Our Body is talking to us ALL the time; it’s our lifelong best friend. It constantly sends us messages about how it’s feeling and through listening to and feeling what it’s telling us, we can make adjustments in what we’re doing to keep it “happy”. With the intention of living a long and happy life with little or no pain, doing all of those things we love to do (like dance well into our 90’s and beyond) it’s worthwhile to take the time to listen to what our body is saying. What it is saying and how it is saying it speaks volumes about some of the adjustments and fine tuning it wants us to make. Massage Therapy clients are often surprised to discover how the parts of their body are all connected. They often don’t consider that pain in one area of the body may be related to problems in another area. The realization of that connection can often make sense once awareness is created. Our Spine is one of the key structures in our body, without it we’d be like mushy beanbags on the floor, unable to stand erect and unable to move. This amazing part of us gives protection, support and a base for our muscles and ligaments to attach to so that we have mobility. Honouring the spine’s natural curvatures and giving it the space it needs to move is essential. It’s important to remember that the spine is just a bony structure and that muscles move bones (not the other way around). Keeping our spine healthy means keeping our muscles strong, stretched and flexible. When we tune into all the ways in which our spine and other bones are able to be moved by those amazing muscles we remove a lot of limitations. Massage Therapy, Yoga, stretching and strengthening exercises all give our muscles the support they need for us to move freely with flexibility and without pain. Besides good nutrition muscles need oxygen (our breath work) and water (the Brain is 90% water, Muscles are 75%, Bones are 22% and water protects and moisturizes our joints....it’s a key ingredient to keeping us moving!) In our fast paced way of living we often become unaware of what our body is saying or we suppress (pain killers) or ignore it (gotta get that last thing done) until we have time to listen. Sometimes we become so used to ignoring our body that we don’t notice that we’re moving differently or limiting our movements to avoid the pain they cause...we adjust and limit, adjust and limit and soon don’t realize there are many more ways we could move around if only we were aware. Taking a few minutes throughout your day, in your normal activities to check in with how your body is feeling will go a long way to make this a natural automatic response and keep you active for many years to come! If you’re not sure book in for a Massage Therapy session and let the therapist help in creating more body awareness.
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So you have practiced great body mechanics, or maybe not (see part one here) and the job is complete (for now). Looking after those hard working muscles needs your full attention, now, to avoid becoming stiff and sore or experiencing muscle spasms later. Nurturing the muscles needs to carry on for a few days and not just the day that you worked them hard. Here are the ideal ways to nurture yours; The exertion, cold weather, and slippery surfaces snow shovelers face are a hazardous combination for your muscles. It's an activity we don't often do and it is very labour intensive. Back, neck and shoulders are easily overstrained and that can be painful. Prevention and after care are essential in avoiding injury to your muscles, joints, discs, ligaments and tendons. So take a few minutes... The dictionary describes a Weekend Warrior as "someone who participates in what is usually a very strenuous activity only on the weekends, or part time." Can you guess who books in for sessions the most in the early days of the week, especially during the spring? Weekend Warriors, especially the gardening variety! The Hips...such a key area for so many aspects of a woman's life! Physically they take the weight of our upper body and help us to move in so many directions. Emotionally they are the body's junk drawer as they carry our stress and unresolved emotions. An amazing network of muscles, ligaments, bones, the root chakra and our nurturing energy it is said the hips cradle the soul. A good hip massage opens up our movement, relieves stress on our lower back and allows us to move more freely while also releasing the build up of stress. Our root chakra feels more grounded and stable as energy flows unrestricted. Has this happened to YOU? You wake up in the morning and can hardly turn your head, severe pain in your neck and perhaps shoulders and you have no idea why. You didn’t do anything differently yesterday, just woke up like this in the morning. And … it hurts! Wry Neck happens as a result of shifting or turning the head too quickly (which can happen while we’re asleep). The Menisci between the vertebrae or joint surfaces in the neck becomes trapped during the turn and the joint locks. So why doesn’t it happen every night? It may be that you slept with a cool draft on your neck muscles (open window?) or lifted something the day before that created a small muscle spasm which was made worse while turning during the night.
Here are some clues to tell if you may have a deficiency:
Holistic and natural health practitioners are discovering more and more that clients are magnesium deficient. I experience this with clients often, especially lately.
To help clients boost their Magnesium levels I often suggest taking a supplement or increasing your intake of Magnesium rich foods (Click here to a link with food suggestions). The second best way to increase your Magnesium is through the skin by applying Magnesium Oil to your skin. From an article in Collective Evolution: Cold and flu season seems to be coming around the corner again. There are so many wonderful, natural remedies to build your immune system and keep the bugs at bay, or to ease your symptoms more quickly, however, Massage is not one of them. Often people think that the aches and pains of a bad cold or flu will feel better after having a massage. What actually happens can make you feel worse |
Teresa Graham,
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