In 1960, according to a survey of several thousand participants, most Americans got an average of 8–8.9 hours of sleep each night. In 2002, a comparison survey found we now get an average of 6.9–7 hours of sleep each night, and a significant proportion of us get even less on a regular basis.1
Grief is the most available, untapped, emotional resource for personal transformation.
—Lyn Prashant
It’s difficult to look back. And it hurts to remember. September 11, 2001. It was a day, and it was an eternity. It’s when grief stole America’s smile, and when the air of an entire city was thick with dust and death.
In my last column, I gave you five tools to help your creativity. There is one more special tool that can help you refine your thinking process by yourself, or, even better, in a group. It’s called six hat thinking.
While maybe oddly named, six hat thinking was created by Edward de Bono, a philosopher and teacher of thinking skills who feels we need to think about how we think. Have you ever considered that despite the degree to which thinking is intrinsic in our lives, we aren’t taught how to think in school?
Most people are familiar with the body’s vessel system that carries blood to and from the tissues, but few understand there is another equally vital system of vessels that removes cell wastes, proteins, excess fluid, viruses, and bacteria.
As Mark Twain famously observed, “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” In the context of health concerns, this means that the tools most easily available to us—including our theories, assumptions, testing procedures, and technical skills—have a tremendous impact on the type of care we provide. Thus, health professionals in different fields may offer dramatically different assessments and treatments for the same condition.
The spine sings a song, but sometimes it sings out of tune. When the spine sings well, it moves effortlessly and harmoniously, with all parts of the body working as an integral unit. When the spine is out of tune, movement becomes stiff, uncomfortable, and, too often, painful. A new kind of vibrational therapy, bone toning, makes it possible to restore the natural resonant harmonics of the spine. In other words, it helps to re-tune the spine.
As a sinus/allergy sufferer, the cherry-on-top moment during my massage always comes when the therapist begins working my face. Tension dissipates quietly and without fuss from my unknowingly tight jowls. There is great sinus relief and passage opening in even the most gentle of strokes across my cheekbones. If I happen to be visiting a new massage therapist who doesn’t work that final facial zone, I leave feeling a bit disappointed and undone, regardless how great the rest of the treatment went.
The word posture, which comes from the Latin placement, is used to describe how we stand in space, and it is a good enough word for common use: “His sunken posture conveys defeat.” Or for metaphoric use: “Our posture toward Iran is evolving,” meaning attitude. But for those of us in the massage and bodywork trade, especially those who wish to, or claim to, change posture for the better, the term will not stand up to close examination.
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