The Power is Yours:)

Hakomi Massage Therapy

Hakomi Massage is a gentle approach to massage therapy where clients stay awake and explore their sensations, feelings, thoughts and Spirituality while on the table. These sessions are based on the listening of organic waves of presenting information that reveal themselves in the moment. Hakomi Massage can help you to awaken to your organizational patterns and give you clarity in the areas of your life where you may be blocked.  As old tension melts away,  it is easier to find the real power Within. Of course, "You had the Power all along."

On a Lighter Note...   which Dorothy found out on her adventure

Sharon Hartnett LMT

(239) 692-8486

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

www.massageincolumbusohio.com

Laughing in Naples

I laugh at myself because sometimes I am silly.  I laugh because sometimes I make mistakes, I am nervous or sometimes life feels like a cosmic joke.  Mostly though I laugh because I understand that in order to lighten up it is important not to take things so seriously so much of the time.  After all,  I am living in Naples... what could be better than that?  A Massage may help you to smile more too!

When do you laugh and yourself?

Sharon Hartnett LMT 239 692-8486

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

You Are A Being of Light

You Are a Being of Light

The reason why you are here on earth is to enjoy the experience of light and darkness and to have the choice to decide which turn you will make on the road of life.

~Sharon Hartnett LMT  (239) 692-8486

Light Touch Massage Relieves Pain: Craniosacral Therapy

Light Touch Massage

There are two ways to relieve pain through Massage: Light Touch or Deep Touch

Light Touch such as in Craniosacral Therapy avoids any type of defensiveness in the body.  It's an easier way to meld between therapist and client.  It's more of a listening, being, and gentle communication.

Deep Touch can be very beneficial also.  Deep Tissue Massage can be layered in from superficial down to the deeper muscles and fascia.  Or- a Massage Therapist can follow into the deeper core of the body by delving in a slow but deep fashion.

The way that I look at Massage and these two approaches is that one is more of a feminine energy, and the other is more masculine.  Each person has a preference of what type of energy or techniques that would meet their unique needs better.  A Therapist holds a passive or  active intention while bringing awareness to the client's own signals to direct the healing.

Today , I'd like to focus more on the light touch Craniosacral Therapy.  It is a very gentle type of   touch where the therapist lays hands on the client and follows the innate movements of the tissues and the Craniosacral system.  While it may not look like there is much going on, in fact, the connection and slight changes that occur with the craniosacral and nervous system produce profound changes in the anatomy and physiology.  Often people who have deep seated pain, find themselves totally relaxed and yet more vital and alive.  

Craniosacral Therapy is a very specific type of massage in that the experienced Massage Therapist understands the rhythmic movements of the bones, the brain & spinal cord and its membrane.  They can feel the  of symmetry, amplitude, rate and quality of the rhythms and support a more enhanced functioning primarily to the nervous system.  

If you would like to find out more,  I am included a Craniosacral You Tube here that may answer some of your questions about Craniosacral Therapy.

Warmly,

Sharon Hartnett LMT   (239) 692-8486
www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

Releasing Stress... & Massage in Naples

What is Stress?

Stress is an internal reaction to life when things don't feel comfortable.You'll know when you are stressed because your body starts to feels tense. At the beginning you may feel a little bit of excitement. When this happens, stress can help you adapt to a situation. It can spur you into getting action lists done.  It can also help you prepare and act smartly in the case of an emergency. However, if stress plays out for a long amount of time, it can take a toll of your health.

Stress usually includes emotional, mental and physical characteristics and symptoms. At the basis of most chronic stress are feelings of fear. Something feels threatening and you feel triggered easily. When  the dysfunctional energy pattern of stress is not integrated with emotional completion of its cycle, it can lead to ongoing automatic reactions of anger, anxiety, depression and irritability. When this energy dynamic becomes habitual,  is easy for people to feel overwhelmed by life's changes. Stress can also negatively affect your health in many ways. The tissues often feel tight, clumped together, immovable and dehydrated.  Stress can suppress the immune system, it can disturb the digestive tract,  prevent healthy breathing such as with asthma, trigger high blood pressure, disturb sleep... basically the whole body is affecting by constant stress that is not addressed.


How to Release Stress:

Are You Your Reaction or are you Something Else?

1.  Recognize that you are associating with stress.  First you have to understand that you are being triggered to react a certain way, and notice how that is affecting your life.  Are certain life moments and experiences more difficult for you to navigate? Some common stressors in Life are:  Birth trauma, divorce, death, financial issues, exams, lack of sleep and illness, war, and dangerous situations that actually threaten your life.  Be mindful of what relationships are causing stress in your life.

2.  Notice the thoughts that are coming up in your thinking.  Notice if your internal environment is responding correctly to what is happening in the moment.  Often the stress is part of our old belief systems and the body/mind/feelings react even when everything is safe and OK. Question your beliefs and notice how they are affecting your life. If your thoughts changed,  would your life change?  Stay present with yourself and look around.  What is really happening in the moment.  Where do your thoughts and reality diverge?

3.  Feel deeply into yourself and notice the patterns of stress inside your body. Hang out there and explore.  Do you have any understanding that the stress reaction is part of your history verses the present moment?

4.  Begin to distinguish the differences between emotions and sensations.  Often when people get stressed it is because a physiological reaction begins and the sensations in the body from the autonomic nervous system initiate the fight-or flight reaction.  Often with stress, people tend to come up with strategies not to feel the origin of the discomfort.  Notice if you want to move away from your sensations and feelings or if you can just stay there with your eyes open and feel the fullness of the moment.

5.  Often when stress becomes too much for people, it is because some part of the brain has not found a resolution to the original fear.  The Amygdala and Reticular Activating System are out of alignment.  Mindfulness to whatever is happening in the moment can be the best healing to stress.  

Stress is not always easy for people to handle by themselves.  Basically, it is a closed system that needs to be interrupted so that new information can come in and enlighten the individual.

If Stress is a big part of your life,  make sure that you ask for some help.

At Lighten Up Therapies, we use a holistic model to health.  While the basis of our work is through Massage Therapy, we also hold a space for your inner intelligence to lead you through life's challenges.    We find that listening, mindfulness, exploration, melding touch, and respect go a long way in helping to release stress. Our work is to help you to integrate the Mind Body Spirit connection. 

Sharon Hartnett is trained as a Licensed Massage Therapist LMT, but also has a background as Hakomi Pracitioner, a Trauma Bodywork Specialist, a Brennan Healing Faculty Member.  For more information, please look at:

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

Warmly,

Sharon Hartnett

Emilie Conrad from a Massage Perspective

I fell in love with Continuum Work about 15 years ago one day in Cleveland when a yoga teacher started sharing some of the things she learned at a Workshop.  Since that time, I have studies with Emilie at about 3 of her retreats and each one helped reveal in me many new connections and pathways into the rolling deeper consciousness of Self and Unity.  In my opinion, the Continuum work is based on the fluidity of our system and claiming the movement that we are through listening and acting from the inner wisdom within.  When we get in touch with this primal motion, we realize that we are much more than the human body as the Source begins to awaken our senses.

Sometimes after a Massage Session,  I'll offer some of the things that I have learned at my Continuum workshop because although this Creation by Emilie is different than anything else you have ever experience, it does hold many of the same principals that are found in Craniosacral Therapy, Structural Integration and Massage.  I find her work to be fun, creative and something my clients can practice at home.  It is certainly out of the box, and it is indeed helpful to be open minded, but integrating the benefits of the Continuum can only exponentially help in the healing between therapist and client.

For a taste of the woman who created Continuum,  I am including and interview with this teacher, Emilie Conrad.  I sincerely hope you enjoy it.  It will open your mind to a whole new way of thinking.

Sharon Hartnett LMT
(239) 692-8486
www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com
www.integrativemassagenaples.com
www.massagenaplesflorida.com
www.massageincolumbusohio.com

Massage Deal for Friends

If your friend buys you a Massage in the month of February 2013, he or she will receive $25.00 off the next visit.

For friends who care about friends~

Sharon Hartnett LMT
www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

Massage those Muscles... in Naples

Massage those Muscles 

Generally with  massage,  I work mostly with the Craniosacral System and the fasical layers for a more therapeutic result than with specific muscles. However, I do find and work with a few muscles that are often tight that may cause lower back pain. Sometimes with a little bit of gentle work going deeper into these muscles, clients feel a great deal of relief right away. One of the trigger muscles that often contracts and feels painful is the hip flexor Quadratus Lumborum. The movement of the QL is a slight twist or a lateral flexion from one side to the other. When tight, pain is often felt around the ileum, SI joint, trochanter or groin. It may appear that one leg is shorter than the other because the length along the lower back is shortened around the contraction.  Pain relief is often easy with just some basic work. However, remember that if your body is feeling pain,  touching into that place may momentarily hurt.  But it will be worth while once that pain pattern dissipates and flexibility and ease come back into play.  In terms of education, here is an overview of the QL:

For the best pain relief results...

Take time to feel into your body, so that you can explain your symptoms and areas of concerns to your Massage Therapist.  The body speaks and has a lot to say.  Why not take the opportunity to listen and get the relief you need?

At Lighten Up Therapies,  our focus is to work therapeutically.  That may mean a nice light Swedish Massage, but if you are in pain...  meeting that place with care and skill usually helps you to destress and feel better.

Warmly,


Sharon Hartnett LMT in Naples, Florida and Columbus, Ohio
www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

St. Francis of Assisi and Healing

It's easy to run up against personal stumbling blocks and to forget that there is always a solution. But by putting one foot in front of the other, one step at a time, you can always move forward. There is always an open doorway if you choose to look. One of the best ways I have heard this put is:

“Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” 
― St. Francis of Assisi

When the path has lost its light, ask for help.  It is through relationship that we can expand our horizons.  It is through giving and receiving that clarity comes.

Ask your partner, your friend, or go for some therapy.  Everything is always within reach.

Warmly,

Sharon Hartnett LMT  (239) 692-8486

Massage Therapy and Energy Healing in Naples

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

Business or Relaxation in Naples

Business= Busy+ness

Ahhh.   Sometimes we spend so much time thinking ahead about what we should, need or ought to do. It's easy to forget what is right here in this moment now.  Our world is an open canvas if we allow it to be.  Let go of all your worries today with a little humor.

Warmly,

Sharon Hartnett LMT
(239) 692-8486

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

A Positive Outlook with Karma

Want a happy life?  When you give, you receive.  It's all part of the circle of life.

Choose things that create happiness and help you to feel happy.  The spark for knowing how to do this rests inside and you will know it as your friend as long as you are listening.

Sharon Hartnett (239) 692-8486
www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

Awaken Your Body to Spirit

“The body is a sacred garment: it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honour, and with joy and with fear as well. But always, though, with blessing.”

— Martha Graham, Dancer + Choreographer

Whether you   lay on the table and enjoy a massage, dance under the stars  in the blackness of the night, or sing into the  mountains  to hear the echos of music, enjoy the fullness of your life.    You deserve the best life and this moment is your treasure.    Sharon Hartnett LMT (239) 692-8486

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

Massage and Healing Energy

Everyone has his/her own energy fingerprint.  The Human Energy Field is unique for each individual in that throughout the chakra system energy is constantly being metabolized both in and out as is needed. At the same time, that energy is moving both up and down parallel to the spine into the earth and up into the heavens, nourishing and balancing the whole system. 

During a massage session, the intention of an experience Professional is to hold a container for positive change for the client.  The more Presence the LMT carries, and the more she is aware of the client's field, a certain melding or energy exchange may happen that supports healing.  Either or both people may be conscious of what is happening, but as long as the intention is wellness, a deeper intelligence will take lead of the session.

For a Professional Massage Therapist who does Energy Healing,  she will know how to regulate her energy field and that of the client too.  It all begins with a gentle listening and using of Higher Sense Perception to detect any imbalances or disruptions.  She can work both with the physical part of the massage, while at the same time or in alternation,  restructure, re-fill a depleted field,  remove phlegm or anything else that needs assistance in shifting and changing.

Energy Healing can help clients physically, emotionally, with the thinking process,  with relationships or even spiritually.  Bringing the holistic Energy Model into Massage Therapy can help awaken the senses and support Deeper Contact with Self and personal process work.  

Integrate... and Allow.

Sharon Hartnett LMT

(239) 692-8486

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

www.massageincolumbusohio.com

www.integrativemassagenaples.com

Dance in the Spiral of Life:  Enjoy Massage

Every Day is Better With Massage!

Massage Therapy in Naples...    Open Your Heart. Make it the best day today!

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

Massage Vs. Thinking

Massage Soothes what the Thoughts May Not

Have you ever tried to figure out why you are not feeling happy or good in your body?  

We can think hard and never come up with a reason why we feel sore or pain inside. That's because the body has a mind connection to the brain and we are not always directly listening to it. Inside each cell is a story of Creation, Function and Potential Death. Every experience that that cell has lived is potentially included in its existence. It is possible to dialogue through voice, but sometimes the story needs to be touched in an intimate non-verbal manner in order for the pain to let go through the sensory relationship with the brain.  We have sensory, feeling and intellectual communications happening all the time.  It is in the level that we have been hurt that the wisdom of love and healing resides. 

Massage Therapy may be the right thing for you to explore your relationships between the Mind Body Spirit Connection.  Look for a practitioner who can work with all three to help you release your pain patterns.

We all deserve to live in joy and love.

Warmly,

Sharon Hartnett LMT
239 692-8486

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com
www.integrativemassagenaples.com
www.massageincolumbusohio.com

Massage, Your Structure and Power

Structural Integration Massage

Created by Dr. Ida Rolf

Have you noticed before that when a person stands straight with good structural alignment that they appear more confident, powerful and successful? 

There is some truth in that a person who doesn't collapse in the spine is more in touch with their inner authority.

Maya Angelou puts it eloquently, 

"Stand up straight and realize who you are, that you tower over your circumstances. You are a child of God. Stand up straight."

We are inherently taught how to stand by our parents, teachers and community.  Life's circumstances and how we react to them also shape the way we stand in our lives. However,  we with some fascial massage and re-education, it is very possible to find your line.  When you do, everything will feel differently because you will be walking through life in positive relationship to gravity.

Structural Integration Massage opens the body and allows your Divine life force to shine.

Sharon Hartnett

239 692 8486

www.integrativesoulandbodywork.com

www.integrativemassagenaples.com

www.massageincolumbusohio.com