I do not simply rub your body with oil and have you mentally “check out”, only to have your aches and pains return in a few hours. I offer ongoing treatment customized for your needs. While relaxation in a calm and safe environment is very much a part of my work, I ask that you are as involved as you want in your own treatment and healing process.

I do not diagnose specific illnesses nor do I always limit our treatments to the injured area. Sometimes the injured body part is too sensitive to touch, so I work on a related body part. This method allows you and I to figure out if your injury or pain is actually caused at the specific site, or if it is a referred pain due to pinched nerves or a secondary pain caused by body misalignment.

I do not do traumatic spinal adjustments, use special instruments or suggest you need to come in 3 times a week for the rest of your life. Most of the work can be repeated in various ways at home, with no equipment. The whole idea is that YOU can heal YOURSELF! You do not need to become dependent on a doctor or therapist. You need to learn the tools for your own health and healing. When you get stuck or reach a point you do need to come in for a hands-on appointment, you’ll find the work is more efficient and longer lasting if you know your own body.

So – I am not a day spa, I am not a Physical Therapist, I am not a Chiropractor, I am not a gym, I am not a Psychotherapist. I am a little pinch of the good parts of these methods. The result is that you can get out of pain, speed your recovery and put the spark back in your day. And these changes can last a lifetime!

Call me! We’ll talk!

The more I attempted to “be me” the more “me’s” I found there were. I now see that “being me” means acknowledging all that I feel at the moment, and then taking responsibility for my actions by consciously choosing which level of my feelings I am going to respond to.
– Hugh Prather

Many of us seem to be on a search for the “real me”. The problem I have with this is that it implies that that “you” you are now is incorrect, or not real, or that something is inherently wrong with “you”.

I can’t believe any of you would spend our lives walking around as a fake “you” yet we spend time trying to find the “real you”. I like Prather’s insight that we are a complex series of emotions at any given moment. It is up to us to look at the full range of what we are, what we feel, what we like or do not like and then choose which of these we want to respond to.

It means we are actually conscious of what we are portraying to the world rather than thinking “Oops, the little real me is somewhere inside but he/she does not get to respond right now so the fake me will take action.” I believe this line of thinking allows us to postpone responsibility for our actions until a more convenient time – which usually ends up to be never.

So – there IS a real you. There are many real you’s. The many faces of you get to come forward and retreat based on the specific situation. I think the goal is to stop long enough to actually witness what side of you YOU ARE CHOOSING to portray and figuring out if that is really the side of you that is most appropriate at that time and place.

Simple, but not easy.

We can keep our shoulders and neck looser by strengthening our back. Our back has large muscles that help us stay upright. If we strengthen our back muscles, we allow the smaller muscles of our shoulders and neck to relax, in turn, allowing potential blood flow to the very small muscles of the head and face.

Here are two simple exercises for your back:

Superman Back Extensions:

1. Lay on the floor on your stomach, with your head in line with your back, arms out straight in front of you – just like a flying Superman!
2. Lift one arm and the opposite leg off the floor for a few seconds. Hold for count of 3.
3. Lift other arm and leg up, hold for count of 3.
4. Repeat 12 – 15 repetitions.
5. Stretch out your back by coming into a “Child’s Pose” or rolling over on your back and bringing your knees to your chest.

TIP: Make sure you lift your arm with your shoulder blade and back, NOT JUST YOUR SHOULDER. Lift your leg by squeezing the gluteal (butt) muscles, NOT JUST YOUR LOW BACK.

If you experience any pain in your low back, try tightening your abdominal (stomach) muscles and push your hips into the ground. If you still feel pain, do not lift your arms and legs as high. If you STILL experience pain, stop the exercise and we’ll figure out something else for you to do!

VARIATION 1 – Lift both arms at the same time for a count of 3. Relax.
Lift both legs at the same time for a count of 3. Relax.

VARIATION 2 – Full Superman – lift both arms and both legs for a count of 3.

Once you can do the full superman for 12 – 15 reps, or for a full 30+ seconds, add light weights (2-3lbs) to your arms.

The best video demonstration I have found is at LiveStrong.com:

http://www.livestrong.com/video/2526-do-superman-exercises/

And here is a picture at sportsmedicine.about.com:
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/abdominalcorestrength1/qt/alt_superman.htm

Upper Back Rows:

1. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, abdominal muscles in tight (pull your belly button back towards your spine) and hinge your back forward from your hips.

   I like going 45 degrees but others will tell you to go to 90 degrees. Just make sure you keep your back straight and bend at the hips.

   If you have any low back issues, do not hinge forward more than an inch or two.
   

2. Hold weights straight down without locking the elbows.
3. Bend the elbows and pull the weights up using the muscles in your back, not your arms, as much as you can. Pull up until the elbows are level with your torso – like you are rowing.
4. Lower weights and repeat 12-15 times.

*TIPS: For a great workout for the lats, use heavier weights and do one arm rows, supporting your back with the non-working arm. For an upper and lower back challenge, use lighter weights and pull both arms at the same time.

The best picture I have found to demonstrate this is at about.com:
http://exercise.about.com/od/exerciseworkouts/ss/backexercises_6.htm

Let me know how these feel!

If you can identify with any of these terms you know it is painful.

Tight jaw muscles, habitually clenching your teeth and intense feelings of stress, fear or excitement can all lead to incredible jaw pain, headaches and even migraine-like visual disturbances such as “seeing stars” or dark spots.

A chronically tight jaw can lead to secondary symptoms such as a sore throat, balance problems, dizziness, clogged and stuffy ears and voice fluctuations.

If you experience intense jaw pain, please see your doctor and dentist to rule out structural or medical causes.

The following routine can lead to looser muscles and a decrease of pain. This is also great for Swimmers, Dancers and athletes who tend to hold their jaw in one position for prolonged periods of time.  Singers can use these exercises to warm up their jaws before singing for a fuller voice and greater control.

1. Warm your jaw – warm a towel with hot water. Place it over the jaw and cheek muscles. This will increase blood flow to the muscles and begin loosening your jaw.
2. Massage the joint and muscles – Place your fingertips on your cheeks and locate the spot where the jaw hinges. Apply light pressure and massage in small circles, loosening up the muscles and stimulating more blood flow to your jaw. Pay close attention to the feeling of the jaw as it starts to loosen up.
3. Slow stretch – slowly open and close your jaw, each time stretching it a little further but stay within your limits of pain or where your jaw locks. Then, use your hands to stretch your jaw open further. Relax your jaw muscles and use ONLY your hands to stretch. This way, you are able to avoid the locking of the joint caused by tight muscles.
4. Say the vowels – Say each vowel (A, E, I, O, U) WITHOUT moving your mouth. You may have to look in the mirror to make sure your mouth stays loose. Then, say each vowel making your mouth as wide as possible.
5. Hang your mouth – now just relax your jaw. Let it all hang open like someone just asked you to define the relationship between genetic engineering and the rotational axis of the Earth. And breathe.

Yes. It IS that easy. But you have to do the routine at least once a day, maybe twice. Just a little easy effort WILL help your jaw pain. Try it. Let me know.

For long-term changes, you will want to look at neuromuscular retraining which will help the muscles of the jaw re-align to open and close on a straight path. We’ll include the neck, shoulder and back muscles as well as the hips as all of this leads to proper body alignment.  Being just a little off balance can set off a chain reaction in the body – tight hips, tight back, strained shoulder, stiff neck and, you guessed it, JAW PAIN!

Now sing with me…”the leg bone’s connected to the jaw bone…”

I was reminded of a few things this morning as ZigDog tried to get his kibble out of the Buddy Ball feeder.

1. Get the low hanging fruit (er, kibble)
If what you want is laying right in front of you, just grab it! No excuses of “that was too easy” or “I don’t deserve it”. It’s there. You want it. It doesn’t NEED to be difficult to be worthwhile.

2. Do one thing at a time
Forget the multitasking. It doesn’t work. REALLY. It doesn’t work and you do not need to be the exception. If you are eating, eat with all you’ve got. If you are playing ball, play with all you’ve got. You don’t need to eat AND play ball. (I got that one because I threw the ball out to the yard in the middle of feeding time. I got a blank,  rather disgusted stare as if to say “Seriously? What do you think I am? I’m eating here!”)

3. Don’t give up if you are going after what you want.
Just keep trying. And try again. Or, like Dori in Finding Nemo, “just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” You don’t need to explain it to others. You don’t need to feel stupid that you are trying the same thing that didn’t work moments before; Or running around trying from all different angles and positions. Each attempt from each angle may change the situation just enough, that when you come back to the beginning, it looks just a bit different and easier to solve.

4. You can still be scared by what you know.
ZigDog took a break from eating to sniff the grass. The Buddy Ball feeder rolled under ZigDog’s legs and hit his back paw. He jumped about a foot high, then saw what it was and resumed eating. So I remembered, it’s OK to be scared by the familiar. AND, if you are scared by something familiar, you have two choices:

LEAVE or GET OVER IT

There do not need to be any other decisions made. You know the situation, person, object so if your gut is telling you it’s scary, LEAVE IT. But if you figure out it was just a momentary awakening, then get over it an move on. Once again, no need to wander around feeling bad that you got scared by that which you already knew.

So, thanks, Ziggy for helping me see things a little clearer today. Now go get your leash, I want to explore the neighborhood again. There may be something new to sniff!

There is much advice and knowledge out there on raising your child and bringing in a new baby.   I know you can find it. I am here to shout about taking care of yourself and your partnership or marriage during the process.

Your love and relationship is what made you want to create this precious gift of a child in the first place. Keep celebrating it when you can steal the moments by:

• Holding hands, not just the baby, when you go for a walk
• Looking into each others eyes for a full minute just after the baby goes to sleep
• Trusting in each others parenting – avoid standing over your partner correcting each mistake
• Lowering your expectations of what NEEDS to be done – a dirty living room will, in fact, be okay for tonight. Rest and take some time together rather than cleaning!
• Supporting each other to make an appointment for your OWN hour of bodywork so that you have the capacity to deal with all the excitement and energy around you.

Remember, babies are resilient little humans that forgive and forget your daily mistakes much quicker than we do as adults. They respond to energy and feeling first, so creating a calm environment with love and relaxation actually IS much more important than washing a dish or doing another load of laundry. If you forget how to do that on your own, give yourself the gift of calling BodyLogic so we can chat about how to get you back into your body to become a full and meaningful part of your own life, your baby’s life and your partnership.

If I were meant to be like everyone else, I never would have been given the gift of thought, because to follow the crowd takes no thought at all.  — Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever

And yet…and yet…WHY is it so hard to make our own decisions? To do what we KNOW is right; WHEN we know it’s right. Why are we creatures that can think ourselves back into problems that we have already solved?

Because, we are human. Wonderfully, uniquely human. And our gift of thought has two sides, just like everything else. The wonderful gift of thought and emotion that can help us dream, imagine, laugh, feel and touch our soul. And the “gift” of thought that keeps us spiraling towards “the norm”.

Recently I have been speaking to so many people who feel compelled to follow the crowd because it’s just easier than continuing this feeling of swimming upstream. However, the strength you build by following your own thoughts and feelings is so, so, SO much stronger than just floating along, being swept into the ocean.

So, USE your gift of thought. Ask your internal questions and don’t be afraid to follow YOUR answer. Yes, it can feel awkward at first, but like Richard Bach states in “The Bridge Across Forever” if you were meant to be like everyone else, you wouldn’t have been given the gift of thought. We’d be pure instinct. And that, my friend, good or bad, is what sets us apart from most of the animal world.

I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake.  No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place.  An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, but individual, detached, with no suggestion of its origin.  And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation has had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was myself.  I had ceased not to feel mediocre, accidental, mortal.
– Marcel Proust

“I had ceased not to feel mediocre, accidental, mortal.” All from a sip of tea. When we can slow down, and notice, with great attention to detail, the mundane aspects of life, THAT is when we really live.

Finding enlightenment is not an evening of firecrackers, songs, dance and jublience. In fact when it is grand, it usually fades into the distance quickly, leaving us with a sense that something just happened…but what? Enlightenment is not something to seek, to attain, to hold on to.  It is the ability to see our day to day life with wide eyes and open hearts and great love for the details, the space in between the details, and find love for yourself and all that surrounds you. Even if the moment sucks.

The essence of life is not AROUND you. It is not even IN you. It IS you.

However, that is not true for all illnesses and injuries no matter when you catch them. If surgery of ANY KIND is on your horizon, bodywork and massage can be a vital step to pre-surgery preparation and post-operative recovery.

FIRST: CHECK WITH YOUR MEDICAL DOCTOR BEFORE SCHEDULING A PRE OR POST SURGERY BODYWORK SESSION!

SECOND: CHECK WITH YOUR MEDICAL DOCTOR BEFORE SCHEDULING A PRE OR POST SURGERY BODYWORK SESSION!

THIRD: CHECK WITH YOUR MEDICAL DOCTOR BEFORE SCHEDULING A PRE OR POST SURGERY BODYWORK SESSION!

You get the point…then find a qualified bodyworker! Many massage therapists do not understand implications of surgery on the body so make sure your therapist is qualified in this type of massage.

Pre-surgery

Before your surgery is scheduled, bodywork can help you pinpoint the exact location of an injury and in some cases help you and your doctor determine if the surgery is needed or if there may be other options.

Once your surgery is determined necessary, bodywork and massage can be a wonderful tool to helping you feel grounded before your surgery. By entering your operation relaxed and confident, you increase the chance of success and opportunity for healing.

Bodywork and specific weight training can help strenthen surrounding areas, which will lead to a faster recovery.

Also, working with a qualified therapist prior to your surgery, you can learn many hints to a successful recovery that you may not have been told at the doctors office – like stretching, freedom of movement, increased blood flow and an listening ear and heart, not something that is readily available in todays medical world.

Post-surgery

Depending on the recommendation of your doctor, you may be able to receive massage immediately after your surgery. The work can help ease the effects of anesthesia on the bowel system; assist in helping you to move body parts after surgery; increase blood flow to organs and body parts if you are not able to move as you were prior to surgery; and it can be wonderful for the fast healing and elimination of scars.

Many clients are not given post-surgical instructions and walk around for years in unnecessary pain and discomfort. Seeking a qualified bodyworker or massage therapist may help you to stay in touch with your body so that you know what to address with your physician or surgeon. Also, many therapists have experience with other clients in a similar situation as yours and may be able to offer you helpful hints and tips for recovery.

If you are undergoing surgery, remember your health is already vulnerable. Massage therapists, bodyworkers, healers and personal trainers are NOT MEDICAL EXPERTS! Be careful of quick fixes and advice that may be offered and if your therapists offers ANY TYPE of medical advice, we recommend not going back. If you feel the advice could actually be harmful, report the therapist to your local governing body, usually the police or business bureau.

That said, a partnership with a massage therapist, bodyworker, healer or personal trainer AND your chosen medical staff can lead to an amazing recovery and getting back to what you love to do – LIVE your LIFE!

That’s it. Read on if you want more explanation.

Treat your brain like any other muscle in your body and know if you use it in the same way every day, over and over and over, it will eventually wear out. Sort of like repetitive motion syndrome – but of the brain.

Physical - The brain is the most vascular organ in the body. By keeping physically fit you will insure adequate blood flow to your brain. This keeps your brain functioning and has shown to reduce the risk of strokes.

Take a brisk walk every day.
Swim.
Walk your dog.
Go up that hill rather than avoid it.
Get a good sleep.

Cognitive - Learn new tasks to improve your brain. When you learn new tasks and movements you use a different part of your brain than the part you use when you focus or concentrate. Eventually, when you know the task or movement, you will automatically move that to the part of your brain that is in charge of memorizing and “unconscious” movements. It is critical that you learn to things to keep ALL parts of your brain alive.

Take a class in something completely new.
Do a crossword or logic puzzle.
Learn a new dance.
Take a movement class.

Also, more and more studies are being done that show multi-tasking actually LIMITS your ability to learn new things. So, let’s stop finding pride in the fact that we can accomplish 10 things in the time it used to take to do one. When we multi-task we are not paying attention with the focus and intention needed to remember the new task. You may learn the task, but your retention will be less and you lose the part of your brain that is able to develop concentration.

Spiritual - Finding meaning in your life and those around you will help you remain alert and feel alive. There are many ways to look at this aspect of your brain, but the main point is find some meaning other than work, chores and succeeding. There is a part of your brain that is essential in the defining of “ME” – my hand, my love interest, my witty sense of humor. In Western American society we seem to have no lack of “ME”, so stretch your brain and try to figure out what “WE” means.

Volunteer (many, many opportunities out there – http://www.volunteernow.org
Meditate with a group (sometimes called a Sangha)
Initiate a call to a friend.
Participate in one of the many fundraising events for a cause you believe in.

Emotional - Staying connected with your own range of emotions is imperitive to a healthy brain. Rather than blaming the “stupid driver who cut me off” look at your own state of mind and why something so unimportant is making you angry. When you say “My mother/son/friend/etc is the LAMEST person in the world” look at what emotions are being triggered in you. It is important to know your own emotions so that you have cues as to how and why you may act or re-act. Emotions are not “controlable” but if you know “your state of mind” you will have an easier time knowing when to take a deep breath and relax and when to take the breath and plunge in!

Read a self-help book.
Take a bath to relax and reflect on your day.
Don’t do one of the things you “HAVE to do or my family will fall apart” just to witness everyone does survive!

Most of all – keep using your brain. Learn new things. Try something just to see what happens. This creates new connections in your brain that are vital in staying young. Yep, this is the basis of all of our work at BodyLogic, too. How convenient!