Body image. Almost everybody has something about their body that they don’t like. For many people it’s a minor issue, no big deal. But some people have a major issue with their body image. It affects how they live and their happiness.
 
When I tell people that I’m a massage therapist, once in a while someone has a strong reaction. They tell me, whether verbally or through their reaction and body language, that massage is not for them. Their body image is such an issue that they don’t think anybody else can accept them.

The paradox here is that massage can really help with body image issues. In massage school we were all nervous about taking off our clothes and letting somebody else touch us. It didn’t take long for us to discover that bodies are just bodies, and we became much more comfortable with our own. We also experienced how good receiving a massage made us feel. Something unexpected happened – when our bodies felt better, we felt better about our bodies!

Is your body image holding you back? There are 3 options to consider. Let’s look at the risk versus reward for them.

1. Don’t get a massage.

This is the easiest because it involves doing nothing. The risk is low since you are not letting another person see or touch you at all.
 
The reward is zero. You didn’t get a massage so your body doesn’t feel any better, and you still have the stress you had before.

2. You get a massage, but the massage therapist makes note of how you look (as if it matters).
 
If this has happened to you, I’m sorry. You got a lame massage therapist. That’s a bummer, and they missed the training in how to be a professional, compassionate, caring therapist. If this happened to you, you took a risk and reaped little reward. 

This is not going to happen if you come to me. Never. No way. I can’t say this strongly enough. It goes against the very nature of who I am, how I treat people, and what I believe.

3. You get a massage. A great massage. And the therapist does nothing to make you feel uncomfortable about your body. In fact, you feel pretty good about your body after the massage!
 
In this option, your risk is low. I’m not judging you or your body. I just want to help you feel better. Your reward is high. Your body will feel better from the massage and you can start feeling better about it.

I have no idea how your body got to be in the condition that it’s in. You may be dealing with something that you can’t control, such as a medical condition, injury or accident. You may be in a lot of pain or are limited in what you can do physically. You may not have had time to shave your legs. All of this is welcome, with understanding and compassion.

I’ve worked on hundreds – maybe thousands – of people. Each body is fascinating and unique and I’ve yet to come across one that I could not help.

If you have been avoiding massage because you feel uncomfortable about your body, let’s find an option that works for you. You don’t even have to explain anything to me. Leave your clothes on if that's more comfortable. Stay sitting up or face down or lying on your side or however you want. It’s up to you.

It’s my job to help you feel better. That’s it. Together let’s find a way to help you relieve your pain and stress. Don’t let your body image keep you from feeling good.

Intention plays a significant role in therapeutic work - as we dive into a healing journey, intentions or goals are like a compass that leads the way. Here are 7 of my goals in healing work:

• Freedom of movement
• Empowerment to voice desires, needs and boundaries
• Ability to feel any emotion with ease
• Secure attachment
• Trust in intuition
• Capability to see the beauty in life
• Capacity feel more pleasure

Freedom of movement is the goal that got me started in the massage profession. I later realized all the other reasons. Sometimes artists don’t know what they’re painting until it’s finished. Likewise, my reasons for diving in to the healing field continue to reveal themselves.
 
So about freedom of movement – I am a dancer. I’ve always wanted a  wider range of expression in my movement. It’s a delightful creative outlet that helps me feel awake and fluid. At the time I started considering massage as a career, I was swing, blues and salsa dancing at least four times a week. I felt so alive! I wanted to help others feel comfortable in their bodies, and to find creative, joyful movement in their everyday lives. Let’s be clear, though – I don’t want to push an agenda for dancing. Many activities are hindered when you’re injured – hiking, baseball, disc golf, running with the dog, playing with the kids, acting, cycling, sleeping… My healing goal to increase freedom of movement comes from a desire for everyone to live a more joyful life. Having the freedom to move how you want to move plays a significant role in that.
 

So how do you want to move?
What would your life be like with greater range of motion, more stability, flexibility and strength?
And how can I help?
 

Here are a few things that will inhibit movement:

• Adhesions in connective tissue (fascia) limits movement
• Excess tension in one area could be pulling on another area, creating compensatory movement patterns that are structurally unstable
• Tension patterns may be held from past injuries, traumas, surgeries or intense emotional events

 

The good news: 
All of this is reversible – just depends how much time and effort you’re willing to spend on changing it. Some things can be healed in one session – adhesions can be broken up (they’re basically “knots” that can be relieved with myofascial release or other massage) and trauma patterns may be resolved through two-chair coaching – but a lot of things, like caved-in shoulders for example, were built up over time. They will take time to change. Additionally, the shoulders can hold that posture for multiple reasons – working at a computer every day with sub-par ergonomics, emotional guarding around the heart, excess weight lifting in the pecs, compromised posture elsewhere in the body that also affects the shoulders (because everything in the body is connected). Massage and craniosacral therapy are excellent on their own for achieving greater range of motion. However, to have a bigger impact that lasts longer, I like to approach healing from multiple angles – mental, emotional AND physical. I’m seeing more and more people these days who recognize that their physical pain manifested from more than just physical issues. If you only want to work with the physical aspects, that’s totally welcome. And if you’d like to explore the broader picture, what might that look like?
 
First, we want to build a ground of support, trust and resource. A resource is whatever feels good to you. Perhaps a relaxing massage is what’s needed to help regulate your nervous system. It may be helpful to bring to mind a supportive person and notice the somatic (physical) sensations you feel when that support is present. The body naturally responds to an imaginary vision, and the somatic response can help you settle and feel nourished. From this resourced place, perhaps you can dip a toe, or even jump right in to the pool of challenges. Are you challenged a rocky relationship or stressful job that feels like a literal weight on your shoulders? This may contribute to a collapsed posture. Or maybe it’s simply depression, which could be caused by a number of factors. We can observe the emotional and mental components of your life that are creating physical limitations, and if this even starts to feel overwhelming or too uncomfortable for you, we can always go back to that resource to strengthen the nervous system. We can always drop the threads to pick up another time when you’re feeling ready.

How does this sound to you? What are you willing to explore to unlock the greatest freedom of movement you desire?

Call me at (720)432-3032 for a free 15-minute consultation, or go ahead a schedule a 90-minute session if you're ready to dive in.

I occasionally hear the question, “Do you like what you do?” This is an important question for a healing practitioner. If I didn’t like what I was doing, you would feel it. If I’m tense in my body, that can translate through – some part of you, whether it’s obvious or not, can feel that tension. So my healing work is transforming as I remember what brings me joy - dancing, connecting authentically with others, seeing beauty everywhere and creating a more beautiful world. Weaving these in to my therapeutic work will translate into greater healing potential for both of us.
 
Here are some goals I have – these are desires for myself and for all of humanity. I’d be curious to know if any of these are goals for yourself:

• Freedom of movement
• Empowerment to voice desires, needs and boundaries
• Ability to feel any emotion with ease
• Secure attachment
• Trust in intuition
• Capability to see the beauty in life
• Capacity feel more pleasure

I'll be going more in depth about each of these in future blogs, including what can be done to achieve these goals, starting with Freedom of Movement.

Call me at (720)432-3032 for a free phone consultation to discuss how to achieve your goals.

Do you enjoy the coolness and soft or prickly texture, or the sound of it brushing your feet?

My friend Katherine always feels more calm when she walks barefoot on the earth. It's naturally grounding to connect your skin to the skin of the earth. If nothing else, it's a contrast to having your feet enveloped in socks and shoes all day, sitting inside or walking around the concrete jungle.

Experiencing a contrast or polarity will help change your state of being. So if you're feeling lethargic and you haven't experienced the texture of the earth lately, trit it for a least a couple minutes, just as an experiement. If you don't notice a shift in your mood or energy, at least it was only a couple minutes.

In a multi-tasking world, can you focus on one single thing at time, being fully absorbed in it? What are the benefits of this?

When I exercise, can I focus on running without distracting myself with entertaining media, thinking about what I'm going to do later,  or rehashing a conversation I had in the past? Running is a physical activity, so I want to focus on my physical experience. As I drop into the body, I can notice what feels good, what feels off, what needs to change. When I'm tuned in this way, it's more obvious to me when I need to take a pause, to slow down, and to stretch, therefore reducing the chance that I'll overdo it and injure myself.

What about being fully absorbed in healing work?

If you have the intention of being fully present during a massage, you'll release tension with more ease, gain better self-awareness, and open the channels to health more quickly.

How can I be more present, you ask?

Focus on body sensations - your breath (the pace, the sound, the feeling of it flowing in and out), the contact of your body on the table (or feet on the floor, seat on the chair - simply your body's contact with a surface), the contact of the massage therapists hands, the specific details of sensation - warm/cool, tingly, numb, tight, open, hard/soft, color, emotion, depth in the body, etc. 

If your mind continues to pull you away from your body, it may help to process those thoughts. Some believe it's most relaxing to be silent throughout a massage, but sometimes the path to deep relaxation and greater healing requires vocalizing.

In a session with me, you're welcome to talk about what's up for you. If it's a long verbal process that leads you to few quiet minutes of embodied, relaxed presence, it's more productive than being silent through a massage while your mind is spinning in circles. While the mind is spinning, the nervous system is likely dysregulated along with it. Though your muscles may loosen up with some massage, the effects will last so much longer if your mind and nervous system are on board for a full mind-body-spirit integration.

What's your experience of multi- vs. single-tasking? What activities hold your full attention with ease, and what has you distracted or want to multi-task?

The season is changing, spring cleaning is upon us, new life is budding from the earth, and I'm learning how to create more joy and beauty in my life as the world changes around me. What this means for Equilibrium: updates to the office decor, making it more beautiful and inviting; and updates to my website, informing you of the new coaching and energy healing modalities I've been learning and incorporating into my practice. Adding coaching and energy work to massage sessions brings a whole different experience, greater healing potential and more fun and creativity to the work.

The website is still a work-in-progress - Follow me on Facebook to hear when the new site is fully updated ("Following" more than just "Liking" will actually give you notice when news comes up).

This month's schedule is a bit more full than usual since I will be completing my Craniosacral Therapy training May 18-22, and beginning a new training May 27-29 - more info on this one to come. You're welcome to schedule online, but if you need a different time than what's listed, please call or text (720) 432-3032. I will have more evening (6 PM) appointments available throughout the week to make up for the lack of Sunday availability. Also, Bodywork Bistro in northeast Boulder is offering a deal of $30 off your first massage at that location, 3825 Iris Ave, through June 1, which makes it only $78 for a 90-minute massage or $49 for 1 hour. I'll be there Wednesday 5/25 from 10-6.

For a natural high, without the depleting effects of drugs. Seriously, with each successive Craniosacral treatment I receive, the world seems more vibrant and interesting, and I feel open, relaxed and more like myself. What does it mean to be more like myself? I feel grounded and centered, aware of my experience in the present moment. In other words, I'm not energetically reaching out, not imagining being elsewhere, not caught up with the stories in my head, whether in the past or the future. I become more aware of what's actually happening in the here and now. The other week, I had dinner with my brother and father. I was getting terribly irritated with them over past triggers - autonomic or automatic reactions to things they say or do, things that scratch at past emotional wounds or insecurities. Two days later, after doing some craniosacral work, I visited with them again. I noticed the same things they were doing started to get me agitated, but I was able to recognize that, let go of the trigger, and open up to a conversation in which I was curious more than furious.

Another cool thing is how it becomes easier to be with pain. My acupuncturist noted how settled and calm I was as she was working with an area that's historically been very guarded and tense. I felt the intensity of the needles in the tight, tender areas, but I could be with the sensation without tensing up. Basically, working with Craniosacral Therapy has reduced the amount of fear I experience. Combined with the other modalities - massage, Polarity Therapy and techniques I've learned in my new Verbal Skills training (more on that later) - this work has a profound way of helping your system remember how to heal itself, how to return to the way it was "designed" to work. Our bodies have the remarkable ability to heal themselves. We just need to give assistance to help the nervous system settle (that aspect that goes bonkers when we're stressed, anxious, depressed, fearful, angry, etc.), so the rest of the body can do what's needed. The more we settle into that peaceful state and really be present with it, getting a felt sense what is happening on the more subtle level in the body, the more capacity we will have to experience pain without fear.

What attracted me to Craniosacral Therapy were the benefits for the physical body, as I heard about from a massage teacher and experienced myself from a craniosacral practitioner a couple years ago. My teacher's daughter had a traumatic birth, and with craniosacral therapy he realigned her deformed cranium. Years later a dance teacher had told him that she's never seen a child of that age move so well. Since one of my greatest passions is dancing, this appealed to me. When I finally received some craniosacral therapy myself, I experienced deep, relaxing pain relief, and more ease in my body. However, what I didn't expect as I went into this training was all the emotional and mental benefits of it. Here are some changes I've noticed after receiving craniosacral work:

I take action on things – sometimes I have ideas running in my head and I think I’ll remember them later, not bothering to write them down. Then I forget, or I remember the thought later but it doesn’t feel alive or as important, so I don’t recall the details as eloquently as I would when I first had the idea. On my drive home after my last craniosacral session, I actually bothered to pause my audio book to record my thoughts, giving me more clarity about something I need to teach next week. I feel more intellectually sharp, aware, and motivated to take action.
 
I feel awake. The night before my last craniosacral treatment, I got 6 hours of sleep and made it through the day just fine, but I felt foggy headed, low energy and sleepy. After the treatment, I feel like I just had a refreshing nap, yet I didn’t sleep through the session. I've experienced this before with the same practitioner.
 
I feel more alive and expressive. I’ve spent much of my life feeling numb. After my first session with this practitioner, I was aware of the anger in me, and that awareness felt empowering and helpful. I was able to express myself in a mindful, helpful way.

Do any of these experiences resonate with you? Feelings of emotional or mental numbness or exhaustion? Ask me if craniosacral therapy may help you and your situation before you schedule your next appointment.

Does anyone else take a deep breath of relief after reading that? How sweet it is to be accepted as you are. I find life to be more delightful and interesting when I approach it with a curiosity and intention of discovery than when I hold preconceptions, which often leads to disappointment or confusion when those expectations aren't met.

This has been a theme in my life lately - choice A or B? Neither are a bad choice. There is no single "right" answer. I was dining with a friend at the Kitchen when he realized with excitement that Two Spoons was next door. "We can get gelato for dessert! But then again, maybe I should stick to my diet." I figured either choice would be a good one. 

What's the purpose of life, anyway? The story I believe is that we're here simply for the fulfillment of conciousness - to experience life as fully as we choose in these amazing human bodies. With that, there isn't a "right" choice - there's just a whole smorgasbord of experiences. So what is my One Thing - my primary focus in life - and which paths will lead me to that larger goal? Likely there are several paths. I feel relaxed, able to go with the flow knowing that there is more than one "right" path.

For a bit of silly entertainment as I was growing up, my dad would occasionally prank-call random people and simply say "Bee yourself!," in the voice of Robin Williams in Aladdin. I'm still learning to be myself, and discovering different aspects that I hadn't recognized before. Thank you to everyone who has encouraged, supported, and taught me how to uncover my truth! One of my goals of working in the healing profession is to help you feel free to be who you want to be, to free restrictions that may be hiding your greatest potential.

What do you want to become? Can you give yourself permission to discover yourself and others, with curiosity, compassion and patience?