When I first heard about the Bliss Fest, I thought what a cool name for a festival. I mean how can you not feel good about such an event. The name alone conjures up feelings of happiness, contentment and brings a smile to your face. I felt strongly that I wanted to participate in this festival and so on a hot July 31st morning in Parkville, MO., by the Missouri River, a canopy(borrowed from Fair Share Farm) was pitched and the Quiet Moments Bliss Fest booth was born.

This was the third annual Bliss Fest and each year it has grown in the number of vendors, sponsors and volunteers. The number of visitors was steady, but not overwhelming. The vendors were varied and included massage therapists such as myself, energy workers, reflexologiy, raw food art, raw food vendors, yoga instructors, chiropractors, organic food growers, even a hula hoop booth and others promoting green eco friendly and sustainable businesses. There was music, guest speakers and a kids zone. Really there was something for anyone who wanted to explore or enhance a healthy lifestyle.

At the Quiet Moments booth mini massage or energy therapy sessions were offered for a donation to Northland Animal Welfare Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds to build a no kill shelter in the northland, as well as to educate everyone on proper and humane care of our fur friends. Many people took advantage of the opportunity to stretch out on the massage table and feel the tension released from their head, face arms and hands, others enjoyed an attunement energy session to help strengthen their endocrine system, each treatment brought a feeling of relaxation and a heightened sense of bliss.

On any given weekend in the spring/summer and fall there is a festival in the Kansas City area, usually one promoting arts and crafts, but we are currently living at a time in history where obesity is at an all time high, individuals take a multitude of medications to lower blood pressure, cholesterol, help them sleep, feel good about life and manage diabetes. We have a generation of children that will have a shorter life span than previous generations. Our carbon footprints are contributing to a planet that is challenged to sustain a quality of life. We need more festivals that engage us all to think healthy and live healthy not just for ourselves, but for our children and the planet. The Uptown Theater will be hosting a two day Green Fest in August. I hope everyone will visit this festival too, as the only way we will see them continue as venues and more to festivals like them to be created is by visitor participation.

So create, find and follow your bliss daily. There can never be too much bliss in the world.

“You cannot perceive beauty, but with a serene mind.”—Henry David Thoreau

I first saw this quote on a poster with a picture of a beautiful tranquil beach scene. The poster hung on a wall at the original Quiet Moments in Merriam, Kansas. I always thought it eloquently summed up the need to relax the mind, otherwise we miss the beauty in the world. Our individual corners of the universe become filled with deadlines, appointments, traffic congestion, pollution and constant motion.
We live out in the country on about 25 acres. The property is a mixture of pasture, meadow and woods. In the early morning hours our border collie Jack and border collie/mix Annie, head out into the yard to chase away the pesky squirrels and rabbits that are so bold as to trespass into their yard. I sit on the deck with a cup of jasmine tea. The air, even at 6:00am is already warm and hints at the oppressive heaviness that will soon make its presence known this July morning. But in these alone moments I listen to the birds sing their morning songs. I watch bright red cardinals perch on the feeder enjoying a breakfast of sunflower seeds. We have had so much rain that the flowers in the butterfly garden are still bright and perky. They offer themselves to the hummingbirds and monarchs that pass through our yard. The dense foliage from trees and other plant life provides a curtain for the deer and other wildlife that are exploring the woods beyond our yard. In the distance you can hear a mother cow calling for her wayward calf to return to her. These are the sights and sounds of a summer morning in the country. This is my time to sit quietly and be nothing more than an observer of nature. The world doesn’t extend beyond my vision during this morning ritual, no appointments, traffic, bills to pay, no questions to be answered, and no thoughts about what I will fix for dinner, just a serene mind and an awareness and appreciation of the beauty that surrounds me.
We each have within us the ability to create our own daily haven of tranquility. A place that offers respite from the world with its collective chaos, anxiety and problems. A place that gives birth to a serene mind and beauty is perceived.

What does chocolate and massage have in common? They both release endorphins. These neurotransmitters, which can be found in the brain, including the pituitary gland and in other parts of the body interact with opiate receptors in the brain. The secretion of endorphins can help with decreased feelings of pain and also increase those feeling of euphoria. Go Team Chocolate!

Chocolate has also been shown to offer us other benefits. More and more studies are being conducted, including one in Germany that followed nearly 20,000 people for 10 years and found that those who ate the most chocolate had lower blood pressure and a 39 percent lower risk of having a heart attack or stroke. Flavanols may play a part in this. Flavanols, which are a specific type of flavonoids, are believed to lower blood pressure and improve blood flow to the heart and brain. Cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate is rich in flavanols which also have antioxidant qualities. Most are aware that antioxidants help the body’s cells to resist damage caused by free radicals. These free roaming organic molecules are responsible for aging, tissue damage and some diseases. Team Chocolate is on a roll.

Finally chocolate is a delicious way to get a bit of magnesium into your body. Magnesium is essential to the functioning of the human body. It transmits nerve impulses, helps with muscle relaxation and is necessary for the development of healthy teeth and bones. Of course there are many ways to get magnesium into your diet; nuts, some fish, and leafy green vegetables are a few examples. But when it’s 2:00 in the afternoon and you need a little snack, why not pick dark chocolate? Choose a chocolate with a cocoa content of 65 percent or higher, without the addition of nuts, marshmallows or coconut. An allowance of 1-3 ounces is good, but you still have calories, which means you may want to make adjustments accordingly.

So savor the fragrance and rich flavor of your favorite dark chocolate. Enjoy the many benefits and leave the guilt behind. Go Team Chocolate!

One of the requirements to retain a massage license in the state of Missouri, as well as national certification is to pursue continuing education. A couple of weeks ago I attended the Craniosacral I class presented by the Upledger Institute. My experience of craniosacral therapy dates back to my early days at massage school in the 90’s. At that time I was taking many classes to complete my 500 hour massage program. I was exploring the many different realms of massage and energy therapy; craniosacral was one of the classes offered in the curriculum. I was fascinated by this gentle and relaxing technique and while I believed it to be very powerful in its ability to bring about change in the body and mind, it wasn’t massage and I wanted to be a “massage therapist”; that is why I was going to school after all. Over the years I would see an amazing craniosacral therapist for an occasional tune-up to just kind of balance things out. It wasn’t until I started experiencing what I call “barometric pressure headaches” that would become migraine like that I decided to take action that would address the cause, not just the symptoms. I could take medications to relieve the pain, nausea and sensitivity to light, but what I really wanted was not to be at the mercy of a weather front. I was constantly watching the weather to see if there was a storm moving in or if it was going to be too hot or too humid. I was on a mission. My therapist ‘Chris Jorgensen initially saw me every other week for about two months. We then went to monthly sessions. Chris feels that we could probably go to every other month at this point, but why mess with a good thing. I consider my monthly sessions a form of health care maintenance, that just happens to be relaxing and feel good. It can’t get much better than that in my opinion.
So for four days in June I sat in a hotel conference room with close to thirty other professionals ranging from fellow massage therapists to physical therapists, physical therapist assistants, chiropractors and energy therapists. We learned about the history of craniosacral therapy; physician and osteopath Dr. John Upledger is considered the father of craniosacral therapy and it is his institute that has researched and for the most part developed this modality. We learned the techniques that are so gentle and minimal in movement, that to an observer it would appear that nothing is happening. And we practiced on each other. We learned to be still within ourselves and to listen on a deeper level with our hands.
So what is this thing called craniosacral therapy? It is a soft tissue modality that seeks to identify and release restrictions in the connective tissue. There is rhythm in the body called the cranial rhythm. It is separate and distinct from the breathing and heart rate. A therapist will gently place their hands on the body in various places to feel the rhythm and in particular will look for a lack of rhythm. The pressure used is usually in the area of 5 grams or the weight of a nickel; less is more. When those areas are treated not only are the symptoms addressed, but more importantly the source is too.
I believe that craniosacral therapy demonstrates how the human body is so capable of contributing to its own healing and that if given the chance it will embrace the opportunity to do so.
To learn more about Dr. John Upledger I recommend his book The Inner Physician and You. I also recommend Working Wonders:Changing Lives with Crniosacral Therapy. These are case studies from practitioners of CST submitted to The Upledger Institute.

Relax the body, quiet the mind.  That is the tag line for Quiet Moments Massage Therapy.   It is what I strive to help my clients achieve during a massage session, yet a quiet mind is seldom the real quest of a client.  A relaxed pain free body is the most requested outcome.  A mind at peace is a little like a lovely dessert;  if it happens to come with the meal, great, but we seldom order it.  That is hard for me to understand.   I myself have a busy mind.  I am always in “thinking mode”.  I think and worry about the future, the present and often live in the past, rehashing over and over an event.   I have to  make a conscious effort to allow my mind to be at rest.  I do this in many ways.  I practice throughout my day deep breathing techniques, such as a 4-7-8 breath.  I breathe in through the nose for a comfortable count of 4.   I hold the breath for a count of 7 and exhale the breath through my lips, as if blowing through a flute,  for the count of 8.  I do this for a couple of cycles and then breath normally, or sometimes I just take a deep cleansing breath and exhale.  I try to allocate time daily for a little meditation.   I also seek craniosacral therapy,   acupuncture and massage therapy on a regular basis.  I enjoy these different modalities not just for a reduction in pain or to help maintain my health, but because I know that each of these sessions will  bring with them the opportunity for my mind to be quiet and at peace.   I will also experience a refreshing sense of clarity.

When our minds are constantly busy, moving from thought to thought, but not in a mindful or deliberate manner, then our minds are basically in  a state of chaos.  When the mind is chaotic the body will follow.  Thoughts and emotions have energy that is interpreted and acted out in the body in the form of clenched jaws and hands, elevated and rounded shoulders, headaches, anxiety, digestive disorders and disrupted sleep.   We readily address those poor aching shoulders, but we give little attention to how we exhaust and overwhelm our minds with constant stimulation.  There are also passive forms of exercise such as tai chi and qi gong.  These are gentle traditional Chinese movement exercises that help reduce stress and offer other health benefits.  Yoga helps keep the body flexible, but also teaches many breathing techniques.   So turn off the television,  talk radio programs, computer and cellphone, close your eyes, take a deep breath in and exhale, your mind will thank you.