• February 9 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm  Confirmed
• February 13 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• March 9 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• April 13 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• April 17 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• May 11 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• June 8 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• June 19 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• July 13 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• August 10 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• August 14 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• September 14 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• September 18 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• October 12 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• October 16 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• November 9 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm  

The following is a list of currently scheduled classes.  This class is a two-day class worth 12 CE hours for Florida massage therapists.  Each class (unless otherwise marked) currently has a status of 'Scheduled'.  This means that a date has been set, but no one has signed up for it yet.  Once a deposit has been received for a class, the status will be 'Confirmed'.  The current schedule is as follows:

• March 16 - March 17  (Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Sunday 10:00am - 4:00pm)    Confirmed
• June 4 - June 5  (Tuesday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Wednesday 10:00am - 4:00pm)
• June 22 - June 23  (Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Sunday 10:00am - 4:00pm)
• August 3 - August 4  (Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Sunday 10:00am - 4:00pm)
• August 20 - August 21  (Tuesday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Wednesday 10:00am - 4:00pm) 

All classes are scheduled to be held at the Hampton Inn at Jacksonville Beach, FL.  Should the location change, that change will be on the website and students notified. 

Note: Check with the hotel for special room rates.  

Maximize your results with less effort. Utilize the science of martial arts and apply it to massage. Body Mechanics and Advanced Techniques for Massage Therapists is designed to reconnect the massage therapist with proper body mechanics and techniques showing how to work without hurting oneself and how to apply deep pressure with little effort.  The class being part lecture, part hands-on practice uses theory, stances, centering, and the proper use of body strength from martial arts and applies them to the art of massage therapy.  Students will learn how to focus their energies and use their body to do deep work with less effort and not get hurt.  This class will help anyone to work deeply with less effort no matter if one is 90 pounds or 250 pounds.  This class is for both the seasoned therapist and the new therapist.  It will show moves everyone is familiar with, but in a new light as well as moves many people may not have seen before (which have been taken from Lomi Lomi, Esalen, and other styles).  The idea is not to dictate how to practice, but to show better body mechanics which the therapist can adapt to what they do.  This is true whether they adapt all of it or just part of it.

Fear. Fear is a powerful thing. We cloak the emotion of fear with words like worry, distress, uncertainty, uneasiness - descriptions that cause us to worry and, yes, to fear. It makes us spend too much time thinking about what could go wrong, rather than what should go right. As a former computer programmer, I know that with computers there is one perfect solution and thousands of wrong ones, and these wrong ones must be imagined and planned for. It makes one spend a lot of time asking "what could possibly go wrong?" That may work great for computers, but unfortunately applying that to life as well, is a bad idea.

We can fear a lot of things, many of which add up to the 'unknown'. If our personal situation changes (loss of job, friends, or a loved one), that brings about an unknown variable. Being unknown, we have to move through it as a learning process. While the one universal constant is change, change is what we fear the most, whether this be change for the worst, or for the better.

We fear bullies, whether they be on the playground, in the circle of people that we know, in businesses, in competition, or even government entities. Sometimes it is possible to stand up to bullies and sometimes it is not. We have been taught to turn the other cheek, but it is a difficult concept to embrace when faced with a negative force.

When we give in to fear, we expend a vast amount of our energies to ward the things we are afraid of. But what we do is we bring what we fear closer rather than pushing it away. We give fear life, where it might not have had any previously. Just like the computer programmer spending all his time imagining all the negative possibilities, we keep imagining the possibilities that could occur if things go wrong. We keep playing out the negative scenarios in our head in an endless loop, but the one thing we don't do is play out the positive scenarios. But those positive scenarios are what we need to keep playing out in order to give energy to things happening in a positive vein. We have to pledge to stay positive, to put faith in the positive outcomes only, to ignore negative possibilities.

Look away from your fears. Take the pledge with me...

I pledge to look at positive outcomes only, to not give in to negative possibilities. I will embrace the unknown as it is a learning process in which positive growth is made. I will not give credence or energy to bullies whether they be personal or corporate or governmental. In doing this, I will apply positive energy to positive outcomes only, thus shaping a future where I can prosper.

by Brian Dean

Mind over matter. We've heard that term forever, but usually as the butt end of some joke. Mind over matter. Yes, in most cases, my mind doesn't matter. See? Mind over matter. This is the ability to convince oneself, or empower oneself to do things that are above the ordinary simply by concentrating.

We've all laughed at someone sitting, saying to themselves "I'm not cold" as they try to convince themselves that they can stay warm by thought alone while being in 20 degree weather. But why isn't something like this possible? Well, it is. Why do we laugh when this person who is trying to prove them self fails? Well, because we know they're going to fail. If they didn't, we'd be truly surprised. Why do they fail? Because they don't truly believe.

We've all done something like this, and failed. We tried to convince ourselves that we could do something, and knew, that's right knew, we couldn't. Well, if we knew we couldn't do it, why did we try? We knew it was wasted effort, yet we tried anyway. Why? Did we have a hope that it would work even though we knew it was impossible? Yet, we still tried. (Hmmm. As usual, I hear Yoda in there somewhere saying something about doing and not trying.)

I had a student that I was teaching various things like meditation to. I would show her what she needed to do and how she should go about doing it, and she would say "I can't do that." Rather than try to convince her that she could, I moved on to something else. She believed that she couldn't so that belief would cancel anything she tried to do.

Those of us that do energy work rely heavily on visualization. We create pictures for what we want to be doing. As I stretch out my energies, I 'see' the strands as they stretch from me to wherever I'm sending it to, even if it is half a world away. In doing this, I have to believe that what I'm visualizing is actually happening. When we start working with energies, and sending them to other people, we are very unsure that what we are doing is actually happening. I know I was. We look for confirmation by asking those that we sent energy to, hoping that they did indeed feel something.

The key here is that we truly have to believe we are doing something to make it happen. And in believing, we can make things happen. Many times, I have talked about changing the properties of one's shields so they would protect one from different things, even insects. I have done this. I've had to spend a few minutes outside in the early evening while there were a lot of insects flying around bugging me. I changed the property of my shields so that when these bugs entered the energy field around me (my shields), they would not like it there and leave. This took a lot of concentration, and if one bug did manage to get through, the concentration was broken. It's like having faith that a vampire will be unable to hurt you if you hold up a cross in front of it (at least according to legend). If you don't have faith, you're dinner.

The same thing actually does work for going outside in very cold temperatures, as long as you're concentration is correct, and you believe in it, and in yourself (and that's another topic for another time, believing in yourself). I've done this in the winter where I've spent several minutes (15 - 20) out in 20 degrees dressed in a shirt and pants, not outdoor winter garb by any means.

The key is that you believe that you can do it. Don't doubt. Do. Hmmm, there's Yoda buzzing in my ear again. Or maybe I should look at another universe and simply say "make it so". Of course, I'm not suggesting that you spend time outside in the arctic nude. But for short periods of time, as long as your concentration can hold up, it can be done.

When doing this, you also have to discount what others tell you. "Don't go out without a coat or you'll get sick." Well, if you believe that, you will. I had a Reiki student that was told by someone that one gets ill after an attunement, and can be sick for a day or more afterward. This, of course, is just a load of felgercarb. But, having been told that, and believing it, she got sick. In working with your mind to overcome things, truly believe what you want, and don't let what others tell you affect what you manage to do.

As I wrote that, I felt a little shocked, and I think I have to qualify it. I'm not saying to ignore advice and council from people you trust. I'm saying that when you do your energy work, and that is limiting it to yourself, believe in yourself and what you can do. I'm not telling you to force your will on others. I think you'll find that a bit harder, no matter what you truly believe. (No, the Jedi mind trick does not always work.)

So, mind over matter. In truth, your mind does matter. Even mine does. (That's a surprise.) It's just like anything you want to do. You have to believe you can. And isn't that 90% of the battle anyway?

At Caring Palms, we pledge to do the best work we can at every session.  We not only do this to continue to earn your business, but because we believe that you deserve the best care possible every time you are here.  This is true whether it is massage, or energy work, or classes. This is our promise.  This is what we will continue to do.