I am teaching breathing classes at Cheryl’s Herbs. Seems strange to teach a class on something our bodies do on an involuntary bases – so natural we often don’t even realize we are (or aren’t) breathing.  

I’ve been feeling like I need to better explain the connection I see between the holistic bodywork I provide and the breathing I teach when you are on my table or in my class.  Here’s a small taste of the inside track, so you can be in the movement…

Each holistic bodywork session is based on what the client needs. A common thread among clients is a desire to go about their daily lives with less stress, stiffness and/or pain. This is where the breathing techniques become your best ally in a better day.  (The breathing techniques I teach come from Asian bodywork practices and classes in movement I have studied.)

It’s very simple. Providing holistic bodywork over the years, one of the things I see again and again is the moment a person starts to relax and sink into their body, their breathing changes. Some people know this happens, but many are too busy to consciously examine the experience and connect the dots. If you take the initiative and are aware of your body’s changes when moving from stressed to relaxed, even the tiny changes, you create tools to use in any situation.  It’s like finding and knowing with your mind and body what the sweet spot of a golf or baseball swing feels like. Once you have been there and studied the stance, you can return to it with a great measure of success.

New clients do not generally notice the direct point of change from stressed to relaxed at first. They are too busy relaxing, or even napping during the massage. Then sometime after the massage, they start to notice the change from relaxed to stressed. At this point we have something to talk about. How long did they stay unstressed? What did they do about the stress? etc. The next step is encouraging them to become aware of the mind-body connection, the tools that are the sweet spot of being in the movement from stressed to relaxed. 

Recently a client asked me, “Is it better to have short sessions on a specific area more frequently, or longer bodywork sessions?”

Normally I answer this question by saying, “Let’s see what your body says.” And yes, if you listen, the body does tell time!  After a session or a few, you might tell me, “every other week felt perfect, but three weeks between bodywork seemed too long.” If you listen, your body takes away the guess work. By listening just a little to the way your body feels after a good bodywork session compared to an everyday, you gain the experience of understanding how your body is talking and tells time. 

Personally, I like the longer bodywork sessions. A longer session provides the time to reach a very deep pause. Ah, the deep pause! I like this phrase.  When deep pauses are a regular part of my life experience, I am centered, alert and well rested. I make better decisions and feel more empowered and engaged in my life. 

Regular bodywork does help rid your body of everyday aches, pains and stress. Bodywork with a deep pause gives us time to integrate the astounding amount of input we get from the outside world. The pause acts as a moment of balance, moving us toward a centered, alert and well rested state health.

(If you have any questions or comments contact me star@intrinsicbalance.com)

Employee Wellness Day 

I volunteered to provide chair massage during the Employee Wellness Day event at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I have worked this event for three years and always find it very enjoyable! When I say chair massage, I brought something uniquely different than the normal “sit down and lean forward” chair you expect to see at such an event. I used a very comfortable lounge chair clients stretched out on to really relax. During the event my clients sat down, stretched out their legs and leaned back, facing up. This different position gave me an opportunity to massage the legs, arms, neck, shoulders, upper-back and shoulder blade areas in ways similar to how I work in my office. Although there are many techniques used in Holistic Bodywork, the chair, like my table, allowed me greater access to each client’s body. By sliding my hands on the top of or underneath tired arms, legs, backs, or necks, I found tight muscles or restricted areas. When held, those areas of tight muscles melted around my fingers and the client relaxed into the comfy lounge chair with greater relaxation. Everyone who stopped was curious about this technique, finding it unique to what people normally think of as massage. The lounge chair, with everyone laying face up, also provided a great way to use conversation and guided instruction to illustrate the benefits of understanding how a mixture of guided breathing enables a person to let go of tension in the body.

In Office Technique Walkthrough:

Your muscle is tight and your shoulder is raised up. I slide my hand under your shoulder blade, applying a bit of pressure up into the “belly” of the knot. You’ve assured me I’m using the correct amount of pressure, but the tension remains. Next, I ask you to take a full breath into your belly. As you let the breath out, your shoulder muscle, where I am applying pressure, melts around my fingers sinking into the chair or table. Many times, after this very simple instruction and a few breaths, clients have a more relaxed shoulder and the muscles have released and relaxed naturally.

At Home Technique:

The next time you experience a sore or tight muscle, try closing your eyes and imagining you are breathing into that muscle like a balloon. Slowly and gently filling up the muscle and then slowly releasing the breath before filling it again.  It may take some practice and in the end you will find this technique can bring some relief, relaxing areas that were tight and sore.

        I wake up in pain, high kicks in my sinus areas on the right side. This is one way my body speaks to me. It’s not my favorite! Wow! Throbbing pain behind my eye, my head aches. I sit up, move my head slowly back and forth. Noticing where i’m tight, maybe using a tiny stretch here and there. Mostly this is a survey of how my head, neck, and shoulders feel in motion. 

        Quietly below the acute, loud pain, my body starts telling me a story of my right shoulder being tight, forward, and raised higher then the left. It speaks of stiffness running down along my spine as I bend my head forward.  Even my lower back seems unhappy today. I sit for awhile longer just trying to understand how this all connects mainly up into my throbbing head, It still has a good portion of my attention. 

        What to do now?  I use my neti pot to help my sinuses. I breathe into the areas that are tight.  I move and stretch.  After awhile my throbbing head starts to subside. 

Later in the day I sit to type. I survey my body again. The acute pain has been gone for awhile however the pathway of the pain is still present. My shoulders are more even, but tight. I notice something else too. Sadness, It’s not tearful or longing, but deep and silent. So now I sit with my sadness giving it a chance to speak. 

        Some days of listening aren't fun, but they can be beneficial.

Have you ever sat in a coffee shop to listen? Maybe to a conversation behind you or to the barista joking with one of the regular customers? Sitting a little longer you might start to hear the rattle and shuffle of people as they come and go. Their chairs running along the floor, shoes clomping, and the steaming of milk. The noise as might grow as the space gets more or less crowded or if the people are all strangers or friends. Maybe you notice the temperature of the room? Maybe It becomes warmer or colder as the door opens and closes?

You might feel a coolness in the air and put on your sweater, adjust your chair, or move, settling into a new comfy spot. Warm in your hands, the coffee mug encourages your shoulders to fall from the natural weight of your arms. Even your back relaxes against the chair, but not slouched. You notice your breath slows comfortably. You feel peaceful and alert. Sinking even more into your chair, your breath and the calmness in your body relaxes you. 

Keep this calmness with you as you open your awareness back to the noises of the room. How does this same space look now? More or less hectic in your relaxed state? What do you notice about the coming and going of everyday life around you? How does it feel? 

Our bodies don’t talk to us with words but with sensations and movements. We are not people in a vacuum but people in the world. We are  constantly taking in information. Just like spending time in the coffee shop, we must use our senses to sort and either integrate or discard all that we experience. Being able to help ourselves along the way with small shifts of posture and breathing by understanding the language of our bodies as they speak to us, gives us greater stability to act, instead of react to our world. Listening to our bodies aids us to form a more relaxed state even in tense moments to deal with the many things we consider unpleasant, as well as settle in to enjoy the moments when everything is good.  

So let conversation begin!