Sciatic pain

I haven't blogged in forever. I'm writin today because I had such a freaking wonderful experience teaching today at avenues yoga.

My plan was to do some shoulder loop work and side body work leading to full urdhva danurasana. However I asked the students if they had any specific requests and a gentle man said sciatic nerve stuff because he has been getting sciatic nerve pain. Then other groined and nodded. One women said she just saw a massage therapist because her sciatica was bugging her so bad. Right then I throw out my class plan and my brain was going wild with universal principles, secondary principled of alignment we could do and the different mucles that are probably overly tight or weak that was could be happening, as well as range of movements that I know help lengthen or tones those muscles to create more balance.

I'm in my second semester of massage school and it is so freaking awesome or this stuff to come together in my understanding. John Friend is a serious genius I know there has been negative talk going around about Friend but my hat is off to him. The principles he created are amazing. I share some of the upa stuff with my anatomy and sports massage teacher and they say it is all very sound information.

Anyways continuing on with my class. We focused on the loops or the lower extremity: ankle loop, knee loop, femur loop. Most of te students had there thigh bones going forward, were hyper extending and some had the majority of their weight on the inner/medial edge of foot. So we worked leg loops, spreading the toes, tops of shins forward enough not to hyper extend and tuns of femurs rooting back to the hamstrings. We also did lots of inner spiral. I learned in massage school that  our sciatic nerve is the size f your pinky and it gets pinched when you laterally rotate thigh so medial rotation of thigh is amazing thing to do.

I told a silly story I've made up about the love life of my quadriceps femur bone and hamstrings. You see ms.Hamstrings is married mr.femur However mr.femur has a little afair going with ms.Quadriceps. So he likes to go get with her (moving the head of the femur bones forward) and that is an atrocity. It ruins everything. Everything being your body and that is probaly a little exateration but you get the point. So in yoga we get to really practice rooting the femurs back. It's marriage counseling!!!
Got to go to shook


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Thai Massage

One of the classes I am taking in massage school is called Survey of Body Work. This three hour class meets once a week and each week a therapist comes in to discuss a modality that they specialize in. I really love this class because we are being introduced to phenomenal people who are so passionate about a particular modality that they are in. I absolutely love experiencing someone’s enthusiasm for any form of healing. Last week a good friend of mine Janet Peacock came and in talked about Thai Yoga Massage. One thing she mentioned that really resonated with me is that this form of massage brings about four specific Divine states of mind including:

1. loving kindness
2. compassion
3. equanimity
4. vicarious joy

I think this is so great. That as a therapist you cultivate a state of loving kindness to everyone, you cultivate a state of compassion, you see everyone as equal, and you are happy when others are happy.... How great is that. I feel like when we open our self up whether it be as a massage therapist, a yoga student/teacher, or a student of life we are invited to experience these four dive states of mind.

started massage school!

I just finished my second day of massage school and I love it to pieces. I feel like i am signed up for a yoga workshop I feel so passioante and jazzed about what I am doing.

Here is a awesome list of some of the amazing benefits that massage can offer broken down into physical, metal, emotional.

physical:
• Relaxes the body and improves breathing
• Calms the nerves
• Lowers blood pressure
• Loosens tight muscles
• Relieves fatigue
• Promotes endorphin release
• Increases flexibility & ROM
• Promotes healing and rehabilitation
• Improves posture
• Reduces headaches
• Promotes faster recovery
• Increases energy
• Improves the immune system
• Stretches connective tissues
• Reduces pain
• Improves skin tone
• Increases blood and lymph circulation
• Promotes oxygen & nutrients to the cells
• Speeds removal of toxins & metabolic waste
• Improves muscle tone
• Reduces chance of injury
• Reduces scarring
• Reduces tension
• Improves metabolism
• Relieves soreness, tension & stiffness
• Improves digestion
• Improves physical performance

Mental:
• Reduces stress
• Calms the mind & emotions
• Improves productivity
• Promotes better & deeper sleep
• Improves concentration
• Relieves restlessness & insomnia

Emotional:
• Reduces anxiety
• Enhances self-image
• Promotes creative expression
• Promotes a feeling of being centered
• Promotes being healthier
• Improves ability to cope
• Enhances sense of well-being
• Promotes a sense of groundedness
• Reduces depression
• Promotes a youthful feeling

"TOUCH" = VITAMIN "T"