Chocolate and skin care aren’t words often used together in the same sentence unless there’s a warning involved, as in: For a healthy complexion, avoid chocolate. But perhaps that premise should be questioned.
A longtime Chinese elixir, green tea has been used historically to treat head- aches, body aches, poor digestion, and improve life expectancy. And it’s also good for skin.
We could all use more humor in our lives. Having a sense of humor doesn’t mean laughing and being cheerful all the time. It means seeing the illusory nature of things — and seeing how, in this illusory life, we are always bumping into the very things we meticulously try to avoid.
Appreciation for the massage therapy experience has made new inroads with American consumers—one in six American adults sought out massage therapy in 2006—and more men and Midwesterners than ever are getting massaged. Especially encouraging for the future of massage is 62 percent of people aged 21 to 34 have very favorable to somewhat favorable views of massage therapists, with another 34 percent neutral in their views. These are key findings of a January Harstad Strategic Research survey sponsored by Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP).
There’s no denying the power of bodywork. Regardless of the adjectives we assign to it (pampering, rejuvenating, therapeutic) or the reasons we seek it out (a luxurious treat, stress relief, pain management), massage therapy can be a powerful ally in your healthcare regimen.
There are two things that are most likely to make people struggle with patience. The first is our genetic makeup. Some of us come from a gene pool that has a lot of calm, cool, and collected in it. Patience comes more naturally. Others of us come from a gene pool that has a lot of wham, bam, slam it together, along with a few too many fits of rage. If you come from this latter pool (as I do), patience is more difficult to acquire, but still very much possible. Regardless of personality type, the greatest challenge we all face is the microwave society in which we live.
Q: How important is it to dilute essential oils when using them in your practice?
A: The importance of essential oil dilution is directly linked to essential oil safety. Essential oils are highly concentrated, chemically complex mixtures that contain hundreds of different constituents. They are at once aromatically pleasing, therapeutic, and potentially dangerous if not properly used.
Just as our gathering in a circle around a fire has been imprinted on our brains from ancient times, the fragrances of burning bark, wood, flowers, and herbs—perhaps first enjoyed in front of that same fire—have left a deep impression on our collective psyche.
Tantalizing our sense of smell with incense can open a gateway to powerful emotional responses. The secret lies within our limbic brains, the nerve clearinghouse that processes and associates aromas and deep emotions.
As busy as our lives and the lives of our clients are, we might be tempted to groan in exasperation that we are getting nowhere—we’re just going in circles. But circles can have a calming effect if we combine them with the childhood pastime of coloring.
Check out grown-up coloring books devoted to mandalas—circles with often-intricate designs that are nearly universal to the world’s cultures and religions. (Think stained-glass church windows, Aztec calendars, Native American dreamcatchers, and the Buddhist wheel of life.)
The American Dream. This phrase draws people to our country by the thousands. The idea that greatness can be achieved, even when starting with nothing, is the touchstone of our Western culture. We live in a society where great value is placed on the external, somewhat elusive notion of “success.”
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