The Wizard of Oz and Conventional Medicine
By Christian Elliot

If you’re anything like me you remember watching The Wizard of Oz as a kid and trying to be brave alongside Dorothy and her friends as they confronted the Wizard. With trepidation you too may have cowered in your Superman pajamas wondering what this great, revered, mysterious, magical Wizard would say.

If you made it past the smoke, intimidation, and fear you may have also felt that same nervousness turn into a wave of relief. Yet, almost as quickly, for me anyway, that relief turned to…disappointment: “Oh, that’s not really anything magical, just some old guy pulling levers behind a curtain trying to maintain the status quo.” OK, I didn’t know the words “status quo” as a kid, but I got the concept nonetheless—the whole mystique of the Wizard was gone now that I knew the truth about him.

Another experience you may share with me is a heart-rate elevating visit to the doctor’s office where you await word from an older, presumably wiser being, whose next few sentences may explain the situation with your health and at the same time have reverberating implications for your life. Yet, perhaps you, like Dorothy and myself, have an inquisitive side to you. Perhaps after you heard the words from the doctor you also dared ask a question requesting a deeper explanation than what he originally offered. Perhaps you said, “Wait, wait, before we talk about treatment options, can you tell me…what causes that doc?” or “why does my body have that problem?”

Where you may have felt a disconnect is here: In general we have this lofty idea that conventional medical doctors are trained to tell us why things go wrong with our health. They aren’t. They are trained in Allopathic medicine—a discipline that treats our symptoms, with more symptoms. That’s not to say that’s always a bad thing, but it’s past time we recognize the “conventional” medical approach is a highly reductionist approach to health that veils itself behind a curtain of “science,” fancy Greek and Latin words, and about a century worth of time as the apex of our healthcare edifice. All of this is because of the push to the top provided by the tsunami of scientific discovery during a period of time we call the “Enlightenment.”

Because of the Flexner Report of 1910 Allopathic medicine was able to out muscle all the other healing approaches of the day (and there were many) to establish itself in our collective minds as the only truly “scientific” approach to healthcare. Since our culture worshipped at the altar of science (and in many ways still does), in the years that followed, Allopathy became our culture’s Wizard at the end of the Yellow Brick Road. Allopathy (a fancy Greek word that literally means “other suffering”) took over the top spot long enough that we today call it “conventional.” By claiming the word “conventional” the subtle implication is that everything else is some sort of fringe therapy, not mainstream accepted care. Fair or not, that’s the reality.

Thinking back to your visit to the doctor, perhaps after he answered your “why” questions with something general about diet and exercise you too had the realization that after all the fancy testing is over, he can’t tell you why your health is failing, at best he can tell you how. While that’s not a bad start, it’s far from an answer.

In reality, asking medical doctors to address the why of an illness is like asking a mechanic to explain all you could have done to your car in the past that blew out your transmission. How could he know that? Think about it for a second: Figuring out why a person’s health is failing is infinitely complicated because there are so many variables. Each person has differences in genetics, exercise habits, nutritional needs, dietary discipline, hydration levels, sleep patterns, mental outlook, chemical and emotional stressors, environmental factors and more. Because these facets are so synergistically interrelated, they cannot be studied with a reductionist approach to science that tries to eliminate variables. It is not only unfair of us to ask such science to do so; it is also irresponsible and betrays how little we know about the strengths and limitations of conventional medicine, and about how our magnificent bodies work. Chemically manipulating one enzyme, or one hormone, or one gene, as conventional medicine does, is not the way to produce the synergy required for good health.

Despite the lack of fairness in asking reductionist science to trigger a cascade of synergistic health benefits, that has not stopped us from walking for cures for just about every major disease you can think of so we can throw more money at reductionist research. At least by walking we feel like we are doing something to help solve our growing health problems. Are we? While our intentions are honorable, and we want so badly to believe major breakthroughs in conventional medicine are tantalizingly close, they’re not. Never will be. Searching for a cure (singular) to synergistic problems, makes about as much sense as asking our government to come up with a cure for crime. Do we really think there is a cure for such things? While reductionist research has taught us many wonderful things, maybe it’s time we realize it is not deserving of as much faith as we have in it.

Perhaps it would help to think of it this way: Medicine is first a business, not a science. Medical science is a tool used to help healthcare professionals be better at business. (Think harder on that if you don’t believe me.) There’s nothing necessarily wrong with using science as a tool for business, but if we’re going to see conventional medicine as it is, it’s time we pay attention to that “man behind the curtain” who we have revered for so long, and ask intelligent questions about what he can actually do for us. Is the best the way to help others with their health to add some “other suffering” to the suffering they already have? To me, that’s not healthcare, that’s sickness management. And that, dear friend, does not bring about wellness no matter how badly we want to believe otherwise. I don’ t think for a second I have all the answers, but I also think modern medicine has been understandably reluctant to tell you what’s really behind the curtain.

Look behind the curtain with me and you’ll see that the answers the Wizard can offer you when it comes to a chronic illness or disease:

• Temporary band-aids that produce side-effects (drugs)
• Monitoring (is this really moving us forward with our health?)
• Burning (radiation)
• Cutting out parts of us that are not working very well (surgery).

In that light, fully aware of what the Wizard is actually offering, at least we might have the courage to take that ever-unpopular mantle of “personal responsibility” and put it on. Chances are with a bit of research and introspection we could discover where our health got off track, and also discover all those “unconventional” options waiting to help us. No doubt it will take more work than clicking our heels together and reciting a mantra, but do you like the options the Wizard has for you any better? Sure you can pop a pill and your reflux may go away, but what are you doing about the bone loss caused by the pill? And what about the root cause of the reflux in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong, not everything in conventional medicine is smoke and mirrors, and people with power trying to find more power. There are countless genuine health practitioners, some very worthwhile therapies, and Allopathy is exceptionally good at trauma and emergency cases. But maybe, just maybe if we can see the Wizard for what he is, if we see conventional medicine as one option of many, run by people just as imperfect as we are, using an outdated, reductionist way of thinking about chronic illness, we just might be a few clicks closer to home on a long rewarding path of personal growth where we were can help others along the way. Where would you rather spend your time?

By Christian Elliot, owner of Health and Wholeness – a multifaceted fitness and wellness business in Arlington, Virginia featuring: Private and Semi-Private Personal Training as well as Pilates, Muscle Activation Techniques, Fitness Boot Camps, Nutrition Consultations, Acupuncture, Massage, Wellness Coaching, Infrared Sauna, Ionic Foot Soaks and more.

Why I’m not Afraid of Germs
By Christian Elliot

Had a cold lately? Ever wondered what you can do minimize the likelihood of “catching” one the next time around? Well, here’s a thought: Maybe you can’t really catch a cold. Maybe the potential for a cold is always with you and occasionally it catches you with your defenses down. While that thought alone has the potential to throw a huge monkey wrench into the whole idea of the war against microbes, my purpose in this article is much simpler: To help you realize that illness is more a matter of something you allow to happen to yourself rather than something “out there” that might catch you.

To give you a practical example of this, think of “cold and flu season.” When is it? Winter right? What’s different about winter? Well, we get less sunlight, which means we make less vitamin D to power our immune systems. We typically exercise less because we stay inside to escape the cold. Because we don’t exercise as often we also don’t sweat as much, which means our bodies don’t quite cleanse as efficiently. Since we stay inside more we breathe less fresh air and more indoor air pollution. Throw in holiday treats full of sugar that also compromise our immune systems and it’s no mystery why we succumb to colds more.

But back to this issue of the potential for a cold always being with us—ponder these realities for a moment:

• Have you ever wondered how yeast is made so it can be put into bread? OK, that’s a trick question…you can’t actually make yeast, you can only capture it from the air around you. It’s always there.
• It is estimated that we swallow about 10,000 pathogens a day and breathe in a number even higher than that.
• A handful of dirt contains more living organisms than there are people on the planet. The probiotic supplement I take has about 12 billion living organisms in a single capsule!
• There are at all times more living organisms in your intestines and in your blood than there are cells in your body? We’re talking trillions of individual organisms here—bacteria, fungi, yeasts, etc. Some of them are good for your health while others range from mildly to highly antagonistic to your health.

Pondering these realities for a few moments can lead to some fascinating questions. Let’s start with this: Why is it that we can, for the most part, simultaneously exist with all these ubiquitous organisms living in us and around us and not be sick? Many, if not most, of these organisms would gladly consume our bodies’ resources and/or feast on our tissues for lunch if they could. Yet, in a healthy person they do not. Why?

A lot of the credit for how we stay healthy should go to your immune system, and given the bullet points above it’s safe to say our immune systems are about 99.99% effective at their job. If fact, it’s a bit of a morbid thought but the reason we start to decompose so quickly after death (just like a banana on your countertop) is because organisms that eat our tissue can spread without any interference from the immune system. However, health isn’t just about the immune system. The immune system is only as good as the internal terrain in which it lives. What that means is that our immune systems, or any systems in our bodies for that matter, can only maintain health if they have a balance of the right resources and are not surrounded by filth.

Imagine what would happen if you didn’t clean your home for a year: Dirty dishes stay in the sink, you never clean your bathroom, you leave piles of laundry lying around your home, there’s no vacuuming, and no taking out the trash. It wouldn’t be long in that kind of environment before you starting growing all sorts of new life forms in your home. And do you think you might get sick? It’s obvious you would, but why? Well, it’s not because some germs finally arrived on a plane from overseas. Plenty of germs were already in your home before you stopped cleaning it. In this imaginary scenario you’d get sick because the terrain of your home became so unbalanced that the conditions conducive to good health did not abound. Nature has a wonderful way of recycling just about everything if it has enough time. A home filled with filth and decay is a bastion for unbridled growth of organisms that thrive on filth and death. An abundance of those types of organisms make it difficult if not impossible to maintain health, and they will continue to do so until the terrain changes. In a filthy home (or filthy insides) the organisms that thrive on keeping you healthy get crowded out because of a lack of the proper terrain where they can live. You’d get sick because the “bad guys” achieve the upper hand against your overworked immune system.

Looking back at history, especially on this side of the invention of the microscope, it’s easy to see how a lack of understanding of sanitation led to the conditions in which microbes that thrive on decay could lead to shorter life spans and the infamous disease outbreaks throughout history. In our own country, a quick survey of the death rates from infectious diseases shows a dramatic drop from 1900 to 1950 as we began to understand and implement measures that create more sanitary conditions. Interesting side note: What many people don’t know is that the death rates from infectious diseases has stayed relatively the same since 1950 and virtually all of these declines happened before vaccines were made a standard part of medical care. In fact, there has actually been a modest uptick in infectious diseases since vaccines were made standard. But that topic is for another article.

Despite the tremendous advancements in sanitation, we’ve traded infectious diseases for the diseases of the civilized world—diseases like heart attacks, cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, stroke and many more are the leading killers of today, not infections. While we’ve done much better keeping the external terrain cleaner (sanitary) since 1900, it’s hard to say we’ve improved at all at keeping our internal terrain healthy enough to prevent degenerative diseases. If history can be a good teacher here then we might see that when illness occurs perhaps the first place to look is in the mirror, not through the microscope. A more worthwhile question than “How can we attack illness” might be to ask, “Where did I lack balance and allow illness to take a foothold?”

An even better question might be, “Since none of us are ultimately going to cheat death, how do we maintain a healthy internal balance and still live in ‘the real world’”? Where are we individually and collectively responsible for preventing an environment where disease can flourish? Well, if you think I have the all answers on how to best orchestrate this magnificent symbiosis, you give me too much credit. I’ve studied this topic of health for about a decade now and it never ceases to amaze me how much I don’t know.

Still, I have learned a few things along the way and here is one bit of bedrock I build on. Your body is not uninterested in healing and maintaining vitality, and it is highly unlikely that it is incapable of doing so either. Whenever someone comes to me with a question about health we sooner or later end up back at the basics—a clean, nutrient-dense diet, exercise, sleep, relaxation, pleasure, hope, purpose, toxin elimination, stress management, and holistic healthcare. None of us have ever mastered/exhausted these components of health.

In the final estimation, we can only ignore these factors for a brief period of time before illness creep in. Why am I not afraid of germs? Because I understand them as ever present and I have come to see the interruption of illness is a friendly reminder that I am getting off track with regard to the balance in my life. Microbes aren’t the problem. I am. Aiming for balance in life is no doubt an exercise of aiming at moving target. Still, the better my aim gets, the closer I get to fining a huge secret to happiness, and the less likely I am to get “caught”. With that in mind, here’s to balance, a clean home, and the courage to dig deep enough to find the answers we’re all looking for. Keep searching. Life and health are too fragile, and too precious to do otherwise!

If this topic fascinates you I’d encourage you to do an Internet search for “The Germ Theory vs. The Terrain Theory.” What you find just might blow your mind!

By Christian Elliot, owner of Health and Wholeness – a multifaceted fitness and wellness business in Arlington, Virginia, featuring: Private and Semi-Private Personal Training as well as Pilates, Muscle Activation Techniques, Fitness Boot Camps, Nutrition Consultations, Acupuncture, Massage, Wellness Coaching, Infrared Sauna, Ionic Foot Soaks and more.

Back Pain and Massage
How Bodywork Can Help
Karrie Osborn

Whether it’s a pulled muscle from yoga class or an afternoon basketball game, or a long-term pain caused by injury, most of us will come to know the beast that is called back pain. In fact, when it comes to low-back pain specifically, researchers say that 70-85 percent of the population will experience it at some point in their lives.

Causes of Pain – Experts say the cause of back pain can be the result of several factors. High on the list is stress. When our body is stressed, we literally begin to pull inward: the shoulders roll forward and move up to the ears, the neck disappears, and the back tightens in the new posture. “It’s an armoring effect,” says Angie Parris-Raney, a Denver-based massage therapist who specializes in deep-tissue massage and sports therapy. “That protective mode, with the muscles in flex, can even result in visceral problems,” she says, where the pain also affects internal organs.

In addition to stress, poor posture, bad ergonomics, lack of exercise, arthritis, osteoporosis, a sedentary lifestyle, overexertion, pregnancy, kidney stones, fibromyalgia, excess weight, and more can contribute to pain.

Geoffrey Bishop, owner of Stay Tuned Therapeutics in Flagstaff, Arizona, says mechanics is the main cause of back pain that he sees in his practice. “It’s mechanics, including repetitive use and ignorance about preventative postures, and neglect by employers and employees to provide rest and recovery.” The past also plays a part, he says. “Old injuries and traumatic events, left untreated and unresolved, seem to dictate where stress lands in the back as well.”

Massage Offers Hope – Those who suffer with back pain know there are no easy answers for chasing the pain away. Physical therapy has proven effective for some sufferers, as has chiropractic and acupuncture, but massage therapy is also making a name for itself when it comes to providing relief. In fact, research has shown that massage can be a great friend to the back-pain sufferer.

“Massage therapists have long treated low-back pain safely and effectively,” says Les Sweeney, president of Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals. “They have done so less expensively and less invasively than is possible with other treatments.”

In fact, a study by the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle found that massage was more effective at treating low-back pain than medication. Patients who received massage once a week for 10 weeks were more likely to report that their back pain had improved, and improvements were still present six months after the study. Other research from the University of Miami School of Medicine and the Touch Research Institute showed that massage can decrease stress and long-term pain, improve sleep and range of motion, and help lower the incidence of depression and anxiety that often accompanies back pain.

For Parris-Raney’s clients, the length of pain relief provided by massage therapy varies depending on the condition they are experiencing. Getting on a regular massage schedule, however, has really helped her clients manage the back pain, she says. When they go past their normally scheduled appointment, “their bodies know it’s time to get a massage again.” Whether it’s just helping clients get through the day, or reminding the stressed-out office worker to breathe, Parris-Raney says massage can play an important part in back pain relief.

Whitney Lowe, owner of Oregon’s Orthopedic Massage Education and Research Institute, says the benefits of massage for back pain depend on the primary cause of the pain. “If it is predominantly muscular pain, then massage has a great deal to offer in reducing pain associated with chronic muscle tightness, spasms, myofascial trigger points, or those types of problems. If it’s something caused by a joint alignment problem or compression on a nerve, for example, then the role of massage might be somewhat different, such as helping to address the biomechanical dysfunctions, but not really being able to get pressure off the nerve itself.”

Massage Works – When it comes to back pain, there are a lot of options out there. Ultimately, massage, and its myriad benefits, might be a viable answer. For back pain sufferers, Parris-Raney says massage can work wonders. “Massage can help relax the body, relax the psyche, and improve a client’s range of motion and circulation to the affected tissues,” she says. Not only can massage help directly with the pain, but it can also make life a little easier, too. “Massage lets you tap into the parasympathetic system,” she says, “and tap into all the good hormones that help you sleep better and help you handle stressors along the way.” All of that helps in building a healthier back and a happier you.

Benefits of Massage – From stress relief to skin rejuvenation, the benefits of massage are extensive. When it comes to managing back pain, however, there are some specific benefits touch therapy can offer:

–Improved circulation. With increased circulation comes faster recovery time for sore, overworked muscle tissues.
–Increased release of endorphins. The prevalence of these natural painkillers is boosted every time you have a massage. This can only help in managing pain.
–Improved movement. Range of motion and flexibility both get a boost with massage.
–Increased relaxation. When you relax, your muscles relax, thereby calming the pain.

Let’s talk about Allergies . . .
The change of seasons can be an enjoyable time, especially as winter turns to spring and activities turn to the great outdoors! For some, however, seasonal change is thing to be dreaded. Seasonal allergy, also known as allergic rhinitis or “hay fever,” is very common since nearly everyone either experiences it personally or knows someone who suffers from its effects.

While the beautiful aspects of nature can be a definite trigger, nature’s less attractive side (i.e. dust mites, molds, animal dander) plus other unnatural offenders such as pollutants in our environment can also trigger a dramatic allergic response. Searching for anything to relieve the often-debilitating symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, itching eyes, sneezing, cough (and many others), people turn to allergy shots or prescription medication. What many unfortunately discover is that allergy shots are unpleasant and the side effects of allergy medication, even some over-the-counter medicine, are oftentimes far worse than the allergy itself.

How can acupuncture help?
Allergies are essentially an exaggerated reaction of the body’s immune system to otherwise harmless substances, collectively referred to as allergens. Acupuncture works to regulate the immune system’s response to allergens. When symptoms occur, there is a blockage of the flow of energy through the body. By stimulating specific points along the energy pathways, acupuncture helps restore balance to the immune system as well as all the other systems of the body in a holistic way.

What can I expect during treatment?
During treatment for allergies, points on the face, head, and upper body are used more frequently in order to focus on the areas most commonly affected. For this reason, symptoms such as sinus headache, watery eyes, and clogged or painful ears (in addition to the symptoms listed above), can also be alleviated. Each treatment is very relaxing!

How many treatments are needed?
The efficacy of acupuncture is cumulative in nature. Though it can minimize symptoms after one treatment, it is not a quick “fix” for allergies–especially when the triggers and offenders are always present. A long-term treatment regimen is therefore necessary in order to continue to support the immune system and minimize the effects of continued exposure to allergens. For this reason, we recommend twice-weekly visits for a total of eight treatments followed by monthly maintenance visits over a period of a year, in order to effectively cycle through the seasons.

It is important to note that each person responds uniquely to treatment. Factors that contribute to the overall effects include duration and severity of one’s symptoms, age, and general health.

It is our goal at Health & Wholeness to help allergy sufferers experience quality of life—an active life free of symptoms and less dependent on medications!

Theresa L. Spradlin, M.Ac., L.Ac., Dipl. Ac. (NCCAOM) Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist – Health and Wholeness, Arlington, VA

No Pain, No Gain?

Bodywork Doesn’t Have to Hurt to be Effective

Cathy Ulrich

Some people believe massage must be painful to be effective. While some modalities may be intense, this doesn’t necessarily translate to a knuckle-biting experience. In fact, painful bodywork can be counterproductive. If you can’t breathe comfortably, want to tighten up, make a face, or curl your toes, the technique is too much for you. Your body will go into a protective mode and actually block any positive change.

“No pain, no gain” just doesn’t have to apply when it comes to bodywork. Be sure to provide feedback to your practitioner so that you’re on the same page. Think of it as a “scale of intensity.” On my scale, zero is not touching you and ten is pain–not the worst pain you’ve ever felt but the place where you want to hold your breath, tighten up, make a face, leave your body. That’s a ten.

You shouldn’t ever have to be in a pain range to get results, and be sure to let your practitioner know if you’re in an eight or nine range. They may stay at that level if that’s where the therapeutic value will be attained, but again, only if it’s manageable and you’re not tightening up.

And every single client is different. Not only do invdividuals all start in different places, but their bodies respond differently, and their pain thresholds are extremely varied. What one person finds heavenly, another calls torture.

If it does feel too painful, be sure to tell your therapist. Usually, a practitioner can simply slow down to ease the intensity without losing therapeutic value. Sometimes, if you are nervous or stressed, just remembering to breathe will make your body more open, and you’ll remain comfortable.

Bodywork needn’t be a test of how tough you are. By giving your therapist appropriate feedback and understanding that painful techniques aren’t really helping your body heal, you’ll have a great experience in the session and feel better afterward.

Breathe Into Your Massage
Mindful Breathing Enhances Bodywork Benefits
Cathy Ulrich
During her massage, Elaine was having trouble relaxing, continually talking about all of the stressors in her life. I took a deep breath and asked her to do the same. Suddenly, her body relaxed and I finally felt her respond to the work I was doing. So, what shifted with that simple suggestion?

In The Moment: Elaine was thinking about the stresses in her life instead of where she was at the moment. She was in a safe space, receiving gentle, supportive bodywork. And yet she couldn’t relax. By simply asking her to be mindful of her breath, she immediately felt her body and became present with me in that space.

Many meditation traditions use the breath to quiet the mind. With mindful breathing, we’re suddenly thrust into an awareness of our inner spaces and a feeling that we actually do live in a body.

Reduce Pain: One of the first things expectant mothers learn in natural childbirth classes is breathing techniques to help control labor pain. By consciously breathing during contractions, they learn to shift the feeling of pain to just sensation.

Elaine came to see me because she had chronic pain in her foot, knee, and hip. Often chronic pain sets up as a vicious cycle of muscle tightness, impaired blood flow, and more pain, even in areas distant from the original problem. When I asked Elaine to send her breath to the foot, she changed her feeling of pain to simply sensation and this opened a door that allowed me to change the holding pattern in her tissue.

Of course she couldn’t physically breathe into her foot, but the imagery of sending warm, healing breath into her foot from the inside while I worked on it from the outside changed her relationship to the pain.

Try this simple technique yourself. As you tune into your breath, notice your body. Is there discomfort or pain? Breathe in, and think of filling your lungs with healing oxygen. Now breathe out, and imagine sending this warm, healing oxygen directly to the place that hurts. Continue gently breathing into the area for a few minutes. What does it feel like now?

Relieve Stress: When I worked with Elaine, I noticed that the more she talked about her stressful life, the shallower her breath became. She was breathing high in her chest in short, rapid breaths. Her mind had transported her back to her stressful life, even though she was in a place where she was supported and encouraged to take a break from that stress, putting her body into a fight-or-flight response.

One clear manifestation of this is rapid, shallow breathing. While stress can produce this breathing pattern, the good news is that we can consciously change the breathing pattern and reduce the stress. It works both ways.

As I asked Elaine to slow her breathing and take deeper breaths, the tension in her face softened. Her body relaxed on the table as if she were sinking into the padding. Her feet became warmer, a sure sign that her circulation had changed and that her nervous system had switched from fight or flight to the calming mode of rest and digest.

Try this for yourself. The next time you’re feeling stressed, stop for a moment and notice how you’re breathing. Is your breath high in your chest? Is it fast and shallow? Now, gently invite your breath to slow down. Start to pull breath into your lungs by letting your belly relax and expand as you inhale. Spend a few moments with yourself and your breath and look at the stressful situation again. Does it seem so bad now?

Your Massage: Receiving a massage does involve participation on the client’s part. While the practitioner is the expert on the bodywork, the clients are the experts on their bodies. In our culture, the client/therapist relationship is often a check-your-body-at-the-door affair. But so much more can happen when the client works with the therapist.

The next time you go for a massage, try these suggestions to achieve mindful breathing and enhance the benefits of your session:

- As you settle onto the table, feel the weight of your body on the table and begin to notice your breath.

- Feel your breath moving of its own accord. Where is it most noticeable? Bring into the spaces that feel less full (without effort–just invite).

- When your therapist starts working, notice the pressure and rhythm. When your practitioner lets up on the pressure, breathe in. When she/he applies pressure, breathe out.

- If your practitioner comes to a tender area, pay special attention to your breath. Work with the tenderness on the exhale, imagining that you’re breathing out the pain.

- As your therapist works on different areas, imagine your breath moving there to meet her. Send your breath wherever she is working. Let her work on the outside, you work on the inside.

- Notice the changes as the massage progresses. Notice your thought patterns. Notice your comfort level. Notice your stress (and how it melts) as you send breath to the various areas of your body.

- When your session is complete and you sit up, notice how your breath feels. What do you notice about your body, the room, the light?

Why not use the lifegiving force of breath to make your next massage an even more beneficial experience. Just breathe.

Movement and Massage Makes for a Unique Experience

A slow dance–that’s how many have described the ancient work known as Thai massage, a modality that incorporates the tenets of yoga with massage and mindfulness. Accessible for just about everyone, Thai massage relies on the partnership between client and practitioner to facilitate therapeutic movement.

Historical Roots – Developed more than 2,000 years ago in Thailand, Thai massage remains a popular technique that incorporates aspects of yoga, acupressure, energy balancing, and massage. Considered one of the ancient healing arts of traditional Thai medicine (which also included herbal practice, nutrition, and spiritual meditation), Thai massage was originally passed from teacher to teacher within the Buddhist temples, while Thai families used it as a healing folk art. Unfortunately, much of the history of Thai massage was lost during the Burmese invasion of Thailand in 1767, although some of the traditions remain inscribed on the stone walls of the Wat Pho monastery in Bangkok. Today, Thai massage continues to be a mainstay in Thai medicine, while quickly gaining a new audience in the Western world.

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