPTIONS.

DAP Health’s mission is to enhance and promote the health and well-being of the community. But there’s a lot more behind that effort than just providing primary and specialty medical care. From acupuncture to urban yoga, DAP Health has a whole host of wellness programs that address every aspect of its patients’ lives — whether it’s physical, spiritual, emotional, or intellectual — and help patient health outcomes.

“Our wellness services offer a spectrum of complementary and alternative wellness programming,” says Cory Lujan, DAP Health’s client wellness manager. “Our goal is to support conventional and routine medical care. Services such as yoga, chair massage, and acupuncture specifically help with pain management and stress, anxiety, and a host of other ailments.”

Harvard Health Publishing, which is the consumer health education division of Harvard Medical School, notes that yoga, in particular, “promotes physical health in multiple different ways. Some of them derive from better stress management. Others come more directly from the physical movements and postures in yoga, which help promote flexibility and reduce joint pain.” At DAP Health, Kristin Olson’s Urban Yoga Studio is located in the main building. (Olson has owned her yoga studio for decades and employs many yoga instructors.) There are three weekly classes that are ideal for beginners or those with decreased mobility. The classes are free for DAP patients, while there is a fee for the general public.

Despite being less well-known than yoga, DAP Health’s sound bath classes have also developed a devoted following. Like yoga, sound bath sessions can help reduce anxiety and stress — and, despite their name, they do not involve water or a bathtub. Lujan explains that sound bath is a music meditation where the attendees are immersed in the sound of various frequencies of singing bowls. “Our Reiki specialist, Sarah Stern, leads the sound bath and uses multiple instruments, including gongs, rain drums, and chimes.” Speaking of Reiki, this Japanese energy-healing technique is another patient wellness program that helps with stress reduction, relaxation, and also promotes healing. “It’s very popular among those who are into spirituality,” says Lujan. “The Reiki practitioner does not touch her patient. She uses energy healing to realign the body’s energy. Patients usually report the same feelings as that of meditation and they come out feeling spiritually moved and some are in tears.” If all these wellness programs leave you primed to take on more activities, be sure to check out the wide variety of other events offered at DAP Health — everything from a knitting group to a book club to the Soles on Sunrise walking group.

For questions about DAP Health wellness services, contact the Wellness Center Administrative Assistant at 760.323.2118.

That’s the Point

If you’re experiencing bodily aches and pains — or other troubling conditions such as headaches, insomnia, anxiety, or depression — you may want to consider acupuncture treatments. This traditional

Eastern art is a technique in which practitioners stimulate specific points on the body by inserting thin needles through the skin.

As part of DAP Health’s holistic approach to health care, acupuncture is employed as a complementary and alternative form of medicine that can be used in conjunction with conventional medical care. DAP Health’s acupuncturist, Askat Ruzyev, explains that acupuncture works in concert with the endorphins in our bodies. It’s thought that acupuncture increases the blood flow to areas that are stimulated by the needles and may trigger the release of those endorphins, which in turn act as a sort of natural painkiller. “It’s, so to speak, your natural Walgreens,” says Ruzyev.

In a situation where a clinician at DAP Health has prescribed pain medication for a patient experiencing a condition like lower back pain, they may also refer them to Ruzyev for acupuncture. During a 30-minute treatment, he will insert between four and 15 needles into various points on the body — the specific areas vary based on the patient and their symptoms.

“Obviously I watch how people react to the needles,” says Ruzyev. “Some people are very sensitive, so I wouldn’t do more than two [needles]. I do my best, considering the situation, in order to provide treatment so they get some relief. But then there are people who fall asleep because they feel so relaxed.” The needles themselves are inserted at different depths depending on the muscle. For example, the gluteus maximus muscle is large and thick so the needle can go deeper. But when the needle is inserted near a bony area, such as the ankle or wrist, it doesn’t go in as far.

Above all else, Ruzyev tries to create a relaxed environment for patients and takes a gentle approach, especially during their first treatment. “I don’t do anything crazy, just a couple of needles to kind of let them experience it so they build up [their comfort level] little by little.”

Serenity Zone

If you’ve ever seen an actual dog in the downward-facing dog position, you’d have to admit they seem to take great pleasure from the movement. Yet many of us shake our heads and say, “Oh, I couldn’t do that” when it comes to practicing the same stretch in a yoga class. “They think everyone is like a pretzel, or cooked spaghetti, all wound up and tangled up and their legs are in the air and their hands are on the ground,” says Kristin Olson, the owner of Urban Yoga Center.

To help counter that notion, Olson and her instructors offer hatha yoga classes three times a week at DAP Health that are ideal for beginners and people of all ages and physical fitness levels. “Hatha yoga is about the integration of the body, mind, and spirit, stretching, and based on breath and movement,” says Olson. “Once you step into a class, all [of our] teachers are going to be considerate of the limitations of the students and the familiarity with the structure. So you’re never going to be made to feel bad and out of whack.”

While each of the classes offered at DAP Health involves the same stretches and routines, the sequence will vary from one session to the next depending on the instructor. And Olson notes that one of the ways yoga is different than, for example, going to the gym and doing 10 repetitions of an exercise is that yoga is more encompassing of breathing and working through the entire body so that you stretch, strengthen, and aerate the body.

“Being healthy, learning to have a little quiet time, a guided meditation, or guided breath work takes you out of that analytical mind,” says Olson. “You begin to quiet the questioning, regretful mind and you begin to get into kind of a soft and open space. And that’s really where the nectar is — the relaxation, the empowerment, [and] the spiritual consciousness. You find your grace in those moments.”

So while you may never touch your toes, or do the perfect downward-facing dog pose, Olson’s yoga classes will help you to begin to get a sense of your body and understand where your own flexibility and strength lie.

Have a Seat

The chair massage treatments administered at DAP are nothing like the ones you’ve seen people receive in malls, salons, and other public spaces. The practice is a specialty of Phil Hinds, who has been a licensed massage therapist at DAP Health for nine years. Most patients arrive at their appointments with pain in their neck, shoulders, back, or lower back.

“I’ve taken it to a much different level in that I do deep tissue work,” says Hinds. “I do a lot of stretching, which you would generally not find in a salon-type situation.” In addition, because of DAP Health’s integrated team approach, patient referrals often occur between Hinds and those who practice acupuncture, chiropractic, and reiki. “I can stretch you out so that when you go to see the chiropractor, his work then becomes a lot more effective and easier because your muscles are relaxed [and] much more receptive to the adjustment.” Similarly, a patient may book a visit with Hinds to soften upper body muscle tissue and hopefully make it easier for the acupuncturist to work problem areas more effectively.

“I’m looking at it much more therapeutically than as something just to get the knots out, or just to relax you,” says Hinds. He will often have the patient sit up and away from the face cradle in order to do stretching techniques with them — twisting their bodies and doing very extensive stretching, like neck stretching exercises, which he can’t do with their face in the cradle. “So I give them a lot of mobility in the work that they’re doing, because I’ll twist them and grab their arms and twist them around [and] do side stretches.”

Hinds’s approach is particularly useful for the diverse population of DAP Health patients. “We have people coming with a lot of health issues and many of the patients have said in terms of our wellness group that they have been able to stop using certain medications and things like that because the work has been so effective for them,” he says. “So, I like to think the benefits are emotional, spiritual, and physical and they walk out feeling better.”

As part of its ethos to treat the whole person — mind, body, and spirit — DAP Health is now offering free Transcendental Meditation (TM), courses. TM, a simple mental technique, has been shown to improve awareness, memory, and creativity while reducing tension and anxiety. By reducing deep-rooted stress and fatigue, it increases energy and resiliency, and improves overall health.

The free course, which will be offered monthly, consists of four one-hour lessons held over four consecutive days. The first session is a one-to-one meeting with the teacher followed by three subsequent group classes. All classes must be attended. No prior experience, equipment, or specific clothing is required.

It’s a simple, natural, effortless technique. It’s very practical,” said Thomas Roth, director of the David Lynch Foundation HIV Wellness Initiative, who is leading the program at DAP Health. “We work it into our daily routine: 20 minutes in the morning before breakfast, 20 minutes in the evening before dinner, and go about your day.” Roth, who has been meditating since he was 13 years old, added, “Forget that you meditated. It’s not like we need to remember, ‘Oh, I should be kinder because I’m a meditator.’ It’s not like that at all. We just do it, and we forget about it and the results come naturally.”

While many forms of meditation focus on mindfulness, TM goes beyond that to take the brain to a very quiet place, which expands consciousness. “Everybody knows that we’re using 10% of our potential,” said Roth. “So, this takes us to those quieter states of our mind, where we can tap into that creativity and intelligence and bring that out into our daily life.” Roth continued: “The other thing that’s fantastic is the side effects; what goes on in the body. When the mind becomes quieter and quieter, correspondingly, because of that mindbody connection, the body attains a very deep state of rest.” According to Roth, the level of relaxation that is achieved can be twice as deep as the deepest sleep during the night. “The result of that is release of stress. Rest is the antidote to stress. None of us are getting enough rest. I can say that as a rule. So, this adds a very powerful, yet simple and effortless technique to attain a deep state of rest and eliminate stress.”

Scientific research backs up TM’s claims of reducing tension and increasing resiliency. “There’s been 350 peer-reviewed, published scientific studies on transcendental meditation. It’s by far the most thoroughly researched process of personal development on the planet,” said Roth.

“We give the body deep rest and naturally, anxiety is reduced. Tension is reduced. All the symptoms of stress are reduced,” Roth said. “At the same time, what it creates is an anchor in that quietness inside. We don’t feel like we’re a football being thrown around in life. It’s a deep anchor in our own consciousness and that gives us more perspective. It gives us stability and little time to ourselves to re-energize.”

If you’re a patient or employee of DAP Health and want to sign up or learn more about DAP Health’s Transcendental Mediation program, contact Thomas Roth at Troth@TM.org, or call or text 415.547.0486.

Transcendental M e d i t at ion

AIDS Memorial Planned for Palm Springs downtown park

Words by Jeff Hocker Illustration courtesy of Phillip K. Smith lll

The Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Sculpture Task Force is excited to announce that the AIDS Memorial Sculpture is one step closer to becoming a reality. The Palm Springs City Council recently unanimously approved the acceptance of the sculpture to be placed in the new Downtown City Park.

“December 1, World AIDS Day, was chosen as the launch, as it signifies the remembrance of those we’ve lost to HIV/AIDS and gives renewed hope that one day, the virus will be eradicated. It is our responsibility to remember their lives and to continue to tell their stories, so that they are never forgotten,” said Mike Richey, co-chair National AIDS Memorial. “AIDS has affected every community across the world, and it is for this reason that AIDS memorials should be established to honor and remember those lost.”

The task force’s vision is to provide the AIDS Memorial Sculpture as a gift to the city of Palm Springs and people of the Valley. Internationally acclaimed artist based in the Coachella Valley, Phillip K. Smith, III, has been commissioned to design the memorial, which will provide an opportunity for reflection, remembrance, and hope once its placed in the new park.

“The AIDS Memorial Sculpture will be a touchstone for unity, hope, grief, and healing in the Coachella Valley,” says Smith. “As a monolithic, singularstone sculpture, the carved surfaces will dance with light, shadow, and reflection. Through rotating grooves cut into the gloss surface as matte marks signifying unity through struggle or the soft curve of undulating forms evoking healing over grief, this is a memorial to be touched, to be felt. It is a timeless, enduring landmark delicately placed on the land. It is heavy, but light — lifting hope, lifting struggle, and lifting up what is important,” described Smith.

The task force’s mission is to ensure the lives of those lost are never forgotten, and that their stories and lives are remembered into the future. We also envision an opportunity to use this memorial as a means to educate the public about HIV prevention, diagnosis, and treatment options available to everyone who seeks information, and to help direct individuals to resources available to them throughout the city, and the country.

The goal of the task force is to raise the necessary funds to support the creation, installation, and ongoing resources to maintain this sculpture for generations to come. Given the impact that HIV/AIDS has had on our community, we believe there will be great support for securing the necessary funds to make this AIDS Memorial Sculpture a reality.

To help facilitate that fundraising goal, the task force has enlisted the efforts of The Development Department Inc., Paul Clowers and Ellen Wolf, to lead the project. The task force has also partnered with DAP Health to act as the fiscal processing agent where community members can donate. Donations to the Palm Springs AIDS Memorial Sculpture Fund can be made by visiting daphealth.org/aids-memorial-fund/. For addition information or donation assistance please contact The Development Department Inc. at PSAMS@DevDeptInc.com.