Uggg.. I hate writing but I want to at least get comfortable with it. I might as well use the practice for something useful.

Started a class and I'm going to try and write down simple things I picked up as a way to start blogging - one of my goals for this year - and to hopefully keep me going until I finish.

What I learn is my perception at the moment, it may change over the course of the class and it may not always relate to the class I'm actually taking.

P.S.: Another goal is to set more goals... HeHeHe. I've reached most of the ones I made for myself drumming related. YaY!!!!!!

1/14/08
- Try not to wake somebody up or get them out of a meditation using their name. Being called by ones name is startling. If they are familiar use a nickname or make it generic.
- Once a connection is established try never to break it until the session is complete. Better to break your routine then the connection.
- Aim for the greatest level of modesty while in session.
- If something is wrong break immediately don't try and fix, or explain. You can always go back and discuss later.
- When teaching try to have some sort closing or cool down. To help solidify what is being taught and to bring everybody to an even level to break the anxiousness that people start to feel.
- When teaching don't allow other methods to be taught or discussed in class. It creates a power imbalance that is not conducive to learning.
- You are leading, but continuously accept, elicit and work with feedback. It is not a teaching situation unless that has been pre-arraigned. Better to stop then to allow the dynamic to change.
- Your THERE until everything in complete. Don't become distracted or walk away.

1/15/08
- Class is fun. No new learning grabbed me in particular.
- Getting comfortable with a new group that you have very little in common with is always a little trying but part of the learning process
- When some lays on there front it is called prone
- When somebody lays on their back it is called supine

1/16/08
- Moving sheets is harder then it looks. We have to change the orientation of how a sheet is placed on the person we're working on with out showing any skin. I get to one end and the top came undone, when moving it, their side is exposed.
- Most of the class is women that aren't very comfortable with their bodies or being touched by guys in a non-sexual way so at the beginning we are pairing off guys and girls to learn the basics and so people get comfortable with each other. My partner is professional paint ball player he was payed to travel around the country hunting people down, now he is becoming a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter. He says whenever he enters a new sport he tries to do the opposite, and since he's going to be beating people up and tearing them apart he also wanted to know how to heal. Really cool thought, otherwise I would not have really wanted to deal with him. I think it is hardest for him getting used to the class, he seems to be kinda shy touching girls and he needs to get used to touching a guy without violence or without it having some sort of sexual connotation.
- A lot of the body moves are similar to Tai Chi. Cool.. I've always wanted to learn Tai Chi.
- I need to practice. Just a few days in class and I've already learned a bunch of places where I need to enhance my own technique.
- I need to get a table. Expensive buggers. Maybe I can borrow one and exchange or something
- For 3 months I get a cupla massages a week. Poor me!!!!

01/21/08
- Had a test. WooHoo. Got 90%
- Modern Swedish massage is probably inspired by concepts that are found in the The Cong Fou (ancient Chinese medical reference).
- It started as as the Swedish gymnastics movement system ( Exercise, massage, and baths) created by Per Henrick Ling,
- In Japan massage therapists where generally blind. They were sought after because of there heightened sense of touch.
- Dr. Kellogg of Kellogg cereal pioneered the health food movement. He conducted extensive massage research.
- We earned some of the French terms used for the movements: Effleurage-Light touching or stroking, Petrissage-Kneading, Tapotement--tapping or patting

1/22/08
- Damn. Now I have to learn the basics of latin to understand medical terminology. We are learning all of the latin medical terms that cross over into body work and the basic of latin word structure. prefix-root-sufix.. IE; osteo-arthr-itis = inflammation of-bone-joint.
- I need to learn: Organs, Anatomical Structures, Body Regions, Diseases, Numbers, Directions & Positions & Movements.
- The 1st composed movement was introduced. What we will be learning will basically be a 50 minute choreographed routine with hand and body movement. Stupid Modern dance... Can't get away from it.
- We had to do the 1st movement over and over trying to work with music in the background. One of my favorite soundtracks was playing "until the end of the world by vim wenders". I used to listen to that all of the time. Ahh. Memories. The teacher kept watching me and said "your the musician aren't you, your very good" and then a little later she asked if I was also a dancer. Yeah. I get to incorporate things that I'm already pretty good at. I'm starting to feel like this is just a natural extension of what I have learned in other parts of my life.

1/23/08

1/24/08

1/27/08
- there was a 5 hour A&P lecture (anatomy and physiology) sooo much to learn. It was an overview of all of the things that we are suppose to have learned so far. Direction, movement, placement, bones, muscles. I am surprised that I'm picking up as much as I am.

1/28/08
- the muscles are getting smaller and the names more complex. It's strange that the names very so much. There is a muscle in the leg called "Soleus" because it looks like a flame.
- Lots of pages to color... There are like a dozen pages where we have to label and then color in the various bones and muscles.

1/29/08
- This is one that I've done before and didn't know what happened or why. It's not good to massage sombody's neck to hard when they are laying down in a prone position. Even if they can take it or it feels really good. Once they stand up there is a good chance they may get a splitting headache.
- I'm probably going to repeat things cause they'll come to me several times from different places in my brain.
- Once the massage starts try not to break touch. Even A strained light resting stroke is better. When you loose touch with somebody you are working on and connected with, it is stimulating and a little jolting to reconnect (this seems to happen in life too). If this happens start with touching the edge of the draping 1st and then slowly work your way onto the skin.

1/30/08
- Learned the basics of draping and working on the leg while the person is laying face down (prone) without moving into the !danger zone! (the term their using for crotch and crack)
- Massage class is a great place for naps

2/04/08
- Today we worked on draping the leg more, turning the person over, draping the breast, massaging the chest and neck from the front.
- We were suppose to have a test but our class is a little behind.
- For the massage portion of the mid-term and final our main goal is to knock the person out and make them as relaxed as possible with the least amount of disturbance. I definitely got the relaxed part down. Disturbance that's going to be harder since I don't have a table to work with.

2/05/08

2/06/08

2/10/08
Yay. I got some good practice massages in. Didn't have a table so it was a little awkward but I think I did pretty well. Did the full body in an hour. I have to get it down to 55min or below with out it feeling rushed.

We had another A&P lecture to prepare for mid-terms. We went over the major topics and general questions that are going to be on the test. The teacher started to talk about homeostasis and what the body needs to survive. She brought up an interesting one. TOUCH. the body actually needs touch to survive. There is an actually syndrome that people can get when they go with out touch. There was time when I was much younger where I actually avoided touching people, affection in general was pretty foreign, not really a family trait, it was just weird and I was shy and didn't know how to deal with people. All the way from that to studying massage .

After that we watched some video, I forgot what it was called. It was a little new age and hippish. The teacher thought that it would help us understand the body a little better. It just frustrated me. It was about how our perception can control how our body grows and changes all the way down to the cell.

-One of the students brought in CD's for everybody with exactly 55min worth of relaxing music on it. This is going to be a great learning tool.

02/11/08
- Mid-terms are tomorrow. The person I was working on was very honest and told me a lot I have to work on.

02/12/08
- I got GRILLED... My mid-term client was an owner of a day spa. She kept saying I'm sorry as she told me stuff I needed to work on, some of it harsh, she was a very matter of fact person. OUCH!! And just my luck she said. I think I'll request you for the final also to see if you improve. Jeeze. No pressure there....

02/18/08
- WooHoo.. Did way better on my written.

02/19/08

02/20/08
- We're learning a different form of massage now. The 1st one was totally dedicated to relaxation, this one is more focused on therapeutic. We focused on specific areas, more time spent on an area, a little deeper, some stretching has been introduced. Hopefully I'll be able to remember the 1st routine since that's what we are going to mainly be graded on. The final is 90 minutes, but with some extra stuff they threw in, filling that time shouldn't be a problem.

We are starting on deep massage and a little stretching now. There isn't a set routine. I'm still not comfortable with the

02/21/08
- Energy work overview. Kinda hippish but the teacher was able to present it in a way that was understandable. She had a few exercises that showed energy work works. I could see how this might work but it seems so subtle that the client / therapist would need to be completely relaxed and comfortable with each other and their surrounding's. My own example as a way to explain it would be: Say you have a balloon, you build up some static electricity on it and then you hold the balloon just above the skin. The little hairs would be effected by the static electricity. The balloon would be replaced by hands or sound or other energy type stuff.

02/24/08
- Business and Ethics class... We went over what we would want to do after graduation, what requirements there are for different cities, certain ethics and responsibilities there are for spas, hospitals, private practice, etc, etc. Downfalls and benefits of working at each. I told them that I'm not really interested in working as a therapist except maybe to earn my money back for the class, but then again if an amazing opportunity comes my way I wont reject it. The school seems to think I'm pretty good at it.

The same teacher teaches myo-Fascial techniques and showed us some examples. There was a cool muscle test exercise to show if something is good for you or not. Very strange but seemed to work. I'm going to see if actually works outside of the class room.

02/25/08
- Intro to Chair massage

02/26/08
- Intro to Chair massage (cont). I felt this massage more then I think any of the other full body massages. It was a little heavier and just focused on the back. If I want to try and make my money back for the school they suggested I do chair massage. It's more universal and people are generally more comfortable with a man doing a chair massage then a full body Swedish. The only thing is it is a few additional classes, so I'll decide after I graduate if I want to invest more time in classes. I'm happy with the techniques I've learned so far so my only focus right now is the final.

02/27/08
- Discussion about a myo-Fascial demonstration that some people when to see and then got to go home early

03/02/08
- Practiced a little of the relaxing Swedish. Everybody felt we were forgetting the techniques which is true. Ugg. It just made me stressed about final.. I've got to set up a bunch of sessions next weekend, hopefully that will help me get my technique more solid. The final is 90 minutes so not only do I need more solid technique I have to add to the current routine.

03/03/08
- Practiced mainly therapeutic technique, routine and stretches on the chest, head, neck and arms.

03/04/08
- Introduction to trigger point. This is where the knots in your muscles are focused on. I had the biggest one in the class. The teacher actually had everybody come over to feel it because it was such a glaring example of somebody storing stress in a muscle. One shoulder is about 2 inches lower then the other. Somebody worked on it for about 15 minutes but couldn't get rid of it. Oh well. I need a vacation.

The person that worked on me found a bunch in my back. When a knot releases the teacher said that the emotion that you were feeling at the time the knot was created is released. I got light headed when a few were released sort of like if you hyper ventilated but no other releases maybe some annoyance. I'm getting annoyed a lot lately.

03/05/08

03/06/08

03/09/08
- Fascial anatamy. The teacher talked about the fascial anatomy and it's relation with in the body. It is like a spiderweb that goes throughout the body covering and enclosing everything. He used an orange as an example. There are so many peieces to an orange. Skin, sections, pulp cells. Each one is enclosed by fascia. It's the stuff that keeps all the juce in it's little area. He also did an example of how the muscles need to be warmed up for deeper tissue work, using cornstarch and water. You fill a bowl up with 2 cups cornstarch and one cup water (something like that). It looks like liquid but if you go at it fast it becomes a solid and rips. Very Very weird. Go at it really slow and it's stays pliable.

03/10/08
- Intro to meditation. We went over to versions that we had for home work. Walking meditation and eating meditation. Went into differnt types and their uses and benifits.

03/11/08
- A/P review. Just went over everything thats going to be on the final. Practice back work.

03/12/08
- Practice for 90 minute massage. It was really strange. The teacher was timeing our strokes. The 1st 7 minute strokes seemed like they lasted forever. (I ended up working on the hand for 5 minutes, because I rushed through the rest of the arm) The last two 7 minutes strokes felt like it was 2 minutes. The teacher and everybody in the class commented on this. We bearly were able to finih the secion we were working on. I think it had something to do with warming up, relaxing so the strokes aren't as thought out & rushed and grounding further with the client while the massage is in process.

03/17/08
- More practice for final. We had to design our own massage taking into account timing and areas of focus. Teacher pair me up with somebody who has been avoiding getting worked on for the whole class.. Their sort of like a skittish little cat, very nervous. Half way through I felt all of the tension just melt. It was a really clear example for me of how relaxation and tension release can happen really quickly.

03/18/08
*** LAST CLASS :-(
- Went over questions that are going to be on the written part of the final, the teacher also tried to give any last minute advise for the practical. And then we had one final practice session.

03/19/08
*** Written Final...
- For a week or so I have been filling out a copy of the muscles and bones. Over and Over and Over again. So when we got our tests that was the first thing I did. 2 pages of bones (back and front), 3 pages of muscles (back, front and side). I think I did pretty good with those. The spelling probably was off on a few, but that will be ok for the test because most of names are in greek and latin and as long as we know what they are suppose to be and where they are located then it's all good. The rest of the test was questions on history, business, ethics, things to look out for, various modalities, etc, etc.. Went over these a bunch of times also so it went pretty smooth.

03/20/08
*** Practical Final...
- I was way on the other side of the valley playing pirate as a n extra in a movie. When I went to leave my car was blocked in. Started to stress a little and almost didn't make it to my test. I called on my way so they could tell the client and teacher and decide what they wanted to do. I ended up getting there just in time. The client could feel that I was all rushed and mentioned it. Over all I got good feedback and marks from the client, the 1st part was I rushed but then I settled into a groove and it all just flowed from there.

So now I am officially a "Certified Massage Therapist" :-)
Don't know what I'm going to do with it but the class was really fun and I learned more then I think I did in a year of high school.