What are affirmations?  Many people think affirmations is some kind of New Age nonsense.  I used to agree.  After I watched "The Secret" I was skeptical.  I don't truly believe just because I put up a vision board everything I desire will come to pass but I have come to find out living a life with affirmations is so much more fun than living a life without them.  So let me explain "Robin's" way of thinking when it comes to affirmations.

A week ago I found myself totally depressed.  Nothing was going right.  By Friday I couldn't take it any longer and decided to get out of the house to go browse the bookstore.  I was there for three hours, looking and browsing through books and still felt no better, which is odd because the bookstore is for me what the bar is for others.  Right as I was giving up and leaving I decided to check out what new knitting magazines came in and...oh my gosh...I found the golden egg. 

There was a Harry Potter knitting magazine that was just darling with gorgeous pictures on every page.  I decided to buy a green tea frap, sit down and look at it.  Of coarse I ended up buying it!  I don't really know what magical intentions the publisher put into that magazine but for me a light came on and I could see things so much more clearly.  The magazine opened my mind to the world of imagination, and all of the sudden I felt my burdens lifting.  I had been taking everything so seriously, and at that moment I realized the adult world is no where near as fun as my childhood imagination was. 

When I was little girl I had an imaginary friend whose name was "Herman the Monster Man."  I loved Herman and would play for hours and hours with him.  I talked to him and he was very real, so real in fact that I could see him.  When I played house and was the mommy, I really believed I was a mommy.  When I played school and was the teacher, I really believed I was the teacher with a room full of students. 

The left side of our brain is the logical side and has an important part to play in our life, but all too often we let this side take over.  It's the side that say's that's risky, that's dangerous, you shouldn't do that.  When we grow up and try to live by adult rules and by what we think we should be doing, we sometimes miss the joy that our creative right side of the brain can bring... the side that throws all the rules to the wind and just plays along with life.

So how do affirmations work?  You are tapping into the right side of the brain.  You are using your imagination.  If you want to be a successful writer you say ,"I am a successful writer" and you go through your day doing what a successful writer does!  Our subconscience does not know fiction from reality.  Only our conscious state knows the difference.  That is why when we dream at night our dreams appear to be so real.  We are in our subconscious mind and it doesn't know the dream is just fantasy.

For me, this is a much happier place to be.  It allows new energy to flow and opens doors for the unexplainable. 

New age?  I don't think so!  The Bible tells us to become like little children.  (Matthew 18:3).  Little children have faith!  They do not need logic to believe. 

So if you find yourself in a dark place like I was, switch your brain from the left to the right side.  Use your imagination and tell yourself "Everything is just the way it should be"   "I am a successful ________...."  and then act as though that has already happened.  Before you know it you feel alive again.  (  :

~ See you on the playground  <3

What is energy work?  We have heard it mentioned.  Usually we hear it talked about through "free spirits" mouths.  Most are skeptical and feel it is something to stay away from, to avoid, and many classify it as voo doo work. 
Yet energy work can be the most theraputic work a person will ever have done.
All living things have been created with energy.  Our feelings and are emotions are put out with energy.  Have you ever walked into a room where people have been arguing?  No one has to say anything, yet you can feel the vibration in the air and know something is wrong.  It has been scientifically proven all matter has energy.  We have all heard stories about newborn babies that have been held, nurtured, and loved versus babies that have not been handled.  The babies touched, caressed, and held are calmer, happier, more secure then those babies that have been left alone with a bottle prompted up to their mouth's.  There are many kinds of energy work and they all come with their own legeands but since I am certified in two different types of energy work Cranialsacrel and Reiki then that is what I will address.  I myself would choose energy work over a massage any day.  Energy work calms my mind, lifts my spirits, help's me to see and think more clearly.  So what is it?  It comes down to this.  Energy work is touch therapy.  It works by placing hands on calming parts of the body and pressure points.  It works with the auto-immune nervous system that runs through out our bodies.  Just as holding and cradeling a crying child helps to calm their spirits down.  We were created to be touched.  Energy work is great for people who really don't like taking off clothing and another person invading their personal space.   With energy work there is no clothing removed.  I work with the head, the neck, shoulders, throat, heart, stomach, thighs, calves, and feet.  All of this is done over the clothing.  Soft lighting and music and medicinal essential oils are used.  Energy work also last days longer then a normal massage.  Your entire body and muscles go into a deep calm state.  The session only takes 30 min. versus a full hour.  If you have never had energy work done on yourself and you are feeling confused, stressed, fatigued, etc.  I strongly suggest you give energy work a try.  My prices are $25.00 a session which is extremely reasonable.  I have much lower prices for energy work then any clinic I know of and the reason is, I love giving energy work as much as the client loves receiving it.  Take a moment to go to my testimonial section and read Chris's testimony of the energy work that he comes to see me for.  As the blue moon arises on August 30, I hope you are taking time to bring new and fresh energy into your life, heart, and soul.  I look forward to seeing my tribe of women that have signed up to come and join me at tomorrow nights event "Luna Yoga with doTerra essential oils".  Love, light, and healing go out to each and everyone of you.  As always my dear readers....Namaste

So where does a Massage Therapist turn to get their Massage?  That's really a very good question and I get this question a lot  so I will answer it here on my blog.  It's not as easy as one might think.  I myself am extremely picky about my massages.  I can honestly say, I have only had one decent massage in 6 years.  The problem I have with the majority of massage therapist is that they don't listen.  They don't listen to what I am saying and they don't listen to what my body is saying.  I had a really good therapist who is a really good friend and we did trades, sadly she moved to Arizona and I have not found a good once since.  I can receive free massages at the school I graduated from if I take time to evaluate the student.  The last person I evaluated did not get a very good score from me because I couldn't even feel the massage.  The worst kind of massage is from the therapist who thinks "no pain, no gain."  This is a ridiculous concept and let me elaborate.  The job of a body therapist is to ease the clients pain by releasing the tight, stressed out muscles.  Most clients and therapist believe the deeper the therapist goes into the muscles the more the muscles will release.  This is not so.  The therapist needs to pay attention to what the muscle is doing while he/she is working on the client.  If the client's muscle is tensing up and the therapist continues to dive in deep, the muscle can be damaged.  I listen to what the client wants from their mouth first.  If they want a deep massage I will give them a deep massage but if the muscle begins to tighten up, or they pull away, or jerk I ease up and let the muscle be the boss.  If I continue to go deep, the muscle will continue to tighten and the client will leave with the same pain they walked in with.   Some therapist do not know the difference between a trigger point pain or water weight pain.  This problem is usually in women who are still going through their mentraul cycles or peri-menapausal cycles.  A woman can carry a lot of water and carried water in the body is painful.  Some therapist will confuse it with trigger points and go in deep to try to work it out.  With water build up, the therapist actually needs to work the blood flow and help clean away the water and toxins through the lymphatic areas.  Lastly, with a good massage the client should not walk away with bruises.  So many people have told me "I hate massages and I will never get another one, the last one I had hurt and I was covered in bruises."  There is only one type of body work under the title of massage that the client will most likely receive bruises and that is "Structural Body Work."  A deep tissue, injury, or swedish massage should not leave a client with bruises.  So how does one find a good massage therapist?  It can take awhile quite honestly.  It can be as hard as finding a good Doctor, or hair stylist.  Let me give you some things to think about for your search.  You want a therapist who will listen to your needs and not just go through their daily routine.  More importantly you want a therapist who will listen to your muscle's needs over what your mouth says.  She or he needs to hear clearly what your body is saying and allow the body to guide them.  If my client tenses up, I explain what their body is telling me and why I am changing the plan.  You need to look for a therapist who you feel an instant click with, in other words a bond.  You will know if you found the right therapist if you leave feeling spiritually and emotionally uplifted as well as physically.  Your therapist should become one of your best friends.  If you don't really feel comfortable with that person, then you can't really relax with that person.  You should feel like you could tell your therapist anything and it stays right there.  They are a therapist after all, treating the mind as well as the body.  I have worked in clinics with therapist that the client has opened up to them and shared something very personal and the therapist has walked out and shared it with the whole clinic.  This should never happen.  When a client comes in to get a massage, it can be from physical or emotional pain that needs to be released.  As the body relaxes and releases so does the mind.  At times a client may cry, laugh with out knowing why,or share their story that they have been carrying around with them.  The client becomes vunerable and should be in the hands of a person they can trust expliciably.  You should look for a therapist who is in tune with your body,  not one that needs to pass time along so they keep communication going.  Some clients need to talk, some need complete silence.  Most of my clients want to talk for a little while in the beginning of their massage and then want quiet as I go furthure into the massage.  The therapist should be in tune to what you as the client wants as far as talking goes.  They should know when to talk and know when to close their mouth.  The massage should be completely around each indivuals needs.  Once you find the therapist you like stay with them.  That therapist will begin to know your body and what your body needs like no one else.  You will grow to trust that therapist and amazing things will begin to happen as you and your body heal.  If you can't afford a weekly massage, it's important to keep up with maintance work in between sessions.  I will go over this in my next blog.  Try to get a massage every other week and if you can't do that, then try your hardest to get a massage once a month.  This will only work if you do the maintance work in between though.  Let me say right now about pain in massage, if you love deep tissue and your muscles stay relaxed then get deep tissue but deep tissue should not feel painful.  Deep tissue is going deeper because your muscles are relaxed and enjoy the deeper massages, you are not looking for it to hurt.  The only part of the body that will normally hurt if being worked correctly is the neck and shoulder blade area.  If you are seeing a therapist because of neck pain, the therapist will have to go in deep to loosen and release the knots in the neck and this does normally hurt.  You will know if it was done correctly by the time you get off the table, the neck pain you came in with should be gone.  It may be sore from the work that was done, but the neck should be flexable and the piercing pain in the neck and head will have diminished.  I hope this helps in your search for a good healing therapist.  As to what I do....I'm still searching myself, I give myself my own body work, and I have taught my husband how to massage my body the way it likes to be massaged.  It has taken him awhile to learn but he is getting there.  (  ;
Next blog I will share maintance work and how to cut expenses for having regular massage body work.  Until then stay healthy.
Love and Peace
Robin

As a woman our hormones are constantly changing.  Going up and down with our monthly cycles.  Changing as we carry a baby and give birth to a baby.  As we age they begin to change as we begin peri-menapause.  I have been going through my own changes as my body is wrapping up it's birthing years.  Going through a time where my body doesn't want to shed weight easily, I find myself waking up tired and never gaining much energy through-out the day.  Exercising is exhausting just thinking about it.  I want to sleep through the day and stay awake at night.  Through the month of June, I will be dedicating this time to learn how to go through this change in a more healthy, productive way.  One of the things that I have learned is even though the test may not show it, our thyroids are starting to slow down.  What this means is, that not only our metabolism is being effected, but it also contributes to why we feel so tired and sluggish.  Many women feel chronic fatigue at all times.  We can start by working with our thyroids.  Replacing what is being lost.  Iodine is a key factor.  Here are a few things that we can add to our daily diets.  Organic grapefruit or Orange Juice.  Lemons and Lemon water (which also helps clean out our liver) taking 500 mg. of Vitamin C before each meal.  Using Sea Salt.  Sunflower and seseme seeds.  Switching to Ezekial bread.  Organic Eggs, especially raw.  Cashews and mushrooms.  Vitamin E 400 mg. a day. ( I don't buy the synthetic brand dl-alpha.  I want the pure form of Vitamin E d-alpha.)  Bee Pollin or Royal Jelly.  B complex.  I take Brewers Yeast for my B vitamins.  Also to help boost my energy I take 2 capsules three times a day of Dong Quai. 
Although I love Diet Dr. Pepper my body doesn't.  At this time in my life I really need to give my body everything I can to help build nourishment.  Sadly, it's time to say good-bye to soda and sugar, at least on a daily basis.  Daily movement of some kind is a must.  For me, I prefer yoga, walking, and my exercise bike.  I'm also known to put a good Cher CD in and dance away with my "power woman."   I must add a disclaimer here as I do with all my nutrition blogs that I am not a Medical Doctor. Please check with your own Medical Doctor if your not feeling your best.  Also, what is right for me, may not be right for you.  I am merely sharing my own path and journey into good health.  I am a student of healing arts and learning good nutrition for my path is important to me. 
 Lastly, because I am a night owl and want to sleep the day away, I want to put myself on a schedule to help retrain my body to sleep at night and give me full potential during the day.  I will share my findings with you on this blog through-out the month of June.  If you have found anything that has worked well for you in journey, please share in the comment section.  I value your findings as well.  May the journey begin!
In Peace and Health
~Robin

If you would like to read my doula birth stories before I moved my space here, please go to my former blog at
(doularobinlmt.blogspot.com)  All future blogging will be here at my new cyberspace home.  (  :