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Speak up

Do you ever feel misunderstood? Ever give up on activities because they don’t quite the meet your expectations? Does the cynic in your head continually put you off? Maybe it’s time to learn how to speak up for yourself.

Our inner monologue can often be misguiding when it speaks negatively. Showing you binary options, yes or no, right or wrong. Life is rarely black or white and learning how to monitor our negative self talk can help us achieve more balance in life.

This January I have joined a gym for the first time ever. I have already decided I don’t like running or cycling as they hurt my knees. I have started to try out the various classes on offer, and wanted to tell you a little of my experience,

So I bravely don my bikini and enter the pool for aqua class.  I have no idea what to expect. The bright young girl instructions the class demonstrates the movements from the side of the pool, whilst holding dumbbells. I try to copy and can hardly move, Each time I put the float into the water my feet lift off the bottom. I laugh  and try again, no improvement. She wants us to lunge from side to side. Again my feet float . I laugh nervously now, turning round to see the other 23 people in the class moving quite fluidly. Just to put this into context, I’m in my mid 40s and am one of the youngest in the class, many in 60s and 70s. I’m feeling disheartened. The class finishes and I go to leave, asking my neighbour about why I floated up. I’m assuming my high body fat level is just creating me into a float, She tells me I have to use force to push down.

I recount this tale to my friends and family with great hilarity but also embarrassment as I have no strength,

I booked to go to the class again today but with a question for the instructor. I realised that the problem was that the pool was too deep for me, At 1.54 m in a pool of 1.3, only my head was above wate. I asked the instructor if she had something I could stand on to lift my shoulders out of the ware. Sure she said handing me a step from step classes. Of course. It took only a quick moment to speak up, and n9w I can do the movements with…. well not with ease but with much more success than last time.

 

Inculd have given ul, my brain told me I was rubbish and that I couldn’t do it. But I spoke up, asked for help and then succeeded.

 

Speaking up doesn’t need to be difficult, doesn’t need to be aggressive, but being heard makes a reall difference

 

good luck in whatever you are doing to look after yourself,

 

x Morag

Speak up2019-01-14T15:44:42+00:00

Take a massage this summer

The heatwave continues in Britain and many of us find ourselves behaving as though we are on our summer holidays.

Relaxing afternoons and evenings in the garden, with friends, by the river or sea, in pub gardens and generally relaxing in the sun. New activities and fondly remembered ones, days at the races and weddings galore.

What is not to like? Whilst we typically enjoy a week or two in these 30+* temperatures on holiday, we rarely experience this in the UK whilst we continue with our daily lives. Work, school, life etc, can take its toll in the heat,

What happens to our bodies?

Our bodies need lots of extra fluid and nutrients in this hot weather. It is important to keep water with you during the day so that you can hydrate when needed. People can become light headed or dizzy, sluggish and lethargic without sufficient water. Our habits change too, we may miss out on our regular exercise classes and muscles can stiffen and contract, or we may take on more extreme or sporadic physical activities as we have fun. One of the most common injuries we see in the summer is that of people playing sports that they haven’t played for years, the brain remembers the moves and the muscles over stretch. As we use our muscles in different ways tthe lactic acid build up can become entangled in the muscle fibre and cause knots .

If we carry on with our daily lives at the same pace as in colder weather, we may stiffin up from the reduced water in the body whilst sitting for hours at the computer or in the car.

How can massage help?

Pulled muscles  – Massage can help by stretching contracted , tight muscles, improving circulation to ensure the right balance of nutrients reach the muscles.

Tiredness – It helps with the lethargy often experienced in hot weather, by releasing feel good hormones around the body.

Swollen legs – It helps with swellings or odema, by encouraging the lymphatic system to flow more freely.

Stress – Massage lowers blood pressure and rebalances all 13 systems in the body

Headaches – Indian head massage relieves pressure in the head neck and shoulders, it uses acupressure, lymphatic drainage and massage to soothe nerves and tiny muscles.

Pregnancy massage – massage heps women during pregnancy ( after 12 weeks) reduce swellings, ease pulled muscles and relieve pelvic girle pain

Sports injuries  – deep tissue massaeg helps work muscles deep under the surface that may have been overworked through exercise and sports.

 

Massage is is a time to rebalance the body and summer is an especially good time to do this

So enjoy the summer, keep cool and covered up, and take a massage to help you feel like yourself again.

 

[email protected]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take a massage this summer2018-07-09T11:01:35+00:00

Vocal Strain

Are you a singer? Or maybe a teacher or a coach? Do you use your projected voice? Then this blog may be for you.

As part of my series of blogs “Massage for Musicians” This item looks at tension in the neck, throat and voice.

When we use a projected voice. (Imagine your teacher shouting “Hey! you there”) We place strain on our vocal chords and all the muscles around them. our head neck and throats will all be put under tension. If this action is prolonged and repeated, over time you could notice damage to your voice.

Musicians and teachers alike, come to me to address this problem as they feel this, and ask for proactive care before they damage their voices with nodes or nodules.

The first stage of my assessment looks at posture. Ideally, the neck should be relaxed and central to the shoulder cradle, the spine falling loosely below and the knees soft, acting as a shock absorber in movement.

Some people like to visualise a golden thread suspending them from the crown of their heads to the sky (suspended in perfect balance like a marionette). This technique, a mainstay of the Alexander technique, enables the body to find it’s natural resting postition.

You may find that you are raising your chin and pushing your head forward. This places strain on the sternocleidomastoid muscle at the sides of the neck and the upper trapezius at the back. Try realligning your spine with the golden thread exercise. Note the difference.

 

Is there additional tension in the jaw or soft palate? Why not focus on these muscles, encouraging them to “Soften, just a little”

Observe your breath. Not trying to change anything, observe, the cool fresh air coming in to your body, and as you exhale, soften the muscles, just a little.

A difficulty some find is that they are always used to being active. It is necessary for us to sometimes be inactive. To actively do nothing. To just BE. Make time at the beginning (not the end) of your schedule each day to Just Be.

Observe your breath.

Soften each muscle group.

Feel aligned

Vocal strain can be alleviated before the onset of nodes through relaxation , breathing exercise and massage. 

Do get in touch if you would like more details, or would like a personal consultation.

 

Vocal Strain2018-02-28T14:48:03+00:00

One thing at a time?

Happy New Year folks. If you’re even a little like me and those around me, you’ll be starting up new projects, or picking up the threads once more to continue weaving life’s rich tapestry. As I hear and tell these tales, I notice that many of us are doing lots of things at once. Multi-tasking seems to be a badge of honour and achievement. But at what cost? It used to be said that women are great multi-taskers. But I see men women, young and old living in this frenetic hi-tech, multi-screened world, doing many things at once.

But is it really good for us? To work at this fast pace, making decisions without thinking things through? Searching for answers whilst communcicating with no-one. Relying on Google in place of research. Sometimes we need to slow things down and take one thing at a time. Reach out to others and practice gratitude for the small things.

One of my favourite Meditation Exercises is the 5 finger Gratitude.

Five finger Gratitude

  1. On each finger of one hand, count somthing that you are grateful for.
  2. Each day (or week) choose 5 new things.
  3. It can be difficult to think of new things, especially if life is tough right now.
  4. Remember it could be that its not raining, or that you can rest.
  5. It is impossible to feel depressed in the same moment as grateful. The more you practice this, the more positive you will become.
  6. Sometimes the simplest of ideas are the best.

 

One Year after I launched Indigo Spring, I am delighted by its success, and surprised at the turns it has made in response to it’s guests needs. Massage Therapy has been the foundation of the business, but increasingly it is becoming about holistic care and wellbeing. The stories people share with me and the advice I pass on are often things we learn from others around us; treating ourselves as we would others, taking time to heal, compassion and understanding for ourselves and others.

 

So this Year I am launching our Wellbeing Journey. By commiting to regular appointments, we will be able to track your development both in mobility and pain management, and overall wellbeing.

This package comes with membership at Indigo Spring. You can visit once a month for our RELAXED membership or twice monthly for our BLISSFUL package.

Membership enables you to:

  • Have priority Booking
  • Reduced charges
  • Emergency Appointments
  • Wellbeing tracking

A 30 minute appointment once a month (R30) is £27.50

A 60 minute appointment once a month (R6o) is £55

A 30 minute appointment twice a month (B30) is £54

a 60 minute appointment twice a month (B60) is £105

Please call 01183320300 0r email [email protected] to join our community.

 

Get in touch.

Come and visit.

Take one thing at a time.

 

 

One thing at a time?2018-01-11T13:46:08+00:00

Meditation for protection

 

Every few weeks, I notice that I see a pattern in the stories my guests tell me about their lives and their well being. It would seem that these difficulties raise their heads for many of us and that we can be learning from eachother about techniques which alleviate.

 

Recently I have spoken to lots of people about the golden egg meditation for Protection. “You what?” I hear you say. Do you ever feel like all your energy is being drained by others around you? Do you absorb negative energy that is directed at you? Do you feel others’ pain with an empathy beyond usefulness? Then here is an exercise for you.

Some visualise a golden egg, and others a shining bubble ( in the style of Glinda the good witch from the Wizard of Oz). I’m sure other imagery that resonates for you will work just as well, so long as it surrounds you entirely and is a little distant from your skin.

Here’s how to do it.

 

Sit comfortably. Close your eyes and begin to observe your breath, going in and out.

Not trying to change it, just observing as it travels in and out.

Imagine the air you inhale is light and cool and fresh and nourishing.

Imagine the air you exhale is dark and warm and stale, and leaving you.

Now imagine a golden egg or bubble surrounding you, an arms length away from you. It completely covers you. This is your protection or shield. It shines and is positive. In here you are calm and feel at peace.

The egg keeps out all the negativity coming from others and the space around you. It also keeps out the negative feelings from within us, negative thoughts and harmful self talk.

As you breathe, in and out, you can visualise the negativity bouncing off the surface of the egg.

This space only contains positivity, compassion and kindness.You are safe.

You can use this technique whenever you need to and by practicing it before it is needed, will strengthen its power.

 

This and other mindful meditations are available as part of the holistic therapy offered at Indigo Spring.

 

Meditation for protection2017-11-22T08:44:33+00:00

Gritting my teeth

People have different ways of dealing with conflict. They may live in the moment, allowing words to tumble out uncensored, full of the raw emotion they feel. No thought for the feelings of others or the consequences of those sentences. Others may seek for common ground, finding compromise and negotiation, the only way to move forward. Some will use violence and misappropriate percieved power. And for some, their response is to do nothing. To suck up the opposing view, store it away for later, and not deal with the conflict at hand. Be it large or small. This can lead to tension in the head, face and neck or to stress and anxiety.

Have you ever wondered what happens to energy, to emotion when it isn’t expressed at all? Like all energy, it can never be destroyed, simply converted into another form. When we fail to communicate in such situations, we might say we are “gritting our teeth”. Holding back words for another time. So this energy, often negative and frustrated, is squeezed between our teeth, locked into our jaw and neck, and is held.

When I massage people’s necks I sometimes feel these lines of tension, making vertical stripes around their necks like metal collars. I’ll touch the hinge of the jaw and feel it locked. I ask if they are gritting their teeth, maybe trying to hold their tongue in conflicting situations, and they seem surprised that I know.

Our bodies are maps of our lives and the muscles reveal tales that we don’t always see ourselves.

Gentle massage is required to aid this tension. Drawing on the lymphatic system we can softly draw away tension through the auricular and clavicle nodes. Softly releasing and enabling people to let go and find a different resolution. Some people may find themselves grinding their teeth at night or tension through their jaw. Gentle face and neck massage combined with breathing and relaxation techniques can significantly improve these symptos and often leads people to make simple but important changes in their lives.

I recommend booking in for an Indian head massage to alleviate these tensions. In the meantime try following these instructions for gentle self face massage.

 

Facial Massage

  1. Using your ring fingers, gently place either side of your nose under the eyes.
  2. very lightly stroke to temples
  3. slightly lower at nose move again to sides of ears and again a little lower
  4. lightly stroke downwards just infront of ears down neck to collar bone.
  5. Repeat
  6. use forefingers and middle fingers, draw small circles at the join of your jaw.
  7. Yawn widely and feel how open the back of your throat is.
  8. Try to keep that open relaxed position s you continue your face massage.
  9. draw light zig-zags across your brow.
  10. Lastly using your ring fingers press and relase each of these points:
  11. chin, sides of lips, beneath nose, by the inside corners of your eyes, forehead, hairline.
  12. Stroke your hair gently away from scalp

Hope this helps.

 

Gritting my teeth2017-11-07T17:34:54+00:00

5 reason why some people never get a massage.

I talk to lots of people about massage, my friends and family, people on facebook, my guests and their families and friends.

Because it is my passion, I’m really keen to understand what it is that makes some people NEVER get a massage?

My research has led me to come up with 5 key reasons why people don’t book a treatment.

 

  1. Body Image

Firstly, some people are not ok with their body image. Both men and women of all shapes and sizes may not choose massage therapy, because they don’t want to undress. Can I take a minute to alleviate these thoughts?

You can have a seated, clothed massage. It is still wonderful and treats all sorts of areas. Back, head, neck and shoulders, legs and feet and arms and legs. If you are not sure you want to strip off for your massage, ask for a seated massage.

Massage therapists work with people of all ages and shapes and sizes. We are advocates of massage and know how much it can help people. I work with people with eating disorders, fluid retention, post operative, gym bodies, wobbly tummys, the whole works…

In fact we are interested in your whole wellbeing so we will understand.

 

2. Because my partner wouldn’t approve.

Massage has a rich and varied history and although people have been massaging for centuries, the term  Massage Parlour has been used to describe certain adult services. The key thing to look for in a legitamite establishment are the words Massage Therapist .  A massage therapist will have learnt anatomy and physiology, and have studied at least one discipline of massage. Their certification should be available if asked for.

Men sometimes don’t take a massage because they associate them with beauty treatments rather than health practitioners. Indeed some massages are given by beauticians and tend to be lighter and generic. Massage therapists are muscle specialists and work with you to help improve your over wellbeing, as well as specific ailments. Some men have also reported that they didn’t want a sports massage because it was too painful. Sports Massages are exactly what they say, specifically for sportspeople. When a muscle has been worked really hard in a sport, it needs a specific treatment to release it. However Deep Tissue Massage is also effective.

Some Women are resistant to spend money on themselves because  they think their partner sees massage as another beauty treatment and a luxury. A way forward in this could be to re-educate both parties. Regular Massage therapy should be as commonplace as regular dental trips. It keeps all of your 13 Systems in the body working in harmony. A solution Ive found works is if both partners have massage, then they aren’t jealous of each other

 

3. Because I can’t spend the money on myself.

An age old problem, is that of guilt at taking time for yourself or spending money on looking after yourself. Both men and women young and old can fall into this trap. And whilst I’m not advocating living beyond your means, too many of us put our own health needs right at the bottom of the priority list. We believe our inner voice that tells us to put others first. These days everything seems to come higher on the list to us. The difficulty with this approach is that eventually we will break under the burden of it. We need to keep ourselves in balance in order to help others.

 

4. Fear of relaxation

Of course when we don’t look after ourselves, our physical pain increases and our emotional armour just becomes tighter. To receive a massage, loosens the armour and some of the worries come out. If we are not processing some of them, it can be quite daunting. Talk to you massage therapist before your appointment to explain your concerns. They will have experienced this before and I certainly offer routes and ideas for people to move forward.

 

5. Fear of getting turned on

When we relax sometimes our bodies become sensitive and aroused. Most massage therapists will have made it clear whether they offer an adult service. If they don’t they still understand that sometimes people get aroused. Don’t worry, we’ve seen it before and won’t embarress you. But equally we won’t focus on it either.

 

Hope that helps. Don’t be put off.

 

Book an Indigo Spring Massage today on 01183320300

 

5 reason why some people never get a massage.2017-10-05T14:48:11+00:00

Becoming a Wise Woman

I’ve been slow to write a blog this week as I’ve been ovecome with a little sadness. Next week my youngest child, goes to University. Having been through this process once already, with his sister, I know that all will be fine, and everything is as it should be. He is ready and packed, has been taught all about budgeting and cooking on the cheap. He has even applied for a part time job up there. But it doesn’t stop me reflecting on this change for us both and the shift in my identity.

I became a mum aged 23, pretty much straight from University. Being a mum was something I had always wanted and having reached the end of my education, I now could allow myself to embark on this wonderful journey. And wonderful it has been. Being a mum has helped me to grow in so many ways and I can’t believe that nearly 23 years have passed since. I threw myself into motherhood and caring for their every need became a mark of my success as an adult.  Both of my childrenhave turned out clever and kind and good. They make me so proud.

But now my role in their lives shifts a little and they learn independence. So what happens in that space for me now?

I see this topic written about year after year, and yet it is only when it happens to you, that you really understand. Our children are borrowed, to help and shape. And when they move on, there is a new space for care and nurture to happen.

Maybe I was anticipating this when I developed my Massage Therapy Business. I’m now ready to help others, and through Indigo Spring, I can highlight some of the opportunities and pitfalls to watch for. I learn so much from my guests and am able to reflect this, through my blog.

  • I’ve learnt that we all hold our emotional stress at the top of our back and across our shoulders.
  • I’ve learnt that we need to reset our bodies and minds after difficulties or change
  • I’ve learnt to Be and not always to DO
  • I’ve reminded myself that getting things wrong is essential for progress and development.

 

When I became a mother I was only just a woman. Now, as I embark on my next stage, I feel my children have made me wise. As I approach my crone years, I am starting to see that it was them who made me a real wise woman.

 

Becoming a Wise Woman2017-09-12T12:05:32+00:00

Spa versus Massage Therapist

I have to say I’m a bit of a fan of Spa’s. I love to treat myself to a day off unwinding with hot and cold, steam and sauna and a little massage. People often ask me if I still enjoy receiving a massage now that I am a massage therapist. The answer of course is still yes, as any massage is better than none, however I have been observing what the real difference is between a spa massage and an individual consultation and massage therapy.

Spa Massage

Short consultation on any contraindications to massage
Light massage for relaxation
Pre designed treatments
One off treatments with a new therapist
Lovely experience for one hour

Massage Therapy

15 minute consultation on first visit to gain full medical history and lifestyle profile.
Objectives of the treatment.
Personalised treatment for your specific needs.
Varied techniques used for different areas.
Tailored treatments to include physical and mental strategies to improve symptoms and overall difficulties
Regular treatments with assessments to analyse effectiveness.
Amazing treatments with progressive tools to enable self healing with stretches, and breathing techniques to aid recovery.

So if you are feeling like you would benefit from a massage therapist, why not come visit Indigo Spring and feel the real difference between the two.

Spa versus Massage Therapist2017-08-29T13:05:51+00:00

Rebalance your mind and body.

This week, I have been approached by a number of people for whom life has taken an unexpected turn.

They came to me to help rebalance their mind and body to help them find strength going forward. In this time of super technology we can forget that communication is key to moving through life’s hurdles. By being compassionate to yourself, as you would be to a child, you can start to give yourself kindness and understanding in difficult times.

Massage helps the body’s 13 systems to work in harmony together and to process change. By lowering blood pressure, improving circulation, easing tense muscles and relieving stress, we can work with you to move forward.

 

So whether you have had a loss or bereavement, changes in relationships or career, why not book a massage to Rebalance once more

Rebalance your mind and body.2017-08-01T17:11:50+00:00
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