News & Letters - December 2023

Hello everyone,

I’d like to wish you and yours a wonderful, happy and healthy holiday season! The days are shorter and winter has fully arrived. The winter solstice is right around the corner. What does this season mean for you?

A few announcements here. This month for a limited time, gift certificates are on sale - 10% OFF! These make a great gift for someone you care about! As many of you know, massage at Arbor Vitae is more than simple relaxation. It is about shifting the baseline of tension within your body and opening to liminal places that awaken new mobility for a lifetime. Give the gift of an experience that not only feels great but can also really change the way someone experiences life!

I also have some massage notes on the benefits of occipital release - a great focus area. I also talk about tracking, now that tracks are more easily accessible for everyone when snow blankets the ground!

In health,
Zebulun

Gift certificates on sale – 10% OFF!

Wondering what gift to give this holiday season? Why not gift someone an experience that promotes health and wellness on so many levels!

From now through December 23rd, all gift certificate sales are 10% off! NO LIMIT to how many GCs you can buy!

Fine print: Purchase amount must be a multiple of $50. Limit $500/gift card. Gift cards (certificates) must be redeemed within one year of purchase.

Massage notes: Occipital release

Occipital release techniques involves applying soft pressure to the occiput, specifically the region at the base of the skull above the neck. Many muscles are located within this small area, including the suboccipitals and other attachment sites for larger muscles of the back and neck.

This area is prone to chronic tension. The relief experience when this area is palpated properly can have profound psychophysiological effects. As always, we don’t realize the amount of tension we are holding until it is released and we can experience a new baseline without that tension.

When the occipital region is chronically tense (such as when we are ‘stressed out’) this can lead to headaches or contribute to making them worse. With release of this and surrounding areas, you can diminish or eradicate headaches. Even when not experiencing headaches, release in this area can bring a hightened sense of calm and wellbeing, where the mind stills and a greater sense of peace emerges.

Tracking

Tracking. Footprints. Marks. Signs. Tracking has been described as an art and a science. The science aspect relates to things like identifying which species made the track, understanding ecology and the interrelationship of species and things like ‘what do acorns gnawed on my white tailed deer look like compared to those chewed by a rodent?’

One of the joys of having a dog is that he takes me out on walks. My life has been very busy lately, and going out for a walk in the woods with my dog Thumper is always one of the highlights of the day for both of us. While he’s off exploring some newfound scent, I quickly find myself reveling in the play of light and shadow filtering through the snow and trees, with the shockingly blue sky behind. This time of year the light is so precious.

My gaze eventually falls to the ground and when it does I’m blessed with endless tracks and trails before me. They wrap the woods in their soliloquy, their own unique mystery. Hell, the other day we broke through a little ice and found a tadpole wriggling in the water below! In December!

When I take the time to connect with a track, even a common one like that of a white tailed deer, it brings me into the now, the eternal now. My awareness expands to include my surrounding landscape. Everything else drops away, every erratic thought and distraction, and I’m right there in the moment. I notice the wind direction, the types and movement of clouds, the humidity, bird calls, sounds distant and far; the play of light and shadow. I wonder at how all these elements influenced the movements and decisions of the animals I’m tracking as they travelled through and left their mark upon the earth.

As my wonder widens, it broadens my experience of time, and I imagine the animals whose tracks I’m looking at and wonder where they are moving now on the landscape. And sometimes if i’m lucky I’ll sense them moving out there one the landscape. As I connect to a single track, it’s like connecting to a whole world of movement, rhythm and breath – an endless dance of action and reaction where everything is moving as a unified whole.

I hope you are able to find some time this season to slow down and notice the little things most people pass by. There is so much around us each day that can lift the heart and connect us to the living world - the real world that exists, always exists, beyond the rush of society and all the tasks of daily life. To slow down and simply observe what is actually here instead of what we think is here. What will you see?

Arbor Vitae Wellness is a place of healing. We help you make deeper contact with life through embodied connection in yourself. We address conditions such as chronic stress, muscle tension and chronic disease by providing massage therapies, integrative healing services and programs rooted in nature.

Our health and wellness is interdependent with the health of every ecosystem, internal and external. Arbor Vitae Wellness encourages you to live an empowered life rooted in real peace, deep love, boundless joy and meaningful purpose.

Find yourself here.

Arbor Vitae Wellness

Arbor Vitae Wellness LLC, 253 Main St., Suite #1, Yarmouth, ME 04096, USA

Arbor Vitae Wellness .December 1, 2023Arbor Vitae Wellness