What are knots anyway??

The reasons why we get knots, or those painful tension lumps and bumps in your muscles, are largely due to repairing damaged muscle, and reinforcing areas that consistently have repetitive stress. When we repetitively put our bodies in certain positions/ do repetitive actions our body will reinforce the area similar to when we build muscle - microtears occur and our body lays down collagen fibres to repair them. These fibres  and reinforcement are placed down in a crisscross pattern which creates a knot. Massage helps to straighten out these fibres and encourage them to heal in an ideal parallel pattern. This is like emptying a box of wooden matches and running your hand back and forth over them, they will then go from a random pattern to parallel. The reason is our bodies do this is to strengthen, and protect the body. Working out - specifically when focusing on muscle building, these muscle tears end up being the building blocks of building muscle. When we have repetition with stress, like the postural positions we take while working for long hours, that is when our bodies create an unhealthy knot. The good news is Omnia Wellness offers great therapeutic massage with a great element of relaxation to help combat those painful knots!

Your Body Is Your Employee

If your boss told you that you were ugly, if they rolled their eyes at you every time they saw you, if they said to you that you weren't doing a good job, that you aren't where you should be, that you need to work harder, work faster, work better, and they said this to you all day, everyday...How good of an employee do you think you would be? Especially when you know that you are doing everything that you are supposed to be doing to the best of your ability! I personally would do the very best that I could, but it would be harder as each day passed, and as more negative comments were said to me. Eventually my performance would suffer greatly and I wouldn't be able to continue doing my job to the best of my ability.

Your body is the employee of your consciousness. The thoughts that you think about your body, the energy behind the things you say to yourself are important to choose. If you constantly put negative thoughts towards your body, it is no surprise if you don't feel well. Our bodies are incredible, they do so many things that we are often unaware of, our breathing, blinking, heart beating, circulation, digestion and a thousand more things to keep our body in a state of homeostasis (health and balance). When we blame our bodies for our consciousness' short comings ( like weight worries) it becomes harder and harder for our bodies to be the best employees and do the best they can to keep us in harmony and balance.

Instead of saying something negative towards your body, stop, and feel grateful that your body can take in air and use the oxygen for our blood and exhale waste so we can survive, be grateful that everything that you eat is digested, and what is usable is turned into nourishment and energy, and what isn't is expelled as waste all without us thinking about it. So give your body a break and let it do its job, and do the best you can to provide the best working environments possible, eat well, sleep well, drink water, exercise, and remember to listen to what your body wants, if you are feeling really tired, rest. When you are hungry, eat, when you are full, stop. If you are sore from being still most of your day, get out and walk, go to the gym, do yoga, swim. Take care of your employee and your employee will take care of you.

Meditation and Massage An Incredible Combination!

I have recently decided to create a new holistic treatment that combines Meditation with Massage Therapy. Two of my loves in one space! I have been a student of meditation for many many years, sometimes it comes easily and sometimes I still really have to work at it. I personally really like quiet when I get massage treatments, because I find that it is easy for my to drop into a meditative state in an environment that easily supports it. There is always calming music, I have to be entirely unplugged from all devices, and I have an hour and a half to just be where I am, no interruptions. So it occurred to me that I may not be the only one who appreciates meditation with massage and thus Guided Meditation Massage Therapy was created.

I know that meditation isn't easy, I know many people struggle, because I struggled for a long time, and still sometimes do. So I wanted to make it easier for someone to come in and really benefit from meditation by creating different forms of guided meditations to ease the body and mind into it, which is great for anyone no matter if you have no experience or years of experience. There are also different meditations to choose from so you can choose the one that appeals to you the most. There is a simple relaxation that focuses on your muscles from head to toe and breathing. One for rebalancing your Chakra's (energy centers of the body) to create more harmony and health within the body, and there is one where you can visualize and create a meditation space, or meet an animal or spirit guide.

Getting to a place where you are physically very relaxed is also really beneficial for the Massage Therapy aspect of this treatment. When the stress of the day is released through meditation, it allows me to really find and address the muscles that chronically hold stress and tension more efficiently because you are as relaxed as you possibly can be. It also helps me to get an incredibly accurate understanding of what level of pressure works the best for your body, when you are in meditation your body gets to 'speak' for itself and give proper clues when pressure is too much. (check out the post about pain if you want more info about pain in massage treatments).

As always if you have any questions drop me a line (clarissa@omniawellness.ca) or check out www.omniawellness.ca and look at the FAQ's for Guided Meditation Massage Therapy, or to book an appointment and try it for yourself!

The Care from a Massage

I recently had an incredible massage from a wonderful therapist! Within the first few minutes the only thing I could think about was that I really needed to blog about how amazing massages are!

I love so many things about massage, I would have chosen a different career path otherwise, but the things I really connect with and that I can't live with out are as follows:

- The incredible healing power of touch is second to none, and its effects are increased with a gifted healer.
- The care, kindness, and compassion a great therapist takes in taking care of you, not only your physical self, but your soul self too, is amazing.
- To have an hour or an hour and a half dedicated to myself, and my healing. I know that it is hard for me to take time out for myself, and I know that many other people feel the same way. It is nice to have time to reconnect with myself again.
- To have the time unplugged from all devices is incredible!
- To have an opportunity to meditate at the same time takes a healing treatment to incredibly deep levels, not to mention the time to be able to meditate and the help it gives to my already existing meditation practice.

I also decided to make sure that I am getting regular massages too, for me I aim for at least once a month, but I assure you, if I could get one weekly I would!

Fusion Massage Therapy

Fusion is a treatment for people who want more out of a massage than just the physical manipulation of muscles and other tissues. With a Fusion treatment, the energy components of both Reiki and Acupressure are applied, as well as finishing the massage with Body Talk. This allows the body to heal on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels, this allows me to treat the body as a whole and not just it's parts. You will still get the pain relief from releasing muscular tension, and you get the added bonus of having your energy system  flow properly so your massage is even more effective. By bringing Body Talk in, your body gets the chance to express all of the things it needs attention brought to, and have all of those things addressed as well.

As an added bonus, by utilizing Reiki and Acupressure in a Massage treatment, it helps to create a relaxing treatment that is still very therapeutic, without having to use deep tissue methods.

What is your happiness waiting for?

I watched the first few minutes of a show that had a lovely woman who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she had gone through radiation twice and her body didn't respond well, and she is left with no alternatives. Though I have no idea if she is even attempting the non-traditional holistic route, just to see at least, but that isn't why I am here. She was saying that now she is making her happiness important in her life. If there is something not working, she changes it so that it does work or it isn't a part of her anymore. She is not alone, I have heard this many times from people who have, or are, experiencing a very big life threatening illness, whether it be a horrific accident, cancer, heart disease/attacks.

Why do we wait until we have a terminal illness to change our lives in such a positive way? I am writing this to say that I have made the commitment to myself to make my life as joyful as possible, if something isn't working right then I will change it, if I am not doing something I like, then I will change it. I refuse to have to resort to an illness to have a wake up call, I am learning from others so I don't have to go through it myself.

I encourage everyone else out there to choose yourself and your happiness, I know that change isn't always the easiest of things to do, but I promise once you have done it, it will feel amazing, and you will be grateful for doing it. Don't wait to be forced into it, just start with little steps.

October stretch of the month

This stretch is a good one! 

If you have pain or tension in your back between your shoulder blades the following suggestions are for you!

You can also place your full forearm from elbow to wrist against the door frame - elbows at 90 degrees and then bring your arms up to a 120 degree angle - hands near the top corners of the door.

Hold the stretch for 10-15 seconds and remember to breathe the whole time, only move forward to the point that you feel the stretch, not to where you feel the most pain. Repeat 3-5 times. I suggest doing this stretch through out the day if you can, it is really great to do when you get home from work, or really any time you are feeling tension in your back between your shoulder blades.

Another fantastic feeling thing to do is to roll a bath towel up lengthwise and lay it on the floor (you can also use a bolster or a foam roller), lay on top of it so it runs the length of your spine, and breathe, to increase the stretch you can place your arms at a 90 degree angle or straight up above your head. Lay there for as long as you like! or aim for at least 90 seconds at a time and repeat 2-3 times.

If you have any questions about these stretches or would like some alternatives, please don't hesitate to let me know, you can email me anytime at info@omniawellness.ca
You can also book a massage online at www.omniawellness.ca!