Thursday, May 9, 2019

The Pink Assignment


Preparing for the Pink included quick shopping runs for discount shoes
and accessories, even pink earplugs for the BART ride (bottom right).
Shoes from AGL (top center) and Michael Kors (bottom left).
Dental assistant: "I like your outfit. Is your favorite color pink?" 
Me: "No, I hate pink. But I'm wearing it every day in April as an experiment because I really need to do something different."
I've been wearing black every day since I was sixteen years old. Despite every promise I ever made to myself to wear color, I always defaulted back to black... for three decades. But not this time. I decided to commit to color for April. Not only would I avoid black for the entire month, but I forced myself to wear PINK every day because I've always hated pink. Pink is girlish. Pink is weak. I relate so little to pink that I've asked myself: Who actually wears pink?

But what could I be missing out on? Do I really hate pink? Would people treat me differently if I wore pink?

I went on a mission to find out.

The last week of March involved shopping sprees at Buffalo Exchange and Nordstrom Rack. It was surprisingly easy to shop for a color I didn't like. No mulling over the perfect look, I loathed it all. Then I told my friends, everyone at the office, and emailed my 100+ clients that I'd be wearing pink every day of April 2019, and I couldn't turn back.

It was a profound month. This is what I discovered.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Rolfing and Aging: "Use It Or Lose It", Unpacked

Photo: Italo Melo
More and more people are coming to the realization that Rolfing is the fountain of youth. Living in harmony with gravity keeps you young. In fact, the most rewarding part of my job is watching my clients appear younger within months, and even reversing the earliest signs of aging that I see in clients who are only in their 20s and 30s.

We've all heard the adage "use it or lose it," and with Rolfing, that reality is addressed at the most minute levels, producing the most dramatic effects. I'll unpack what's going on:

1. We're always using something. Rolfing helps you do it better.
We don't only use our bodies for a jog or a cross-fit workout. Every hour, all day long, we're using something: to hold up our heads, to breathe, to stand up from our chairs, to interact with people, to walk. Many of these ignored yet ubiquitous movements are governed by smaller muscles around our spine, ribs cage, and even around our jaw and skull. They are the hundreds of less famous muscles like the multifidus, intercostals, and pterygoid – and they're all constantly reacting to gravity. Rolfing improves our relationship to gravity, thus increasing the efficiency of how your body uses all muscles, big and small, giving you smoother movement, better circulation, and a bright and youthful glow.

2. Using all your small muscles has huge effects.
The best example of this is the tensor fascia lata (TFL), a small muscle on the side of your hip that you'll become keenly aware of through Rolfing, I promise! You may have never heard of this little player, but it exerts a huge influence on the angle of the pelvis to the leg. Therefore, tightness there can cause the most visible postures of aging: the Seated Slump, the Old Man Walk, the Curved Back, the Condor Neck.

Releasing the tensor fascia lata and freeing up its whole range of motion not only lessens these bad posture habits but also puts the more well-known muscle groups – the gluts, quadricep, hamstrings, pectorals, and abs – into the correct position for better use. You'll stand and walk straighter. Your workouts will be more effective and you'll look nicer for it, too.

3. We need to use our nerves, too.
Frailty is one of the earliest signs of aging and it's also a strong predictor of how we're going to fare in the decade after it first appears. Frailty is a combination of weakness and a lack of coordination; you've observed it in someone you know when you slow down walking with them, you wait for the next light to cross the street instead of hurrying through the last one. But we can stop this decline. Avoiding frailty – in other words, staying supple and adaptive – requires not just muscle strength, but healthy and dense nerves in the muscles and joints.

Rolfing helps your nerves grow in a way that exercise alone does not. Through good posture, we constantly engage more nerves by naturally balancing the weight of our bodies in an adaptive and fluid manner, as opposed to fighting to hold ourselves up by being stiff and inflexible.

In a nutshell, by optimizing your posture, Rolfing helps your body use all its parts as Nature intended, whether you're going about your day or following your exercise routine.

Use it all and enjoy.

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Related Post on Aging:
Emotional Complexity, Longevity, and Your Posture






Monday, March 25, 2019

What Is A 24-hour Cancellation Policy?

Massage therapists, hair dressers, estheticians, psychotherapists, and all sorts of Personal Services Providers -- including Rolfers like myself -- will often have a 24- or 48-hour cancellation policy.

Why?

If a client cancels at short notice, it is difficult to replace that lost appointment with another paying client, so the lost time equals a financial loss. For small practices, this adds up to a significant amount by the end of the month. Thus, therapists and body workers need to charge clients for missed appointments.

To avoid being charged for a missed appointment, you can:
1. Request a text/email reminder from me.
2. Schedule your session for the end of your work day when fewer obligations can get in the way. I take appointments after 5pm.
3. Try to re-schedule your missed appointment within the same week, I'm more likely to waive the cancellation fee.

Thank you for your understanding.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The Clinic For Funny Walks



"I walk funny.  I just walk... funny. I went to the doctor and he gave me muscle relaxers."

This was actually spoken in my office.

And again, recently:

"Some of my friends make fun of me and ask, 'Why do you walk so stiff?' I can't help it, that's just the way I walk!"

Well, you've come to the right place. My job is to fix those funny walks. But to understand this whole situation better, let's take a closer look at those special gaits.

Question #1: Why do I walk funny?