MassageFreek

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!

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!

Healing Magical Crystals and Gems

Sunday, June 17th, 2007 | Featured, Massage, healthly living | No Comments

There’s a store up here in Whistler Village (I’m currently here on vacation) that has more geodes and gems than I’ve ever seen in one place.
Maybe this just shows that I don’t get out much… but I think any collector would be happy browsing for a good 15 to 30 minutes, at least. It’s called Rocks and Gems Canada.

There’s a guy in Seattle practicing energetic and magical healing arts named Daenin Tejeda.

› Continue reading

Massage Blues - What happens after a massage?

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 | Deep Tissue, Massage, healthly living | No Comments

I just had a new client come in and tell me that after every massage she’s ever gotten, she’s felt crappy the next day. I responded to her with this:

It rather depends on what it means to you to feel “crappy” because it is true that massage often leaves one feeling tired or worn out. Many people say that the next day - a deep massage will feel like they worked out the day before.

Even very “light” techniques like Cranio-Sacral (which I am getting certified in this year - yay!) and Reiki can leave a person feeling emotionally and physically “crappy” as well.

A classic Swedish massage is like 7 miles of hiking to the circulatory system because of all the stuff that gets all loosened up during the massage. Later on, all that released lactic acid, waste products, chemicals and “other” just get processed out of the body for the next day.

During deep tissue - deep pressure is applied to sore spots and so the area can feel sore and “worked”

It is a common concern how the body feels, reacts and how the emotional state of a body will be after receiving massage. It is very common to have the experience of cold-like symptoms, fatigue, irritability and even crying or emotional release after the massage.

I always suggest to my clients that they drink water - lots of water - the following 24 hours after their massage. That way the circulation of fluids and the healing process, in general, is helped along because it dilutes and flushes the entire system.

It is often a good idea to avoid coffee, alcohol and heavy greasy foods after a massage.

Always check in with yourself after a massage, for emotional disturbance. I find the most common “emotional” stuff that comes up after a massage is just irritability and sadness for no reason. This is totally natural. It’s just the combination of the chemicals and hormones that were sitting in your tissue that have been released to be cleaned out AND the emotions that may have been “stored” in places that were released and relaxed during the massage.

If you ever have issues after a massage, call your massage practitioner. They know what’s going on and they will have the information to help you understand what’s happening.

Don’t let the downside of massage keep you from getting one. The freedom from pain, pattern and holding is far worth the 24 to 36 hours of slight discomfort that comes after a massage.

Bizjam Principal Sponsorship

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 | Business Insights, Featured, Massage, Seattle Events, stress | 1 Comment

Since I made the choice and took the action to sponsor the Bizjam… my little world and mind has been a bit shaken up.
I’m not sure if it’s just timing of other things and the coincidence factor, but it would seem, like all things in my life, that this is part of my healing process.

And here I was just looking to have a big banner and be let off of doing “too much work” at the conference. It’s kind of funny because it seems to have created more work for me. › Continue reading