Hello, lovely ones! I hope you’ve all had a most excellent start to the new year of 2020.
I might not be the only one needing some sound catch-up sleeping this weekend! The urge to hibernate v the practical need to be back in routine is affecting a lot of us. I think the majority of the clients I saw this week (nearly 20 of you) said something at the end of their session along the lines of, “Oh, I could just lie here all day/ I was nearly asleep/ I don’t want to get up” and occasionally actual snoring. I think we still need rest and I’m going to take it.
I was writing this morning about what I need to recharge my own inner batteries. I’m reading ‘Setting Boundaries Will Set You Free’ by Nancy Levin. Between work and family, it can sometimes feel like I get a wee bit lost. There are always lists of things to do and though I’ve genuinely created a life I love and most of the things on the list are things I do want to do, it can get a bit overwhelming. What happens when I don’t recharge includes things like feeling depleted, despondent, sad, being more irritable, getting less done, being more likely to think of negatives and being less creative which means fewer helpful ideas, less likely to do things that will make me feel better.
There aren’t enough spoons left in the drawer.
(For Spoon Theory amusement, read https://marthabeck.com/2016/10/like-ten-thousand-knives-need-spoon/ )
When I look at my daughter having a staring competition with her tv/tablet after school while I beetle around doing the needful things, I can get a little fed up. I don’t always remember that that’s how she recharges. For me, it’s time with books I love, getting enough sleep, a train journey, walking somewhere beautiful, time to talk with a good friend over coffee or dancing with a few of them, music, sitting watching the world somewhere (cafe, forest) or ignoring the world in the same space while I travel somewhere else in a good book. Ah, the calm comes back, the inner-feeling of connection and knowing, the creative juices stir with new ideas, my eyes light up, I appreciate so much more, I engage wholeheartedly with the people around me and I absolutely love the world again. From there, anything is possible. I have more than I need and I’m happy to share it.
(“What the world needs now, is love, sweet love….”)
I need good energy to be a loving Mama, a worthwhile Therapist, a good daughter and all the other things I need to be in a day. I’m sure you do too. So if you need some rest, go for it. The world needs us on good form and now!
Here’s something I was wondering……..
I was wondering if you know much about what it means to work holistically?
It means when you come to me, I’m interested not just in the knee that’s giving you the bother or the shoulder that’s really tense and higher than the other – I am interested in these of course! It also means I’m seeing you as a whole person, rather than a musculo-skeletal structure. I’m wondering what stress you have going on in your life that’s contributing to your body holding onto tension and restrictions. You can tell me if you’re struggling to pick your toddler up because your low back is pretty sore (been there) and it’s making you really frustrated and sad. If you’re anxious about your work and maybe that’s going along with tension in your neck.
When I was in India, a lady lent me the book ‘Bodymind’ by Ken Dychtwald and it changed my life. It made complete sense to me that we store our emotions in our bodies, particularly the ones we have difficulty dealing with. We shove things to the back of our minds and potentially it tries to get our attention via back pain, so we can let that go and get our body and whole system working naturally and harmoniously again. We feel a gut sense that we need to change something but don’t know how to, and the gut tension refuses to leave, in a kindly-yet-insistent-manner. It might become IBS then, really to get our attention so we can figure this out and get a better balance back in our life, so we can feel more relaxed about where we are and then our organs can function beautifully again in a place that’s soft and comfortable, rather than all tight and knotted.
Our bodies are wise beyond belief. They know infinitely better what’s good for us than our own conscious minds do. Better than I do as your ever-learning-well-intentioned therapist. That’s why I’m always telling you to listen to your body.
So I’m interested in how you are emotionally, how your mental health is at the moment, whether you’re feeling joyful and grounded or scattered and disconnected. If your body feels light and easy or awkward and restricted. I don’t try to solve all these things for you, I focus on the bodywork because your body knows best. And it knows how to let go…….
I recently trained in Massage for Trauma. It was a short but life-changing course where I came to understand how our nervous system holds onto trauma and how, with specific techniques, we can allow the nervous system of a person to relax so deeply, trauma can be let go gently and effortlessly. Trauma can be the very normal stuff of life, we all go through losses and challenges and of course it can be truly awful as well. I can now offer this as another type of massage session where you could have say 30 mins work at this level and I’ll also blend it in to my other work if it’s helpful. If you need help, please get a very good talk-therapist to help as well. Bodywork matters alongside as it allows your body to let go of the ways it tightened up when the stuff was hitting the fan so you’ll be less likely to be triggered. Less likely to keep the extent of tension you have. I’ve seen it make a real difference for a few people already. Please ask if you’d like to know more or book and appointment.
Try spending a few minutes with your shoulders hunched, head low, frowning, pretending to be glum or annoyed. You’ll find your emotions come to meet it, you start finding reasons to be negative, you can’t think so clearly. It gets real. Now try really straightening up your posture, smile (and if you can’t muster a proper smile, try putting a pencil between your teeth so it’s going ear to ear, a fake smile will occur!), lift up from your ribs and let your eyebrows soften. Before long, your eyes will start smiling too and you’ll think of things to be happy about, having ideas about what you’d like to do.
You’re a whole person and everything is connected, whether you know it or not. Our bodies reflect our inner state and our inner state reflects our body. So it all matters.
I don’t think you’re broken. I just know you and I do better when we let go of unhelpful tension and let our lights twinkle and glow again.
In other news, I’ve had to put my treatment costs up a bit this year, it’s been necessary due to rising business costs. In the interests of keeping you informed, at the Carrick Clinic, here are my new prices:
Swedish/ Deep Tissue Massage
Back, Neck & Shoulders £30 30 mins
Full Body £45 1hr 15 mins
Massage for Trauma £30 30 mins
Indian Head Massage £40 50 mins
Kinetic Chain Release £50 1hr 15mins
Reiki £40 50- 60 mins
Hopi Ear Candling £30 45 mins
£75 for a block of 3 sessions
For more information on any of these, please visit: https://janetmcl.wixsite.com/holisticbodywork, or get in touch via email at janetstherapies@yahoo.com
or look me up on Facebook for more up to date witterings at: Janet McLellan, Holistic Bodywork (https://www.facebook.com/StarflowTherapies/ )
So rest, recharge however works for you and get twinkling again,
Many, many warm and happy wishes for 2020,
Janet