kiran trace

Today was the first week of normal classes at CNS. Monday we had Basic Massage. Tuesday was Advanced Technique. Wednesday was Business. Thursday was more Advanced Technique. Friday was Anatomy and Pyshiology. I’m concerned about my success in A&P because I cannot yet spell physiology correctly. Wait! I think I just figured it out!!

It’s been a super interesting week. I really love the Tech and A&P class. They are taught by the founders of the school and their passion really shines through in their teaching. You KNOW that they believe that this form of therapy changes lives. Not only does it change the life of the patient, but it has a domino effect and changes the lives of the people the patients interact with. This is a Difference Maker. It is so fulfilling to be surrounded by that kind of conviction and knowledge.

During the Tech class, we learn the neurosomatic techniques. This week we learned how to address the muscles in the front of the neck – infrahyoids, suprahyoids, the deep anterior cervical muscles (the muscles that connect to the vertebrae), the scalenes (the muscles that move your neck from side to side) and the sternocleidomastoid – the muscle that flexes, tilts, and rotates the neck.

These are super impactful (is that a word??) muscles to treat. Treating these can help immensely with ear, jaw, throat, and shoulder pain, thoracic outlet syndrome, and migraines. However, they are a….sensitive area to treat. There are lots of trigger points in these muscles, and one of the treatments involves moving the trachea out of the way. So… It’s really important work with lots of benefits, but it’s also work that requires a lot of trust and practice. People just aren’t used to therapists fiddling around with the front of their necks!

My first A&P class was Friday. The teacher is…just amazing. You can tell he really loves the material and believes 100% in it its importance. He is lively, animated, funny, and super knowledgeable- which is a must, if you are sitting through 4 hours of anatomy lecture. It was totally overwhelming. Completely. He also told us that over 1/2 of the first term students fail their first anatomy test. I have never failed a test. I don’t know how I would deal with that!! I hope I don’t have to find out.

I took copious notes and also recorded the session. Today I used the pomodoro technique to tackle studying. With this technique, you focus 100% for 25 minutes and then take a 3-5 minute break (which I used to roll out my upper back, shoulders and pecs with the Yoga Tune Up balls). I found that knowing that I only had to work for 25 minutes relieved some of the anxiety I was feeling about tackling this huge subject! At first I really struggled with how to approach studying. But once I started looking at my notes, looking at the pictures in my Thieme book, and tying the two together (and reminding myself to BE PATIENT), I felt so much better. The terminology started to make sense. The names of things in the body actually do have some logic to them, and that started to present itself as I worked.

I did about 4 pomodoro sessions and then took a long break. I, uh, watched Miss Congeniality. It’s a really excellent movie, actually.

But now I’m going to go back and do some more homework – I have some reading to tackle. I like to read before I go to bed because I feel as if the information just kind of floats around in the ol’ brain pan and settles in better that way.

Tomorrow I am meeting a couple of classmates to practice my neck-spearing technique (aka treating the superficial anterior cervical muscles). Then I’ll do some more studying, meal prep for the week (steel cut oats, quinoa, and BBQ pork in the Instant Pot). Hopefully I will figure out a way to have some FUN tomorrow. Figuring out fun stuff is actually quite challenging!!

Oh! I guess I should circle back to the whole theme of this post – change!! I was talking to a dear friend of mine who has been with me step-by-step as I contemplated coming to this school. She is intimately familiar with all the doubt, fear, and indecision I was experiencing. My therapist said I was in Decision Purgatory, and that is the perfect description.

Well, Angela and I were talking about my current state, and I told her that living in Florida and going to school just feels, well, normal now! She reminded me of how petrified I was of making this change. It made me realize that CONTEMPLATION of change is the really scary thing. Actually EXPERIENCING the change is NBD (no big deal). You just deal with it, like you deal with everything. The Ego is a funny thing. I’ve been pretty entertained lately by watching its machinations. Between lots of reading of Kiran Trace and listening to Matthew Kahn’s podcast, I’ve realized that it’s all about awareness without judgement. I can FEEL whatever I want to feel, and that is 100% OK. I just need to observe how I feel and let that be OK. I’m doing a lot of “Huh. That’s interesting.”

Hope you are having a fabulous Saturday.

Take care,

Hlo

Two weeks down! In some ways I still feel as if I cannot believe I am here. In some ways it feels as if I have always been here. The thing that strikes me the most about being here is the lack of hills. There no hills. It’s flat. All you can see is sky and palm trees. It makes me feel a little exposed. I miss hills.

Tim and I have been talking every day and Skyping most days. How did people live apart before Skype?? It makes such a huge difference to be able to SEE your loved ones! I would feel so alone here if it were not for technology. My little brother sends a picture and a message almost every day, I talk to/text Tim all throughout the day, I call my parents and my older brother on the weekends. I am finishing up Lord of The Rings (reading it for the Nth time), and I am at the part where everyone is parting ways at the end of the book. Back in Middle Earth, unless you had a Palantir (aka an iPhone), you had to travel for WEEKS to see your friends and loved ones once you were sundered.

School this week was good. We learned some very basics of massage – draping, massage strokes, etc. We had our first test on Friday. I think I did well on the written portion and the massage portion, but on the postural charting portion, I got a bit confused on a piece of it. There are 4 measurements that you take on the first side of the sheet and then transfer over to the back side of the sheet. For some reason that confuses me a bit. I kind of rushed that portion and didn’t feel good about my answers. I was having a severe battle with my perfectionism, struggling to ask the teacher if I could have my test back to verify I did it right. I kept reminding myself that I am part of the Infinite One and not getting 100% on a test is A-OK. 🙂 But every time I think of it, I get that little burst of constriction just to the left of my sternum. This body had some encoding that really, really, really drives me to get the A+.

I have been reading Kiran Trace’s book, Tools for Sanity. In it she talks a lot about how awareness is the key to realizing who and what we really are. She uses an analogy of when you walk into a dark room and flip on the light and flip it off again, you can never unsee what you saw. You now know where the furniture is situated, you see the toy truck on the floor, you know what is there. Even with the lights off again, you are AWARE. Once you strobe that awareness on to a behavior, it immediately changes things.

So I am settling my awareness on this drive for perfection and seeing what I can find out about it.

In the meantime, I didn’t ask for the test back. I left school, worked from home, and then spent the weekend gently exploring. I ventured out to Dunedin and went to a yoga class. Come to find out it was the last yoga class ever to be held in that studio. They were shutting down the following day. I feel like there is significance in that, but I haven’t parsed out what it is yet.

Today I ran through my typical Sunday routine – grocery shopping, cleaning, making food for the week. I took a long walk and reached a new spot I have not seen. I saw trees from Dagobah and encountered lots of friendly folk. I was listening to Matt Kahn’s talk about Everything is Here to Help You. He said that if you view every person in your life as being there to help you learn *something,* that you will transform your world. I sent that vibe out to every one I encountered and got lots of smiles in return. I’m curious to see how this susses out.

I got home from my walk and decided that I better go to the beach. I have been here 2 weeks and have not made it there yet – partially because I have been busy and partially because I am nervous/reluctant to go to the beach by myself. But tomorrow starts regular classes at CNS, so I figured I should take advantage of having no homework and GO!

I drove to Bellaire Beach, just south of Clearwater Beach. The skies to the East looked ominous, but I persevered. I walked out on the beach, appreciating the roar of the ocean and the foaminess of the waves. I looked to the Southeast and noted dark clouds tumbling in. I just sat and watched the storm roll in. I laid back and turned my head, at eye level with the beach, the ocean, the sky huge and dark and roiling above me. It was absolutely beautiful.

And that was my weekend. Tim has been steadfastly working on the house, hopefully bringing to a swift conclusion our separation from each other. We should get the house on the market soon, sell it post haste, and get Timmy Tee down here to Clearwater ASAP.

Hope you had a lovely weekend, and thanks for reading!

Tag: kiran trace

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