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December 5, 2003 Effective, if fruity. I have a long and lovely day stretched before me. Well, lovely considering that I have to be at work. A "lovely" day at AcronymCo generally means "in which I have few meetings". Today, I only have one - a big muckety-muck meeting at 2:00 that my friend asked me to go. She's presenting and she may need me for moral support. Other than that, I just have a bit of busy work to get done. At the moment, I'm grateful for the fact that if there's one thing that the AcronymCo cafeteria gets right, it's oatmeal. On Fridays a different co-worker from my group brings in enough breakfast stuff for everyone, but it's typically Krispy Kreams. While I find them to be a good representation of doughnut kind, I'm still not quite sure why everyone's so gaga over them. The three people that have stopped by my desk to tell me, "Breakfast's here!" looked at me a bit cross-eyed when I told them that I'm happy with my oatmeal. They're convinced that I'm on a diet (feh!), when really I just like oatmeal better. Coding up an entry looks enough like work (at least, no one really knows what it is, but it looks official enough in HomeSite), but I'm not brave enough to bring in my Grandmother's cookbook and continue working on that entry. I wish I could - I'm in the mood for it, and as many OLJ'ers and other kinds of writers know, it's best to strike when the mood hits. I don't think I'll get a chance tomorrow, since I need to get up with Calvin (who's working again!), drive Marie to her first day of work (she's working at her Grandmother's restaurant, as Michael did when he was her age), come back, and do a bit of cleaning before my friend D shows up at 10:00 for a shopping outing. Then after that I'll have to finish up the rest of the house cleaning, go to the grocery store, go to the video store, and fix dinner. Yeesh, happy Saturday! I told Calvin that since I have to take Marie to work on Saturday morning, he has to take her on Sunday morning. I wanted one day to sleep in, but I now realize that that's really unfair of me. He's the one that's had to work every weekend for over a month, so if anyone deserves a day to sleep in, it's him! At the moment we have no plans for Sunday, and I'd like to keep it that way. A morning spent with Calvin and the newspaper, followed by brunch, followed by a soak in the hot tub, followed by some TV or maybe a nap. Now that's my idea of a Sunday. So. I've been going to see a craniosacral therapist (this site has some good information about it). The chiropractor just wasn't helping my neck, shoulders, and upper back. In fact, I'm fairly certain he made it worse. So my doctor recommended a therapist that she's seen in the past. I'll fully admit that if I'd read up much on craniosacral therapy before my appointment, I might not have bothered to go. I thought it was just your typical massage, but it ain't. It has a lot to do with mind over matter (or mind over pain, if you will), and the internal rhythms of the body, and visualization. "Breath of Life", and "Internal Patterning", and "Biodynamics", and some of the other terms typically used, well, sounded a bit fruity to me - at least as it was expressed in some of the websites I've perused. But! None of this stuff colored my mindset during my first visit. The office is situated on the same lake as The Coffee Grounds, and her massage room has a window that overlooks the water. She ushered me in and showed me where to place my clothing, and as soon as she closed the door on her way out, it was dead quiet. I mean, NO outside noise got in. There must have some sort of sound dampening stuff in the walls. It was startling to me at first, and I couldn't figure out why until I realized that I can't remember the last time that I sat in absolute silence. It was marvellous. So, I stripped down to my undies and laid face down on the massage table. It was so incredibly comfortable - I don't know what kind of cushioning she uses for it, but it's deep and supporting and molds itself to the shape of the body. Top that off with a sheet and light blanket pulled over me, and I was all ready for a nap. She came back in and got out some massage oils. As she prepped, she asked me about what kind of pain I was feeling, and where. She asked me about any actions that made the pain worse, and any that made the pain lessen. She asked me about the stresses in my life, and what kind of lifestyle I lead. She asked me about past injuries or accidents. She was basically trying to get a overview of everything that "the structure of my body" has gone through in my 29 years. Then, she placed her hands on my shoulders, and pressed. I yelped, and she exclaimed over the tenderness and tension she felt. She said she was going to switch tactics, and proceed at only about a quarter of her strength until we got some of the tension worked out. So, she did that for a bit, and I started to relax. Then she did this weird pressure point thing right below my shoulder blade, in the exact spot that I'd been feeling the most pain. She'd press, hard, with (I'm assuming, because I was face-down and couldn't see) her thumb, and I could feel spikes of hot pain running from there up my shoulder, along my arm, and even up to my ear. She pressed and pressed for what must have been at least five minutes of constant pressure, and told me to tell her when the pain started to diminish. I didn't think it would, actually, it hurt that bad. But suddenly, the pain dropped by a significant degree. I even exclaimed, "Oh!", and she chuckled. She said that some people feel a gradual diminishing of pain, like turning down a volume knob, while other people feel it diminish in abrupt stages. So, I guess I'm one of the latter. She chose several other spots along my upper back, neck, and shoulders to do the same thing. She explained something about having to tend to the center of the pain, and to the satellite locations of the pain - if they weren't all tended to, the pain would come back. I'm not explaining it well, but it was something like that. Occasionally she'd just rest her palm on my back. She seemed to be listening for something. And then she'd move to tend to what seemed like the exact and perfect spot. She'd do deep, sweeping massage strokes that went across my shoulders, along my upper back, then up my neck to the base of my skull. It was very rhythmic and very effective. Then she had me turn over onto my back so she could work specifically on my neck. She stood very still with one hand placed underneath me on the middle of my back, and the other hand above on my sternum. She again did that listening thing, and I could hear her doing deep, rhythmic breathing. Then she started in on my neck, all the while talking to me in a soft, low, monotone voice. She explained to me what I was doing, and how the rhythms of the body and the different points within it effect the whole. Finally, she briefly massaged my hands and feet, but said she'd work more on that and other areas of tension in our next session. Let me tell you, though, I felt a lot better as I got up from that table. I could tell that the pain and tension were still there, but had lessened from what had been a pain screaming at the top of its lungs, to a pain that was speaking in a conversational tone. I signed right up for another appointment for the next week. The next visit, she did much of the same things that she did on the first appointment. She remarked right away about how much improved my shoulders were - she could work on them at 100 percent of her strength right away, instead of having to start lighter. This time while working on my back, she started to teach me about pain management through visualization (my term, I don't know what she'd call it). She said to concentrate all of my mental energy on the point of pain that she was working on. Then I was to visualize something that would represent the pain fading away. She said, "Some people think of an ice cube, and as the ice cube melts, the pain melts away. Other people have thought of rain clouds filled with water, and as the rain releases, the pain releases." So, I was quiet for a few moments as she tended to me. Then, I exclaimed, "Chocolate!" She said, "Huh? Chocolate..." I said, "The thing I'm visualizing. The pain is a lump of chocolate, and as the chocolate is melting, the pain is going away." She thought that was a really good visualization, one she hadn't heard before. So she's talking away in this trance-inducing voice, and I'm melting my chocolate, and I'm actually starting to feel a lot better. I just wanted to have an open mind and really put an effort into trying what she wanted me to do. It does seem to work, fruity as it may sound. When I rolled over onto my back so she could work on my neck, she taught me meditative breathing that would help me to relax and allow my body to recall what it feels like to feel good. She had me breathe in for however many counts (4, 5, 6...), and breathe out for the same amount of counts. Then she had me do the same, but pause for one second at the top of my breath, and at the bottom. She had me concentrate on filling different parts of my body - my stomach, my chest, my back, then all together. More soothing trancy talk, and I was nearly asleep, yet very aware. And relaxed like an overcooked noodle. It was really, really cool. I have two more sessions with her, one this week and one next week. Then we're going to evaluate how I'm doing and determine if more visits are needed. I'm thinking I need to do this at least once a month, though. It's going into the budget. Comments on this entry? Head on over to Colloquial!

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©Laura Charon 2000 - 2003.