Category: Energy-Integrative Massage

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Energy Healing Energy-Integrative Massage

Throat Chakra Healing and Neck Tension

Woman receiving neck massage. Photo by cottonbro studio

I found myself crying this morning, and it got me thinking about what a privilege it is to be able to cry in peace.

There is an expectation when you start HRT for gender transition that taking T will prevent being able to cry. This is not a universal experience, and generally reported as temporary. I would like to share my experience with this phenomenon.

When I considered starting T, I was informed that it would enlarge my vocal cords permanently. This would change my singing voice, as I would no longer be able to access the higher registers in the same way, if at all, but it would also open up my lower register. Vocal training was an option on the table, but so was doing nothing and just allowing my body to adjust. I half joke that I was a professional singer as a child. I auditioned and got into a local singing group starting in early elementary school, participated in the Jazz festival in high school, and contemplated going pro in college, but ultimately felt like it wasn’t right for me. I sang in church every week and performed on stage, as you do in the culture I grew up in. I took voice lessons from two different teachers outside of choir practice and was generally acknowledged to be talented. Once I felt I had learned enough soprano, I moved to alto and worked into the lowest registers I could reach. I love singing.

All that being said, I decided that the risk of discomfort and permanent changes to my voice was worth the benefits, and that if I needed help, I could get it.

As my body changed, my vocal cords thickened, causing my throat to feel tighter and protrude slightly. It was amazing to be able to use a vocal range that I’d always had in my head, but never was able to replicate in real life. It felt so nice to finally feel like my body was the way it should be in many aspects. But the tension of parts developing without the growth of the tissues surrounding them gradually started causing problems.

I had more headaches. When I felt deep emotions, I would get that “lump in my throat” sensation, which would just sit there blocking everything for days. More interesting to me is the fact that, while my throat chakra had been pretty blocked previously, the blocks were shifting. Self-expression in the form of showing up transmasc, among other things (pursuing a career is a major throat chakra thing), allowed me greater latitude to express myself, but it also brought to the forefront throat chakra issues that tied directly to physical blocks.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have access to my feelings; I’ve always been a deep feeler. But I couldn’t cry. It would start up, get stuck, and then not go anywhere. I was frustrated, and a bit bewildered. So, being a massage therapist, and believing in the power of massage, I booked myself a massage session with a trusted practitioner who also works with energy.

There is a connection between the physical body and the emotional body. When my practitioner began loosening up the tissue surrounding the vocal cords, I went into deep processing and was finally able to have an emotional release. Not only that, the headaches from pent up feelings and chronic tension in my neck improved, and my spine has stayed in alignment better.

Along with regular self-care and self-treatments, I have had repeat sessions with people who can hold that space with me from time to time. It is harder holding it by myself, and I need a couple days after the work to really process through what gets released. I have found significant improvement in my vocal range, physical comfort, and self-expression. I am actually more well-connected to my emotional expression now than I was before starting T, because it catalyzed and supports the real-world changes I’ve needed to make to be healthy. Writing and speaking about not only how I feel but also the work I do has always been kind of scary. It’s a process, learning to show up as me and do the work I’m here to do, as I grew up being pushed into a very small box. This is all part of healing my throat chakra.

Note that energy work will prompt changes in your life, so if you’re ready to finally break free of restrictions and start living authentically, this work can be a key resource. If you are going through physical symptoms of throat chakra blockage, I would highly recommend energy-integrated massage to address the issue. And of course, you don’t have to be trans or on hormones to clear and balance your throat chakra. We all have throat chakras, and they all need support.

You can book a session here. If you would like to receive a discounted rate through my Pay It Forward fund, please do not book on my website. Email insight.with.el@gmail.com or text 385-465-5569.

Happy Healing!

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Energy Healing Energy-Integrative Massage Intuitive-Tarot Reading

Collective Reading February 25-March 2: Play Your Part

Your ability to truly connect with others in good faith will be a highlight of this week. “My heart will love again,” is what I’m hearing. But what about your sacral? What about the roots you choose to put down now, knowing the sting of having them severed before? Expanding again takes courage, faith, and reliance on your intuition. You must learn how to trust yourself, take reasonable risks (involving deliberate use of all your faculties together), and be alright with whatever the outcome. Head, heart, eyes, and felt sense (among others) come together to give you a fuller picture.

When we experience a massive disappointment or betrayal, it isn’t the moment it happened that matters. It’s the endless time we spend afterward abusing ourselves, thinking every detail through and fitting them into a false narrative centered around how we went wrong.

Sometimes we encounter darkness simply because it is passing by. In a world of collisions and meetings, curiosity and contrast, we are bound to happen upon something we don’t like from time to time. Not everything we see is something we have to entertain. Sometimes we can let it pass through without resistance and say, “Wow, I am nothing like that. This is good information.”

It’s okay to study things we don’t understand, so long as it stays in its place. When we start to wonder whether we are the thing we saw, it becomes a problem. Your job is to stay connected to yourself and allow everything that is not you to provide the backdrop for who you are. You are not to explain yourself. You are to be seen shining. This is not pride but true humility.

The opposite of narcissism is echoism. Both are unbalanced extremes. Do not hide from the spotlight when it comes around. Stand where you’re supposed to and allow the light to go wherever it will, whether that is on you or not. “All the world’s a stage, and the people on it merely players.” Be your best self, and don’t worry about the parts of other players. You can’t speak everyone’s lines, and yours are irreplaceable. So, too, your role is uniquely made for you, and no one can play it better.

True versatility on this world stage means not depending on the position of the spotlight to maintain your position. No one is center stage all the time, and no one is in the wings all the time. We all move together as one cast, playing our separate parts.

The dark will be dark, and the light will be light. You can interact with all of it, trusting that what you see is accurate enough. Trust your judgment, learn gently from mistakes, and treat everyone accordingly. In this way, you can trust and love again, this time even better.

You were never wrong for having experienced contrast. You are here to explore everything and anything that contributes to your ultimate highest good. It will all end well; enjoy the play while it lasts.

Did this resonate? I post readings for my collective here and send them out to my subscribers every week. I also offer personal readings, energy work, and massage to help you navigate your life journey and healing. Check out my scheduling page to book.

Have a great week, everyone!

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Energy-Integrative Massage Intuitive-Tarot Reading

Collective Reading January 21-27: Open The Door

Before now, your interactions with others were dependent on them being a certain way or acting a certain way. More often than not, now, you are interacting based on how you are. This is because when you are centered in your Authentic Self, the vibration you carry outweighs the vibrations of those who aren’t centered. They could be experiencing the situation in an entirely different reality, and you are still allowed to experience it your way.

I’m seeing a total reversal of what some call “codependency,” and it looks good on you. It looks like empowerment, choosing happiness, and getting what you actually want. Nevermind the path to it, or how things look while you work. You are keeping your eyes on the prize, steadying yourself, and finding that your feet stay solidly planted as you reach heavenward.

There is no peace like the one found in stability. It truly does not matter what other people do. You will find others who match your vibration, and they will outpace the influence of the people and places you have either left behind or had taken from you. Let them go, knowing that you have better things waiting for you. In the meantime, you always have yourself.

Usually we hear the platitude, “When one door closes, another opens,” but this time the message is, “When a door opens, the others must close.” Your choices in what you open for yourself preclude the possibility of any other outcome. Make your desires so big in your view that nothing else can gain your attention.

At the same time, be willing to let the outcome change. Once you have named your desire, let go of getting it and focus on the feeling you desire. Then, live in that feeling and allow your world to shift to match it. You cannot feel success and experience failure, and vice versa. Eventually, they have to match up.

So let yourself feel successful regardless of what happens. Let yourself find relief, gratitude, positivity, humor, joy. It doesn’t matter how you find it or what happens. What matters most is the fact that you are happy inside.

Like with a labyrinth, the way out is the way in. We have wound ourselves into the middle of it already. Now all we have to do is unwind ourselves and we will find that we are out where we can breathe again. It’s easy to get there when we offer no resistance, no attachment, no fear. The image I’m getting is that either you can cling to the walls and slow your journey out, or you can keep your hands in and never touch the walls at all.

And if you find yourself experiencing the opposite of what you want, let it be the invitation you need to go inward. There is no problem so big that getting still and breathing won’t help it. You don’t have to white-knuckle the drive. Just keep breathing and keep moving forward. You will get there when you are ready. So open the door you want. It will happen when you are able to receive it.

Need a little extra help letting go of resistance? Book a session of energy, Tarot, or massage today and start feeling better.

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Energy-Integrative Massage Intuitive-Tarot Reading

Collective Reading December 24-30: Accumulate Success

The image coming up is that of the mythical Labyrinth of King Minos, and Theseus going into the center to slay the Minotaur. You have journeyed into your own labyrinth, facing dark and twisting corridors filled with horrors, and now that you have slain the Minotaur and prevented others from falling victim to it, you doubt your path out.

Any attempts to remain grounded have been met with your fear of what has already happened. Is it still present? Will it happen again? How will you survive it repeating? To which the Universe is saying, “You have already gotten rid of the root problem.” Yes, there are battles to be fought and won still, but let’s look at what you have going for you in all this.

Theseus made his way out of the Labyrinth using a magical ball of string. Your ball of string is the golden thread of abundance that has always been with you. Even in your darkest hour. Stop justifying your fears with all the evidence of the bad things. When you feel badly, your mind wants to fill in the details with reasons as to why. To start feeling good, retell the story of the hard times, using all the good things that happened. Keep practicing gratitude. The fact is that even when you have been at your worst, there has ALWAYS been something to be grateful for. And the Universe has said this a million times if it has said it once: there is a golden thread of good fortune through every experience and every awful thing you remember. The mere fact of your existence now is proof that you have had enough to survive up to this point, and not only that, you have gained. You took this journey for a reason, and that reason was enough to justify the hard parts. Trust that it is more than worth it. But also, you feel bad now because you have needs and wants to attend to. How can you go about doing so?

It’s okay to want something so badly that you eat, sleep, and breathe that desire. Just be sure to check in with why you want it. Let’s illustrate with an example. If you want financial security in order to feel loved, maybe what you want is two-fold, and maybe you’re starting at the wrong end. Somehow, feeling unloved became entangled with feeling financially insecure. Now that you’ve tasted financial security, which you have busted your butt to get (I see you, you amazing human), you’re finding that it doesn’t hold the core of your desire for emotional security. And you may be wondering why you’re unsatisfied still.

Wanting financial security isn’t wrong; it’s part of your birthright. Keep it going, and start adding emotional security to it. You have taken care of yourself when others would not, and you’ve done a better job than they ever did. This is a form of emotional security you have given yourself, in that you promised yourself something and followed through on it. Give yourself credit. Celebrate your win, even in a small and quiet way, alone. A helpful mantra: “I am enough for myself.”

The greatest thing you can do to attract people who will love you the way you need it is to hold that love for yourself and choose to see and accept it as enough–for now. Then pursue meeting this need more, in a way that makes sense, not out of desperation but from a place of confidence, knowing that you have met the surface need fantastically well. Why not add to the accomplishments you already achieved? Why not continue to accumulate good things, since you have already started?

The bottom line is this: you didn’t know what you needed underneath the first need that you met, and now you do, and it scares you to think that it can’t happen. But the only reason you haven’t met it yet is because you didn’t see it clearly. You know more now, and that changes everything. Trust yourself to get more of what you need. It’s going to be more than okay.

Now go be fabulous, and have a great week!

Did this resonate? I post my weekly readings here on my blog and send them out to my subscribers. Feel free to browse through previous posts.

Still need something? Book a personal Tarot Reading, Home Clearing, Energy Session, or Energy-Integrated Massage here.

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Energy-Integrative Massage Intuitive-Tarot Reading

Collective Reading October 22-28: Right On Time

This is a week of shifting from one foot to the other, as the ground shifts beneath us. One stepping stone will stabilize, and then the water rises and we have to step up to the next stone.

Think of it like the staircase rising up before you. One step after another rises out of the ocean, before your very eyes. The next step may not be visible under the water when you take your current step up, but it will shift into place in enough time for you to walk forward onto it. This is a Cave of Ali Baba type of magic, where all the elements of your success are working around you in real time to create your path. All you need to do is steady yourself and keep moving forward, trusting that the next step will be there. You are right on time.

Breathe. Trust. Reconnect to your support network. You know them by how they feel to you. If you feel safe, your body will react accordingly. If not, you will feel that something is off. Listen to that and go with it. Now is a really good time to practice all your recent lessons in grounding, emotional awareness, and observing before responding. You are right on time.

Yes, there are a lot of moving parts, but there are only as many as you can truly handle, and they are all timing themselves around your momentum. If you feel overwhelmed, go back to basics. One step at a time. One moment at a time. One right action at a time. No need to rush or go off half-cocked. You are right on time.

Keep your focus on the now, with the future in the background. The steps behind you are swallowed by the rising ocean, which can trigger feelings of loss, scarcity, and fear. But the reality is that everything is happening for good reason, and you don’t need what drops away. Some of those things dropping away are doing so for your protection, and others are simply not in alignment with what is happening now.

You are right on time. It doesn’t matter what you may have missed out on or may not be ready for yet. The whole scene is revolving around you, because it is your own, made of your own desires and design. This path is what you are ready for, and it is ready for you, too. Right on time.

If you need help focusing or steadying, an energy session is an excellent way to meet that need. I offer distance and in-person. Book via https://InSightTransformations.as.me/

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Energy-Integrative Massage Intuitive-Tarot Reading

General Reading September 17-23: The Power of Desire

This week is a deeper, more peaceful layer of letting go of what you have lost and finding joy in embracing and following what was always meant for you. You are really starting to believe that what is truly yours cannot miss you. It will keep calling until you receive it, because your heart yearns for it, even when you have lost faith and given up.

When are you going to believe how magnetic your desires truly are?

8 of Earth feels like the beginning of a new chapter. When you see the next phase of your life unfolding, it is easier to let go of the old one. The story of your life as it was in the previous chapter becomes uninteresting, even irrelevant. Loss? Bitterness? You don’t know her, because you are dancing in the light of Celebration.

Be sure to take time alone to reconnect with your Highest Self this week, as old things leave and new things enter. Familiarity is subjective. On the one hand, the old feels familiar to your nervous system. On the other hand, the new feels so much more familiar to your soul. Have you ever entered an entirely new place and felt like you have come home? That’s the vibe of this new chapter.

Remember to end old Karmic ties with gratitude and forgiveness. To forgive is to free yourself from something that otherwise would gain strength by your resistance to it. Dark needs Light as a contrast, but Energy simply is. The Difficult is only defined as arduous by something Easy, but the Great Work stretches on endlessly.

You were never truly defined by the hardships that made you choose how you would respond. Yes, hardship forced you to respond, but your soul was where you unlocked the choices you considered. Without that spark of genius within you, the solution wouldn’t even have crossed your mind. And yet, the opportunity to choose gave you growth and galvanized your desires and intentions.

Because we exist outside of this 3D timeline, we exist simultaneously at every point in our linear growth progression. Time is an illusion, a way of making sense of all that we are and all that we have done and will ever do. But remember that the best version of you exists in your darkest hour, and is accessible, should you wish to connect with it. Anything you truly desire is possible.

Do you wish to succeed? You are a success in progress, then.

Do you wish to obtain some item? You are in the process of doing so, even if that process unfolds in an unexpected or indirect way.

Every choice you make is the best choice for your deepest, strongest desires, at any given point. What do you truly want? How do you truly need to get to it?

You are never going to be a failure if you desire success. And if you desire failure, then you will be succeeding in it. Either way, you succeed. So what do you want, and more importantly, why do you want all the things you want, especially the conflicting desires? Could it be you need an experience to know more so that you can decide between two (or more) options?

The duality of your being and your experience is such that you, in all your complicated imperfections and idiosyncrasies, are allowed to choose and experience so, so many things. When you are done being “God dreaming they are not God,” to reference Alan Watts, then all the complications revert to simplicity, and the experience resolves.

If you take nothing else from this reading, let it be an invitation to sit with yourself this week and decide what you really want. If you have any doubts when choosing, you will be given contrast to figure them out. This is a gift, not a curse, so use it wisely, and remember to tread lightly. Don’t take life so seriously. There is no way for you to fail in what you desire.

Mantra: “I am making the choices that are right for me. If it happened this way, that’s exactly how it needed to happen, and I’m finding out why.”

And if you need help, finding it is not against the rules. Everyone needs help sometimes. Everyone has the opportunity to give help, too, if they wish. It’s going to be okay, and we are all in this together. Everything is turning out right for you.

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Energy-Integrative Massage general information

What Is Energy-Integrated Massage?

Reiki and other energy medicine techniques are possible to do without touch. This is called distance work. Thanks to the properties of quantum physics, people and energies can interact without being physically touching, or even in the same place. Much like speaking on the telephone, bluetooth connections, or that intuitive feeling when you know that someone is thinking of you, distance healing connects people on an invisible frequency that can be accessed and sensed with the proper attunement and practice.

When I started practicing energy medicine, I learned the hands-off approach, as well as hands-on Reiki. However, while I enjoy working distance, I found that my skills were put to even better use when combined with massage techniques. I started self-study, based on what worked for me and my friends and family, and decided whole-heartedly to jump into massage school to learn even more. It was 100% worth doing.

Sometimes my client sessions follow traditional strokes, as in Swedish effleurage, petrissage, tapotement, compression, jostling, etc. And other times, they are more about holding space and being present with a past traumatic event. Breathwork, guided visualization, intuitive or angelic messages, and yes, the channeling of Reiki energy are integrated into working with the soft tissues of the body.

Because I have learned a wide variety of tools, and work with divine beings who use even more tools than I do, I have had the opportunity to work with an array of unique and fascinating challenges. I am equal parts excited to dive in, and empathetic towards the frustration, struggle, and pain involved with true healing. I love my work, and I love that feeling when relief finally arrives. There is nothing like going home after a successful session and knowing that I’m right where I’m supposed to be, doing what I was meant to do.

Integrating energy work and massage opens up a whole world of effective therapy. Separately, each modality has a powerful influence on healing, but together, they address the whole self on a deeper level. Book a session and see what I can do for you.