The Wellbody Blog

This Blog will:

• let you know whenever any new Web pages or updates appear on Tacoma Massage Therapy; and
• host occasional thoughts about health, wellness, and feeling great that don’t find their way onto the web-site itself.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about (I didn't until a short while ago), click on the question mark by the words "Subscribe to this site" in the blue box to the lower left.

Feeling Great with Integrated Massage and Energywork

The physical body can be seen as a point of access by which we can contact more subtle, energy aspects of the self. In working with the physical body, my intention is to stimulate the flow of energy. It may feel like massage, but it's much more!

For example, working with a client's feet, I am opening the foot chakras and encouraging intake of energy from the earth. Stretching the limbs, I am opening joints to encourage the flow of energy through them. Working with the head, I am helping to balance and redistribute the energy that for many people tends to collect around the head. Rocking the body, I am balancing energy between the left and right sides. Working with particular areas of tension, I am encouraging frozen energy to soften, melt and begin to flow again. Flowing strokes help to encourage energy to flow freely, while percussive strokes re-build energy in depleted areas. And so on..

I also often work with people verbally to help bring consciousness back to areas of the body that they have "vacated." These are usually areas of pain and tension. It's not clear to me whether muscles hurt because we have withdrawn our consciousness from them, or whether we withdraw our consciousness from muscles because they hurt. But in any case, it is clear to me that bringing consciousness back to the body is very healing.

After a treatment from me, your physical body will almost undoubtedly feel great. That's partly because of the fabulous benefits of massage--but even more, I believe, it's because of the energy healing that is the foundation of all of my work.

Learn more about energy healing here: www.the-energy-healing-site.com/energy-healing.html.

May you be in radiant health. --Nancy8/11/10

The Healing Power of Breath and Awareness--So Simple But So Effective

It is amazing to me how powerful simple self-healing tools such as breath and awareness can be.

Frequently in my practice, I will place my fingers or hand on a tight or injured muscle and ask my client to breathe into the muscle and bring their awareness to it. More often than not, without any further manual manipulation, this is enough to bring about a softening/relaxation of the muscle. Often the response is profound, with the muscle literally feeling like it is melting under my fingers. I find that this is especially true if the treatment is within the context of an energy healing.

This happened just today. My client had had a serious injury that cracked his pelvis. As painful as that was, it was the subsequent tightening of his lower back that was causing him the most pain at this time. I could feel the disturbance in his field over the cracked area of his pelvis, and worked a lot there to smooth, balance, and calibrate it, so as to support its healing. I also wanted to help him with the pain in his low back, and felt that hands-on work would be most effective. I placed my hands on his back and asked him to breathe into it and bring his awareness to it. After doing this for a little while, he appeared to go into a deep state of rest. Afterward he commented on what a deep relaxation this had brought to his lower back. He was very surprised at this, since he has no familiarity with breathwork, yoga, or meditation. "It really felt like I was breathing into it," he said. "I could feel it relax and let go. I can stand up straight now, and it feels even better than it did before the accident!"

It was very rewarding to me to see my client feel so much better. And it is always inspiring to me to see such illustrations of the power of consciousness and our own amazing abilities for self-healing.

Give Yourself a Low-Cost Wellnes "Staycation"

Whether or not you go on vacation this summer, you still need a break from routine for your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

If you can't take a vacation, create a renewing, wellness "staycation." Set aside a week or two where you take time off from your normal activities (work, etc.) and shake up your usual routine. Schedule in a lot of low-cost self-care. (And don't let anyone or anything pre-empt it!)

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Make time for daily meditation and reflection.
• Get out into nature for a hike or a day at the beach (preferably an uncrowded one).
• Read that inspirational book you've been meaning to get to.
• Visit an uplifting friend.
• Go stargazing.
• Do yoga.
• Find some new recipes and make a point of pampering yourself with delicious and healthy food.
• Plant some vegetables.
• Take on a rewarding home or garden project that will make you feel GREAT when it's accomplished.
• Take a class.
• Write in your journal.
• Schedule some fun and healthy self-care activities such as a massage, facial, or new haircut.
• Buy yourself small, healthy treats--a new book, fun article of summer clothing, flowers for your house--whatever would please you. (But don't spend a lot of time shopping! That's an energy-drain.)
• Go site-seeing in your own town or region.
• Create some art--whether or not you're "artistic." Just play!
• If you've got little kids, just follow them around and do what they do. They're great role models!
• Start an enjoyable new exercise routine. (emphasis on enjoyable)
• Nap!

If you'd like more ideas for relaxation, you can go here: www.Tacoma-Massage-Therapy.com/relaxation-techniques.html .

Making time to take care of yourself like this will bring you health and wellness benefits for months to come--especially if you incorporate some of them into your normal routine.

Happy summer!

Copyright 2010 by Nancy Hausauer. All rights reserved.

Is It Normal To Feel Like Crying During a Massage (Yes.)

A visitor to the site recently asked whether it was normal to feel like crying during a massage.

The answer is, yes. It's actually pretty common for people to cry or feel like crying during a massage. And many do.

I've certainly cried on the massage table. For me, it usually comes out of the blue--a complete surprise. I often don't know what it's about--and I don't need to. It isn't like talk therapy, where you discuss it with your therapist. Afterward I feel lighter, cleaner.

(Of course, you can discuss it with your talk therapist later if you want or need to. But often it's fine to just cry, let it go, and move on.)

A massage therapist with any experience at all won't be surprised by tears. When a client of mine sheds tears, I usually just continue doing what I was doing, perhaps a little more gently. I'll watch closely to see if I need to adjust what I'm doing, following the client's lead.

Even an intense bout of weeping eventually subsides, with little or no lingering emotion, in my experience. It's like a natural event--a storm that rains hard, and then moves on, leaving a sense of calm in its wake. (And maybe even glorious sunshine.)

So, the bottom line is: If you feel like crying during a massage, go right ahead. You'll most likely feel much better for it.

6/30/10

Copyright 2010 Nancy Hausauer

Review: Dr. Jeffrey Thompson CD "Meditative Stream"

I recently added the CD "Meditative Stream" to my collection and I like it a lot. It's part of Dr. Jeffrey Thompson's "Brainwave Nature Suite," (The Relaxation Company).

It's very simple--an hour of stream sounds with occasional bird calls. Behind it (inaudibly, to me), are embedded theta brainwave pulses. Theta waves are the brainwave pattern characteristic of meditation and the creative process. The theory is that your own brainwaves entrain to these embedded pulses, allowing you to easily achieve a creative/meditative state.

This brainwave-pulse-embedding technology works for me, whether it's theta (creativity/meditation), alpha (relaxation), or delta (sleep).

Dr. Thompson/The Relaxation Company has a wide variety of CDs using this technology. Some are better than others (musically).

"Meditative Stream" is lovely--refreshing is the word that comes to mind. The recording quality is great, so it's just like sitting stream-side for an hour--a sublimely rejuvenating, restful experience.

Walking on Pavement Is Hard on Your Body!

Walking my dog yesterday on the beautiful Foothills Trail, much of it alongside the glorious Carbon River, I was reminded of how hard walking on pavement is on the body.

Walking on the asphalt bike path jarred me with every step. When I moved off the paved surface to unpaved ground, I immediately felt better--knees, ankles, feet, back--everything.

It reminded me of when I had a serious knee issue. Walking off-pavement reduced my knee pain by at least 50%, making it tolerable to walk.

It seems counter-intuitive. Walking on a nice flat, smooth surface should be easier on our muscles and joints, right?

But it's not. Our bodies were designed to walk on natural ground, in all its uneven glory. When the ground underneath our feet is uneven, it forces us to use a variety of muscles to adapt to it.

This stimulates and exercises more muscles than walking on pavement does. When walking on pavement, we use the same muscles over and over and over and over. Using more and different muscles helps to balance use and development of muscles and muscle groups.

And balanced muscle groups help us prevent muscle and joint injury, dysfunction, and pain.

Anyway, that's what makes sense to me.

The bottom line: get off the pavement whenever you can!

Learn How to Cultivate Your Seventh Chakra, the Gateway to Unity Consciousness

For each of us, it's possible to rise above the worries and confusion of daily life and have a sense of peace, harmony, unconditional love, and even bliss. It is possible to feel completely connected to all things, including one's higher power. Cultivating your crown chakra can help you prepare for these higher spiritual states.

Learn seventh-chakra cultivation and self-care exercises on my new energy healing website page:

www.the-energy-healing-site.com/crown-chakra.html

Learn How to Cultivate Your Sixth Chakra and Expand Your Spiritual Awareness

Extraordinary intellect, intuition, wisdom, and spiritual insight are available to everyone--but few of us even begin to tap our vast potential. Clearing your 6th chakra supports these capacities.

A new page on my energy healing website helps you learn how to cultivate this key energy center with exercises and activities that anyone can do:

www.the-energy-healing-site.com/third-eye-chakra.html

Featured June Therapy: Rose Harmonizing Treatment

Celebrate the arrival of summer with a luxurious, rose-imbued massage, including a rose-hip-oil blend (high in Vitamin C, it fights sun damage and is rejuvenating for your skin), beautiful rose essential oil (wonderful for body and spirit: soothes, harmonizes, nurtures, and supports self-esteem) , and a spritz of rose-water at the end (just for fun). ($65 for one-hour treatment)

Learn How to Clear Your 5th Chakra and Live Your Truth

Does your life reflect the fullness of who you are? Are you speaking your truth and saying the things that really need to be said? Are you hearing others' truths? Are they hearing yours? Are you fully exercising the divine spark of creativity that lives in you? Would you like to get below the surface of things, to access deeper levels of insight?

Clearing your 5th chakra can help you with these sacred intentions.

This new page on my energy healing website will help you learn how.

www.the-energy-healing-site.com/5th-chakra.html

Learn How to Clear and Balance Your Heart Chakra (and Open to Love)

The heart chakra, the fourth of the seven chakras, governs unconditional love, healing, and connection. Clearing and balancing your heart chakra can help you heal emotional wounds, rise above jealousy, fear, and hatred, raise the vibration of your relationships, have deeper emotional connections to others, forgive yourself and others, and develop more compassion. The heart chakra is key to ongoing spiritual development.

Visit the new page on my energy healing website and learn down-to-earth methods to clear and balance the heart chakra:

www.the-energy-healing-site.com/heart-chakra.html

Learn How to Clear and Balance Your Solar Plexus Chakra (and Free Your Sacred Power)

The solar plexus, or third, chakra, is the subtle energy center in your upper abdomen (between navel and sternum). When your solar plexus chakra is cleared and balanced, you'll find it easier to believe in yourself and create the life that your soul longs for.

Visit the new page on my energy healing website to learn how:

www.the-energy-healing-site.com/solar-plexus-chakra.html

Where to Find Plantar Fasciitis Night Splints in Tacoma

I've had several people contact me lately asking where in Tacoma they can find night splints to help heal plantar fasciitis.

I was in Target the other day and saw that they had them in the foot care area of the store (in the cosmetics and drugs section.) They were $29.99--which is a lot cheaper than I've seen them online (the average on-line price seemed to be about $79 from what I could see).

I have no idea whether the Target night splints are any good--but I wanted to put it out there for people as a possible resource.

If you've got plantar fasciitis, please also be sure to read the section on my website about things you can do for it. There really are some easy things that help a lot in many if not most cases.

Wishing us all happy feet! --Nancy

Learn How to Clear and Balance Your Sacral Chakra (And Open to Joy)

It's easier than you think!

The sacral, or second, chakra, is the subtle energy center in your lower abdomen. When your sacral chakra is cleared and balanced, you'll find it easier to enjoy life's pleasures, "go with the flow," and be open to experiencing the joy that is all around us--but sometimes difficult to let in.

Visit the new page on my energy healing website to learn how:

www.the-energy-healing-site.com/sacral-chakra.html

Learn How to Clear and Balance Your Root Chakra

You may be interested in a new page on my other website about energy healing. It's called "Clearing Your Root Chakra to Build an Unshakeable Sense of Security."

The root, or first, chakra, is the subtle energy center at the base of your spine. When your root chakra is cleared and balanced, it creates a solid foundation for the rest of your chakras and for a productive, satisfying life.

Here's the link: www.the-energy-healing-site.com/root-chakra.html .