Stimulating Your Energy Through Breath

Recently I came across an article on Dr. Andrew Weil's website about breathing techniques. His article lists three different types of breathing exercises for either relaxing or energizing your body. I personally have tried various kinds of breathing for meditation, relaxation, or even to increase the oxygen in my body and energize my body in place of reaching for my favorite caffeine fix. Now don't get me wrong, if I can have a great cup of Newhall Coffee, I will. However like most people I do realize that most of the time I can't drink coffee late in the day or my already erratic sleep habits get even worse.

The main breathing exercise I want to write about is the Stimulating Breath. This technique is specifically aimed at raising your energy as well as your alertness and it really is very simple. If it is done correctly you should feel invigorated. I have done this in the past and will admit you look a little silly doing it, so it is not something you want to be walking your office halls trying to do. However, it does work. Here are his steps:

- Inhale and exhale rapidly through your nose, keeping your mouth closed but relaxed. Your breaths in and out should be equal in duration, but as short as possible. This is a noisy breathing exercise.

- Try for three in-and-out breath cycles per second. This produces a quick movement of the diaphragm, suggesting a bellows. Breathe normally after each cycle.

- Do not do for more than 15 seconds on your first try. Each time you practice the Stimulating Breath, you can increase your time by five seconds or so, until you reach a full minute.

Soothing Meditation

I decided that I wanted to create a guided meditation and put it on YouTube and Facebook. This was just because it seems to go along with massage...quieting the mind. The idea was to take a few minutes during your busy day and refocus, relax and quite the mind. And then whenever you needed a quick break to de-stress you could watch it over and over.

I had the idea of how I wanted it the meditation to look and I had a simple program on my computer that I had never used before. Luckily, I'm pretty computer savvy and was able to figure out the program quickly, it just took some time to piece it together and to get the timing in shape. So after playing around with it and figuring out the pictures, the written content and the timing it's completed. I had fun creating it and will probably do more things in the future. Most of the pictures in the video are ones I took, with a few taken by a friend on a vacation we took to Turkey. I hope you enjoy it and please pass it on to all your friends. :)

No Arms, No Legs, No Worries Part 3

Last of the three part series. I hope you have enjoyed Nick's video's and have learned something as I just wanted to share. If anything it should remind us to keep moving and even though we may look different that we all still have a lot of the same 'issues' and how other people or even ourselves stop us from moving forward.

No Arms, No Legs, No Worries Part 2

As I posted in my last blog, I am going to post the three part series of Nick Vujicic and this is part two. I know this isn't quite the usual massage related article, yet I had to share something I thought was great. This part gets more serious. He talks a bit about his life and what he has overcome with so many people telling him that his life would be nothing. He doesn't hold back and tells it like it is. He talks about the things you don't have and how your mind stops ourselves and I know I can be guilty of that. However, I think he reminds us to live past our own self-imposed disabilities and you don't have to believe other peoples opinions. Again, I hope you enjoy and learn something.

No Arms, No Legs, No Worries

Today I came across a video of an amazing man named Nick Vujicic, a man born without arms and legs yet as he puts it also without limits. This first part of a three-part series is rather funny and I plan on sharing each series separately with little input from me on the blog. I think his video and his words can convey much more then I can.
As I said part one is rather humorous and I think the message is to not take ourselves so seriously and enjoy who and what we are. I hope you enjoy the video as I much as I have! Feel free to post any comments, too.

Employee Overtime = Employee Overstressed

In the June 2008 'Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine' (a publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine), a study concluded that employees who worked overtime were at an increased risk of anxiety and depression. This study on anxiety and depression was concluded on 1,350 employees who worked 41-100 hours per week and approximately 9,000 people who worked 40 hours or less per week.

For both men and women, working overtime was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression. The rate scores of these two types of mental distress for men was 9% who worked a normal work week compared to a 12.5% rate of depression for men working over 40 hours per week. For women this rate was 7% for a normal work week compared to 11% depression and anxiety rate for overtime hours. And men who worked more then 48 hours per week were at the highest risk, though even moderate overtime hours seem to increase the risk of mental distress for both men and women.

For more information on Heavenly Healing Mobile Massage, please visit my website.

Employee Work-Life Balance

According to the world's largest human-resource-management association, 14% of employers worldwide offered massage therapy to employees, per a study conducted in 2006. To quote "Massage therapy is a great health-maintenance tool that aids in stress reduction. This is especially beneficial for employees who work in a very stressful work environment." said a report done by The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). This information about massage ran in the reported section titled "Work-Life Balance Benefits", which also included other benefits such as postal and dry-cleaning services, meal preparation, legal assistance and travel planning services.

For more information on Heavenly Healing Mobile Massage, please visit my website.

Heart Health through Napping

Want to increase your lifespan? Want to do something good for your heart? Take a nap! Researchers found that midday napping reduced coronary mortality by about one-third, according to a study done in 2007. Naps are common in several Latin American countries as well as the Mediterranean regions and these countries seem to tend to have low mortality rates of coronary heart disease. 23,681 study participants were followed for an average of 6.3 years by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health and Greece's University of Athens Medical School. These participants had no history of coronary heart disease, stroke or cancer. Participants took an average of a 30 minute nap, three times per week had a 37% lower coronary mortality rate than those not taking naps. A 12% reduction of coronary mortality was shown in occasional nappers. So go ahead, take a nap. Improve your heart, increase your life...get a quick snooze.

For more information on Heavenly Healing Mobile Massage, please visit my website.

De-Stress through Breathe

Every moment of the day we breathe without a thought to it even happening, mostly taking this life-sustaining process for granted. We breathe roughly 23,000 times a day and take in about 4,500 gallons of air - 25 times that amount when we exercise. That's a lot of air! There are three types of ways that we breath: nasal, chest and belly breathers. Nasal breathers breathe in through the nasal and do not use the diaphragm to breathe. Chest breathers breathe only into their chest using a slight portion of the diaphragm to breathe. And belly breathers breathe into their bellies and use the full diaphragm to breathe. The diaphragm is important in getting oxygen into your body to feed the whole body with this vital life-sustaining ingredient. Take a few breaths and figure out which one you are? The best type of breather is the belly breather as it allows you to have a balanced breathing rhythm at a slow, smooth pace and helps keep you calm and peaceful. Breathing can help you calm down after an emotional, stressful or traumatic event. Notice how your breathing changes during these times, especially in anger...the breathe gets very rapid. When you change your breathing rhythms and habits your state of mind and emotions can change and become stabilized. This allows a more relaxed and at-ease body and mind. An easy simple exercise you can do to help de-stress at any time of the day is to put your hand on your belly. Take a deep breathe in through your nose, making sure that the belly expands. Bring in all the oxygen you can and slowly exhale through the nose. This simple breathing technique can bring you into balance at any time.

Communicating with your Massage Therapist

We all know that communication is the key for everything. From communicating with your loved ones to communicating with people you may only encounter once in your life. Everyday we communicate, though some days may be better then others on our communication skills. Now I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with massage. It actually has a lot to do with massage, actually more to do between you and the massage therapist then the actual massage. Just like any other area of your life, communication needs to be present between you and the therapist doing the bodywork. The first piece of communication would be relaying any pertinent information such as particular body parts that you might want more work on then others, any large bruises or sprains that we should be aware of, as well as any type of pain medications that you might be taking. In regards to the pain meds, the reason you would want to relay this information is because with certain strong pain meds such as doctor prescribed, they work so well that you may not feel how deep a massage you might be getting which would not be a benefit for you body and could be counterproductive. Another key time to communicate with your therapist is during the massage. This would be to let the massage therapist know if the pressure is too soft or too hard. Most of my clients are happy with my 'regular' pressure and style of massage. However, we are not all built the same. I have had clients that like a very soft massage as well as ones that have wanted the massage so deep that if it was me, I'd be screaming. Yet, this is what the client wants, not me. Mainly, if your not happy with the pressure, say something! When I massage a client I try to watch the body language to see if it's telling me if the pressure might be too hard. Most of the time the body will speak in ways that the client won't and I try to keep my eye out for it. However, if the body isn't giving me signs, I would not know. I try to always tell my clients to please let me know if the pressure is too hard or too soft. My philosophy is that they are paying me to make them feel wonderful and fantastic, not to feel all right and dissatisfied with there massage. Plus the fact that I just want them to feel wonderful and fantastic! So to reiterate all of this, please talk with your therapist about your massage. Let them know what pressure you like, whether it might be too hard or too soft. And if for some reason you are not feeling comfortable about communicating this during the massage, send them an email or maybe even a text to let them know. I know I won't please every single client, yet I would like to know what they did not like that I might be able to improve for the next time I massage them (hopefully there will be a next time) or for the next client.

Posture for your Health

Most of the time we go through our days not thinking about our posture in how we stand, walk or sit. I know I don't usually think about it and of all people I should be aware of my posture at all times. However, when I massage people I am fully aware of how my posture is and making sure I stand and lean in the ways that is best for my body and to make sure I can massage for a long time to come. Keeping good posture can make a considerable difference to the long term health of your spine, muscles and overall body health. Once degenerative changes have taken place it is very difficult and often impossible to restore the spine back to full health. Think about your posture on a daily basis and try to always make an effort to maintain good posture. After all it's for your health.

Some posture tips to keep in mind:

Keep the ears directly above your shoulders. When your ears are aligned over the shoulders your head is balanced above your body and causes minimal stress on your spine. If your head is forward it can put excessive stress on the joints in the lower neck which can lead to long term degenerative changes.

Keep shoulders back. Slouching draws the head forward and again can lead to increased stress on the lower neck.

The hips should be over the top of the ankles. The lower back is naturally the area of highest stress in the spine and most prone to problems. Poor posture increases the stress on this already vulnerable area.

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Maternity Massage

Maternity massage is a soothing, full body massage specifically for the soon-to-be mother. While a pregnant woman’s belly expands and her body changes, this massage aids in those discomforts that come with pregnancy. Your massage can be utilized on the special pregnancy ‘pillow’ that allow you and your belly to be in a face down position. Maternity Massage aims to relax, improve circulation and provide comfort during this time of change.


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The Sound of Music

Music is played by most massage therapists during a session as it can help evoke relaxation. I personally bring my Ipod with over 150 massage 'style' songs. However, I have had clients that will turn on their own music and it has been anything from classic rock to country (though country is not a favorite of mine, it is a nice change of pace for me). We all know that music evokes emotions. Whether it's heavy metal that brings out our inner tyrant, the love songs that may evoke tears as the memories of loves gone bad flood our mind, or even the 70's, 80's, or 90's music that brings us back to our teen years of high school and the quick escape into that time period in our lives.

Listening to healing music can lower blood pressure, boost the immune system, relieve depression, enhance creativity as well as help manage pain. Studies have been done on the effects of music and your body and one study has shown that listening to music strongly effects healing, releases dopamine and simply put makes us happy. Funny how an official study gave us something I think most of us already knew. Researchers have also found emotions aroused by joyful music have a healthy effect on our cardiovascular system, causing blood vessels to dilate and increase blood flow. What a great effect on the physical body as the emotional body feels happy and relaxed. The right music can help create deep relaxation and induce peaceful sleep. Which makes it perfect to go hand in hand with massage.

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Corporate Chair Massage

Chair massage is a way to receive a quick and easy massage. It is done in one of those funky looking things that you sit face forward in and get a 10 or 15 minute massage to your back and neck and can be done pretty much any where from grocery stores to malls to the office conference room. My Corporate Chair Massage description goes like this:

Create a Heavenly Healing retreat in the midst of your busy office environment. Studies have shown that the brain begins to recharge in just a few minutes. In 10, 15, or 20 minutes the brain and body can be re-energized to improve your employee’s moods and productivity. Corporate Chair Massage can be scheduled for weekly, bi-weekly or monthly visits to your place of business - visits guaranteed to keep your employees productive, energetic and feeling good about themselves and their careers. This in turn benefits your company to happy, productive employees.

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Does Stress Have a Consequence?

Stress. A part of everyones' lives, whether it be a large part of your life or small part, we all have it. Experts estimate that 80-90% of disease is stress-related, and 40-80% of doctor visits are stress-related. So you can see that stress can and will have a negative effect on your body. Stress can bring on anxiety and anxiety attacks, high blood pressure, headaches and migraines, heart disease, depression, chronic fatigue, insomnia, ulcers, colds and other serious problems such as eating disorders, drug addiction and alcoholism.

How can massage help avoid some of these issues? First off, it's a natural treatment. Massage helps us remember to relax and bring about positive changes mentally and physically. It can help decrease anxiety attacks, headaches, migraines and improve your immune system and circulation. It can help you sleep better and relieving insomnia which just that in itself can be stressful for many people. It reduces fatigue and gives you more energy to handle stressful situations.

Massage is medicine, it's a natural medicine. The 'father of medicine' Hippocrates, used massage techniques to treat many medical conditions. He stated that "anyone wishing to study medicine must master the art of massage." It's just too bad that his philosophy is not widely used. If we all received massage on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis our world would be a much happier place.

Massage is not just a Luxury!

Most people think massage is a luxury or pampering. They might think that it's something that only 'rich' people do or it's something to treat yourself to once a year or even less. Yet, most people are looking for ways to live a balanced life, to relax and reduce stress and that is exactly what a massage is about. Massage is a fantastic tool to include in your life to help you live in balance.

A massage is not about luxury... it's about re-charging your life, letting go, re-newing your body and mind into a peaceful place and learning how to take care of yourself. Massage is about your health: both your physical and your mental health. A massage doesn't just 'feel good' it helps your body recover from injuries, illnesses and of course stress. Massage has been proven by scientific research to be beneficial for many chronic conditions including:

• Low Back Pain
• Fatigue
• Headaches/Migraines
  
• High Blood Pressure
• Depression and Anxiety
  
• Strengthens the Immune System
• Relieve Stress

It also helps reduce recovery time for many medical conditions such as:

• Arthritis
  
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Fibromyalgia
• Asthma and Bronchitis
• Insomnia
• TMJ

When you think of massage in this way, it helps eliminate the thought that it's a luxury or a pampering moment. Now you can see that benefits of massage and the medical benefits that it can and will have for both your mind and body. Again, massage is a fantastic tool to include in your life to help you live in balance.

The Golfer's Massage

Have you not heard of a Golfer's Massage? Go to any golf resort and I'm sure you'll find it there. And since Santa Clarita Valley has so many courses and golfers, I am specializing in this great massage. And the best thing is you don't have to go anywhere... I come to you in your home or office.

This massage targets golf-specific muscle groups such as shoulders, elbows, lower back, hips, legs and the forearms. It incorporates both Swedish and deep tissue massage techniques in what can be a full-body massage or just those specific golf-tender areas. You will feel the tension and soreness dissipate. The Golfer’s Massage can be valuable to your body for either pre-game conditioning or to manage post-game soreness.

Could the Computer Be Hurting You?

In today's world we are hooked on computers, myself included. Most people spend their whole work day on the computer and then come home and play on it more for personal fun and social networking sites like on of my favorites, Facebook. The downfall of all this time on the computer is that we do not take the time to be aware of our posture using the computer, nor do we take a moment to step away and give our body and minds a much needed break, even if it is just for 5 minutes. With this, most of us find ourselves in a bit of pain from the all day use of the keyboard and the mouse. This pain could be in your upper shoulders, your forearms, wrists and for some in the fingers (ever feel that numbing sensation?). Sometimes these muscle issues start showing up right away. Sometimes they may not be for years.


I'm sure if you take a good look at your computer set-up and your posture, you'll quickly realize that things are not ergonomically correct. Yet there are some ways to help yourself have better posture and be more ergonomically correct. These simple measures can help deter you from compromising your body.


1) Receive regular massages :)

2) Acquire ergonomically correct products to support your wrists, arms, lower back and even for your legs.

3) Take breaks away from the computer. Even a quick 1 to 2 minute walk down the hall will refresh your body, get the blood flowing and even refresh your mind.

4) Bring the mouse and keyboard closer to your body so that your not reaching for either.

5) Take a few moments to stretch. Here are a few suggestions:
a) Doorway Stretch: Place your forearm against the frame of a doorway with elbow up. Step forward with the same leg that matches the forearm and lunge. Hold and gently come back. Switch sides.

b) Deltoid Stretch: Pull the right arm across the front of the body using the left arm. Make sure you stretched arm has the thumb facing down. Hold and then switch arms.

c) Tricep and Lat Stretch: Point your right elbow toward the ceiling, then lean the upper torso to the left. You may grab the elbow with the left hand for a further stretch. Hold and switch arms.

d) Wrist Stretch: Hold arm straight out with hand upside down. Gently pull down on the fingers to stretch. Switch hands.


I'm sure one of your first thoughts is how could I fit this into my day? Or I can't do these, what if the boss sees me and thinks I'm being unproductive? Please realize that these simple things don't take up much time and will help you be more productive. If your body is not in pain you will not be spending the time complaining about it, you will get more done and you'll feel better. In the end it is your body and you only have one chance to take care of it.

The Heavenly Healing Massage

Wondering what a Heavenly Healing Massage is like? Well now you can find out.

Indulge your senses with the Heavenly Healing Massage. This full-body style of massage blends long, sweeping strokes mixed with deeper strokes into the aching muscles of the body that my intuition guides me to help release the pain and stress. This exceptional style is adapted to your particular body needs and your choice of pressure. Let your mind, body and spirit escape reality with the fantastic Heavenly Healing Massage!

Another benefit of Heavenly Healing Mobile Massage is that I come to you in your home or office. I bring everything that is needed for your massage: massage table, sheets, lotions and even music to help you unwind, all in the comforts of your own home. This convenience means that you do not have to have any worries about driving, or your next errand, or whatever other mind-chatter you have going on. You just get to slow down and breathe and maybe even enjoy a glass of your favorite wine after your massage.

Water: The Elixir of Life

Water is used throughout the world for its physical and spiritual healing properties both inside and outside the body. So many of us know how good it feels to take a warm bath or hot shower after the end of a long day. Or if we've been in the heat for a long time, how wonderful that glass of water tastes. Water is used in religious ceremonies. And there are even massages that are performed in water. It is the elixir of life.

The organs associated with water are the kidneys and bladder. Yet water affects our whole body. The amount of water a person should drink varies according to size, physical activity and other factors. Not getting enough water can develop into bladder and kidney disorders, due to problems associated with dehydration. Waiting to drink until the sensation of thirst appears is not a good indication of proper hydration. Thirst is actually a symptom of mild dehydration. People who are well hydrated are rarely thirsty and have urine that is colorless or only slightly yellow.

Water can be as healing when used on the outside of the body as it is when taken internally. Water is still among the most-popular mediums for promoting overall health and healing. When used on the outside of the body, water has an analgesic effect, creating a sense of relaxation and well-being. Water temperatures higher then normal body temperature can help manipulate blood flow and shift fluids from one part of the body to another. Water in the form of ice or heat is used by every major healing modality to ease stiff, tense muscles and promote healing from all types of injuries.

There are many ways that you can increase your fluid intake. You can start by drinking water with at least least one meal per day and increase to each meal. You can add a lemon, lime, or cucumber slice to your water to give it a bit of flavor. If you carry a bottle of water with you you're more likely to drink more water and not grab a soda. Cut back or cut-out on carbonated beverages such as soda as this may cause bloating or a feeling of fullness and prevent adequate consumption of fluids. Avoid caffeinated and alcoholic beverages as they can help dehydrate the body. And lastly, eat water-rich fruits and vegetables.

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