Kaleidoscopes

I love kaleidoscopes. You know the tubes with mirrors inside, filled with pebbles or chips of glass? You turn one end of the tube and the colored bits shift, reflecting off the mirrors to make a beautiful stained glass looking bit of gorgeousness. The balance of those chips, however is so delicate that if you tried to hand the toy to someone else to see your view, it is rearranged. Much like life. My view of a set of circumstances isn't like yours. At times the balance of our lives is on a knife's edge, one move feeling like it can cause a large shift. A shift that will change our view forever.

We can look at our lives like this, colored bits arranged into a beautiful bit of stained glass. Things come into our lives, causing the tube to rotate. All the gorgeousness tumbles into disarray. Eventually like the kaleidoscope, the picture falls into focus becoming once more beautiful. You don't think so if you do not let go of the last picture. Just the same as in our lives, if we hang onto what our last 'scene' was, we cannot see the beautiful picture right before us. And unlike a kaleidoscope, the rearranging of our lives isn't as fast. It doesn't feel easy, no slithering tumbling that looks effortless.

Imagine for a minute that you are one of the bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. The balance of the tapestry is so delicate, you never know where your position in the whole is. Then some outside influence, much much bigger than yourself, comes along and turns the tube... off you go. Tumbling, for as long as the turner wants. Tumbling for as long as the changes keep coming. To that small bit of glass, it must feel much like it does when our lives shift.

At times the shifts are small, and we weather the change easily. The colored bits of our lives slightly rearrange, we settle back in. Other times, the turning feels never ending. There may be momentary pauses, never enough to get a look at the new tapestry we are a part of. Those are the times where the opportunity for real growth comes. The chance to let go and slither with the turning, allowing life to settle us into a new picture.

Trust it, the place you end up will be beautiful.

Trust it, the bits will stop tumbling, they will settle into another delicate, yet beautiful balance point, we will feel again as part of a beautiful tapestry.

Trust it, we really have no choice, and the struggle makes weariness.

That is all the musings for tonight.
I have been challenged by a friend to write. Write how I talk, write what I think, just write. So I will try.

An Experience treating Horses

Well, it has taken me a while to get back here, and am reposting a letter originally on MFR-Talk.

Hi All,

I took Equine a while back with Tamara Rapier and Mark Barnes in 2002. Since then I work on horses whenever I get the chance. For the past year, I have been treating the horses at a local therapeutic riding stable. This is hard work for the horses, and they need this work so much.
I love Equine work, but am not always confident in my skills. Even though there are times after I treated one, I go later, and they are sound asleep laying down in their stall!

Anyway, as time has gone on, they ask me to look at horses that are troubled, not just physically. There is a new horse, Gunner, who since coming to Mainstay (stable name) he has been a bully. He is half drafthorse, which means he is BIG. He uses his head to push you out of the way, and gets aggressive. He tries to dominate everyone especially the mares. He is sometimes wonderful, others awful. Won't tolerate a herd, kicking and biting the others horses. Some of the other horses who don't take his bullying, tolerate him, mostly not.

Anyway, they ask me to treat him. hmmm.

Just over a week ago, I decided to treat him in the pasture, where he is quietest.
So remembering all the grounding lessons of the horses from the past, I approach him in his pasture. He is isolated, because he has exhausted all his options but one, and they are waiting for me to look at him. I grounded myself, with both a tap root, and feeder roots. Open myself to the higher energies, and open my heart. He gets interested. He wouldn't let me into his energy field though, but I just waited. When he started messing about, I let him know I would leave. When he didn't stop, bumping me with his head, biting my clothes, I warned him once, then left.
This continued a bit. I went and treated someone else, then went back and asked him if he wanted to try again. He did.

When he let me into his field, I realized he is lonely, scared, and unsure of what he keeps doing wrong. I got the picture of a great big child who didn't realize his own size. Most amazingly,I realized he wasn't grounded, letting his energy ride over his head. Immediately the voice in my head started, who are you to tell this horse whether or not he is grounded.... that dang voice. I quieted myself again, and sure enough, this horse had no grounding. I am talking to Gunner with pictures and words. I show him what grounding looks like. I send him messages of how large he is, and how to handle it. He let me show him how to ground through his front legs. I explained that he was a little scary, and I would do more to show him grounding through the back legs, but I wasn't so sure of him. I left feeling pretty good, but in need of advice.

Here is where Cathy comes in. I contacted her to ask about grounding and if what I felt could be true. She responded with some wonderful advice, and along with the reminder to trust myself.
Cathy, your advice and encouragement made all the difference. I couldn't get back before Friday, but went with a whole new confidence. Gunner saw me and came over. so far so good. Then I went into his pasture, he followed me. Good. I asked him if I could check his grounding and see how his energy was, especially around his shoulders. Not right away. A bit of back and forth, then he let me in. Amazing. He started to swing his head, but lifted it over mine, Perfect. He gradually let me into his energy field, to touch him. I worked a few areas that were hot and twitchy. I told him in pictures which herd they wanted him to try. To my amazement he went over to the gate where this group was! I went to him, and explained he wasn't ready. Sadness. I showed him in my mind what a herd is like, how they interact. How he needed to act to be included.

I just kept saying to him," Let me show you" then I would show him a picture in my mind. Thank you John for all those visualizing exercises! When I went next to treat him, he allowed me to do so much more, and then! Unwinding!!! Oh my.

When we had finished, Gunner allowed me to show him how to ground and center himself again. I let him know (thanks again Cathy!) that he needed to choose it himself. And he needed to stay grounded. After I decided he was grounded, we introduced him into the herd. He wouldn't budge, until I went over to him and told him in both words and pictures that I believed he could do it.

Anyway, to shorten my rambling, it went perfectly well. Gunner went in, no issues. No fighting, no bullying. It was easy. Yesterday I got an update, he is acting like a different horse. Cooperating when working, and generally being the horse they thought he was when he was brought to Mainstay.
I was floating. This stuff is awesome.

Need I say that the treatments this week have been phenomenal?

Cathy, thank you so much for that push when I needed it.
Thank you John, for changing my life with this work.

joyfully,

Ami

Musings on rereading Books

Lately I have been reading books. Lots of books. Some are recommended reading that I 'missed' the first round, and others are books I read a long while ago and decided to read again. It is fascinating to do this.
First of all, what we understand from a book so very much depends on where we are in life. Our perceptions are based on where we are, after all. While I know better, some of the books seem to have new chapters in them. *smile*

Taking your time going through books like "Anatomy of the Spirit" by Carolyn Myss, or "Seat of the Soul" by Gary Zukav deepens the experience.

I have learned so much more this time around. I feel like I was in such a fog last time. But even nicer, I have found so many things that have worked for me from previous readings. I have taken what worked for me and left the rest.
"The Art of Happiness" written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and Howard C. Cutler MD is one such book. Many passages in this book spoke to my spirit and reading it 10 years after the last time, was heartening. I really noticed how far I have come.

While still a work in progress, I am so much farther down the road than I was.
Something to be grateful for indeed.

Decide to do this. Choose a book that you read in the past, that spoke to you. Or a book you thought was stupid, but was highly recommended. "Sacred Contracts" also by Carolyn Myss, was one like that for me. At first. Not that I thought it was stupid, it was so dense with information, much of it difficult for me to traverse, that I couldn't read it the first time. I needed to sort out many many feelings in order to even glimpse the wealth of information enclosed.

Reread something as simple as "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz. Powerful stuff, going back over profound truths. You may learn so much more. You may see where you have come from. I so very much encourage this.


with love,

Ami

One good question asked of a client, or ourselves is this one. Sometimes it is simple, the cut will heal, the bone will knit, or something like that. But what if you have chronic pain? What if that back surgery, that was supposed to stop your pain, didn't, maybe even made it worse? What if it is anxiety attacks? What happens then? Can we be healed even if our illness or pain does not go away?

A long while ago I was treating a woman who had hip and leg pain. She was an art teacher and was the sole caregiver for her aging mother. She had no other family. As Christmas got closer that year, she confided in me that she decided to decorate her house for Christmas. This was something she had never done before, having no children she thought it wasn't necessary. She said usually she admired the decorations on her neighbors houses. Being an artist, she told me she had found a set of artificial miniature lighted redwood trees to put on her porch. Then most amazing thing, she said once they were in the house and were lit, she thought it was so beautiful, she decided to leave them. To me this was healing. Her pain did get better, but the opening of her life to the beauty of Christmas decorations made the most difference to her. (Her words). It was a powerful lesson in what healing can be.
"Healing isn't always the curing of an illness, the lessening of pain, there are times when healing is the grace to bear it" Sometimes healing is the breaking open of a heart, allowing even more love to enter it. Sometimes a life is transformed by the healing. Be open to ALL the ways that healing enters your life. Let the expanded definition enrich not just you, but everyone around you.

Peace to you all,
Ami

What does healing look like to you? do you agree with me? Is there a story you would like to share about healing in your life? Share!

The Freeze Response-

This is the January 2010 newsletter from my website, written by a wonderful writer Kim Cano. It explains beautifully why some restrictions occur.

Are You Frozen?

Not meaning are you cold…although there really may be something to the phrase “chill out.”

Many people think they are relaxed when in fact they are not. A lot of people are bracing out there—holding muscle groups tight—and are not even aware they are doing it. Others try to attain a state of calm with drugs and alcohol, which do work on an outer level, but never reach the core of the problem. Once the substances wear off the pain returns.

Throughout the years working with clients and doing myofascial release therapists have discovered something: The core of many people’s problems is something called the freeze response. Most people haven’t heard of it, they’re much more familiar with the fight or flight response, where if there is danger approaching, you stay to handle it or run away.

The freeze response is the third option, one in which you stay completely still to protect yourself, just like an animal pretends to play dead. The difference between an animal and a human experiencing the freeze response is where the trouble begins. If an animal is unharmed he will eventually thaw out. He will begin to shake and sweat, taking deep breaths until he has calmed down and is ready to move forward again.

That is not u sually the case with humans. When something traumatic happens to us, this intense energy wraps itself around emotions like fear and anger. We go into a kind of shock while dealing with what is happening and then decide to snap out of it and act normal. Get it together and move on. It isn’t usually a socially accepted norm to start shaking and sweating and hyperventilating in public to come out of a freeze response. So we act how we are supposed to and stuff it all away into some dark corner of our mind.

Unfortunately, muscles have memory and those moments become locked in our bodies. If they are not dealt with, if those past traumas are not let out and allowed to “thaw,” future chronic pain problems develop.

With myofascial release, many people have been able let go of the past, releasing pain and discontinue bracing muscles stuck in holding patterns that caused years, often decades of distress.

Myofascial release can help you on your journey to healing and wellness. Below is a recent client letter on her experience with the freeze response. If you would like to read more on this topic, please check out the book review of Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, by Peter Levine, Ph.D

Included is a link to purchase the book online. You may also check it out at your local library.

Until next time…Be well!



Client Experience

Recently I had a lot of treatments spread out over a few weeks and I had a strange experience. I guess it is called the freeze response. And I guess I was finally thawing out.

I’d had neck and shoulder pain for ages, and no matter what I tried it didn’t go away. Ami helped me and then suggested an intensive. After a few appointments I had the strange experience. She was pressing on an area that I didn’t have any pain and I began sobbing uncontrollably out of nowhere. The area she was working on became very warm and it felt like swirling coils of energy. The coils started spreading down my legs and I began sweating. I started thinking about a hot air balloon accident I was in as a child. When we crashed and the basket slammed into the ground, I felt a huge jolt of energy shoot into my feet. Two second later I was being thrown out of the basket and I landed head first on the ground in a soybean field. That was all I remembered of that event.

While Ami continued working on me the heat and energy coils then spread to my upper body and I was unable to voluntarily move any part of my body except my face. I felt paralyzed and was scared to death. All I could do was lay there crying and sweating and feeling the hot coils vibrating. She told me not to be afraid and let this process finish. She left the room and some time passed. Slowly the feeling returned in my toes, then my ankles, and so on. She came back and when it was over she helped me get up and get dressed. I was drenched in sweat and felt more tired than humanly possible. But I felt something else too. I felt no pain anywhere and I felt more peaceful and relaxed than I can remember feeling in decades.

I left her office and spent the entire day in wonder at how happy and healthy I felt. Wow! This is how every day should feel, I thought.

How do restrictions start?

Restricted tissue results from trauma whether physical,emotional or mental, inflammation, repetitive stress or poor posture over time. Another big one is scarring, whether from injury or surgery. While neither can be avoided, the scarring can be a serious issue.
I had spent years with debilitating back pain, making it impossible some days to put my shoes on alone. MFR gave me back normal mobility. Part of that journey was treatment to a 10 year old C-section scar.While painful, it was the first real relief from daily back pain. After 5 treatments, it was 5 months before I had any serious back pain at all. Now with regular treatment, self treatment, and paying attention to my stretching and self care needs, I have a better-than-average back.
I love this work.

choose Massage Magazine link John's Blog to read more!

Let's start at the very Beginning...

that's a very good place to start!

So what is Myofascial Release?

Myofascial Release is not a massage, rather it is a safe and very effective hands-on technique that involves applying gentle sustained pressure into the Myofascial connective tissue restrictions to eliminate pain and restore motion. The use of Myofascial Release allows us to look at each patient as a unique individual. Our one-on-one therapy sessions are hands-on treatments during which our therapists use a multitude of Myofascial Release techniques and movement therapy. We promote independence through education in proper body mechanics and movement, self treatment instruction, enhancement of strength, improved flexibility, and postural and movement awareness.
Each Myofascial Release Treatment session is performed directly on skin without oils, creams or machinery. This enables the therapist to accurately detect fascial restrictions and apply the appropriate amount of sustained pressure to facilitate release of the fascia.

What else it is is a highly effective pain release modality. It is at times extremely gentle, other times, not as gentle, but when applied properly, extremely successful in solving chronic pain issues.

More to come...