Please join Caring Palms in sending energy to those affected by Hurricane Sandy. I know many were working to divert the storm, and I believe we helped. Now, let's help again by sending healing energies to the areas where the storm hit and to those that find themselves displaced or worse. Even thinking of sending hope to them will send positive energy. This is how we, as energy workers, can help others.

Caring Palms is announcing the Holiday Gift Certificate Sale.

Buy 1 gift certificate, save $5

Buy 2 gift certificates, save $15

Buy 3 gift certificates, save $25

Best Deal: Buy 4 gift certificates, get 1 gift certificate FREE!

Gift Certificates are available for massage or Reiki sessions, or massage or Reiki classes. Buy gift certificates for friends and loved ones, or just for yourself. If you have four friends that can benefit from massage or Reiki (and everyone can), you can buy four gift certificates for them, and get one free for yourself. If you are a regular client, you can buy four gift certificates for yourself and get five sessions (this is the best deal going).

The sale begins Monday, November 18th, and runs through Monday, December 24th. Gift certificates are available in the studio and can be ordered by phone with a credit card at (904) 246-2206, or by mail with a check. (Sorry, this special is not available at the web site.) What better gift to give to those you care about? Give them the gift of love and healing.

This coming year, Caring Palms has set a very ambitious class schedule. As this is a license renewal year for massage therapists, we have set 31 class dates between January and December 2013. There are 17 Reiki 1 class dates, five Reiki 2 class dates (more to be added), and four Reiki 3 class dates (more to be added as well). These classes are available to anyone that has an interest in learning Reiki. Florida massage therapists get continuing education credits for these classes. A Reiki 1 class has been scheduled for the second Saturday of each month with a weekday class every other month beginning in February (as weekday classes filled up this past year). The Reiki 2 and Reiki 3 classes will also be given weekday dates as we get closer to August.

There are five Body Mechanics and Advanced Techniques classes scheduled in the first eight months of the year. Some of these are also weekday classes. These classes are for licensed massage therapists and anyone that uses massage in their work.

Caring Palms is trying to make their classes available to students with problems making weekend classes. If you, or anyone you know could benefit from these classes, please feel free to pass this information along.

• November 10 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm  Confirmed   

2013 

• January 12 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• February 9 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• February 13 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• March 9 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• April 13 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• April 17 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• May 11 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• June 8 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• June 19 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• July 13 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• August 10 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• August 14 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• September 14 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• September 18 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• October 12 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm
• October 16 (Wednesday) 10am - 5pm
• November 9 (Saturday) 10am - 5pm  

The following is a list of currently scheduled classes.  This class is a two-day class worth 12 CE hours for Florida massage therapists.  Each class (unless otherwise marked) currently has a status of 'Scheduled'.  This means that a date has been set, but no one has signed up for it yet.  Once a deposit has been received for a class, the status will be 'Confirmed'.  The current schedule is as follows:

• March 16 - March 17  (Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Sunday 10:00am - 4:00pm)    
• June 4 - June 5  (Tuesday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Wednesday 10:00am - 4:00pm)
• June 22 - June 23  (Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Sunday 10:00am - 4:00pm)
• August 3 - August 4  (Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Sunday 10:00am - 4:00pm)
• August 20 - August 21  (Tuesday 9:00am - 5:00pm and Wednesday 10:00am - 4:00pm) 

All classes are scheduled to be held at the Hampton Inn at Jacksonville Beach, FL.  Should the location change, that change will be on the website and students notified. 

Note: Check with the hotel for special room rates.  

Maximize your results with less effort. Utilize the science of martial arts and apply it to massage. Body Mechanics and Advanced Techniques for Massage Therapists is designed to reconnect the massage therapist with proper body mechanics and techniques showing how to work without hurting oneself and how to apply deep pressure with little effort.  The class being part lecture, part hands-on practice uses theory, stances, centering, and the proper use of body strength from martial arts and applies them to the art of massage therapy.  Students will learn how to focus their energies and use their body to do deep work with less effort and not get hurt.  This class will help anyone to work deeply with less effort no matter if one is 90 pounds or 250 pounds.  This class is for both the seasoned therapist and the new therapist.  It will show moves everyone is familiar with, but in a new light as well as moves many people may not have seen before (which have been taken from Lomi Lomi, Esalen, and other styles).  The idea is not to dictate how to practice, but to show better body mechanics which the therapist can adapt to what they do.  This is true whether they adapt all of it or just part of it.

A Facebook friend posted a comment the other day that made me think of how we look at things. The comment was... The number one reason why people give up so fast is because they tend to look at how far they still have to go, instead of how far they have gotten.

I started thinking about this and realized this is very true. We tend to look at how far we still have to go instead of how far we have come. When we still have a long way to go to meet our goal, we tend to focus on what is ahead of us instead of looking at how far we have already come. We might find that we have completed two thirds of our journey, and that giving up when we have accomplished so much is just a shame.

The problem is that people want quick fixes. In an age of computers, everything moves at the speed of light. We have quick contact with people via cell phones, social networking sites. We know something faster than we ever have before. Companies change strategies in a heartbeat based on feedback they get via electronic means. We move, move, move. But in doing so, we lose sight of the long view.

We live too much in the now, the immediate. This is why companies will hire call centers to do their sales because it saves money now. But they lose sight of how these call centers with nothing invested in the customers, angers too many of whom they talk with, causing lost sales in the future. They see the immediate savings, but cannot see the long term effect.

We do the same thing with taking care of ourselves. We expect to be healthy, and we expect it now. Why should it take eight months to lose 30 pounds? Isn't there a magic pill? I want patience, and I want it now, dammit. But these are things that take time to do. Time, energy, persistence, patience. That is what it takes to do anything worthwhile, anything that is not immediate, anything that one has to take the long view on.

Because information flows quickly, we expect everything else should. We lose patience. We lose the ability to look ahead and see how the things we do now will affect us down the road. We need to take a breath, step back and look at the long view, and then muster the patience to continue to follow through with it. Because we have come so far, we need to find the strength and patience to continue to the end. That is how we reach our goals.

 (Thank you Ashley for  the topic) 

It is with sadness that I pass on this information about Rooster Cogburn of Clay County...

Beautiful, one-eyed Rooster was discarded like trash and left to die at Clay County ACC. Rooster was suffering from a severe case of heartworm, and was later diagnosed with metastatic cancer. Brian got to give him Reiki in June, and he was mentioned in the July newsletter. Although Brian was not able to get to see him in the last couple of months, he and others have been sending distant Reiki and other healing energies. These helped in his passing. Below is the last picture taken of him very shortly before he passed on. Thank you all that cared.

by Brian Dean

As we do different tasks, we bring to the table (so to speak) the energies and intentions that we will use in completing each task. For people in the healthcare field (which includes massage therapists), usually have the intent to heal, or cure. Lightworkers usually intend to heal (and I'm not getting into healing versus curing right now).

As I have mentioned before, a thought is energy. Therefore, your intention is energy. It is the energy that embodies your aura which states on a subliminal level what you intend to do. Whether we admit it or not, we pick up all types of stimuli from the energies around us. They tell us whether a situation is friendly or not. Did you ever walk into an area that "just didn't feel right"? Of course you did. How long did you stay there? Not long I'll bet.

A man on a date might have certain expectations, and along with those, certain intentions. They might include a kiss at the door, an invite in, or more. A woman might sense these, and either (if it feels right to her) go along with the signals she is receiving, or stop at a certain point. After that, she will pick up new signals and make decisions on that.

When I go into a healing session, I have a certain intent. That intent is to heal, to help someone feel better. This intent is picked up and broadcast in my energies and then picked up by my subject. If my intent is correct (which it pretty much always is), then they will feel safe and comfortable.

Once in a while I might be a little nervous. This could be because I'm about to work on a new client. Or it could be because my client had to undress more than they had wanted because their problem requires work into the extreme low back, and I am concerned about making them nervous and uncomfortable. (Of course, my broadcasting this in my energies will make them nervous and uncomfortable.) Another possibility is that the client is already nervous, and I am picking that up, which is making me nervous (which makes them more nervous which... well, you've got the idea). In this case, I calm, and then channel that calming energy into my client until it feels right.

Every healer has to set their intent before they touch their subject. This is especially true when the client has to be undressed at all (as in massage). I usually find this a relatively easy thing to do as I have been doing healing for quite a while, and I always try to be (and manage to be) as professional as possible. (I have been told by one therapist I worked on that there were only two people who worked on her with almost perfect intent, and one of them was me. I guess absolute perfect intent is very hard, if not impossible to find.)

The key is that one has to have the right intent to do any task. If they are a healer, then it is of the utmost importance that their intent be correct. Any stray thoughts (especially if they turn sexual in nature) will be picked up by the subject, and that will change how they perceive the session to go. The same can be said for the healer mentally being there. The subject can feel that at some point, the healer mentally left the session, and that will definitely have an impact.

So, whatever you are going to do, set your intention. Gain focus. Now you're ready to begin working. Go to it.

At Caring Palms, we pledge to do the best work we can at every session.  We not only do this to continue to earn your business, but because we believe that you deserve the best care possible every time you are here.  This is true whether it is massage, or energy work, or classes. This is our promise.  This is what we will continue to do.