- Apparently when a gazelle is attacked by a predator, it immediately goes into this death-like trance-state. Oftentimes the predator will drag it away and hide it for food later, thinking it to be dead. Once it has left and a certain amount of time goes by, the gazelle awakens from the trance-state, and it awakens mid-run. So it'll be lying on its back, say, and its legs will start going as though it's still trying to escape. If it's lucky (and not horribly maimed), it can bust on out. Point being, apparently humans have a defense mechanism similar to that of gazelles. In states of high-trauma, we have coping mechanisms allowing us to get through relatively unscathed. Granted, we don't drop into a trance-like state in the face of hardship, but we do things like repress our emotions and those kinds of things. What happens, however, is that we lock that emotional-state into our body physically, just like the gazelle locks that emotional-state of running and escape into its body, and we can slip right back into that cut-off emotional state when we "awaken." So oftentimes, when you do deep-tissue work like myofascial release, you can trigger intense emotional reactions. For example, if a young boy is taught not to cry and learns to keep from doing so, he is essentially locking his diaphragm up so that there is no diaphragm-release in the instances in which, perhaps, he would feel the urge to cry. In such a case, when you work on a person's diaphragm, effectively loosening it up and making it relaxed again, all that locked-up emotional energy can be released as well (just like the gazelle returning to its awakened state), and the person may end up crying, just because that muscle is functional again and enabling them to do so. Cool, huh?
- There is a myofascial technique on the gluts that requires you hold the person's two ass-cheeks together for them as you work out their gluteal muscles. This is necessary for no other reason than that if you DON'T do so, the person will almost certainly fart directly in your face.
- I worked with a raw-food vegan for some of this weekend. So damn cool. The man had the most perfectly beautiful, lithe, and muscular body I've seen on a man. (He also had beautiful crows feet which radiated out from his eyes like joyful sunbeams.) When our instructor demonstrated on him for one series of techniques, he kept gushing about how perfect his musculature is (to the point that people were starting to grin because he sounded like he was about to hop up and straddle him and have his filthy filthy way with his perfect body). It truly was something to see. And it was lovely too because he explained that his little secret is that he doesn't drink really any water at all, he just eats ALL RAW and gets all his water that way. He's been a raw foodie for 5 years (vegan for 8), he runs 2-5 miles a day, and MAN does he know his shit, nutrition-wise. It was fascinating talking to him. It also warmed my cockles to see so many people interested in his raw-food veganism and actively seeking out more information about it instead of being nasty and cynical and argumentative. Made me realize how much respect I have for folks who can do the raw thing--it requires a beautiful level of commitment and self-discipline.
- On Sunday, we were given 20-minutes each to take a break from the myofascial and to do just a general relaxation massage on our partner. I paired up with S___, the woman I worked with most of last seminar and whom I worked with a few times this seminar as well. I was very very pleased when she told me afterwards that my massage (which was a crummy little 20-minute one) was one of the best massages she's received in a really really long time, and that my pressure was perfect and that she was gonna have to steal some of my techniques. This was particularly flattering given that a) she's been a professional massage therapist for about four-years, so she knows her shit, and b) she's kind of critical and will immediately voice her displeasure with something that you're doing to her if it hurts or feels shitty (so I knew she wasn't just trying to be nice). When we left Sunday night, she wished me luck and told me "you're gonna make a wonderful massage therapist--seriously." *Blushing grin*
- I think this seminar is the first time I've been referred to as "petite" (and multiple times, for that matter). (Though I suspect that most folks look "petite" when knuckle-deep in a heavy fella. But still.)
- Things that got exposed this weekend at seminar: both ass-cheeks (individually and simultaneously), some of my pubes.
- If you keep a body part in one position for a lengthy period of time without moving, the collagen in that area will start building itself to conform to that stationary state. This is why you are sometimes stiff when you wake up in the morning--the collagen has started to re-form and lock your body-parts into that position, so when you wake up, you are "holding" a position that needs to be unlocked again. Stretching does that. (For some reason, that tidbit of info makes me think of some Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers-esque horror flick. I just picture someone sleeping while the collagen starts growing fiercely inside of them like some snaky creepy creature, swallowing up all their insides.)
- Apparently I still have the power to piss off Scrub-Nazi, despite the fact that we had become amicable by the end of Massage II. I ran into him Saturday while wearing a pair of blue-jeans with a large hole in the knee and my Rocky Horror Picture Show t-shirt (our seminars don't have any sort of dress-code). He said hello to me, looked me up and down (like in the good ol' days), and accompanied it all with a look that was like death warmed over. Or like I had smeared my nekkid body with feces and was just standing there, nibbling on my own nipples.
- I just realized that I don't think I shit at all yesterday.
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