Tag: balance

Balance and Empathy: A Conversation with Jules

It takes a special person to work with mothers-to-be. It’s about balance and empathy and an informed touch. Expectant mothers are under tremendous stress and their hormones are almost as unbalanced as their changing bodies. For a massage therapist who works with prenatal clients, it’s about listening. It’s about knowing what’s going on anatomically, energetically, and emotionally. It’s about having special knowledge and skills to give some of those who most need it a time where they can completely relax and know that they are in competent hands. Say hello to a wonderfully caring massage therapist – Jules.

Jules does all kinds of bodywork, not just pre-natal. She’s also a doula (birth companion and post-birth supporter). She is very well trained in many types of massage including sports massage, chair massage, Swedish, deep tissue and more. A graduate of National Holistic Institute, Jules continues to attend professional development classes to keep her knowledge up to date.

What do you like most about being a massage therapist?

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Reduce Chronic Pain

Pain affects every facet of daily life, our work, our attitude, our relationships, and our outlook on our future. For some, controlling pain with medications results in unpleasant side effects. Americans are reaching out in record numbers to find the best options for pain relief without the unpredictability traditional medicine. The CDC reports that the top four reasons adults used traditional medicines were to treat pain including back pain or problems, neck pain or problems, joint pain or stiffness/other joint condition, arthritis, and other musculoskeletal conditions.

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Massage Helps Build Positive Attitude

positivethinkingDid you know optimism combats stress? That’s right, having a positive attitude actually reduces stressors in your life.  You worry less. You believe that things are going to work out and stress less about the small things. Positive thinking also helps stop “negative self-talk”–those little voices telling you to expect the worst.  This is all a conscious decision.  And positive thinking positively works.

For thousands of years, massage recipients have known that therapeutic massage reduces stress and people who get regular massage are generally much happier.  It turns out that there is evidence that massage also helps you have a more positive outlook on life and helps you cope better with the things that make you stressed.

Massage calms the mind

Massage can help you feel better about yourself and the relaxation can help with focus after your session. Anyone who has had a relaxing massage knows that when you finish, you feel peaceful and even a little “foggy”.  This “fogginess” is a true sign that for the time you were on the table you experienced “physical ease” which your body carries over into emotional ease. And while your mind and all your thoughts were focused on the quiet stillness of relaxation, your stress melted away.

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Seeking Balance

BalanceDiagramBalance. It’s being able to stand steadily on one foot or walk without stumbling – or it’s the leveling of activity between your work life and home life. Regardless of how you think of balance, most of us, at some time in our life are out of balance.

You’ve let circumstances and choices drive you to accept increased responsibility at work, for example, at the expense of family time. Or you’ve over-committed to activities that take you away from paying attention to our own self-care. Being out of balance causes stress that can affect your physical and emotional wellbeing. Over time this can have serious and mostly negative consequences on your health, your relationships and your work life.

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Why is Your Neck Sore?

neckpainUnless you’ve been injured, your sore neck most likely comes from tightness in muscles created by postural issues related to the position of your head.  Your shoulders are rolled forward and your head is forward.

So why is your neck sore? Simply put, your neck muscles are in a constant battle to keep your head from rolling off the top of your spine. Some of the muscles in the battle are attached to the top of your shoulder blades, dragging your shoulders up.  Elevated shoulders cause your pectoral muscles to contract and try to help manage the weight shift. The muscles between your spine and shoulder blade (the rhomboids) usually just form knots to try to compensate.  In front, your droopy head causes you to have to raise your head to keep your eyes level, putting more stress on the disks in your spine.  In short, it’s a mess.

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