On starting a Scaravelli Yoga Course

You may or may not realise that I've just started a Yoga Teacher Training Course, and that this is going to take me until October 2017 to complete.  This week was the first time that my eighteen fellow students and I met,together we've and embarked on this rather wonderful course. 

The first weekend has been quite a challenge in some respects as there have been a lot of administrative discussions to have been had: being introduced to the online resources that will help us through the course; the homework assignments and deadline dates (and fines for late submission); the plagiarism policy; the ethics policy; the group behaviour policy and more.

This was quite daunting and I have felt slightly overwhelmed with the amount of learning I've committed to, and how much additional information I am going to have to digest.  I was thinking that I might have to spend today (my first day off for a number of weeks) getting myself organised as I was feeling a little panicked by it all. 

So on waking up, my plan was to spend time sorting things out, but first to check my social media. I was then taken by the following message that I saw on my facebook timeline from  Doreen Virtue:

The angels want you to know that they are watching over you, and they will guide you step-by-step as you release the old and welcome the new.Focus upon excitement about your new intentions, instead of fear about what may happen.Excitement energy will fuel your motivation and courage to make this important positive change.Hanging onto the old, for fear of what might happen, is not serving anyone. 

I'm not really into "angels" and things like that, but this caught my eye. I then laughed to myself because this is perfectly timed to remind me that I have started worrying over how much work I need to do, will I be able to fit it in with my current workload, and lots of other things that I do not need to let control me.

So with this insight and message, I decided to change my focus and enjoy the fact that:

1. I am embarking on a course that will let me learn more about myself, my body and push myself outside of my comfort zone.
2. I am going to make friends with the wide range of people that are also on the course with me.
3. I am going to learn from some amazing teachers about the wonderful style of yoga that has been inspired by Vanda Scaravelli and Mary Stewart.
4. I am going to have the opportunity to get over some fears and concerns that have had a hold on my life (like not talking clearly and standing up in front of people and telling them what to do)
5. I am going to become a yoga teacher.
6. I am going to enjoy the process and have a great time,
7. This is going to be so much fun.

So there are likely to be ups and downs in the time ahead, but I need to remember that this will ultimately be fun. I also need to remember that when things get tough that the thing to do is to get on my mat and do some yoga, talk to friends and remember it will all work out right in the end.

I just need to keep everything in perspective.

Let it Go! Let it Go! (Nothing to do with Frozen)

"Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go"

Lyrics from Disney's Frozen*

Unwinding is one of the three core techniques to the John F Barnes style of Myofascial Release along with Cross Hands Releases and Rebounding.  It seems to be the body releasing stored traumatic events and can appear incredibly freaky to the unaware.  It can seem to be like someone is possessed (like in the Exorcist) with heads spinning (apparently) uncontrollably, arms flailing and legs windmilling all over the place.

I first experienced someone unwind on me on my first morning of my first Myofascial Release Course in 2012.  Gently pulling someone's leg and the next thing I know I'm barely holding on and then they're going up into a shoulder stand (on a narrow massage couch in the middle of the room).  The capable teach brought that episode under control and I suddenly realised that all the other students were staring at me and the person on the couch as if we were completely mad.  It felt perfectly natural as I was working on, with just me trying to work out where I needed to be and what the patient needed to allow this to go on.  Some of my fellow students looked like they had just witnessed something from another planet and seemed to be quite horrified and scared of the process, whilst others were just jealous.

As a closed mouth, emotionally repressed Englishman, I always thought it would be a struggle to be able to actually unwind, and that it was very unlikely to happen to me and certainly not in some acrobatic scene-stealing way that would make me the centre of attention.  The first crack appeared on the Breast Health workshop, when my shoulder and arm started windmilling around.  It was a most incredible sensation I was in control, but not in control of my body, I knew it wasn't the therapist working on me doing the movements, she was merely assisting.  I felt great afterwards and quite happy that that is what was going to happen for me with unwinding: small, gentle movements, nothing dramatic. I was wrong.

At the most recent MFRUK course I suddenly found my body unwinding.  I had said at lunchtime (in response to someone who said that unwinding freaked the out) that "I don't unwind and most unlikely at this course"; my body disagreed.  This was just the right place and time for an unwind.

So what happened during my unwind?  Well it started off normally, but then I just had to roll over onto my front (with a bit of an uppity moment when my arms were in the way) then the exorcist moment happened: my legs moved upwards towards vertical like a contortionist from Cirque De Soleil (being face down and in the zone I don't know exactly how far they actually went), this happened a couple of times and then my pelvis was held in position by the therapist working on me and my legs went beserk and into a full lotus position, and then the unwind completed.

How did it happen? I am not certain and it does not happen with everyone and in every session.  It occurs when the client's body is in the right place and time, and the mind is in a focussed and calm zone.  It then happens, and like the song there is no other option other than to let it go, you really can't hold it back any more.  Not being able to hold it back? That's not exactly true as you can engage the mind to stop and come out of the unwind if it felt more than the client and/or the therapist can handle or if the situation is wrong (which is what happened on my first experience.)



I will say that it definitely felt like someone had hold of my legs, and they were in control of what they were doing, but I knew it was me.  I could also see memories from an incident when I was at university that was being relived.  I used to be flexible enough that one of my party pieces was going into full lotus position, walking on my knees in it or haning from a chin up bar.  The incident that I was reliving was one time when I was hanging upside-down from the chin up bar in lotus position and my grip went.  Panic set in as I was unable to release my legs, I think I ended up hanging by one arm as I managed to get out of it but that is what I released.

Afterwards I felt hot, exhausted and absolutely fantastic. It truly felt like a burden had been lifted, and I had been doing the lifting, but there was a complete freedom from something that I couldn't have named before.. There was, and still is, an amazing looseness to my hips that has been missing for years.  Full Lotus still escapes me, but I feel like I am much closer and less fearful working towards it in a sensible way (rather than in bad way I did with the exuberabnce of youth)

So now I'm really looking foward to the two day Unwinding Course I'm doing with Myofascial Release UK in November 2014.

*Sorry to all of those sufferers who are now singing the song in their heads. But this line really does feel right for this posting. At least I've not asked you to build a snowman...

Time for resolutions

Happy New Year! I feel like 2014 is going to be a great year.

It's at this time of year when magazines are full of articles encouraging you to set yourself goals to get fit/ lose weight. I'm happy to help you achieve those goals by helping ease aches and strains in the muscles you are discovering you do actually possess, correcting your postural bad habits and supporting the changes you are making.

Personally I don't usually do much in the way of New Year's Resolutions: they don't last and then you feel guilty, and to be honest if you really wanted to do something why wait until the New Year to do it. However, I'm not against reviewing where I'm at and setting some goals that I can work towards during the year.  Last year I decided a goal was to make something in the kitchen (over and above lunches and dinners) and that has been quite successful (Spelt rolls, Jamaican Gingerbread, crumpets, cheese & blackpepper english muffins, and Christmas cake) even if not entirely healthy.  I had also decided that I should increase my cardio workout so all the walking I've been doing has been very good for this especially as I've increased the pace.

So this year's selection are (in no particular order):

1) Do more to look after myself by doing yoga more regularly, having regular massages.  I've already made a start on the yoga, and I've got my first massage booked in.
2) Celebrate the positive, and not the negative/foolish. With all the social media that I look at it is all too easy to fall into the laugh at the idiot type, I will try to be more positive.
3) Learn more techniques.  This really is a given as I have to complete Continuing Professional Development (CPD), I just need to book them in.
4) Blog more. Already making a start on this one.  I think my aim will be one a month, but that might change.
5) Run more Reiki courses.  These are already happening: next Reiki Level 1 on 1st/2nd February 2014, and Reiki Level 2 at the end of March.

So these are my goals for the year.  What about you?

What the aim of the blog is

I describe myself as a Complementary Health Therapist as that is the best description that I have that covers what I do.  The Sport & Remedial massage that I do is a more physical effecting treatment than the reiki, which is more subtle and generally affects the mind (though I have found that working on myself it helps with physical issues, just these are measured subjectively and not objectively so not scientifically proven)

So I don’t feel that I can merely describe myself as a bodyworker, which is what a lot of massage therapists call themselves as they know that they affect the whole body with their approaches.  There is also a desire to distance themselves from the seedier connotations of the words masseur and masseuse, which is a real shame.

Similarly I do not feel that calling myself an energy worker is right, although this is a good description of the work that I do with reiki and during the Emotional Realignment Therapy sessions I do.

At times I feel like I am straddling a fence of what I offer and do, as sometimes I am working on a purely physial level and others purely on an energetic level.  However, I increasingly find that the lines are being blurred as I am becoming more intuitive about where I am massaging having felt a need to work a particular area (and a lot of clients are surprised on how precise I can be in finding the slightly sensitive areas that they have vaguely talked about). Similarly I can feel the areas that are being worked on and the anatomical structures affected by the reiki, though I will say that I try to stop my mind getting too involved in the reiki treatments as it can interrupt what is going on.

I really see that what I do can assist/support with Western Allopathic treatments for various conditions.  One of my favourites being helping people with chronic pain in the sinus areas, who have been constantly taking medication to ease the pain they’ve been experiencing especially when they realise that since the first instance the pain may well have been held in the muscles of the sides of the head and these can quite rapidly be eased.

In fact what I think I really do is to help educate people about themselves, bring the aches and pains to their notice, and I really hope that what I do is to then help show them a way through the situation they find themselves in and ultimately in a better place.  Some people don’t realise that this is what I’m trying to do, and others don’t want to go down that path, but I might well just keep showing them the door and hope that they will decide to walk through to see what can be found on the other side.

First Blog

I have been toying with the idea of writing a blog for a while now as I have a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head that I think could be worth sharing.  These are prompted by articles and books that I read as part of my continuing professional development, the similarities (and differences) of problems that I come across at the various clinics I work at and ideas that spring from conversations with clients.  

Just to be clear, I will not be revealing anything about my clients in this blog and if anyone feels I am revealing anything about them then please email me directly and let me know and I will remedy it.  However, the conversations that I have with people can trigger ideas in my head whether it be the questions that they ask about their specific treatments (what caused the pain? or what is that muscle you are working on?), or questions about the techniques that I am using and my approach to different issues.  

The continual conversations I have with my clients is part of why I love my job.  I hope to educate people about their bodies, what might be going slightly adrift (I work with theories of what is going on, and not diagnosing conditions which I leave to those that are qualified to diagnose) and reawaken an interest in themselves.  Quite frequently I am also reminded that I should be doing more to help myself, I try not to be a hypocrite, but I’m only human.

Similarly the books that I read (and as I commute by public transport I have a lot of time for reading) stimulate me in a number of ways that is great. It is something I find fascinating about the human body is that we can do so much to it over the years and it continues to function (maybe in a slowly decreasing ability) and allow us to do what we need to do (maybe not what we actually want to do) and it heals itself.  Then someone like me can, hopefully, come along and work with someone to make the body function in a better way.

This blog will then contain a number of ideas, thoughts and so on that reflect me and the way that I approach things.  It will be a mix of thoughts about Sport & Remedial Massage and Body work techniques (muscles, techniques, training information etc), Reiki (meditations, esoteric approaches, self development (my own as well as for others)etc ) and self help (exercises, postural information, information from talks that I do) If there are any subjects that you would like me to cover, then please get in touch and I will see what I can do (and I won’t promise that I will cover everything).

I will do my best to provide supporting information about claims of effectiveness, but this is not always possible.  I am also not a scientist and it has been a while since I studied statistics, so I will endeavour to not mislead people.  However this blog is partially about me having head space to discuss thoughts and ideas, and I hope that this is clear in what I write.  

My view on what I do is that it is *complementary* medicine, in that it should be seen as working alongside allopathic (“normal”, “western”) medicine and not as a replacement or alternative to. If something is worrying you about your body then please, go and see your GP or a qualified medical practitioner who can diagnose your condition.  If I can then support you in your recovery I would be delighted to help, as long as it is ok with your primary medical treatment.