When Life Fills Up

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via pinterest  US Space Station in front of the moon

 

Yesterday, I posted a photo from my morning hike.  Deb posted the response, “Thankfully it energized you so that you could return circulation to the right side of my body!  THANK YOU!”   Thank YOU, Deb.  That comment totally made my day.  It reminded me how the little things we do for ourselves really do make a difference.

You see, I’ve been really busy lately.  As a friend put it, I’ve “had my hands full.”  Which is terrific if you’re a massage therapist. It means you’re helping a lot of people, which is why you do what you do.  A full schedule also means you’re  paying your bills and your taxes and that you can join that CSA and that you’re actually going to be able to send your daughter to Costa Rica in the spring.  But a full schedule also means long days.  And that frequently means making sacrifices elsewhere.  Like not making it to your daughters’ soccer games.  And eating ramen noodles or cereal for dinner.   Like not discovering the vacuum had died until the dog hair and dust bunnies were thick in the corners.  Like being a little tired and preoccupied when your daughters are talking about an incident in biology and not really hearing them.

Thank goodness for small pleasures and blessings.  Morning walks in the woods.  Cooking potato latkes for breakfast with Delaney on her day off.  Watching the Space Station cross the night sky with friends.  Breakfast sandwiches at the river with a neighbor.  The smile on a client’s face when the pain is gone. Game night.  Pinterest.  Consumer Reports arriving in the mail with “Vacuums” as their headline.  Amazon.com.  Clear blue skies.  $.10 off on a gallon of gas.  FaceTime.  A cup of hot tea.  My meditation cushion.  Not needing to light the wood furnace even though it’s mid-October. These are the things that re-charge me, that fill me up, that nourish me.  Some I seek out.  Some are gifts.  This is the good stuff that keeps me going so that I can do the good stuff I need to do.  What fills you up in hectic times?  What keeps you going?

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Taking Care of the Care-Givers

Machu Pichu, Peru pinterest:
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Earlier this week I had the wonderful experience of working in a doctor’s office.  My clients were not the patients in that office, but the dedicated workers.  Nurses.  Office staff.  Doctors.  Intake workers.  All women.  All care-takers of one sort or another.  All lovely people, each with their own story.  They all work hard all day.  Some of them return home to be care-takers of ailing family members.  Some had small children.  They all give and take care of other people all day, every day.  They each had their own set of stresses.  These stresses manifested in their bodies in a myriad of ways.  Head aches.  Tingling hands.  Limited neck mobility.  Low back pain.  General pain and malaise.  Only one or two had received massage before.  Today they were taking a piece of their lunch break to take care of themselves. I had only 15 minutes with each of them.  I needed to make our time together count.

It was gratifying work.  At the end of each session I was asked if  and when I’d be returning.  Each woman felt relief from pain and discomfort.  Each felt relaxed.  Each had good color in their face, and a smile to boot.  15 minutes isn’t much, but it can make a difference.  Especially to those whose lives revolve around the needs and demands of others.  It’s important to take time for ourselves.  Time to attend to our health.  These women experienced that.  I can’t wait to get back there.  Having a positive impact on health is what it’s all about for me.

 

Mandy Meyer-Hill

NYS Licensed Massage Therapist

Stairway Healing Arts Center

1 Washington Street

Cambridge, NY  12816

518-265-7889

StairwayHealingArts@gmail.com

 

Centering, De-Stressing, Recovering with Massage

 

 

“I just feel all jittery inside.  Shaky,” she said.  My client had just had a meeting with her soon-to-be ex-husband.  While the meeting had gone fairly smoothly, she was shaken.  She’d lost her moorings a bit.  She was pale.  Her eyes darted about.  She couldn’t sit still.  “Where in your body do you feel shaky?” I asked. She placed her hand on her abdomen.  “Here, I guess.  Almost like there are snakes slithering around.”  She needed to be soothed.  She needed to get grounded.  She needed to remember who she was, who she is.  She needed to step away from those old paths of insecurity she travelled in her failing marriage.  I incorporated several Healing Touch Energetic techniques in her massage, with a focus on soothing and releasing the tension in her muscles and in her energies.  When she stood up from the table, her voice had dropped a few octaves.  She said she felt relieved.  Did massage make her troubles go away?  No, of course not.  But massage did help her get back to her center.  It helped washed away the stress.  It helped her recover so that she could face and handle the difficult issues in a healthy way.  She felt stronger and more at peace with herself.