It's All Over

Hello Readers,

It's all over. After meeting Rachel Fairweather and the Jing Institute of Advanced Massage in May 2008, and starting along a very long road of study, I have finally finished my B-Tech Level 6!

I actually finished a month ago tomorrow and then I took two weeks of holiday. During that time my brother, Robin, helped me work through my study, my treatment room and our living room. We sorted out all the old lecture notes, anatomy books, physiology concepts and sorted them out into two piles of 'Bin' and 'Keep'. We took the old, huge, pine desk that had seen me through all the studies over the past 13 years and swapped it for a lovely little one from The Futon Company, which has made my study seem very fresh and new. We swapped bookcases from my parent's home and put them in my living room and added some new ones to the study and took about 20 bags of books to the charity shop. The computer was cleared of all the old notes, ideas and 'stuff' that had accumulated and was just taking up hard-drive space and files where stripped out with only the best knowledge kept. Space was cleared, washed, refreshed and now I am surrounded by things that I love, want to keep and fill my life with at the moment.

It was a deep cleansing process over days and I can safely say that although there was a lot of tears with letting go of what was once so dear, I am now grasping hold of a fresh part of a new life!

Little things are making me so happy. David and I no longer have a homework schedule pinned to the fridge, but I have a great note book filled with the research that I want to do on my own for the next three months with no pressure or deadlines ... I can take a year over it if I want to ... or I can do it in a week ... it doesn't matter as I can just enjoy the trip.

I have been thinking a lot about the blog and wondering whether I should take it down and start a new one, but for now I am happy to be blogging away and having you guys get in touch as and when. It may change in a few months, but I'm not sure yet, so we shall enjoy this for now.

One thing is for sure; I am taking a lead out of my best friend's book. Laura is a stunning embroiderer and her work is amazing! But Laura is also very good at blogging, posting one on a weekend and then another on a Wednesday. Her blog, Mason Bee, is really worth a good look and her shop is just sublime! For all those who have admired the Peacock near my front door, she is the creative star behind it. I am going to try my best and post on a Monday and a Thursday, keeping it short and sweet and maybe picking themes of the month.

So; now I can enjoy the amazing job that I have which is looking after you guys! I can't think of a better reason to get out of bed in the morning!

I look forward to blogging more and chatting with you in the future.

Happy days!
Jx

Busy Times

Hello All!

I am sitting at my study desk looking out at the big oak tree that spreads over our garden and our neighbors' bee hives. The sun is poking through but there are some very beautiful black clouds bubbling up over the valley. It's quite dramatic!

It's been a busy time over the past couple of weeks; we have enjoyed the delights of Goodwood Revival, I have successfully handed in the last bits of work to Jing for my Advanced Clinical Massage and Sports Therapy course, we danced the night away at our great friends wedding, and this week sees me planing my final presentation for next week. Phew. Oh ... and I've been working as well!

Flying High At Goodwood Revival

David and I enjoying the wedding of the year! 

The other thing is that I started Pilates with Jill Heaton yesterday. She specializes in Body Control Pilates and is one of the most patient teachers I have come across. I did a huge amount of Pilates about 5 years ago (and have now forgotten it all) before I started training in Brighton, juggling work and learning, moving house twice and finding the joy of climbing and starting to see how Yoga and different CV workouts worked out! Needless to say Pilates fell by the wayside as I explored new things, enjoyed moving in different ways and learned  how the body works.

In coming back to Pilates I really hope to learn how I can embrace the precision and control that it can offer to the body and also how I can harness that to enable my body to move ballistically through times when I am climbing, dancing and just going through my daily routines.

I love Tracey Anderson and her workouts to get me out of breath, toned and feeling great, but Pilates is the control that will hopefully allow me to do all that wonderful stuff without injury. In the past I have been a bit of a perfectionist and wanted to do only one form of exercise correctly, which didn't offer me the time or head space to enjoy a whole lot of other great things. I am coming to a place now where I would be much happier to see myself, and my clients, embracing three or four different ways of working their bodies each week. I don't mean this in a serious 'cross-training-must-work-harder-must-loose-weight-must-be-best' way. All I want is for people to move more easily in the bodies that they have and learn how to love who they are in the 'casing' that the inhabit.

Not all of us are blessed with great flexibility (I can't touch my toes), and a lot of us can't move much at all, but that doesn't mean we can't move anything; we just have to be honest with ourselves in what we can do and enjoy that amount and not compare ourselves with people like Tracey Anderson. We can see them as role models, but lets be realistic, we are who we are!

So, as we Rumble, plod, run, dance, swim, stretch, strengthen, walk and embrace life, let us laugh often, smile more and enjoy the fact that we are where we are and all we need to do is embrace today.

Rumbling

As you can imagine, I see a lot of people and hear a lot of things, but yesterday I heard a thought from a client and I asked him if I could share it with you all on the blog and he said; 'Yes!'. I never share things from the treatment room, but I loved his take on exercise so much as it made such sense; it take the perfectionism, the grunt work and the sheer 'I-don't-want-to-work-out-ness' out of moving daily. You guys just had to hear about it.

Exercise is often the dreaded 'E' word, as FLY Lady so often points out in her book Body Clutter. But my client decided that he needed to get up, be with nature, explore his own thoughts before we went off for his busy day in the corporate world, so he goes for a 'Rumble'.

Rumbling is not running, but it's not an ambling walk, it's a cross between the two and it's in the country away from tarmac. So, if you are in the city, maybe you can go for a Rumble in your local park. If you are blessed with a hill in your vicinity, maybe you can Rumble up it and see the sun rise. The point is that you are moving and getting in touch with your surroundings in the morning before the adrenaline has to hit.

I love the idea of the word; 'I go for a Rumble'. I would much rather Rumble than exercise.

Maybe this is part of my departure away from the perfectionism that I was trying to seek in my daily hits of high impact workouts. Sure, they work and you loose a ton of weight in a short space of time, but it can leave you feeling guilty, not 'perfect', drained and if you miss a couple of sessions you feel you can never get back into it. With a good old Rumble you can just pull on a pair of sneakers and cross a run with an amble and know that you are looking after the best thing that was ever created; you!

I'm Back!

Hello!

It has been a very long time since I sat down to write to you all.

In truth is was a very stressful and intense start to the summer as the long fight with the dissertation was in its last throws. After a few 18 hour working days, much editing, trips back and forth to the printers and a couple of sessions of crying on David's shoulder and going through Kleenex at a rate of knots, is was handed it on July 15th! David took me down to Brighton to hand it in and we sat on the beach drinking bubbly and eating cupcakes, from Angle Food Bakery, whilst the wind and grey clouds battered us. After 15 minutes we went in search of my favorite restaurant, Food For Friends,  in Brighton and finished the celebrations there!

By the time it had all been printed and posted through the letterbox at Jing, I was at the point that not matter what mark I received for it I knew I couldn't have done any more and I was pleased with it. Personally I think after 18 months that if I had had any more time to play with it it would have been ruined, so the hand in date was a welcome relief.

After it all finished it surprised me how elated I felt, but also how I was mentally finished with studying! I now know why at Uni you hand in your dissertation last as its a bit like giving your soul over and you and empty afterwards. Going back home knowing that I still had until October to go was mentally really tough. It is a hand in date I really hope that Jing changes for the next year of students. After four and a half years I think I can safely say that I need to move on to find my own feet. However, it is not the end for my time in Brighton as I now have 4 assignments to wrap up, some clinical mastery days to do in September and then my final presentation in October. I get my grades at Christmas and graduate in February. I have found it very tough to find my spark to finish these last bits after the big hand in, so I need to crack on with it all.

One big distraction is our new edition to the household; Finchley! He is a very beautiful Russian Blue kitten and we love him lots! He has kept me entertained and laughing as I run the final home-straight. He hangs out in my study during the day and his laid back look as I pull my files open to read about workouts for athletes reminds me to take it easy and not to sweat the small stuff, as it is just that, small stuff.

But, it is all a bit easier now I am not writing the tome, so it is with great pleasure that I can find time to write the blog again. I have missed writing many of my ideas and thoughts on 'Advanced Clinical Massage and Skin Care Therapy'. For a while I felt that I was so behind with it I would never start it again. But in the words of FLY Lady, I am deciding I am not behind and I am going to jump in just where I'm at and get going!

I'm really looking forward to getting typing and I hope that you can join me over the next few weeks and months as I get going on the important things in life again!

Catch Up Time

Hello all.

Today I thought I would just do a little catch up blog for you all as lately a few clients have come in asking where I am at with my studies, interests, workouts and life!

My studies for the BTech level 6 diploma in Advanced Clinical and Sports Massage are coming to an exciting close. With only five months left to go on the 4 1/2 year course it feels as if we are finishing all the last little bits of assignments, case studies, logged hours and reflective practices. I drew up my revision plan that is now stuck on the fridge, (which I have done a lot over the past few years), and creating the last block of timetables was a poignant moment.

Instead of having a clear nine months to write up my dissertation, I find that I am now down to 10 weeks to finish it all! It is in fine fettle with work needed only to make it read in a clear manner and to make sure the findings are easy to view; after a good edit it will be ready to hand in.
My assignments are heading in a good direction and I have blocked out July and August for making sure the last bits of case work and logged hours are done. The only thing that is bugging me is how to make sure all the reflective practices are put onto a disc or something as I have recorded them all on imovie and now don't quite know what to do with them all!
I am down in Brighton next week for Sports Event Massage as well as Taping and Strapping, so I'm sure I'll get myself in a few knots and then work it all out ... I have had so many friends come up with bad jokes about next week!

My interest in movement is really coming to the fore and I am looking forward to getting clients moving in a more dynamic way as part of their homework in-between sessions with me. I think it is vital to move and to make sure the body stays as fit as it can, so there are a few things I am investigating to make sure that the advice I give is relevant, safe and will give great results! I'm not talking workouts here; that is for people such as Heather Gillam and her team at FitBiz to work out and do with you, but I am after my clients to stretch and strengthen after they have had their problem areas treated with me in quite specific ways. So, you will find yourself going away with lots of pictures of stick people and written actions after your sessions with me from now on!

My personal workouts are a source of much interest and often hilarity for my regular clients. I'm always flirting with new ways to keep fit and healthy. I don't often rave about what I see as after a short time I find  a lot of the mass market dross out there is just that; dross. I will often stick to advising the classic Pilates and Yoga practices for my clients, knowing that their muscles will stretch and strengthen over time. I will always vote for climbing and ballet as great cardiovascular workouts as they interest me and I think they are pretty safe for most people to try once a week. But what happens when you really need to burn some fat, loose weight and stay trim and don't want to hit the gym?

Well, it has to be said that for years I have stayed clear of advising any at home DVDs as I have not found any that work through basic anatomy ... until now.

Tracy Anderson first came on to my radar in February (2011) last year and I have been researching and following her ideas since then. Her name is always mentioned when Gwyneth Paltorw is seen on screen as she is her personal trainer. Now Tracy Anderson has come up with Metamorphosis; a 90 day work out for your own body shape. Basically everyone has to do half an hour of cardio (whether it is the re-bounder or dance for is up to you), and then half an hour of body sculpt 6 days a week. Then you go on to the Continuation program to keep going. The workouts are new every 10 days, so she always keeps you guessing and you never bulk your muscles.

I have done it for a month now and love it. I do 5 workouts a week and I have chosen the re-bounder cardio as it is kinder to my joints. I have noticed a load of difference already in the way I feel and the best bit about it is that the anatomy is bang on! Tracy makes you use the accessory muscles, the teeny tiny ones that will pull the larger ones in naturally so you don't look like Arnie by the end of it; just a very balanced, healthy figure. It requires dedication and a passion for sweating into a new body, but I believe it will work. Just make sure you order the right on for you by using the body calculator so you actually exhaust the part of the body that you want to change rather than something generic.

SO ... my life is pretty full, but I am very happy to let you all know that David and I saw our new kitten yesterday! We are picking him up on July 8th, so I have to get my dissertation done by then otherwise it will never happen as 'kitten looking after time' will be my top priority! He's a Russian Blue and I think we will either call him Finchly or Thomas ... suggestions are always welcome and I'll post you some photos when we see him again in July.

For now I'm off to make risotto.

Never, Ever Give Up

To carry on with the video share this week, this is to encourage all of my clients to keep going and keep moving.

I feel it is so important to remember that even if you are unable to move in a dynamic way and are chair bound through differing pathology it is vital to stay positive about the movements that you can do. If you can do foot circles, then perfect them, make them wonderful and keep going with them as they will really help your lymph circulation and combat swollen ankles. If you can move your arms up and down, start doing that in all different angles whilst holding half filled bottle of water to keep your strength up. All movement is great and I encourage it highly.

Of course, check in with you medical advisors before you start any new diet or exercise plan, but don't be discouraged and keep seeking help if you come up against the brick wall.

Walls just need to be broken down so that you can move through them.

Tracy does it best!

Hello All,

I have not been sitting on my butt too much over the holiday weekend! I have been trying to work out a great routine for all you people who are fit and able to move to help your butt lift to new heights and to be honest, I can't do it better than Tracy Anderson, so I'm going to refer you to her!

Tracy Anderson has been studying movement for years and has developed a fantastic method for helping people who are happy to work out get the small accessory muscles in the body to tighten and tone the whole body.

Personally I love the work outs, however I have been blessed with the a body that does what I tell it to. If you feel that you are limited through injury or a pathology fret not as I have started to look at how you can work your butt with a little more ease.

So plug this into your screen and get sweating! I'll be working right along side you so keep going :) .