Benefits

Massage Therapy Benefits

Release of
Chronic Tension

Release of
Muscle pain

Reduction of high blood pressure

Improved circulation

Increased flexibility

Anxiety Reduction

Promotion of restful sleep

Improved posture

An overall sense of well- being

...A continuing conversation

An excerpt from “The Chair” by Galen Cranz -      Winter 2003

              A massage therapist wrote a letter to The New York Times responding to medical columnist Jane E. Brody, who suggested that strenuous activity and overuse were the main culprits in muscular pain and spasm. The therapist objected, to the contrary, that poorly coordinated action or sitting still —in chairs— is the actual cause of such pain: “As a massage therapist—with a clientele ranging from world-class athletes to the chronically disabled—I have learned that under-use contributes to significant muscle pain, spasm, and, if they are untreated, disability.

                Anyone who sits before a word processor for six or seven hours a day might have significant pain and spasm in the muscles of the posterior neck, shoulders, lateral hip, hamstring, and sacroiliac regions. Not infrequently, such people are unaware of their pain condition and will be perplexed about the cause or sore muscles. They’ll say, “I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary to have caused this pain.” Precisely. Holding any posture for prolonged periods without redress or remedy is, I’m convinced, a major cause of chronic muscle pain and spasm.

                As a taxpayer and the mother of a child in primary school, I am disturbed that sitting still is still considered an essential component of public education. We should be teaching our children the habit of shaking loose five minutes in every hour, from the insidious vice grip of the common chair.” What if we all sat on the floor more and threw out the lazy boys and lazy girls?

"How Old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"

Learning to Drink from the Well (excerpted from Somatics by Thomas Hanna)

AGE: "a period of existence" OLD: "to nourish or bring up

...even though “age” means simply “a period of existence”, it refers more broadly to that which characterizes a period of existence. It is particularly interesting when it becomes a verb—to age—for then it means “to grow old”. What, we should ask, does it mean “to grow old”? “Old”, in its Latin root, alo, and in its ancient Germanic form, alt means—quite surprisingly— “to nourish: and “to bring up”. More generally, alo means to strengthen, increase, and advance. It means to become taller and to become deeper. In its root meaning, then, “to age” and to get older means “to grow up”. In view of the etymology of “old”, it is fascinating to note that “growing old” has come to mean exactly the opposite of the original meaning of “old”: that is, “old” has come to mean worn our, deteriorated, decayed, dilapidated, and no longer useful. Thus, in plumbing the meaning of the simple but curious word, “age”, we come upon a fundamental ambiguity: “To age” means either to grow, increase, and become both taller and deeper or to decrease, decay, wear out, and become decrepit and discarded.