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Trust me! I promise you this: 7 solid assurances

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Trust is the pillar of the therapeutic relationship. Trust is implicit and part of our code of ethics. After a treatment, I always thank people for “trusting my hands”. The body is what holds it all together – the font of sensorial information, the reservoir of emotion, and the source of much of our sense of personal identity. Here are seven solid assurances that I give you, should you decide to book with me.

I won’t hurt you:

It still surprises me how many people think that massage needs to be painful to be effective. Let me promise you this: my massage is deep but never painful. The art of massage is finding the right degree of pressure for a given area, then working just at the edge between pleasure and pain.

Good pain vs bad pain

Trust me! I promise you this: 7 solid assurances

Different people describe pain differently, depending on language and culture. But, there exists a common feeling that crosses boundaries: there is a kind of pain that feels good. Like pressing a bruise, there is a kind of pressure that eases the ache. Scientists call this the “pain-gate theory“. There is a point at which the Central Nervous System ceases to send/receive more nervous impulses. At this point, there is a dulling of the sensation. A good massage therapist knows this and works with the pain-gate theory to get just the right pressure to be healing without being overwhelming.

I will take the time to interview you and understand your history.

The therapeutic relationship is extremely important. The body is the temple of the spirit/soul (or whatever name you wish to give it). Putting yourself in the hands of an unknown therapist is an act of trust. So, I promise that I will always take the time to ask about injuries, pathologies, recent surgeries, past experiences with bodywork, what kind of sport or activity you do, what fragrances you like and dislike, and anything else that may come up. This is the time that I invest in you, I don’t charge extra for the first session. All of my patients know that I am generous in my booking times, and a good listener.

I won’t chat all the way through the massage.

Again, it seems strange to have to say it, but believe me, there are a lot of therapists who will chat right the way through the massage. Of course, in the context of a healing space, you may want to chat. We can even have a coaching session if you need some help to make a decision or choose a path. In this case, the conversation is centered on you and forms part of the therapy.

At the same time, maybe you simply need a quiet and private space to air your thoughts. The massage room offers this, too. But, I promised you that what I won’t do is fill your hour with chit-chat about my life, what I did at the weekend, my DIY projects, or my car insurance renewal. This list is only partly ironic – I have been talked to about all these sorts of things, and more, when receiving massages. So, promise number 3 – peace and quiet if that’s what you need.

The space is serene and there are few outside noises. Unlike in a busy polyclinic or therapy center, there are no loud voices in the hallway, ringing phones, or strident doorbells.

If appropriate, I will recommend some simple movements to help reduce your pain and help you move more freely.

I am a qualified yoga teacher with a long professional history. The objective of physical therapy must always be rehabilitation and freedom. If you arrive with pain or a compensation-type limitation of range of motion, and I have a safe, therapeutic exercise for you to do at home, I will recommend them.

I won’t rush.

Massage usually last about an hour. It takes at least that long to treat the whole body. When I was training, learning to fit a good treatment into 60 minutes was nearly the greatest challenge!

As an independent therapist, I carefully schedule my bookings so that I don’t have too many back-to-back treatments. This means that I can work peacefully and that you don’t feel hurried after the treatment. This sense of ease helps the mind-body to truly relax and improves the outcome of the treatment.

You will be adequately covered and warm.

Being warm and comfortable during massage is hugely important. The first time I received a massage in Spain, I was very surprised to be left uncovered. In the UK, where I trained, “towelology” or draping was one of the most important aspects. Not only for modesty but also for comfort. I also use an electric blanket during the winter months. I promise you that you won’t be cold or exposed!

I won’t body shame or judge you.

Bodies come in all shapes and sizes. My space is a safe place and LGBTQI-friendly.

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Rhythmic Breathing, lymphatic drainage and cerebrospinal fluid – 3 mind-blowing facts!

Did you know that

Read on….

HI everyone, it’s Rachel here again, Rose Tint Your Life.

Rhythmic Breathing

So, I thought I would do a little video about one of my favourite topics, which is breathing. I’m actually feeling a great need to share this information. I am feeling pretty sad right now because one of my longest-standing patients, or clients, has just left. He received a few months ago a very sad diagnosis of ALS which is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease. Most people might know it as Lou Gehrig’s disease, I think it’s what Stephen Hawking had. Anyway, ALS is incurable, we don’t know why people develop it, and obviously as it’s progressive, people get sicker and sicker. Some people have a longer period of living with it and some people have a shorter one.


He’s just left and I was giving him a lesson on breathing. His breathing is becoming increasingly troubled, he’s having difficulty swallowing, difficulty speaking. I gave the same piece of advice to him as I give to a lot of my yoga students, especially when I’m at SHA, where I do private classes, but also here when I do massage. I told him about rhythmic breathing.

The importance of rhythmic breathing.

A lot of people have been told at one point or another to breathe into their belly or whatever. They know that breathing is really important but maybe haven’t heard about rhythmic breathing. The way I try to describe it is by likening it to the pistons in a car. That’s an image that a lot of people can connect with. If you have four pistons in a car, they have to be moving in a synchronised rhythm because otherwise the car is either not going to go, or it’s going to shudder and judder all over the place.

Irregular breath rate

What I have observed in my many years of working as a therapist is that most people have a very, very irregular breathing rate. Rhythmic breathing without breath work or pranayama education is almost non-existent. Not only do people breathe too fast, 15-20 breaths per minute even in states of deep relaxation like whilst receiving a massage. I observe patterns where people will breathe in for 1-2 then out for 3…it’s all over the place, and people are just not conscious of the incredible impact that this has on the body.

Why should breathing be rhythmic?

The breath is like a pump. It’s like a piston. The diaphragm is moving up and down in the body and as it does so, it creates pressure differences in your thorax. The reason I know about this is from lymphatic drainage.

The lymphatic system

In lymphatic drainage we put a lot of emphasis on the breath and that’s because we know that deep breathing is one of the main if not the main motor of lymphatic flow. The lymphatic system doesn’t have a heart. It needs rhythmic breathing to push the lymph around the body. Of course there is also the muscle pump and there are little muscles on some lymph vessels. But what really moves the lymph is the pressure differences of the diaphragm pumping and pulling the lymph in the middle of your body. This push and pull, this pump, is created by rhythmic breathing.

Coming back to the piston thing, if you want to have an effective pump, say pumping water out of a well…you wouldn’t be going randomly, you would be pumping 1-2-1-2…because you need that rhythmic element.

Back to the case of ALS, which is a neurodegenerative disorder, and there are a lot of them out there, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, even Brain Fog, we don’t know what’s going on there.

Glymphatic System

The brain is a highly specialised organ, it is the prime user of oxygen and glucose in the human body. Every thought is a neurotransmitter…but the interesting thing about the brain is that it doesn’t have lymphatic drainage, or practically none. Now a couple of years ago some researchers were finally able to elucidate the glymphatic flow, or the glial lymphatic system. What they were able to understand is that there are these spirals that come down the nerves coming out of the brain and that helps to clean the brain.

Why is that important? The lymphatic system in the garbage collection system of the body. The way I just described it to the gentlemen is that it’s like leaves that fall off the trees in autumn. Of course if you leave them there on the ground they will eventually decompose, but they will rot, and smell bad and clog your drain, so it’s probably in your best interest to rake them up and put them in the compost.

By-products of metabolism

Well, it’s the same with the broken down neurotransmitters and all the by-products of metabolism of the human brain. Every single thought is a neurotransmitter, and when we metabolise we produce metabolic waste. In the rest of the body, the lymphatic system picks up this waste, but in the brain the lymphatic drainage is extremely limited. But, we are lucky because we have another system that can help to flush the brain: the cerebrospinal fluid.

Cerebrospinal fluid

The cerebrospinal fluid is somewhat similar to lymph (NOTE: It does not have lymphocytes). It is a clear, somewhat dense fluid that sits both in the sinuses inside of the head. Your brain isn’t completely full, there are some pockets of liquid, cerebrospinal liquid, and it sits in these sinuses but it also runs in the meninges.

Meninges

Most people know the word “meningitis”. Meningitis is swelling of the meninges. What are the meninges? The meninges are membranes. There are three of them. One of them is only in the brain but two of them go all the way down the spinal column. One of them goes all the way down to the tail bone!

These membranes are carrying lymph-like liquid that somehow has to move all the way from the top to the bottom and back. Now, we talked about the pump. Are you with me? What do you think moves the cerebrospinal fluid? The breath!

Cerebrospinal fluid flow in Alzheimer’s

There was an interesting piece of research published not too long ago about cerebrospinal fluid flow in Alzheimer’s patients. When there is deep breathing, the cerebrospinal fluid instead of just trickling along like a sewer or a river begins to flow in a wave-like motion—woosh! And they think that this could be more efficient to flush the brain and when we flush the brain we get rid of the by-products of metabolism.

I am not a physiologist and that’s as much as I know. I guess that if we are flushing these by-products out of the brain there must be linkages from the spinal column to the peripheral circulation or the central circulation. that’s something that I will have to check out for the next video.

Rhythmic breathing pranayama breath work lymphatic system cerebrospinal fluid.

For the time being, what I want you to understand is that rhythmic breathing moves the lymphatic system, moves the cerebrospinal fluid and it gives us a much better chance of cleaning up all the by-products of metabolism.

Rhythmic Breathing technique

It’s simple! The simplest technique of rhythmic breathing is this: All you do is you breathe in and out through your nose, and as you breathe in you count 1-2-3-4 and as you breathe out you count 4-3-2-1….

So you have some homework, try doing that, let me know in the comments how it goes for you, I would be happy to help you.

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Massage oil, 100% pure organic coconut.

Pure coconut oil for massage

Check out my YouTube video about the organic massage oil I use in my treatments, then read on ↓. I will explain a little about massage oil in general, then get into some basic organic chemistry so that you can understand what fatty acids are and how they influence the quality of massage oil.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

  1. Coconut Carrier Oil
  2. Fatty Acids
  3. Saturated Fats
  4. How to book

Hey guys, Rachel here again, from Rose Tint Your Life. I’m on a roll because I am just loving😍 the new blind behind me. I finally have a backdrop for my videos! So, I thought I would talk to you today about my carrier oil.

Coconut Massage oil

This might seem really boring at first, but natural massage oil actually, makes all the difference in holistic and healing massage. Just behind me, in the video, you can see my little tea light warmer with the ceramic jar on top. I warm the oil because I use pure coconut massage oil 🥥 as my carrier oil. Now, pure coconut oil is only the fat fraction, so that means that it doesn’t have the proteins and it doesn’t smell like coconut.

As coconut massage oil is solid at room temperature, I keep it on a tealight warmer. Heated massage oil is an extra special treat, especially in winter!

Coconut oil contains medium-chain fatty acids

Coconut oil for massage is far and away the best choice. Why? Because it has medium-chain fatty acids. Those are 8, 10-carbon fatty acids. These fats are lubricating but they are not greasy. It is absorbed into the skin and it is really, really nourishing. Coconut oil also contains good amounts of Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol, for the chemistry nerds out there). Vitamin E is the main anti-oxidant for anything fatty. You know that Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant, right? Well Vitamin C protects in a watery medium…Vitamin E protects in a fatty medium.

What are fatty acids?

Fatty acids are the name that chemists give to the long chains of carbon and hydrogen that make up fats. Mostly, fats are found as “triglycerides“. This means that three (tri) fatty acid chains are attached to a backbone of glycerine, which is also a carbon molecule. In fact, it’s pretty much all Carbon! We are talking about some very simple organic chemistry, which is the chemistry of carbon or the chemistry of life!

coconut massage oil contains medium-chain fatty acids of 8-10 carbons. This makes it highly nourishing and lubricating.

Medium-chain fatty acids

When I say that coconut oil contains medium-chain fatty acids, I am saying that you are going to find chains of carbon that contain 8-10 or even 12 carbon atoms attached to that glycerine backbone.

These medium-chain fatty acids are saturated and stable. Stable in chemical terms means that they are not likely to react to things like heat or oxygen. They are chemically inert. Something unstable would be gasoline, which is also a carbon chain, but is liquid at room temperature, has a strong smell (so it is evaporating spontaneously), and is highly combustible, which is why you don’t smoke at the gas station!

Saturated fats

Generalizing wildly, animal fats are often saturated and vegetable fats are more often unsaturated. Meat and eggs contain cholesterol, a saturated fat. Because saturated fats are more solid and inert, they are often involved in nasty things like arterio-sclerosis and fatty liver. Hence the recommendation to eat more vegetable-based fats and reduce animal-based foods. But coconut is different. It has saturated fats of vegetable origin.

These, then, are vegetable fats that are similar to animal fats. They are more like the fats that our own skin produced to protect and lubricate itself. Coconut oil really is a wonderful massage oil!

How to Book

Do you like what you have read today? Come on, check it out, come to have a massage and Rose Tint Your Life! My massage studio is open Tuesday-Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. I only work by appointment, so if you’re interested in bodywork, please do get in touch via my contact page. 📍If you want a home visit, this can also be arranged in the Marina Baixa area (basically Benidorm to Altea la Vella).