Relax and Be Free

Valentine’s Day Massages for Those You Adore the Most….

Amanda — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:23:19 +0000

This Valentine’s Day- Give the perfect gift and save!

Treat the one you love to a wonderful gift package from Relax and Be Free. We have three amazing packages all designed to save you money and delight the love of your life. Save up to 25% on massages

Valentine’s Day Gift Card Packages- Relax and Be Free has three gift card packages to save you money:

ROMANCE

Enjoy a Spa Foot Treatment with your choice of a 60-minute Pure Relaxation Massage . Just $139 (regular price $175).

TRUE LOVE

Indulge in a Spa Foot Treatment with a 90 -minute Pure Relaxation Massage. Just $210 (regular price $250).

FOR TWO

Each of you will enjoy a luxurious 90-minute Pure Relaxation massage Just $269 (regular price $350).

Full Spectrum Healing to Prepare You for Holiday Season!

Amanda — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 20:23:48 +0000

A Very Special Massage to Get Ready for the Holidays!

Enjoy a Full Spectrum Healing Massage to Boost & Prepare You for the Holiday Season.

Indulge yourself in the ultimate healing with luxurious pampering.

This two-hour session will upgrade your physical, emotional, and spiritual constitution so that you are ready for demands of the holiday season.

Exquisite Red Flower Aromatherapy to awaken your senses, and prepare your body and mind for the journey. Scented hot towel compresses and floral misters are used throughoutthe session making it a full-sensory experience.

Head to Toe Massage with Acutonics Tuning Forks. This session is based on Traditional Chinese Medicine and focuses on boosting your life force while relaxing you with a combination of various massage styles to suit your taste & needs.

Cranio-Sacral Therapy is added to this delightful package to address an over-stimulated mind, reduce analytical thoughts and balance your nervous system.

Reflexology is given on your feet to reground you and complete this journey.

Special 2 hours $175.00

Contact Amanda @ 415-516-0965

Balance Hormones Naturally- Safe, gentle ways to feel your best at any age!

Amanda — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 00:23:13 +0000

It’s not just puberty and menopause: Women experience hormonal changes throughout their lives. New research shows the onset of menopausal systems is often linked to hallmarks of modern Western lifestyle, including nutrient-poor diets of refined foods, alcohol consumption, smoking, chronic stress, depression, lack of exercise and exposure to endocrine-disrupting toxins found in common household products.

Perimenopause
About ten years before menopause, your egg quality declines and your hormones begin to shift-estrogen diminishes a little and progesterone plumments.

Potential problems
Brain fog. Researchers suspect lower estrogen may be partly to blame for difficulty some women report with memory and decision making- but the stress of busy lives make it worse.

Chronic stress cause overproduction of hormone cortisol, which can lead to adrenal fatigue, a collection of symptoms including insomnia, headaches, anxiety, and inability to concentrate.

Weight Gain. Yep, stress can make you fat. Cortisol releases sugar into bloodstream to provide fuel in stressful times, and insulin mops up the excess. With too much sugar to process, the body becomes insulin resistant and converts the excess to belly fat, or visceral fat, which is linked to greater risk for heart disease. Visceral fat is harder to
lose.

Sleep problems and hot flashes.
Perimenopausal women may have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, possibly due to low progesterone, high cortisol demands, or a disturbance in melatonin, the sleep-wake hormone. Erratic estrogen levels cause hot flashes.

How to feel your best
Eat right, sleep, and meditate to keep cortisol and insulin stable. Choose low-glycemic foods like lean proteins and complex carbs, which break down more slowly in the body. Sleep 7hrs a night to stabilize cortisol and balance appetite hormones leptin and gherkin. New studies indicate that women who participated in a program of mediating and mindful stretching has fewer, less intense hot flashes, better sleep quality, less anxiety

Getting regular massages help eases the body’s hormonal dialogue keeping women happy & balanced.

Neuroscience of Relationship Breakups- Massage can Help!

Amanda — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:49:18 +0000

Massage is one of the most effective activities one can embark on after a break-up or divorce. Grief and levels of sadness can be soothed or minimized by generating positive sensations or endorphins within the body. The analytical loop of conversations & arguments can minimized and often realizations can come forth while on the massage table. Self care such as Massage helps one heal faster and move forward with one’s life. Requesting focus work on the chest where the heart resides is a ideal since this area is sometimes skipped in a massage. Below is a great article I found on the the Neuroscience of Relationship Breakups.

An unexpected and unwanted breakup can cause considerable psychological distress. People report feeling as if they have been kicked in the stomach or blindsided and knocked down. Feelings of rejection and self-doubt are common, as is the feeling of being stuck and unable to let go, even when one wants to. Friends and family may push the person to get over it and move on, yet brain research suggests this can be very difficult to do, at least in the first few months.

Breakups and the Brain

The research on relationship breakups in unmarried people (generally college students) gives us some clues as to why these events are so subjectively painful. Studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans show activity in several specific brain areas when rejected individuals see pictures of their ex-partners. Researcher Edward Smith, a cognitive neuroscientist at Columbia University and his colleagues put out fliers in Manhattan and ads on social networking sites to recruit participants who had experienced an unwanted breakup in the last six months.

Using fMRI scans, the researchers assessed which brain areas lit up when participants looked at pictures of their ex-partners and simultaneously thought about experiences they had shared together. They compared this to when participants looked at pictures of a friend and were exposed to pain via a hot probe on the arm. The scientists found that the same parts of the brain lit up when individuals looked at the partner pictures or experienced physical pain, but not when they looked at the friend pictures. These brain regions, including the insular and anterior cingulate cortex are known to be associated with pain experience.

Our brains appear to process relationship breakups similarly to physical pain. There may be an evolutionary reason for this. The function of pain is to alert the person to physical danger or harm so she can take protective action. In the animal kingdom, one’s chances of avoiding predators are much higher as part of a group than alone, therefore social rejection may have been an actual threat to physical survival for our early ancestors. If this is the case, it might partially explain how difficult it is for many people to let go of the ex-partner and move on.

Obsessive Thoughts & “Cravings”

People who have recently been rejected by their partners often develop obsessive thinking. They may ruminate persistently about the ex-partner, how they are feeling, whether they are missing the relationship, and so on. These thoughts or feelings of loss may be triggered by places they used to go to together, people they used to hang out with, holidays, and everyday rituals that were shared. In this sense, processing a breakup is a bit like dealing with a trauma. The person cycles through periods of avoiding the emotional pain and being able to distract herself, and periods of being flooded by intense feelings and obsessive thoughts. There also seems to be a gender difference, in that men are more likely to distract and avoid feelings, and women more likely to obsess and ruminate. This may be because women have been socialized to take more responsibility for relationships, leading to more time spent thinking about what went wrong or what they could have done differently.

Recent research provides some suggestion that there may be physiological basis to these “cravings” for the ex-partner. Lucy Brown, Ph.D.,a Professor in the Department of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and her colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to recorded the brain activity of 15 college-age adults who had experienced a recent unwanted breakup and reported still feeling love for the ex-partner. Upon viewing photographs of their former partners, there was activity in the ventral tegmental area, the nucleus accumbens and orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex. These areas are associated with reward and motivation, specifically, the release of dopamine that is also seen in drug addiction. Therefore, people may experience cravings for their ex-partner similarly to the way addicts crave a drug they are withdrawing from. This can lead to intense distress and physiological as well as psychological discomfort.

One issue with these fMRI studies is that they tend to use a small number of people who respond to advertisements for people who haven’t gotten over their ex-partners. We don’t know if these people are representative of the average person who goes through a breakup, or whether they answer the ads because they are especially distressed. This needs to be determined in future research. Despite the short-term pain of a breakup, longer term findings indicate that most young people are resilient and recover. College students report feeling significantly less distressed about the breakup after about 10 weeks. Also, other studies have shown brain activity in the craving centers decreased as more time passed since the breakup.

Is there anything we can learn from these findings to help people deal with painful breakups. The analogy to addiction and pain may give people a framework for understanding the intensity of their feelings and can be a basis for developing self-compassion and realistic expectations. You might expect waves of strong emotion or “cravings” for the ex-partner in the initial period. Do not expect yourself to immediately be able to “just get over it and move on.” Give yourself time for your feelings in the first few weeks. Distraction and self-care activities may also help. Conditioning theory would suggest that places, people, or activities associated with the ex-partner may be particularly likely to trigger “cravings,” so you may want to avoid these for a while and try to develop some new routines. You could try Rick Hanson’s approach, focused on reprogramming the brain to think more positively. As with addictions, it helps to have a support group of people you can call on when you’re tempted to do something foolish. If your feelings are too intense to manage alone or if you find yourself coping in unhealthy ways, you should speak to a counselor in your area.

Melanie Greenberg PhD is a Clinical Health Psychologist with a private practice in Marin County, CA. She specializes in helping individuals deal with life stress due to chronic illness, role demands, traumas and major life transitions. check out her blog http://marinpsychologist.blogspot.com.

Follow me on twitter (@drmelanieg) & facebook http://www.facebook.com/MindfulSelfExpress.

Here is a link to my post on expressive writing intervention for breakup distress

http://marinpsychologist.blogspot.com/2011/04/does-focusing-on-positive-help-your.html

Bridal and Wedding Day Services

Amanda — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:02:01 +0000

Wedding Day Treatments and Services

Bridal Party Pampering Package- Go Ahead- be completely pampered on your special day! Turn your Bridal Suite into your personal spa! The big day has arrived and all of your dreams are finally coming true! Calm feelings of anticipation and nervousness with a fabulous, pre-ceremony massage. Minimize stress and look your best by letting our talented therapists come to you and bring out you and your groups inner radiance and beauty. This Bridal Pampering Package will calm and ground you and prepare you for a very full day of excitement, entertaining, and celebration.

The Bridal Party Pampering Package Includes:

60/90 Minute therapeutic, calming massage customized for the bride and her individual needs on that day!

30/60 Minute massages for bridesmaids, maid of honor, etc.

Pre-event Bridal Hair and ”Inn Room” Bridal Makeup

Let our reservation team handle it all! We will work with you to create a calm and fun pre-event atmosphere for you and your bridal party. We will work with the bride prior to the wedding to establish a flow for the day. This will ensure that everyone is ready to go and looking their best!

Reflexology & Headaches- Opening the Door to Relief

Amanda — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:09:24 +0000

At least 78 % of the adult population will experience a tension headache at some point in their lives, 13% of the US population- or 29.5 Million Americans- suffer from debilitating migraines. Headaches create, and intensify with, physical and emotional stress, and they can affect sleep, work performance, and appetite. The time-proven art of reflexology, however, is one clinically proven remedy to relieve the nagging pain headache cause.

Reflexology maps depict the relationship between the human body and the reflexes in the feet and hands. A reflex is a specific area that when worked, produces a change in the body. The reflex is not on the skin, but in the tissue. When pressure is applied to often tender points on a foot or hand, change take place in the areas to which these reflexes correspond throughout the rest of the body. The beauty of reflexology is that working the great toe, all toes, and forefeet affects all systems. Isolation and fine-tuning reflexes with skilled touch produces a larger degree of therapeutic change.

Reflexology can be performed safely and effectively in situations where massage and movement are contraindicated. For example, immediately following an accident, injury, stroke, or surgery, the tissue in the head and neck may be inflamed, bandaged, painful, or in a state of recovery. The reflexive action of reflexology offers a means to ease discomfort and support healing process to the injured area without ever touching it.

The following experience illustrates that reflexology is appropriate when other bodywork is contraindicated, as it works reflexively on the targeted areas.

A client in her 70′s, who comes in regularly for bodywork for discomfort in the head, neck, and upper shoulders, presented bandages on her neck from recent skin surgery. Working on her neck was contraindicated. Reflexology released her muscle tension, and improved mobility and circulation in her head and neck. When in doubt- get your feet worked on!

This article was written by Paula S. Stone- Massage & Bodywork Magazine July 2011

Secrets of Women who Never Get Sick

admin — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:55:35 +0000

Secrets of Women who Never Get Sick

They survive cold season without a sniffle. They fly in germ impacted airplanes unscathed and somehow avoid stomach bugs that decimate the office. Wish you could be one of these women who never get sick? Try one of these seven secrets, and you may join this club.

1. GET A MASSAGE For the past three years, Mindy Hardwick, 38, of Lake Stevens, Washington, has dodged all the major bugs while volunteering at schools and juvenile-detention center. Her secret weapon: a monthly massage. Hardwick even sailed through a move (selling her first home) without poststress blahs. “It’s got to be the massage,” she says. “I’m convinced it’s like taking medicine.”

Most studies show that massage can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and heart rate-and lowering these is likely to cause your stress levels to drop, one key to building immunity. “Decreasing stress increases your immune cells.” says Tiffany Field, PhD, director of the Touch Research Institute of the University of Miami School of Medicine.

“I believe getting a regular massage is like taking medicine.” Mindy Hardwick, 38