Sea Shell Massage

Throughout history sea shells have had importance in many cultures. They once have been used as currency in the Indian and Pacific oceans as well as America, Africa and the Caribbean. Because of their shape, they made great tools used as scrapers, blades and shovels. They are also believed to have very good healing energy and are a strong symbolism in many religions of the world. Today, you can go to a massage therapist who will use a variety of shells as tools to work out your tension and hopefully you will benefit from its healing powers.

What to expect during the treatment:

This treatment consists of a Swedish massage where the therapist will use cone scallops and fan shaped shells with all their different texture as a tool to work your knots and tension. The different contours can be used in a variety of different ways to offer a deep penetrating massage. The massage therapist could use the shells cool or warmed up in hot water. The hot shells could be placed in different areas on the body for concentrated heat or passed along the members, back and neck to increase circulation on an entire area. They might also pour a few drops of essential oils onto the hot shells that have been placed on the body to bring in the added benefits of aromatherapy.

The Benefits to this treatment:

This massage can have therapeutic effect on the muscles. The shells can be used to penetrate deeper and if they are warmed up, they can relax tight, achy muscles and offer pain relief. Using the shells hot will also increase blood circulation which will have a ripple effect on the lymphatic system ridding the body of toxins like lactic acid and helping with circulatory problems. This treatment can also be very relaxing, therefore reducing stress, anxiety and even helping with insomnia. Also, the texture of certain shells can offer a slight exfoliation that will take care of dead skin cells.

With all these benefits how could you not enjoy the healing powers of the shells?

Breathing Methods and Their Benefits

Most people don’t take the time to breathe properly. Their breaths are quick and short. Most of the time, they are not even conscious of their breathing at all. Full, deep, relaxed breaths are very beneficial to our health and taking the time to do this can help us with a variety of problems. For example, oxygen is very important for our cells health, and they rely on us to bring it in via our lungs and through the blood system. Also, when we take deep breaths, our diaphragm is lowered into our stomach and encourages digestion. This allows us to eliminate properly. When we take the time to breathe properly, we can also ease stress and anxiety. The deep breaths allow us to slow down our heart rate there for calming us down. Working on these systems with breathing can help with a variety of problems. Below you will find different breathing exercises as well as their benefits.

Before Starting:

Find a comfortable place with no distractions. Allow yourself at least 15 minutes to practice.

Cleansing breath oxygen intake, bringing clarity to the mind and improving concentration:

• Take one deep inhalation
• On the exhalation, sharply contract the abdominals to push all the air out. Breathe through the nostrils making a sighing sound.
• Relax the abdominal and take another deep slow inhalation. Repeat these steps 10 to 20 times.
• After inhale and exhale normally. Inhale once again and hold your breath for as long as it is comfortable. Slowly exhale and pay attention to your mind.

Alternate nostril breathing for soothing the nervous system and calming the mind:

• Put your thumb your thumb and index finger on the side of your nose at the base. Press down on the left nostril and inhale.
• Clip the nostrils together and hold your breath for a bit.
• With you index finger press down on the left nostril and exhale through the right.
• Now inhale through the left nostril keeping pressure on the right one.
• Now exhale through the right nostril while putting pressure on the left.
• Repeat this series 3-5 times, as you get better you can work your way to 20.

Cooling breath for purifying the blood, quenching thirst and stimulating the liver and spleen:

• Stick out your tongue and curl up the side to make a tube. Breathe in as if you are sucking air through a straw.
• Bring your tongue to your palate and hold your breath for a few seconds.
• Exhale through your nose.
• Repeat 3-5 times.

Bee breath for calming the mind, helping pregnant woman prepare for labor and improving the quality of the voice:

• Contract the upper part of your wipe and inhale smoothly but with force.
• Exhale smoothly through both nostrils.
• Repeat 5-10 times.

Victorious breath for strengthening the nervous system, relieving tiredness, removing excess phlegm, gas or bile.

• Exhale deeply and expand the chest for a deep inhalation.
• Contract the back of your throat in order to narrow the air passage.
• Compress the abdominal and expulse as mush air as possible.
• Repeat 5 times.
• Finish by taking 5 normal deep breaths holding your breath between inhalation and exhalations.

Jewel city breathing for cleansing the lungs, improving circulation, bringing clarity to the mind and increasing energy.

• Take deep inhalations and exhalations for 1-2 minutes.
• On an exhalation bring the naval toward the spine.
• On the inhalation bring relax the muscles around the naval and imagine energy coming into your naval.
• Repeat 5-10 times.

With these exercise you will be forced to take the time for yourself and breathing properly. Your mind, body and spirit will thank you.

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Stomach Massage Helps Anxiety

According to French osteopath and dietician Pierre Pallardy Anxiety can be treated through the stomach. He believes that there is a strong connection between the brain and the stomach via the vagus nerve. This nerve is the only one to start in the brain stem and it is responsible for various organs in the body including the stomach. Pierre believes that when our brain can’t deal with all the emotions and stress, our stomach suffers and vice-versa.

I think that most of us can relate to this theory. For example, when we are nervous we get butterflies in our stomachs, or when we feel lonely we tend to eat more, also when we go through a separation we eat less. When our emotions affect our diet we can end up having all kinds of digestion problems like constipation, diarrhea or nausea. When we have anxiety, stress, depression our stomachs can be upset for a long period of time. Massaging the stomach can be a great aid in helping the digestive system there for helping with anxiety.

Massaging the Stomach through Breathing:

This is a good way to start treating your stomach because it encourages relaxation. A person who has anxiety or stress tends to take short quick breaths of air. In today rushed world we don’t even take the time to breath. Taking deep full breaths is a very important in aiding digestion. When we inhale deep, it allows our diaphragm to go lower and go massing our intestines in order to activate digestion.
To do this, find a quiet area where you won’t be bothered and lay flat on your back so that you are comfortable. Place your hands on your stomach in order to feel the movement of each breath. Close your eyes so that you are concentrating only on this. Start taking deep breaths making sure that you are breathing with your stomach. If you are doing it correctly you will feel your hands being elevated. You can do this for about ten minutes trying to make each breath deeper than the first. Try to be conscious of your digestive organs (stomach, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, intestines) as they are activated. You will know that it is working when your stomach starts making all kinds of noise.

Massaging the Stomach with Your Hands:

It’s best to start this after the breathing technique because you are more relaxed and ready to receive the massage. You can follow these simple steps.

• Start by doing a light effleurage over your belly. Take your right hand and make a circle going in a clock wise direction to follow the flow of digestion.
• Next, put both hands on the lower part of your ribs so that you thumbs arrive in the solar plexus. They will arrive on the stomach. With you thumbs, do semi-rotations all along this area pushing down towards your feet. Start from top to bottom and repeat a few times.
• From the previous position, bring your hands out more along the sides of your body with your fingers still on your rib cage and your palms on the side of your ribs. With your hands you will do a rotating movement going towards the center of your body and down to your feet. Repeat 10 times.
• Next, place the tip of your fingers on the left side of your lower abdomen at the inside of the iliac bone. You will now work the last part of the colon. With your finger do half circle pushing towards your feet. Start at the lowest part of the iliac bone and work your way up. Repeat 3 times.
• Now do the same movement across your belly at the height of the naval, but this time the pressure is from right to left.
• The last part of the colon is work on the inside of the iliac bone on the right side. The technique is still the same but this time the pressure moves up and towards the center of the body.

The best time to practice

Wait at least 2 hours after any meal. I suggest making this part of your bed time routine. It is a good way to relax before falling asleep and could help with insomnia.Also this will activate you’re your digestive tract so it works over night and in the morning it will allow you to evacuate all that was dormant in your system. However, these techniques can be done during the day when you have a moment and feel the need.

This article is for information purposes only. People with serious digestive problems such as chrome’s should check with their doctor first. If you are pregnant only a light effleurage should be done. Avoid all hard pressure and check with your doctor first.

Aromatherapy for Anxiety

Massage Therapy to Help for Anxiety- Tips from one professional to another

When I first started as a massage therapist and people would walk into my clinic complaining of anxiety, I simply thought they were really stressed and would give them a simple relaxation massage.

Being disappointed with my treatments, I started to do more research on the subject since I believe to really treat somebody well you really need to understand how they feel. I went on the internet and read a variety of books to get a basic idea but quickly decided to go right to source and ask my clients how they felt and what bothered them.

Today, when somebody says they have anxiety, I follow up with a series of questions. The first being: ” How do you feel your anxiety?” The answers can vary from ” I feel I can’t breathe, like I have a pressure on my chest.”, or ” out of nowhere my heart starts beating weird and it makes me panic.” I also hear about stomach complaints with phrases like ” My stomach feels all twisted and in knots and I seem to have indigestion” and ” my brain feels really foggy and I’m having a hard time staying focused.” All these answers lead me to believe that some very important points to work on should be the stomach, the head as well as taking some time to focus on breathing techniques.

This all made perfect sense to me. Anxiety, being a psychological disorder affects our mind making us unable to think properly and clearly( foggy head and unable to concentrate). Also, we all know that psychological disturbance can affect our stomach. For example, being nervous to put on a presentation can give us butterflies ( cramps ) in our stomachs, and when we live a stress out heart beat elevates and our breaths get shorter.

From this point on my simple relaxation massage became much more complex and the feedback from my clients has been extremely good.

How I do it:

Breathing:

At the very beginning of the treatment, I take a few minutes to get my clients to be conscious of their breathing and to take deeper and fuller breaths. After a few respirations I put a pressure on their on their upper chest, just enough to get them to work their breathing muscles and ask them to continue with their breathing. After, I move on to put a pressure on the sides of the rib cage using the same technique. When I stop applying the pressure, they are able to take bigger breaths with a lot less effort and their heart rate is slower. Taking the time to do this allows me to start the massage with a calmer and more receptive client.

The Head:

To relax the head I was inspired by Indian head massage techniques. This specialty offers a wide variety of manoeuvres that focus on the head, scalp, face, neck and shoulders and with a little touch of lavender it works wonders.To finish off this area, I like to go work the points at the base of the skull which are important pressure points in Asian techniques to help with anxiety and stress.

The stomach:

I massage the stomach as usual with the help of essential oils. I use peppermint for the intestines and rosemary for the liver to encourage digestion. I also like to use ylang ylang on the lower part of the stomach to stimulate the hormones which can put us in a better mood and relieve the anxiety. And last but not least, I take a bit of time to work the solar plexus with some lavender. This is where most people feel “knoted” and they enjoy the relief that it offers.

Taking the time to focus on these few points has made a tremendous difference on my clients. They feel like they got a relaxation massage with the added benefits of working targeted areas that really bothered them. I hope this article has been informative for other massage therapists and if your experience has thought you any tricks I would love to hear them. You can do so by leaving me a comment below.

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