Back in the year 2000, I was still pretty new in my massage therapy practice when I became pregnant in November.  I had received some aromatherapy training during my massage school, so I knew there were some properties in essential oils that would not be safe to use during pregnancy.  Thank goodness for the internet back then and I was able to find out which essential oils (eo’s) I needed to avoid.  Apparently my favorite massage lotion had Sage eo in it, and Sage (Salvia officinalis) is known as an abortifacient, which means it causes an abortion.  Well I certainly didn’t want that!

I also had high blood pressure during my pregnancy, so that meant I could not use anything that could potentially raise my blood pressure such as rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) or juniper (Juniperi communis).  Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea) is also an essential oil that needs to be avoided during pregnancy because it acts on the body just like estrogen.

Have you noticed that every time I write out the name of an essential oil, it’s followed by a name in parenthesis?  This is the scientific or Latin name of the essential oil.  It is always written in italics with the first name capitalized but not the second.  Why is this important?

Imagine a Fusion of Yoga, Pilates, Rehabilitation and Movement without Pain.  Dr. Seebacher has taken years of experience from teaching all these movement classes and breaking them down for optimal performance for wounded athletes, weekend warriors and chronic pain survivors who don’t dare move a muscle in case it hurts.  Often people complain of attending classes doing countless repetitions at high speed and end up hurting themselves.  More often than not, it’s because they didn’t have the ability to perform the skill successfully at slow speed before catapulting into the competitive pace of an instructor teaching to the more advanced abilities of the class.

For your convenience, many of the Core Restore and Functional Rehabilitation exercises can be found on the Video page.

Kinesiotaping is like having your therapist’s hands with you when you leave the office.  Kinesiotaping provides stability while also allowing mobility.  Kinesiotaping can be done to activate or make a muscle stronger, or it can be done to relax or inhibit a muscle in spasm.  It can also be applied to reduce swelling and inflammation, promote lymphatic drainage and even rehabilitate scar tissue.  The key is knowing which one to use, when and where.  This is why you should always visit someone trained in kinesiotaping before trying it on yourself at home.

The fastest way to make a change in the human body is to address it through the nervous system.  

We are born with a variety of reflexes designed to keep us safe.  Most people are aware of the withdrawal reflex where someone pulls their hand back quickly after touching a hot stove.  Babies have what is known as the Startle reflex, aka Moro Reflex.  There’s also the Rooting Reflex where the baby’s cheek touches it’s mother’s breast and baby instinctively turns the head towards the breast for feeding.

Sometimes these reflexes can get stuck “on” and keep us from fully relaxing the body as adults.  In the nervous system, a body part is stimulated and the message travels to the spine, up the spinal cord and into the brain where the information is processed, then sent back down the spinal cord to the level that innervates the body part, telling the body part what needs to happen.  The reflex moves even faster, staying at that same level of the spine without having to travel up to the brain and back down again.

Once upon no time, there was a little Soul who said to God, “I know who I am.”

And God said, “That’s wonderful! Who are you?”

And the Little Soul shouted, “I’m the Light!”

God smiled a big smile. “That’s right!” God exclaimed. “You are the Light.”

The Little Soul was so happy, for it had figured out what all the souls in the Kingdom were there to figure out.

“Wow,” said the Little Soul, “this is really cool!”

But soon, knowing who it was was not enough. The Little Soul felt stirrings inside, and now wanted to be who it was. And so the Little Soul went back to God (which is not a bad idea for all souls who want to be Who They Really Are) and said,

“Hi, God! Now that I know Who I am, is it okay for me to be it?”

And God said, “You mean you want to be Who You Already Are?”

“Well,” replied the Little Soul,” it’s one thing to know Who I Am, and another thing altogether to actually be it. I want to feel what it’s like to be the Light!”

“But you already are the Light,” God repeated, smiling again.

“Yes, but I want to see what that feels like!” cried the Little Soul.

“Well,” said God with a chuckle, “I suppose I should have known. You always were the adventuresome one.”

Then God’s expression changed. “There’s only one thing…”

The Spoon Theory 

by Christine Miserandino

My best friend and I were in the diner, talking. As usual, it was very late and we were eating French fries with gravy. Like normal girls our age, we spent a lot of time in the diner while in college, and most of the time we spent talking about boys, music or trivial things, that seemed very important at the time. We never got serious about anything in particular and spent most of our time laughing. As I went to take some of my medicine with a snack as I usually did, she watched me with an awkward kind of stare, instead of continuing the conversation. She then asked me out of the blue what it felt like to have Lupus and be sick.

How many people have often wondered what I do to keep my muscles so prominent?

Do you think I’m a body builder?  Do you think I lift weights all the time?

I wondered the same thing throughout my entire life.

Why am I so muscular when I don’t lift weights?