Massage and Meditation: Sacred Science and Art

Bodywork is in some respects a sacred art form, like mandala painting. Sacred art forms are themselves pathways for self-growth, ultimately vehicles for enlightenment. In the Western world, sacred art was the predominant art style until and through the Renaissance. Dance throughout the world has been the Path of movement. I recall reading about an…

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Massage and Meditation: Touch Changes Everything

Next weekend I’ll be teaching “Massage and Meditation” a CE workshop which has become a holiday and new year’s tradition at our school. Whether we’ve been doing massage for just one year or twenty, we can always find ways to renew our appreciation for how profound, and sometimes how neglected, touches are in our lives.…

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Massage and Meditation: The Necessity of Beauty

Meditation and Massage allow us the “vacation” and “vocation” to be affected by and to affect the beauty which lies within each person.  Here is a wonderful passage excerpted from Thomas Moore’s book, Care of the Soul. “Beauty assists the soul in its own peculiar ways of being. For example, beauty is arresting. For the…

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Anatomy Review: Pregnancy Massage and the Migration of Fascia

Did you know it is basically a law of structure that under compression fascia will “migrate” laterally? Think of pressing down on a beach ball. The more you press, the further out each of its color segments would get. This is exactly what happens to the pregnant woman under the compression of the extra weight carried…

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Anatomy Review: Rhomboids

Origin: Minor: Medial border of scapula above spine, Major: Medial border of scapula below spine Insertion: Minor: C7 & T1, Major: T2 –T5 Action: Retraction of scapula (Excessive: pain between scapula) Antagonist: Serratus Anterior and Pectoralis Major The usual mechanistic approach to rounded shoulders is to strengthen the rhomboids thus theoretically “squaring” the shoulders. This…

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Anatomy Review: Introduction to the Torso

The word “torso” comes from the Latin word “thysus” meaning stalk or stem. The spine within the torso forms a kind of fifth limb within us. The vertebral column runs through the center of the body, up through the neck and becomes the cranium. The muscles, the organs, the bones and other tissues of the torso surround…

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Anatomy Review: Levator Scapula, The Saga

Origin: C3-5 Insertion: Superior angle of the scapula  Action: Lifts scapula and/or extends the neck (Excessive:“Knot” or upper scapula) Antagonist: Inferior fibers of trapezius The levator scapula is a cable-like muscle that is usually overworked by our tendency to hunch our shoulders up. In the life of the levator scapula, this means it’s constantly tugging on the superior angle…

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Anatomy Review: Latissimus Dorsi

by David Lauterstein Origin: sacrum, iliac crest, L5-T7, R 10-12, inferior angle of scapula, Insertion: Intertubercular grove of humerus, Action: Extension,medial rotation of humerus, adduction of humerus, depression of shoulder girdle, lower fibers depress ribcage, especially in coughing. Just as it may be said that we reach out from our guts –insofar as pectoralis major…

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Anatomy Review: Lymphatic System

When I first heard of Manual Lymph Drainage, the product Liquid Plumber came to mind!  And being a manual plumber was not appealing to me – I’m a holistic healer, not a mere lymph drainer!  But the healer in me will find a way.  And where does the word “lymph” come from?  From the Latin “lympha” which…

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Anatomy Review: Back of the Future, Future of the Back

By David Lauterstein, LMT, Cert. ZB Most people don’t know much about their bodies.  As a result, we live with suffering individually and as a society suffer from the symptoms of “psycho-physical illiteracy”. Most of the physical suffering happens in the back.  Lower, middle, and upper back problems account for most worker absentee-ism in the U.S. –…

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