Robert said  "music saved my life" to me today. He revealed he had been a prisoner of war in WW11 and sang to himself everyday to get through it.  I am playing various tunes on an Irish wooden flute for him--Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Tennessee Waltz, Aura Lea, My Wild Irish Rose.....  I have been visiting him for several years.

 "You sang everyday" I asked?

"Yes everyday I sang to myself" he answered.  "I was in isolation except when someone came with food or to beat the crap out of me.  Music saved my life." 

"What songs did you sing?" I asked

"Those songs you are playing" he answered. "Stephen Foster songs."

Every time I finished a song, he said, "another Stephen Foster song."

Over the years of playing flute and singing to Robert, I had learned many things about his life prior to  his being confined to bed, existing in a stark room with two pictures of family members on the wall, a TV, and little else. This was the first time I had heard of the role of music in a dark chapter of his life.

one story he often told me was of I falling in love in ireland, but his love dying in a car wreck.

Follow the Energy

I was sitting in a teacher training for Healing Touch, an energy-based form of bodywork, when the head instructor said something like, "and as we have all been taught, follow the energy."  I decided to ask a dumb question:  "What does that mean...follow the energy?"  I mentioned that I had been hearing this for years but didn't have a clear handle on it.
This phrase had been coined by Healing Touch founder Janet Mentgen, R.N., CHTP.  It was one of her favorite sayings and one of her most quoted.  Although I had been involved with Healing Touch as a practitioner since 1996, I was asking this question in 2009, after 13 years of experience in the field.
This was one of those beginner's mind moments for me, when I was assuming I knew nothing, and was  returning to basic concepts of Healing Touch with a fresh mind. What did I really know about this teaching: "follow the energy."
My last interaction with Janet Mentgen before she died included a very brief verbal interchange in which she stated "maybe spirit is trying to take you somewhere you weren't thinking you were going." At the time, I was having trouble with my feet.  In Healing Touch, physical symptoms can be symbolic of other life issues.  I felt a spark of energy within me at Janet's suggestion or interpretation of my symptoms.    A sense of spark or energy is a signal saying--this way, this way... grasshopper.  Life is trying to leave us clues and teach us.  In a Healing Touch session, the practitioner is called upon to follow the flow of the "energy" to know how to proceed in the bodywork session.   It is said that the Energy itself is our teacher.  In the absence of some voice coming down from the sky or an authority figure to answer our questions, perhaps we can just tune into our energy and follow it to find the path of  fulfillment we seek.
In our lives, there are numerous times when our head is saying one thing but our heart or our energy is urging us on in another way.  As I began to think about following the energy more deeply, I decided to give it a try in my life.  Which way was the energy headed? Could I follow it.  Interestingly, I did end up going in directions I didn't necessarily believe in my mind that I was headed, but my kinesthetic sense of spark and energy nonetheless seemed to know better.  The body doesn't lie, as they say, and neither does my energy.

What to do with Chronic Pain?

I had chronic pain for a number of years, and like many sufferers went to different massage therapists, a chiropractor, a regular doctor, physical therapist, and other holistic practitioners.  There was often a sinking feeling and disappointment when I couldn't quite resolve all of my pain issues.  Then, during a workshop on advanced massage therapy in San Francisco, I encountered a massage instructor who praised the benefits of a strengthening and stretching program for people in pain who aren't responding to different therapies.  While I'm not sure how the strengthening and stretching program I embarked on was any different from the physical therapy I had had in the past, I can say that it worked when I tried it.  My pain issues resolved.  I simply purchased a book with a physical routine in it that I could follow to stretch out and strengthen my muscles.  While I might not recommend this kind of cavalier self-help approach, it did work for me.
Pain is sometimes associated with certain favorite activities, in my case playing the piano, which induced repetitive motion injuries.  I liked to speed around the keyboard at a million miles an hour for a couple hours a day learning complex music at one point in my life.  This was not an activity my body was saying yes to, but rather my body responded by breaking down.    I do believe there may have been a psychological or spiritual component to this phenomenon.  In my case, I came to think that I was probably not, in my heart of hearts, although I loved music, engaging in quite the right activity for me.  I later discovered a different musical outlet of writing children's music and more non-competitive outlets for my artistic interests that were even more fulfilling, and didn't strain my poor forearm tendons and muscles.  In some way, I believe the life or the universe of my inner self was communicating to me through the body, basically saying no to this over ambitious piano regimen.  My spirit was telling me in other words that I had better and other things to do!  I do think it's worth spending some time asking myself: "What is my spirit trying to tell me through my body.  Am I headed in the wrong direction here?"
In addition to benefitting from the stretching and strengthening program, I also benefitted from activity and lifestyle changes.  I didn't work for me to go in for acupuncture for my arms for example and then go right back and return to the piano.  The body does need time to heal, and as they say, the body doesn't lie.  So stopping and/or reducing or modifying any piano playing was a key in overcoming the pain issues.   In addition, I had had a prior repetitive motion injury in my arms from a job doing simple repetitive labor so the arms were a weak spot in my body prone to re-injury.
Pain is a big market, and many health practitioners seek to serve or go after that market, including me, because I have had good success and sincerely feel I have something to offer as a massage therapist in Denver treating pain, tension and stress issues.  However, it's probably not true that our answers are always outside of us, with someone out there who can fix us.  For example, during one bout of pain, I decided to try to use a self-help Healing Touch energy work technique on the issue.  Interestingly, it worked!  It was a fairly simple fix too.  Healing Touch energy work requires the practitioner  to access a very centered state, and from this stillness, modulate the human energy field, and thus possibly influence symptoms of body, mind and/or spirit.  The ache in my arms left after starting to do 20 minute treatments on myself each day.
Sometimes the power is within me to heal, through using something like Healing Touch.   Sometimes the power is there through taking myself  through something mundane like a stretching and strengthening program.   Sometimes the power is in listening to my spirit for course correction because  something in my lifestyle is amiss: my body doesn't want to do something I am asking it to do.  I was quite unhappy going from one practitioner to another in search of relief of chronic pain to the point that I stopped going and gave up and decided I couldn't fix the problem.  I am delighted I did find some answers to chronic pain eventually and resumed a pain-free life. 

Healing My Cat with Massage and Homeopathy

In 2011 I returned home from a two month trip to India and Thailand to a cat named Chloe who was distraught, skinny, and had both developed and passed kidney stones during my absence.  A few months passed with her continuing to look distraught and unhealthy and then I decided, after multiple visits to the Veterinarians, to try massage to help her.  In one month or so of daily massages, she regained the weight she had lost and she looked healthy and glowing.  The veterinarian was very happy remarking on how great she looked.  She had regained about a pound of weight and her coat was shiny and healthy.  She looked like she felt better emotionally as well.
Doing massage for my cat involved using deeper pressure than normal petting, where you feel the muscles being compressed under the fur and skin, and covering the whole body in a systematic way.  I'll post a video soon of the massage method I created and used to help Chloe!
In spite of Chloe's weight gain and appearance of regained health, she still had a problem of chronic UTI's or urinary tract infections, which prompted multiple visits to the Vet and the suggestion that I place her on pulse antibiotics for two weeks out of every month, to treat the recurring infection.  I asked about supplements and none were suggested save glucosamine which she was already on.
A friend listened to this scenario and made the observation that it was time to try something different. Could I take her to a Naturopath?  After all, traditional care had gotten Chloe nowhere for several years.  Chloe had been suffering from chronic UTI's for years.  My friend also thought that giving an animal antibiotics two weeks out of the month would have deleterious effects in the same way that it has on human beings who take too many antibiotics.
It turned out that a place called Holistic Care for Animals was in my neighborhood in Colorado.  I took Chloe in. It was the longest and most unusual appointment I'd ever had for my cat.  The doctor asked me questions about Chloe's personality.  Was she always so clingy?  Was she always so grumpy? Chloe did appear grumpy and clingy that day.  From these holistic questions, the doctor formulated a homeopathic remedy for Chloe to be taken every day.  I was also given some supplements in the form of cat treats that were made for urinary problems.
The end result is Chloe has not had a UTI infection since she started taking the homeopathic remedy and the supplements.  There is less strain on me because I am not trying to take care of a constantly sick cat.  Since I work in a holistic center in Denver as a massage therapist (http://denvermassage.abmp.com),  this move to give my cat holistic care also seemed to fit who I was.  This experience with Chloe can't help but bring to mind those old adages about if you want different results, you have to try something else.  

Turning the spotlight of compassion toward oneself

In our roles with each other and in the world we often find it easier to extend kindness, understanding and compassion to another more easily than we can give those qualities to ourselves.  Whatever our roles might be--parent, teacher, healing practitioner, friend, etc.--I think many people have had this experience.  In fact, we may be particularly hard on ourselves, feeling critical toward ourselves even more so than we are toward another.  For example, if we lose a job, we might wonder what we did wrong.  If we become seriously ill, we might be prone to some sort of belief that we brought it on ourselves.  Whereas if someone else we know encounters an obstacle, we may feel non-judgemental and loving toward them and their situation.
How can we feel more empathetic toward ourselves and send ourselves the kind, compassionate energy that we so often feel more easily for another's pain?  Try this brief exercise that follows.  Sit comfortably in a chair or on a meditation cushion and connect with your breathing, watching the breath flow in and out, feeling the sensation of the breath coming and going, rising and falling in the body.  Relax each section of your body in turn--face, eyes, jaw, head, neck, shoulders, especially the shoulders.  Send love out to the world--the plants, the animals, the earth, all people. Pick someone you clearly love-- a person or a pet--and feel the warmth in your chest area which you have for this being.  Think a thought of unconditional love toward them, something like, "I love you no matter what you say, what you do, I still love you."  Lift up your hands, palms extended outward, and imagine sending love like streams of electrical energy out of the center of your palms.  Imagine this being whom you love is receiving helpful telepathic waves of light and love from you.  Continue this exercise for a few minutes.
Release this being from your consciousness, after having sent them waves of prayerful energy and encouragement.  Let your palms rest comfortably back on your lap or on the sides of your chair.  Take a few breaths in a neutral frame of mind, no longer thinking of anyone or visualizing anyone.  Now comes the hard part. Send yourself love and encouragement.  Think kindly toward yourself.  Bring to mind a difficult situation for you and send yourself love.  Lift up your hands, and palms facing inward toward yourself, imagine waves of love and light emanating from you to you through your own palms.  Find a sense of understanding toward your situation. I believe gentleness is an important feeling tone to work with in this realm of self-acceptance.  Often we are harder on ourselves than other people are, listing our various faults, failings, and mistakes like a litany in our minds.  Find gentleness for your perceived faults, for all the decisions you made that you think were bad ones.  Gently think of your positive qualities.     Cut yourself some slack.  Forgive yourself for everything. Imagine a forcefield of unconditional love around you, supporting you, understanding your journey.  Feel this Gentle touch of Spirit upon you, seemingly coming from within you, like a healing balm of sacred and soothing waters.
Be there for yourself in the way that you know you have been there for others. All that positivity, gentleness, and understanding you have let flow to others can now rest around you like a cocoon for a few minutes--or longer--enveloping you with a peace that passes understanding.  

Trigger points & Acupressure points: East meets West

In Eastern forms of bodywork, there can be a type of right-brained wholeness that pervades the whole view of health and disease.  Meridian pathways or channels of energy flow through the body like rivers carrying nutrients to organ body systems just like rivers carry food and water.  In the Western European world, it goes without saying that we are good at dissecting the whole into various parts.  Both Trigger points from the West and Acupressure points from the East are manually stimulated in massage in a similar fashion, but the Western systems tends to lack a truly holistic view of body, mind and spirit. I for one like to combine the wisdom of East and West.
Nothing beats the precision of Western anatomy and physiology.  Yet it's difficult for me to deny the feeling of chi in my hands or the feeling of pulsating chi in other people.  Take the example of treating a local area of the body, such as the low back, treating the problem where the pain is, pressing trigger points and releasing them, or releasing specific muscles such as the quadratus lumborum, the hamstrings, the "glutes" and the erector spinae. All of this is great but if you study the Thai Sen lines, which are acupressure meridian lines, that pass through the low back but also travel up into the head and neck, then from this point of view relieving the low back pain may involve treating the head and neck, which might seem illogical or unrelated from a left-brain view of bodywork.
The proof is always in the pudding.  I believe that many bodyworkers have probably had the experience, like I have, that working the Whole, as in doing a whole body massage, while also addressing the local specific point of dysfunction, such as frozen shoulder for example, is more effective than only working the local area.  Just working where the problem is locally doesn't necessarily solve the problem.  In my case, I might work on the associated muscles relevant to frozen shoulder, then address the Thai meridian lines, giving Acupressure to the whole body rather than to just to one isolated part.
Bodyworkers differ in their approach.  Some are simply better at or more comfortable with a Western European mindset approach to their work.  This particular therapist excels at working with the forms of bodywork that acknowledge the existence of chi and the presence of the Whole, while utilizing the specificity of Western anatomy and physiology, and even Western techniques like Trigger point therapy and Orthopedic massage,  to guide his work.