Chronic Low Back Pain ReliefIf you have had back pain from a recent tweak (who hasn’t?), it often gets better without treatment. Chronic low back pain is different. Many people find relief from massage. This has more and more support from research. In one study testing non-pharmaceutical options for low back pain, the massage group “used the least medications…and had the lowest costs of subsequent care.… Read the rest
Louise Hay is a popular metaphysical teacher and author. I bought her first book, Heal Your Body in the late 1970’s. That little blue booklet had a chart of the beliefs people use to create bodily and mental distress or dis-ease, along with affirmations of new beliefs to create health. In You Can Heal Your Life, the chart was expanded and some items amended.… Read the rest
I am mostly an authority on my own brain injury and recovery, although I have been in many brain injury support groups, and have treated people with TBI and PTSD as part of my massage therapy practice. I have been discovering how to recover for 43 years, on my own, because there were no brain injury rehab units in 1970. And doctors did not believe the adult brain could heal from the massive damage I sustained.
The Buddhist phrase, “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional,” has set me to thinking. Events will just happen, they are part of “what is”. There will sometimes be pain. The latest understanding is that the brain creates pain from a perception of threat. It is part of our protective mechanism. Suffering comes from our reaction to our pain.
We can choose to be at peace, whatever comes.… Read the rest
Dr. John Whitman Ray, N.D., developed the Emotional Tone Scale as part of Body Electronics. Dr. Ray’s teachings encompassed the physical and electrical systems of the body, and their relationship to emotions, thoughts and word patterns, and our spiritual evolution. His teachings spread to Portland around 1982. This was largely due to Thomas Chavez, one of his earliest students, and later the author of Body Electronics.… Read the rest
You don’t have to be special to reap the benefits of massage. You can be old, young, out of shape, in shape, in pain, working too hard, stressed about your job, or just needing to relax. It is becoming popular for sports, pre-natal, overall well-being, and as a great addition to self-care.
The health benefits of massage cannot be emphasized enough.… Read the rest
I attended orientation to volunteer with the Returning Veterans Project, Nov. 16, 2011. I have been grateful for every client I have seen since. RVP is a non-profit that provides free counseling and other alternative and complementary health services for vets returning from the Iraq/Afghanistan wars and their families. They provide returning veterans with needed and much appreciated community-based services that allow vets to reintegrate into civilian life and heal.… Read the rest
What is going on when you experience chronic pain? You have pain nerve signals to various body systems, including the immune system and the brain. You may have muscle guarding, contracting nearby muscles or more distant ones, as you attempt to minimize the impact of pain and continue your life. Other times, you may stop moving to let an area heal, which may even decrease the ability of the body to eliminate toxins because of lack of exercise.… Read the rest
If you are a gardener, you probably know you need to use your legs to lift, keep a straight back to dig or rake, balance your weight to shovel. However, you may not know the hazards of crouching forward for a long time. You may not even associate 
subsequent pain in walking or standing with the gardening you love.
As a dedicated gardener, you might not change position often.… Read the rest
When we live with integrity and authenticity, it is obvious from our posture and attitude: how we show up to family, friends, and colleagues, and our resiliency to stresses. We can change our bodies, heal from within. As another Ortho-Bionomy blogger says, “If you observe how your body functions when you are feeling happy, in control and safe, then you have the basis for changing when you are feeling sad and insecure.”… Read the rest
