Spring updates (masks, and other news)

Spring is here now, the bulbs are really popping up, the trees budding out. I am welcoming the light. The longer days have me imagining bike rides and long walks, yard projects and picnics with friends. 

Though the Oregon Health Authority will remove the mask mandate in Oregon healthcare settings beginning April 3, the providers at our clinic have agreed to continue to require masks out of respect for our immunocompromised clients, our community elders, and our own health in this work that requires such close proximity. We appreciate your continued care of the community of people and families that thrive at our clinic.

I've gotten very use to wearing masks.

Welcoming a new year

 Reflecting on a year that seemed to move at superspeed, I recall sweet moments with close friends, a trip to see the Painted Hills, a humid summer week in NYC, an Oregon coast long-weekend, a few house projects, miles and miles of walks, and meeting many delightful new clients. Though the year has been peppered with heartbreak, I am thankful for all of your kindness and encouragement.

It seems challenging to be thinking, again, of a new variant and how much more adaptable we will need to become, but I am hopeful -and grateful for vaccines, boosters, and more accessible testing.

As we look to the coming weeks of this highly transmissible Covid-19 variant (omicron), I would like to remind you to please be discerning and reschedule your appointment if you have any -however mild- of the following concerns (I will be doing the same):

• You or one of your household members have had symptoms of fever, cold or flu in the past 14 days (eg. tiredness, runny nose, congestion, sore throat, cough, high temperature, shortness of breath, aches, pains, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, or loss of smell or taste.)
  
• You have been near someone who has potentially had, or tested positive for COVID-19 through a family or work contact in the past 14 days. 

stillness and reframing productivity

learning how to hammock in Colombia

I am learning how to relax. I've not very good at sitting still. I can keep myself busy, and master a check-list and perfectly arrange my time to fit as much as I can into my days. There are very few moments I have allowed myself to truly rest, not through the action of meditation, or Constructive rest, or the container of a nap, but just having stillness in my body and setting aside the rambling list of things-to-do. This is my radical act.

We live in a society, and I was raised within a household, where productivity and how much I do are significantly valued. It is hard to stop when you feel like your self-worth is intrinsically tied to continuing to do. As I struggle between my value and my time, time to wander in thought, to ignore the forever-long list of doing, I find more freedom in relaxing. Unwinding the impulse to continue doing allows me to slow into the taskless oblivion of living. Life doesn't have to be all of the things we do, it can also be all of the things we sense and perceive, the things we feel and find.

Breathing Into It

You might have heard your practitioner say -just breathe into it- as a hand painfully digs into your pectoralis minor, or a needle is pressed into a particularly tender point. You might believe the patronizing and cruel suggestion to breathe couldn't possibly help. Breathing is an involuntary action, but when we bring awareness and intention to this action we can alter our pain perception, and remind those muscles (that we never told to fire) to let go.

Breath is the foundation of living. Respiration provides energy required for growth, repair and movement. It brings nutrients in and aids in the removal of toxins. Awareness of the breath allows us to activate deeper, diaphragmatic breathing. This is respiration using the diaphragm, the deepest abdominal muscle.

Lately, I have been working on breathing exercises with clients who are experiencing chronic back pain. More often than not, when we think breathe, the lungs and rib cage move, and only in the front-side of your body. Because the diaphragm is such a unique muscle, it attaches to the entire circumference of the inside of your ribs, and to your spine. When properly activated the diaphragm moves all of those structures, on all sides of the body.

Try it! It is easiest laying down on your back, with your knees up, feet flat on the floor. Inhale low into your stomach. Exhale bringing your stomach back in. Use the floor to expand your back into as you inhale. Exhale. Find a slow, rhythmic pattern to your breathing, using a count of 2 or 4 to inhale, then exhale for 2 or 4 counts.

An important part of diaphragmatic breathing is that the belly is loose, and can move freely. It really contradicts the notion that you have to "suck it in". Your lungs are also not moving your shoulders up as much either. The lungs move as the diaphragm contracts (inhale) and relaxes (exhale).

Self-Care Habits with Hydrotherapy

 Traditionally hydrotherapy refers to the application of water to the body. Water, one of the oldest cures, has a long history of therapeutic uses; such as drinking and soaking in mineral water; healing baths and hot springs, to increase the flexibility of the fascia and warm the tissue up to reduce tension. Cold applications can be traced back to Hippocrates in the treatment of acute or overuse injuries, used to reduce the body's natural inflammatory response.

Hydrotherapy is an easy (and free, as a client recently told me) way to help your aches and pains between treatments. I'm often asked, heat or cold? It is always dependent on your comfort and preference, but here are some things to consider with hydrotherapy self-care:

HEAT

Heat increases the tissue temperature, and blood flow to the skin and muscle, which causes an increase in the body's metabolic response: more oxygen and nutrients to the tissue and more sweating (one way our body removes toxins). Heat also makes joints and muscles more flexible as it warms the collagen tissues which control our muscle and skin elasticity. Spasm is decreased with heat as it slows the rate of firing within the cells that tell our muscles to move, and pain perception is also decreased with heat due to a slower response within the nerves. Heat creates a general sense of sedation and relaxation, everyone loves to use heat!

When to use it: with chronic muscle tightness or tension, spasm, and joint pain. Not recommended for swelling, acute injury, or inflamed joints.

How long: about 10 minutes for heat packs, 15-30 minutes for hot baths.

COLD

Cold reduces the temperature of the skin, decreasing blood flow. Within injured tissue this decreases inflammation, swelling, edema, and bleeding. Pain transmission is blocked with cold application.

When to use it with inflammation, acute injury, or shooting and sharp nerve pain.

How long: 15 to 30 minutes, and never applied directly to the skin.

CONTRAST

This is when we use heat with cold. Starting with heat, apply it for 3-10 minutes, then cold, applying it for 1-5 minutes. Repeat (heat-cold-heat-cold-heat-cold) as long as needed, and always end with cold. This is a great therapy to increase blood flow and promote healing to those lingering injuries.

The Luxury of Self-Care

I am so proud of my clients who have begun to take more time for their own care; who view their monthly, or twice-monthly massages as a part of a Self-Care routine that insures their continued comfort and ability in their day-to-day. Our bodies often are the last thing we think to care for, unless we are in so much pain we can't sleep or sit comfortably, or we can't walk or move throughout our day without extreme discomfort. It shouldn't have to feel this bad to become an excuse to finally take care of ourselves.

Luxury is really a misnomer when it comes to getting massage or bodywork. It shouldn't be labeled a luxury to care for yourself. One of my clients works in construction, and he tells me that his co-workers often give him a hard time for getting regular massage; 'oh, that must be nice', they tell him. He laughs, but as hard as he is on his own body; lifting, twisting, walking around on cement all day, he knows that what keeps him going is his regular massages. He tells me, he probably couldn't get out of bed in the morning without massage.

Hyperbole aside, I stumbled across an article recently from a 2008 issue of Body Sense. Lee Picciuto explained this Luxury rhetoric well:

"Some people believe that massage therapy is either an indulgence for the wealthy or a "treat" for special occasions. Most therapists have some clients who only come in once a year, usually for a birthday or special holiday.

I have also encountered clients who have been influenced by others and made to feel guilty for spending money on a monthly massage session. These clients seem to think of massage therapy as a frivolity they don't deserve. 

Admittedly, massage therapy has a monetary cost, but that should be weighed against the benefits of the treatment--diminished stress, decreased pain, improved moods, etc. There is usually a way to budget for a monthly massage with a bit of reprioritizing."

My clients who have committed to regular massage have noticed a huge difference in the way their bodies feel; decreased chronic pain in common areas that hold stress, or do repetitive motions, and they tell me the just feel better, less "stressed". We hold the tension we collect from the world in our bodies; our physical reactions to what we experience, in addition to what we do (walking, running, sitting at a computer, gardening, lifting heavy boxes...). It is always a joy to witness my clients continued relief of their pain and stress, these are not things I believe they should carry with them every day.

I notice in my clients a difference in the tissue, the way the muscles move and feel, the way the body reacts to receiving massage, how quickly muscles release tension and adhesions. I cannot speak for their change in emotions, but I do notice their stress dissipate. I notice more smiling. I notice a deeper connection with their breathing on the table, and an understanding of how they are living in their bodies from appointment to appointment, as we continue to change and effect a more comfortable way to live with each massage.

Think about you commitment to caring for yourself. It isn't selfish, it isn't a luxury. You can save money when you sign up for a "monthly maintenance massage" with a 6-month commitment.

One 60 minute massage per month : $50.00 USD - monthly One 90 minute massage per month : $80.00 USD - monthly

knowing your body

I recently had acupuncture. It had been several years since my last treatment, and my neck and arm muscles were feeling particularly taut. She placed needles in my lower leg to alleviate my head and neck tension. The muscles instantly released upon the prick of the needle. My mind drifted, my body rested. This treatment reinforced my thinking around the systemic connection of the body; that one point can hold deeper sense of inner workings.

I must admit, I haven't been taking very good care of myself lately -a lot of working, and planning, and performing, and...not enough revitalization. I am determined to prioritized self-care. I've had massage. I took an Epsom salt soak. I stretched every morning and evening. It takes a lot of work, and after a week of working on myself, I don't feel better -(!!!)- I feel pretty mediocre. There is no miracle, and it takes time and energy. Our bodies are ever-changing, adaptable, and impermanent. When we heal, we don't heal to our former self -our "pre-injury" status- but rather a new status, one that remembers the pain and weakness, yet strives for physical knowledge beyond our past afflictions.

fluid motion

I took a wonderful course this weekend which focused on the fluidity of the spine, evoking our aquatic days. Undulation, a technique for spinal bodywork, is based in structural integration modalities, like Hellerwork and Continuum.

"Undulation, a fluid movement through multiple joints that include waves, bends, and curves, can be used as a tool..." to get through dense myofascial restrictions (stiffness) and revitalize lost range of motion due to our postural habits and repetitive-use injuries. (Anita Boser, LMP, CHP).

There are some common misconceptions when it comes to our bodies, that through idiomatic phrases, our bodies (and minds) believe is true. This class helped to unmask these words, and redefine, or rather, return to the definition via the evolution of our connective tissues and the past uses of the spine. The Spinal Column, evokes a solid, upright, rigid support. However, our spines (and our boney structures, in general) can do incredible things!

video: Emilie Conrad speaking about the fluid connective tissue that is the spine, as a Continuum teacher demonstrate the beautiful and free movement that our bodies, in health, hold.

Another broader cultural habit is to assume that once our bodies are in a state of injury or decreased motion, that we must adjust to or work around this new habit, greatly decreasing our body's entire range of motion. Bodywork and manual therapy (massage) restores our bodies to their highly functioning state, through the movement of fluid (lymph, blood) to the connective tissues (muscle, bone) and, by the breaking up of adhesions (places where the fluid surfaces of the body are no longer simply gliding, but stuck in fricative, decreased motion).  If we continue to encourage limits of our range of motion, we impress into our muscular memory, solidifying our dis-ease, a reduced range of motion that eventually can effect our entire body. With self-care practices and hands-on bodywork encouraging stretching and movement, we could hope that we could create patterns of a little more movement, instead of a little less movement.

So get up, stretch, and let your spine dance. Free your structure with fluid motion!