Equilibrio Massage...Moving toward balance...

FAMQ: So, do I need to take off everything?

(FAMQ: Frequently Asked Massage Question). Every few months I will get a new client who asks, “So, what’s the deal with underwear? Are we supposed to take it off in a massage?” They usually tell me that they never know what is appropriate and/or expected, and that they have never gotten a real answer to this question. Massage is all about relaxation and comfort, so this is an important question, as many new to massage or new to a particular therapist, have some hesitation around removing all their clothing in such a new situation.

My answer is always simple: “You should do whatever makes you most comfortable.” While massage is traditionally performed with the receiver unclothed, your comfort should always be top priority, and your therapist can and should be able and willing to work through layers of clothing (or avoid entire areas of your body) to accommodate how you are feeling on any given day. Consider this: if you feel that you are supposed to remove all your clothes for a massage, and then you spend half of your massage preoccupied with your state of undress, you will most likely not fully relax and consequently lose out on many of the benefits of your massage. If remaining partially clothed is going to help you feel more comfortable, and therefore you are more able to fully relax, then this is what is optimal for you.

Because a few of you are wondering this, I offer the following: I would estimate that among my own clients, about half remove all their clothing, and another half remain partially clothed, often depending on whether they are getting a full-body massage, or focusing only on specific muscle groups. Some people keep on their underwear, others keep on their socks, and still others might change into shorts and a t-shirt for their session. While the client’s comfort level around clothing shifts from session to session and client to client, what never varies is the use of “draping” with sheets, towels and blankets by the therapist. Not only does draping ensure privacy, safety and comfort, it is also legally required here in the city of San Diego.

Many traditional forms of massage and bodywork are performed with the receiver fully unclothed (and covered by linens). Not only does this allow the therapist access to muscle attachments around your hips, but it also leaves you unencumbered by the restrictions of your clothing. Your massage time is about relaxation and wellness, and it is also an opportunity for you to explore your own relationship to your body. You can explore the sensations of different massage strokes, the tightness in different muscle groups, the changing pace of your breath as you relax. The power of massage is also about human touch. You can take the opportunity to explore your reactions and possible inhibitions around being touched and your hesitation (or not) to removing all your clothes -- an important barrier and protection.

This is not to say that removing all your clothes for a massage is or should be a goal for everybody. Your comfort level may shift when you are working with different therapists (gender is often a big factor here), in different settings and at different periods of your life. While much of the bodywork traditionally done in this country involves skin-on-skin contact, there are lots of bodywork traditions in which the receiver remains fully clothed (Thai Massage and Shiatsu, to name two). Whatever your personal decision is around undressing for your massage, you should expect your therapist to receive you in a non-judgmental manner and fully respect any boundaries you establish.

Seasonal Body Treatments available thru mid-April

Below are the details on the Winter Body Treatment Specials, Available through mid April. Again, there will be limited appointments available, so be sure to book in advance.

DETOXIFYING HERBAL WRAP
This wrap encourages detoxification in your body. You will be wrapped for 30minutes in a thermal cocoon of hot sheets soaked in a special detoxifying blend of herbs that will help draw impurities and toxins out of your body. While cocooned, you will receive a full facial massage. Treatment is concluded with a massage using essential oils of the same blend of detoxifying herb. So far, people have left this treatment feeling "cleansed and refreshed." It is an intense treatment, and you should plan on laying low for the rest of the day. 105minutes, $105.

ROSE DEEP MOISTURIZING WRAP
This body treatment will begin with a salt scrub exfoliation, followed by a moisturizing shea butter treatment that is allowed to deeply soak into your skin as you are wrappped in thermal blankets for half an hour. As the wrap is removed, the shea butter is massaged into your skin. Each part of the treatment is infused with rose essential oils. 105minuntes, $105.

** Neither treatment is appropriate for currently pregnant women. **

Additional Breast Massage Resources

Several people have been asking for more on breast health. Here are some more explicit instructions on breast self-massage. Here is a video clip from a DVD from the Breast Health Project. As well as a link to their website with illustrated step-by-step instructions, as well as lots of other articles and resources. If you subscribe to their e-newsletter, they send you additional tips on breast massage, acupressure points for breast health and techniques for "Breathing and Energizing your Chest."

Here's another one from Cheryl Chapman who writes and teaches about breast massage, pregnancy massage and massage for people with cancer. She adds a bit of humor to the topic of Phluffing the Breasts. You can get a free PDF file on her website with tips on self-breast massage, entitled, 'Ladies have you phluffed your girls today?"

The final word on my last excuse

I've been reading through Donna Farhi's The Breathing Book lately (mostly as I recover from this cough and am very, very aware of my lungs and every muscle involved in breathing! More on breathing another day.). After detailing her daily breathing routine she has a little section of the chapter entitled "On the Road or at Work" -- addressing the concerns of those of us who travel often for work, have hectic schedules, have limited space, props, etc. Basically she is addressing all of us who have excuses of any sort for not having some sort of daily wellness practice. After describing impromptu usages of sofa cushions, the walls along the back of an airplane, etc., she writes:

It's not difficult to do, but you do have to decide that you want to do it. The degree to which you believe you do not have the time, or the perfect situation, seems to correlate direcly to the degree you need a daily wellness routine (114).

Gotta say after listening to every excuse I've given myself or heard from friends and clients, she's pretty much right. My own yoga teacher gives similar advice on self discipline, "At some point, you just make the choice that you want it and you do it. Because if you really want it, you are going to make it happen."

That just about stops all my whining. :-)

Learning How to Sleep...

I was sick in bed for a better half of the last week. I didn't feel particularly sick, but I was. And in my line of work, when you are sick, you don't work. So I decided, if I wasn't going to work, that meant no work whatsoever. While it's easy to call and cancel all my sessions with my clients, it's not so easy to turn it all off -- no more email, no more answering phones, no more catching up on bookkeeping, updating session notes, filing, etc. I decided to make myself go to bed and rest. Real rest. But that ain't so easy! I've had to resort to tricking myself into resting -- luring myself with that novel that I haven't yet gotten into, or a long, slow film; both are guarantees that I will soon drift off. Does it always require this much effort to rest? Is it this hard to go on vacation, too?

For a lot of us, it is this difficult. A few weeks ago on NPR, I heard an interview with a sleep expert, Dr. Helene Emsellem, who specializes in teen sleep (snooze or lose). Following every sleep expert that I've ever heard, she underscored that each adult needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep per day in order to function optimally; and if we don't get that, we will underperform, weaken our immune systems and be pretty darn grumpy, and our bodies will try to steal sleep whenever possible. She tells an example of former President Bill Clinton who famously claimed he needed only four hours of sleep a night. She said there is tons of footage of him nodding off at meeting after meeting. He may not be getting the sleep at night, so his body was trying to sneak in a few minutes here and there to make up the obvious sleep deficit.

She also made clear that many of us don't know "how to sleep." When I heard this I simultaneously thought "What craziness is that??" and had a memory of being 5 or 6 years old and laying awake in bed insisting to my dad, "But I don't know how to fall asleep!" as he tried to put me to bed. I'm sure he just smiled and nodded, and I fell asleep within a few minutes.

But apparently, many of us, kids and teens included, need to learn how to sleep or fall back asleep. We are getting less and less sleep; a WSJ article sites a poll that finds that while 38% of adult Americans got at least 8 hours of sleep in 2001, today that number has fallen to 26%. According to the National Sleep Foundation at least 25% of Americans take some sort of medication to fall asleep every year.

What's going on then? Shouldn't sleep just happen naturally? Ahhh...well, perhaps. But if we consider that we spend most of our days pushing ourselves to extremes and playing with our "natural" balance; we are stressed out, distracted, caffeinated and generally over-stimulated. Tips from most sleep experts follow these lines -- toward the end of the day, eliminate caffeine and start minimizing distractions. They all tend to recommend "setting the stage" for sleep to happen: No TV and other distractions in the bedroom. Heading to bed and rising in the morning at the same time everyday. No caffeine after mid-afternoon. Keeping your sleeping environment cool, dark and comfortable. We need to learn how to develop a routine that works for us. We need to learn how to be better in touch with our own internal rhythms.

I see this post turning into a Yoga Journal article, so I will stop soon. I've been reading YJ on and off for the better part of a decade, and have been complaining for most of that decade about the writing because after awhile you realize that the articles all sound the same. They all begin with comments such as "In these hectic times..." or need to paint a picture of our cultural landscape that is workcrazed, increasingly fast-paced, overly materialistic, and thoroughly shut off from body and spirit. I appreciate that such a magazine is appealing to a much wider audience than little ol' me and an important function they play is cultivating mindfulness and awareness of "our hectic times." Letting their readers experience yoga as something that can help wake them up. I really do appreciate that. But I also find it tiresome to read -- there is only so much space in each magazine, in each article -- and I fear that the writing gets washed out as it all needs to conform to this "setting of the stage." It all seems the same. But I guess I don't read YJ for anything other than my favorite column of all times...the Yogi Anatomist! I flip everytime directly to the Yogi Anatomist! Usually authored by the likes of Julie Gudmestad (my fave!), Judith Lasater or Roger Cole. Smart. Nerdy. Oftentimes attempts to ellicit a chuckle from its readers, but it never, ever seems to try too hard.

If I was writing for YJ I would be working hard to bring this article back full circle so that I would connect the lesson of "trying too hard" with trying to be sick in bed. I trust you as my reader though to suspect that I might have intended that (or not) and make your own connections, draw your own conclusions.

Open House! Wed, February 6, 5:30 to 7pm

Come celebrate the Chinese New Year with us next week at the Blue Lotus Center for Health. It is the Year of the Rat -- and according to Chinese astrology, this will be a year of plenty, promising opportunities and good prospects for all (maybe the Chinese astrologists can have a little sit down with Western economists...).

We will be celebrating with festive treats and drinks, door prizes, and good company. We haven't finalized the all the details yet, but the food menu is shaping up to be quite yummy. You will also get a chance to learn about Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, as well as talk directly with a handful of smart and caring holistic health practitioners.

Happy New Year! And I hope to see you there!

A new logo of her own...

I have a new logo...a few of you may have noticed. And I am going to slowly and stealthly slip into into action over the next few months (first the website, then the print materials). It much more reflects the work I am doing and is much more helpful for marketing...as you can see, it leaves no doubt that I specialize in women's issues. And while I am sincerly excited about the newly tweaked logo, it was pure torment trying to decide (as always...). I kept wondering, will it alienate my male clients? what if I don't want to do more than pregnancy? what if...? But at some point, I just said, "I'm going with it! If it's all wrong...well, then I'll find out pretty quickly."

New Winter Body Treatments

The Cranberry-Pomegranate Cocktail Wrap turned out to be quite popular (and I am sure I had as much fun as the people melting away on the table). While these treatments are too labor intensive for me to incorporate regularly into my work, I do plan to offer more as inspiration hits.

Thanks to all of you who offered feedback on the next round of seasonal treatments. The detox herbal wrap was the favorite by far, with the rose hydrating wrap coming in second. I will be offering both this winter, from February 15 through March 22. Again, there will be limited appointments available, so be sure to book in advance.

DETOXIFYING HERBAL WRAP
Inspired by the search for cleansing in the new year, this body treatment will begin with a salt scrub exfoliation. Once your skin is softened, you will be wrapped for 30minutes in a thermal cocoon of hot sheets soaked in a special detoxifying blend of herbs that will help draw impurities and toxins out of your body. While cocooned, you will receive a full facial massage. Treatment is concluded with a massage. 105minutes, $105.

WINTER ROSE DEEP MOISTURIZING WRAP
This body treatment will begin with a sugar scrub exfoliation, followed by a moisturizing shea butter treatment that is allowed to deeply soak into your skin as you are wrappped in thermal blankets for half an hour. As the wrap is removed, the shea butter is massaged into your skin. Each part of the treatment is infused with rose essential oils. 105minuntes, $105.

** Neither treatment is appropriate for currently pregnant women. **

Awake At Work

Awake at Work: 35 Practical Buddhist Principles for Discovering Clarity and Balance in the Midst of Work's Chaos by Michael Carroll. 2006. Shambhala Publications.

Since my work with many of you is geared toward helping you recover from the trauma (physical and/or emotional) of your grueling workday, I thought I would share this book that landed on my desk recently...

Over the past few years, the business world has been giving "mindfulness" practices increased attention; a growing part of the business sector is seeing the numbers and knows that how we work and do business matters. Michael Carroll's Awake at Work reminds us that the practice of mindfulness (a technique for learning to live in the present moment) can help individuals gain clarity, reduce stress, optimize performance, and develop a greater sense of well-being -- all increasingly documented by scientific research. With chapters such as "Work is a Mess" and "Welcome the Tyrant, " Carroll offers helpful insights into the mess many of us find ourselves in as we drudge, race or panic through our workday. While in some ways this book reads like any Buddhist inspired text, "be present in the here and now," Carroll's long career in human resources for various companies offers a specific take on mindfulness in the workplace -- power struggles with overbearing individuals; constant overwhelming chaos of pressing deadlines; fear in the face of uncertainty and potential job loss; and untangling our egos from our job titles. This book is not going to offer you a 5-step program for controlling and taming the chaos, but rather an approach to mindfulness at work that encourages us to transform the common anxieties and hassles of the workplace so that our daily lives are more fulfilling and engaging.

Breast Massage...

Breast massage. This phrase rarely evokes mild reactions from people. Clients are either immediately curious, or shocked and quite sure that it is not for them. Whatever your own response, breasts are body tissues with their own specific wellness needs, and they do reap benefits from regular massage (either through self-massage or from a therapist). While therapeutic breast massage will not be for all women, I wanted to share the principles behind it as an important part of breast care.              

A Cultural Discomfort with our Own Breasts. A quick search online for "breast massage" yields mixed results: therapeutic offerings for women with breast cancer peppered with pornographic videos. Another few searches through an online medical journal databse reveal that references to breast massage are only as post-operative treatments for women recovering from breast cancer. Like much of our modern medicine, breast care is limited to dealing with disease and does little for prevention and wellness. While this is our North American reality, I would argue that perhaps this is not necessarily the case worldwide. In fact, I can report anecdotally that the vast majority of the clients who have come into my office requesting breast massage have been women who are either immigrants to the US, or whose families are bicultural. In fact, some of my European clients (not all) have noted that breast massage is a regular part of a massage treatment in their home country.

In our culture, breasts are extremely sexualized, and any public display can be quite unsettling -- just think of the breastfeeding mother kicked off a Delta Airlines flight last year. Sometimes women feel - or are directly told - that their breasts are not their own: breasts are for our lovers, for our babies, for fashion. They are held up against often impossible, cultural ideals of shape, size, firmness and texture. They can be a source of pleasure and power for some, and a source of unwanted sexual attention and vulnerability for others. They are a deep source of shame for some maturing girls who either try desperately to enhance their small breasts or conversely roll their shoulders forward in attempt to hide their suddenly ample bosoms. They are squeezed into all sorts of restrictive garments, depending on the occasion. Many women's breasts are altered surgically and are left with scar tissue and pain - whether the surgery was for cosmetic reasons, or medical for biopsies and lumpectomies, or removed altogether. For all these complexities, many of us are uncomfortable with our own breasts. And despite the positive attention given to breast cancer education and research over the past few years, many of us are still hesitant to do monthly self-examinations - never sure of the difference between healthy breasts (with cysts and fibrous tissues), and more ominous signs. Afraid of confronting the dark specter of breast cancer, some women avoid their breasts all together.

A little more on breast tissue...Breasts are body tissues with their own wellness needs. The breasts have no muscle tissue, but rather are comprised of fat, glandular tissue and ligament support structures. This tissue is in a constant state of flux - even during our monthly cycles as our bodies prepare for potential pregnancies. Our breasts go through dramatic changes during pregnancy and lactation, more than doubling in size for some women. And, as we age and move toward and through menopause, our breasts also continue to change as the glandular tissue is replaced by collagen structures, and eventually by fatty tissue. During these shifts in the breast tissue, many women experience pain, tenderness or other discomforts, as well as develop benign conditions ranging from fibrous tissue to cysts.        

One key element to maintaining breast health is maintaining optimal circulation and lymph flow in our breast tissue. Not only do most of us limit this critical circulation from the constant use of restrictive garments, but most of our daily activities in our culture leave our bodies tight and constricted through the chest region (driving, computer and phone usage, etc.). The lymph system is an important part of our immune system - helping detoxify the body and distribute immune cells. And while other parts of our bodies use muscular contractions and movement to pump the lymph along, the breasts have no such option. Given this, any assistance with optimizing lymphatic movement and circulation in our breast tissues is an important part of breast wellness. Breast massage and stretching are a few important ways you can help counteract the impact of these constant restrictions on circulatory flow in your breasts.

Breast Massage. Breast massage can be performed by you or by a therapist. Below are just some of the major reasons women seek breast massage treatments (See Debra Curties for more) :                               

• reduction in congestion, edema and lymphedema

• help with becoming more comfortable with post-surgical changes

• education on self examination and self massage

• minimizing restrictions from surgical scars

• reduction of tenderness and congestion related to involution and benign breast conditions

• addressing own goals of becoming more comfortable with their breasts.

In a breast massage treatment, the therapist will work first to release some of the muscular restriction in the pectoral girdle, particularly to the pectoralis muscles. This is followed by a general circulation inducing strokes around the breasts (including over the breast bone and rib cage), and then very gentle kneading of breast tissue. Depending on the client's comfort level, one or both breasts are uncovered during the procedure, or both remain fully covered and the massage is performed through a sheet or lightweight clothing. At no time are the highly charged nipple and areola touched by the therapist. For some women who continue to be uncomfortable with the idea of having their breasts exposed or touched, another helpful option is to learn self-massage techniques from your therapist.

Safety and Comfort. Now, of course, some of you at this point are quite curious about breast massage, and others are a little bit shocked, and are quite certain this is not for you. Please know that breast massage is never a part of a regular massage. It must be requested by the client prior to each session, and requesting it one time does not establish a precedent that it will be part of all subsequent treatments. Your privacy and emotional safety are always the utmost priority in any session. Trust and clear communication must be established between the client and therapist.       

If you are interested in learning more about breast massage or self massage for your breasts, please let me know.