How Rising Gas Prices Heal the Earth and Raise Quality of Life
http://www.amazon.com/20-Per-Gallon-Inevitable-Gasoline/dp/0446549541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266111942&sr=8-1
the subtitle is: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasiline Will Change Our Lives for the Better
I am reading this book I picked up at my library today. Wow, a great informative optimistic book! I don’t know if I told you this but I performed a comedy sketch on this very topic in 2007 at one of our first Monsoon Voices events, which I have attached below for your amusement. Anyway, I highly recommend you read this book, click the link at the top of the page or it may be at your local library.
Hugs, Patrick
My Campaign Promise (as if I were running for president)
Thank you, Governor Napalatano, for that glowing introduction. She’s right, I am the greenest. When Al Gore and I had lunch, he had a black coffee with cream and sugar. I had a decaf fair trade soy latte with no napkin, no lid, and no cozy—I don’t want to make more waste into the landfills. Actually I ordered it with no cup. I know what you’re thinking, he brings his own mug. Washing dishes wastes water and the soap has to go somewhere, it ends up in streams and oceans. So I don’t wash anything. When I order a latte, I just hold out my hands.
Thank you all for paying two hundred fifty dollars a plate to help me get elected. As you’re looking down at your plates you have noticed by now there is no meat, and your vegetables are raw. And they are not plates but bowls. Isn’t it a brilliant shade of green? What is it? It’s a green smoothie. Just spinach and kale and water pureed in a blender. You can just pick up the bowls and drink it. Try it! You probably already know that my number one issue in the next election is gas prices. I have been doing some scientific research and I have made an amazing discovery—the more gas and oil that is used, the more pollution goes into the air, land, and water. I see some of you have laptops open now? The findings are all in my paper. You can read it on my website. If elected I promise gas prices will be my highest priority dot com… slash articles, slash written by me slash about gas prices affecting pollution dot asp. There is a hit counter on the web page to see if anyone reads it. Well, I’ll save you the time and tell you the highlights:
I promise to enact new taxes that will double your prices at the pump. Every year.
My research shows clearly that when you double something over and over, it gets really big really fast. I promise that within four years, gas prices will be astronomical. If elected a second term, I promise that gas prices will be infinity. Yeah, I am surprised nobody has thought of this before! There is one problem. The gas station owners may be mad because the signs are not engineered to hold up that many digits. I know, gas station owners are people too so two or three dollars a gallon will still go to the gas station but the rest of the tax will go directly to the animals endangered by the pollution that using gas makes– spawning salmon, spotted owls, and so forth. We are going to give them little debit cards. Another problem is how they will hold onto the cards. You can’t give an endangered animal a leather belt and wallet, its inhumane. More likely we will capture them, knock them unconscious and surgically insert a chip under the skin that will register their account every time they get close to a cash register or ATM. If they are shopping online they can just use a nickname and password.
See, political science now realizes you can’t change people’s behavior by making laws. The new politics are all about encouraging new behavior patterns by giving financial incentives. For example, by dropping loan rates, we can get more people to buy houses and SUVs. With this principle in mind, if we want a greener planet, it only makes sense to bring buyers into the market who will spend greenly. We think billionaire salmon and owls will reclaim wetlands and forests by buying up large parcels of suburbia, leveling the houses with bulldozers, and planting trees and digging new streams over the humans’ old homes. We’re hoping they don’t buy guns.
Anyway, if that doesn’t work, I promise to focus my remaining years in office entirely on the space program. The EU intends to send manned missions to Mars within thirty years. America needs to speed up our plans because Europeans work together—its not a fair fight. But even if we get there first, there are some problems. Who owns the land? If there is nobody there to kill and rob it from, how will we really be able to feel like it is ours? We may just wait until the Europeans or Chinese get there and then take it from them. Once we control the land there is another problem. If there are no forests to level for cow pastures, no rivers to dam, how will we really feel like we are masters over the land? I have an answer. If we can raise the temperature on Mars about twenty degrees, this will melt the polar ice caps. This will create lakes for jet-skis and oxygen so we can breathe. I believe this will alleviate our Nation’s sense of guilt about global warming on Earth, because when we create global warming on Mars, this actually makes Mars greener! Melting the ice caps will give us a sense of pride, of having created a really useful planet… if it works. And if it doesn’t, well, it’s not about the outcome, its a process.
Tucson Massage June Special $30 off
We’ve been here six months now and we love Tucson. For the Summer I’ll no longer be traveling to Phoenix, I’ll be focusing on serving the Tucson community.
For June 2009 I am offering $30.00 off your first Tucson massage or bodywork session. Normal prices at my NW home-office near Oracle and Ina are $60.00 half-hour, $90.00 full-hour, $105.00 for 75 minutes (my favorite session length is 75 minutes), and $120.00 for 90 minutes. Traveling to your location is an option with fees increasing at least $15.00 or more depending on your location. I have given massage as far away as Picacho and Green Valley so far this year. Please mention this ad when booking to get your discount. To make an appointment, please call me at 623-670-0442 (my cell phone still has a phoenix area code)
I have been licenced as a massage therapist since 1994 where I was one of the first “preferred providers” of massage for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Group Health, State Labor&Industries (Injuries), all car insurance carriers, and other health insurance providers in Seattle. While my original focus was medical massage, after meeting Stephen Bruno http://www.moon-rock.com in 1996 I quickly moved more natural and holistic. While I include Reiki in every session and teach Reiki, I still approach each person primarily with respect to their muscle tension, applying my efforts to reducing this tension within the first few seconds of the treatment so that the person can truly feel change occurring throught the time.
I specialize in helping people who have tried many other forms of therapy without success. This can range over many kinds of symptoms and conditions such as fibromyalgia to specific joints like neck pain or headaches.
I am also a teacher for massage therapists. The courses I teach most frequently now are “melting the atlas and axis” which is about treating the muscles that connect the neck to the head, and “touching the brain” which is hands-on the head to actually give the brain more space to think and be free. If you’d like to look at my classes you can see them at my permanent website http://meltingmuscles.com or my frequently updated continuing education blog, http://meltingmuscles.blogspot.com I have been publised twice in the massage magazines.
I also teach Professional Ethics for massage therapists, especially “Creating Equal Relationships.” I believe the healing relationship works best when the giver and recipient work in equal partnership for the recipient’s therapeutic goals. In fact, as far as the classes I teach, I think bodyworkers gain more healing abilities from this talking-only ”equal relationships” class than they do from the hands-on technique classes that I teach.
As an educator I am certified with the National Certifying Board of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, NCBTMB.
When I became a full-time teacher in 2002, for a time I retired from giving individual sessions. But I missed it.
Teaching has accelerated my healing skills and with the accelerated results, I enjoy giving sessions now more than ever.
I feel comfortable working with people who have never received “massage” before and I often work with people fully clothed, wearing sweats or workout gear.
If lying on my massage table is not a comfortable position I am certain we can find a position that works for you–what position do you sleep in? I have worked with people in wheelchairs and hospital beds. I have worked with the terminally ill and their caretakers. I have relieved headaches for people during a 10-minute break from work, who sit on a chair, fold their arms on the table and rest their head on their arms. I have provided hundreds of 10-minute sessions for athletes coming in from a saturday morning training event, assimilating that pain that comes up around mile six…
I enjoy working with yoga practitioners in their challenges. I understand what is normal joint flexibility and you would be surprised how many yoga practitioners gain excess hip lateral rotation only to lose normal hip medial rotation.
I enjoy working with athletes training for specific events. Do you realize how much extra horsepower you would have if you simply stopped guarding your own muscles? For example, you can strengthen the quads all you want but if your hamstrings are pulling at the same time, attempting to bend the knee every time you try to straighten it, this erases much of the quads’ power.
If you have questions about massage therapy, if you’d like a free consultation, please give me a call.
Warmly,
Patrick Moore, Licensed Massage Therapist, BA (math, whitman 1984)
623-670-0442
my therapeutic approach
I’ve been a licenced massage therapist since 1994 though my first experiences providing healing sessions were in 1977. I’ve been teaching massage therapists since 1999, though my first experiences teaching math were in 1979. So I’ve had some time to figure out what I think works best for both the recipient and the giver.
Therapeutic Approach to Muscles
As a massage therapist, my aim is to find those specific muscles that are contracting too much and ask them respectfully to release their tension. It is the brain that commands muscles to contract so to relax the muscles, a certain portion of the brain must be addressed. This part of the brain does not like to be forced but enjoys making its own decisions. In all my sessions I use at least a little Melting Muscles, which moves the person into a more comfortable position so the brain will feel safe, then applies a gentle pressure to give the brain an opportunity to make a new, wiser decision from a place of comfort and safety. The brain always agrees to some degree, the muscle melts, and the person feels some relief.
There are more direct ways to flatten, lengthen, and stretch muscles but I believe the person will have more lasting benefits if it was their decisions that changed them rather than my forces.
Therapeutic Approach to DisEase.
Every cell in the body has DNA within that holds both the memory of previous traumas and the blueprint of the perfectly operating beautifully functioning body. Each moment is an opportunity for the DNA to recreate the cell to its original design. I believe that no matter how degenerated a person’s body has become, it is never too late for the cells to begin making different decisions. Of course many factors sway the speed and degree of restoration of balance, both inner factors and outer factors. In general, if the immune system has enough energy in reserve it can restore any body system that has gone out of balance. Massage Therapy, Reiki, Craniosacral, and other treatments that I offer do boost the immune system both by re-routing your own energy paths and patters to greater efficiency so that you have more for healing, and by bringing outside energy into the body.
Thearapeutic Approach to Symptoms
I believe the body is always acting to serve us. In fact, the body is so willing to serve that it would lay down its very life in order to serve the body’s owner. With this belief I always honor the symptoms that people bring. The symptoms are not wrong, and not right either, its not about wrong and right. The symptoms have something to tell, or in one way or another change behavior or some other conditions that will aid the person in the long run. I am not an expert at interpreting this language for others, and I do not consider it within my scope of practice to tell a person what their symptoms “mean.” That might fall within the scope of a “medical intuitive.” As a human being I sometimes share my own experiences as owner of a body and what I felt my body was trying to tell me. As a Licensed Massage Therapist, I am trained to ask good questions to find how the symptoms have affected your Activities of Daily Life (ADLs) and over a number of sessions, I keep track of how these ADLs are returning. I honor the wisdom of the body, its courage and compassion.
Therapeutic Approach to Pain and Suffering
Pain is a warning or message that something in your body needs change. It is not wise to simply relieve pain without any curiosity about how it occurred or what could be different. My aim as a therapist is to follow pain back to its source and kindly ask that source if it would like to change. In my way of looking at things, muscle and joint pain is often the result of muscles contracting too much. Since muscles are controlled by the brain, it is the brain that I ask to relax. I really do not need to know more than that. I don’t want to know why the brain chose to guard that area. In a lot of cases, the reasons are personal and often hidden in recesses of the brain that neither of us may access easily. I don’t want to go there. However, as I am holding a muscle, requesting that the brain reconsider its pain-producing patterns, always there is some response. Whatever the recalculations within the brain and mind are, is beyond me, but soon enough we both feel the muscle softening, the pain reducing. This is the person’s inner process.
Pain and suffering are not a necessary part of life. People who use proactive processing, seem to experience less suffering. Proactive processing includes: painting, journaling, poetry, writing fiction, nature walks, nature photography, working with animals, working with plants, tai chi, chi gung, and kum nye. I am sure there are a thousand other ways to process in advance so that things do not need to come to a degree of pain that would be interpreted or experienced as “suffering.” The assistance of a great life coach like Laura or Stephen Bruno can help you to be on the proactive side of processing.
My Therapeutic Approach to Your Past
In 2007 Laura Bruno challenged me to consider two of my past lives were influencing my current symptoms. As a person I now recognize this can be a factor. However as a therapist, I am reluctant to consider past lives as a cause until several other possiblities are first addressed. Before a person could “blame” his situation on a past life, has he first done an honest look at his lifestyle to remove toxins, behaviors, and etc. which may be dragging him down? Has he considered events of this life that may have traumatized him, and taken steps to heal these? Has he considered the demonstration of parental figures and the culture he grew up in, especially his first 3 years, as the source for current patterns he has adopted, and made steps to lessen these patterns? There is a heirarchy of influence and if the person has “done all his homework,” looked under every rug and in every corner and there is no explanation for his current symptoms, only then would I hint at the possiblity of past lives as a possible cause. I am not an expert with past lives though I have ”seen” these a few times in the last two years in working with a couple of people. Maybe one day I will be able to shed light on these for people but for now, I refer people with this type of question to Laura Bruno http://laurabruno.wordpress.com There is a woman I have been working with for three years. She is retired and her neck has always been her chief complaint. For two years we made great progress and the majority of her complaints are gone with a few still lingering. During one long stretch of meditative work, I shared with her that I was sort of daydreaming of her as a Roman Emporer who, when the regime policies changed, was beheadded. She giggled and said, that sounds like politics to her. I don’t know if this means that was a real event from her past life or just a metaphor, but either way it seemed to help her progress to consider it in a way she could chuckle about it.
My Approach to Therapeutic Relationship:
I do not fix people, and I wouldn’t even if I could. Everyone is capable of healing herself, if she would only invest some of her time and energies in processing. Processing alone can feel scary. I am a technician with experience that assists a person into the environment and positions where she feels safe to process. By investing in my services, she invests in her own process.
equalizing therapist and client
Third Millennium Customer Service–
Ancients Advise Role Reversal
Introduction
Mission statements are shifting aim from “guest expectations,” to, “creating healthy relationships.” How do we create healthy service relationships?
Many people remember a time when businesses treated customers like royalty. The slogan, “The customer is never wrong,” first printed in French to advertise Hotels in 1908, seems to have risen to its climax in the 1950s, and since then has declined. The nostalgic often say, “The world is going in the wrong direction! The hired help these days refuse to make the customer first.” It is true that service is changing, but the decline of flattery may indicate a move in the right direction.
The waning view is to elevate the customer to a higher status than the server. Why did this work so well for a hundred years? Most people, in their private thoughts, consider their needs and wants to be more real than the needs and wants of others. Customer elevation appeals to that self-important part inside all of us. We all want to feel special, members of an exclusive group, the exalted. It gives you a charge to be treated as special. One benefit of customer elevation is profit: it attracts customers who are willing to pay more for that uplifting sensation. Two problems arise from customer elevation. For one, the customer will begin to believe that he really is more important than others–a belief that will not serve him in the long run. Let’s give him something better than that! The second problem is that the server must act inferior, and nobody deserves that.
The hundred-year trend of customer elevation is dwarfed by a larger trend–equality. Between 2,900 and 2,400 years ago, the Old Testament (Torah), the Ancient Greeks, and Confucius all wrote what is now known as the “Golden Rule,” stated as varieties of: “Love others as yourself,” and “Treat others how you want to be treated.” Socrates was put to death for demonstrating selfless service 2,400 years ago. What got him arrested was advising everyone to choose wisely one’s personal leader, to dethrone the loud voice within that only pursues pleasure and avoids pain (ego), and instead to elect one’s quiet voice, or “essence” as one’s personal leader. According to Socrates, the essence of a human is naturally patient, reverent, non-judging, an tolerant, the source of all the Virtues. 2,000 years ago the “guy in sandals” repeated the ancient decree, “Love others as yourself.” He said whatever you do to others, you do to him (ponder that again after finishing this article). He furthered the golden rule to loving the unclean, the diseased, the sinners, and especially one’s enemies—words he demonstrated through his life, death, and beyond. In 1787 the U.S. Constitution stated, “all men are created equal,” with amendments to disregard race and gender following in 1870 and 1920. In 2008, a man of color and a woman run for President. Perhaps equality is finally sinking in!
How To Become Equal
Anything you exercise will get stronger!
How can we become equal with others, when our egos have been fed on, “My gain is more important than your loss?” Three antidotes for self-importance were designed more than a thousand years ago. In these exercises, equality is achieved through visualizing role reversal, imagining the details and intricacies of the Golden Rule. Each exercise unveils a different perspective of “self” and “other.”
Be careful, these are powerful exercises. Each exercise is more potent than the previous. Start with a few minutes of Exercise One, and over a few months, gradually build up to Exercise Three.
Equalizing Exercises greatly improve quality of service especially for these professions:
· Childcare
· Conflict resolution
· Counseling/Coaching
· Customer Service
· Educators
· Food Servers
· Legal Assistance
· Mediation
· Medical professions
· Hair, Skin, and Nail Services
· Physical Therapies/Bodywork
· Senior Care
· Yoga and Pilates instructors
Exercise One: Equalizing Self and Other. Attributed to Shantideva, 7th Century.
Sitting quietly, contemplate how all people are equal, all wanting happiness and not wanting to suffer. Meditate on these perspectives and add your own:
Imagine a world where each person considered others more important than oneself. Since others outnumber me, they would do far more for me than I could ever do for all of them. I would end up with far more gifts and wealth than I have now, as one person fighting for my needs against others fighting for theirs, who outnumber me.
Consider a metaphor: within one human body, the hand has separate cells than the leg, but if the leg is threatened, the hand immediately comes to the rescue with no thought for itself. Wouldn’t it seem unnatural if the hand declared independence, claiming the right to defend itself or pursue happiness apart from the other parts?
Humans are not castles with impenetrable boundaries. Exchange is natural and normal. Cow manure fertilizes plants that you eat, –the carbon that was once part of the cow now are strong bones in you. We breathe in air that others breathe out. When we hug, heat is given and received. Lifting a child onto a step gives your potential energy to become potential energy for the child. Up escalators give you potential energy and down elevators take your potential energy away, but do you need it? Why guard the energy called money, when we do not guard our carbon, air, heat, and potential energy?
Remember the feeling of being intimately a part of nature or another person. Have you ever had a sense of oneness or wonder? While being “at one,” we feel the importance of all needs and wants as if they were our own, and who knows, maybe this view is more accurate?
Equalizing Self And Other includes any mental exercise that ponders the many perspectives of our equality. This works well as a writing exercise, in fact, I have discovered a lot just by compiling these exercises for this article!
Exercise Two: Exchanging Self and Other. Attributed to Shantideva.
Exchanging is a three-part meditation: visualizing a person who you judge as having lower status than yourself, equal competitors, and higher status. In each case, you switch your perspective, imagining how it is to be the other person. From their eyes, you are now looking into your eyes, feeling a) how it feels to be judged by you, and b) how this person judges you.
Part one: Higher to Lower
Do you know anyone who is pathetic, mean, stupid, or worthless? Be honest. Get a person in mind that you look down upon. Imagine you two are actually sitting or standing face to face; see the person as clearly as you can. What are your expectations of this person? Now imagine being that person, now you are looking at you from their eyes. How do you feel? What do you want to say? What do you want to do? What do you expect? You may do some writing as this persona.
Part two: Competitive Equals
Imagine a competitor, a friend, sibling, or someone you see as equal status. Imagine yourself face to face, and see them as clearly as you can. Feel as clearly as you can, the emotions and judgments you have toward this person. Now switch. Take some time to feel what it is like to be in their shoes, in a competitive relationship with you.
Part three: Lower to Higher
Imagine someone that you envy or consider superior. Switch places with this person and imagine how it feels to be the envied one. Write how this feels and thoughts that arise while you inhabit this opposite perspective.
Alternative: Try journaling about a time someone pushed your buttons. Once on paper, try writing how it must seem from the other person’s points of view, from the cellular point of view, from the dog’s point of view–any perspective other than your normal one.
Exercise Three: Unconditional Giving and Taking, or Tong Len. Attributed to Atisha, 9th Century.
With each exhale, imagine sending from your heart everything of yours that you value, into the other person. With each inhale, you draw from them everything unwanted, and take it into your heart. That’s the whole practice.
Sound challenging? Here is a gentle way to begin, which awakens the compassion that is your natural self. With your first ten breaths, visualize a frightened little animal. Of course you would give comfort while taking its fear. Next, visualize a little girl from a war-torn country, giving your secure home or food while taking her sadness. Pace yourself, increasing the challenge in gradual steps because this is a powerful exercise. Wait until another day and practice with loved ones. After you have practiced a few weeks or months, gradually exchange with the people that push your buttons.
Because breathing into the lungs fills and empties the lungs, which surround the heart, breathing allows you to more fully engage your heart in unconditionally giving and taking. Your heart becomes like a bellows that flows ever-increasing amounts of energy and emotion through.
You might wonder, what about equality? This exercise gives all the good to the other person and all the bad comes to me–that is not equal! Because we begin from a state of self-importance, now we must practice its equal opposite. Because self-importance has had such a head start, we can easily afford to meditate with others of greater importance for a few minutes a day.
Students in my Ethics and Reiki classes often tell me this axiom: “You can’t heal others until you’ve healed yourself,” or, “You can’t love others until you learn to love yourself.” According to my Reiki Teacher, Stephen Bruno, this axiom has been taught backwards. He said, “You learn to love yourself by serving others.”
When you are ready to take on more, try visualizing your outgoing gifts as golden light. Try imagining that you inhale their problems as thick black liquid or smoke that leaves their body. Examples of what you may imagine giving include; your good health, optimism, wealth, happiness, possessions, relationships, luck, karma, and energy. Imaging taking their; pessimism, meanness, weakness, pain, sorrow, anger, disease, and bad luck.
Do expect that Tong Len will change you! Do not expect that it will change the other, though this can happen. A story is told in Tibet where long ago, a guru and student looked out of a window. Seeing a dog being beaten in the street by its master, the guru practiced Tong Len with the dog, and the student noticed bruises appear on the guru. Chogyam Trungpa suggests we practice Tong Len with the Earth itself, inhaling air pollution. He believed this would make a difference, the skies would actually clear up. The Dalai Lama describes in his book, Healing Anger, how he continues to practice Tong Len to cure his anger toward the Chinese Government, which ousted the religious culture in 1959. Can you imagine sending all your gifts and taking all the karma from the occupier of your homeland? He hopes that one day Tibet may be an autonomous democracy, and he just happens to gain more and more influence in this regard, the more he practices Tong Len.
Teachers say that when you are doing Tong Len correctly, there is a mild discomfort. Then you know the practice is hitting its mark, one’s self-centeredness.
Further Study:
Lama Yeshe, a beautiful soul who passed in the 1980s, taught about these three exercises and his lectures have been transcribed on this web page: http://www.lamayeshe.com/otherteachers/ribur/hgb_3.shtml
Conclusion
Once you have practiced alone for a few weeks, months, or years, and know what to expect, it would be safe to attempt doing these exercises in real time with actual people. For example, as a massage therapist, I often imagine inhaling the pain and issues from the muscles that I am working on. While I am teaching or coaching, I imagine what it is like to be the student or client looking at their teacher or coach. When I am attending a class, I imagine what it would be like to be my teacher, dealing with me.
What if you had an irate customer complaining to you, would you be able to switch to their point of view, and see yourself from their perspective? Not only could this transform you, but feeling understood, the other person might suddenly warm up.
Sources:
“The Way of the Bodhisattva,” by Shantideva. Regardless of what translation you have of the Bodhicaryavatara, Equalizing Self and Other appears in Chapter 8, verses 90-98. Exchanging Self and Other appears in Chapter 8, 141-154. If you are going to buy a copy, I recommend the 1997 translation by the Padmakara translation group (Shambhala Classics), which includes two very useful appendices written by modern Gurus that explain and expand on the practices, “Equalizing Self and Other,” and “Exchanging Self and Other.”
The practice, “Unconditional Giving and Taking,” also called “Sending and Receiving,” “Tong Len” or “Tonglen,” is attributed to 9th Century Atisha, and arrives in English through at least two books, notably “Healing Anger–The Power of Patience From a Buddhist Perspective,” which is a transcription of lectures given by the 14th (current) Dalai Lama in Arizona. The second source is “Training The Mind and Cultivating Loving Kindness,” by a brilliant teacher, the late Chogyam Trungpa (Shambhala).
The stories of Socrates are available freely all over the Internet, the most popular being Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.
how massage complements mental health therapies
“Clients are better able to make cognitive connections in psychotherapy sessions that follow bodywork sessions. In most cases, the client’s characteristic resistances are lowered and she or he is more available for therapeutic insight.” Says Robert Timms, PhD in his collaborative book, Embodying Healing.
Relaxing the Brain:
Brain-muscle work is a very efficient way for a patient to process old tensions because a) muscles literally hold tension, b) muscles are easy to reach, and c) under the right conditions muscles may release tension very quickly.
What are the right conditions for muscles to release tension? First, it is important to note that muscles contract only when, and to the degree that, the brain signals contraction. “Muscle guarding” is ongoing contraction, enacted by the cerebellum (hindbrain) when it feels there is some danger. The cerebellum’s decision to guard could be because of information that arrived from higher up in the brain, such as mental and emotional states of distress. The cerebellum also calculates safety from proprioceptive information arriving from the muscles and tendons, and sensory information throughout the body. The cerebellum does not sleep; once it has decided to guard, it guards day and night, for weeks or decades, until it makes a different decision. However, in the guarded state, tense muscles feel sore and painful, and tendons live under tensile stress. Therefore, while guarding, proprioceptive information to the brain continue to indicate that guarding continues to be appropriate. Bodywork techniques that trigger muscle relaxation do so by setting the brain at ease.
Specialty courses are now available to teach how to invite the brain to reduce contraction. Even without this training, the hands of countless massage therapists have rediscovered that “less is more.” Any muscle work that leads in seconds to palpable muscle softening, likely works because it triggers the brain to relax the muscles. It is like massaging the brain by working on the muscles. Ten thousand bodyworkers may now be massaging the brain without even realizing this. Brains feeling safe enough to relax muscles also feel safe enough to move forward mentally and emotionally.
Local Work Has Systemic Effect
Once the cerebellum feels safe enough to relinquish guarding in any one muscle, the hypothalamus also begins to feel safe enough to switch the nervous enervation and hormone signaling from “fight or flight” sympathetic programs to “rest and digest” parasympathetic. This means the person’s pulse and blood pressure lower, adrenaline and cortisol productions reduce, peristalsis resumes, and a hundred other pro-healing changes.
Brain-Muscle Relaxation Progressive and Finite:
Tensions released by brain decision remain relaxed. If similar tensions arise again, this likely indicates that the patient’s brain has made a new decision to guard—an interesting event that allows a fresh look at the person’s current issues.
Soon after the brain has experienced the benefits of one muscle relaxation session, dormant tensions seem to get in line to be the next to surface. The brain will not allow all the tensions to surface at once. Massage is a comforting, non-overwhelming way to welcome tensions as they surface and move on.
The next tension pattern in line may use the same muscle group that the last tension pattern used, as if this muscle group is now known to be a safe path to freedom, like the underground railroad. Still, the next tension pattern may use different muscle groups if these would be more meaningful to the way this tension pattern was originally stored.
This process is not forever. There are only a finite amount of tensions stored. As tensions leave, quality of life progressively improves. I believe it is not the scope of a bodyworker to bring the patient to perfection, only to give assistance until skills and quality of life are sufficient for the person to continue her process without professional assistance.
Bodywork as Nonverbal Communication:
Alliance: Guarding implies that the brain is actively trying to contract muscle. Contraction implies the cerebellum intends to shorten muscle (when this “reptilian” brain feels threatened, the opposite of reaching out, curling up, seems the safest solution). A bodyworker who uses force to lengthen shortened muscles, or to “open” guarded joints, communicates his disagreement to the cerebellum. A bodyworker who uses no force, but moves joints only gently in directions of greater comfort, wins status as an ally to the hindbrain. Trust begins, and in this safety, the cerebellum may voluntarily repeal its guarding programs.
Independence: Many a patient seeks and finds relief from force-oriented bodywork. His relief reinforces the belief that his change requires someone else to force him. A dependence on a therapist begins. On the other hand, a patient who feels safe and then chooses to change, comes to realize she has always possessed the capability for relaxation. Self-awareness and self-sufficiency increase.
Partnership skills: Rather than one person fixing another, brain-muscle work is an invitation to change. Who is the cause of relaxation, the therapist or the patient? Both play necessary roles.
Relationships: A therapeutic relationship that includes touch that is safe, healthy, and nurturing restores a trust in human relationships.
Subjective Optimism:
After a brain-muscle treatment, a patient who feels dramatically different than he felt an hour ago experiences optimism, which assists mental and behavioral progress. The patient waking the next day without any new soreness, experiencing continuing effects of relaxation for days, experiencing progressive plateaus with each session, begins to create new optimistic patterns in a web of unbreakable support.
Finding an Effective Muscle-Brain Therapist:
How does a Doctor or Counselor find a bodywork therapist who triggers the brain to relax the muscles, if most therapists don’t even know they’re doing it? First compile a list of Massage Therapists and/or Physical Therapists in your area. The AMTA and NCBTMB websites provide referrals for accredited and certified practitioners in your area. If your State licenses therapists, it may provide online access to practitioners.
By phone, ask each bodyworker how much time is required for a guarded muscle to noticeably soften. Some can initiate palpable softening within twenty seconds. Can they soften muscle through clothing? Those bodyworkers who feel confident that muscles relax quickly, may be doing brain-muscle work.
Would any of these bodyworkers be available for a short demonstration on a patient (or yourself)? It is important for you to meet the bodyworker you will refer to, for several reasons; one, you want to see for yourself that muscles can relax dramatically in a short period of time, and two, you want to assess how safe your patients will feel with this person.
Managing Appointments:
Brain-muscle work can have results within the first minute. However, bodyworkers prefer to work longer with each patient.
If you would like a therapist to come to your office, many own an “onsite chair” that requires little space, so the therapist can do 15-30 minute clothed treatments in your waiting room.
If you refer patients, realize that most commonly, massage treatments occur in the intimate setting of a closed massage room with hands applied to unclothed skin, using a sheet to drape the nude body. If some of your patients would benefit initially from a) working through clothing rather than disrobing, b) leaving doors open, and/or c) the patient bringing a spouse or friend to sit in the room, then do instruct the bodyworker how you would like your patients to be treated.
Of course you know that if you want to communicate with the bodyworker about a patient’s bodywork sessions, the patient’s written permission would be necessary.
Patrick Moore, L.M.T., B.A. is an educator for both undergraduate and licensed massage therapists. Specializing in the brain-muscle connection, he continues to develop new technique, publish articles, and maintain a small massage practice in Phoenix, AZ.
earned Expert Author status:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Patrick_Moore
Keywords:
Psychosomatic, integrative, interdisciplinary, pain management, psychiatry, psychology, counseling, mind-body, talk therapy, neurology, nerve, psychoneuroimmunology, psychophysiologic, psychological cause, hysterical paralysis, frozen shoulder, somatization disorder, brain injury, TBI, PTSD, migraines, peptic ulcers, neuropsychiatry, immunology, endocrinology, chemical sensitivity, Gulf War syndrome, and chronic fatigue syndrome, asthma, allergies, lower back pain, high blood pressure, Biosemiotics, integrate, semiotics, paradigmatic shift, semiosis, philosophy, biology, molecular biology, cognitive ethology, cognitive science, neurobiology, information processes, treatment, psychotherapy, alternative therapies, alternative medicine, naturopathic, suggestion, anti-anxiety, anti-depressants, pain, nausea, symptoms, Tension myositis syndrome, musculoskeletal, nerve symptoms, back pain, sciatica, torticollis, tendinitis, tendonitis, plantar fascitis, golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow, stiffness, weakness, tingling, numbness, TMS, neck pain, rotation, atlas, axis, atlanto-axial, occipito-atlantal, knee, tender points, eleven of eighteen, fibromyalgia, upper trapezius, muscles, lumbar paraspinal, gluteus medius. perfectionism, conscientiousness, need to be liked, life pressures, aging, mortality, cancer, unexpressed anger, emotional issues, spinal manipulation, physical therapy, reinforce, structural causation, chronic pain, physical activity, gradual, gradually, more active, safety, emotional stress, physical pain, autonomic nervous system, ANS, PNS, parasympathetic, sympathetic nervous system, SNS, decreased blood flow, oxygen deprivation, repetitive strain injury, Illness as Metaphor, traits, character, deepest, cellular memory, genetic memory
difference between a “reiki healing attunement” and a “reiki level attunement”
There are two ways to receive Reiki–a session or an attunement, and there are two kinds of attunement.
During a Reiki session, the level I, II, or III attuned Reiki Practitioner sends you healing energy. This can be in person or at a distance. Receiving reiki feels warm and comfortable, and the energy goes to wherever in your body, mind, or soul needs it most. A Reiki Session can be any amount of time but if it is a professional session, it generally lasts a half hour or an hour. You can lay on a massage table, on a bed or a mat during your session.
A Reiki Healing Attunement is a very intense specific event for a particular purpose. Only a Level III Reiki Master can give an attunement to you. You create an intention of what you need the healing for. The Attunement is done with you in a sitting position (can also be done from a distance). The Reiki Master opens your chakras, places the Reiki symbols within your chakras for the intentions you chose, and then seals your chakras again. This takes about ten minutes. For any particular issue, you only need to have the healing attunement once, as it lasts forever.
Reiki Level Attunement: The Reiki Level Attunement makes you a Reiki Practitioner or advances you to Level II or Level III. Receiving the Reiki Level Attunement is generally done in a classroom situation that takes a few hours. The attunement itself only takes a few minutes but your teacher will want to make sure you know how to use your new tools. You create your intention to become a Reiki Practitioner. You sit in a chair, and the Reiki Master/Teacher opens your chakras and places the Reiki symbols within your chakras and in your hands, then closes your chakras again.
For more specifics about the three levels, I write more below.
Many people think that becoming a Reiki Practitioner means they must work on others like a healer or therapist. In fact, many massage therapists receive Reiki training to aid the quality of massage they give. Yes, that is one thing you can do with Reiki, but many or most people who become Reiki Practitioners do not work on others much, at least not directly. This little article is about what you gain for YOURSELF by receiving the Reiki Attunement.
Change requires a balance of releasing/clearing old patterns and manifesting new. Reiki is not only helpful for releasing old stuff, but fantastic at creating the new. Artists and musicians will find new access to the flow and the muses. Anyone wanting new paths, new friends, new careers, Reiki boosts and supports your visualization and manifestation.
By receiving the Reiki attunement, your soul permanently accepts tools for power: grounding and physical change, mental and emotional tools for gentle harmonizing of even the most intense feelings, and tools for influence at a distance and across time (wow!). With Reiki you can actually access past traumas or conditioning and release genetic memory, cellular memory, old car accidents, past life trauma, PTSD, TBI, Post Concussion Syndrome, both your own and others’. Reciving Reiki attunements really boosts manifesting your wanted changes such as your health, creativity, abundance, career, relationships, and spiritual/personal fulfillment.
Attuning to, and using Reiki, to some degree heals the Earth itself.
Brief History:Reiki is an ages-old method rediscovered in 1914 in Japan in 1914. Mikao Usui went to the top of Karamayama or “saddle mountain,” seeking a way to give healing energy that did not deplete the giver, when he was spontaneously attuned by a bright light. For a while he trained others in this method simply by having students follow him around while he practiced sending the healing to patients. He found that students required years of training and still they did not have the same connection he had. So he studied the attunement process from ancient texts, found at a special library in Kyoto, where he lived. Soon he began “attuning” his students to Reiki, and they had the same immediate ability to channel the energy that he had received on the mountain. Since that time, Reiki has been given through attunement. Reiki has been taught in different forms since long before Usui.
The Japanese Kanji says “Rei” above “Ki” Rei means Univesal, Ki means Life Force Energy.
Reiki is never recommended as a replacement for, but always in partnership with traditional medicine and counseling for healing disease, pains, mental, emotional and spiritual issues.
Three Levels
There are three levels of Reiki attunements you may receive, level I, II, and III, which is also called “Reiki Master.” A Reiki Master becomes a “Reiki Master/Teacher” the moment she passes the attunements to others in her first training.
Level I $150, 5 hours applies to NCBTMB
Level II $250, 5 hours applies to NCBTMB
Level III $400, 5 hours applies to NCBTMB
Reiki Teacher Training $95, 5 hours applies to NCBTMB
As Mikao Usui himself said, all you need is Level One to access all the Reiki energy. To use Level II you need to memorize the pronunciation and drawing of three symbols, (Power Symbol, Mental/Emotional Symbol, and Distance Symbol) that make the Reiki more specific. Level III gives you two more Master Symbols to memorize and then you may give two kinds of Attunements–Reiki Level Attunements that make others Reiki Practitioners, and Reiki Healing Attunements. You receive all five symbols in the Level One attunement, but the symbols become more active in the other two attunements. There is usually a waiting period between each level to allow your body, mind, and spirit to balance to the new energies.
Each Reiki level that I teach includes a workbook that shows how to practice Reiki on yourself and others, and information about the symbols. Each course provides instruction, the attunement, practicing on other students in the class in pairs, and lots of time to address your questions.
My history with Reiki and Energy Work
I have been teaching Reiki since 2001. For more than 30 years I have been studying and practicing other methods, including Christian, Essene, Tibetan Buddhist, Zen, Silva, Aura, Chakra, Shaman, and scientific methods including over a thousand hours of classes, internship, and individual instruction. My profession is a teacher for massage therapists at Cortiva Institute in Scottsdale and I also teach Continuing Education all over the country.
I am very excited about Reiki this year: I have attended five classes in Sedona and read a handful of books that have given me much new information to share with you about medical intuition, animal communication, chakras, kundalini, the brain, abundance, and more uses for Reiki symbols.
Reiki and Manifesting Abundance
There is a wonderful book called, “Abundance Through Reiki,” which offers a 42 day program, revisiting each of the 7 chakras over six weeks, that clears all your past obstacles from your chakras, opening and placing new patterns there. You can do the program even if you are not a Reiki practitioner. I recommend skipping the first few chapters and begin reading at page 37. This book creates abundance not only financially but can be applied to all kinds of abundance–receiving more love, creativity, health, insight, wisdom, friendship, or whatever your soul longs for.
Reiki and Animals
Reiki works wonderfully with animals. They love to receive Reiki and give it too! Charlie the dog attended two Reiki classes, asking to be attuned, and he reached Level II practitioner before he passed on last year. He would give healing by laying his head upon someone. I didn’t realize it until a few weeks ago that he snuck into the Reiki Level One workbook, he is under the massage table in the photo of the “hands above method.”
Wild animals also assist and provide messages when you invite them to do so.
Last week while camping at Catalina State Park during a rainstorm, I met a very large frog who seemed to want something so I offered him the Reiki Level I attunement.
Hugs, Patrick
P.S. Feel free to call me with your questions at 623-670-0442
laura bruno on writing your first book
This is the first of a series of other people’s resources I would like to share with you.
As part of my next specialty, I am currently reading a fascinating book by Laura Bruno called, “If I Only Had A Brain Injury.” While the book is a lifesaver for any person or caregiver of those with brain injury, I find the book extremely useful for my practice as a massage therapist, lifecoach, and professional coach. I have received Laura’s permission to reprint quotes from her book as long as I use the following links. You can see more about her book at this link: Click Here! if that link does not work, try this: http://healbrain.laurabruno.hop.clickbank.net/ Using one of these links lets Laura know that it was me who referred readers to her book, thanks.
Below is a great example from her book of how “dreaming big” can activate universal synchronicities to make your dreams come true:
“36. Don’t be afraid to pursue your dreams.
On August 24, 2001, my parents’ wedding anniversary, I met a man named Stephen. Immediately comfortable, I told him about my brain injury and my forfeited dreams of becoming an English professor. When I asked what he did, he replied, “I’m a writer.” Intrigued, I asked about his projects, and we agreed to meet again. When we reconnected, the talk again turned to writing and to my own frustrated plans to publish. I revealed my secret dream to write a book that bridged the gap between academia and pop culture. I had planned to bring together radically different disciplines. I had wanted to write a book popular enough that I could tour the country, perhaps even travel abroad on grants. I had wanted to make scholarship fun and palatable to the General Public. As my appearance belied the severity of my injury, Stephen could not understand why I spoke of my dreams only in past tense. “Why not publish now?” he asked. I explained again that I could only spend about thirty minutes a day doing visual tasks. “So write poetry,” he said. The next time we met, I brought him three short poems. “These are definitely publishable,” he asserted. “Really?” I asked. Stephen replied, “I guarantee that if you send these out, you’ll get published by the end of the year.” It was mid-October. “You can’t guarantee that!” I laughed. “Send them out,” he challenged, “You’ll see.” Stephen gave me a Writer’s Market book full of possible opportunities. When I complained that I would not be able to wade through all the print, he said, “You have good intuition. Why don’t you intuit which places to send them?” His suggestions sounded just crazy enough to work, so I chose five markets and submitted the poems. By the end of the year, two of my poems appeared in print. Two years later, I married Stephen. Impossible things happen every day…”
Laura’s experience demonstrates her trust in a benevolent universe, that wants her to heal and prosper. I personally have used Writers Market, it is a huge book that can be very intimidating! Her experience of choosing five by intuition relieves such a huge task and so much worry. My first experience being published was synchronistic, like hers, I will share my story another time 
Warmly, Patrick
laura bruno on addressing your fears
This is the second of a series, again from Laura Bruno’s book, “If I Only Had A Brain Injury.” Again, I recommend any holistic practitioner to buy this book to promote your effectiveness as a healer, and maybe heal yourself a little The book is available both as an ebook and a printed version, I have both versions so I can read it and make notes anywhere. I have received Laura’s permission to reprint quotes from her book as long as I use the following link: Click Here!
32. Write a letter to your pain.
What might your symptoms be trying to tell you? Think of a cliché that corresponds to the location of your pain, i.e. “What a pain in the neck;” “I’m spineless;” “I just can’t stay on my feet.” How does this sentence apply to the habits or patterns in your life? The more obvious the cliché, the more important the message. View your pain as a messenger, not an enemy. Once you have contemplated possible meanings of your injury, write a “break up” letter to your pain or symptoms. Thank them for all they have done for you, and kindly tell them you must now move on. Remember, your pain and symptoms think you need them. Let them know what you have learned from the experience and that you can live without their “help.” Tell them the ways, if any, that you will miss them when they leave.
Remain firm and compassionate in your decision, just as you would in leaving a destructive friendship or relationship in life. You may have a long history with your pain and symptoms, but you have outgrown this companionship. Writing the letter will invoke your freedom. The idea of physical imbalances representing mental, emotional, or spiritual issues dates back to ancient Sanskrit times…
34. Express your vulnerability.
Admitting your fears to yourself and people you can trust will go a long way in helping you to overcome them. If you are afraid to articulate what you are afraid of, then start there. Ask yourself (or ask God if that makes you more comfortable) to bring to consciousness your worst possible fear. Don’t worry about overcoming it at this point. Just find out what it is. Write it down or tape record it. In detail. Describe every angle of horror you can imagine happening to you if your fear came true.
• Is it one main fear, or a mess of smaller ones?
• Do some of them make you laugh when you put words to them?
• Which ones seem likely to occur?
• Look at the absolute worst-case scenario you have constructed.
• Could you live with that?
• How can you avoid it?
If the situation’s outcome remains out of your control, then brainstorm ways of dealing with the worst-case scenario if it happens. Have you ever survived or even thrived when a nightmare came true? What happened? Some fears may not disappear just because you write them down. If you still feel anxiety, find someone you trust and talk to them about your feelings. Ask them to listen to you first, without initially offering anything but support. Showing your weaknesses and fears to the right person can empower you. Humans spend so much energy trying to hide our imperfections that we lose the sense of community. We also forget that shared vulnerability reveals courage and often earns respect instead of scorn.
This has been a quote from “If I Only Had A Brain Injury” by Laura Bruno. Please visit her book’s website at: Click Here!
my right leg
I woke angry.
I thought I would write an article to expose an injustice.
In 1982 and 1983 I injured my right knee twice. The second surgery was performed by an elite sports surgeon who cut my semitendinosis tendon midway up the hamstrings, and wrapped this free tendon around the front of my knee to do what my blown anterior cruciate ligament could no longer do. Being at the cutting edge of medicine, he sent me to a specially tailored Physical Therapy program until measurable goals were reached. For therapy, I was strapped into a Cybex machine (new technology at that time) set o resist me flexing and extending at the knee. No matter how much effort I gave, the machine allowed me to only move at one cycle per second, similar to the rate of a fast walk. The P.T. barked orders, “Push! Pull! Push! Pull!” to motivate my brain to lead my muscles effectively. After the two-minute workout the machine gave a printed readout of my horsepower. I was released from therapy two months later when right leg had reached 10% stronger than my left leg.
Returning to work as a Union Laborer and Carpenter in Seattle between breaks from college, my leg worked fine but with muscle pain. Several times a day at work I would take out my Vaughan 14 oz hammer and beat my right hamstrings muscles, right where the semitendinosis was reattached to the semimembranosis.
Ten years go by. Having switched to a career as bodyworker I took continuing education courses from Rich Phaigh (who, two decades earlier, had also shifted from Union construction (structural Ironworker) to bodywork). In Eugene, Oregon, he helped runners at the Universities (and a major shoe sponsor team) to move into world-class competition. Through the courses, video, books, and a one-week internship in Eugene, he taught me to assess and correct imbalances in joint range and function. Through these assessments it became clear that I was seriously weaker in my right leg.
I also continued to suffer from persistent trigger points in my right hamstring muscles, no matter how much massage I received there. I called the surgeon after ten years to see if something had gone wrong–after all, when he was finished with me, my right leg was stronger than my left. What had happened? The surgeon agreed to see me no charge. Expertly he performed a manual examination (no “imaging” is necessary for someone with good assessment skills) for anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament, and said the knee was still as perfect as it was post-surgery. He could not explain the trigger points or the weakness, but he assured me nothing was wrong with the reconstruction.
At the Brian Utting School of Massage (now sold, its brilliant curriculum in storage somewhere), we were trained extensively how to stand at the massage table by experts in dance, stance, and vectors of movement. I also took Tai Chi classes from a teacher named Shoko Zama so I had a lot of body awareness how I was standing while giving massage. I could no longer avoid the awareness that I habitually plant most of my weight on the left leg. I knew I needed to do something.
I joined a gym and began using two machines: the knee curl and knee extension machine (sometimes the same machine for both actions.) Doing self-tests of my right and left legs, I found that my right leg was very much weaker than my left. Also measuring the circumference of both legs using a tailor’s tape, I found my right leg about two inches small than my right. I began exercising the right leg wholeheartedly, but I did not go frequently enough to see any results. Over the next fourteen years, I re-started the right-leg-strengthening project at least twenty times.
Around 1998 I went to a “health fair,” where a Chiropractor had set up a demonstration. I only wanted to talk to him as a professional to a professional but he insisted that he examine me. I agreed. He had me stand on two bathroom scales which showed that I planted more of my weight on the left leg. He sighted my spine using a metal frame line (which, because of the rocky ground beneath the tent, was off plumb, my years as a Union Carpenter told me). The Chiropractor told me that my sacro-iliac joint was stuck on one side and that I should make an appointment to come in for X-rays and a series of treatments. I was taken aback. He had not asked if I had ever injured a leg or foot. He had not checked for a congenital leg length difference. He had not asked or checked anything about my legs. I felt angry that he would urge me into his office, where presumably he would profit. (Here are two links for pro and con about the Two Scale test.) That anger must have simmered to this day below the surface because I woke today remembering that guy, recognizing that twinge, after not having thought about it for a decade. That feeling urged me to write this article today–not to slam Chiropractors but…you’ll see as you read on.
Ten years ago I took up running but could never really run for more than a half hour. Four years ago I put my nose to the grindstone and ramped my running up to three hours. You’d think at near marathon runs several times a week, the muscles would balance, right? No dice. My right leg remained weaker. Of course at those distances, I released a lot of old toxins and emotional baggage
Since beginning to receive phone coaching from Laura Bruno two years ago, my personal health has taken amazing leaps and strides. Earlier this year, May of 2008, I joined the YMCA in Phoenix and have remained diligent in strengthening my right leg. In May I could curl 65 lbs and extend 80 lbs using my right leg. Now I can extend 150 and curl 130, almost double the numbers in four months. My right leg has finally surpassed the strength in my left leg, in knee flexion and extension, for the first time since 1983. I also use a stationary bike that has toe clips, to pedal with only my right leg for more and more time. I use the rowing machine which has a toe strap, and row using only the power of my right leg, up to fifteen minutes now.
On days that I do not go to the Y (about every other day), I do a few five-minute exercises at home. I stand on one leg for as long as I can, and right now that is about five minutes, once or twice, every other day. When I fatigue I feel it in my hip and calf. Balance is a very important part of strengthening, which I will never get from using the machines at the gym no matter if I lift the whole stack of weights with one leg. Any Pilates, Tai Chi, Chi Gung, or Yoga instructor will tell you more about the importance of balance and core strength.
When I feel more ambitious, I add slow rotation. When I look down at my feet while standing or walking, and seeing photos of myself in the half-marathon, I’ve noticed that my right leg turns out more than my left. So I exercise my turn-in (going pigeon toed) while standing on one leg. To inwardly rotate the right hip requires the right Tensor Fascia Latte muscles. So I place my hand on my right TFL muscle, just over the coin pocket in a pair of jeans, to feel the muscle contract as I toe-in. Contracting my right toe-in muscles rotates my whole body as if I am turning to the right. When I add toe-in exercise to standing on one foot, I fatigue in about two minutes.
I am about to measure the circumference of each leg, which I have not done in about 7 years, please wait here…
…Hmm, not what I expected or hoped 
My left leg is still about ¾ of an inch larger in diameter than my right. Well, that’s better than two inches difference the last time I checked!
I guess this result should have been expected. I do still still plant my weight on my left leg most of the time I am standing in a day, especially while doing dishes, for some reason. Will 5 to 60 minutes per day of right leg exercise ever match several hours per day standing predominantly on the left leg?
The weakness has been the case for so long now, with so many attempts to correct it, and so many failures, that I have given up. At least twenty times I gave up on the whole idea of trying to have balance in my leg strength. And minutes ago I was surprised to find that my right leg muscle mass is still smaller. What more can I do? I’ve been diligent for four straight months of regular strengthening. Will any amount of exercise be enough?
Once talking with Laura earlier this year I mentioned my difference in leg strength. In my previous year of weekly talks with her I had not mentioned the small detail of a weak leg to a Life Coach who was doing wonders with my career, relationships, spirituality and optimism. But when all your major things are doing well, you get to celebrate the achievements and give some time to the smaller things. She asked me if I am right or left hand dominant. I am right handed, but all my life I have been left-legged, I told her. I realized this in 8th grade soccer, when the coach pointed out that I kick with my left foot. When I began waterskiing slalom at age 14, against the instructions of my dad I put my left leg forward. The right leg forward felt unstable to me, I couldn’t maneuver safely across the wakes. I told Laura that I am just a right-handed and left-legged person. I said I didn’t think it was that unusual because my waterski buddy was also right-handed and skiied left leg forward. Laura said, “hmm,” and asked me to move from a sitting to standing position and begin walking. I did. She asked (we were talking by phone) which leg I had stepped forward with. My right leg, I said. She said this shows I am right leg dominant. Perhaps, in a broader sense I may be inhibiting “stepping forward,” she suggested. If so, my body would reflect this choice physiologically. My brain would inhibit enervation and strength to my main “moving forward” limb. Wow. When I thought about it, I did feel like I was “holding back” in the larger scope of life. In particular, there is a novel in me that has been struggling to get onto paper ever since I saw The Life Of Brian debut at The Neptune theater in Seattle in 1979. Now my novel is emerging, ten to twenty pages a week.
Compared to a forty-five year imbalance, the results I’ve seen in the last four months are remarkably fast changes. How much longer until my strength and function is balanced? For me, its not about that any more.
I realize my leg weakness is not a consequence of the motorcycle injury, the innertubing injury, or the surgeries. Gregory Engel of Bellevue, WA, did a great surgery, the best available at that time. His Physical Therapists did a fantastic job. The most accurate exams on Earth wouldn’t have told the Chiropractor that I wasn’t yet willing to “put my weight into it.”
I am learning that physical issues are never 100% physical, just as mental, emotional, and spiritual issues all have links in the other realms. The body, brain, mind, and soul all play a part in every aspect of our lives. If you’ve done everything possible in one realm and still a problem remains, it is time to open your mind to other realms. Realms that I have addressed so far in my particular healing situation include:
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exercise
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cardio
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mind/body balance as in yoga, tai chi, chi gung, and Tibetan kum nye yoga
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balanced strengthening a la Paul Chek
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nutrition, (see Laura’s book on the lazy approach to live food)
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upgrading addictions to toxins to healthier addictions (like Kombucha tea , yerba mate tea, maca root powder, Artisana Cacao Bliss, Cocunut Bliss and Purely Decadent ice creems with coconut mylk and low-glycemic agave syrup, and Wild Bars YUM!)
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giving the brain what it needs by
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adjusting attitudes
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interpretations
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self-care
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hands-on treatment
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forgiveness
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management of emotions
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paying attention to symbolism, and
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recognizing the deeper meaning to illness (for all these brain keys, see Laura’s book on healing and the brain).
As I continue to “move forward” with my novel and make progress with my life’s purpose, my right leg continues to assume its natural leadership. I am still in the middle of the process, I think maybe the final approach. Even though it is not perfect, I thank my right leg for serving me as a teacher of symbolism and an indicator of my progress.
massage and therapy in tucson 85704
December 12, 2008, 5:27 pm
Filed under:
brain,
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hands-on healing,
massage | Tags:
85704,
licensed massage,
lmt,
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massage therapy,
ncbtmb,
NW Tucson,
tucsonI’ve just begun taking new appointments at my Tucson office.
The office is in a residential neighborhood near Cross Jr. High, bounded by Magee, Ina, La Canada, and Oracle Road.
I also do outcalls, bringing my massage table to your place, for an additional fee. Within the 85704 zip code this is $15.00 extra, and outside this zip the extra fee is $1.25 per mile one way, a minimum of $15.00. To calculate miles you can use an online map/directions creator using the cross streets Ina & La Canada, Tucson, AZ as the “from” and your address as the “to.” I have taken outcalls as far as Picacho and Green Valley.
I specialize in many types of massage therapy and bodywork including:
competitive athletes
reversing tendinitis
melting muscles
freeing the atlas and axis–neck pain, headaches, and difficulty turning the head,
cranio sacral therapy,
reiki and angel healing,
releasing cellular memory, DNA memory, early-life and past-life trauma,
automobile and on-the-job injuries
overuse injuries, nerve impingement, tingling and numbness
wrist pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, and pain in any joint or muscle,
low back pain,
brain injuries,
brain and nerve diseases including stroke
diseases involving failure to relax such as hypertension, high blood pressure, cold hands, sweating, anxiety, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, insomnia,
vision problems,
TMJ disorder, night grinding, and jaw tension,
depression,
chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, seasonal affective disorder
multiple sensitivities and food allergies.
I use a range of modalities including cranio sacral, reiki, kundalini, melting muscles, TFM, MET, PNF, Osteopathic Techniques, Strain/Counterstrain, deep tissue, Cyriax, trigger point, and neuromuscular techniques.
Though I have a lot of specialty training for treating various ailments, my sessions are very relaxing, and you will leave with a nice floating sensation from your brain and body becoming naturally harmonized in relaxation.
You may remain clothed during the treatment and if you prefer to disrobe to have me work directly on your skin, a sheet will be covering you at all times using NCBTMB Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. I also teach Professional Ethics for massage therapists.
Please see my prices appointment policies, and “what to expect from your massage with Patrick Moore” at http://www.meltingmuscles.com/receivesession.asp which also gives a link to contact me by email.
I look forward to meeting you!
Warmly,
Patrick
Brief History:
