by Brian Dean

 

March on over there. March in a straight line. March to the beat of a different drummer.

 

Personally, I prefer the last one. While I have strived to be part of the crowd, I always find myself outside of it a little. I always seem to be a little different.   I don't seem to fit right in. I'm too strange. But I have learned that this is what works for me. When I worked for the local football team, I did good work, but I never really fit in personality-wise. Rather than be "Go team, go", I was always more "Beam me up, Scotty".

 

But being different works for me. In fact, I have learned to embrace it. It is these differences that have made me the healer I am today. Rather than follow the path that many massage therapists take, I was never drawn to medical massage or neuromuscular therapy. I was pulled to more unusual things like Hawaiian Lomi Lomi, or Esalen, or Thai. And in these styles I found something I truly like that amazes people. I found things that I can substitute into any massage. I found something that people see as another level of massage as some of these methods work the whole body as one, rather than parts. One of those methods opened up my intuition making me able to offer a freeform massage that tailors itself to each person's needs. These have taken me out of the rut of what everyone else does.

 

Being different opened me up to possibilities, which lead me to energy work. This led me from crystals and earth energy to Reiki and mediumship and beyond. It has made me rounded in my approach to helping people. I can see many things and many paths to solving someone's problems. I like to think when someone comes in here, unless they are fixated on one thing that they want, I offer suggestions as to what I think would help them the most and let them decide.

 

It always amuses me when someone has had something strange happen and they come to me to ask questions. They usually start off with, "You're going to think this is weird, but..." Weird? I play with energies. Define weird. There is not too much out there that I would find totally weird.

 

But weird, or different works for me, and I'm not afraid of it. I'm not afraid to put myself out there as who I am. One might think that this would scare some people away. But in truth, it attracts open-minded and like-minded people. It brings me people I can help and that need my help. It brings me people that are willing to try what I do, and in doing so, find that it is exactly what they need.

 

So, strange? Yes. Weird? Possibly. Different? Definitely. But as long as different works, why fight it? Why try to conform? In truth, it is the non-conformists that are going to lead people into a better way of thinking. If everyone conformed, we would all be wearing suits and ties to work, and doing the same jobs forever. It would be very much like the images from the movie based on the Orwell book, 1984.

 

Yes, non-conformity is finding what works for you and not going along with the crowd just to be a part of it. It is not changing your mind-set just to fit in and be liked by a certain group. It is standing on your own and attracting like-minded people to you. And when you do that, I think you will find that the people who you were trying to fit in with are not worth the time and effort, and the people that come into your life will be the ones you truly want.

 

So, march to the beat of a different drummer? Yes, I do. But I like to embrace my Celtic roots on my father's side. I tend to think I march to the beat of a different piper.

Saturday, March 15, 2014, 10:00am - 3:00pm

        (with a break for lunch)

Location:  The Caring Palms Studio
Cost: $75 (includes all materials for three remedies)

Are you struggling to have enough focus and energy to get through your day? Are you mentally weary? Let Master Herbalist, Cindy Whitley, teach you how to rev up your physical, mental and emotional endurance naturally! Through the time tested use of specific herbs, you can get more out of life and achieve more than you ever thought possible. In this workshop, you will learn how simple it can be to make huge improvements in your energy, focus and mood and even how to create your own herbal remedies. You won't want to miss this! For more information, go to Cindy's website, Natural Healing Workshops.

To sign up for this class, go to the Caring Palms Events Page. 

What path are you on? Is it the right path to the destination you want? Or is it curvy because you are not sure which way to go? Is it headed to a dead end because of bad decisions? How do you get on the right path? How do you find the right way to your desired destination?

 

Something happened today in a class where I got the message that I am on my right path and that this path was clearly defined by a road through rows of trees, truly a path through the woods. This is what got me talking about paths. Now paths are something that I talk about frequently, as we all seem to need guidance now and then. We all need to be shown the way through difficult situations.

 

But I also heard from a friend this week that I have not heard from in a long time. She had been avoiding people until she had figured out what she was doing, and where she is going. In the end, she decided to let a lot of people out of her life, and to keep a few based on their beliefs and feelings. Basically, she cut loose everyone that was negative, or did not see things the way she did. She got rid of everyone that would hold her back. But she kept everyone that was a positive influence for her, or people that were open to what she felt she needed to do. Thankfully, I am one of the people she decided to keep.

 

But one has to ask, how she decided what she needed to do. Well, first she had to ask what she truly wanted. And I'm not talking about what to have for dinner. She needed to decide what she truly wanted for her life. And we're not talking about daydream wants (although it is possible to manifest those too), but something more attuned to what she thought is within the realm of possibility.

 

The big key here was to ask what truly resonated with her, what did she feel in her soul was right for her. Once she had done that, she had her destination, and therefore, she had her path. Now along this path there are more decisions to make. In her case, it had to do with which people to keep with her, and which ones to leave behind. Which ones would support and help guide her, and which would drag her back down.

 

What path are you on? Is it going to get you where you want to be? Do you truly know where you want to be? To create this path, you need to first know where you want to go, what you want to be doing.   I am not talking about deciding on a career that looks cool and then changing your mind 90% of the way through your education for this. You have to know it on such a deep level that it resonates down deep within you.

 

This is what drove me to go to massage school, and to learn many modes of energy work. This way of helping people resonated deep within me to the point that I knew it was what I wanted to do. I gave up on programming computers, which was something I liked, something that got me to the right place so I could learn other, more esoteric stuff.

 

So while I know my path, my path changes and grows, and I have to change and grow with it. I still know what I want to be, and be doing, but as I keep moving forward, little adjustments (more refinements) are made. The path remains, but it gets clearer the further along it I move.

 

So my path takes me through the woods, a path through the trees. I was told that this path was written in the trees. I commented that when you tell someone that something is written, it is usually written in the stars. Seeing as I really would like to be commanding starships, the stars made more sense. But then it came to me. My path is written in the trees because I have to stay grounded while traversing it.

 

So, what path are you on?  

Myofascial Release (MFR) is a style of massage / physical therapy that takes a whole body "hands-on" approach to the evaluation and treatment of the human structure. The goal is to help return the body's capacity to adapt, by restoring three-dimensional balance. What this means is that it works on realigning the body to its proper shape through manipulation of connective tissue (fascia).

 

Every part in the body is connected by fascia. The organs don't just hang there in open space. There is connective tissue surrounding everything holding them in place. Throughout life, one's body takes a lot of punishment, or trauma. We fall down. We get in accidents. We have surgery. All these things affect the fascia. You see, the fascia is normally a nice, soft, rubbery substance that gives when we move. But through trauma, this pliable substance can become hard and constricting. When this happens, the body's alignment changes. We feel pain, and a host of other problems crop up. (A good example of constricted fascia is carpal tunnel syndrome. This is where the fascia in the wrist becomes hard and painful. The normal response is to have surgery which cuts out the constricted fascia, but it also leaves scar tissue which later causes more constricted fascia. )

 

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You have Questions?  Maybe we have answers.

 

Each month, we write articles on a variety of subjects.  Is there something that you would like to see us write about?  Do you have questions that you'd like answered?  Do you have questions on massage?  On Reiki?  On energy work in general?  Submit your questions or requests to Brian@CaringPalms.com and we will try to see if we can answer them for you.