Learning To Love

There's nothing like getting up close and personal
with the things that make you uncomfortable in
order to befriend them. Parsvottanasna
helped me learn to love my feet.

Understanding

I used to be self conscious of my feet, dreading sandal season and barefoot encounters of all types. I was hyper aware of all the pretty feet that traipsed care-free through the world around me. It wasn't until I started practicing yoga back in 2000 that I began the journey of appreciating my feet. Maybe it was the required staring at them in their unadulterated bareness while in uttanasana and parsvottanasna poses, or all the cues my yoga teachers gave me to 'engage'  different parts of them through the practice that made me appreciate how much they do for me. Overcoming this self conscious mindset came only after gaining a deep body awareness of how they worked and contribute to my movements. From there I began to love them.

Three things I love about my feet:
1. They take me places & allow me to do things I love doing,
2. They don't have fungus or other yucky conditions,
3. They connect me to the Earth.

I joke with myself that my toes look like ET's neck, all wrinkled, knobby, and alien. I've wasted time wishing they weren't so veiny, so lumpy, or plump. But why bother thinking about myself in this way? Why not take the advice I give to my 13 year old daughter who is in the throws of adolescent self-judgements? Your body is an amazing composite of matter in the form of a gorgeous human being. Celebrate your health, your ability to move and express yourself, and the simple and profound fact that you are here at all. Don't get hung up on the details that nobody else sees but you, their opinions of you never matter as much as how you see yourself.

I've never had major self-confidence issues, and by speaking to this topic I don't mean to sound like I'm talking down to anyone with my all mighty wisdom. But I have made some observations that have helped me get over some things that have slowed me from fully loving myself. 

Respect

Lack of self confidence can be debilitating, and germinating it within yourself can start by simply acknowledging and appreciating your existence. In my experience, knowledge leads to empowerment. So if you can't at first find the soft skills to love yourself - including those "flaws" - start with objective observation of what exists. Do this without judgement or comparison, only observation. This approach might just be enough to break the habit of developing self-depreciating opinions of yourself. From this observational approach, you might eventually begin to move into an appreciative mode. And with this shift in how you think about yourself, you might accidentally find yourself simply loving yourself. Pure love doesn't want to change anything.

Surely we all have certain bodily features that aren't our favourites, but by shifting your focus from your insecurities to appreciating what intricacies are required to simply exist in this human incarnation, the net result might just be joy. The practice of gratitude can work magic like that.

Notice any similarities between this guy and my little piggies? 

In my work I sometimes get a glimpse at how people see themselves. For some, bearing their skin and surrendering themselves to the hands of another in the form of a massage - even if it's in a pleasant, safe, and healing environment - can be an incredibly challenging act to do. The thought of doing just that, might cause more pain than the aching muscles in their body. I appreciate that. And I congratulate anyone who shows the bravery to overcome their fears in order to gain deeper healing. You have my deepest respect.

Love

I've acted as a sounding board, a listener, and an empathetic ear, since sometimes people choose to share deeply personal things about themselves with me during their massage treatment. Physical therapies can elicit a connection between the mind and body, and I have witnessed how releasing areas of bodily tension can also release pent up emotions.  
I am thankful that I have managed to create an environment where my patients feel safe to share themselves in. When people express concern with their body's flaws I want them to see the beauty and wonder of their body that I see. The more I learn about human anatomy and physiology the more I realize how outstanding it is that our bodies function at all; simply put, it's a bloody miracle. With all the coordination of multiple systems required to simply be alive, shouldn't we celebrate the very fact that we are alive? Is it not a bit selfish to think that our negative view of ourselves is more important than celebrating the miracle that is our body? 

Empathy runs deeply in my veins and I can't help but feel a bit of the pain my patients feel. I wish I knew what to say when someone confides that they don't like some part of themselves. I want them to know that I consider them a miracle and am privileged to facilitate them in experiencing their body in the best possible way.

For me, my insecurities faded when I began to understand the purpose and function of the parts of me that I didn't care for. From there I developed respect, which eventually matured into love. I still don't think my feet are "pretty", but I love them. We have been on some breathtaking adventures together and for this I am so incredibly grateful.

With deepest respect,
Dana

 

That Card Costs Me - Support Local Small Business By Choosing Payment Method Mindfully

Paying with a card might be free for you, but it costs the merchant.
Do you know how much using your card costs me?

I accept payment for massage treatments at the clinic in a variety of forms: cash, cheque, debit, MasterCard, and Visa. Some of these methods cost me to deposit into my account, others don't. 

Do you know how your payment choice affects local small business owners? 

For my micro business the breakdown is like this:

• Cash = Remember that stuff? Those bills are free for me to accept/deposit.
• Cheque = A bit old school, but works like cash.
• Debit = 10 cents, no matter the size of the transaction.
• Credit = 2.8% of transaction total. The amount I pay our credit card payment provider is approximately $2.80 for every one hour massage treatment. Part of this percentage is charged on top of the tax I collect. Sneaky, aren't they?

 

So, what?

I operate a tiny little business. When you function at this scale, every dime of revenue and expense is accounted for. Although it can be helpful to have business expenses for tax purposes, there comes a point when you have enough expenses accumulated and just want to see income simply coming in. Last year I paid nearly $600 in point of sale fees; that same amount could have flown me to Maui for a continuing education course to further my professional skills. Receiving payment by cash, cheque, and debit keeps more money in my pocket, so I can invest it into growing my business.

I am grateful for all paying customers, and will accept any form of payment that they provide, but if it doesn't matter to you whether you pay by credit, debit, or cash, then I invite you to consider how your choice of payment method affects me. When supporting small businesses in your community, why not ask if they have a preferred payment method? You might just be helping them actually put more money directly in their pocket, and that is a very sweet thing indeed.

See you in the clinic,
Dana

Magic Honey Facial Mask

Really, I'm not kidding. This is magic, and possibly the simplest face mask imaginable.
Okay, ready?

Here's the secret recipe:

• One teaspoon of unpasteurized honey, smeared evenly over your face.
• Let sit for several minutes.
• Rinse off. 

It's understandably quite sticky, so using this mask before a shower might be best. I've found that I don't require a cleanser after rinsing the mask, it takes care of this, too.

Honey will firm up your visage, shrink your pores, and fine lines will fade. All this thanks to magical workings of bees.

Give it a try! You don't have much to lose - except maybe a few laugh lines. Let me know if you notice a difference in your skin with repeated use.


- Dana

The Pain Gate Theory Explains How Massage Reduces Pain

Sorry Pain, you cannot pass through the gate. Pleasure gets priority.

Have you ever stumbled through your living room in the night to have the corner of the coffee table come in direct full-swing contact with your shin? I have many times - gee, maybe I should move the table - and I often find myself instinctively reaching for the injured area to briskly rub it.

Why is that?

One theory is that our brains don't want to feel pain and have mechanisms in place to reduce our perception of it. The ascending nerve pathways (sensation information going to the brain) have a preference for input that brings pleasure. That's right, we are all wired to feel pleasure before pain. So when we injure ourselves our instincts make us rub the sore spot to intercept the pain signals also trying to reach the brain.

Imagine that there is a gate keeper on the road to the brain, and a pain signal and a pleasure signal arrive at the gate at the same time. If the signal for pain isn't that important, ie: not life threatening, the pleasure signal will be allowed to pass through first and will arrive at the brain faster. The brain will receive the signal of pleasure before the signal of pain and therefore down-regulate the pain's message.

How does this relate to massage therapy?

With this theory in mind one can apply the concept of pain management through positive touch. If you suffer from chronic pain such as arthritis, headaches, fibromyalgia, et cetra you might perceive less discomfort from these ailments by experiencing pleasant cutaneous sensations in other areas of your body. To clarify: by receiving a soothing massage your brain may "turn-down" the pain signals it has been receiving in order to give preference to the pleasure signals.

Ronald Melzack, a Canadian researcher, with Patrick Wall introduced their "gate control" theory of pain in 1965. This theory changed how we look at pain perception and is still relevant to how pain management is approached. These researchers also validated the role of psychology in pain management by examining how mental state influences perception of pain.

One big piece to the psychological component of pain perception is how you think about pain when it is occurring to you. Your mood, personal experiences, environment, and context of stimulation can all alter how the brain experiences pain. People who live with chronic pain syndromes can learn to down-regulate or choose not to perceive as much pain by controlling their thoughts about pain. But this is a whole other discussion in itself.

Who can benefit from massage in this way?

A little positive touch can go a long way.

People suffering from these common conditions could benefit from regular massage therapy to reduce pain:

• Osteoprosis
• Fibromyalgia
• Fracture
• Pregnancy
• Cancer
• AIDS

No, I'm not promising that massage therapy will solve your health concern or disease, but it can improve your quality of life by reducing the amount of pain that your brain perceives.

Massage therapy has an incredible breadth of application and can be useful for anyone looking to improve their quality of life by making their body as functional and pain-free as possible.

In wellness,
Dana


P.S.   If you feel like getting a bit nerdy and learning about neuoranatomy and chronic pain management, I've included some links that have been helpful to me.

Resources:

• Dr Ronald Melzack discusses human pain perception and the development of his Pain Gate Theory(5:25 Pain Gate Theory introduced):   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRFanGInvlc

 

•  Dr John Campbell explains The Ascending Gating Mechanism (Pain Gate Theory description starts at approx 1:20 mins):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9qbXKIAeNo

•  Graceful Agony blog post about the Pain Gate Theory: 
  http://gracefulagony.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/gate-control-theory-of-pain/

My Apologies

It's harder to keep centered when life gets turned upside-down.

I dropped off the blogging charts and in the world of blogging this is a serious no-no but I needed to simplify my life and obligations, so this writing project was set to the back burner for a time.

I would have liked to notify my readers that I was taking a break but until now I haven't even been able to open my blog to muster up the words to say that I can't be here. Really, in the scale of bad things to happen, the fall-out from my blogging absenteeism is small.

Sometimes life calls for simplification, and in my time of requiring recuperation I fortunately had the ability and choice to weed out some of the less essential activities that I participate in in order to create some ease in my life.

We all experience times in our lives when stress levels soar, sometimes due to self-inflicted sources, other times due to unforeseen circumstances. Being able to take an objective look at your life,  to pick and choose what things are modifiable sources of stress-load is an important ability. I would like to think of my decision to take time-out as an example of me modelling the behavior I hope to see in our society.

I hope that the take-home from this post is that it is okay to let go for a while. If you feel like you need permission, here it is: go ahead, take a break. If you can, be forthcoming and let people affected by your choices know what's up, but give yourself some slack. Sometimes we all need time to just turn off.

I needed this time to myself to refill my coffers with ideas and energy. Contemplation, time with my loved ones, and some time away helped me regain my strength. And oh, how the ideas are bountiful once again! If you noticed my absence, thank you for your patience.

In my work, I see a lot of people with high stress levels who seek massage therapy as one of the tools to help them manage. Stress manifests in many levels as dysfunction in the body, and massage can aid your ability to manage this thanks to your body's release of endorphins during and after a treatment. On that note, I think it's time for me to book myself a massage.

Keepin' it real,
Dana

Anatomy of the Indian Head Wobble

The man in this diagram conveniently has a flap 

on the back of his neck that lifts away

to show us his suboccipital muscles.

A year ago I returned from a month-long adventure in India with an old friend. Among the intriguing cultural habits and customs my traveling companion and I became fond of, the infamous Indian head wobble brought the most pleasure. This delightful alternating atlanto-axial side-flexion gesture can mean anything from a friendly greeting to "I completely understand", "I'm not sure", "the deal is done", "what do you think?" or it can be used in combination with a smile to buy some time while you figure out a situation. You can imagine the confusion we experienced trying to decipher the meaning of this common and complex gesture as we bumbled our way through the incredibly culturally rich and already overwhelming environment that is India.

If you are unfamiliar with the head wobble, this video captures the diversity of this classic Indian gesture quite well.

And this video helps to decipher the many meanings and variations.

Now let's explore this unique custom from a more scientific vantage point, shall we my fellow anatomists?

The Anatomy

The bony components of the area responsible for the aforementioned head wobble include the bottom of the skull (or occiput), and the uppermost segments of the cervical spine. Muscles and ligaments intricately lash together these bones in all directions, overlapping and crisscrossing to make this one of the most mobile areas of the body. The sub occipital muscles have some of the most densely concentrated proprioceptive receptors in the entire body (second in sensitivity only to the fingers and lips). This density of nervous supply allows for the brain's very careful monitoring of where the head is in relation to the body, making delicate head motions and adjustments for balance possible.

Now that I'm thinking about some of the amazing features of the neck I have to point out just how much is going on in this area. Not only do we have a highly mobile stack of joints that surround the spinal cord (keep in mind that when a joint has

There's lot's of important tubes and wires in the neck.

great mobility, it sacrifices its stability) we also have massive blood vessels and the body's only vessel for air intake, the trachea.

Damage or disfigurement to any one of these structures can lead to death or at least significant bodily dysfunction. Since we are so vulnerable in this area, consider what I am saying and be mindful of how you treat your neck; it is the superhighway to the mother ship that is your brain. Tight neck muscles and poor posture are not to be ignored, they could be compromising your nervous, circulatory, and joint health!

Because of the complexity of the anatomy in the neck, there is not one muscle for each plane of movement. Instead, we are dealing with layers of muscles that work synergistically to the achieve combined actions of flexion, extension, side flexion, and rotation to execute the subtle gestures of the neck.

Muscles of the neck by Frank Netter, my favorite anatomical artist.

The Indian head wobble is a combined movement, primarily of alternating side flexion, between the two uppermost joints of the spine: the atlanto-occipital and atlanto-axial joints while the following muscles have influence in the co-ordination of the wobble.

• Sub-occipitals
• Middle scalenes
• Splenius capitis & cervicis
• Levator scapula
• Upper trapezius
• Sternocleidomastoid 

That last one is one of my favorite muscles to treat. Ask me about it when you're next in for treatment. 

See you in the clinic,

Dana

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suboccipital_triangle
http://filsheadsculpts.blogspot.ca/2013/02/muscle-references.html 
http://medwitness.doereport.com/generateexhibit.php?ID=2424&A=63380 
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/119197/Bony-framework-of-the-human-head-and-neck

Chop Wood, Carry Water, Repeat

I didn't know it was palliative massage at the time but spending those last lucid days with my father in the hospital turned out to be just that.

He became suddenly ill, recovered for a few days while I was able to spend time with him, then his condition worsened again. In just three weeks my dad had been in four different hospitals and two intensive care units. His respiratory and blood pressure function yo-yoed so frequently that his condition was reviewed by the doctors every eight hours to monitor progress or set-back. Sometimes this meant receiving phone calls from the hospital in the middle of the night for updates and permissions.

A by-stander to a loved one who is critically ill has to endure waiting for diagnosis, wondering about the treatments, medical system timelines, and the simple and deep concern for survival and comfort; it all adds up to be a roller-coaster of emotions that can leave you with a sense of helplessness.

My family and I were forced to learn how to surrender our need to fix the problem. My dad's critical condition was in the hands of the hospital. We were encouraged to be with him and to touch and talk to him even if he didn't appear to be conscious. And we did.

Me and my pops on a
Mexican adventure in 2012.

Those few days between ICU stints, where he was off all sedation and ventilation, he and I shared some incredibly tender moments. Massage was a big part of our time together. It brought him comfort, and was a welcome form of positive touch that broke up the pokes and prods of medical procedures. It also made me feel like I was helping in an otherwise helpless situation. I suspect that I benefited by providing the massage as much as he did in receiving it.

Perhaps you have heard the Zen adage "chop wood, carry water." This is often interpreted as being mindful and present in all the activities of your life, even the mundane ones. But this can also mean to mindfully carry on in times of difficulty. No matter what state of consciousness you exist in - enlightenment, strife, joy, or despair - you still need to do your tasks and know that there will be more tasks when those are through. There is a grounding effect in fulfilling one's daily tasks and routines especially when you are in a state of flux. Doing what I know how to do for someone I love in a terrible time of need was me chopping wood and carrying water.

Leo Babauta explains this concept in another lovely way in his article The Zen of Doing.

Anyone can provide positive loving touch, and often it is a welcome offering. Don't be shy about reaching out; it can feel empowering to offer this type of tactile help.

Things to consider if you are providing massage to someone in the hospital:

• Do they want it? Ask your sick loved one if they would like to be massaged by you. If you don't ask they may not know how to tell you that they aren't comfortable with you touching them. I personally can't imagine it but there are people out there who don't like to be touched. It would be awful to discover that even with all your good intention you were actually increasing their discomfort!
• Is it safe? Massage can have significant effects on the body's systems, which also may be under the influence of medications. Always ask the patient's medical team if it is appropriate to provide massage. Usually gentle massage to hands, feet, and scalp are a safe bet, depending on what's going on with their body.
• Policies? Many hospitals and facilities are scent-free. Be mindful of fragrance that may be present in your massage lubricant and the effects of this on your surroundings. 
• How? Just start gently massaging and follow your instincts. Keep your mind present by focusing on what you feel and how they are responding. Adjust what you are doing as you go. Ask them if they are comfortable with how you are massaging them, and be receptive to what they say. You will have to get creative about how to move around the hospital bed and equipment in order to reach the parts you want to massage. Be kind to your own body, it's not helpful to injure yourself by being in an uncomfortable position. Plus, the person receiving your touch will sense your discomfort which is certainly not pleasant for them either.

And then he was gone.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you may have noticed a great gap in my postings. Please excuse my disappearance from blogging, now you know why. There is thankfully more chopping and carrying ahead of me as I meander my way through the grieving process of loosing someone so dear to me.

Be sure to tell your loved ones you love them and reach out and give that hug. Sometimes they're gone before you think they will be.

Dana

 

 

How Often Should I Get a Massage?

Life is busy. We all need to schedule in the things
that are important to us or they simply won't happen.

I am asked this question a lot, but there is no set answer. It really is a feel thing.

The reasons for seeking massage therapy vary from aiding your recovery from an orthopedic injury to keeping your stress levels at bay or improving your performance in physical activities. Each individual has different needs and I am here to support you in your goals, whatever they may be.

I strive to help people re-connect with their bodies and to learn to listen to the subtle language that their body is speaking to them. My new clients often leave feeling surprised by this new found body awareness. I witness people becoming aware of the signals their body send when they need a tune-up. If a self-care regime is no longer working then hiring help may be the needed next step.

So, how often should you come in? Here's a general guide:

• Acute injuries often require a series of closely timed appointments (such as once a week for several weeks) in order to influence the changes in the tissues during the healing process. This appointment span can also be applied to those working to change postural dysfunctions. When undertaking such recovery programs it is important to follow the stretch/strengthen/posture advice I provide in order to get the best results from your massage treatment series. Your soft tissue is best influenced during the first couple of days after a treatment, so showing your body the shape you want it to transform into is crucial during this time.
• Maintenance or stress management treatments are often booked 2-6 weeks apart. I have regular clients who have recurring appointments weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly. If you have a busy schedule and can only come on certain days or times then booking a regular recurring appointment makes certain that the perfect time slot is always available for you. Receiving regular massages also depends on how your body responds to treatment, what you can afford (in terms of both money and time), and what is going on in your life. Pregnancy, new fitness activities, or illness can change the frequency of needing a massage.

You need to tune-in and listen to what your body is asking of you. No one but yourself can hear this dialogue but I can help you learn the language.

See you in the clinic,
Dana