Half Way Around The World And Back Again.

View from the porch of Mt Baker, Washington State.

Hello and welcome back to the blog! It feels so good to be back again; sitting in my garden with cheesy pop music playing as the sun shines. Finchley, my cat, is stalking around the lettuces and the laundry is flapping in the breeze. I am back in the UK after a month in America in May and a month of landing in June. It's a great feeling today to be getting my feet back under the table and wiggling my toes.

I ostensibly went over to America to have a month of anatomy training in the lab as I helped Gil Hedley and the team start his project for The Integrated Atlas Of The Body, which is going to take people through the layers of the body as an anatomical study aid. But of course, it was so much more than that.

I flew into Sea-Tac Airport to meet up with Lise, a great friend whom I met in the lab at St Andrews last year and spent an amazing week hanging out with her simply incredible family near Mt Baker in Washington State. Lise is a Thai Yoga Therapist and over the week showed me how gently powerful movement can become when incorporated into Body-Work. It was a delightful lesson on calming stillness flowing through to dynamic results and she helped shape my thinking about massage profoundly.

Me at the flower market, Pike's Place, Seattle. 

As we walked around tress in the foot hills that are 1200 years old we found ourselves connecting to the natural surroundings, and as we laughed outrageously with a few bottles of wine we discovered that laughter is truly a wonderful remedy for the worlds ills! Love is such a small word that describes so very much and can sound trite and hippy in the 'wrong' way sometimes, but it is the only word that surrounds that week with Lise and it was awesome.

Flying to New York was fun and it was a delight to see David, my husband, for dinner and brunch over the weekend before I headed for the lab for three weeks on the Sunday. (Yes, David was in Manhattan for less than 24 hours so that we could have dinner together, which to me was ultimate gesture of love.)

We were based in the State of New Jersey for three weeks of study and exploration into Inner Space. With 40 of us in the lab we were very pleased to have a wonderfully large space to work and rest in during the day. The lawn space of the University was taken up at lunch by us, an unusual crowd for the location, as we ate lunch, drank coffee and did a huge amount of yoga! A personal set of bonuses of these lunchtime retreats onto grass was that I was able to take my shoes off and let my toes wiggle in the grass, as well as find a new passion for daily yoga and as a result came home with a bit of a tan, (a miracle for all who know me). I also got to talk and hangout with the most amazing people who changed my mind towards life, my work and anatomy. Their generosity inside and outside the lab was overwhelming at times and it took my breath away. Spending time living with new friends, hanging out with chickens and cows in the evenings and playing cards with the most beautiful family, who will stay with me forever, made the work seem like such a joy.

Many people have asked me what I learned in the lab over the three weeks in connection to the anatomy and the bare truth is that I can't write about it. I have tried to sit down and summarise it all into a tidy package, but it was too big, too awe inspiring and brain expanding to put it into a paragraph. I have a feeling that it will roll through in the future into comments on this blog, Twitter and Facebook. The experience has already changed my way of treating clients in the treatment room and I am so happy to say that I have come back reenergised to work with my clients and readers to help people re-form through gentle release and powerful intention.

The New Jersey Somanauts 2014 'Dedicated to exploring inner space' ... and laughter!

Coming home at the beginning of June was a little tough, but showed me that the 'Laughing With Love Principle' that I flew home with stood me in good stead. As a family we have been through a lot in four weeks with my Mum fracturing her leg, which has led to a very successful knee replacement, and my middle brother falling 20m (35foot) during a climbing trip and having Mountain Rescue get him to a trauma hospital in Bristol. My brother is mending well but is in for a long journey of recovery. Every time I go to the hospitals I am so pleased that I can now picture the anatomy in my mind, know what the doctors are talking about and see how the after care can be put in place to make sure that these two precious people can come over the hills that they have to walk over to get to an even better place than when they started.

As I sit in the garden looking at back over the past 8 weeks it feels like at least 4 lifetimes ago since I boarded a plane to Sea-Tac. I have travelled a lot, both mentally and physically, and these hands and feet are destined to take me even further in my very blessed life.

My hands and feet at the end of my time in America.