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We are so happy to announce the arrival of our new team member, Brandon Caudill. Brandon is a licensed massage therapist and also practices energy work and leads guided meditations. He attended Lexington Healing Arts Academy for his training in massage therapy and has been immersed in Hopi and Lakota traditions for several years. 

Get to know Brandon: 

• When is your birthday?

  • January 31st 

• Where are you from? 
  • I’ve lived in Lexington most of my life, but originally I’m from some far off land, deep in the woods of Kentucky. 
• What is your favorite massage modality to practice?
  • Mostly Swedish massage mixed with deep tissue. I like to assist in healing the body while making clients feel comfortable and relaxed at the same time.  
• What CEU class are you looking forward to next? 
  • I’m excited to learn Thai massage and to learn more assisted stretches.  
• What is your favorite movie? 
  • I love the amazing Miyazaki- Spirited Away holds a special place in my heart. I also really love the movie Hero. It is so beautiful. 
• What is your favorite color? 
  • I could never pick. I really love all the colors and try to incorporate color in to my meditations (and life) as often as possible. 
• What is your favorite food? 
  • As a chef of 10 years, I have a very diverse palette and enjoy trying new things. If someone likes it, I’ll most likely try it. So, just like color, I haven’t a favorite. But my go-to foods are Chinese hot pot, Vietnamese pho, and I love Korean banchan! I’ll pick a whole grilled fish or squid over a steak any day. 
• If you could have one superpower, what would it be? 
  • I would love to fly! My favorite dreams are flying dreams.  
• What’s the best part about your job? 
  • Being in a positive and healing environment and helping people. 
• What’s the worst part about your job? 
  • This is my dream job 😛 

Do you ever look at a cheetah and think, “Man, I hope that little guy doesn’t hurt himself, running without the proper shoes.” Of course you don’t, because you’re not insane. Cheetahs are meant to run, and already have everything in their little feet that they need to run quickly and efficiently. But frequently when people begin running, they set out on a quest to find the perfect running shoe for them, the one that will keep their knees safe and stave off plantar fasciitis- the ultimate shoe. Why is that? Human beings are naturally gifted runners, with early man often literally running after their prey until the animal died from exhaustion. There are even a few tribes in the world that still utilize this method.

Today, few people can outrun a house cat without making their knees ache or their heels hurt. Even very experienced runners have frequent trouble with their ligaments, tendons, and joints. How did the human race have survive in a time running was necessary to live, when most people can’t run more than a mile without a professional trainer and specialized shoes?

Chris McDougall, author of Born to Run, has done a lot of research into the matter. You can read his whole argument here, or you can read my summary and get on with your life much sooner.

Basically, it comes down to money. Mild mannered citizens began running in the 70s for fun -tracking prey now unnecessary- and people wanted some specific running shoes so they wouldn’t scuff up their nice work ones. Nike started by making shoes that were basically comfortable foot coverings, but people love technology. Soon the market was filled with highly advanced, heavily cushioned, feather light, arch-supporting future shoes. They sold themselves. And the longer we let our feet relax in these luxury recliners of shoes, the more they became like anyone who spends all day in a luxury recliner: weak and lazy.

I urge not just runners, but every person with feet to read McDougalls reports, and I have a few things to add as a bodyworker as well. I can tell when someone wears barefoot style shoes or spends a lot of time barefoot. They have muscles in their feet. I work barefoot and walk everyday (on concrete sidewalks) in flat, thin soled shoes. I do arch exercises. I never have foot pain. I feel the foot musculature of all sorts of people, and the one thing that people with muscular feet have in common is that they never mention them. Foot pain is rare for these people, yet rampant among the masses. 

If there is one thing I want you to know, it’s that weakness leads to pain. Weak back muscles lead to slumped shoulders leads to back and neck pain, etc. Most shoe companies would like you to believe that you need to spend $200 to have comfortable feet, but perhaps you could instead spend 10 minutes a day exercising, as you would for any other pain caused by weakness. Everyone’s situation and every body is different, but hopefully you will consider increasing the function of your feet before you increase the padding in your shoes.

So you’ve made it through Thanksgiving. For an introvert, no easy feat. It was loud. It was messy. It was sensory overload! Aunt Gertrude told the same story for the millionth time and you laughed like it was the first time you’d ever heard it. Your sister, who seems to be immune to the sound of banshees wailing, let her three darling children run amok while you pretended not to notice. You deserve a pat on the back. Well done, you! 

But wait. There’s more. That’s right, winter is coming, and it’s bringing the whole family.

Whether you consider yourself an introvert, an empath, or just a sensitive person, the holidays can be tough, if not downright miserable. Fear not, quiet-loving friends, we’ve got just the remedy. 

1. Make the emergency grocery runs. If you realize you’re suddenly out of butter, offer to go to the grocery to pick it up. The store may be hectic, but the trip to and fro in your quiet car could be enough of a reprise to get you back on your feet. 

2. Offer to do the dishes. Kick all of the aunties out of the kitchen and tell them you’d like to take over with the cleaning. They can take their coffee and chitchat to the other room and you can get some much-needed alone time. Plus, once you get in the groove, washing dishes can be meditative. As you rinse the dishes, imagine that you, too, are getting rinsed of excess energy and negativity. Let it trickle down the drain. 

3. Take a break. If your get-together spans several days, plan to take a few mini breaks throughout the holiday. Take a long bath. Go see a movie. Go to bed early and curl up with a good book. It’s not selfish to take good care of yourself. 

4. Take the trash out, and while you’re at it, go for a little stroll. No one will notice that you’re gone for the amount of time it takes you to walk around the block. With each breath, imagine you’re blowing out your frustrations and anxieties. With each step, imagine that you’re drawing grounding energy up from the earth.

5. If you mean “no”, say “no”. You don’t have to host dinner if you don’t want to. You don’t have to travel if you don’t want to. “No.” is a complete sentence all on its own. You don’t owe any explanations. 

6. Plan a reward for yourself after the holidays are over- something decadent to look forward to. We recommend a massage! 

To any extroverts reading, we don’t mean to leave you out. This is your time to shine! We appreciate the vibration that you bring. We thank you for being the social glue that keeps us all united. Pass the eggnog, social butterfly. 

No matter what your holiday plans, we hope you have a good one. Remember that this is a season of light. Our wish for you is that every shimmering light on your path will fill your heart, even in the darkest of crevices, with joy. Happy holidays! 

What do you do with your clothes when you take them off to get bodywork? The answer may say a lot about your personality. Or it might not. We’re massage therapists, not psychologists. But that doesn’t stop us from guessing.

The Tidy Cat
You are an organized mind. You are likely one of those people who can’t sleep knowing there are dishes in the sink. Recognize that it may be easier for you to relax when everything is in it’s place, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You would probably make a fantastic (if not a bit pushy) roommate.

The Orderly Shadow
You’re neat and orderly, but also shy about your place in the world. You don’t want to make a mess or take up too much space. You would probably prefer if most people around you didn’t realize you were here, so you can quietly fade into the shadows. There’s nothing wrong with thriving in the background, but remember that you’re entitled to as much space  as anyone else, and sometimes a bit of a mess can be therapeutic (you can clean it up later, don’t worry).

The Raptured
I don’t know exactly what to say about this one. It’s rare, and the people who do it seem to have little in common with each other. Perhaps we need a real psychologist’s opinion here. Until then, my guess is that if you do this, you like to pretend that your clothes are people.

The Body Shy
You leave on all your clothes for whatever reason. That’s fine. Do what makes you comfortable. But remember, you’ll probably get a better massage the more we can reach, so if your reason for keeping covered is that you think you’re too fat/sweaty/wrinkley/pimpley/hairy/moley/bony/whatever, believe me, you’re not. No one is too any of those things to enjoy a massage. Really. We’ve seen everything, and it’s normal. You would be weird if you were flawless.

The Hot Mess
You’re a free spirit, confident in your place in the world. You’re probably a lot of fun at parties, but a lot less fun to live with. Remember, there’s no shame in calling a housekeeper. 

*All statements have been made up by a bored massage therapist who knows very little about psychology and should not be listened to for any reason beyond being similarly bored. 

Several months ago I wrote a blog post titled On Being Present: Struggles of a Frantic Girl. Since then, as promised, I’ve continued to walk to work, which takes me about thirty minutes. However, during the coldest winter weather, I didn’t walk as much as I’d hoped. But this isn’t a story of failure or of struggle. No, my friends, mine is now a story of a journey. 

Since October I’ve been on a journey to get healthy in my mind and in my body. Walking to work allowed me time and space to clear my mind and get my body moving, but when the weather got in the way, I found that I was really missing my daily commute. I realized that it had become meditative for me. In lieu of the walks, I started meditating almost daily. When you’ve got a mind as busy as mine, meditation is no easy task. I’d always heard that meditating meant that you sit down, be quiet, and remove all of the thoughts from your mind. For me, an impossible task! My mind is bustling with constant thought and chatter, many conversations happening all at the same time. Even quieting one layer of thought in my mind proves quite the challenge. One day, I had an epiphany. I was listening to a podcast, I cant remember which one, and the host said something like “Meditation isn’t about erasing all of your thoughts, it’s about narrowing your focus onto one thing. One thought. A mantra. A candle flame. Your breath. Whatever works for you, put all of your attention on that thing until it’s the only thing you see, hear, or feel.” 

Whoa. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that my life was changed by that brief suggestion. Since then I’ve tried different ways of meditating and I’ve found success with most of them. My favorite way to meditate is so fun that I almost think it’s cheating: Guided meditation~ Guided meditation, if you don’t already know, is when you take a little daydreaming trip through your mind’s eye. The meditation can be either guided by another person or recording, or self-guided. 

Luckily! We’ve teamed up with Brandon of Ethereal Daydream. This coming Monday, April 11, 2016 at 6pm, Brandon is offering a meditation in our office. Please come! Donations benefiting Seven Generations Community will be accepted. Seven Generations, if you haven’t heard, is a community focused on sustainability and bettering our local community. You might remember way back in July when we teamed up with them for a downtown trash walk. 

To reserve your spot at the meditation, please RSVP via Facebook here. We’ll see you Monday!

-Charley Caudill, LMT

Last month, my husband and I decided we wanted to see the Grand Canyon. This was a little bit fueled by the fact that two of the characters in my favorite tv show took a similar trip and it reminded me that it is in fact possible to get to the west side of the country by car. 

Last week, we packed up my Yaris and left. We saw a lot of cool stuff along the highway, a lot of western landscape (so flat!) and, of course, the Grand Canyon. The canyon was honestly dizzying to look at; my brain couldn’t understand that sort of distance. 

There was a lot to see along the way, including the worlds largest rocking chair and a plaza that had fudge, candy, burlesque shows, and a dinosaur. The highway is an odd place for sure. In Texas I saw my first tumbleweed, which was extremely exciting, and in Sedona they keep their lights low enough at night that you can see the stars. 

If you want to make this fun journey yourself sometime, I have a few tips that helped us get through being in the car for pretty much 5 days straight. 

-We brought a bag of apples, a couple packs of cans of V8, a bag of carrots, a bunch of bananas, a container of peanutbutter and a 2.5 gallon container of water. I’m telling you, nothing tastes better than some V8 when you’ve been eating fast food all day. Sweet nutrients. 

-We brought a ton of music and podcasts. It takes about 26 hours each way to get to the canyon and back. Stock your mp3 player accordingly.

-We drove through as much of Oklahoma in the dark as we could so we wouldn’t have to look at it. (Kidding! Sort of…)

By the end of our trip back, we had both sort of forgotten what it was like to not be in a car. If we went west again, which we fully plan to, we would definitely plan to spend about 2 weeks on our trip so we could chill out and spend time in different cities. But people voice regrets all the time about how they didn’t see enough of the world before their job got hectic, they had kids, what have you, so we figured now was better than never.