Tag: moving from iowa to florida

Health & Fitness, Massage Therapy

One week down…

heather

I survived my first week away from home, in a new city, taking a new class, developing a new routine, experiencing new people, learning new things, seeing new sunsets, admiring new trees, driving new roads, walking new paths, building new senses.

It has been a busy week!  I attend school from 8-12, then work from 1-6, then eat, talk to Tim, take a walk, work on homework, sleep, repeat.  I know that I need more rest and restoration in my life, but one of the good things about being so busy is that it doesn’t give me a lot of time to wallow.  But actually maybe that’s not a good thing.  It’s essentially a numbing agent.  But, since I don’t really have a choice at this point, I will frame it as a positive thing. 🙂

School has been awesome.  There are 7 other students starting the program with me. It’s a varied set of people – 4 from Florida and 4 from other parts of the US, 3 really young people and then 5 people scattered around my age.  The one commonality is that they are all really engrossed in learning about the body and a wholistic approach to health.  Every day we break for a snack around 10AM.  It’s a big sea of kale salad, hard boiled eggs, chopped veggies, and game meats.

Weeks 1 and 2 are an Intensive, which means we have the same class every day.  For two weeks we are focused on learning the posturology chart, where you measure 84 bony landmarks on the body and then chart them in a specific way.  I am so glad I had some training in locating these landmarks in my Yoga Tune Up trainings.  That background is helping immensely.

Yesterday we got into a new landmark that I have never palpated before – the atlas (the first vertebrae of the spine – the one that holds up your noggin).  We have to palpate (aka stick your fingers into the back (posterior) of someone’s neck) to find the transverse process of the atlas (these protuberances of the atlas stick out laterally (to the side) from the spine).  If you find that bump behind your earlobe (mastoid process) and slide your fingers down (inferiorly) toward your jaw (mandible) and poke around a bit, you might find some harder spots.  Those would be the transverse processes of the atlas.

They are really hard to find, especially on muscle-y guys!  The SCM (sternocleidomastoid), is that ropey band of muscle that connects from your mastoid process to your clavicle (around the notch at the base of your throat).  This muscle can get in the way and doesn’t seem to like being pushed out of the way.  So I need MORE PRACTICE!!!  If anyone is traveling to Clearwater and enjoys being a guinea pig, email me!!

The last thing we did was measure for projection of the atlas. Projection is when the atlas is shifted forward (anteriorly) relative to the vertebrae below it.  To do this, you have to MOVE THE TRACHEA out of the way and then stick your finger into the back of the subject’s throat and feel around for any ledges.  I tried it on a few people but didn’t feel any ledges.  So either no one has a projection, or I’m in the wrong spot.  Again, I just need more practice.

Well, I better get to work.  Thanks for letting me practice my new vocabulary on you, and as always, thanks for reading!!

Uncategorized

On Following Your Dreams (aka making uncommon decisions)

heather

It’s been a long time since I’ve written.  Mostly that is because I think I utterly exhausted my brains and will in making the decision to move to Florida, cut back to part-time, and go to school for massage therapy.  All of that just plump wore me out.

But now the decision is made.  And I’m here. In Florida. I tried to be here last week, but Hurricane Irma had different plans for me.  Tim and I drove down here on the 4th, unpacked our stuff into our apartment and then promptly packed an overnight bag and drove right back to Iowa.  It was Tuesday. The storm was forecasted to hit Sunday. Yet all the stores were already out of water.  It scared the shit out of us, to be honest.  We are used to dealing with tornadoes, but huge storms in a state with like 3 roads that you can use to exit the state sounded like a nightmare.

So we chose the lesser nightmare and drove the 19 hours back to Iowa.

It was weird going back home again, especially after I already said goodbye to all my friends, family, and coworkers, only to return about 4 days later.  HEY!  Guess what! I’m baaaaack!

People were actually pretty understanding.  They often echoed a thought that was ricocheting around in my head a TON – “Um, maybe this is a sign?”

And, see, this is where I get utterly confused about this whole dharma/life purpose thing.  I thought I was watching signs and signals and felt as if this path was chosen for me.  But then, a category 5 hurricane started hurtling toward me.  Talk about mixed messages.

But, I guess, that just because you are following your dharma, does not mean you will not have tribulations.  In the Bible God was always sending his people on missions and quests that were horribly inconvenient and resulted in tons of annoyances and discomforts.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do because you gotta do it and because you know that by doing so, the world will become just a little bit better, and that makes all the difference.

So I decided, after a lot of internal tortuous dialogue, to not cancel all of my plans and aspirations.  I came back.  I’m here.  Now.

I haven’t had much time to reflect/absorb/adjust yet.  Granted, it’s only Day 1.  I was madly unpacking, buying groceries, getting an oil change, cleaning, cooking food, etc.  Maybe perhaps I was a little bit numbing with busyness.  But that’s OK.

To close, here are the things that are good about this decision so far:

  1.  The people I have encountered here so far are super friendly and helpful.  Had THE most helpful guy at the Take 5 Oil Change place today.
  2. We found a super cute breakfast joint on the super cutely named road, Sunset Point, and my breakfast was only 6.50.
  3. The St. Petes/Clearwater airport is only 15 minutes from our apartment.  From there you can, for a mere $60-$80, fly directly back to Moline, IL, which is 15 minutes from our house.
  4. I am becoming more resourceful.  No ladle?  Use a cup!  No lids for my pot?  Use tin foil!  No bed?  Sleeping bags and blankets on the floor!
  5. I saw a snake on the sidewalk in front of my apartment, and I only jumped 2 feet and did not scream.

So, that’s it for Day 1.  Hope you are having tons of interesting adventures, and thanks for reading!