Healthy Healing Relationships

My professional organization, Associated Massage and Bodywork Professionals (ABMP), puts out several wonderful publications. Their issue of Massage & Bodywork (Sept/Oct 2015) has a very important article in it. It is the story of how one woman became involved in an abusive, sexual relationship with a predatory body-worker, and I recommend anyone who gets therapy, of any kind, to read it. We have worked hard in Oregon and as a profession, to create systems for ensuring safety for our clients and ourselves. For example: we have a vigorous Massage Board to enforce laws, and therapists must display their license number with any form of advertising. 

 

That of course does not preclude all problems, and there are many wonderful modalities and practitioners that are not overseen by our Massage Board. Indeed, licensing itself does not protect anyone from unscrupulous nurses, doctors, or mechanics for that matter. But the healing relationship is special. And with the growing influence of alternative bodywork modalities, clients may have no clear idea of what is considered appropriate and usual. The Encyclopedia of Energy Medicine by Linnie Thomas lists well over 200 modalities, and whether they have credentialing or not, your safety rests in your hands, not the therapist's.

 

Whatever the therapy, or therapist, you have engaged to help you heal, you want to believe in it/them. You've entered this relationship with a problem you need fixed and a hope that this person holds some answer for you. This is the beginning of a power differential. The perceived authority of the therapist, the difference in clothed and unclothed, standing versus laying down, giving versus receiving, all add to the subtle power inequality in any bodywork session. To protect clients and therapists alike, a strong code of ethics and standards of care are critical.

At the outset, your therapist should do an intake with you. What are your goals for the session? What is the method that will be employed and how does it work. Is the practitioner credentialed? By whom? What can be expected. Will you be touched and where. All these questions and much more go into what's called informed consent.

 Let me reiterate this, there is no consent without information. I hear this from clients all the time: “you just do what you do.” Nonetheless, I continue to inquire throughout the session as to their comfort and needs, because consent is not given once. Sometimes when people are unclear where the appropriate boundary is, they defer to the therapist because “they know what they are doing.” Even if you're unsure why you're uncomfortable, stop the session and ask questions. Consent that is given can be revoked at any time.

 

There are small things too, of course, in a session that may make you uncomfortable. You can ask anytime to turn off/up/down the music, turn the heat up or down, open a window, ask for a blanket or adjust a bolster or face cradle.  Any good therapist will know that your absolute comfort is essential to your healing and the success of the session. There's a wonderful world of healers out there trained and able to help. To therapists and clients alike I say: go forth, have fun, heal well and be safe.

Penny Hill may be reached at 

RisingSunMassage.massagetherapy.com

         or

CalmHealthEase.com

Eyes In My Elbows?

I've been on Facebook mostly for awhile, but I hope to be  back to my blog now.  I've been talking about patterns a lot recently. Patterns of thought, of  movement, of reactions.

Some of the patterns serve us well, they are all the automatic motions and habits that get us up, dressed, get food on the table, drive or walk or bike to our daily activities.  We mostly don't have to think about them.

There are patterns in our movements as well.  We hunch over at the computer, we sit with one hip cocked at a funny angle in our favorite chair. Physical habits of movement and stillness that leave their mark in our tissues. Some areas are too tonic, others too flaccid.  This all leads to pain, and fewer options for freedom of movement. Uninterrupted, these patterns continue shape our bodies and it can become very difficult to change them.  

I recently watched a video from Heath and Nicole Reed (http://livingmetta.com/)  about this topic.  They had the following  exercise that I found wonderful:

Sit with your eyes closed and take a few relaxing breaths.  Start with one finger of one hand and start moving it around, flexing and extending it, think of every way you can move that finger.  Now, add the next finger and the next.  Now the whole hand and wrist.  Think of all the new ways you can move your fingers, hands and arm.  Imagine your elbow has eyes on it and it is looking all around.  Imagine eyes all over each body part, looking around and seeing from  new angles experiencing new ways  to move.  When you are done, assess how that arm feels in comparison to the other.  Did you find some surprising movements?  Or restrictions?

I encourage you to move in new ways. It keeps your mind and body flexible! Babies are born very flexible, and in large part our restrictions are learned.  I wrote another blog on this subject but with a slant toward EFT/tapping and the unconscious beliefs that support our patterns.  It expands the subject a great deal,. You can view it here: https://tapintoyourbrilliance.blogspot.com/

Many blessings of good health and freedom

Penny

I Have to Relax My Tongue? Really?

I love using the body's own mechanisms for stress reduction. Turns out there are several keys that should be in the owner's manual that we never got. This is something that I learned on my own, and now there's a scientific explanation.

Here is a tidbit from our EFT Universe director, Dawson Church: A large nerve called the hypoglossal nerve connects your tongue to the medulla oblongata, the part of your brain that regulates heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. Relax your tongue, and that nerve sends a signal to your medulla that calms your heart.

How simple is that? I've previously written about smiling and looking up to change your feeling state. Also, of the effect of 'power poses' to strengthen your aura and change your hormone profile immediately to one that will give you a boost of energy and confidence. So here's another even simpler trick to immediatly reduce stress.

So there you go. Go forth and relax any time you need to. If you'd like to read more about a meditation Dawson includes in one of his programs you can find the info here:

http://www.eftuniverse.com/…/7-steps-for-whole-energy-lifes…

I'm still here

Hi
I've been away for awhile while I worked on my certification in EFT.  I'll try to get back here from time to time, but the new blog: https://tapintoyourbrilliance.blogspot.com/ may be my new baby for awhile.  I'm still finishing up my certification and I'm aiming for the end of June at the latest.  Keep a good thought for me.

Peace
Penny

The writing on the Walls, part the second

     I've titled myself into a corner, because this is such a big topic and there's no way I can bring it full round in two parts.  So forgive me my hubris.  So, from the previous entry a small recap: as children, when adults talk to us or we hear their conversations, we are given opinions that in our young brains are registered as facts, such as "you can't have that toy because you're bad."  You are bad  may get written on our wall in big letters and thick ink or it may be barely legible, depending on a variety of factors. This then may become one of the filters through which we see the world and use to interpret all new information coming into our consciousness.
     We also write on our walls.  When confronted with a situation we make decisions about what it means. Some of the writing of course is there to keep us safe.  Touching a hot stove will burn you, not all people are trustworthy. But, if we are chased by a dog and are frightened, we may write on our own walls that all dogs, or all brown dogs, or all dogs wearing collars, are dangerous.  Some of the connections may make no sense to us as adults, and seeing as they were made by a two year old, how could they?  But, there they are, confounding us and perhaps limiting us in our adult lives.
     Let's use the first illustration, and say "I'm bad" is written on your walls. This could play out in your life as a string of bad choices in partners, because after all why would a good person want to be with a bad one?  Or, you make enough money but can't keep it, because you are bad and can't have what you want.  The list is endless, but you get the drift.  So a process like EFT can be useful to make life work better for us by erasing some or all of the unhelpful writing on the wall that may be unconsciously, or subconsciously, affecting all the choices we are making now.
     Spelunking anyone?  The way to a more harmonious life may lie in along a road of self discovery and "erasing" some of that writing that is informing our decisions and even our health.



smile, breathe, and know you are meant to be here
peace.

The Writing On The Wall, Part the First

     I have been privileged to have a career where I could touch human beings. Not just human bodies, but all that makes us up.  When I touch your body I am aware that there is a physical body, a spiritual body, and an emotional body all rolled into one entity. You are a history book.  More and more I am drawn to work that acknowledges the impact and active participation of the subconsciousness level.  We think with our conscious minds many grand and astounding thoughts, but we are really passengers in our own vehicle while the subconscious drives the bus.   
     Switching metaphors, the (original) developer of EFT, Gary Craig, uses the term "the writing on the walls" as a metaphor for all the "programming" or scripts we use to shape our lives. We get this information when we are very young. Younger than about 6-7 years of age, we are almost always in theta brain waves. This is a highly creative state. Also one in which as children we absorb all the information coming to us as fact. The old expression "little pitchers have big ears" acknowledges that little ones are lurking and listening to adult conversation.  Of course we were, how else were we supposed  to learn how to be a grown up?  But there are many other bits of information kids are picking up besides a few salacious tid-bits of gossip. And in the end these shape much of our lives.
     Aside from the whispered conversations about topics too adult for little ears are the direct instructions we  are given as children.  How many of these sound familiar?  "You're not smart enough," "Our family doesn't believe that," "No one in our family goes to college," "All rich people are greedy," "all poor people are lazy'" "All the women in our family get cancer," "All the men in our family die of heart attacks in their 50's," "all the men in our family are lawyers," "You're too tall of a woman to get a man."  A short list of entries on  the "this is how we are so this is how you are" list. We listen and watch, we absorb the conversations adults are having around us to learn how to survive in the world and our place in it. Depending on our luck and temperament we live in a world of possibilities where we are loved and capable beings, or in a world of lack where we are victims of powerful forces that don't care for us. For the most part we are a collection of parts that believe many different things to be true about ourselves, some positive and some not so much.
     We all know stories of people who are really successful in one area of life, not so much in others.  Indeed, I'd wager most of us would see ourselves in that description.  A really great CEO, who can't control his eating.  A wonderful loving person who is constantly in debt.  A person who has no trouble earning lots of money, yet struggles to succeed in marriage after marriage.  It all comes back to the writing on the wall, the map the driver of the bus is following.
     All those stories and truths we heard and were told as children about who we are is the script we come back to repeatedly to build our world, and our place in it. To a large degree this also helps shape our bodies and our health. A lot of it is subconscious so we have no idea the influence it is having on us. But, there is a way to access it and re-write it.

Next time:  bringing it all together.
  

That Which Arises

     Over the last few months in classes and conversations with other bodyworkers a common theme has come forward several times. Trying to put a name to it, it might be called  "That Which Arises."  
     In bodywork we have deep tissue, in Chinese medicine there is sha, and in other modalities there is also a sense of bringing that which is deep up to the surface, up to conscious awareness.  In Deep Tissue massage the focus of the work is not really deep pressure but attention to a particular tissue in the body called fascia. Fascia in large part is responsible for our particular shape, our unique twists and curves. That shape is a result of our daily habits, and to a large degree our thoughts and feelings, mostly the subconscious ones.  One aspect of that shape is reachable by touching, but the mind and feelings may need a "deeper" tool.
     In the bodyworker's tool kit is the cup.  Familiar to those who visit a doctor trained in Chinese medicine, and now being more widely used by massage therapists as well, the cup creates a local vacuum on the skin which pulls  skin and underlying tissues up.  This does several beneficial things, among which is what one of my teachers described as "bringing up deep stagnation to the surface where the body can more easily disperse it."
     This idea or observation has itself arisen in many contexts recently. As bodyworkers we touch both the body and that which is in the body: the mind, the emotions, and the history of that person. What does "I don't deserve love" or "I'm a bad person" look like in the tissues?  It varies of course from person to person, but imagine how those statements feel, what would they look like after a lifetime of living and believing them? What would  "I am a great person" and  "I deserve all the love in the world"  look like.  You probably had a picture pop into your head, or perhaps a feeling, and you're probably right.  These are common paradigms we all are confronted with, that we embrace or flee,  both the good and the bad.
     Bodyworkers have  always known that memories can be triggered by massage and other modalities.  We are trained to stay by our clients side, and essentially make soothing sounds and "be" with the person, not trying to help in any way other than being present.  (What that really means is a bit fuzzy, but my profession has a certain comfort level with fuzzy.)  But the power of being in the presence of powerful emotions, and just "being" without an agenda can have quite a powerful positive effect.  
     Me, being who I am,  prefer to do.  Sometimes nothing is the right thing to "do."  But now we have EFT.  Using the power of tapping, now when long buried emotions and beliefs arise that are not helpful for who we want to be, we can disperse them from our body's energy system and be done with them. Beliefs  and feelings that kept us stagnant and stuck can now be freed and doing so now frees up energy, ease, mobility, breathing, or flexibility.
     My massage practice newsletter has always been called "Arising in Health"  and I like the name now more than ever.

namaste

Greetings upon my return, Hebb's law and how to (actually) let it go

     Well, wow. Last year was a year of big expansion, and re-evaluation of the whole social media arm of my business. Facebook changed faster than I could keep up with and for business pages it became less and less useful. I was basically talking to myself. The whole thing became un-fun.
     So, at long last I've settled on this plan.  I'll do all of my writing here, and try to expand  that, while just posting to Facebook that I've made entries here. So, if you have found me, Welcome!
     After 25 years of massage  I got to a crossroads of  how to continue my practice.  A change was in order, but what?  Over the last several years my interests and personal practices have centered on the influence of the subconscious on our health; brainwave states and healing; and how our beliefs shape not only  our lives and choices but our very bodies.
     Two contenders for my attention emerged: Body Talk and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).  While I am an enthusiastic, fascinated and grateful  client of Body Talk, in the end I chose to pursue certification in EFT.
     EFT has a long pedigree which I won't get into here, but has been developed and implemented for about twenty years (I'm using aproximate numbers here) by the founder Gary Craig.  You can look up and learn the technique from him at his website emofree.com or at another trusted site EFTuniverse.com. Gary Craig developed the technique continuing to build  on the work of others who had been  using and developing tapping techniques since at least the 1960's.
     EFT works on several levels but the two main ways are cognitive exposure and tapping.  Thinking of a problem and actually tapping on your body's acupuncture meridians (in specific places) to clear the meridians and the emotional responses that may be causing problems. There is of course a lot more to say about that but let's move on to Hebb's Law.
     An apparently overly popular song from last year was  Let It Go.  Oh, but if we could!  Who doesn't have something they just can't get out of their minds?  Why is it so hard to just not let things bother us anymore?  Enter Hebb's Law, which states that "neurons that fire together, wire together."  I can't make it any better than this, so I'll quote from my training manual (author unknown): "A neuron fires when we think a thought.  Each time we think that same thought, especially a traumatic one that has emotion connected with it, a new neuron binds to that initial neuron.  Each time we send that thought pulse down that neural bundle, it gets thicker and thicker.  So when you've had a traumatic event causing you distress over many years, you've built a large bundle over that experience."
     It's not a matter of will power but grey matter that determines what you can let go.  The more intense the emotion associated with the thought or memory the more "bundling" occurs.  In massage we work under the maxim that "every sensation is translated into a muscular response of some kind" (author, Deane Juhan), and we watch for emotional responses to our work.  But many levels of holding or storage are beyond the reach of our hands, and therefore, problems, pain and imbalances can continue to return or resist resolution at all.  This is where the modern tapping techniques, and I think EFT primary among them, can help. Tapping interrupts the cycle that reinforces the "bad" bundle and actually deactivates it by stopping the usual response to the thought or emotion.
   So after years of chasing down pain, I'm ready  help people "root out" the hidden sources of many of their pains,  physical and emotional. I'm excited about the journey ahead and hope you will be interested enough to join me as I learn and grow!

Cheers and Happy New Year

Spirals, You and All of Creation

Nature uses the same diagrams and models for all of life.  Looking at the structures that make up the human body 

and those of other  plants and animals

we see the spiral used across many platforms.

http://oto2.wustl.edu/cochlea/intro1.htm

Pea tendrils, fern fiddleheads, rams horns, water swirling, a rose bud unfurling, a tornado, a hurricane, and many more.  Try googling "spirals in nature" and you are bound to find many beautiful images.

smile,breathe, and go slowly

you are meant to be here.

Spirals, The View So Far

I'll copy all the Facebook posts about spirals here to bring other readers up to date with the discussion

from March 14
As above so below, as micro so macro. Our basic organizing unit, our DNA map, is a spiral and that design flows through form and function through the tissues of our bodies, the flow of air and water around the globe, all the way up to the level of our spiral Milky Way galaxy, and probably beyond. In the opening sentence, the old adage gives the impression that there is "this" and "that." But think for a moment of the continuity of the air touching your skin and in your lungs and with the air in your environment. And, that air with the air in the world. And the air in the world with the airless layers around the earth, and on and on, each layer in continuous contact with everything else surrounding it. You are in a continuous flow of connection to the heart of the universe. We are hardly separate beings. Indeed, we are "made of star stuff." And the basic design of the universe is encoded in our tiniest parts. Next time, spirals in muscle fibers and muscle groups and why it's so important.

from March 21
So spirals: present from DNA to the shape of the galaxy.  Tendons, ligaments joint capsules and the fascia of muscles are composed of parallel fibers of collagen, which resemble the the spiral weave of a rope. Each collagen molecule is a triple helix spiral. Visually, the gross structure of a tendon is also a spiral. so working from the most basic unit of molecules all the way up to the muscle itself, spirals are present.  to finish this discussion, I continue on the blog and give you the attributes for the source of this information  See you there...

so to continue on with the above discussion, functionally many muscles have a twist in them between the origin and insertion. The teres major ( of which I wrote on FaceBook on March 11,) Latissimus dorsi, pectoralis major and levator scapula all have a twist.  One function of this twist is to provide rotation. To illustrate this let's look at the levator scapula.  
go here for a muscle diagram

You can see easily that without the twist, the range of motion in the shoulder joint would be far less.  When this muscle contracts it brings the inner edge of the scapulae out towards the lateral portion of the head.  With out this twist, the muscle would pull the scapula straight up and in.  ( I just got an image of T- REX with his tiny flailing arms!) so functionally this works out better for us.

Another aspect of the twist is that it also increases muscle strength and allows the structure to withstand greater pulling forces.


The source for much of this material is from a book called Massage and Manual Therapy for Orthopedic Conditions,  by Thomas Hendrickson. (Second Edition, pages 8-9)
Following is a section on spiral form in the tissues

"Muscles are composed of parallel fibers organized in spirals.  Actin and myosin are the two basic contractile proteins that compose the functional unit of muscle contraction and form the myofibrils (literally "muscle threads"), which are woven together in a spiral like a rope.  Each actin filament is a double helix that is composed of two strands that spiral around each other during muscle contraction, and myosin contains globular heads that are arranged in a spiral. DNA, the code of instructions for cellualr reproduction, is also a double helix spiral.  The advantage of the spiral weave of soft tissue is that it increases the ability of the tissue to withstand stress"

I know not everyone is so intrigued by the inner workings of the body, but I find the structure, and the manifestation of our consciousness through the body and the continuity of form and function that stretches from the atomic to the cosmic level to be fascinating. 

take care

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

(From Facebook (January 7 2014)
For the new year I'd like to challenge your thinking a bit.  In working with the body it is essential to also pay heed to the mind, for in a very large way, the body and mind shape each other. Physical sensations give rise to emotions, and habitual emotional responses shape the body and physiology. Following is an excerpt from Marianne Williamson, the full quote is finished on my blog.)


I have a friend who had this posted on the wall in her massage room. It is an excerpt from Marianne Williamson.   I find it a continual challenge.  Tell me what you think...

Our Deepest Fear

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.  there is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;  it's in everyone.  And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  

As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I think this is a most challenging and evolutionary way of thinking and being.

May all beings be free! And let it begin with thee...

Peace

Happy Solstice Everyone, I hope you enjoy this poem, it's one of my very favorites,

Toward the Winter Solstice

 

by Timothy Steele

Although the roof is just a story high,

It dizzies me a little to look down.

I lariat-twirl the cord of Christmas lights

And cast it to the weeping birch’s crown;

A dowel into which I've  screwed a hook

Enables me to reach, lift, drape, and twine

The cord among the boughs so that the bulbs

Will accent the tree’s elegant design.

Friends, passing home from work or shopping, pause

And call up commendations or critiques.

I make adjustments. Though a potpourri

Of Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jews, and Sikhs,

We all are conscious of the time of year;

We all enjoy its colorful displays

And keep some festival that mitigates

The dwindling warmth and compass of the days.

Some say that L.A. doesn’t suit the Yule,

But UPS vans now like magi make

Their present-laden rounds, while fallen leaves

Are gaily resurrected in their wake;

The desert lifts a full moon from the east

And issues a dry Santa Ana breeze,

And valets at chic restaurants will soon

Be tending flocks of cars and SUVs.

And as the neighborhoods sink into dusk

The fan palms scattered all across town stand

More calmly prominent, and this place seems

A vast oasis in the Holy Land.

This house might be a caravansary,

The tree a kind of cordial fountainhead

Of welcome, looped and decked with necklaces

And ceintures of green, yellow, blue, and red.

Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem

Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed;

It’s comforting to look up from this roof

And feel that, while all changes, nothing’s lost,

To recollect that in antiquity

The winter solstice fell in Capricorn

And that, in the Orion Nebula,

From swirling gas, new stars are being born.

Have wonderous Holiday.

Peace

Chicken or Egg, Symptom or Emotion?

From Face Book on Nov.6, 2013
Here's what may be a new thought, "The emerging science is providing some really good evidence that the physical sensation can lead to the emotion, instead of the emotion manifesting as a physical experience."

Below are some excerpts from an article written by Douglas Nelson who  is the founder and principal instructor for Precision Neuromuscular Therapy Seminars. The link to the article is http://www.massagetherapy.com/articles/index.php/article_id/2226/%E2%80%9CHow-Exactly-Does-Massage-Therapy-Work%E2%80%9D

"Sure. Your mind is always trying to make sense of what the body experiences. The brain needs a reason for what it experiences; we interpret meaning so we know how to respond appropriately. As an example, let's imagine you have an increased respiration and pulse rate. Are you excited or are you fearful? When you think about it, the physical experiences of excitement and fear are almost identical. The mind must decide which emotion it is based on the context of the experience. If you are seated in a theater waiting for a much anticipated concert to begin, it is excitement. If you are seated in a dental chair, your mind is going to interpret your physical sensations as signs of fear. 

"The same process can occur with regard to a bad mood. I am sure you can remember being really tense some morning, feeling completely out of sorts. If someone asked you why, you probably couldn't point to any specific offense as the reason. Throughout the morning, however, little things that would normally go unnoticed now really bothered you. You looked for things that were wrong to confirm that the tension you were feeling was perfectly appropriate for the terrible mood you were in. In essence, you created a viable emotional reason to explain your tense physical state."

"I assume that the reverse is also true, correct?" Craig interjected. "A better physical state should have a positive effect on emotions."

"Exactly. This might indeed explain what you experience after a massage. You leave my office with a very different physiology than when you arrived. The optimization of muscle function after massage will be experienced as efficient and effortless movement. The muscle tension in your shoulders is drastically reduced. Your breathing is slower and there is a heightened sense of awareness. Think about the emotional correlate your brain must then assign to this new stream of physical information. When do you normally feel such lack of tension, such lightness and freedom?" 
"When I am extremely relaxed, happy, and contented; when the world seems like a wonderful place," he responded.

I learned this for myself a few years ago.  I had been experiencing extreme anxiety for some years, and was always tightly focused on what my body sensations were telling me about my state of mind.  I found myself in a situation where I was very excited, and realized that the physical sensations I was experiencing  were identical to what I experienced as anxiety.  This was a tremendous turning point for me as I realized that I could re-interpret what was I feeling anytime.  Not quite that simple, of course, but a very big step in the right direction nonetheless. What I have also realized, or come to be comfortable with, is just letting a funny tummy be just that, not a harbinger of disaster, or a herald of hope.  Just letting the feelings be, with out interpreting them.  I think that might fall under the "Be Here Now"  mantra!

So, next time you're feeling kinda funky, ask yourself this, Do I need to change my mind, my job, my friends or, change my state of body?  Get up, move around, stretch, get some fresh air, or get a massage!

cheers to new thinking!
Peace
Penny

The Deep End of the Breathing Pool

(from Face Book)
Hey there, I was gone, but now I'm back! I'm going to continue with information about breathing. Here is a list of the benefits of getting your breathing deep (especially combined with mindfulness): Lower blood pressure, improved asthma symptoms, reduced feelings of panic and anxiety, less pain, less chest pain due to angina and better blood sugar control. It also improves heart health by boosting heart rate variability, a sign of a relaxed responsive cardiovascular system. By deep, here I don't mean your taking giant breaths all day long, but rather using your deep muscles that are supposed to do the breathing, rather than taking small sips of air at the top of your lungs. This needs more explanation, so I'll post more at my blog, along with another breathing exercise. See you there...
Peace

I should mention that some of the material I'm reporting today is from an article by the Doctor's Oz and Roizen, and reports news from the Cleveland Clinic. In fact it is so well written that here is an excerpt: "When 300 people test-drove a new Internet-based stress-management program that included meditation with deep breathing, their stress levels fell 25%....When stress fades, you're better able to avoid or control conditions made worse by tension such as asthma, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, digestive woes and accelerated aging...Chances are you use just one third of your lung capacity. That's because you have slouchy posture and spend oddles of time hunched behind the wheel of your car or in front of a digital device....Shallow breathing doesn't use the bottom portion of your lungs, home to hundreds of tiny blood vessels that help translate oxygen from the air you inhale into your bloodstream and then help to remove carbon dioxide with each exhalation. Taking shallow breaths also means you're missing out on the nervous-system calming effects of activating the sheet of muscle between your lungs and lower abdomen (diaphragm). As it moves up and down, helping fill your blood stream with energizing oxygen, it also switches on your body's relaxation response."

When you breath shallowly, not only are you not getting as much oxygen in as you could, but the bottom of your lungs accumulate CO2, and you create a stagnant pool of air in your chest. And nothing good comes of that!  The issue of good posture is one that I reiterate to my clients frequently, part of the "coaching" duties I take on, because we all need to hear information frequently before  it becomes second nature to check ourselves and correct ourselves.  Knowing why  we're doing it helps a lot too.

There's an app for that: (also from the article)  Breath Pacer and Breathe2Relax, are two.  I have no personal experience with them, so if you try them out give us all a report!

Extra breathing exercise:  This is also from the article, but is one I have many clients learn.  Laying down, place one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest.  Now, inhale, breathing deep into the belly, allowing the lower hand to rise first, and the upper hand not at all.  To feel a fully deep breath you will be tempted to lift your shoulders and expand your chest.  This feeling should pass as you expand the real  muscles of breathing, and they become more pliable. You can also purse your lips as you exhale, as if trying to blow out a candle. This is especially useful for anti-anxiety breathing.  Practice deep breathing at night in bed, to calm the nervous system and prepare for sleep. Aim for about 5 minutes, if you're light headed, go lighter on the inhalation. I hope you find this useful,
Sweet Dreams

Science Reveals Massage's Healing Powers

More research notes: we all know massage feels good and helps heal sore muscles, but how? In one clinical trial, research subjects performed difficult exercises, and then received Swedish massage on only one leg. Biopsies on each leg found that massage activated genes that decrease inflammation and promote energy generation within cells, resulting in muscles that hurt less and grow quicker. If you want the source go to today's blog entry. So, do what horse trainers know-get a good rub down after exercise!

The study was published in February 2012 in Science Translational Medicine.  I read the story in Body Sense Magazine, Spring Issue, 2012, which you can link to from my website.  This issue also contains one of my favorite articles  "I'm a Massage Convert"  which tells one man's story about why he spends his very few discretionary dollars on regular massage.

Are you a convert?

Peace

What Is and What Is No More, Progress?

Two poems of change,

Buffalo Dusk

The buffalo are gone.

And those who saw the buffaloes are gone.

Those who saw the buffaloes by the thousands and how they

     pawed the prairie sod into dust with their  hoofs,

     their great heads down pawing on in a great pageant

     of dusk,

those who saw the buffaloes are gone,

And the buffaloes are gone. 


-----Carl Sandburg




The Flower-Fed Buffaloes

The flower-fed buffaloes of the spring

In the days of long ago

Ranged where the locomotives sing

And the prairie flowers lie low:

The tossing, blooming, perfumed grass

Is swept away by wheat,

Wheels and wheels and wheels spin by

In the spring that still is sweet.

But the flower-fed buffaloes of the spring

Left us long ago,

They gore no more, they bellow no more:--

With the Blackfeet lying low,

With the Pawnee lying low.

--------Vachel Lindsay



These  two poets, born a year apart, were both members of the Chicago School of Poets.