How to Develop Mindfulness

 The Basics of Mindfulness Practice

Mindfulness helps us put some space between ourselves and our reactions, breaking down our conditioned responses. Here’s how to tune into mindfulness throughout the day:

1. Set aside some time. You don’t need a meditation cushion or bench, or any sort of special equipment to access your mindfulness skills—but you do need to set aside some time and space.
   
   
2. Observe the present moment as it is. The aim of mindfulness is not quieting the mind, or attempting to achieve a state of eternal calm. The goal is simple: we’re aiming to pay attention to the present moment, without judgment. Easier said than done, we know.
   
   
3. Let your judgments roll by. When we notice judgments arise during our practice, we can make a mental note of them, and let them pass.
   
   
4. Return to observing the present moment as it is. Our minds often get carried away in thought. That’s why mindfulness is the practice of returning, again and again, to the present moment.
   
   
5. Be kind to your wandering mind. Don’t judge yourself for whatever thoughts crop up, just practice recognizing when your mind has wandered off, and gently bring it back.

That’s the practice. It’s often been said that it’s very simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. The work is to just keep doing it. Results will accrue. Have a great day. Nancy

 

5 Ways to Unstuck Your Energy

We all feel stuck at one time or another, but it’s how we face our “stuck” that matters.

If you’re feeling like life is one step forward and three steps back, it’s important to know that we all feel that way at times! You’re definitely not alone.

You can change this pattern!

 Five simple and easy tips:

1. Get up and get moving! When you’re feeling low or out of sorts it’s a natural tendency to pull in and isolate yourself. This is one of the worst things you could do when you feel stuck. Sitting around in a slump isn’t going to do any good for you. Get the energy in your body moving by releasing the humdrums and getting active. It’s fun!

Give yourself a good push to do the things you know you need to do and not just “want” to do. Once you get moving, you’ll see that taking action like this will help you become empowered in your life, one step at a time!

2. Unplug from Technology.

Mix it up a little and find an exciting new hobby to stimulate your senses. Go out of your way to do something different or try something new, just for the heck of it. Take a dance class, go paddle boating, or try hiking. The key is to get out of the house and away from your normal day-to-day habits.

It’s all about intention! Being intentional about how you spend your time can help you move forward. Ask a friend or family member to take part and hold you accountable. You’re more likely to take action if you know someone else will be asking you about your forward momentum.

3. Get grounded. Connect with yourself and feel your own sense of being. When you’re feeling like you’re not in touch with yourself, find time to get grounded. This may be through listening to music that resonates with your soul. It might be by taking a long walk in the park, or on a trail to just get away from distractions and get back into your own body’s natural rhythm.

Allow yourself to breathe and get into your body and become more aligned with yourself, so you can dispel any negative energies that might be lurking.

Many times we breathe in short and shallow breaths. Take deep intentional breaths that fill your lungs with air, this may feel like you’re breathing from your abdomen. Feel the air coming in and cleansing your body as you exhale. Allow the sound of your breathing to come into your awareness. Breathe in all the goodness and let the air out with the healing sound of your voice. Your new self-awareness will help you find the motivation to easily move forward.

4. Change the conversation that you’re having with yourself. Let’s face it, we often take too much stalk in what other’s think of us, but by far we are our worst critic. The conversations you have with yourself are far more important than the ones you have with others. Focus on being the YOU, you’re choosing to be. Remind yourself that you’re filled with limitless potential. You have the power within you to create the life you dream of living.

Allow yourself to attract what you require into your life. It’s simple! Create a higher energy frequency in order to attract more positive things into your life. Begin by being mindful of your breathing. Continue to breathe when you realize you’re holding your breath and allow your thoughts to flow with your breath as well. Just one of these simple tools will help you change the conversation that you’re having with yourself to one that is useful and powerful. Raising your energy frequency is powerful when it comes to creating change in your body and in your life!

5. Invite a NEW perspective. No matter how insurmountable your circumstances may seem, there is always more than one way to look at the situation. What if you choose to reframe how you view your life? What would be possible then? All things are possible!

Change your perspective and looking at change in a positive way will help you see the higher good that comes from allowing space in your life, so you can manifest the things you choose to have.

Imagine how awesome you would feel if you could wake up each morning feeling confident. You’d no longer struggle with troubling or negative emotions.

Allow yourself to take positive movements forward each day. It’s the key to creating lasting change. 

Wishing you the very best 

Nancy

Shades of Yellow Aura

 

Shades of the Yellow Aura

LIGHT YELLOW AURA

A light yellow aura is connected with new beginnings, new awakenings, or the start of a spiritual journey. It is considered by some people to be a fragile, delicate shade, much like a newborn baby. This color will be nurtured as the person with this energy grows through new experiences. A person who is producing a light yellow aura may be starting a new phase of life or opening up to new experiences. Like the first rays of sunrise, light yellow is full of hope and possibilities.

BRIGHT YELLOW AURA

While light yellow energy is generally seen as optimistic, bright yellow can be associated with inner conflict or struggles. Similar to a bright yellow lemon, a person with this color in their aura may be feeling a little sour or be struggling with their mental health. Someone who refuses to deal with the root of their problems and instead gets bogged down by anxiety or depression may project this color in their aura. Remedies for negative energy and internal conflict of this color include meditation or finding time to enjoy nature.

GOLDEN YELLOW AURA

People with a golden yellow aura are considered by some to be “as good as gold.” Great leaders, enlightened teachers and effective healers are believed to project golden auras. This color is associated with personal power, wisdom, generosity and spiritual enlightenment, especially when detected in a halo around the head. Spiritual enlightenment is connected to golden auras, and it is typically interpreted as a positive color.

 

The Personality of A Yellow Aura

Like the other aura colors, a yellow aura has a corresponding chakra. The solar plexus chakra and is considered by some to be connected to your core energy. A yellow aura is sometimes also associated with an active third-eye chakra, due to a strong connection to spiritual awakening and enlightenment. However, the solar plexus chakra is tied to a person’s confidence, sense of self and overall fulfillment—something with which yellow energy is deeply intertwined. Internal joy and satisfaction in life is a sign that the third chakra and the yellow aura are both active.

Personality Traits for Yellow Auras

There’s a reason yellow is the color of sunshine. Often associated with joy and freedom, yellow auras are considered to be indicators of lightheartedness and a fun-loving nature.

Of all the possible colors in an aura, none is more joyful than yellow energy. The meaning of yellow energy is often associated with freedom, joy, intelligence and spiritual enlightenment. People with above-average intelligence may have a primarily yellow aura. Likewise, someone who is a free spirit or doesn’t like to hold grudges may exhibit yellow energy.

Yellows are often relaxed as long as they are having fun. While they cherish friendships as much as most people, they do not need to be in the company of others to be happy. Yellows are truly free-spirits, flowing from one interesting experience to another in a pattern that never seems to weaken.

The yellow aura is behind many who have devised ways to make life easier and happier for others. Those with a yellow aura often work hard to infuse the joy they feel in everyday life, into those around them. They have a love for life, nature, and the earth itself, and are ever on the lookout for ways to help and heal. The natural intelligence of Yellows often tempers their thrill-seeking, keeping them away from destructive or dangerous highs. Instead, that energy remains funneled in the creative process. Those with the aura are adventurous and thrive off of physical activity and an innate happiness that can never be dampened for long.

Spiritual Healing Touch and Anxiety

Spiritual healing touch is a kind of energy healing in which I places my hands on or near my client in order to heal them. Studies on Healing touch have suggested that it may help reduce stress and anxiety, heal wounds and decrease pain. 

As a Healing touch practitioner, I believe that I can redirect a person’s energy by interacting with that person's energy field, stimulating the body’s natural ability to heal. If someone has pneumonia we give them antibiotics. But in healing touch, I try to help people get their energy flowing the way it needs to go so the person can heal themselves. 

The Science Behind Spiritual Healing Touch

In 2010 Coakley’s research team found that postoperative patients who received healing touch had lower levels of pain and cortisol — a hormone released in response to stress — and higher natural killer cells than those who received usual care.

• Reduce pain and fatigue in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy
• Reduce pain and anxiety in burn patients
• Help autistic children to be calmer and gentler 

However, despite extensive research suggesting the benefits of healing touch, there is no scientific explanation of the energy field. Current data suggest a combination of counseling and medication works best to teach the brain how to cope with anxiety and break out of the vicious cycle. I agree with this data and suggestion because I see many things in our auras that are related to our mental health. Damage or conditions of the aura are connected to the chakras and connected often times to this life's mental health. 

Spiritual Healing Touch: What a Session Is Like

A Spiritual healing touch sessions can take place with a client either sitting or standing and last between 10 to 30 minutes. I first need to clear my mind and center myself in order to communicate with the clients energy field. 

The technique of Spiritual healing touch has been described in the following manner. Starting at a person’s head, I place my hands with palms facing down, 2 to 6 inches away from the client's body to locate any blockages in energy. I go back and forth over the body to replace any harmful energy with God's grace or energy from the higher power. This energy is not of my own to give. During this process, clients usually close their eyes and try to relax. Clients have reported feeling warm and relaxed during the process and sometimes fall asleep. 

Results of the treatment vary depending on the person and their condition. Some clients feel relief instantaneously while others don’t see an improvement until after receiving multiple sessions. 

Nancy McShane

mcshane.massagetherapy.com

 

5 Benefits Of A Hot Stone Massage

You've heard me say that I love using Hot Stones on clients but do you know the benefits of adding the stones to your massage. Today we're looking at what Hot Stones adds to that already great massage. 

In addition to deep relaxation, there are many benefits to having a hot stone massage. They include:

1. Pain relief

Hot stone massage has specifically been associated with symptom relief in people with a variety of conditions, such as fibromyalgia and other autoimmune disorders.

Several studies, including on fibromyalgia, and rheumatoid arthritis, have linked moderate massage techniques with lessening pain, and improving range of motion.

2. Stress relief

Massage is an effective method for stress relief. Several studies have shown that massage reduces stress and anxiety and improves cardiovascular health.

3. Increased joint flexibility

Muscle tension can make it difficult and more painful to move the joints. Massage helps to relax muscles, which makes it easier and more comfortable for someone to move.

People with certain joint disorders may benefit particularly from hot stone massage.

4. Decreased muscle spasms and tension

Muscles that are tense and in spasm can cause a lot of pain and interfere with daily life. Reducing the inflammation and tension in the skeletal muscles eases both muscle spasms and pain.

As previously said, massage and the use of hot stones can promote relaxation of the muscles and joints in the body to ease both pain and spasms.

5. Better sleep

Many people do not sleep well. Factors such as stress, insomnia, and busy schedules mean they get much less than the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

A review of some the literature on the effectiveness of massage shows that it is helpful in promoting relaxation and sleep in older people.

Hot Stones are in the Add-On Section of the Online booking website. You can also find them in the SPA catagory of Services offered. This service is only offered during the winter months. 

Book your next Hot Stone Massage Today! 

People who should not get a stone massage.

Despite the many benefits associated with hot stone massage, it is not an appropriate therapy for everyone. Sad but true

There are some people who should not have a massage, and more specifically, a hot stone massage.

For hot stone massage, some of the contraindications, or factors that mean a person should not have a particular treatment, are listed below.

• Breaks in the skin
• Anyone with injuries or breaks in the skin should avoid a hot stone massage until those injuries have healed.
• Recent or severe bruising, cuts or scrapes, sunburn or varicose veins increase the risk for further tissue damage or injury. They also raise the chance of infection being introduced via bacteria from the massage oils or stones. 

• Infection or illness

• This may sound like commonsense, but anyone with a fever, cold, or flu should avoid a massage until they feel better.
• 
  
• Someone with a fever may spread their germs, and they will have difficulty regulating their body temperature, as well. This will leave them feeling more uncomfortable when hot stones are put on their skin. 

• Heart disease
• Heart disease can cause swelling or other problems in the veins or arteries of the legs, both of which can be negatively affected by a massage.
• 
  
• A person should always tell the massage therapist about any health issues they have, so that they can be aware of potential risks. 

• Diabetes
• Diabetes influences how well the nerves and blood vessels function in the fingers and feet. People with diabetes can lose feeling in their hands and feet, making them unable to feel if an injury, such as a burn, occurs.
• When it comes to massage, they may not be able to tell if the massage therapist is using too much pressure, or if the hot stones are burning their skin.

• Being under the influence of drugs or alcohol
• Drugs and alcohol do not mix well with massage. Both impair the ability to give feedback if necessary, and also affect judgment, and a person’s self-control over their impulses. 

• Furthermore, having a massage can leave someone feeling light-headed or wobbly. Drinking alcohol will compound and worsen these feeling. 

• Pregnancy 

• Prenatal massage can be very relaxing and beneficial for many women, during their pregnancy. However, some practitioners feel uncomfortable with using hot stones on a pregnant woman.

May you be blessed with harmony in your heart, peace of mind, and an abundance of joy and love to surround you always.

Nancy

mcshane.massagetherapy.com

The 1st Chakra and Relationship to Health

 

 

The Root Chakra And What It Says About Our Health.

The Root Chakra is packed with information. November starts my launch into reopening my Healing Touch (Spiritual Healing) services AND Energywork. Two very different theories of healing. It's been 20 years in the making. I'm very excited about it. Please check out the website for detailed information on each service.