Flying Fears or Freak Outs

I have got to stop reading, listening and scouring the news for scanner and groping reports. I am going to get in the security line and just keel over from anxiety! I will have myself worked up to an actual frenzy by the time I get to the gate. Like I already have myself worked up to a frenzy. In fact my kids have forbidden me to even speak of the groping I will have to endure.

Come on can't you just look at an old woman with dreadlocks and know she is as harmless as a fly? Really just figure on seven kids and five grandkids and I will even bring pictures and brag a little to convince them.

A client of mine was flying several years ago and all the bobby pins in her hair set off the metal detector. The TSA person began to pat her beehive, she is old, and take out her bobby pins. She informed her that if she messed up her hair she better put it back the way it was. They left off messing with her at that point.

I am still trying to figure out my best strategy to deal with someone touching me all over my body. My kids do not seem to understand my reluctance to be groped by a stranger. I try to explain to them that I have been teaching ethics so long in conjunction with our massage school that I really believe in ethics. I believe there are ethical ways to touch a person and not touch a person.

We are all sacred beings and deserve the respect and reverence due us. So many people say that they are willing to give up a little self respect to feel safe flying. Do they really feel safe flying, because I know I don't!

Mortons Neuroma

There are many reasons that I am thankful to be a massage therapist. One of the biggest reasons is the help I can give people, including myself. Having specialized in Sports Massage I have seen lots of different injuries. Most of them I have never had, thank goodness, but a couple I have had.

Mortons Neuroma is one I have dealt with on a couple of different occasions. The first occasion was with my own foot. I was doing a lot of track work outs and developed a neuroma in my right foot. If you are wondering what it feels like think hot poker in the ball of your foot right under your middle toe.

It is a very nervy feeling and is kind of like a tooth ache in that it lets up if you quit puttin pressure on it. As you can imagine that is pretty hard to do if you are running, on your feet anyway!

I looked it up, talked to my running coach and fixed it. I taped a piece of folded up napkin onto the bottom of my foot. I had cut out a hole in the middle of the napkin so that it looked like a doughnut and put the hole right on the owie place. It worked like a miracle and I was back on the road.

A couple of years later I had a client that was suffering from pain in the same place on her foot, only on the top of the foot. Her trainer had looked at it, and they could not figure out what the problem was. I took her foot and put it into plantar flexion and low and behold a big bump appeared on the top of her foot between her third and fourth toes.

I told her she had a gangleon cyst and tried to imagine how she got one of those there. Come to find out she had a "foot doctor" scrape her mortons neuroma on the bottom of her foot a couple of years earlier and the scar tissue had caused the cyst. Good ole' surgery ha?

Once they figured out what it was they went in and of course scraped it out and got rid of the cyst.

A year ago a friend of mine emailed me and said she had surgery to get rid of her mortons neuroma. She by the way went to the same "foot doctor" and he told her the only way to get rid of it was to go in and scrape away some of the tissue. Hello that only causes more scar tissue. I asked her if she had ever tried taping or any other preventitive. Nope. Nada. Bummer.

Today in my first four mile loop for my long run I got the old familiar pain in my foot. Above is my brilliant taping job. You know what worked really well? A pad! Yup I just cut a hole in it, stuck it on my foot and taped it to secure it. Ran another five miles and felt great. Like I said the things I learned in massage school are invaluable!

CREATING PEACE ONE MASSAGE THERAPIST AT A TIME

I am really excited about our graduation today, and not just because we got to eat at Inka Grill, Costa Ricas' primo Peruvian food eatery. Though that was a huge plus for the whole experience to be sure :) No actually what made the day extra special was the fact that there is one more massage therapist in our family now! She made it! I mean barely as she had 7 student massages to complete this time last week, but she slid under the wire and completed her work. As she has two clients already she should be able to pay off her student loan pretty quickly ;)

We were also very happy to graduate our other student who had his clinic hours completed two weeks ago and was able to skate throught he last two weeks. He is very excited to be done and off on his next adventure to Corocova Natl park and then off the Nica. We wish him well and tons of success on his life adventure.

I told both of them this was a huge step and a very life changing one. I know when I completed massage school it certainly changed my life as well as that of my family. No more payday to payday with hubbys checks. We were able to take vacations, and enjoy the joy of eating something besides beans and rice for the first time in many years.

Being a massage therapist has been a great job, as well as learning experience for me as well as hubby. I learned how to run a business, how to pay taxes, how to budget my own money as well as try to learn to say "no". All in all I have to say my choice to be a massage therapist was a great one that I am thankful for everyday.
I do hope they enjoy the success we have enjoyed with our massage careers and have a heck of a ride on the way!

HAPPY THOUGHTS

Ever have one of those days? I mean one of those, those days? Well this is one of them and I am trying really hard to be really positive. Thinking happy thoughts, "Biggest Loser" is on tonight, Maleah got to school on time today (helps when it is the 12:30 day), Rick is recovering from his stomach flu, Micah has not called with bad news, his lawyer has not called with any bad news, I had a great run in the warm sunshine, I found my lost bank card, I remembered all the muscles I was teaching in the kines class this morning.

Yeah it is a good day after all. Maleah was ready for school an hour before it was time to go. She finally agreed to let Hannah pick her up after school so I could go for a "talk" with a guy who needs English teachers. I love teaching and we are already half way done with our massage class, so looking for something to keep me busy.

Rebekah and I are also working hard on getting our "No Excuses" program going. Lots of research and leg work to get ourselves organized. Thank goodness this one does not entail doing another web, or blog site! Just lots of fun motivating people to take care of their one and only precious body they will ever, ever have. Doesn't that sound fun!

FLEXIBLE TEACHING

We just finished our second week of massage classes. I am so pleased with our students, they look awesome and I think we have the makings of more awesome massage therapists! The best part is we have worked with a couple of the students to personalize the program for them. That is what we specialize in, personalized programs.

The first student that studied with us did so in Arizona before we even left. He was headed to Myopractic school and need some massage training before he could go on to specialize. The next student we had was on her way to Naturapathic training and we put together her required massage classes for her to certify her with her school in New Zealand. She is still in the process of taking classes from us every year to keep up.

Our next student needed a program that we could put together for her and work around her work schedule at the beach, two hours from us. That was about the same time the governing board decided that we could provide half of the hours online. So we were able to do her book work online and she would come for three days at a time for her massage hands on work.

We thought this class would be a normal class. No way. It turns out one of the student has had advanced studies in Anatomy and Physiology so we have allowed him to turn up on Monday and get his assignments and come back on Friday for his test. Of course he still has to come in the afternoon for his massage classes and to work his time in the clinic.

I guess that is the beauty of being flexible and willing to work with the students, which we do pride ourselves on :)

COSTA RICA SCHOOL OF INTEGRATIVE MASSAGE GRADUATE

This is our first graduate of the full 500 hour massage program. We were thrilled to work with her and enjoyed her very much. She is going to be an awesome massage therapist, ah heck she is already an awesome massage therapist! We wish her the best and hope all our students continue to be as smart and make us look as good as she does.



It was a long six months for her but she worked through a lot of obstacles to get her certificate. She had to travel from Jaco beach every week to do her hands on work. She was also our first student who completed her book work online. It worked out great for all involved and she feels very ready to take and pass her national exam.



We will be begining another class in just five short weeks. I am looking forward to getting to work with more than one person as it will be easier to have them practise when they have each other. Massage is great and it is even more fun to teach it and see people really enjoy it, I guess that is true of anything you teach.

TEENAGERS

My daughter is 14, it is very painful to be that age I do believe and remember. She has been doing swim workouts every day and doing very well with that. Now the trick is to teach her to incorporate her school work into her day. I have tried to convince her that she can do more than one project a day.

I guess study habits are something that are learned and developed. My son in law is trying to finish up some school and having trouble with the whole study habit idea. His wife also is taking internet classes and dealing with once again, study habits.

With our students at our massage school we try to keep up with them so that they do not fall behind. The ones who do the best? The ones with good study habits.

Good study habits really are nothing more than not procastinating! It is important to keep up with the info as you receive it and learn the important points before moving on to a new concept. With our internet massage classes we try and make sure with reviews as well as tests that our students are caught up and learning the material.

I have always been the "over achiever" in class and tried to be one step ahead. It did make it easier to actually graduate and finish classes and projects that I start. I recently completed an online course for Ayurvedic medicine. I had it done the first two weeks and it took the online instructor six months to complete all the checking and feedback, frustration!