What to Expect
Many people have questions about receiving their first massage. Here are answers to some typical questions and concerns about your first massage or bodywork session.
Many people have questions about receiving their first massage. Here are answers to some typical questions and concerns about your first massage or bodywork session.
The language of our culture is full of sentiments acknowledging how we feel after a loss. The term “heartache” and the phrase “I’m so sad, it hurts” immediately come to mind. Grief is the body’s response to loss, and we attempt expression of physical, emotional and mental feeling with words or displays of emotion to express these painful sensations.
Massage is being used to alleviate the physical and emotional stress of exotic animals in captivity, from elephants to dolphins and penguins.
Even though he’s received thousands of massages over the past decade, Nicholas is still a bit stiff. Albeit the horse’s body is clearly marked with locations of pressure points to help students learn equine massage, he’s the only one of 16 horses at Equissage they haven’t been able to loosen up. “We can’t get him to relax,” said owner and director Mary Schreiber. Of course, that’s probably because Nicholas is a life-size fiberglass horse used as a teaching aid.
Soft sighs, satisfied snorts and even brief hints of a relaxed snore fill the small therapy room this Saturday morning. These are satisfied massage clients who know all too well the value of being touched, even if they can’t tell us so in words. They do tell us with behavior. Suki doesn’t tense up anymore when he’s massaged. Robby doesn’t bury his head in fear. And Cocoa no longer kicks and fidgets during the session.
“What a great massage. It put me right to sleep.”
For many, to be relaxed enough to fall asleep is a measure of a good massage. On the other hand, for many, it doesn’t take much skill on the therapist’s part for them to slip off to dreamland; they are so sleep-deprived that all they need is the opportunity to let go and drowsiness overtakes them. This seemingly innocuous scenario is symptomatic of an enormous, and hidden, threat to the health of millions of people in the United States alone.
On a daily basis, massage therapists across the country assist their clients in the prevention of, and recovery from, carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) and related repetitive stress injuries (RSI). Let’s take a look at the anatomy and biomechanics of CTS and related syndromes, and through our understanding of the structural and behavioral origins of this disorder, find ways to prevent it from “impinging” on your own body.
Research into distant healing requires us to have new eyes. Furthermore, it may require a leap into the collective consciousness. And therein lies only one of many challenges facing researchers in their quest. Even the term “distant healing” reflects a response to the obstacles and objections within this field, for what we’re really referring to is spiritual healing, or prayer. The utterance of the words “spiritual” or “prayer” in conjunction with scientifically-based research is enough to raise the hackles of some scientists and doctors.
We all have natural energetic healing abilities. My earliest recollection of this came from my mother Margaret. Whenever my brother or I had a “booboo,” she would rub it with her hands, and if it was really serious, kiss it. Somehow it always made us feel better. Of course neither she nor I understood about energetic techniques, but I learned from these experiences that touch could make people feel better.
Understanding the difference between hot flashes and night sweats is one of the bittersweet burdens every woman bears in life, but comradery doesn’t make it any easier. Experts say we are in the midst of a giant “meno-boom” today, with more than 40 million U.S. women in the throes of this midlife rite of passage we know as menopause. The good news is there are many natural ways to make the transition a little easier for all of us.
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