twinsparksmassage.com

Successful companies like Google don’t get that way by accident. Even in these difficult times, the company thrives. Why? They think outside of the box. They throw  most  conventional thinking out the window. They always ask how they can improve what they are doing.  Of course, unlike most companies, their employees are highly motivated and very creative. Fortune magazine ranked them as the number 1 company to work for. It was no surprise to hear that all their employees can receive massage as a job benefit, right at their  facilities.

 Google’s Massage therapists are treated with the kind of respect not often afforded in the “real” world, working no more than 12 hours a week. Contrast  that with Massage Envy’s sweatshop- like conditions and meager wages that take advantage of under-trained and undereducated recent “graduates”. I bring this up because Massage Envy does a lot of the “massage” business  but they don’t really provide  much steak, just the sizzle. So, it is not really massage you receive and, therefore, it is more a luxury then a real benefit to your health. Don’t take my word for it…….here is what others think! The Massage Envy ?  or this spa site.

 At Google, the therapists are well trained and represent what massage is really all about. Does the company you work for provide massage for employees?  No? Well maybe they ought to think about it, think outside the box!

Perhaps you’ve heard the expression “stone faced”. If you’ve ever known  a person possessing such rigid facial features, the chances are it’s not only their face that is rigid. Probably, along with the face comes a stiff body and a person who has trouble being  expressive or animated. Underneath the facial skin and fascia lie the muscles which give shape to the facial features above. Those taut muscles tell a story of emotions trapped inside, becoming toxic.

As a massage therapist, I do “face lifts” all the time. Unlike the plastic surgeon, I don’t force a permanent look on your face. If you come in with a “long face”, I massage you in an upward direction, pulling the cheeks upward, relaxing your jaw muscles, removing that stress from around your eyes, and when I complete the massage, your “baby face”, that youthful appearance, has returned. You feel good, in an honestly healthy way. Instead, you could go the “plastic” way and construct a smile that lasts long after you have shed your mortal coil. What kind of “smile” are you going to opt for?

A few years back, Duke University Medical Center conducted  a study of men who had already had heart attacks. The researchers were monitoring  the patients’ hearts with a special imaging technique, asking questions, all while  videotaping facial expressions.

The scientist predicted that when they asked the patients questions that angered them (angry facial expression) it would have a negative effect on the heart. They did. Many patients experienced silent ischemic episodes; the left ventricle of their hearts partly collapsed which caused blood to be restricted to the heart. This could  easily precipitate another heart attack.

What surprised these researchers while correlating facial expressions, questions and heart monitoring, was that only one other facial expression gave rise to this silent ischemic episode- when the patient smiled! Not just any kind of smiles, but those fake smiles, the ones with no real enjoyment behind them.

When you smile you use the zygomaticus major muscles; it is what raises up the corners of your lips.  For the smile to be genuine, another muscle, orbicularis oculi, must also be engaged. This muscle, which circles around the eyes,  lifts our cheeks and creates the crow’s feet effect. 

So when you smile, smile from the heart, so to speak. Make it real, not painted on. Now for my most favorite expressive guy……Marcel Marceau!

When selecting a Massage Therapist you will probably want to know about the different techniques available to you.  Well, this can be a problem, and perhaps not the best approach to take when making that choice.

For example, you might ask me if I do Deep Tissue , over the years I must have heard that question thousands of times. The term deep tissue is a general term. Several techniques used by any competent Therapist would fall under that heading.   “Muscle stripping” or “Muscle rolling” are some examples.

But the term deep tissue has little meaning. For one thing no two Massage clients tolerances are the same, what one client experiences as very light massage feels  like being crushed under a large boulder to another client. On top of that, no two Therapists are created equal, because of differences in training, skill levels, and the therapists  physical constitution.

Often, my experience has been, when a client asks if I can do deep tissue, they are really telling me that the last massage they received seemed superficial, and did not have any effect at all. For the massage to be effective the Therapist must find the optimal level of pressure the client needs to get the job done. No more or less pressure. To work on that level the Therapist needs to be skilled. You just cannot steam roll over a person that will just make the client tense to protect themselves. Deep tissue work requires a good deal of  trust to exist between you and your Therapist.

Some exotic types of Deep tissue Massage go further then to the bone! Take for example  CHI NEI TSANG, Chinese for Internal Organ Massage. This requires deep levels of relaxation to be achieved as the Therapist passes through  layer after layers of muscle and fascia to reach the organs to be massaged,  certainly that is deep tissue. Images of Aztec human sacrifices come to mind. Fortunately, there are other approaches to organ massage available to those who need it. Take for example Hatha Yoga,  works on the organs by moving the body around the internal structures thereby creating the space your organs need to function unimpaired. Locally, Sandy Jones is an excellent Yoga instructor.  She been teaching Hatha Yoga over 30 years.

htt://blueirisyoga.net/

Being a Massage Therapist one would expect me to recommend Massage   to everyone. In fact I almost always do. However, being healthy can not be accomplished by doing any one thing.  Holistic health is about the everything  you do that impacts your health. What you eat, drink, your sleep,  feelings, emotions, your choices, the situations one finds oneself in,  how one  interprets life’s stresses, all this impacts your health.  So remember there is no one magic pill. Actually the root  meaning of the word Member is part. We all know what it means when we say dismember- to cut something apart …………to Re-member means to bring all the parts together. When you remember you make yourself whole again.