Ramona Reid, a friend and colleague as well as host of the show Holistic Revolution on 101.5 WXNA, interviewed me last week about a range of topics. Please visit her website through the link below to hear the broadcast! And check out WXNA for great community radio.
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As a healthcare practitioner, I am also by necessity a self care practitioner. The most powerful form of self care that I have experienced is meditation. Like most people, I struggle to maintain a daily meditation practice in the midst of a busy life. But the days that start with meditation (or contemplative prayer) always feel different.
When I have maintained a regular practice over time I have felt changed from within. As my practice lapses, I can feel those changes slowly ebb away. As a bodyworker, I see firsthand the effects of stress on the body: in the tension of the muscles, in the set of the muscles or the jaw, or in the struggle to relax on the table.
Meditation may seem unrelated to massage, but I think that meditation is in fact a form of massage. Our mental equilibrium directly effects our nervous system and the tone of our muscles. Regular meditation creates a new ecosystem that we live within and from. Harvard University just released the results of a study that examined the effects of meditation, and MRI scans revealed significant structural changes in the brain with just 27 minutes of meditation practice per day. As they state in the article, “people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.”
From the article (click to go to full article):
Stretching is one of the most beneficial things we can do for ourselves to maintain flexibility and address postural imbalances that arise from daily patterns. However, it is also possible to overstretch muscles that are not warmed up, or even to cause damage when stretching improperly.
In the article below, Dr. Ben Kim discusses a very common hamstring/lower back stretch that can stress the lumbar (lower back) vertebrae, and suggests an easy alternative. He also gives some good advice: don’t stretch first thing in the morning!
From Dr. Ben Kim at http://www.drbenkim.com:
Click quote for entire post
It is not necessary to remove your clothing to experience the benefits of massage therapy. Clothing may be the safe boundary necessary to introduce the body to healthy touch. This article from massagetherapy.com explores a few of the most common modalities that do not require the removal of clothing.
In the perfect world suggested by most massage marketing, the morning after a massage will always be a day of abundant sunshine, big smiles with outstretched arms, and a body free of all aches and pains. Ahhh, what a nice world….
I am not a believer in the “no pain, no gain” philosophy. Our bodies reflexively guard against pressure that is too deep, sudden, or intense. Communication during the session is essential for finding the therapeutic threshold in any session.
However, the days following treatment may (but do not always) include some residual muscle soreness as the session’s effects are received and processed by your body. Particularly in cases of deep tissue or myofascial release therapy, it is wise to wait 48 hours to assess the result of the session.
Big News
Beginning the week of August 20th, 2019, I will be working with patients full time at the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Vanderbilt and will close my private practice.
I am so grateful for the last sixteen years of private practice, and am excited about this next step in the journey.
Check this out! Click on the quote to read a quick but profound article from massagetherapy.com.
This article in the New York Times illustrates the beautiful ability of bodywork to open up new and unexpected ways of healing and integration.
“Massage has been an important part of my life for over twenty years, but it wasn’t until I found Brian that I experienced what a massage should be. Brian has a nurturing spirit and an intuitive as well as practical knowledge of the body. He uses those gifts along with his years of training to make positive and long lasting changes in the body.” –Kim C.
Welcome! Thank you for visiting.
integration: the act or instance of combining into an integral whole.
Integration is the task of our lifetime, and a task that our bodies and beings work on every day of our lives. For many years I have called my practice Integrative Bodywork, in honor of this divine process that is unfolding within and through us, and the experience of well-being that arises when we feel a state of higher integration within ourselves.
My massage practice is an intuitive blend of Swedish, Myofascial Release and Deep Tissue Massage with an emphasis on the overall balance of the mind and body. My goal is for you to leave the massage table with a greater sense of ease and well-being. Since every client has different needs, no two sessions are ever exactly the same.
I also offer Mind-Body Balancing, which is a process of coming into a deep internal awareness of–and relationship with–our inner selves through tuning in to the intelligence and information of our physical bodies. Unlike a traditional massage, the client is fully clothed during a Mind-Body session. This is not a passive exercise but an engaged encounter with your own body’s intelligence. The results of these sessions can be very powerful and long lasting. Mind-Body Balancing sessions have a higher fee due to the specialized training required for this work.
An abiding interest of mine has always been the consciousness at the heart of every individual. What is the common spark that we all share; the life force that sustains us? How can we contact this healing presence even when we feel estranged from it? I have found that the simple act of conscious presence and touch can allow this spark to speak for itself, and bring us back to a greater sense of balance, grace and well-being.
Please use the drop down menu to explore the site in more detail.
phone: 615.496.0782
email: briwingate@gmail.com
