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Massage is about lengthening tight fascia and muscles. But how we stand and move also determines how our muscles lengthen or shorten into set patterns over time. This is why massage is only one part of healing and wholeness.
Believe it or not, how we walk is an important piece of the healing puzzle. It’s why I spend time really opening your feet and calves so that you can walk correctly, which is something most of us have never learned. We just stood up and started walking, and everyone cheered. But if you really want the full benefit of a massage, you’ll also want to practice good posture and walking patterns so that your body can release its old painful patterns and create new healthy ones.
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Ky Girl CBD products have been independently tested and verified to be pure. You can see the composition of each product online and decide which is best for you before ordering--something you should do. Though not everyone is up front about this, not all CBD oil is completely free of trace amounts of THC, the component in marijuana that makes you stoned, so you need to know the product's composition if you are subject to drug testing and choose a product that is free of THC. The amount of THC in Ky Girl CBD products, however, is minuscule and will not get you high, unless your dosage is too high. They also have products completely free of THC. Just check out the independent testing page of the products. If you've been following claims for CBD oil, you've no doubt noticed that it sounds like modern-day snake oil. People using it claim that it helps with anxiety, energy, focus, insomnia, and pain. There are other things, too, but these are consistently reported and most reliable. I wouldn't count on it for curing baldness or anything like that. But lots of fine, upstanding, sober citizens swear by it, especially for pain and inflammation. Since CBD oil is harvested like an essential oil, each person responds to it in the way that their body needs, discarding what it doesn't need without any of the side-effects of drug metabolites. Taking it sublingually provides maximum bioavailability, but some folks like applying the cream (or oil) topically to sore spots. I have some cream I will be using for those who request it during massage. So how do you know how much to take? A pharmacologist helps us out here. He says to start with a small amount and just keep increasing the dosage day by day until you feel great. When you increase the dose and feel drugged, go back down to the previous dosage. He said he's prescribed 1000 mg/day of sublingual oil to 80# girls, whereas a 300# man only needed 250 mg day. It's what your body needs. A client of mine who's been taking CBD oil regularly for quite some time reports that this CBD oil is superior to anything she's ever tried before, so if you're in the market, check out KYfarmgirl.com.
I am allergic to mosquito bites, so I need a good insect repellant, but I hate pesticides of any kind. Pesticides are the only known cause of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which killed my mother. So I don’t like to wear insect repellant with any pesticides like DEET in it. What to do? I mix my own essential oil insect repellant, which I found to be very effective, and much better smelling than store bought bug sprays. I mix 5-10 drops of as many of the following oils as I can in a 2-ounce dark glass spray bottle, which you can get here:
You can also add any of the following that also have some repellant properties:
The more oils you use, the stronger your repellant will be. You must put these in a glass container because the essential oils are strong enough to break down plastic, and it needs to be dark to keep the sunlight from breaking down the oils.
Because essential oils alone can irritate the skin, you need to add a little carrier oil to the mixture. Add about 10-20 drops of a light oil, such as fractionated coconut, almond, or avocado oil, to the bottle. The lighter this oil, the better, so that it won’t clog the sprayer. I use fractionated coconut oil, but I have that on hand. In addition, you may want to add 5 drops of glycerin. Fill the rest of the bottle with witch hazel. This will thin the spray, keep the sprayer clear, and distribute the oils evenly on the skin. About half of your mixture should be witch hazel. Shake well before use, and reapply frequently. Caution: citrus oils can make your skin more sensitive to light. And some of these oils may not be pet-friendly. So go mix up your own repellant, and enjoy the great outdoors. Massage therapy is priestly in its ministrations. As I prepare for a massage, I methodically set the table, turn on its heater, warm the stones, heat the towels, choose appropriate essential oils, and light candles with prayer for our work together. I’m often struck by how similar my massage preparations are to readying a space for worship.
I bear witness to your desire for healing and bring that to God. I also hold space open for your burdens to be released, as you will, so you no longer have to carry them forward. I listen to the new life that is longing to be born in you, body and soul, and I pray as I work that Holy Spirit will minister unto you and that Christ bear your pain away. It can seem like we’re just chatting away or quietly working to free your body from pain, but what is happening is as sacred as what occurs in a confessional, as together we contend with the forces that bind you and seek to allow God to release them so that you might be free to be all you were created to be.
I usually end massage with a brief blessing. After the massage, I clean up, tracking what happened in a medical chart as a kind of spiritual discipline of watching and waiting for the Spirit of God to appear on the horizon of the future. As I wipe down the room with disinfectant, I pray that Christ will transform all the garbage that’s come out during our time together, composting it for the flourishing of your new life. I put essential oils in the diffuser that serve to clear the space and let it arise like incensed prayer arising with the evening’s sacrifice (Psalm 141:2). Some might say that massage serves the god of narcissistic hedonism, and that can be true. But for those who live in chronic pain, those with trauma and abuse in their lives, and those dealing with the ravages of stress, massage is a divinely healing touch that enables the extension of God’s compassion to the world through their continued and better service to others. Massage ministrations are ultimately not just for the person on the table, then, but for the flourishing of the world to the glory of God. And you thought you were just getting a massage! No one has a normal body. Normal is a construct based on what's most frequently found among a myriad of variations. Yet too often, medical professionals expect us to conform to what they learn is normal. I don’t want to bad-mouth doctors; they heal us. But their education is based on a heuristic norm, a standard that can be taught. Massage therapists are also licensed by the Ohio Medical Board who learn anatomy like medical doctors. We have the anatomical charts that indicate where all the muscles are. Except--when you get your hands on people, you find that no one is exactly like the person in the anatomy charts.
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AuthorTeresa Eisenlohr is a Christian theologian, Presbyterian pastor, and licensed massage therapist. And, no, that's not the start of a joke.
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Location778 Old State Route 74
Cincinnati, Ohio 45245 |
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