MassageFreek

Stretching - basic stuff

Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 | healthly living | No Comments

Since I’m going to be writing about stretching for a few entries, I figured I would start with some basics. In later posts I will go into some more detail about self-care, postural stretches as well as the spirituality of stretching. I may even have a guest writer for that!

Some basics on stretching, if you are asking me…

When someone asks me about stretching, it’s usually because they are my client, in my office and looking for guidance on a body issue that they want to improve. I usually pull something out of my mental bag of tricks and give them 1-3 reliable and easy stretches to impact their situation in a big way.

When ever someone is coming to the idea of stretching – or thinking that they, indeed, want to make stretching part of their lives, they have a few thoughts. I often find these thoughts to be the most common:
•   I’m not good at stretching
•   Should I join a class?
•   Do I want to do yoga? What else might be out there?
•   How can I stretch this one part of my body
•   When will I ever do any stretching, it always takes too much time!
•   I hate stretching; I wish I didn’t have to do it.
•   When is the best time of the day to do it?
•   I’d like to stretch but I have no peace in my house to do it!
•   I want to join a class – but I hate stretching with other people, I never get the focus I want

These thoughts, among others that I’m sure we can all think of, are the types of thoughts I have encountered in my clients and myself.

When I am having a conversation about stretching with clients or whoever, I always go back to my first basic ideas on stretching…
1.   It’s got to be something you want to do –you gotta be mindful and aware of stretching being something that you want to do for your mental and physical needs
2.    Make it easy, don’t make it so complex that you won’t do it

Lots of times I have had people tell me that they have not stretched for a long time. When I ask them why, there is usually an issue with one or both of the above points. One thing I know is if you don’t have a good enough reason to stretch, then you will not do it. More often than not, I find there’s a good amount of people that are attached to a situational or mental “perfection” in order for them to stretch.
This is often where I hear stories about how they want to go to a specific class with a specific teacher but they don’t do it because it happens when they are at work or doing something else like taking their kids to soccer practice or “date night” with the secondary. Sometimes there’s a stretching tape or regimen that my friend/client is attached to so that they need exactly 30 minutes or an hour to go thru the stretches that they really like and know works for them – but they don’t motivate themselves to do it or they don’t schedule their time to make time for their regimented stretching.

Something that happens when one looks at all the reasons why something is NOT going to work… then it doesn’t happen.
What is needed here is a different way of thinking about it.

Where I like to start is with body awareness and the daily activities of life. What I mean by this is that, if you want to stretch – just do it.
What I suggest is taking the time to check in with how your body feels when you are doing some random thing at work or home, then just simply get up or change what you are doing to do a stretch or two.

The first key, in other words, to get stretching into your life is to start with body awareness and start with what you know you can do.
Most of us can take a couple of minutes to stop what we are doing and stretch out a part of our body that is aching.
You should try it.

In future posts I will address the thoughts and obstacles that can come in the way of stretching and how to deal with them. I also want to give some stretching advice to help with some common issues.

Always start with being aware of your body and what it needs.
Don’t be a zombie!
Don’t just “turn off” your pain and ignore it. Address it and love your body.
You’re going to have it till you die.

So take good care of it!

Care for your Spine!

Friday, September 21st, 2007 | Massage, healthly living | No Comments

More rambles about the spine…
So it has been my experience as a health care giver – of massage – in case you weren’t keeping up on that point – that most people take really crappy care of their spines.
Now, I could go into how I’ve seen the effects of poor treatment of the spine. I could go into how the spine (not to mention the legs and the entire body) gets compressed and tight with high-heel shoe wearing or how discs can bulge and cause extreme pain with enough time at the computer.

But I won’t do that.
NOPE! Most people are pretty smart and can tell when their backs are hurting and people can most certainly tell when they are using their bodies and compromising their spinal health. Pain is usually the indicator.
What I know people could stand to focus on more is how to improve their spinal health.
Some things you can do are pretty darn easy.
1.   Water
I had a client once who had received hours of bodywork from many very skilled practitioners thru the years (she was in an airplane wreck.) I asked her what, thru the years, had been the best at reducing her pain. She said, “Drinking a lot of water everyday, the pain in my body was always almost completely gone when I drank lots and lots of water.”

Drink water, every day!
2. Stretch and exercise. – Do what works for you. Do simple limbering movements everyday and give yourself some cardio and/or weight bearing stressors everyday.
3. Get enough sleep – duh.
4. Don’t sit in one position all the time. Take notice of your body positions:

? Do you find your self leaning the same direction when you’re lounging? Do you cross the same leg over the other when sitting?
These sorts of questions will tune you into the finer patterns of arrangement in your body. What I suggest is being aware of all your movements and body patterns; at work, play or rest, see if you can move just a little differently. Try using your other hand to do some chores, cross your left leg instead of your right, try to stand on both legs when in line at the bank instead of leaning on one leg…
All of these little changes are deeply impactful to your body and your habitual patterns of movement and rest. When you break out of old patterns, you are literally breaking up fascial patterns as well as creating new neuro pathways, which will make you more “body-smart” in their formation.
What does this have to do with spinal health? Well, everything! When you make your life a practice in moving with awareness as apposed to habitual movement and resting patterns, you create stability in a more 360-degree fashion. There are less imbalances of tightness and strength in your body so the chances of pain and injury are reduced.
Ah! It’s reminds me of a good spiritual principal

Here it is: When life is in balance… all is pretty darn peachy.

What else can I say about the spine?
It houses the Nervous system!
Even as early as days after conception – our spines are forming the shapes and patterns they will have our whole lives! Everything from the fluid balance in your mother’s womb to the old high school sports injuries leaves their mark on your spine.
How our spines are shaped have very interesting and phenomenal connection and effect on the nervous system and how we work.
Chiropractors are the ones that have taught me that everything from digestion to eating disorders get affected by the shape and alignment of the spine. Some disorders and symptoms make it easy to understand how nervous system health is connected to the happiness, health and shape of the spine: Headaches from a twisted vertebra in the neck or sciatica from low back tightness or disc slips and bulges that press on the nerve cords as they come out thru the bones of the spine.
Some times other disorders are a little difficult to connect to the spine but I assure you it’s all related. Insomnia, Depression, and mental emotional issues can easily come from tissue restrictions that occur far from the deep workings of the brain. Say that a section of vertebrea in a particular spine is “strait” and has lost it’s natural curve: the bones are out of ideal alignment, surrounding muscles are bent our of ideal shape and are tight and pained.
Fascia around the spine gets thick, sticky and hard with collagen…
Interlaced between the vertebrae, the spine is surrounded by encroaching tightness and the traveling fibers of collagenous scar tissue and fascia – the movement of the spinal cord is then stuck and restricted (because the spinal cord is soft tissue too) so the pulls from that “stuck point” in the spinal cord “tug” at structures up within the brain.
These deeper brain structures could be the limbic system, the hippocampus, or the pineal gland. These structures along with many others with big names that I can’t spell, are ones that regulate hormones, sort and store memories and send signals of fight or flight into the system. They do lots of other things but I’m not going there right now.

To summarize, pulls and stuck places in the spine can restrict movement of the spinal cord thus “pulling” at the brain (top put it very simply) in very subtle but very impactful ways, creating everything from headaches to symptoms of bipolar and depression.

So the spine continues to be super-cool and interesting as a topic of blog-posting ness.

I will post more on the spine in the future. I think this might be enough for now unless something occurs to me soon. Otherwise I think I’d like to change the topic.

I think in my next posts about health, the body and what I know about it… I will talk about stretching.

Stretching falls into the “self-care” category. Stretching is such a simple but profound activity. Some people use it for simple limbering before an athletic activity while others lean on it as their primary form of spiritual practice and connection to God.

Now that sound like a bad-ass topic!

From the mind of the Burner-massage freek

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 | stress | No Comments

One of those posts.
So this is one of the reasons I wrote that post on September 15th and mentioned that I wanted to explain what my own processes have been (and are currently) as the entrepreneur that I am.
Because I don’t think I can get passed the idea that a blog is a journal and a journal is for getting out the ideas and thoughts and stuff and stuff.
So here it is.

I recently went to burning man and, wouldn’t you know it, there’s something they didn’t tell me.
Re-entry.
I haven’t heard of this until the last few weeks and I’m not too pleased to get the full idea of what it really means. What I mean it say is that as a so-called “business person” I am supposed to come back to after a vacation and get things rolling again. Because, as it is right now in my life, if I don’t work, I don’t get paid.
So there’s an element of stress for livelihood and being behind on work that is present.
What’s worse is this heavy and weird emotional aspect that, for me, is all about my past, my tendencies, my patterns of coping (which are usually not helpful or useful) and how these all really get in the way of my productivity.
I have been having to clean up my own messes. I wish I could just jump right back into work with ease but the re-entry has been tough.
Another fun twist to this whole “back from Burning Man” re-entry thing is that many of my clients are burners and they are going thru the same things. You would not believe how many cancellations I have had in the last few weeks.
Which, of course, makes is something of a challenge for me continue staying in a frame of mind that keeps me open and knowing that I will get the money I need to survive.
I have taken risks and know my actions well enough, too, to know that I am also to blame for the low appointment count lately. I hope I don’t drown before I can get to dry land, so to speak.
I have faith that I can keep up the trend of continuing to be in business and creating a stream of clients and income. I intend stronger foundations for my growth and am looking to create them now. These foundational pieces look like business plans and staying with the schedule and office location/ intentions I have for business right now.

I think Transformation is the name of the game for Burning Man. It’s many things more than a simple festival and now I am home with some treasure to sort.
In the meantime, in a figurative sense, the treasure is covered with the dust of my own storms. I need to do some cleaning. Need to clean up my vision of what it is that I want my life to look and feel like.
I think that’s why I’m finally just spewing out this these sorts of thoughts now when it has been such a chore in the last year. I feel that I’ve loosened up my tie to the point that it’s not even on anymore and I’ve rolled up my sleeves because the cuffs were too tight.
I’m tired of feeling restricted by my own ideas of what sierra-as-a-business-person-looks-like.
When I check in with the wise parts of me, in meditation or in reading or mentoring - the information is logical and clear for me: be patient, keep up with work as it is flowing right now, don’t stress out, don’t push any part of your life too hard in any direction, understand that “your game goes down” with the application of new and better techniques and that soon all will be clear and frustration will be way way down.
Yeah.
In the meantime, I find it imperative to connect with other bodyworks, healing peoples and counselors. Good friends are also like oxygen or food right now, as well as my family. Self-care in times of transition are so essential because, as I have found, many people and situations can change so that once-dependable friends and fixtures are no longer dependable. Self-care; because often I find myself alone (not lonely - except when I am…) in times of transition.
So with that…

I assure you that I will continue to talk about the spine.
If you have any ideas as to what you might like to hear from me in these massage freek posts, I will go ahead and write some good stuff for you.
Some areas I was thinking of covering are:
Self-care - concepts, lifestyle and some helpful health-full tips
Water - energy, logical stuff, examples “case studies”, stories, crystal formation, hydrotherapy, home hydrotherapy, ice
My rants - opinions on health care, lifestyle, business etc.
Anatomy - education and my experiences with treating specific parts of the body
Stretching
And more that occurs to me as it comes.
I would love to hear from you. Drop me a comment.

The Spine - Part one: stretch it slow!

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 | Deep Tissue, Massage, healthly living | No Comments

Spinal talk.
Can I “buzz” that? probably not - wouldn’t be interesting to nearly enough people.
(I love bodywork humor)
OK! Now that I’ve lost 90% of my audience - let’s throw out a bullet point list!

In this article I will talk about the spine. I will cover these things in no particular order and all scrambled together, no doubt:

1. The health and good maintenance of your spine
2. The beautiful structures and anatomy of the spine
3. The embryology of the spine
4. How people’s lives shape their spine
5. My unbridled opinion of all the above mentioned points

Ah! The spine is so beautiful. The bones involved are esthetically pleasing while my heart loves the beauty of the nervous system it protects.
Just today (September 15th) I was in my cranio-sacral class at the location that was once known as the Brian Utting school of Massage.
This afternoon’s lecture was on the development of the embryo in the womb and how the spine, or the midline, is the first thing to form after conception.
While the egg is still in it’s round shape - inside of it there is a division in the middle of the egg created by a linear collection of cells. These cells will form the spine and, from this central structure, all things will come while the baby grows.
Geez, that makes me think of my posture while I write this!

Anyway. The Trauma of birth as well as every day following birth, our spines will form and shape according to genetics and the stresses we place upon them.

What I really love about the spine, if I can choose one thing I like to talk about, are the little muscles close to the vertebrae. They are called the paraspinal group of muscles. They have names like “rotatare” and “intertransversari” (try saying that 3 times! or spelling it with confidence, for that matter)
These little muscles are rad. They have different “ways” than the more superficial muscles or the body. They are called “slow- fire” muscles. They are very deep red in color and need quite a good blood supply because they are almost always in flexion.
They hold up the spine on the deepest level that a muscle can.
The only other soft tissue acting as the duct tape that keeps the spine from falling apart are the ligaments.
The paraspinals are the muscles that those yoga lovers are going for when they do the super-slow twists, stretches (sit-there-and-breathe-for-a-while poses) and bends that limber up the spine. Because of the nature of these little guys - they hold and contract for a long time and they do not contract slowly - it would make sense that they also release and let go at a slow pace as well.

So when you want to loosen up your spine in deep and profound ways, you need to stretch really slow, breathe deep and slow and stay in the spinal stretch (comfortably) for a good, long time. Chances are, if you stay with that sort of deep long slow stretch you will increase your body awareness, your relaxation level as well as the flexibility of your spine.

This is where I will stop my post for now. I will probably have a part 2 and 3 to the spine because there’s just so much to say and I need to post something on my blog or else I’ll look like a liar: she said she would post something about the spine and she still hasn’t done it!

None of that!
I just want to post this and add more over a non-defined amount of time. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions if you have any specific things about the spine you may want me to address in my posts on the spine.
Also! If you have trouble posting or your comments doesn’t show up in a day or two, just shoot me an email because my blog might be “buggy” and I might not be getting your comments. Sorry for the hassle! oh! this technology!

Bold blogging from the self-suppressed massage gal

Saturday, September 15th, 2007 | Business Insights, Massage, Uncategorized, blogging | 1 Comment

(oh, like you don’t have any issues)

Hello my lovely audience, whomever you may be.
I have reached a point in my career; my lifespan; my path on this earth¦
Where I have noticed too many restrictions on my choosing of who I am and expressing who I am.
I think it’s partly due to the idea that most massage therapists seem to need to have is one of CONSTANT tranquility. I am not saying that everyone thinks this way but I guess I am saying I understand why, in the world of business, I ’should” keep some parts of me “in check” so that I don’t “look bad” in front of my clients or perspective clients.
I know that posting this will turn some people way off and they will not want my service.
At this point, that’s ok with me! Lol
Cuz I’m not getting any new clients from the open web or the quality of my online presence at this point so far as I can tell.
The only reason I’m findable at all is because of local connections I’ve made in person - it’s my strong suit.

So here it is.
I have not often come to my blog here on massage freek because it intimidates me that so many people could read it. And the thing that makes it dually difficult is that when I type.. it’s like the bitch comes out.
I don’t wanna hold back and sometimes I do. I can think of some subjects that seem pc enough to me to write about but I think I don’t do this because I just can’t stop from wanting to express myself at the same time as I give information.
And I’m talking about being centered on myself
Guess that’s what I’m worried about. Worried that I’ll sound self centered because I want to talk about myself and processes I go thru mentally, physically and emotionally instead of maybe, how you can take of yourself better after a massage.
I mean
The most contact I have with the Internet is my live journal. But I have been wanting to change that truth for some time now. I can’t get enough of just being honest, charismatic and pretty personal.

So with that. We should talk about the spine.
Good friend of mine, Robert Allen asked me “Tell me about the spine.”
I sorta looked at him blankly and then said
“The coolest thing about the spine is how many layers - thick layers of dense strong muscles and fascia just coat the structure” He then told me I needed to blog about that sort of thing; the stuff I can rattle on and on about for hours with passion!

So there you go.
Once I post this… I will be posting about the spine.
And then perhaps I could post about good self care for post massage blues.

And then maybe I’ll talk about water and ice.
Did you know that water responds to moods and words and music?

It’s true!