My good friend and amazing massage therapist Wanda Pierce recently wrote this article about bodywork which has been finding its way around the internet. I think I’m gonna have to schedule a session with her right now!
7 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Massage
by Wanda Pierce, CMT
In these economic times, it has never been more important to receive massage. At first glance, it may feel like a luxury we can’t afford, but if we can quiet the mind and relax the body when we are under stress, we are better equipped to navigate through the challenges we face. As we search for ways to stretch the household budget like Silly Putty over the Sunday Funnies it’s also important to learn how to get the most out of what we pay for. A 60-minute massage can feel like 15 minutes if our mind is somewhere else. Like a bad date, it can also feel like an eternity if we aren’t comfortable. Here are some tips on how to savor every second of your next massage.
1. Arrive early. This will ensure that you get the full time you’ve paid for. It also gives you some time to settle in, have some tea, use the restroom and absorb the calm atmosphere. Rushing to a massage is like watching the last half of a good movie.
2. Communication is key. Be clear with your massage therapist about what you want from your massage before getting on the table. In addition to injuries and preferred pressure, it is often useful to share what is going on emotionally. A good massage therapist will take your input into account and customize a session that’s right for you.
3. Make sure the room feels just right. Goldilocks knew all about this! Confirm the temperature is to your liking, the music is at the right volume and the face cradle is just where it needs to be.
4. Focus. Keep your attention on the session, not your next errand or earlier phone conversation. Stay present to the areas where your massage therapist is working. The plates will still be spinning when the massage is over, but you will be better equipped to keep them spinning if you let your mind take a break while you are on the table.
5. Breathe! It may sound silly but most of the time, we don’t use our lungs to their full capacity. Mindful breathing, like a magic wand helps with focus and also serves to shift the nervous system into a much more relaxed state. Start by inhaling to fill the belly, following up into the rib cage and finally to the collarbone. Exhale slowly, finding a rhythm that works for you. An easy rule of thumb is to count 5 counts in, 5 counts out.
6. Pre pay or have your check written out ahead of time. Finances are stressful, particularly in these times so if you take care of it beforehand, you can relax and forget about it afterward. No one wants to do math after a great massage. If a tip is appropriate, have that set aside in advance so you can float out without calculating anything.
7. Smell the flowers. Take some time after your massage before returning to your regular day. Enjoy a cup of tea somewhere and watch the world go by or go home to your favorite chair and marinate in the goodness!
When daily obligations fill our lives, it’s easy to overlook the commitment to self -care. Not only do you deserve some time to recharge, nurture and reconnect with your body, you can’t afford not to. In the same way we need to tune up our car, we need to nourish our body, quiet our mind and feed our soul to run smoothly in the world. You’ll be sure to get a lot more mileage out of your session when you follow these simple tips.
Wanda is a certified massage therapist with offices in San Francisco and Mill Valley. www.wandapierce.com
Having spent a fair amount of time in India, I can say that squatting does make things come out much more easily. Of course all the curry helps to grease the pluming as well.
This new toilet is both earth friendly, bowel friendly and super cool to look at!
From Device.com Go with the Flo
The brainchild of students from Arizona State University, this toilet has been designed with yoga principles in mind — and it’s won its creators an award from the Northwest Design Invitational. Named Go with the Flo, the transparent blue loo has a sink built in above the cistern, allowing you to reuse the water you’ve washed your hands with when you flush.
There are no mechanical parts in the toilet: instead, an electromagnetic ball valve sluices just one-and-a-half gallons of water from the tanks to the bowl. So what, I hear you ask, has all this got to do with yoga? It’s all to do with the position in which you find yourself, apparently. Squatting down builds and strengthens back and abdominal muscles, apparently.
While it may not be as beautiful as certain loos we’ve featured before — there’s something redolent of a child’s potty in the design. The only thing that confuses me is this: which way should one face?
I never thought I would say this but, “I wish a Mormon Missionary would come to my door!”
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(Newser) – An entrepreneur who says his aim was to improve the image of Mormons has been excommunicated by the church for publishing a calendar with photos of shirtless members of the faith. The “Men on a Mission” calendar doesn’t “tear down the beliefs of the church at all,” Chad Hardy protests to the Los Angeles Times. It overcomes stereotypes. “Underneath, it makes people realize, ‘Oh, they’re sexy Mormons. They’re real.’”
The Church of Latter Day Saints was not amused, perhaps because one picture features a man posed as a hero from the Book of Mormon, while another shows a man in front of a chalkboard diagramming the Mormon Plan of Salvation. “The material related to your calendars is offensive and disrespectful,” wrote a dean at Brigham Young University, which refused Hardy his degree. But Hardy’s not stopping: future works include “Mormon Muffins,” sexy pics of Mormon moms.
In this new podcast interview, director and filmmaker Kate Churchill discusses her new documentary on yoga and the transformational effects it had on skeptic Nick Rosen. Enlighten up is a funny, charming, and informative tour of modern yoga that will take you around the world in search of the essence of yoga.
Not much shocks the conscience now that water boarding is apparently legal in the USA, but some Iraqis, not wanting to be outdone by us have taken to torturing gay men to death. Similar incidents have been reported happening to Christians and other minoritiesas well.
There is a glimmer of hope, however. According to the Washington Blade, “The U.S. military is aware of a rash of anti-gay killings in Iraq during the past eight months and is taking steps to curtail sectarian violence against all Iraqis, including gays, according to a spokesperson for the U.S.-led multinational forces in Iraq.”
Warning, The following blog entry from Think Progress is graphic and deeply disturbing.
Relying on an International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission translation of a recent Al Arabiya story, the blog Towleroad reports that Iraqi militias have been engaging in some particularly brutal tactics toward gay men in Iraq:
“A prominent Iraqi human rights activist says that Iraqi militia have deployed a painful form of torture against homosexuals by closing their anuses using ‘Iranian gum.’ …Yina Mohammad told Alarabiya.net that, ‘Iraqi militias have deployed an unprecedented form of torture against homosexuals by using a very strong glue that will close their anus.’ According to her, the new substance ‘is known as the American hum, which is an Iranian-manufactured glue that if applied to the skin, sticks to it and can only be removed by surgery. After they glue the anuses of homosexuals, they give them a drink that causes diarrhea. Since the anus is closed, the diarrhea causes death. Videos of this form of torture are being distributed on mobile cellphones in Iraq.’”
The Iraqi defense ministry reported earlier this month that six gay men were shot dead in a Shia-controlled part of Baghadad. “Two of the bodies, found on Thursday, had pieces of paper attached on which was written the word ‘Pervert.’” According to the source in the Al Arabiya article, “for the past 3 weeks a crackdown on homosexuals has been going on based on a religious decree that demands their death; dozens have been targeted.” The persecution “is not confined to the Shiite clerics,” the source said. “Some Sunni leaders have also declared the death penalty for sodomy on satellite channels.”
When Alayna Kurek of Shelby Township panicked one day about forgotten homework, the 9-year-old stunned her school counselor by using a yoga breathing technique to calm down.
That stress-relief method is a reason Sherri Kurek said she takes her two children, Alayna and Olivia, 7, to classes for kids at the Yoga Studio of Shelby.
“It’s the one thing they stick with,” said Kurek, an in-home transcriptionist from Shelby Township.
Alayna gets exercise, going from downward-facing dog position to cobra to frog. And her improved confidence shows when she teaches her classmates how to pretzel up, Kurek said.
Karen Lutz, who teaches child yoga classes at Providence Hospital in Novi, said, “A 4-year-old — they have a short attention span. They really don’t care where their feet are.” But as younger yogis mature, she said, “They want to know, ‘Where do my feet go?’ ”
University of Michigan pediatrician Dolores Mendelow says yoga, if done properly, is a suitable alternative to tumbling and team sports for getting stressed-out, sedentary children socializing, exercising and building discipline.
“It requires practice, patience and accepting of self-limitations,” she said.
Second-grader Mya Sornig, 8, practiced a new sun salutation recently in Jane Schwab’s class at Yoga Studio of Shelby. In a circle with the Kurek sisters and studio owner Lisa Tokarz’s two children, Schwab, a retired schoolteacher and certified yoga instructor, said, “Lift your left toe like you’re warming your toes in the sun.”
Mya pushed her left leg into the air, and wobbled, which mom Jennifer Sornig of Sterling Heights, said is a reason to trek to the studio. A physical therapist, she knows a strong abdomen can stave off back and posture problems.
A preliminary study of pediatric health benefits of yoga, published in 2008, finds motor skills and concentration improvements, on top of better posture and breathing.
At Providence Hospital, yoga is integrated into strength-building exercises for children with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, who often lack muscle tone and breathe weakly. Parents help, said therapist Annmarie Dempsey.
“The younger kids, with most yoga poses, we try to find a name that relates to the pose to make it fun,” she said.
Yoga stretching and body alignment can create a better athlete, said Michigan State University strength coach Mike Vorkapich. Players use back and arm movements to improve strokes and pitches, he said.
Listening improves too, said Jennifer Hayes, an MSU yoga teacher. She sometimes teaches without demonstrating postures. She hears this all the time: “Wow, this is harder than I thought.”
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Having spent a fair amount of time in India, I can say that squatting does make things come out much more easily. Of course all the curry helps to grease the pluming as well.
I never thought I would say this but, “I wish a Mormon Missionary would come to my door!”
In this new podcast interview, director and filmmaker Kate Churchill discusses her new documentary on yoga and the transformational effects it had on skeptic Nick Rosen. Enlighten up is a funny, charming, and informative tour of modern yoga that will take you around the world in search of the essence of yoga.
Not much shocks the conscience now that water boarding is apparently legal in the USA, but some Iraqis, not wanting to be outdone by us have taken to torturing gay men to death. Similar incidents have been reported happening to 