APRIL MADNESS

APRIL 2024 newsletter

Hei amazing people,

We all survived March and are hopefully happily transitioned to autumn. For me, it’s the last month of autumn and I’ll be back in summer😎. If you want a treatment before I escape to Finland for a couple of months, now is a good time to book in.

Since I have been raving about routine I thought I’d share some of the changes I have made in March. The biggest one is reading a book every morning, which I have missed for far too many years. Calming down reading and even drawing have been my meditation for the past month, and it’s been great! Another fun new routine has formed itself around the cats, surprise, surprise. The 3 of us walk around the block almost every evening, slightly stressful, but amazing company! I also have a confession to make out my last month. I skipped my monthly treatment, with an excuse of being busy! So last week I have heavily paid the price in my neck, head, and jaw! Because of this, I have had 2 massages and an osteopath appointment, combined with a lot of my exercises. I am usually really good at practicing what I preach and last week was a good reminder to myself why I do this, and how important regularity in treatments and exercise is. I would love to hear your stories and the new routines made, so feel free to send me an email.

Every now and then some of you ask for photos of the exercises I have given you in the sessions. This inspired me to share some good winter stretches with great images this month. You’ll get the stretches, but I decided to keep the images in “real-life” form. I’ll concentrate on the front-line stretches as we all tend to lean forward even more when it’s cold.

1. My all-time favorite, with a little add-on. You’ll get a great spinal twist combined with quad and stomach area stretch. Get 2 pillows, one under your head, and another under your top knee, to keep the stretch comfortable and almost passive to allow you to relax. Stay relaxed, it’s not supposed to hurt, just a comfortable stretchy sensation. Absolutely NO knee pain should occur. The top hip is not sliding forward. Pull the bottom knee as far back as feels comfortable to you. Open chest/ Smile & relax.

2. Same series, front line quad /stomach/ chest. Place the back leg on a comfortable surface (sofa, bed chair, etc.)back leg can either be straight or bent. Again NO knee pain! Push your upper body upright, and keep your shoulders relaxed. Open your chest, align your head with your spine, and smile!

3. Great for walks and outside activities. All you need is a wall, tree, lamp post, etc. Stretch your wall side arm behind you, relaxing on the surface. Shoulders stay down! Tuck your pelvis under and step back with your leg further from the wall,

   legs stay pelvis width apart and toes pointing forward. Don’t let your head collapse forward. You should feel the stretch on the wall side chest and opposite hip flexor. And of course, a smile is the most important part of any exercise.

Hopefully, you find these useful or at the very least amusing. And as always I’m here for more guidance don’t hesitate to reach out. Have a great month and you’ll hear from me in May again.

Also, I want to welcome Queenstowners into the monthly newsletter, I thought you were all added in already, but once again my IT skills weren’t as good as I thought they were. I’ll keep you posted about my possible availability in Queenstown after my trip.

Love

Kaisa❤️🐾

AUTUMN RECHARGE

MARCH 2024 newsletter

Hei amazing people,

Hopefully routine building and “catting” is going strong. I certainly have enjoyed the darkening evenings next to the fire, and as always in autumn an urge to go for a walk at dusk has kicked in. My schedule has been super busy so thank you for the patience while I’ve tried my best to fit everyone in. I also have booked my flights to escape the winter to the Northern Hemisphere so Henkiwellbeing will be closed from the 17th of May till early August, I’ll keep you posted on that. Book your appointments nice and early so you won’t miss out.

March is the first official month of Autumn which is a period of calm and recharging before the winter activities kick in! For me, it means calmer daily yoga practice in the morning and walking in the evening, which is the opposite of summer. I would encourage you to keep it simple this month, root 1 morning habit and 1 evening habit and rest. If you can keep that up until the next newsletter, you’ll be on the route for a magical autumn. As always I’m here to create routines with you, whatever works best for you uniquely.

Enjoy the sunshine and autumn colors! Go out to hunt the spirit of Autumn, I was lucky enough to see one in Milford sound. I’ll challenge you more in April once everyone is over the turbulence of shifting gear towards the colder half of the year.

One more thing, I will be practicing for a few weeks in Finland in May and June so if you are on that side of the world, send me a message and I’ll secure you a slot!

Love

Kaisa❤️🐾

WELCOME AUTUMN!

FEBRUARY 2024 newsletter

Hei beautiful people,

Summer has been amazing hopefully you have enjoyed the sunshine as much as I have. Firstly as always, I want to thank you all for letting me help you with your wellbeing. Changing seasons is always a good time to evaluate what we achieved and set goals for the next season. My goal for 2024 is to get physically stronger and I must tell you I’m already on a good path to succeed! Whatever it is for you I’m here to help.

Since we are moving towards colder seasons I thought I’d share a couple of handy tips to make the transition easier. Through my years of practicing body therapy and healing, the biggest problem that I face in autumn and spring is feet, suffering from changing footwear. Another big one is adjusting to the cold, as many of you know, this is the biggest one for me, haha! Thirdly it’s setting into a different routine as we are losing daylight.

Feet, the foundation of it all! I’m a big believer in being barefoot. Shifting entirely to barefoot footwear few years ago has completely changed the alignment of my body and it can do that to you as well. Since everyone is changing to heavier footwear anyway this is a good time to consider getting a new cool barefoot pair of shoes. Another important thing is to keep up with your foot exercises as you won’t be galloping around in barefoot in the cold. At the very least go get a nice soft rock from the lakefront to give your feet a good massage daily, for more tips book a session and we’ll get you a foot six-pack.

The cold is coming whether we like it or not. While you are picking up that rock to relieve tension from your feet, you mind as well dive into the water. It’s the perfect time to start cold plunges while the water in the lake is still nice and warm. I started midwinter in Finland, at minus 20 degrees, over 25 years ago and I’m still addicted! If you need help with the courage to get into this contact me and we can create a group to plunge in together, I would be honored to help you with this amazing routine.

Routine is the backbone that keeps us going when things get rough. After summer it might be challenging to get back into a good wellbeing routine. The recipe is pretty simple, sunshine, sleep, eat, exercise! What it means on a daily level is a lot harder. As the amount of daylight gets shorter it’s even more important to try to get at least a little bit of sunshine to keep your body clock going. Once you are out of the house it’s a lot easier to find the motivation to move your body to get stronger, go ahead and challenge me or a friend to a pull-up competition, walking challenge, or whatever it is you need a little extra push with!

Let’s enjoy the autumn, it’s a time to rest and reset. Or as I called it, perfect time for catting, gentle stretches, and lots of rest.

I’ll keep you posted as there might be some cool workshops coming in the near future.

Otherwise, you’ll hear from me in March, happy to receive ideas on what you would like to hear more from.

Love

Kaisa❤️🐾