I had a new client this week who is recovering from her breast cancer surgeries and treatments. She was nervous and guarded and like most women that get released out into the world, left with pain and tightness...the kind that means you can't do your job let alone sleep and do all the things at home. Imagine a scenario where co-workers have to open the door for you because you can't use your arm. These women are discharged from care. All better or as they so often hear this is as good as it gets and when the patient persists with complaints about pain and tightness...it is implied that they get to be grateful that they are here. As in alive.

 You can be grateful AND not settle for pain and tightness. You can have all you need and crave a little more spark and zest in your world. Vitality doesn't have an age and when someone says you are as good as it gets, you have hit their limitation and not yours.

There is a balance to accepting where we are...

I went to my first physical therapy appointment this week. Cha Cha Cha! I've been lying around and recovering from long haulers since March 2020 and slowly adding more, like outings to the Clayton Art Fair and such. Good times but ya know how I like to ride my bike and jump around in the gym! Before I step up in the movement category, more than the neighborhood walks, easy yoga, and playing rock star in my living room, I want to build a base of core strength and mobility. I want to step it up without getting injured and really listen to my body. Sometimes ya gotta remind the muscles what their job is. 

It's ok to get support as you look at where ya wanna go and wonder how you're gonna get there. I know many things rehab, but having a one-one session bridges the gap. 

This is why people love working with us at Quantum Healing Arts! We have been specializing in and studying myofascial release for the last twenty years, helping you get out of pain...

Do you ever find yourself in the way? You know the thing that can help you and yet you don't do the thing? How do we find the time, the motivation, and the resources to make the change?

You see the goal (maybe it's to be pain-free, sleep through the night, have great sex with your partner, feel more at peace in your body) and you know the steps that can help you get there, and yet that two-step forward one-step back is as far as you get. 

You can have big shifts and build that momentum to healing AND to really embody that transformation it needs to seep into how you see yourself.

It's not just the activity, the stretching, the sessions on my table but how you think and feel about your body, your pain. As we say in the world of myofascial release...pain is the body asking for attention. How do you reply?

Is it like Miss Hannigan in the movie ANNIE, "...WHAT?!?!!"

So how do you get out of the way? How can you reach that...

I've spent the last few years taking things off my plate. Whether you are like me, and you had a big bout of Covid and the lingering side effects of long haulers or maybe you have had chronic pain, or you are watching pain and tightness creep up in your world and you are looking for the door that leads to feeling good in your body. So yes to taking things off your plate and slowing down your world...to heal, to integrate, to reassess what is working for you, and what still feeds your soul. Marie Kondo your day-to-day...the art of doing less. But how do you add more?

When you are feeling more spacious, have more energy, and that little bounce in your step is ready for new dance...let your heart and body lead the way. 

Your brain might be telling you to do more OR your brain might be warning you that to do more is gonna set you back. (Oh the dreaded setback!) As I say in my Myofascial Stretch class, to clients on the table, or in the world of coaching...

Do ya ever think there could be more? Not more as in "I'm dissatisfied" I need, I want, or even the realm of I can't have it...but more as in "yes please, bring it!" How much goodness can you stand without thinking it's too good to be true? Yes, we let go of patterns and heal the body, the heart, and the soul. What about the other side of that process? In our current healthcare system, the physical therapist is trained to get their patient to functional. I don't know about you but functional is not my stopping point! Body, Mind, and Soul, I am going for more!

 More love, more joy, more bliss found within your everyday. It's not over there or in the future or back when you were living it up. It's in the here and now.

Your nervous system is set up to detect danger. This is where the work comes in. You lay on the ball and create space where there was once pain and tightness. You notice your thoughts and counter that negative...

Can ya feel it? The subtle change in the air hints at the upcoming, fall season. I crave different foods, more nature, and I wake up with ideas brewing from a restful sleep. My summer companion (my 25-year-old daughter was home:) is back in her own world and I notice the space that is created. 

Sometimes we initiate change and sometimes change is simply upon us. The change in seasons is inviting you to not only pull out those cozy sweaters and all of the other things "autumn" but to search through your stash and see if what was last year, still fits in your world. 

You get to decide what you bring in. Here's the rub...you can only bring in something new when there is space created from the "letting go".

We are in the practice of "letting go" every week here in the Myofascial Stretch world. Gentle, sustained compression and elongation. Start the journey of learning how to track your body and take cues from your nervous system.  A...

Guess who's got a birthday coming up? I'm turning fifty this month and it brings all kinds of feels to the surface. I'm excited cuz that is amazing and fifty years is a long time and I can ponder my life and I am in awe of all that was, is, and can be. Everything we think, feel, and do add up and when I think of some of my favorites...Girl Scout summer camp as a camper and as a camp counselor, sports in high school...especially track and field (hello 400 meter run), my big move to Salt Lake City when I was twenty years old, buying my first guitar and writing songs, the car accident where I fractured my back and then I was a person who had pain, and then from my pain I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. I enrolled in massage school.

 It's not only the grand life experiences that lead you down the path to a happy, fulfilling life. It's the hard stuff that can shine a light on what really matters for you. You get permission to show up in a different...

I'm waiting for an idea. Well, I have an idea. I just don't know quite how to put it all together. I actively think about the pieces but it gets all tangled in my head and another day goes by. Then I put it aside and don't work on it. I play rock star in my living room with me and my guitar. I lay on my foam roller and let it all go. I rewatched Ted Lasso and it's still really good. And then I see my idea start to form. Little bits show up at a time. Cuz ya know...the magic shows up in the spaces.

 When you take the time; when you create spaces in your day, your week, your year, you are wooing those sweet possibilities without having to know what said possibility is. Knowing or wanting to know, as in really really know... if you already knew it you would know... ya know?

  
Add some Myofascial Release to the mix and you got yourself a whole bucket of possibilities. You are creating space between your joints, your vertebra, so all can slide and...

I just got asked to contribute to an article about Radical Rest. I love that there is a movement questioning the hyper-busy state that most of us were taught to strive for this particular level of achievement. Burnout is real but we don't really notice it until we are fried, done ala done. Same with our bodies. When the "busy" starts messing with your body as in creating pain, then one starts to pay attention. Tradition health care needs a diagnosis to treat your symptom. In the word of Myofascial Release, we are looking for the cause of those symptoms. That's the magic. 

Gentle, sustained compression and elongation for two to five minutes in one spot. This work is never injurious as you are listening and creating a  witness to your body as the fascia softens and melts... without going past your edge. You are creating space in your body; space between the joints, between your vertebrae, and space between your thoughts. 

 If you...

I think I forget to ask myself what I want. Sometimes I'm just doing things because that's what I do. You make the coffee without thinking about making the coffee. You're dressed and ready for work and where are the keys and the dog leash, and the morning has gone and left. I love a good routine and it seems to serve me well...to a point. Then there was this trip I made to Vail, Colorado to speak to the nicest group of surgeons about Myofascial Release and to share some of my Myofascial Stretch Method techniques. It's been a few days back and I've still got the mountain glow:-D 

Sometimes the breakthroughs are in the routine and sometimes the breakthroughs are in the unknown. Another way to say it is ..."Go For It Honey!" 

That routine you've got going on was at some point new to you. So what do you want? Ask yourself and then add the little daily/weekly routine that is gonna get you there! You get to pivot and try new things as well as leave other...