on self-tending | Fall 2022
hello everybody!
Back home from a trip to the gusty coast of Maine during last week’s Equinox (and my birthday!). Feeling grateful for time off to explore, rest with friends, and refresh my brain. Also thinking about the ways I’ve been able to come into myself more this year, especially somatically.
As the years pass, my body slowly changes shape, begins to process differently and ache in new places. An exercise I like to call self-tending has been medicine for pulling me back into the expanse that is connection and harmony in my body. It’s what I think we actually mean when we use the widely capitalized term ‘self-care’. Self-tending is attuning to my feelings as they come up. It’s gently parenting myself with a presence that my past self never received. Self-tending is, basically, paying attention. In practice, it is a brief pause to turn towards myself, but within those 5 seconds is the potential to shift my whole perspective or circumstance.
Understanding what you feel is the precursor to acknowledging you have the power to heal, to make choices, to ask for support.
Another useful aspect of self-tending is physical body sensation-awareness, or interoception. Everything from skin to internal organs and blood vessels has sensory/nerve receptors, and with all that our bodies do constantly, we easily filter out many of the signals they communicate. I think it’s in the noticing of these habitually-filtered, daily, more nuanced sensations that we can take action for preventive care.
Attuning to my senses has helped me take the steps I needed to manage imbalanced patterns such as chronic dermatitis, lack of energy, headaches — symptoms that aren’t emergencies, but absolutely impact quality of life and have the potential to escalate to greater dysfunction if left untended. We don’t have total control over how our bodies respond to stress, but we do have the power to make informed choices and requests when we have language for how we feel.
Below is a pair of Sensory Wheels I created to help give more descriptive language for body sensations. Because many of us were conditioned to handle pain in a somewhat dissociative or even bypassing way, as adults we may find ourselves not always knowing how to identify the quality of our body sensations. I hope these references can provide more clarity within your own self-tending processes so that you can connect with and advocate for yourself with more confidence and understanding. Maybe even on the therapy table!
B I Z N O T E S
REFERRALS
Folks, my practice is full! Thank you for supporting my practice by coming again and again! Thanks for sending people who need the work my way!
I will not be taking new clients for the time being (with the exception of gift card recipients). Please let me know if a friend or family member needs an LMT referral, and I will do my best to provide one that may be a good fit.
SCHEDULING
For already established clients, wait time to get on the schedule is 1-2 months (depending on client flexibility) at the moment, but if you'd like to get in within those months and are not already, be in touch and I’ll put you on my cancellation list! Last-minute cancellations are fairly frequent, so it’s not a lost cause! Keep the faith!
CLIENT SURVEY
This July marked the 3rd year of my practice, and I would love to hear from you about your experience! Regular client feedback, steady personal growth, and the continuous process of attunement are paramount in how I choose to work. If you haven’t already and can make the time to participate in this anonymous 8-question survey, I would appreciate hearing from you!
I L L U M I N A T I O N S
Gaga Movement Language for dancers / people
Been really enjoying the expansiveness of the Gaga approach to movement. A taste!
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The Body Sensation Wheel by The Recovery Box
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Who Is Wellness For?: An Examination of Wellness Culture and
Who It Leaves Behind by Fariha Róisín
This is both a deeply personal and global account of how western ideas of wellness have failed to be accessible to all, while often simultaneously exploiting those it excludes. An emotionally hefty and heftily relevant read.
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Gentle Softness small-batch tea by sweet Catelynn, aka A Tethered God in Blue Hill, Maine
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M U T U A L A I D / community investment
Throughout the Summer I donated a percentage of my profits to YS’s 365 Project, A volunteer group promoting diverse African-American heritage, culture, and educational equity.
This Fall I’ll give to Greene County-local organization, The Feminist Health Fund who supports our nook of Ohio through direct medical funding, domestic violence relief, and partner projects. (AFAB [assigned female at birth] folks can apply for medical expense funding here.)
