Should you come in for a massage when you are experiencing a flu or cold this season?
I love working with my clients. Truly I do. My work and the people I touch bring so much light into my world. But I am always astonished that some of them come into the intimate setting of the massage room with either a full blown cold or flu. I know they need some TLC. But the massage table is not the best place to get it. Especially with COVID still present. It’s important to remember that your massage therapist LMT can get sick. But not only that, everyone she/he touches or who breaths in or comes into contact with a live virus is prone to catch the same thing with enough exposure.
Some of the symptoms to look for are:
Cold:
stuff or runny nose
sneezing
cough
eyes watering
fatigue
headache
light fever
congestion
Flu:
stuffy and/or runny nose
headache
weakness
fatigue
dry cough
fever
congestion
body aches and pains
Colds tend to be milder. They also seem to be much short lived.
The best thing you can do is to rest, and take good care of yourself and others with plenty of sleep, and/or speaking with your physician. Also- just so you know, sometimes massage can aggravate your illness if too much activation is going on in your body systems. Not to mention, I think I have read that some Chicken noodle soup can really help to!
Don’t be afraid to cancel if you are sick:). Since I wrote this post, I have switched away from massage to Craniosacral Therapy. COVID has had a big impact on many so please be mindful of resting and taking care of yourself, as well as keeping others healthy!
Over the last few decades, Dr. Barbara Brennan has seen her healing techniques and teachings spread across the globe, touching the lives of many students, clients, and people who have attended her school and/or studied her books, “Hands of Light” and Light Emerging”.
Her four year program at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing” has continued to provide a sanctuary for people from all aspects of life in which to learn about healing and how their personal healership can support positive change in the world.There is no other setting quite like this school that can offer such a profound sense of community, bent in service to the Higher Purpose of Life. BBSH is a unique container of intentional movement toward the evolution of the human Spirit.
As a graduate of the school, I’d like to share some of my insights into the many benefits of attending this school:
A little bit about the school from a graduate’s perspective: The school is based on a four year curriculum, planned out to promote self awareness and energy transformation. In the most simple terms, the first year is very gentle and explorative in a nurturing sense. It is an opportunity to gain better understanding of Self, and how our Human Energy Field operates. As one approaches the second a year, a different template of energy is held to deepen into our whole sense of Self by further exploring our dualistic beliefs, wounding, defense systems and how we create conflict and resolve issues in our relationships. In my opinion, this year often opens us up to aspects of self where we dared not look in a long time. However, as we learn to listen to our Higher Selves, we gain insights from our darkness, and the light begins to shine brighter and brighter revealing our true natures. The third year takes us on another turn. This year challenges us to examine our relationship with God. Often authority issues are revealed and our limited thinking is dropped to open us to be more closely aligned with the Divine Mind. One learns to restructure chakras, to hold the 5th level of the energy field and so much more. Finally, when one enters the fourth and last year, the students take the time to write a research project and present a Case Study. This last year pulls the work together through working with the intention of Hara and rediscovering the Core Star connection we each have to the Divine.
To enter this portal of deep transformation and change, one has to be very committed. One has to learn to trust that by letting go of our old paradigms, that new wisdom and light will lead the way through our darkest trials. Students learn to recognize their strategies and defenses that no longer serve. With all pretenses dropping away, we have learned to become transparent and reconnected to the Whole. Even after graduation, we continue to question and explore in the dance of the Light , opening our hearts and our minds.
Most people who graduate, take the work they have learned from Barbara Brennan, her teachers and community out into their regular daily lives. But something integral to our way of Being has shifted. As we continue to use the skills, we weave our insights and essence into everything around us. We wake up to Source in everything we see with fresh eyes. Blocks that once held us frozen still dissolve easily, and the passage of life is easier to transverse.
I am not going to say that going the Barbara Brennan School of Healing is an easy journey. But it is a journey worth taking. The curriculum and support that show up at the school will help to heal your deepest wound. It will help you to navigate through life with more ease and grace. It will loosen your ties to the past and free you up to live more fully with Presence in the Moment.
Dr. Barbara Brennan dedicated her life to teaching and sharing her work. The Template of study and experience will dramatically change how you view life no matter how you look at it. If you are wanting to discover your True Essence, this is the place to start. If you want to look toward doing healing work with others out in the world, this school will give you the tools and Presence. Open up to your deepest longing and allow this community to support you in rediscovering your potential and True Self. Your beliefs are not you. You are so much more than you ever imagined yourself to be.
When stressed and feeling in pain, it is not easy to experience life as a miracle.
However, when we acknowledge our present and touch into our hearts, we melt into that glimmer of the Divine Spark. Sometimes we feel it inside, touching our tissues with awareness, Other times we are reminded by observing others or nature or something that shimmers with light. We may feel it when we are touched with listening and compassion.
The body is a physical vehicle that reminds us of the creation of the human spirit and the physical manifestation of life. The more we move toward integration and in free motion, our lives feel healthier.
When we feel healthy and good in our bodies, we tend to feel more in touch with joy and peace. It is easier to feel deeply into the miracle in which we live.
Taking care of oneself through touch, good nutrition, healthy expression of the creative force – allows us to gather insight into the light within.
Touch helps us to remember~
When you are feeling disconnected, imbalanced, stressed or just off your mark, consider offering yourself the gift of transformative Craniosacral Therapy Touch. Let Go and allow your inner wisdom to heal and to reconnect to the wonder of life. The human body is a sacred miracle given to us and blessed.
Learn more about Upledger Craniosacral Therapy, at: www.upledger.com
Looking to find a Massage Therapist for Structural Integration (SI) in Columbus, Ohio?
You have come to the right place. Sharon Hartnett LMT has over 17+ years doing Structural Integration Therapy. In the late 1990’s she found a local Rolfer in Mclean, Virginia who introduced her to the 10 series. She fell in love with the positive postural changes and increased movement in her body that she decided to study Structural Integration herself. She has been providing SI sessions with clients ever since.
Relieve Chronic Pain and Find Better Posture
Learn how Structural Integration Developed
Dr. Ida P. Rolf, a pioneering biochemist began to develop Rolfing in the 1930s after suffering from spinal arthritis. The direction of her work was focused on the role of fascia and unwinding tension patterns around muscles and joints in order to release pain and discomfort. While working in the 1960’s teaching her fascial work at the Esalen Institute in California, the term “Rolfing” was coined. Her original thinking and experience of manipulating the connective tissue brought students from around the world. She taught these practitioners how to support the body to function efficiently so that the force of gravity could flow through and support both the form and functioning. Soon later, the Rolf Institute was found. And as with most great work, different schools have branched out, extending the original work with same intention and yet with individualize perspectives.
Why Structural Integration Therapy?
Structural Integration is a system of bodywork that will encourage the body back into alignment and structural integrity. Clients walk away feeling more freedom in their movement, a sense of lightness, greater flexibility, relief from chronic pain and more energized. The Structural Integration model views the person as a whole that is self-regulation and self-organizing. Between sessions, clients are given exercises to help them continue their work out into the world. the body knows where it needs to go in order to find maximum motion. It just needs to be re-edcuated how to do that so it can relate more optimally in fluidity. After 10 sessions, clients take time to allow the work to continue and integrate with better posture.
Is Structural Integration Uncomfortable?
When you go to visit any type of bodyworker and therapist, it is a good idea to communicate your needs right from the start. The therapist has tools and experience working with clients, but ultimately the client benefits the most by expressing what his/her level of tolerance to pressure. Each person is unique in how they like to be touched. What Sharon does is ask, “If you can feel the sensations and feelings that arise during the session without having to tighten or react, than allow yourself to do that. However, if anything hurts or feels like it is too deep, please say “stop” or “lighten up”. The client’s wishes are always respected. With this said, often the fascia has historically tightened up in areas of the body around dysfunctional patterns. There are time when that tissue is lengthened it will be uncomfortable. Most clients though are so happy with the results and reconnection to their body’s that they return over and over with relief and commitment to themselves.
Is Structural Integration for Me?
Sharon offers free 15 minute telephone consults to answer your questions: 703 509-1792
How Does Craniosacral Therapy help those with Autism?
When I work with clients, I am totally aware of the shifts and changes that take place during the Craniosacral Therapy session. The tissues under my hands are alive and speaking to me through the movements and rhythms. Often clients quickly move from a stressful state into such deep relaxation after applying a still point that I hear light snoring in a matter of minutes. It brings me pleasure to help people find their inner peace through the manual work of Craniosacral therapy and other treatments that I share.
But- there is more than deep relaxation that happens during a Craniosacral Therapy Session. Craniosacral Therapists who are trained at the Advanced level learn to encourage the body into “still point” which can provide a very positive effect on the Central Nervous System.
What is a still point?
It is a temporary pause in the cerebral spinal fluid circulation through your brain and spinal cord. Inducing a still point will eventually flush out the system as the fluid rushes back in to nourish. The still point can help children and adults with autism to relax deeply so that they can receive the other Craniosacral techniques. It’s very quieting and fulfilling.
If you are interested in finding out more about how Craniolsacral can help with autism, check out the following link from the Upledger Institute, Dr. Upledger
Parents of children with autism often report that their children with occasional treatment, are able to have better eye contact and able to release stress easier.
