Hands of Harmony

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my web site.  I hope that you will enjoy your visit and come back often.

I am a massage therapist and my practice is in Waynesboro, PA.  I love talking to people about how massage can help their bodies heal itself.  To be able to help people feel better, release their tense muscles, and help them let go of their stress in their bodies is the ultimate high.  When our mind, body and spirit are in balance we have energy, good health, a positive attitude - we have harmony within ourselves.  That internal harmony reflects outward creating the atmosphere for harmony in our lives.

 

I'll be adding more as the spirit leads me, so check back often, make sure you sign the guestbook.  If you are in the Waynesboro area, come get a massage!!!!  You can find me at Charisma Hair Salon, 112 Walnut Street, Waynesboro, PA 17268.  E-mail me at harmonyhands@yahoo.com to set up an appointment or call me at 717-762-6848.

GIVE THE GIFT OF MASSAGE!!  Gift certificates are available - what a way to tell your loved one you love them!!

When our mind, body and spirit are in harmony, we are in an internal harmonic balance.  We have energy, we feel good, have a positive attitude, a clear mind and a soaring spirit.  Health reigns supreme in our lives.  But when we are not in harmonic balance we feel sluggish, have a negative outlook on life, depression can set it, fear and anxiety can get a foothold and the stage has been set for illness to come into our bodies.

 

We have all seen the credit card commercial where everything is moving along in a synchronized fashion, people buying and paying with their credit card card.  Then the person pays with cash or a check and everything behind them screeches to a halt.  This is how our bodies are when we are in harmonic balance. Our bodies are moving in an internal harmonic dance.  An injury like a torn muscle or a broken bone or a trauma to our system like a death of a loved one, a lost job, a surgical procedure, or an accident can bring our harmonic dance to a screeching halt.  On a more daily basis, juggling your work schedule, your spouse’s work schedule, the kid’s schedule, your home life, your social life our harmonic dance slowly grinds to a halt.  One day we wake up and our body tells us it’s had enough.  You are experiencing extreme fatigue, depression, your body hurts, a cold or flu has set in, fear and anxiety are clouding your mind, and you can’t think straight, you feel like you are walking through a fog with weights on your ankles.  Your mind, body and spirit are no longer in a harmonic balance.

 

So how does massage “fix” this harmonic balance, you ask.  Let’s look at each component individually.

 

The Mind – In today’s world, multitasking is commonplace.  Mentally we are juggling multiple tasks while operating at a speed that makes Mach 1 look slow.  The end result is STRESS.  While a mental consequence of our life, the symptoms may manifest itself as sore muscles, fatigue or depression.  Massage stimulates the nervous system that releases endorphins into our system and that makes us feel good.  When we feel good, our mind starts to let go and relax and we start to let go of that stress.  I have a loved one that suffers from depression.  When I give her a massage she tells me that that is the only time that her mind is clear and quiet.  Having a massage gives our mind something positive to focus on.  The compassionate touch of a good massage therapist can quiet the mind and give the mind something undemanding to focus on-thereby encouraging relaxation and rest.  Because massage stimulates our circulation, we can feel energized, relaxed but energized.  An oxymoron you say!   In a way.  A good massage will leave you feeling relaxed and mellow, but the fatigue you dragged into the therapist’s room will be gone and in return will be replaced with a new found vitality. 

 

The Body – Aside from actual injuries to the body i.e. broken bones, torn muscles, surgeries, sore, tense muscles is our greatest complaint.  Knowingly or unknowingly we abuse our bodies daily.  Athletes are constantly testing and straining their bodies to the ultimate and beyond.  They are always striving for that maximum performance output.  While we, generally speaking, may not consciously force our bodies to maximum performance, in many ways we do.  Lifting that box that we know is too heavy or moving heavy furniture, but can’t wait until we have help.  Standing on our feet in spite of the pain in our feet and legs, typing in the same position hour after hour in spite of the pain in our wrists, bending over and picking up something while we ignore that pain in our lower back are all ways that we abuse our bodies.  Our mind is carrying all of this stress baggage around and it has to put it somewhere, what better place then in our necks and between our shoulders.  Or maybe in our lower back instead.  We all know where our personal stress baggage is located.  In a stressful situation, does the neck get real tight and stiff?  Find ourselves rotating the shoulders to loosen up the shoulder area?  Does the lower back get real tight?  Many of us complain of pain in our hip area, especially around our hip bone.  Many, many muscles are attached to the “hip bone” and if those muscles are allowed to get tense and short, they will pull on the hip bone, cause a misalignment and create pain.  My favorite observation is that the complaint is that the lower back/hip bone area is real sore/tight, but don’t touch my butt!!!!  So I massage the hip bone area, lower back area and send them on their way.   They return but the discomfort still exists, but don’t touch my butt!!!!  They return for the third time and for the third time I sit them down explain that their “butt” muscles are attached to that hip bone and unless they are massaged as well, the hip bone discomfort will continue to exist.  So they reluctantly allow me to massage their gluts.   Amazingly, when I am finish they feel so much better – haven’t felt that good since forever!!! 

 

So how can massage aid the body in healing itself, you ask.  In many ways!  Massage stimulates the circulation within our bodies, so the blood is flowing to the massaged areas bring fresh oxygen and nutrients to the muscles.  Massage increases the lymphatic flow, which helps boost our immune system, ridding our bodies of impurities that can attack our immune system.  Massaging the muscles help them relax and return to their normal state of rest.  This in turns takes the pressure and pull off of the skeletal attachments, allowing the bones to return to their normal position and thereby reducing the pain.  Our bodies are constantly trying to return to its normal state of homeostasis, massage helps the body return to its normal state of homeostasis.  If a particular condition remains for a long period of time, then the body starts to reprogram itself to accept the condition as part of its homeostasis.  For example, if a limb has been amputated, then the body will eventually reprogram itself to compensate for the lost limb.  This cannot be changed or altered.   But, if our hip bones are out of alignment because of short, tense muscles – if allowed to go on indefinitely our bodies will eventually reprogram itself to make this misalignment part of its homeostasis.  This can be changed and altered.   By massaging the short, tense muscles or over stretched muscles, the therapist is allowing the muscles to relax and return to their natural resting state, allowing the hip bones to return to their natural alignment and allowing the body to return to its normal state of homeostasis.  Massage seeks out and finds where our mind has stored the stress baggage and helps our bodies to rid itself of stress by relaxing the muscle and bringing in fresh blood, oxygen and nutrients to the muscles.  Tense muscles do not allow for free flowing circulation so the muscles aren’t getting the optimum oxygen and nutrients that it needs to maintain healthy tissue.  Muscle cramps and spasms are usually caused by lack of oxygen to those muscles and dehydration.  So drink lots of water!!!

 

As for injuries to the body, i.e. broken bones, torn ligaments, surgical procedures, massage aids in the healing of the injury.  By massaging around and near the area, fresh blood is brought into the area, bringing oxygen and nutrients to the site, lymphatic fluid is pulled away from the area drawing the inflammation away from the site and reducing swelling.  Massage helps the surrounding muscles to relax, thereby reducing the level of pain.  Massage creates a positive environment for the body to repair and heal itself.

 

The Spirit – The sticky wicket of the three!  We all have a spirit and whether or not we wish to acknowledge it, that spirit connects to something eternal.   I believe the political correct word is Universal Being or Universal Power, but God, Allah, Buddha work as well.  (As for me, God gets the glory for my eternal energy.)  Whatever we wish to call it, our spirit connects to an eternal energy.  And energy it is!  Quantum Physics has looked at our molecular structure beyond the atom to a sub atom structure to discover that we are actually 100% energy – we have no mass!  So how do we develop mass out of energy?   Beats me!!!  It’s one of those God things!  This brings me back to our spirit.  Regardless of how we acknowledge our eternal connection or how we worship (or not) that eternal connection, there is an eternal power connection with our spirit.  When our energy is flowing freely between us and our eternal power, our spirit is soaring.  We feel light; we feel at peace, we feel encouraged, self confident, we have a positive sense of self worth and we feel connected.  When that eternal connection is broken or stopped, we feel discouraged, disconnected, our sense of self worth starts failing, we have a heaviness of heart, and we no longer have a sense of peace in our lives.

 

Since we can’t touch our spirit how does massage affects our spirit, you ask.  Actual hands on massage indirectly affects our spirit by bringing back into harmonic balance our mind and body.  By releasing the negative aspects of our mind and body, i.e. depression, stress, aching muscles, it brings us back into a more positive harmonic balance, thereby releasing our spirit to reconnect with the eternal power.

 

Quantum Physics has not only proven that we are actually energy, it has also proven that we internally vibrate or resonant with sound waves, magnetic waves, light waves or some kind of energy wave that travels through the airways.  Did you ever hear a chord or a progression of chords that seem to resonant within you that had you crying out, YES!  Did you ever put a magnet on an area of pain and have it dissipate?  Do tribal drums seem to call to an inner you?  Does a certain color make you feel happy while another color makes you feel angry?  Your spirit is resonating to the energy associated with either the sound, magnetic, energy or light waves.

 

Reiki, cranial sacral work and Quantum Touch are all forms of energy work.  The energy practitioner is the conduit between us and the eternal energy.  A non-invasive form of body work, by radiating energy into our body, our natural spiritual resonance is heightened or even raised to a higher level.  By raising our eternal spiritual resonance our bodies can actually heal itself of many dis-eases.  The by-products of energy work are a sense of well-being, relaxation, and a sense of peace.  While I can’t prove it, those by-products sure sound like the spirit has been reconnected to its eternal power.  So, is it possible that energy work helps us to reconnect to our eternal energy?  Hmmmmmm.

 

Massage, in addition to all of the things mentioned above, releases the built up toxins in our muscles.  So its very, very important that you drink lots of water after a massage to flush those toxins out of your body.  Dehydration is one of the common causes of muscle cramps and spasms – so – DRINK LOTS OF WATER!!!!

 

 

To sum up this epistle on harmonic balance, when we have restored the mind to a state of quiet and rest, when we have restored the body back to its normal homeostasis and the spirit has reconnected to the eternal power, we have that wonderful, synchronized, internal harmonic dance of well-being.  This internal harmonic balance radiates out of us affecting the atmosphere around us, creating a harmonic environment for harmony in the world around us.  God created us to live in harmony not only within ourselves but in the world around us.  May your life be one wonderful harmonic dance!!!